Consider a website people use every day: FaceBook.  FaceBook is one of many social networking sites, places where people go to communicate with one another and nourish the social side of their lives.  On this website, information trading takes place.  Some of this is quite personal, and only directed towards people the user deems as “friends”.  However, when FaceBook changed their privacy settings in May of 2010, pretty much anybody with an Internet connection could view your profile and content.  In the time since then, have you changed your privacy settings? Probably not; it is not something most people think about when on their pages.

These privacy settings are simply not something on your mind when you are surfing your friend’s pages.  There is the obvious threat of posting a “going out of town” message, and having a burglar see this and take advantage.  Another more insidious threat is the predator who pours through your posts looking for information on your habits, or worse yet, the habits of your children.  With enough time and information, they can paint a fairly detailed picture of your life which can be used against you.

Another, even bigger website is also coming under public scrutiny.  Google, arguably the world’s largest search engine, has been compiling pictures of the entire world, called “Google StreetView”.  This sounding has an innocent purpose: to locate streets for use in help with navigation.  However, their technology produces some sketchy photos.  People are caught in compromising positions, and the photos are online, frozen for everyone to see.

This surveillance goes on in real life too: an interesting statistic reads that you are captured on camera an average of two-hundred times a day in America, three-hundred times for the United Kingdom!  Coupled with government scanning and intercepting phone calls and other communications, and a newly founded “National DNA Database”, our lives are losing their privacy every minute.  Remember, we are social beings, and need to be social beings, but our privacy is a right.  To lose our privacy would be to lose an essential part of ourselves, so beware online and in real life, and keep a firm grip on your right to privacy.

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That’s right, the government will begin tracking your online behavior on their websites.  That sounds harmless enough doesn’t it?  The stated purpose for this tracking is to provide better services for your when you are using their websites.

Sorry, but I’m not comfortable with this.  Here’s why: They already have databases with a lot of information about us.  This is not paranoia, it’s just part of living in any country.  You fill out forms, you pay taxes, you have government IDs; all of this leaves a trail.  When you tie in all the pieces of the trail, it paints a very detailed picture of you and all your activities.

For most people, what the government knows about them is not a problem.  I’m not really concerned about what they know about me.  I gave them most of that information.  However, the question should be: “where does that end?”  At some point, enough is enough.  One day a law will be passed that will enable the government to do something intrusive.  At that point, they will already have the data from everything you’ve done up to that point.  I know, I sound a little paranoid.

It’s just my belief that sooner or later, someone in our government even with good intentions, will cross the line to invasion of privacy.  It just all feels a little too creepy.

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This breed of criminals would star in the good old mafia films, the ones so outdated they would be in scratchy gray-scale. Aside from their Hollywood glitz surface though, these guys did some bad stuff. Not just the mafia gangs, but street criminals are responsible for most of the destruction and fright many citizens experience now. These people were the ones who left bystanders feeling nervous for their lives, and were bait for sensationalist news reports adding to the hysteria.

These guys were the worst of the worst in their time. They were the scum of the Earth, the ones that, when families saw their mug shots on television, would shield their kid’s eyes, as if their gaze had some strange powers. These were the reasons that America walks on eggshells with its prison system. It is a strange thing that such a free society breeds: you have these excellent freedoms, yet it is just hoped for that you will not abuse them. Unfortunately, while most of us follow our guidelines, guys like these don’t and it affects the rest of us harshly.

The criminals of old, the ones that would hold you up with their guns and then take all of your goods, although a force to be reckoned with no doubt, are child’s play to our crooks of today. The criminals of today have an overpowering advantage; technology is on their side. You might think that technology is really on the law’s side, making it easier and faster to get these criminals but in fact it just makes more easily concealed. The crooks have adopted the high tech equipment for themselves and become quite adept with it.

Think of the average crime scene. An sly criminal who wanted some money would see a rich-looking person, and judge their odds of winning. Weapons brandished and in a sequestered location they would confront their target, wave the gun around, and proceed to take their money. Once they get all of the money out of the wallet, they would tell the victim to not call the police. They would then sprint all of the way to their hideout and lay low for a little while, until the police were off of them.

In those times of old, only very rudimentary methods of catching the criminals existed, nothing like using satellite location and GPS tracking. These factors did not hurt the law too much though: with a well-staffed and highly trained police force, the thief was often caught quickly. There was not any tools of the trade they could make use of to try and scramble the evidence or hide themselves quickly. Once they were apprehended, there was no DNA clues to tie them at the crime scene, instead there was only a basic line-up and the victim, where the victim identified their abuser.

