Leaving Google behind

[Stosskraft]

Found this regarding how to hide from Prism http://prism-break.org/

Is Chormuim ok with all these plug ins? http://fixtracking.com/

[SteveRiley]

...geez I REALLY need to vet my posts better.

Please don't

[oshunluvr]

You had to go there...

...geez I REALLY need to vet my posts better.

[SteveRiley]

I monitor Canadian "movement"

Once a day, usually in the morning...just like most folks?

[oshunluvr]

I monitor Canadian "movement" for entertainment purposes. Those darn Canadians!

[Stosskraft]

Sorry I should have provided a source. I think I read it in the globe and mail, regarding the exchange of info between the US, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand... 5 eyes I think it call. I ll try to dig up the link soon.

In the end I am still interested in getting away from these companies, waiting for startmail to come online, but skype? I call back home once a week on it, not sure how I am going to replace it.

Some LInks:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/...nt-canada.html

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/...a-collect.html

[whatthefunk]

But I seriously doubt the US monitors all Canadian movement. The resources needed would be far too enormous...

I dont know if they do or not, but it would probably be very, very easy. I bet I could even set up a system that could do that. Every time you go through immigration in just about any country, they scan your passport. All that would need to be done is for that to be logged and sent to the US government.

[kubicle]

I am also very paranoid...

Or are you?

[Simon]

Wha? I am a Canadian too. I am also very paranoid... but I think this is right up there with the hoax about all the US phone calls are listened to by a super "magical" computer that trips a red flag when you say "bomb"... Having what my friends call a "funny accent", would throw the machine off, if I am talking to my friend Bob. LoL

I have made a few trips to Japan because my parents are native to that country and moved back a few years ago. But I seriously doubt the US monitors all Canadian movement. The resources needed would be far too enormous... wait... maybe that is why they are having finance problems. The US debt is caused by Canada. We're sorry.

[SteveRiley]

I am a Canadian that lives in Vietnam and I just read an article that whenever a Canadian citizen travels abroad the Canada government will inform the US government.

Would you provide a link to that article? I'm suspicious of the claim.

[Stosskraft]

what would you suggest is the best way for people to protect themselves? I am a Canadian that lives in Vietnam and I just read an article that whenever a Canadian citizen travels abroad the Canada government will inform the US government. What can non-technical people do to protect some privacy, I know getting away from google is a big one but it doesn't look like you can get away from the American government.

[SteveRiley]

Does a TOS mean anything now that whole gov. taking what they want from our online habits?

I think it's a little early to speculate on that right now. The USA PATRIOT Act already grants over-broad powers; this latest revelation is just more of the same. What I hope happens is that it sparks a national conversation about unnecessary intrusion and how we are being forced to relinquish the very individual freedoms we claim to be fighting for elsewhere in the world.

[Stosskraft]

Does a TOS mean anything now that whole gov. taking what they want from our online habits? I am waiting for this startmail, my research is showing hushmail no better than the rest. GMX is ok, but I am not a fan of the interface.

[SteveRiley]

Now that's just massive bs. No other company is so massively intrusive and greedy to claim ownership of anything you post when using their services, and it's certainly *not* neccessary at all.

Service provider TOS (terms of service) are not flippantly worded. They are carefully crafted legal statements specifically designed to withstand scrutiny in court. Nowhere in Google's TOS do they claim ownership of your data. It's still yours, you haven't been forced to surrender anything.

Some of Google's TOS are, in fact, required for them to perform basic services like move your mailbox from one data center to another ("reproduce"), display your email without using HTTPS ("publicly display"), make your Blogger posts available to people who speak other languages ("translate"), and provide your G+ posts to the world ("publish"). Google does not attempt to conceal the fact that Gmail is a platform for advertisers, and that your email content will become the basis for showing relevant ads ("other companies...relationships...syndicated services"). All Google services require Internet access, rely on the Internet for bringing other people to your content, and sometimes traverse public Internet exchange points ("distribute...over various public networks").

That said, Google has come under fire for having probably the most onerous TOS of any provider. Given that you as an individual can choose to use their services (or not), you can also choose whether to be bound by their terms (or not). And remember this: the definition of customer is one who pays. Users of Google's free services are definitely not the customers -- the advertisers are the customers. Users are the product. If you don't want to be a product, don't use Google. It is for this reason that I have practically eliminated Google from my own online behavior. Eric Schmidt, kiss my binary digits.

[Shimapan]

Not defending Google but all cloud companies have similar TOS because they need them to provide their service. See Ubuntu One, SkyDrive, DropBox and all the others.

Now that's just massive bs. No other company is so massively intrusive and greedy to claim ownership of anything you post when using their services, and it's certainly *not* neccessary at all.

Hi
as to the voice recognition "storing" your voice, I don't think so, but emphasis is on the "think".

*snip*

HOWEVER>>>>>>....I think that the translation is actually done "in the cloud" because I will sometimes get an "cannot access server"... and the voice thing does not work for a while then does.

So....I think that your speech is "transposed to text" ...on the cloud and probably not "recorded", probably because even a zetabyte system couldn't store all of it, but...it "could" be recorded" if someone in the cloud stream wanted to intercept it and record it.

Recording the speech would probably just be a massive waste of space. Have the speech converted to text and save the text.
Possibly they also have people to go through the thusly recorded text, and if it seems wrong, have them listen to the recorded speech to fix any errors before the recorded speech gets deleted to save space. This way, they get to harvest everything and save space.