Big Brother is Reading

DrVirus · Post by **DrVirus** » 22 Jul 2009, 01:39

I do not know if any of you guys have noticed this or not but a astonishing fact came under my radar recently.

Google reads our mails. All the mails we send. All the mail we receive. Don't belive me ? I can prove it. Have u guys who use gmail accounts ever noticed the Sponsored Links that shows up on the right hand side ? I didn't at first my recently it came to my attention that the Links are extremly relevant. For example. In one mail I mentioned MS Robotics Studio and the following showed up.
The Robot Company
Used ABB Robots
Robot Kits

And then in another one I was discussing a knife and got these
Specialty Blades
Titanium Knife
Perforator Knives
Knife Switches
Diamond Dicing Blades

There is plenty more. As a matter of fact every single mail that makes sense has links of relevance on the right side. Which can mean one thing. Urs and my mails are being searched for keywords. Every single one of them. Now I don't think I gave my consent for that. Did you ?

3XTORTION · Post by **3XTORTION** » 22 Jul 2009, 02:55

I think its a great and smart marketing strategy to make users click on ads.But i dont think google is reading or have enough time to waste and read each sent and received mail....Umm ! Wait !...maybe special keywords are sent to the owners to review them,so watch out lol jk

n3rd · Post by **n3rd** » 22 Jul 2009, 03:15

google doesnt actually read the mails, it just gets flagged for keywords. big difference.

3XTORTION · Post by **3XTORTION** » 22 Jul 2009, 03:31

Exactly

Post by **Gogeta70** » 22 Jul 2009, 05:37

I don't think that's technically invasion of privacy, since nothing is being recorded and sent to be read by actual humans.

DrVirus · Post by **DrVirus** » 22 Jul 2009, 11:15

You guys didn't get my point. See the thing is I know it's not being manually read my a human and it's being searched for keywords. I also know that some keywords like maybe "Bombing" or "Anthrax" "Al Quiada" are reported.

That is the whole point. Havn't you noticed how the rulers and corporate houses are trying there best to curb the freedom of internet ? Take a look at any torrent uploading site. Remember the piratebay verdict ? Isohunt is being sued. Mininova cut a deal. To remove all posting from several members to avoid being sued (members include legends like aXXo).

How long do u think it will take before they keywords reported will include "Hacking" "Port Scanning" "Reverse Engineers" etc ?? Do u really believe they will let u mail serial numbers of software anymore ? They already don't let u mail exe files. Even if they are from a legal source and is rared or zipped.

Think about it.

n3rd · Post by **n3rd** » 22 Jul 2009, 11:19

DrVirus wrote:You guys didn't get my point. See the thing is I know it's not being manually read my a human and it's being searched for keywords. I also know that some keywords like maybe "Bombing" or "Anthrax" "Al Quiada" are reported.

That is the whole point. Havn't you noticed how the rulers and corporate houses are trying there best to curb the freedom of internet ? Take a look at any torrent uploading site. Remember the piratebay verdict ? Isohunt is being sued. Mininova cut a deal. To remove all posting from several members to avoid being sued (members include legends like aXXo).

How long do u think it will take before they keywords reported will include "Hacking" "Port Scanning" "Reverse Engineers" etc ?? Do u really believe they will let u mail serial numbers of software anymore ? They already don't let u mail exe files. Even if they are from a legal source and is rared or zipped.

Think about it.

Its called Ad block plus.

I dont see ads

so I dont care

Post by **DNR** » 22 Jul 2009, 11:48

I tried to stay out of this thread. It is controversial and there is little hard evidence to back it up on either side. In my experience, I can say there are good possibilities that everyone here may have a file on their activities in some law enforcement agency somewhere. Many investigations begin and are closed due to lack of good evidence or manpower to dig deeper. While we all hope for the statue of limitations to expire on what crimes we might have done, the file they hold will always be a threat to us.

As far as the Google Advertisement programming - it matches keywords detected in emails and uses a database to retrieve URLs that relate to those keywords. No one is reading the content of the email.

As far as Governments monitoring keywords - the database would be vast considering every time someone says "The party was a bomb" or "My boss is a terrorist!" - they need to have other facts to drill down that db for real 'information". They would need a suspect's name, and other evidence and reason to monitor someone's email. It is highly unlikely that an investigation will be started on someone just because of an email. Remember - raw data is NOT information.
Dispite Dick Cheney's claims of a secret CIA agency, almost all other law enforcement agency still has to follow the rules on wiretaps, surveillance, and finally - prosecution.

DrV's concern is not over-blown, but raises a point - if keywords are being collected as raw data - raw data can be manipulated to create the wrong image or character of the victim. Remember, raw data can be slanted anyway someone wants - to persecute you.

I have always said "The internet is insecure, no one has any rights on it" - it is inherent. A good hacker tries to control what nfo he leaks, and the warning about google's Gmail keyword database is a good reminder. If you act like a hacker, expect that gov/mil/law will treat you like one. It goes with the trade..

DNR

Post by **bad_brain** » 22 Jul 2009, 15:08

well, gathering personal and sensitive information about citizens is nothing new, in germany is started already in the 1970's (in west germany I mean, at that time germany was still divided), it was called "pattern tracing".
ANY available information about a citizen was gathered in a big database, and people even were forced to hand out information on population censuses where they had to fill out loads of forms with really personal questions (refusing was a crime).
and now guess why all this was done:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Army_Faction

deja vu?