Technology is our hero then, right? Unfortunately, this is often not the case. While our rapid success in producing DNA tracking, fingerprints and other technological advances, these tools can also help in the suspect’s runaway from justice. A running car is the most high-tech equipment a criminal today needs to disappear; it doesn’t matter is they know exactly who did the act. If they can’t go out and get them, all of their information on them is quite useless.

An intangible crime; the perfect crime. These are hard hitters for law enforcement, as there is no scene of the crime and due to the technological shield the criminal can put up around their location. Another scary thing is that, these identity thieves and hackers, as aforementioned, are seldom caught and brought to justice. So with no viable means to effectively stop them, we can only hope to protect ourselves from their strike. Always be very wary online, and protect yourself with a multitude of Internet security systems. And avoid secluded areas!

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There are many other instances of this too. A group of prison guards formed a FaceBook page in which they talked and discussed matters and internal politics of the prison. It was all guards here, and no one else was allowed to communicate, but somehow the officials gained entrance. After they read some of their peers and workers dissenting opinions from their own, they sent out threatening cease and desist letters, and even fired some. The guards were outraged, and they insisted the prison officials had no right to read or try and shut down their civil talk session. It seems no slander was directed towards these officers, but simply some outside opinions, but they would have none of it.

This tracking of people outside of work is wrong. What you do, and your freedom of speech and anonymity should be conserved while on the Internet. To be sure you aren’t being tracked or followed online, use a change IP proxy, and change your IP address to throw off any potential interlopers.

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Even though our guarantee is still there, preserved and well, some people are still wary of the government. The government has done some things that make privacy advocates a little nervous. It started with the Patriot Act; this allowed the government at any time to intercept, record, and save any sort of communications you are having, provided they are solely used for national security threats. This Patriot Act was quite intrusive and Americans hadn’t seen anything like it since the days of being harassed by England for taxes we owed and other petty matters. This matter was acceptable though, as our nation was in a time of grieving after the terrorist attacks on 911. These attacks made the Patriot Act a smash hit with Congress, who would pass anything that would bolster security; we were quite scared at the time.

Recently, the government has set up with an ISP’s (Internet Service Provider) to intercept and record emails coming from a supposed terrorist by way of the Patriot Act, which requires the snooping to be authorized by applying to national security, and terrorist activity certainly meets this criteria. It turns out though that the government department intercepted way more than one email; they actually read entire mailboxes of multiple people. This causes some to raise eyebrows at the integrity of the situation, because all of those people couldn’t have been suspected terrorists.

Although there is not much you can do from having the government snoop on you, you can block every day hackers with a change IP proxy. By using an IP changer, you can change your IP address and effectively throw off anyone tracking you to your real life location.

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Privacy advocates are not so sure about this new edifice and what privacy issues it could present. They think that maybe it could accidentally leak this data to the public, and that any information on anybody would be fair game. Remember, they don’t just keep information on criminals in this data base. What if this data base were to be hacked and the information let out to the public; addresses, case studies, etc.? Who says it would even be secured properly? They mainly just don’t like the idea of three above the law organizations getting together and having complete information available on pretty much every person ever.

The police see it differently. They assert that the project is simply going to help coordinate efforts between police organizations and will give them more data to track and track criminals; and most importantly keep the public more safe than ever. They also say that the data base will be highly secured on every front and that it will only include data pertinent to an investigation they are doing.

The audacious project is slated to be funded by city tax dollars, and some residents are a bit put off by this. It’s not like they asked for more protection on the streets, and although it is welcome, they don’t want to pay more taxes in their already cash strapped city. The public is also angry they had no say in the matter, and weren’t even alerted on the plans to pursue this goal until everything was almost already laid out.

City council is put in a tough position. They understand the risks the comprehensive data base presents to its citizen’s privacy and other civil rights. They also understand that the citizens will have to pay for the organization to function through their hard earned tax dollars. On the other hand though, bolstering security is never a problem, and hopefully this collaborative effort between government and local police departments will stop all of the government secrecy in their investigations, and they will include the local police.

Since this plan is already pretty much started, now is the time to protect one self. Using an IP changer will help minimize the risk if the data base was somehow compromised, and some information was leaked. The change IP proxy will completely change your IP and hide it, and anyone who got some of your information through such a leak couldn’t track you online.

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While this seems overly positive, they are people who can’t stand FaceBook, or any social networking sites for that matter. For one, they say that these sites represent the downfall of the coherent conversation, lacking any depth whatsoever, and just relying on Internet slang to communicate. Then, they say that these sites are just a big risk for privacy and that they advertise way to much. These are both true, the sites make all of their money off of advertisements and other types of things, and they do so quite often. Every time you navigate to a new page you pretty much have to click through some sort of ad. While this is just simply annoying, the privacy risks are real.

