I heard this story once, and it is hearsay, but I believed the source at the time I heard it. It went something like this:
A CIA agent was hired as a consultant for a movie. It was an action/spy movie so his input was wanted. One of the main actors was talking to the CIA agent, and the CIA agent muttered out, "yeah we record every phone call". And the actor said something along the lines of "no way," to which the CIA agent pulled out his phone and asked him "Whats your number" and the actor gave it to him.
The CIA agent was able to pull up a phone call the actor had with his mother from two years ago. Played it for him, and he was in shock.
I honestly can't remember where I heard that story (maybe Joe Rogan or something) but the person telling sounded like he was serious.
You have to understand with quantum computers and other unknown technology at their resources, they can likely track everything. Just a matter if they want to check you out and go after you for some reason.
Trigger words likely get folks put into a database somewhere. There is a program called TTID - tag track identify. That is a real program that looks for people who know the truth about various subjects based on their IP address and internet/subject choices. It's quite scary. That one, I do know exists.
Can things like signal circumvent this in any way? What is the best way to communicate with someone that isn't in person, or a piece of paper and burning it?
if you must do mobile, Signal or Wickr. but keep it essential/to a minimum. details in person.
PGP over email (but keep in mind that keystrokes can be logged if they really had an interest in you).
even in person, only works if the other person is trustworthy and no one is tailing or aware of the rendez-vous. that goes even for getting naked and jumping in pool or lake to have convo (wires on people are not bulky "wire" anymore). but do go the extra mile if you must.
What is the actual process like? let's say I talked about some stuff via signal I shouldn't have but had disspearing messages on, is all the info saved in some database somewhere? or am I safe, just don't continue going further?
You're saying that communicating, lets say, via tails and jabber through tor is safer than mobile?
they would have to install spyware on your device to log keystrokes. if you read articles in this comment (/post/9eb7d61cecc593f1c1aa/#c-ffbaffca79a727bdb3), one mentions a paranoid, careful mob boss who communicated using PGP, so keystroke logger is how they got him.
mobile just isn't safe because it's hard to hide location and such. and multiple apps are broadcasting all sorts of info as well. but do use Orbot and other methods. still, as a rule: avoid or minimize mobile use (YouTube watch?v=VFns39RXPrU).
Signal is end-to-end encryption, and they report that when they have received an NSA letter, they really couldn't give much but that the accounts were registered on their network and were in contact (this may not be quite accurate), BUT they had no info on what was actually said.
but hey, do you trust your conversation partner? they could be saving images of conversations even if they're set to disappear. that's the weakest link (no matter the method of communication), and never forget that.
In order to install the spyware I'd have to download something though, right?
Ya, i'm not concerned about the trust of my partner.
How does it work then if you're selling locally? I mean, isn't every where you go logged? Let's say i'm selling locally and someone i trust messages me (via signal) to meet them at x location with 2 grams.
Assuming they aren't compromised, where does the risk lie?
Under your assumption, most of the risk lies with you or your partner being a target, thus under surveillance. In other words, you can get away with even failing at all but the most basic OpSec (being inconspicuous at your rendez-vous and with your exchange/transaction). If they aren't looking for you, they aren't likely looking at you (even if they are logging you - too much data coming in, too few resources).
It's definitely always a chance game. Your partner might get popped, and now is setting you up to catch a break. Your partner might be the one getting set up, and you get caught up in the sweep.
Whatever you do, have a goal/plan and exit strategy. Unless that's prison or dead, be extra paranoid (assume you are your own keeper) - and hope for the best.
They can, as can many other consumer electronics. Televisons, game consoles, etc. For the most part they are using it for voice control or for advertising -- though if the facility exists, it can be misused by bad actors. Sometimes the bad actor is the vendor itself.
Personally, I resent tracking far more than I am concerned about the opsec implications. If the device has a mic, the risk is non-zero. If it has an internet connection it is that much more vulnerable, or sends data to the manufacturer. For example, some voice controlled devices actually do the language processing on the far (network) end, so they are hearing everything the device wants "searched" for meaningful command. Are they storing it? Are they selling it? Will they give it to LE (proactively or if they ask)? I don't trust them not to.
