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Thread: Bitcoins and The Privacy Illusion

  1. #1

    Cool Bitcoins and The Privacy Illusion

    The Privacy Illusion - Using Bitcoins and keeping the Government out of your Money

    It has come to my attention that many of my readers in the United States believe they have the right to privacy because of something in the Constitution. That is an unsupportable view. A more accurate view is that the government divides the details of your life into two categories:

    1. Stuff they don't care about.
    2. Stuff they can find out if they have a reason.

    Keep in mind that the government already knows the following things about you:

    1. Where you live
    2. Your name
    3. Your income
    4. Your age
    5. Your family members
    6. Your social security number
    7. Your maiden name
    8. Where you were born
    9. Criminal history of your family
    10. Your own criminal record
    11. Your driving record
    12. Your ethnicity
    13. Where you work and where you used to work
    14. Where you live and where you used to live
    15. Names of your family members
    16. The value of your home now
    17. The amount you paid for your home
    18. The amount you owe on your home
    19. Your grades in school
    20. Your weight, height, eye color, and hair color

    The government doesn't know your medical history. But your doctor does, and he'll give it to the government if they produce a warrant.

    The government doesn't know your spending details. But your bank and your credit card company do. And the government can subpoena bank records anytime it cares enough to do so. The government can't always watch you pay for stuff with cash, but don't expect that to last. At some point in the next twenty years, physical currency will be eliminated in favor of digital transactions.

    Your government doesn't know who you are having sex with, but only because it doesn't care. If the government started to care, perhaps because it suspected you of a crime, it could get warrants to check your email, text messages, phone records, and online dating account. It could also make your lover testify about your sexual preferences and practices. It did exactly that with Bill Clinton. Thanks to the government, I know Bill Clinton's penis has a bend in it.

    When you're in any populated place, there's a good chance that video surveillance cameras are recording your every move. The government can examine those recordings anytime it produces a warrant. Some of those public cameras reportedly use FBI software for facial recognition.

    In California, I have a device that allows me to go through toll booths without paying cash. It sits on my windshield and communicates with the toll booth which then charges my credit card. That means the government can know whenever I cross a bridge, if they care. You might not have one of those devices on your windshield, but I'll bet your toll booth is taking a picture of your license plate as you drive through. If the government needs to know where you've been, it has a lot of options.

    Realistically, you can't lose your privacy to Big Brother because you already lost it decades ago. What you do have is the right to be boring and law-abiding at the same time. It just feels like privacy to you.

    I'm overstating the case a bit. To be fair, you do have the right to take a dump with your bathroom door closed. You can also expect some privacy with your lawyer and your therapist. These minor exceptions are the crumbs that remain of your so-called right to privacy. And those crumbs remain because the government doesn't care about them. The government controls the most ferocious military power in the history of civilization and it knows where you live; it doesn't also need to know you have mommy issues.

    Whenever I write on the topic of how our future will be awesome if only we would agree to transmit our personal-but-boring information - such as our physical locations - to a central database, I hear screams of BIG BROTHER! BIG BROTHER!

    This fascinates me because I believe the phrase Big Brother has taken on some kind of meaning in our collective consciousness that is now long divorced from reason. If citizens had any substantial privacy now, it would make perfect sense to discuss the risks of trading that privacy for economic gain or convenience. But that's like arguing whether humans should take the risk of domesticating dogs; it's already ancient history. Sure, some people got mauled to death by dogs over the years, but canine domestication mostly worked out.

    All reasonable people would agree that governments will abuse power. But have you ever had a problem that was caused by the government invading your privacy? Meanwhile, you enjoy the fact that your email works, thanks to a central database that stores your email routing information and another that stores your messages in the cloud. It's all there for Big Brother to see anytime he asks for a warrant. That's a tradeoff that has worked so far.

    The Big Brother concept seems a lot like the bogey man. It isn't a real risk to law-abiding citizens; it just feels like one. Some would argue that while the government of the United States in its current form is unlikely to flagrantly abuse your private information and get away with it for long, that situation could change, as it did in Hitler's Germany. I would counter by noting that any argument that uses a Hitler analogy is self-refuting.

    For the benefit of the absolutists reading this, I will agree that the odds of the U.S. Government becoming Nazi-like are non-zero. But you have the same odds of being hit by a meteor, and you don't modify your life to avoid meteors. Likewise, you probably shouldn't modify your life because you fear the government might go Nazi. Just relax, enjoy the promise of technology, and stop worrying about Big Brother. Realistically, he's been ass-raping you for years, and apparently he's not sufficiently endowed for you to have noticed. I don't see that situation changing.

