Ronald Bailey On HuffPost Live at 9:10 pm EST, Talking About How the Surveillance State Uses Your Cellphone to Spy On You

I am scheduled to talk (9:10 pm EST) with three or four other fine folks tonight at HuffPost Live about my article, "Your Cellphone is Spying on You," in the January, 2013 issue of Reason. If you were a subscriber, you'd already have seen it. It opens:

"Big Brother has been outsourced. The police can find out where you are, where you've been, even where you're going. All thanks to that handy little human tracking device in your pocket: your cellphone."

And the police claim that they don't need no stinking warrants to spy on you either.

Go here at 9-ish tonight eastern time to catch "Big Bro in Your Pocket."

Comments

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Big Brother has been outsourced. The police can find out where you are, where you've been, even where you're going. All thanks to that handy little human tracking device in your pocket: your cellphone.

Theoretically. I joined Googles Latitude program about a year. It's hit and miss, just a curiosity for now. I swear I've never been to Duluth, but the Google tell me I a have.

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I was hoping the Google would translate to Amereglish for me. It's all so disappointing.

[BlueBook]

Perhaps aliens abducted you, teleported you to Duluth for probing, sent you back home and erased your memory of the whole thing.

[Hugh Akston]

Nobody gets probed in Duluth by accident.

[AlmightyJB]

What did you hear?

[Hugh Akston]

But shouldn't we be more concerned about Evul Korporashuns tracking our precious children in order to market to them?

I mean, the cops are dues-paying union members noble public servants who safeguard our very lives, after all.

[Paul.]

When your Facebook status says:

Man interested in Men, and it shows a sidebar ad for a gay resort, now we've got a problem.

[Episiarch]

That's a violation of your privacy, Paul! Everything about you on the internet should be super-duper secret, especially when your profile is completely open! Plus, advertising is bad and controls your brain.

[Paul.]

Zuckerberg (if the stories are true) was a genius. When his business partner asked him, "How are you going to get all this personal information on people?", Zuckerberg responded, "They'll give it to me."

[Tman]

What's the best is when people post things on FB whining about how their security is being compromised by FB, yet they neglect to realize that the EULA they clicked off on when they opened their FB account specifically says "we own pretty much everything you put on our site, don't like it? Don't click here."

This whilst they are posting constant pictures that lists their exact location with each picture.

People are really fucking stupid.

[Hugh Akston]

Anyone who uses facebook is retarded. Not because they are exposing themselves to marketing or to government surveillance, but because they expose themselves to Warty.

[Episiarch]

Warty's not on Facebook; he refuses to give up his MySpace page.

[Tman]

Meh, I use it and it's fine, but I don't have some delusional misunderstanding of what they do with my info. If I can't control who sees what I put on there, then I better not put anything on there too stupid. Common sense, and whatnot.

In fact, tomorrow I'm going to give a class on ID theft to some high school seniors, and we are always very clear to them that what you put online can become part of the internet forever. So posting that totally swag shot of you CRUSHING that KEGSTAND when you were at your graduation party may actually have consequences on schooling and employment opportunities in the future.

I didn't have this problem in High school THANK FUCKING GOD.

[Episiarch]

You didn't have this problem because no one invited you to any parties, right? No wonder Hugh understands you so well.

[Tman]

I cringe at the thought of having FB when I was in high school. My judgment was terrible just fine without it.

[Hugh Akston]

Epi's right. I had to photocopy pictures of myself duckfacing naked in the mirror and tape them up around the school. Facebook makes desperate, hopeless attention whoring so much more convenient.

[AlmightyJB]

Go to HuffPo? Pass.

[waaminn]

Sometimes dude you jsut gotta roll with it.

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