Monday, June 24, 2013

Google Tracks You, We Don't - DuckDuckGo

The title is the slogan for DuckDuckGo, a relatively new search engine that appears comparable to Google but without the insidious interactions with the NSA (U.S.), GCHQ (U.K.), or other enemies of personal privacy.  (The Guardian:  NSA fears spark traffic surge on DuckDuckGo search engine)

There has been relatively little reaction within social media to the abuses being perpetrated by the NSA, GCHQ, etc but there's relatively little reaction to anything on social media.  They will tell you they're changing the world but when asked where they'll respond, oh, everywhere, man, everywhere.  OK, Alphonse, take your Facebook soma and have a nice day.

Edward Snowden changed the world and he damn sure didn't do it with social media.  That story is well-known now, largely through the work of The Guardian which has come to exemplify freedom in a time when the media channels have been serving so assiduously as propaganda tools.

The way DuckDuckGo defeats the NSA is through not storing any personal information.  If it doesn't store it then neither the NSA nor the GCHQ can take it.  There wouldn't be much surprise, however, if the U.S. makes it law to force search engines to save search queries just so the NSA can take them.  There's one simple problem that occurs when you have too many cops and not enough bad guys:  that's when they come for you.

I'm more of a radical now than I ever was in the sixties and that doesn't mean I want to revive the Weathermen and start blowing up buildings but rather my view of the sordid regimes of the United States is worse than it ever was.  My U.S. passport expired in February and I don't care as it gives the Evil Empire one less way to control my life.

You saw how they do in the case of Bradley Manning.  He exposed U.S. war crimes in Afghanistan so naturally that makes him a criminal.  Julian Assange exposed more of the military corruption and he too became a criminal.  You see it again now with Edward Snowden who has exposed the egregious violations of the Fourth Amendment so now they hunt him.  That may not be a huge concern as if they're as ineffectual in looking for him as they were with bin Laden then he will be going into middle age before that even matters.  Nevertheless, the pattern of behavior by the U.S. government has been consistently illegal over a long period of time.

People sit back, fat, dumb, and happy on Facebook and think, screw it, I'm a good citizen so why should I bother with any of this.  What they don't consider is the much bigger problem of what happens when the government has broken the backs of all who are strong enough to resist.  It won't then be a matter of being a good citizen but rather whether you are a good enough citizen.  First the government said it was looking for terrorists but now it's become a matter of trapping anyone who speaks against their policies and does something about it.  This won't stop unless the people rise up and demand it.

In Germany first they came for the Jews, then they came for the Gypsies, then they came for the homosexuals, next for anyone with a physical disability.  They didn't stop and neither will the current regimes of the police states and the U.S. and the U.K. have moved very strongly into that category with their deeply-invasive attacks on personal privacy.

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