Everything You Do Is Being Recorded

(theatlantic.com)

74 points | by ike_usawa 2 hours ago

5 comments

  • gsky 1 hour ago
    • cluckindan 18 minutes ago
      • ksbd-pls-finish 11 minutes ago
        I clicked that link and I don't see anything wrong with that. It's not like I donate money by doing that. And they still are very useful resource, even if they're not good enough for Wikipedia (if they indeed tampered with some old archives, it's pretty obvious why)
        • cluckindan 9 minutes ago
          Maybe not, but it could be using your browser as a part of a DDoS network. The admins have also been tampering with archived articles.
          • arcfour 2 minutes ago
            Not mine, UBlock has blocked that since day one, thankfully
        • hsuduebc2 10 minutes ago
          If you would open the second link provided you would get an answer.

          >This decision was agreed on after a request for comment with more than 200 participants concluded in February 2026, and is due to multiple concerns, including the site using editors' and readers' computers to run a denial-of-service attack and evidence that the website has tampered with some archived pages

      • hsuduebc2 11 minutes ago
        I was wondering what was the angle of thede sites.
  • NooneAtAll3 1 hour ago
    where's archive link when it's needed the most...
    • eimrine 1 hour ago
      copy the original link then go to archive .is then paste the link into the second field than choose any result. not a rocket science. the article is not interesting tbh.
  • zhoBEENG 1 hour ago
    Obama was promoting The Age of Surveillance Capitalism over seven years ago now. Industry insiders have known all this since 1999. Yet almost every single person I know carries a cellphone and drives a car with telemetry, things that are entirely optional. Most humans use Meta products regularly; also optional. For all the feigned outrage, people want this, and will work hard every day to pay for the next iteration of the surveillance apparatus.

    PS: Something in this vein that many people are unaware of is that the 6G standard for cell towers is planned to include ISAC (Integrated Sensing and Communication). I haven’t heard a single AFK person talk about this.

    • JohnFen 1 hour ago
      I don't think people want this. I think people want the other benefits that those things bring, and increasingly feel that it's impossible to escape being surveilled anyway so do their best to ignore the whole issue.

      Being resigned to something is not the same as wanting that thing.

      • bamboozled 1 hour ago
        Agree, you’re either a digital hermit or you’re part of the problem / system
        • forgetfreeman 0 minutes ago
          The really obnoxious part is that with the possible exception of maps all of the other "services" touted as vital parts of a digitally connected existence are so enshittified at this point that the original value proposition for all of them is absent. So we're left with this zombie rhetoric around being disconnected while "connecting" means you spend hours every day staring at bot content and ads.
    • asmodeuslucifer 1 hour ago
      By leveraging mobile network infrastructure – towers, spectrum, antennas, and some hardware – ISAC can detect, locate, and track objects (including passive ones with no electronics). This will enable a wide range of use cases such as UAV airspace monitoring, autonomous vehicle safety, industrial automation, and immersive AR experiences. Commercial deployment is expected alongside 6G rollouts in the 2030 timeframe

      https://www.ericsson.com/en/6g/isac

      • zhoBEENG 59 minutes ago
        Thank you, this deserved a link. I was being lazy.
    • cluckindan 14 minutes ago
      5G edge devices already have support for mmWave and beamforming. The ability to track the micromovements of a person’s trachea as they think in words (”internal monologue”) and reconstruct their thoughts from movement data reduces to a software problem: the hardware is there and the algorithms have been established in literature.
      • zhoBEENG 3 minutes ago
        That is very interesting. I wasn’t aware of their ability to act as acoustic sensors. It makes sense, but it’s not my field so I hadn’t thought about it.

        Any link to the trachea vibrations to reproduce inner monologue source?

        I think the major shift with the 6g standard is that general purpose sensing is now explicit to the design and intended use of the system.

    • dingocat 30 minutes ago
      > Most humans use Meta products regularly; also optional. For all the feigned outrage, people want this, and will work hard every day to pay for the next iteration of the surveillance apparatus.

