Nowhere to hide

I don’t have special insight to offer, but I want this placeholder page to distribute wake-up calls to my friends who aren’t aware of the rapidly expanding scope and reach of cheap surveillance technology. I am especially interested in stuff that does not even require the resources of a state agency and is still startlingly revealing.

None of us are surprised that, if they really want to dedicate the resources and billable hours, the FSB can poison your underpants in Siberia. I am interested in horrifyingly easy leakages in privacy that are accessible to mafia, police, stalkers, terrorists, cat-burglars and blackmailers, without even bothering to invoice a black ops agency. That is, I am concerned about what “they” can do when we don’t even need to specify who “they” are because your neighbour’s precocious kid could probably get up to it.

For some basic, good-enough-for-now remedial security tips, please see confidentiality for the masses and confidentiality for journalists, or for general philosophy of reducing your risk, information security.

Now, the awful privacy leak zoo:

For example, they can see through your walls with wifi. They can identify you by your heartbeat at a distance of 200m. They can learn your passwords by listening to you type or even listening to your computer. Even your printer is tracking you. I can steal your key if I hear you use it.