    I won't take any more of your time because today is election-day in America. If you are an adult citizen of the United States, and you already gave Big Brother your personal information when you registered, he wants to know more about your preferences in the voting booth.

    Unless you think that's too risky, Hitler-wise.
    Bitcoins are a libertarians dream with privacy -

    my 2 cents - gAtOmAlO - http://uscyberlabs.com/blog -
    Book - The Deep Dark Web -Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009VN40DU*



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  3. #2
    some people have noticed, and didn't like it.

  4. #3
    Bitcoins are only "semi-private" you need to know what your doing.
    Let's see who knows:
    • Which side of the transaction is anonymous by default the sender or receiver?
    No one here wanted to be the Billionaire.

  5. #4
    Bitcoins transactions are public but the wallets are secret - and with a wallet you can create a new number for every different transaction so no transaction can ever be traced to the wallet -

    It's different but so is the LIBOR and you know how the bankers fix that problem - Bitcoins Yes it's BETA - but as it becomes popular people will adapt - I am a security researcher currently writing my next book about digital currency. The feds took down eGold because he made it too fiat currency and tie it to GOLD. Currency and fiat currency are different - I have learned. OK like any bank he open up a loophole - they did the same to citiVisa in Las -vegas the 60 second rule - cool but in reality you can buy Bitcoins at 7/11 a moneypak will get you private Bitcoins - keep a backup of your wallet - encrypt it in a thumb drive - or just print the wallet and store it in a safer deposit box -

    Read about a poker site got taken down by the feds / but they had all the cash in a wallet - and they forgot their passphrase - - LE no money -right or wrong it woks - math cryptography

    Bitcoin consultanting - see it's not rocket science but it's different -
    If you got question - I may confuse you - but I may have the answers about - BiTCoins

    my 2 cents - @gAtOmAlO2 - http://uscyberlabs.com -
    New Book - The Deep Dark Web - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009VN40DU*

  6. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by gatomalo View Post
    19. Your grades in school

    Good. They think I'm dumb.



    Quote Originally Posted by gatomalo View Post
    The government doesn't know your medical history.

    Disagree. Look up Medical Information Bureau.


    Quote Originally Posted by gatomalo View Post
    The government doesn't know your spending details.

    Disagree.

    I'm not gonna go line by line.

    They know a lot of $#@!, and if they don't know it, it's because they're storing the data to parse it later. I don't know who wrote this, but they seem to be at least 4-5 years behind.
    We have allies many of you are not aware of. Watch the tube. Show this to your 30 and under friends. Listen to it. Even if you don't like rap, it has 2.7 million views.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmBnvajSfWU#t=0m16s

    Cut off one min early to avoid war porn.

  7. #6
    The sad thing is even HIPPA does not stop LE.. I work with them on occasion - the DEEP WEB is 80% of information that nobody knows were it is- it's searchable if you know were to look - sad but true - most of this is the census LAW - like it or not facts are facts - sorry to diagree but I a master of the web - I know just a wee bit about my lifes work 35 yaers in IT I worked on arpnet - I know the web -- my only clue in life -- but I'm a nobody with a big mouth and a keyboard what do I know-- mEoW

    my 2 cents - @gAtOmAlO2 - http://uscyberlabs.com -
    New Book - The Deep Dark Web - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009VN40DU*

  8. #7
    Long OP that didn't really say anything about bitcoins. And I've seen the "government knows all" argument used by people who want to give the government more of your private data. For instance the denomination I belong to put all of their membership data online some years ago. Someone raised the question "But what if the government wants to go snooping in it." And ignorant person (who happened to be an information sciences professor) rebutted with "The government knows that about you already." Bullcrap! I've worked with government databases and they're in sad shape. The reason for the Facebook push is to get people to do for the government what the government couldn't do for itself which is to provide accurate information about them.

