Do You Know How Often You Are Being Tracked By Data Gathering Devices?

by Robert Wilkinson

I found an article that outlines how we’re all being tracked everywhere, every day, by countless devices sending info back to someone about what we’re doing and where we’re doing it.

Yes, it seems that we are being tracked by everything from iphones and traffic cameras to what movies we watch on Netflix. This data collection is happening whether we’re driving, walking down the street, making phone calls, browsing the internet, or any number of other ordinary behaviors.

In a story by Devin Coldewey on Today titled How you're tracked digitally all day (and what you can do about it) we read that an NBC news producer volunteered to be monitored on “a normal weekday, noting the many times when his ordinary actions placed him on the grid.” The findings, while not surprising, are actually mind-blowing when you see just how often you’re being tracked by one means or another. We’re not talking about terrorists or anarchists here. We’re talking about you and me on any given day.

For example, it begins with checking emails and FB or any other way we connect to servers. That includes our cell phones, which are actually tracking devices. It seems someone knows exactly where we are at any given moment, even if we’re not actually talking on the phone.

In the story we read

“When it comes to tracking, you don't have to log in via a Web browser or set up your phone a certain way to tell the world to start following your trail. Recently, Apple was caught keeping records of every wireless network iPhones encountered. And several phone makers were found in 2012 to be including a secret back door on their phones capable of reporting every touch, every byte, and every conversation to anyone with the right software.”

You can find out more about the “secret back door” on phones by going to the original article, since there’s a link there. You’ll also read about traffic and security cameras monitoring everywhere you drive or walk, capturing your face, appearance, license plates and the picture of anyone you may be with.

There are several privacy tips in the article, as well as links to ways you can mask what you buy or order, along with access to the ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Please go check it out. While it’s not really an in-depth piece exposing anything we didn’t already know, it’s still a useful reminder that we are all under some sort of electronic monitoring all the time. And that’s not a good thing.

Copyright © 2013 Robert Wilkinson

Comments

[AceStar]

World is getting strange .... in future they gonna track the day baby was born :D

[Diane]

In all likelihood, they're probably already tracking the day your baby is born...along with everything else they think is track worthy...which seems to be, well, everything.

[Robert]

Hi Ace - Yes, so they can sell diapers and baby food to the parents. And make sure the child is a good child with no bad ideas!!

[Iris]

Actually, retailers can now track babies before they are ever born.
Forbes has a piece about this tracking.
Just put "target markets to pregnant women" for a piece in "Forbes" about this practice.
In the piece, the author writes Target knew a man's daughter was pregnant before he did just based on what she bought.

[Robert]

Hi Diane - Yes, everything. Control of the population and selling them whatever seems to be a goal of those who determine what's for sale and what is not.

Hi Iris - Saw that one. The guy was a combination of mad and confounded. As it states in the Forbes article, "What Target discovered fairly quickly is that it creeped people out that the company knew about their pregnancies in advance."

Do ya think? However, it seems the only way to break this cycle of programming is to ditch cell phones and credit cards, never join a rewards offer by a store, and use only bicycles and cash. Even then, cameras are everywhere. This is so different than even 30 years ago that it's like we live on another planet.

[Lee]

Hi Robert! I suggest using Collusion, an add-on tool available for Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Explorer browsers, to identify and optionally block known tracking sites. It's written about here: http://freespeechdebate.com/en/2013/07/who-is-tracking-the-trackers-use-collusion-to-find-out/

It's easy to search for and install.

[Cathy]

Thats why "they" call it cradle to grave. HELLO.

[Debbie]

many unmanned drones fly above australian airspace, many dont realise it, yet the information is actually available to the public, not hidden yet not seen!

[SiouxC]

33 years ago the head at our school told us that everything we did, good or bad, gets written in a file that follows us around for the rest of our life. we were very young at the time and, whilst i don't remember much generally, that statement has stayed with me my whole life...