We have become Big Brother

[lost_soul]

I have actually never used any of these e-book platforms. When I read something, I prefer straight .txt.

Edited October 9, 2014 by lost_soul

[Fidcal]

Or do what I did, rip the ebooks right out of the kindle app.

 

How? I downloaded FBReader (very good btw) but it can't read Amazon Kindle-protected books, at least, not anyway I can see. I'd love to be able to actually own the books I've paid for and not be dependent on Amazon's permission.

 

........

[demagogue]

I've takn screenshots of a book before & made a pdf out of it I wanted to free it so much ... if that gives you any ideas.

[Fidcal]

Yeah, at least then one would have a backup. I've also considered writing software to send keypresses to the Kindle to copy and paste the paragraphs, stripping out the surplus crap as it does so - but too many other things to do.

 

One other idea is that I think the Kindle can only update/breakdown whatever when it accesses the net so in theory one could have a spare PC or Windows boot with a Kindle on each then if something fails on the main PC, it should still work on the other. One can go crazy thinking up ways to have what should be ours by right. There should be a law forcing Amazon to honour and guarantee the books we have bought are forever readable with what we have, without updating.

 

........

[lost_soul]

I doubt that last thing would work. The device would just say "It has been 60 days since you checked in with HQ. You must check in, or else your books will become locked. I've read people saying this about Steam. I.e. if you use offline mode, it will require a check-in eventually.

[Bikerdude]

I'd love to be able to actually own the books I've paid for

http://www.howtogeek...-and-archiving/ and the googlesearch

 

Pm if you need a copy of the calibre plugin/s.

[Fidcal]

Thanks Biker. I've been doing some googling myself today and thought it took some time, I've finally downloaded something that is similar - though I was tired of the whole search to set it up yet. I'll try later or tomorrow.

 

The Apprentice Alf was the one I found first but the file service uses a custom downloader exe and I avoid those on principle. My web browser is a perfectly good downloader!

[Bikerdude]

the one I found first but the file service uses a custom downloader exe

Totally, people should never ever use these.

[Fidcal]

Thanks Biker. I got it working fine. Oddly, I think I might buy more books now they can be exorcised!

 

One remaining nut to crack is that some books I have like Lord of the Rings, Queen of the Tearling, A Game of Thrones, have detailed maps on the pages which are too small to study properly even at max screen size. I might look at converting to another format than mobi to see if I can do better. Maybe pdf, though I hate pdf itself, possibly I can zoom in at least just to copy paste a map separately on my second monitor while reading the book. That's a job for another day though.

[lost_soul]

It turns out Apple's spotlight sends your searches to Apple by default too....

 

Look, everybody is doing it now. Windows 8 does it, Ubuntu does it, and now the Mac alegedly does it too. Are they all being paid by three-letter agencies to gather more info about us?

Edited October 20, 2014 by lost_soul

[Fidcal]

Another link. Perhaps nothing new in this one. What worries me is not the info in it but the matter-of-fact way it's provided and that we know nothing will be done about it. Bit like reading there's a nuke planted in London (yawn) and now in more interesting news...

 

http://www.bbc.com/f...s-youre-tracked

[Fidcal]

This is well-meaning but indicates a new way we can gather info on each other - and presumably let it be hoovered up into the cloud where it can be collected, managed, processed, added to other databases...

 

http://www.telegraph...e-suicidal.html

 

Will we see other apps that analyse what the people around us are doing. Definitely.

[Bikerdude]

I must be a hermit or paranoid, as I avoid almost all of the tracking methods mentioned in this thread.

 

Case in point, my Galaxy S4 runs a modified version of android, and I have forceably removed all of the google BS(calender / contacts sync, all apps bar youtube to name a few), just leaving the bare essentials for google play to run. And on top of that I run XPosed frame work and the paid version of XPrivacy to completely lock down what both user & system apps have access to and lastly a firewall to catch anything else. Even apps that says they need no special perms are asking for the serial and phone number of the device, cheeky f*ckers.

