From: mariasophia@comprehension.com   
      
   Frank Slootweg wrote:   
   >> Don't participate in Usenet if you are extremely paranoid regarding your   
   >> privacy.  Establish a Usnet identity.  That does NOT mandate you divulge   
   >> your personal identity.  You think my parents name me VanguardLH?   
   >   
   >   Exactly! With a fixed nym, one can have perfect privacy. And 'even'   
   > someone like me, with a rather uncommon last name, can have perfect   
   > privacy if (s)he so chooses.   
      
   It's pretty simple.   
      
   Lack of awareness does not mean lack of surveillance.   
      
   Keeping in mind how highly educated I am in a variety of fields, one of   
   which is computer science (via my engineering and science degrees) I was   
   well aware of what I call "aggregators" decades before today's posting.   
      
   I actually used to post using my real name, if you can believe that.   
   But I stopped that when I was informed how dangerous that was to privacy.   
      
   The person who informed me worked for Google in the early days, well before   
   they became what they are now - and whom I trusted in every respect to know   
   what Google was up to in those early days when even Dogpile still existed.   
      
   But even with the unfortunate fact that I used to post with my real name   
   and real email, you would all agree I've been on Usenet for decades, right?   
      
   And you must agree I've provided my general location for years, right?   
      
   And some of you may agree I've been on web forums for the same decades.   
   I've posted pictures of my homes, my pools, my horses, my stables, etc.   
      
   I've posted pictures of my vehicles (as I'm renown on auto forums).   
   I've posted screenshots of my iPads, iPhones, and Android devices too.   
      
   Because I care to LEARN about things and to teach others, I am prolific.   
   And unique in the tremendous amount of details in my posts.   
      
   And I don't bother to change that I write with (hopefully) impeccable   
   grammar and word choice (although I used "hopefully" incorrectly there).   
      
   So anyone who cared to could "track me" down to my very bedroom if they   
   really cared to (and if they expended the requisite resources to do so).   
      
   But guess what.   
   It's even easier to correlate all my posts, not by the gift of the body,   
   but by the mere meaningless wrapping paper in the Usenet headers.   
      
   I would claim it's trivial to track every post by the headers.   
   If the headers are consistent.   
      
   I also am a student of history where the point is simple. You do not need   
   to know you are being tracked in order to take steps to reduce tracking.   
      
   History shows that entire countries have been monitored without their   
   knowledge. Examples include the ECHELON program that intercepted   
   communications of allied nations, the tapping of German leadership phones,   
   and bulk interception programs run by intelligence agencies that were not   
   disclosed for years.   
      
   These cases make one thing clear which is that the lack of awareness does   
   not mean lack of surveillance. People, groups, and even governments often   
   learn about monitoring only long after it has happened. Taking basic   
   privacy steps before the fact is not paranoia. It is normal self protection   
   in a public communications system like Usenet.   
   --   
   Those who don't understand privacy will never understand why you want it.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)