Re: People Without Meaningful Lives Seek Power Over Others

On Tue, 21 Jan 2025 16:48:33 -0500, Zen Cycle <funkmaster@hotmail.com>
wrote:

On 1/21/2025 4:43 PM, Shadow wrote:

On Tue, 21 Jan 2025 16:06:29 -0500, Zen Cycle <funkmaster@hotmail.com>
wrote:
 

On 1/21/2025 3:36 PM, Shadow wrote:

On Tue, 21 Jan 2025 12:18:34 -0800, Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com>
wrote:
>

On Tue, 21 Jan 2025 09:27:10 -0300, Shadow <Sh@dow.br> wrote:
>

On Tue, 21 Jan 2025 01:06:34 GMT, cyclintom <cyclintom@yahoo.com>
wrote:
>

Do we need to make the point that you hide your identity

>
This is Usenet. Usenet was DESIGNED to be anonymous. In fact
people are advised to NEVER post anything that might identify them.
It was the reason why Google spent billions buying the
dejanews archives and then hid them. An attempt to kill Usenet. It
didn't work.
If you really believe in freedom, NEVER ask anyone on Usenet
to identify themselves.
[]'s

>
That's not the exactly what happened.  When the Internet was
contrived, it was essentially an academic research network.  Many
systems didn't have password and some prominent users (Richard
Stallman) refused to use passwords on his publicly accessible systems.
That was fine as long as academia ruled the Internet, but fell apart
as companies and corporation started connecting to the Internet.
Management of these companies insisted that nothing company related
would appear on the Internet which included the personal opinions of
the user.  Also, no business or financial transactions were allowed.
As the Internet grew, enforcing that became increasingly difficult.
The only way around this was for users to obscure their identities so
management couldn't determine who was writing bad things about their
company management or products.  That soon morphed into the right to
"privacy" which really meant that right to post almost anything about
someone on the Internet without fear of retaliation.  There were
attempts to prosecute individuals for libel, but that failed badly.
>
Google didn't buy Deja News because they wanted to suppress free
speech.  They bought it because Usenet was growing far too fast for
the founders to be able to store everything (especially binaries) and
because there was no easy way to monetize Usenet News.  By 2001, Deja
News was out of money and was forced to shutdown.  Google then offered
to rescue Deja News by buying the company and inheriting the archive.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Groups#Google_Groups>
Google had no idea what to do with Deja News.  After Google merged
Deja News and Google Groups, it sat essentially dormant as Google
considered various ways of making money from the transaction, but
found nothing.  Eventually, web forums, blogs, social media and
specialty sites replaced Google Groups.  Usenet is still around, but
the bulk of the users have moved to other services.

>
Meh ... Google bought Dejanews to close down Usenet. The
amount of computational power they use to profile users today is
thousands, maybe millions times larger than what is necessary to keep
those historic records accessible to everyone.
>
And coincidence, on the 20th January 2025 onwards any citizen
in the World has to identify himself to use Google Search. Trump in,
anonymity out.
[]'s
>
PS If you type in https://www.google.com and are NOT greeted
with a message that you need to allow invasive scripting, Google
already knows who you are.

>
That may be the reality in Brasil, but in the US it's entirely possible
to use a publicly shared computer and not have to identify yourself to
Google.

 
If there are no cellphones near you, or cameras/microphones on
the computer or on the street/in the library/cafe/wherever I suppose
that is possible.

>
Proximity to surveillance devices is a different matter entirely. In
those cases, google knows who I am and what I'm doing without ever
touching a computer. The point is, google knowing your identity is not a
prerequisite to using google.

If I do not allow datamining scripting, which includes
accessing my Unique_ID and clipboard data, Google does not allow me to
search.
OTOH my wife has a Google account. If she logs into that she
has no trouble using any Google services (including search).

>
>

Whatever I'm doing, I'm doing it right. They often suggest
ladies' shoes for me (I'm a size 12 extra wide). Last week I got a
discount on tampons. Of course, that could just be AI having a laugh
at my expense.

>
It's based on your surfing habits. If I were you, I wouldn't say any
more on that issue.

LOL. I hack into unprotected wi-fis. So they're profiling me
as if I was the owner of the device. I also get ads for viagra....
depends who's network I'm using.
[]'s
--
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