On-Star Online to U.S. Government

Bob Barr Website ^ | 12-01-03 | Bob Barr

[Bob J]

First I heard of this.

[Sir Gawain]

Hackers may soon become a valuable commodity.

[CDHart]

Thanks for posting this -- it makes sense. I've often wondered if our Dish satellite could provide 2-way communication, which in a sense, it aleady does. If you want to order a movie, you just key it in using the remote. It wouldn't be difficult, I'm sure, to enable it to broadcast whatever is said in the house. (Now donning tinfoil hat!)

Carolyn

[Humbug]

This reminded me of an Asimov quote: "The advance of civilisation is nothing but an exercise in the limiting of privacy." -Asimov, Foundation's Edge

It's only going to get worse as technology continues to improve (see nanotechnology).

[The Turbanator]

"Bring it on!"

[CindyDawg]

We need to starting practicing up on sign language, I guess :')

[Skooz]

bump for when the caffeine kicks in.

[Revelation 911]

"guns dont kill people - the government does"

[HitmanLV]

Privacy is important, of course.

I have no idea though if there are enough people to listen to everybody, though. At any given time there must be more people out in the population than are available to listen to all those people.

I wonder what would make a guy like me, for example, particularly interesting to listen to conversations in my car, in light of the fact that I am almost always alone in my car.

[Byron_the_Aussie]

...first I heard of this...

...and I'll bet only one in a thousand Americans know of it, too.

But they'll find out. The FBI must be crazy to trash their goodwill with this kind of sneaky, Stasi-like 'intelligence' gathering. Do they want an ATF-type image? But I blame Ashcroft, who is leaving a legacy of infrastructure which will be abused in ways we can't even imagine, under the next Dem administration.

[freebilly]

I have no idea though if there are enough people to listen to everybody, though.

Well, now that over 60% of Americans work for some form of city, state, or federal government agency, I'd say we're getting close....

[Junior]

When you order a movie, you do it through a phone line. The dishes cannot broadcast back to the satellite. If you don't want your dish to pick up what you are saying, disconnect the phone line in the back.

[Skywalk]

Dale Gribble aka Rusty Shackleford :)

[Bob J]

They don't listen to everyone, just those on their list.

[HitmanLV]

Not really - they would all be busy just listening to each other.

[HitmanLV]

Oh, well I suppose that makes pefect sense. How do they compile a list anyway?

[stuartcr]

Just don't pay for the OnStar service. As for the GPS devices in your cell phone, disconnect the battery except when you want to make a call, or use an old phone with no GPS.

[Iowa Granny]

Well, I live in a remote area and drive alone at night alot. We are in a hilly area where cell phones are not always dependable.

Furthermore, I am not involved in any type of illegal activity, so I have absolutely nothing to hide. I am quite happy with my On Star, and I do not fear eavesdropping. I am not concerned about my Dish TV eavesdropping on me either.

When you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear. I am not ready to believe the world is full of crooks and criminals who discuss their next 'job' in cars and in their homes.

[Rebelbase]

Do you guys on the left coast ever sleep?

[wtc911]

Always suspected this...we don't even use EZ Pass. Not paranoid, we just think we should hold onto as much of our privacy as we can.

We also go to the beach and shovel sand against the tide.