      This is a perfect example of the revealed-preference fallacy. The use of providers like Meta does not reflect a well-informed, freely chosen preference. Meta spends a ton of money to squash competition, remove viable alternatives, and to make their products addictive.

      • loeg 25 minutes ago
        > This is a perfect example of the revealed-preference fallacy.

        The fallacy here is that you think people should have difference preferences than they actually do. "People disagree with me? They must be ill-informed."

        • zbentley 11 minutes ago
          It is sometimes true that a large group of people hold a preference due to being misinformed, though. I don’t think a kneejerk assertion that GP is assuming their opinion is true and anyone who disagrees is an idiot is merited here.

          Meta has done a lot of shitty things to acquire and addict users, and is analogous to a massive regional monopoly in the U.S. Both of those indicate that users of Facebook might be less than rational (in the economic sense) about their choice of social media product.

    • grvdrm 26 minutes ago
      Traversing life without a cell phone is a fun experiment. Here and there I forget mine and spend a day without the distraction - glorious way to spend time.
    • NooneAtAll3 1 hour ago
      the main solution is the same as with many other problems - education on what's wrong + making the right way as easy as possible

      it's easy to fall into complain hole, as that seems to fulfill the 1st part

      but 2nd part is as much or even more valuable

      • fn-mote 1 hour ago
        > making the right way as easy as possible

        I wish I knew what you were talking about here.

        It seems like the easy way would be to forbid the collection of this data… but that is obviously not happening, so I need a different part 2.

        • NooneAtAll3 22 minutes ago
          consider what GP complained about - everyone carrying phones that data is collected from/by, and useing Meta products

          making easier the alternatives to phone tracking means promoting life outside phones, promoting cellphones/OSes that don't spy on you and explaining ways to minimize tracking (like disabling apps' access to the internet)

          making easier the alternatives to Meta means promoting competitors, promoting communication/image/information channels outside Meta, promoting life outside Meta products

          defeatism is even worse than grumbles - it fulfills neither of the goals

    • ryu2k2 46 minutes ago
      People wouldn't want this if they were adequately educated.
      • BirAdam 20 minutes ago
        So much this. When my son turned 12, I told him how some of the various social media sites and smart technologies work, and he’s avoided social media altogether ever since (he’s now an adult). He always uses ad blockers and content filters, and he generally made good decisions around phone use, and other tech use from a privacy respecting perspective.

        Prior to this discussion, he was eager to be on social media apps because other kids his age were on them. People respond to knowledge about these topics, but there isn’t a mainstream popular individual talking about it. Everyone is so silo’d, it would be quite difficult to reach people, and depending upon the political leanings of such a person, half the population would reactively go the opposite direction… on what really shouldn’t be partisan.

      • vouwfietsman 29 minutes ago
        No, this is not the way to go. Consumers cannot possibly understand all potential ways in which they can be screwed over, and even if they could, it is entirely likely that there are no good choices because consumers will have to choose between e.g privacy violation or environmental destruction, or privacy violation of some degree vs another degree.

        This is why governments exist.

        • 9rx 8 minutes ago
          In a democracy, consumers and the government are the exact same thing. Since they ostensibly do not understand all of the potential ways in which they can be screwed over, how is calling themselves government going to magically change that? Maybe you are imagining a dictatorship instead, where the government is only a subset of all consumers, but even then the dictators are still just feeble consumers themselves remaining within the subset of all consumers. Being a dictator doesn't make you omniscient; still only human like all the others.

          Government exists to clean up the outliers who are not behaving in line with the wishes of the consumers, but that cleanup can only occur when their undesirable behaviour is out there for all to plainly see. You cannot enforce what you don't recognize.

    • tdeck 54 minutes ago
      It's hard for me to take this perspective seriously when you describe a cellphone as "entirely optional". Our society is structured around the assumption that you'll have not just a cellphone, but a smartphone. Without acknowledging that, how can we have a realistic discussion? Many businesses require you to use a smartphone in some way. Some government services also require one.

      Before cellphones, there were payphones everywhere for people to use when they needed to get into contact. Now there are hardly any left in most countries, so your ability to communicate would actually be worse than in the pre-cellphone era. Sure you could ask someone to use their phone, but if a stranger asked me that these days I would likely refuse.