These sites are often just filled with hackers who are waiting, sometimes posing as a friend to get your information. Or worse, they are child molesters trying to get your kids by luring them in, posing as a “friend”. Also, they have said that these sites often produce many viruses and other mal ware. Just like in an email, there runs the risk of possibly contracting a virus in a bugged message. Once this message is opened, the virus will spread throughout your computer, and depending on what it is supposed to do, either crash your system or extract all sorts of information to be used against you.

FaceBook has also recently come under fire for discreetly changing its terms of service agreement. This is the page that people often just click “I accept” and don’t read any of it at all. FaceBook notices this, and decided to pull a fast one on all of its current and new users. They surreptitiously put in a new clause that said they have the right to keep a copy of anyone’s web page at any time, even after they have deleted their account.

This all seems a bit scary. Using a change IP proxy will allow you to avoid most of the privacy issues this represents though. By changing your IP, you will remain untraceable on the Internet and when on the social networking sites, and any viruses or mal ware can be blocked from the built in filter.
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There is also the possibility that these e-mails are just filled with viruses or mal ware. These can be stopped by an everyday virus scanner, but some more intricately woven viruses can sneak their way through to your system. Looking at your email providers “spam” section isn’t enough to stop the problem either. Did you ever notice how often you have to go into the spam folder to retrieve a message that was not actually junk at all? The same could happen the other way around; a spam email could sneak its way into your inbox folder, and you would read it without thinking twice; game over! These viruses are often wired to completely fry your computer, or to try and extract vital information from your hard drive and then bring it back to the individual responsible so they can wreak more havoc on you.

There are ways to combat this though. For one, if the email is from someone you don’t know, or if you don’t recognize the email address, do a thorough scan on it before opening it. Also, if the subject line is just a garbled mess of letters and numbers, it was probably machine generated and should be avoided at all costs. Be wary of attachments also in emails, this could be the dead give away for a virus. If it seems suspicious in any way, just try to avoid it and move on. Remember, big websites like MySpace, YouTube, or FaceBook will never ask you, especially by email, to send them any information for anything. While these sites cannot do to much irreparable damage, an online banking site can. Consider what would happen if you sent all of your check numbers, bank account info, and log-in information to some criminal unknowingly?

To stay adequately safe online, sequester yourself from virus and other mal ware by investing in something more than the security systems that came on your computer. Try a new firewall program, virus scanner, or a change IP proxy.

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The program is done through a website, www.cars.gov, and from there dealers and people alike can see the options they have for trade-in values and can sign up for the program. Everything sounds good right? Wrong. Fox News’ Glenn Beck recently uncovered some ominous news from the website and its fine print that absolutely no one reads.

He says that once you go to the site, sign up and sign in, that you are directed to a Privacy and Security act site. This is standard stuff right? The kind of stuff that you see and blindly accept on every website you visit. This is where you made the mistake. Lately, the news have seen some cases of these terms of service agreements containing some questionable doctrines and other little pieces of information they assume no one will even bother to read. They were right for the most part, but there is always that one curious guy to spoil their fun and actually read the contract before accepting it.

Glenn Beck is that man in this situation, and he has uncovered some shocking and scary things in the Cash For Clunkers contract. It states that upon log in of the site, your computer becomes U.S. property and becomes usable by anyone in the U.S. government and its affiliates. They also have the right to keep surveillance on your system and view any documents they want, for an indefinite period of time after the offer has expired.

This is quite a privacy concern. Allowing the government access to your computer during a crisis is one thing, but allowing them lifetime access to all of your documents, folders, browsing history, and even allowing them to take control of your computer at times is a completely different thing. Almost makes you rethink your commitment to the environment, or just the lure of easy money.

This a serious privacy issue. Nobody should be allowed access to your computer but you. Using a change ip proxy will enable you to be safe and untraceable on the Internet. These services also usually offer an encryption service that will encode all data flowing through your server to make them appear as hieroglyphics. Maybe the government could still get through it, but that average hacker wouldn’t stand a chance versus your bolstered protection.

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Scientists call this natural phenomenon the “Circadian Rhythm.” It is classified by not only a predictable cycle, but a steady progression. History has always exemplified this term to be true. Man has always slept an average of 8 to 9 hours a week, (Some of us are jealous of Man) ate 3 meals a day, and longed for companionship. Even though all is same in Man’s world, progress is being made. First, Man encountered and mastered fire. This acted as a strong catalyst, and soon enough, we have the combustion engine. Now we are researching hydrogen and water-powered automobiles. Once we had only beepers, then we adjusted to car phones, then came the brick cell-phone, and now even the paper thin Motorola RAZR is considered archaic. Man’s routines and rituals have remained the same, but technology has been skyrocketing ever since the caveman sparked a flame and put a stick in it.

