security through obscurity. Its the only way these days. Don’t leave a discernible pattern to identify yourself.
If FR wants to get into the fray, force 2048 bit https traffic only; might not do much overall to “stop” the eves dropping, but wouldn’t make it easy either.
Really doesn’t matter however, so many of us and our habits are easily tracked simply by the cell phones in our pockets anyway. As others have pointed out, the Internet does not forget. And as you point out, information is gladly given up by companies. The correlation was already “made” and was done so a while ago. Our locations are easy at this point by cell tower alone.
You’ve been around long enough, sure you know of echelon. Its only gotten bigger and badder.
Security through obscurity is pretty much the best chance at this point. That or just unplug.
Echelon, carnivore, omnivore...
I run a computer security company now. I used to work crypto for the military. I’ve done computer security for numerous federal govt agencies over the last decade.
Its my belief that most of the govt is too disorganized and incompetent to do any effective monitoring. The groups which do this kind of stuff are the exception.
IMHO they can (if they want) monitor every person they want 24 hours a day. They don’t for most people because its too expensive and most don’t represent a risk.
Having a computer connected to the internet makes it easy for them to monitor through automated tools. They can track your internet traffic or install software on your computer.
Again IMHO the only secure method of communicating does not include the use of a computer. Encryption of any type doesn’t help when they have the master key. Sounds paranoid but then I’ve been been around stuff you normally read about in a Tom Clancy novel.