    Anyhow, the good thing about bitcoins is that it at least gives the possibility of privacy in transactions and they can be traded without going through a central server. Thus there's no easy way to shut down bitcoins like there was to shut down eGold. As for the emails going through NSA servers? Yeah, that's a problem. People need to really start thinking about encryption.
    9/11 Thermate experiments

    Winston Churchhill on why the U.S. should have stayed OUT of World War I

    "I am so %^&*^ sick of this cult of Ron Paul. The Paulites. What is with these %^&*^ people? Why are there so many of them?" YouTube rant by "TheAmazingAtheist"

    "We as a country have lost faith and confidence in freedom." -- Ron Paul

    "It can be a challenge to follow the pronouncements of President Trump, as he often seems to change his position on any number of items from week to week, or from day to day, or even from minute to minute." -- Ron Paul
    Quote Originally Posted by Brian4Liberty View Post
    The road to hell is paved with good intentions. No need to make it a superhighway.
    Quote Originally Posted by osan View Post
    The only way I see Trump as likely to affect any real change would be through martial law, and that has zero chances of success without strong buy-in by the JCS at the very minimum.

  9. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by jmdrake View Post
    ...People need to really start thinking about encryption.
    +Rep
    Encryption for fun and profit.


    Quote Originally Posted by gatomalo View Post
    Bitcoins transactions are public but the wallets are secret...
    The IP address is anonymous by default on only one side (?, or I thought it was); If no one knows I'll eventually check.
    Last edited by Indy Vidual; 11-08-2012 at 02:12 PM.
    No one here wanted to be the Billionaire.



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  11. #9
    IP 's that's why we have Tor and Proxies - and if you can't find one you build one - sad fact but if they knew - they would of taken all those pedo shops in Tor. Silk Road and all the other ugly places...

    trust but verify - math and crypto 4 gATO when I need it...

  12. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by jmdrake View Post
    People need to really start thinking about encryption.
    Can you tell the South Carolina state government that please?

  13. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by jmdrake View Post
    Long OP that didn't really say anything about bitcoins. And I've seen the "government knows all" argument used by people who want to give the government more of your private data. For instance the denomination I belong to put all of their membership data online some years ago. Someone raised the question "But what if the government wants to go snooping in it." And ignorant person (who happened to be an information sciences professor) rebutted with "The government knows that about you already." Bullcrap! I've worked with government databases and they're in sad shape.

    Yeah, but how long ago was that? (And I'm not making a rebuttal... it's a real question.)

    The fact that they are storing every data stream they can get their hands on is bad news. Google, for instance, is very good at parsing data. Google also saves your email and search history FOREVER. As they get better at parsing the data, they will be working backward. My gawd... who the $#@! knows what I said on USENET in 1998? Google knows. Their buddies know.

    Does anyone give a $#@! about me? Probably not. Are they building algorithms that assigns scores to people? Just like they do websites? I'm certain they are. And while they may not be very accurate, they'd rather wisk away innocent people than let people who dislike their political philosophy go free. They don't make laws like NDAA for no reason. They make them to use them.
    We have allies many of you are not aware of. Watch the tube. Show this to your 30 and under friends. Listen to it. Even if you don't like rap, it has 2.7 million views.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmBnvajSfWU#t=0m16s

    Cut off one min early to avoid war porn.

  14. #12
    just look up Goggle Dorks - hackers love goggle and other search engines -- OSINT - Open Source Intelligence - they gave it a fancy name but people like me have used it because we created these searches -- geeks -- 4 fun -- no excuse - just fun for me
    hacking from a browser is normal for governments and corporations -

    where were you last Tues. at 8:23 pm - google knows, Facebook, twitter, yahoo, bing --- so if they know everyone knows ---- they know your friends but they also know your enemies --- use Tor pls - I don't really want to know but i'm a gAtO mEoW - check your cookies

    my 2 cents @gATOmAlO2 - http://uscyberlabs.com.com/blog
    New Book -The Deep Dark Web - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009VN40DU*
    Print Book -
    http://www.amazon.com/The-Deep-Dark-.../dp/1480177598

  15. #13
    Bitcoins also have a number of ways to break the chain from accounts. There is a 'taint' checker built into the bitblocker explorer. There are relatively cheap bitcoin washers that will send money from one address to a new one. Also easy to put money from one account to another large pool like at an exchange, and then draw it out to a new address. This adds multiple layers to make following any specific coin a very difficult challenge.

    The new NSA data warehouse they're building is going to be huge. Also because of laws the NSA can capture all the data they want. It is only an intercept when a human looks at it. So yeah encrypt if you can but realize the feds can datamine to their heart's content. If it's in public or digital in any fashion and you want it truly secret then you best do something that will ensure it's secret in 20, 30 years. Just because something isn't broken now doesn't mean it won't sit on a server that long until tech can break it.



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