Are we being listened to on the phone

Interesting question. Although the underlying OS hasn't changed as obviously as the many GUI's now available what has changed, certainly since the first Linux I tried installing on a home PC (probably around 1993), is how much can be accomplished without resorting to the command line. I reckon even in the last 10 years the number of times I have had to use the command line has dropped significantly. I installed Linux on my partner's PC and my kids laptops. The laptops had were older models and I used the command line to install an updated WiFi driver, but otherwise it hasn't been required.

Many users with simple needs (web, office apps and games from the software manager) would probably never need to use the command line. Also, if problems occur there are many web pages with solutions that be can cut/pasted into a command prompt to fix common issues.

Not to worry too much when there is someone on the 'inside' on our side.

He/she managed to delete the entire records of every criminal in the country a few weeks ago.

Of course it was a mistake.

Sorry about that. I asked a mate to help me out with a parking ticket, but they accidentally pressed Ctrl+A before Ctrl+X. Looks like I'll have to tell them that someone's noticed.

Samsaranda -

(two pages back)

Oh, yes I know portable 'phones transmit location signals, when switched on.

Mine spends more time Off than On - especially when I go out (if I take it with me, that is).

Pandemics permitting... It is off when I am driving (of course). in situations like entertainment venues or the rare church service - funerals actually - and... and this would baffle the youngsters, in social company!

It's occurred to me that anyone trying to track me must have been rather confused over the last few years. Almost nothing from my 'phone for ages, and that almost all at or close to home; then in an apparently random rural village 300 miles away for just 10 minutes! It wasn't that I doing little or going nowhere in the meantime - I'd simply not needed to turn the thing on.

Apparently we might be getting listened to whilst on our phones.

Who’s listening

I see! Oh, yes, China seems to be among the world's "leader" if not Number One, in population-wide interception and surveillance techniques.

Did you also look down the rest of that Mirror page?

In the headlines list at the foot is one referring to a warning about hacking aimed at Whatsapp users.

(I didn't follow it, if only because I do not use Whatsapp; but we all know the more you use such sites the less privacy and security you have.)

'

Come to think of it.....

About a year after I bought this PC I'm using now, with WIN 7 Pro., I started receiving one message after another from Mickeysoft, badgering me to install WIN 10, which was free at the time. I did eventually, but was careful to use the little "Custom" rather than BIG "FULL" Install, button, study each option carefully and reject surplus rubbish like 'Cortana' *. W10 proved a disaster - gimmicky, third-rate presentation, hard to navigate, etc. all for nothing that XP and 7 didn't do for me; but worse it deleted my half-dozen or so web-site registrations. I reverted to WIN 7, as µSoft offered at the time, but it was difficult and time-consuming to repair the damage.

This thread on interception has now made me wonder if my loss of registrations was Microsoft WIN-10's built-in response to using "Custom Install" - as the installation programme made no bones about "Full" giving the company ever greater eavesdropping ability and self-assumed "rights" .

*It would seem MS is ending Cortana anyway.

Edited By Frances IoM on 02/04/2021 22:48:45

That may have appeared since I posted the link.

I do not use WhatsApp (or much social media) but do know that it seems popular, apparently I am very old fashioned preferring a phone or email to communicate.

Edited By V8Eng on 02/04/2021 23:37:15

Edited By V8Eng on 02/04/2021 23:45:10

What ever makes you think that the UK, USA and other countries don't listen in ! We have GCHQ and have been spying on ourselves and others for years ! Mobile phones and computers just make it easier ! Why do you think that strong encryption is considered a weapon in the US and unlawful not to give up passwords here in the UK.

Frances IOM,

Do we need a vaccine passport, aren’t we being tracked by the miniature micro chips that are embedded in the COVID Vaccines!!! 😇. Dave W

As distasteful as we find it, surveillance is a useful tool to keep us safe from the activities of those that would do us harm. To me what is unacceptable is the intrusion just to send us junk advertising which I rarely read and even more rarely find useful. My wife is paranoid that the computer web cams are watching even when unplugged and she drapes paper over them, these days a camera is unlikely to find anything exciting going on in our house unless the antics of my sons cat that he has lumbered with are entertaining, feline indoor Parkour is quite fun unless you become part of the course, she certainly uses her claws for maximum traction and can execute some extremely sharp turns, rather like hydroplane racing.

Mike

I just added that linked article as part of the general chat on the subject.

Being spied upon is obviously not new (who did not know that?).

I think it has been made easier with modern technology and the way people have embraced it plus many giving away personal information so readily.

Edited By V8Eng on 03/04/2021 10:44:53

Edited By V8Eng on 03/04/2021 10:49:00

I had intended to keep out of this thread, BUT If one takes the battery out of the far to smart phone, can it still be located ? Some indicate that the set will continue to handshake with the nearest cell even when switched off !

Or is the only way to disappear to leave it at home or resort to the use of a hammer ? Noel

I would be fairly confident that when the battery is flat the phone is dead but switched off it is more of a standby mode but what is still functional would need investigation.

Mike

Keep it in a fine wiremesh or metal box, grounded ? Leave it in a microwave chamber,making sure the machine is grounded ? Noel.

Personal tracking is easily avoided, but removal of the power, or screening, is not a lot of good if you need to avoid the call being listened to or recorded.

John, though highlighting such points of equivalence is always laudable, I think we should be careful to remember the dissimilarities too.

What is crucial is not merely the level of surveillance a country's citizens are exposed to but the consequences for them of that surveillance - specifically whether legal protections are in place against injustice, particularly state injustice, arising from that surveillance. It essentially boils down to how free or how repressive the society you live in is.

There may not be that much difference between the amount of surveillance different countries expose their citizens to, but there is a world of difference between the sort of life that surveillance allows people of different countries to lead.

For anyone who is interested, a useful working comparison can be had by looking here and here:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-49585682

Reassuring?

Or not?

Google certainly has a horrid habit of deciding I am 'into' a subject because I search for it and maybe follow a suggested link.

It ends up sending me so many suggestions on a subject that I block it, even though I am interested in it. Currently, it thinks I am obsessed with painting and decorating - I am, but I don't want to read arti8cles about it, I'm just looking for good deals.

I looked up a couple of recipes for bread, months ago, and for weeks it was sending me recipe suggestions.