      • Bender 33 minutes ago
        The only reason I take my cell phone with me is in the event my truck breaks down. I have lost count of how many times I forgot it at home. I've had business tell me to install some app but I just tell them no or make them do the work for me. If they want money they will fill in the information. Over the years I have been parting ways from businesses that I can not walk in and talk face-to-face with someone and for good reason as it is getting harder and harder to reach a real person in customer support for online businesses. People are getting accounts disabled or deleted with no recourse.
      • zhoBEENG 47 minutes ago
        I do not carry a cellphone. I am employed and live in a major city. I never think about not having one. I know multiple other people, also employed, living both rurally and in cities, who do not carry cellphones.

        It is entirely optional.

        • tdeck 38 minutes ago
          > I am employed and live in a major city. ... . I know multiple other people, also employed, living both rurally and in cities, who do not carry cellphones.

          This doesn't mean much. I know multiple people who fit this description, live in the US, and can't speak or read English. However, speaking English isn't meaningfully optional. You will face constant limitations and problems in every aspect of life. There are people who don't use electricity, so I guess by your definition that's optional too?

          > I never think about not having one.

          Sure you don't.

          • zhoBEENG 33 minutes ago
            Genuinely. Thinking back on it now, the only times I notice it is in some restaurants that don’t have paper menus out by default. I need to ask for one, which feels very odd and kind of awkward. This is the only instance I can think of.
            • tdeck 30 minutes ago
              What happens when you're meeting up with someone? With the folks I know who don't have a phone, this is always a real pain point because they don't have a way to communicate or receive changes of plans, "I'm going to be late", etc...
              • zhoBEENG 15 minutes ago
                We agree on when to meet and where, and then we both actually show up. The whole last-minute plan changing thing is a pretty recent phenomenon, I believe.
        • anonzzzies 40 minutes ago
          Less and less though and you need to go through quite a bit of trouble sometimes already. Banking, gov apps, I know more and more companies you cannot enter nor clock in without smartphone etc. Sure, you can just resign, move country, try to find another bank; in the end you will run out of options as they are all moving there.
        • jrmg 14 minutes ago
          So many stores and (all?) banks require two-factor login now, where an SMS sent to a phone is the second factor. How do you cope with this?
        • sd9 41 minutes ago
          Counterpoint: I could not do my job without one. Clients expect support over WhatsApp.
          • zhoBEENG 31 minutes ago
            For sure, but you still do retain the option to leave it at work, unless you have some kind of 24/7 sales job. I do think privacy at work is not an option for most people.
    • lotsofpulp 1 hour ago
      I have seen enough instances of government authorities abusing their power (or even civilians using the courts against another civilian) to know that the best defense you have in a situation where you are the victim is to have your own recording.

      Easiest example is having your own dash cam (don’t know why all auto manufacturers don’t have Tesla style camera recordings, especially given that all new cars come with cameras anyway).

      Of course, now that video editing is cheap and difficult to spot, who knows if your evidence will make much of a difference.

      • 986aignan 41 minutes ago
        > Of course, now that video editing is cheap and difficult to spot, who knows if your evidence will make much of a difference.

        Maybe you could use a trusted timestamping service to stamp keyframes or stills from your video while you're recording? If the time of the recording is not in question, it would bound the kind of video editing people could plausibly claim that you could've done.

        It's not foolproof - if you have enough face data of the person you want to frame and you've been to the room where the conversation takes place, you could have made a fake video beforehand and spliced it into the conversation at the time of the recording. But that would at least take a lot of preparation and quite a bit of luck and timing to find a place in the conversation that's just long enough to copy your edited version in without arousing suspicion. For dashcam videos it would be difficult to merge your edit with existing traffic, etc...

    • lifestyleguru 1 hour ago
      Almost every person installs security cameras hoping that one day they will "catch the criminal" unaware that the footage probably is used in all possible ways all the time, yet in case when the crime against them finally happens the footage might not be admitted as a proof.
      • bossyTeacher 1 hour ago
        > yet in case when the crime against them finally happens the footage might not be admitted as a proof.

