see url:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/14/magazine/facebook-google-privacy-data.html?
Well, I am back...I suppose that you are all pleased to hear from
me...It has been so busy on here since I have been away...:-). Cards
played close to chests these days will protect us all methinks...:-)
A very interesting article on the techniques and skills of mass
surveillance by corporates on the internet and the collection, use and
integration of private and personal data for sharing with others of like
minds and for selling purposes, and how the Obama US government was
sabotaged and undermined when it tried to put in some controls; due to
its own use of those very private corporations for the mass collection
of data against on its citizens and those of us who live outside the US
bubble, whether it be legal or prohibited. The stuff they have on you
and me, is far more than we think, and far more than we know about
ourselves...all our personal proclivities and shopping habits, even
incomplete entries to Google and other search engines, even though
deleted, collected for posterity....We know who you are and what you do,
and when you do it and where you are and how you are...and lots and lots
more. Big brother par excellence. Welcome to the Brave New World of
Huxley and Orwell, the living nightmare...
ATB
Dougie.
P.S. Had a lovely busman's holiday, wonderful weather, wonderful
conversation a la France, good food and wine, and lots of walks, and
exploration of French culture and countryside, especially the
architecture. Worked hard on the kitchen, bathroom and bedroom of our
French house, but still lots to do. Collected the fruits of the garden,
a huge crop of hazelnuts, plums, pears and apples....even snails. The
weather was very hot and I worked in only my underpants...A fact you may
not wish to know. Nice to be back and see that the world is still
alive and kicking, and that the environment, especially plastics,
getting into the food chain, amongst other forms of pollution, is
starting to be recognised...though one doubts if it is not too late to
do anything about it. Still, who cares when there is an international
trade and economic war going on and "Project Fear" is working at full
tilt on the citizens of the UK, trying to convince them that a no deal
BREXIT will mean the end of the world as we know it...as if 500,000
truck movements from Ireland across the UK to the European Continent per
year is automatically going to come to a stop and trade will be
paralysed for the foreseeable future... Britain of course, has been
under the domination of the Vikings, the Romans, the Normans and the
Americans at times over the last 2000 years, and we have survived, so,
as I try to explain to my colleagues who are REMAINDERS, our membership
of the EU has only been for less than 50 years and we have survived
quite well in between and will continue to survive in the future.