Things are getting a lot weird...

How safe is your privacy, online?

Color me a little hypersensitive about my personal devices being compromised and my information being taken over…given the network wide hack that I’m still going through…

Yup, still this week, some of my accounts were being attacked again…

And this is upsetting…but what happens when you’re not even being hacked and your computer or online accounts are being compromised…by the creators of the software or hosting sites that you are on?

I tripped across a couple of things this week that are kind of troubling…like this:

Whut?

What is this?

Google is scanning or openly looking through files/folders, maybe even images that are stored on your personal Google Drive…selecting wrong think and then restricting access to them?

Now…this isn’t from my personal drive…but still troubling. Imagine going back a couple of years where dissenting voices were being censored online…you couldn’t say certain words without being restricted, suspended or banned from social media platforms…and then add in that any information that you’d received in these certain channels, which may only contain a single word that has been flagged…and BLAM, you’re restricted access to this as well.

No…I am not naive enough to think that private conversations through direct messaging on any platform was completely safe…I full well know better.

But after having had everything that I have electronically stored compromised, potentially copied and now stored for use and abuse by others…it’s terrifying.

But just go ahead and “Request a review”, and see what comes from that hey?

Getting back a compromised account through their online Help is a huge pain in the ass and most times, you’re not dealing with a person…and when you do, you are dealing with some schlep who most likely has to push a ‘pass’ or ‘fail’ button to trigger an automated reply that is of zero value to you and closes down your case, without ever actually reading a word from your review or in your defense.

Even Twitter/X.

While after having my account hacked, using government issued ID to reclaim my account, which needed to be on my account to be certified…with my name being the name - not anonymous - as my online nick, and my personal picture being used…I still had to appeal using other credentials. And then…when I went to set up another layer of protection, using my same government issued ID for 2 Factor Authentication…it was REJECTED.

That’s right.

I reclaim my account…with all of my information, email under my name, matches my profile name, matches my government ID, matches all of the information that I’d provided for a blue checkmark, including banking/CC information and it was REJECTED as a method of 2FA!

Wait…it’s getting worse.

You see…Microsoft has entered into the arena with their idea of protection for your Personal Computing Devices, using AI to take track your every digital movement:

“Time Machine”, is the word they use…

Like it’s as simple and innocent as just storing your browser history, to help you find sites that you’d visited or making logins easier.

IT’S NOT!

This is tracking your every movement and every moment.

And then puts it into a searchable history for you to be able to jump into your “Time Machine”, and have a gander at what you were looking at, at any moment in time?

What if you are working from a company PC or Laptop?

Who is going to have access to your files from here?

And while they claim that all of this information will be stored locally…remember when Amazon workers were listening into Alexa Conversations?

These weren’t just some $16/hr employee that may be in a different city…these included Contract Workers located across the globe from Boston to INDIA…

Anybody still using one of these?

What about your Smart TV?

Your cellphone?

Big Brother is watching!

Where you go…what you look at…every file, folder and website you access…listening to your conversations…tracking your heartrate, sleep and health via smartwatch, every online purchase you make and potentially watching YOU while you ‘Netflix and Chill’, through devices that weren’t planted on you…that you’ve paid for.

They didn’t have to force these ankle bracelets on us.

They’ve become a part of our culture…we’ve become reliant on these devices as a part of our lives…and now, how do we escape back into a world where we can be left to our own privacy?

Terrifying!

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