OTOH, it isn't just your phone and TV, etc. that you need to worry about. Every other person around you has a device and any one of them could be compromised or just foolishly configured.
The issue is that it has a microphone, and can be hacked. It will be good one day if we can have smartphones that entirely use peer reviewed code. There are lots of proprietary components in a smartphone. There are automatic updates that can be used as a backdoor and against you. I doubt they would listen all the time, but the issue is that the devices can be manipulated.
There are even just apps that are listening with access to your microphone just to use/sell ways to market to you. Smart phones are just that: smarter than we want to recognize. If you value privacy you wouldn't use one. But we are all willing to give up a fair amount of privacy for convenience aren't we?
They do, but the chances of you being as big of a fish that you need to be are probably pretty low. Don't lose sleep over it, use Signal or Wickr or call over wifi if you don't feel that safe
Best way is to route all apps you need with vpn
and for other apps to disable connnection
for example with expressvpn
or with any vpn if you use openvpn configs
than you split.tunell only apps you need ( tor browser, duckduckgo browser, signal, riot, jabber client, electrum... ) and than you enable kill switch
killswitch disables all connection without vpn
so you do.two things with that
if vpn connection drops on some of apps you need it will not go with your IP but will be blocked
and all other system based apps
which are essentially spyware
will never have connecion
so if they collect some data ( and for sure they do )
they will not be able to forward it
A CIA agent was hired as a consultant for a movie. It was an action/spy movie so his input was wanted. One of the main actors was talking to the CIA agent, and the CIA agent muttered out, "yeah we record every phone call". And the actor said something along the lines of "no way," to which the CIA agent pulled out his phone and asked him "Whats your number" and the actor gave it to him.
The CIA agent was able to pull up a phone call the actor had with his mother from two years ago. Played it for him, and he was in shock.
I honestly can't remember where I heard that story (maybe Joe Rogan or something) but the person telling sounded like he was serious.
You have to understand with quantum computers and other unknown technology at their resources, they can likely track everything. Just a matter if they want to check you out and go after you for some reason.
Trigger words likely get folks put into a database somewhere. There is a program called TTID - tag track identify. That is a real program that looks for people who know the truth about various subjects based on their IP address and internet/subject choices. It's quite scary. That one, I do know exists.
PGP over email (but keep in mind that keystrokes can be logged if they really had an interest in you).
even in person, only works if the other person is trustworthy and no one is tailing or aware of the rendez-vous. that goes even for getting naked and jumping in pool or lake to have convo (wires on people are not bulky "wire" anymore). but do go the extra mile if you must.
You're saying that communicating, lets say, via tails and jabber through tor is safer than mobile?
How does one have their keystrokes logged?
mobile just isn't safe because it's hard to hide location and such. and multiple apps are broadcasting all sorts of info as well. but do use Orbot and other methods. still, as a rule: avoid or minimize mobile use (YouTube watch?v=VFns39RXPrU).
Signal is end-to-end encryption, and they report that when they have received an NSA letter, they really couldn't give much but that the accounts were registered on their network and were in contact (this may not be quite accurate), BUT they had no info on what was actually said.
but hey, do you trust your conversation partner? they could be saving images of conversations even if they're set to disappear. that's the weakest link (no matter the method of communication), and never forget that.
Ya, i'm not concerned about the trust of my partner.
How does it work then if you're selling locally? I mean, isn't every where you go logged? Let's say i'm selling locally and someone i trust messages me (via signal) to meet them at x location with 2 grams.
Assuming they aren't compromised, where does the risk lie?
It's definitely always a chance game. Your partner might get popped, and now is setting you up to catch a break. Your partner might be the one getting set up, and you get caught up in the sweep.
Whatever you do, have a goal/plan and exit strategy. Unless that's prison or dead, be extra paranoid (assume you are your own keeper) - and hope for the best.