 

- http://forum.xda-dev...cy-app-t2320783

 

In addition to the above, I run 2 add blocking apps - one for the OS (Adaway, catches most ads) and one for youtube (youtube adaway)

[lost_soul]

We have some good news. The new version of Unity in Ubuntu will not send your searches to Amazon by default. If you want that "feature", you have to actually enable it manually. I am just sitting here imagining some people at the NSA sitting there saying

"God damn it! Shit on a stick! Every other modern OS, like Windows 8.1 and Mac os sends the user searches to the cloud by default. We love that feature, because we can capture every single bit of information the user searches for, even when the user believes he is searching the local machine!"

Edited October 30, 2014 by lost_soul

[Professor Paul1290]

Will we see other apps that analyse what the people around us are doing. Definitely.

 

This I would like to see more of. The data is out there and should be available for use by everyone and not just the government and the rich.

[Fidcal]

I see this suicide monitor app has now been withdrawn...

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk...nology-29962199

 

Still, the idea of apps monitoring everything we say on-line is there, and is potentially more invasive than advert-tracking. It makes the title of this thread even more relevant. Of course, once Google and the like form a global personal-data sharing ring (if they haven't already) then it will all be the same thing anyway.

 

"One personal-data sharing ring to rule them all, and in the darkness bind them."

[esme]

Anyone care to share their experience of setting up & using PGP or TOR for us newbies ?

[Fidcal]

Yeah, and what's this about Blur? I followed a link in another thread and it gave no information just asked for my details! Yeah, right...

[Fidcal]

Here's an interesting article on how casual people are with their personal data while at the same time not trusting on-line services...

 

http://www.theguardi...into-hypocrites

[Anderson]

Here's an interesting article on how casual people are with their personal data while at the same time not trusting on-line services...

 

http://www.theguardi...into-hypocrites

I'm not concerned about my privacy. If you look at Russia and China you can clearly see where real problems with internet freedom and confidentiality occur. And it gets worse every year. But as a rule nobody cares.

Saddens me immensely.

It's part of another informational war, so you should look closely what kind of characters get involved and who owns the news channel/newspaper/site/blog.

Edited November 16, 2014 by Anderson

[Fidcal]

Mildly interesting essay on why there is not much public outcry:

 

http://www.theguardi...n-sloppy-habits

 

Thought experiment of my own: Would the following be acceptable?:

 

[EDIT] IGNORE the following but see the more abstract question posed later.

 

Fast forward a few years to greatly improved (but still unconscious) intelligent software operating in sealed boxes that are regularly inspected for tampering. Internet fed in but no controls from outside. The hidden system blindly monitors and analyses emails and on-line activity for suspicious activity. It only reports to the security services when it evaluates > 90% suspicion. No conscious person has access to any information about any citizen unless that happens. No demographic information is released except possibly the blandest global statistics?

[161803398874989]

No conscious person has access to any information about any citizen unless that happens.

It's pretty much impossible to guarantee that this is the case.

[Fidcal]

Yes, for the foreseeable future - which is why it's a thought experiment. The question is, if it were possible, would it be acceptable?

[lost_soul]

It will stay isolated to being audited by machines, until a guy with the clearance to perform maintenance on said machine feels like digging out some dirt on an enemy, or investigating his love interest. Either this will happen, because human beings are corrupt by nature, or hackers will find a way to compromise the entire thing some day. Then everybody's life will become public.

[esme]

Mildly interesting essay on why there is not much public outcry:

 

http://www.theguardi...n-sloppy-habits

 

Thought experiment of my own: Would the following be acceptable?:

 

Fast forward a few years to greatly improved (but still unconscious) intelligent software operating in sealed boxes that are regularly inspected for tampering. Internet fed in but no controls from outside. The hidden system blindly monitors and analyses emails and on-line activity for suspicious activity. It only reports to the security services when it evaluates > 90% suspicion. No conscious person has access to any information about any citizen unless that happens. No demographic information is released except possibly the blandest global statistics?

Yes, for the foreseeable future - which is why it's a thought experiment. The question is, if it were possible, would it be acceptable?

Something like the ones the UK government tried to set up in 2012 & 2013 ?

 

..and are presumably still trying to set up they're just lacking a manufactured 'emergency' to let them ram the legislation through without opposition

 

No it wouldn't be acceptable