        Or there is simply not enough staff available to carry out the procedures needed to apprehend and charge the individual. Or a myriad of other things. People think law enforcement is easy.

    • cyanydeez 31 minutes ago
      so obama was doing what in 2019? are you an LLM trained in 2023?
    • neonstatic 1 hour ago
      > For all the feigned outrage, people want this, and will work hard every day to pay for the next iteration of the surveillance apparatus.

      My sad realization is that the Buddhists were right all along. The primary drivers of human mind, before self-purification, are greed, anger, and ignorance. What you are describing here is greed. People want to get useful things for free. This is the core of the problem. If people were, by default, expecting to pay for everything they use, spying on them would not be accepted. Instead, they want stuff for free and they choose to be willfully blind to the spying.

  • Razengan 1 hour ago
    The EFF or some other watchdog should put out some public ads that depict corporations as a creepy person stalking someone:

    It's a lot more disgusting and universally hated when you hear about a peeping tom, or a pervert, or a jealous ex, hounding someone,

    but when faceless corporations and governments do it to EVERYBODY 24/7, everyone's like, ehh.

    I mean, right now, just think about me, clicking on your HN profile, googling your name, going through all your public photos.. Don't you find me repulsive just talking about that?

    • tdeck 49 minutes ago
      This puts me in mind of the infamous GMail Man commercial that Microsoft put out:

      https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oR4jTvxPruw

    • jareklupinski 1 hour ago
      i get a little thrill knowing im that important to someone :)
      • fragmede 1 hour ago
        Right? There are 8 billion humans on those planet. You are 0.0000000125% of humanity. No one outside your family and friends even knows you, nevermind gives a shit about you, unless you stick out in some way. If GP wants to take a tour of my GitHub or my blog and send me a thoughtful email, I'd be delighted!
        • jagged-chisel 14 minutes ago
          How about when that thoughtful email becomes a visit from law enforcement because your projects don’t align with the current administration’s views? When something you said offers support for anyone other than The Party’s chosen ethnic group?
    • antics9 1 hour ago
      No. Why should I find you repulsive?

      You might find something I wrote interesting. Then whatever public info there is on me helps you to get to know me a bit better. You may stop there and forget about me, or you may try to reach out.

      There is nothing wrong about that.

      • Razengan 1 hour ago
        > Why should I find you repulsive?

        Me googling your shit might lead to your real name, your family photos etc

        Just because it's all public doesn't mean you want the cashier from the supermarket following you around to your family picnic

        or just because you like to let the sunlight in doesn't mean you want random pedestrians peering in through your windows..

        I can't believe this needs to be spelled out here: "Public" life is compartmentalized.

        • satvikpendem 12 minutes ago
          Don't put on the Internet what you don't want found as it's always and forever public, I thought everyone knew the first rule.
        • Permit 1 hour ago
          > Just because it's all public doesn't mean you want the cashier from the supermarket following you around to your family picnic.

          This has never happened to me. Out of the space of “bad things that can happen to me” I don’t have time to worry about things with such a small probability of occurring.

          • exe34 34 minutes ago
            I think if you're a fat middle aged man, it's not likely to happen to you personally. But you must have daughters, nieces, a mother, or some sort of female presence in your life. It happens to people like them.
    • bossyTeacher 1 hour ago
      I think people's idea of privacy is very simplistic and personal and relies on the disgust of a human peering over your files. Most laypeople don't have the same disgust of machines peering over their personal files that is why the weirdo video recording elicits a negative response but Meta or Alphabet doing it doesn't. Plus the fact that they "depend" on Meta and Alphabet tech makes it easier to give them a pass not unlike fans of [insert your favourite celebrity] who happily look away or justify the celebrity's bad actions.
      • Laurel1234 27 minutes ago
        I think people would find it disgusting, it's just very hard to know what data is being used and how and sold to whom by these companies. It's a very opaque by design.
  • satansdeer 39 minutes ago
    oh no!