With the advent of modern technology came comforts and luxuries we had never experienced before, but take for granted today.. While the caveman might have had to worry about hunting his next meal and whether he was going to eat it or vice versa, the most we worry about is gathering up enough spare change to get a soda at the McDonald’s drive-through. Our primal ancestors worried about sparking a strong flame and maintaining it for a whole night to provide warmth and protection from predators while modern humans worry if they forgot to pay their electric bill, and flip a switch to find out.

While this may seem true and a bit comedic, there are also things cavemen didn’t have to worry about. Caveman children could play in the road (or the closest they had to one) without fear of being run over by a gas-guzzling SUV, didn’t have to worry about an earthquake toppling monolithic skyscrapers and crushing them, or about layoffs at work due to budget cuts. Nor did they have to worry about the arguably most harrowing aspect of security in today’s society: online.

While online, the phrase “Ignorance is bliss” is definitely not the philosophy to abide by. Presently, a major demographic of business people work from their computers. Making a solid living online is becoming more and more realistic as the number of surfers and customers increase everyday. In order to have a supply, you must have a demand. These business people are marketing to everyone who has a computer and logs onto their site; how many people do you know without a computer? So many people access the Internet each day, that obviously criminals are attracted like flies to a luminescent light.

Every time you log onto a site, your IP address is logged into both the site and your ISP’s (Internet Service Provider‘s) databanks. While this is usually just for the respective organizations anonymous records, sometimes it can be used for malicious means. By finding sometimes IP address, a skilled hacker could browse their browsing history, locate their location, and track your tracks. Having access to one’s location could potentially be dangerous, knowing browsing history could be embarrassing, and tracking someone could be a bit creepy and unnerving. These are all chances though, but there is one thing that is not a chance. Knowing your location is one thing, but hacking your account and paying for an all-expense paid trip to Cancun is another. A famous song once spoke truly transcendent words: “There ain’t no rest for the wicked, money don’t grow on trees. Got bills to pay, got mouths to feed; there ain’t nothing in this world for free. They can’t slow down, can’t hold back, though you know, they wish they could. Ain’t rest for the wicked, until they close their eyes for good.” The point is, people will do anything for money, and always will.

With the Internet such a dangerous place, government is stepping in to try and regulate it in some areas. They restrict access to and censor sites that could possibly be harmful to certain people; adult websites are blocked for children, websites advocating crime are blocked for everyone, etc. Although this seems noble, sometimes they have some ulterior motives. Oftentimes, these governments will block sites that are against their theologies or would hurt their morale. While this never occurs in the widely democratic United States, countries like China are quite guilty of this; people have even coined the meme “Great Firewall of China” just for them. China had blocked the rebellious spiritual movement of Falun Gong, and blocks any content that is anti-Communist in nature.

Although it seems predictable that a authoritarian dictatorship should have these blocks on personal freedoms, there is breaking news that has shocked the world. Australia, a democratic nation, has begun written preliminary plans to ban “unwanted content.” The problem is, while it is a good deed to block child pornography, it is a infringement on privacy laws to block any normal sites.

At this point in time, the world is at a turning point, a crux, a crossroads. One side of the road points to restriction, sterilization, and government control, ala the dystopian 1984. The other side points to complete freedom, and the inherent risks that come with it. Australia’s proposition-heard-round-the-world, if ramification is gained, will mark a step towards Orwell’s insidious prophesy.

While I’m in no way taking sides, the monitored and carefully audited world sounds quite unsettling. If it were to become a reality however, and the Internet were to become heavily censored and restricted, there would be hope for the proactive people to bypass the injustice. By using an anonymous change IP proxy, you can tunnel right through the block by accessing a site that isn’t blocked, (the proxy) and use it as a middleman. You request a website’s information through the proxy, and they go and retrieve it for you. This gives no record of you visiting the site, and not even your ISP could tell! Riffling through your history, all they would see is the proxy server over and over again. By changing your IP address, the government couldn’t track you because your IP address would be replaced with the proxy’s, therefore concealing your location.

Let’s hope the Internet doesn’t end up this way, because even the gentle Earth’s rotation might be upset. Technology has been on a positive increase ever since its heyday, during all of the changes of season, temperature, and anything else the progression of time could throw at us. We are at a turning point, and let’s hope that when Man awakens after 8-9 hours of sleep, and goes out to a McDonald’s drive-through ,technology’s increase will continue as steadily as the his thumping heartbeat, the changing of the seasons, and the Circadian Rhythm.

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