How About We Follow The 'Net Execs Around?

If we followed the Internet execs around in their lives the way they follow us around on their sites or on the Web, we'd be arrested, but their money, and therefore, power, have made their following us around and gathering information on us, then selling or in other ways making deals with our info to make money, legal. Just because something is legal, doesn't necessarily mean it's right. Many correctly criticized the Gestapo and KGB for snooping on citizens for political purposes, now we let Internet companies snoop LEGALLY, and for MONEY! Just think of what they know about you. Let's face it, Yahoo got into trouble for reading their customers' emails, then passing along info to the government. This should scare the absolute hell out of you! The government knew private Internet providers had more info than they could collect! "Supposedly," Google and others turned down the government request for info on their customers. They'd rather keep it all to themselves, but hmm, I wonder if the Trump administration offered enough money ..... what would happen then? And how about when these companies get hacked? There goes your info, including silly, but still personal things, like, where you order pizza online, or more serious things, like, which political party or causes you like or donate to. Then of course, OOPS! You sent a sex message to someone and a picture of... ah, well, never mind.

Of course, the Internet execs state or imply, that they grant us free access to their sites in exchange for our info, not that many people even understand that. How many of us would "join" their sites if we had to pay for it? Zuckerberg just choked! (It's NOT just him, but he's prominent, and there are many others). He and others have a disconnect on the subject. They want money and they have justified their intrusion into people's personal lives, so they can get that money, which they have done, to the tune of billions and billions. That song is the tune they LOVE, not your privacy! 

I'll be doing another article on the overall subject of our personal privacy (ahh, what personal privacy?) soon, but it will have a separate title. 

WORD HISTORY:
Steal-The ultimate origin of this word is not firm, but it "seems" to come from Indo European "ster," which meant, "to steal," which "seems" to have carried the notion of, "to secretly take something from someone," as opposed to the ancestor of "rob," which had a much more aggressive notion of taking something, "to grab, to snatch." The Indo European form "may" have had a variant form, "stel," or Indo European's Old Germanic offspring changed the form, as Old Germanic had "stelanan," which meant, "to steal" ("seemingly" with that same "secret" part to its meaning). This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "stelan," with the same meaning. The "secret" part that seems to be part of the meaning is far better seen in the derived, "stealthy;" meaning, "to secretly or sneakily move along (originally, "sneakily move along with the intention of stealing"). "Stelan" then became "stelen," before the modern form. Forms in the other Germanic languages: German and Low German Saxon have "stehlen," Dutch has "stelen," Danish has "stjæle," Norwegian has "stjele," Icelandic has "stela," Swedish has "stäla." I could not find a form in modern West Frisian, but Frisian once had "stela." 

An "Interview" With a Secret Yahoo Official

Hello, I'm Dan Ratherbe in Philadelphia and today I'm going to be interviewing an official of Yahoo, the American tech company, with international operations. The person prefers not to give their name or position with Yahoo. So here we go. (DR=Dan Ratherbe; SO=secret official)

DR: Hi secret official.

SO: Hi Dan.

DR: Just why are you doing this interview in secret?

SO: Well Dan, at Yahoo we operate in secret. We don't want the public to know much about us, but we want to know a lot about the public, and WE DO; at least those who have a Yahoo email account. By the way, you haven't used your Yahoo email account lately Dan, why?

DR: Well I like my privacy.

SO: Why? You have something to hide?

DR: Never mind, S.O. I may call you S.O.?

SO: Oh yes, please do, but I'd still like to know what you're hiding.

DR: We've heard numerous complaints about Yahoo, including about Yahoo reading the emails of its customers. Yahoo has had some financial fallout. How do you plan to correct that?

SO: Well there's no question, we've got to do a better job. After all, look at you. You haven't been using your email account and how the hell do you expect us to know what ads to target to you, if you don't use your account.

DR: Target ads to me? Like what?

SO: Well let me see what we have on you... check R..... here it is, Ratherbe, Dan... Hmm, wow, that's a pretty interesting username, "superstud."

DR: Hey, wait a second, you're telling my info in public!

SO: Yes, but the public can't see these pictures... Are those all Calvin Klein undies? Well, definitely no CK's in this pic, or any other brand either. I take back my earlier question about what you're hiding.

DR: Hey! That's enough of this.

SO: All right, all right. But see, now we know to target you with ads for underwear...  when you're using them.

DR: You see just how a person's private info can get out into the public?

SO: That's definitely the right term with you, private info.

DR: Let's get back to how you're going to clean up your act.

SO: YOU'RE telling US to clean up OUR act? I'd say that's pretty naked hypocrisy, if you'll pardon the expression.

DR: These were supposed to be private emails. Answer the question, we only have a few seconds.

SO: We at Yahoo work every day to earn our name. We work hard, so that no person on Earth can say we're not a bunch of Yahoos.

DR: And it most certainly shows, S.O.

WORD HISTORY:
Chatter-The ultimate origin of this word is unknown, but it apparently is a Germanic invention, seemingly imitative of sound. English at various times had "cheteren," "cheateren," "chiteren," then "chateren," all with the general meaning, "to chatter, to jabber." There are forms in other Germanic languages: German has "kaudern," meaning, "to speak gibberish, speak but not be understood;" Dutch has "koeteren," meaning, "to jabber, to chatter," Flemish has "schateren," meaning "chatter, jabber," Danish has "kvidre," meaning, "to chirp, to twitter," Icelandic has "kvak," meaning, "to twitter."

Just How Safe Are We? The Demise of the Web? Part Three

I apologize for the sort of jumbled nature of this series, but it's a very important topic, with many different aspects, and I made a hodgepodge of notes over the last 6 to 8 weeks, and while I have gone over them and edited them, it is tough to get them into great order, but the ideas are the important things.   

So I'm sure you've heard about Yahoo reading the emails of their users, something that had been going on since about 2013. Of course, like all of the Internet scumbag privacy violators, the claims are always about, "We want you to have a good experience and we'll be able to offer you products aimed right at the things you're looking for." So, in other words, let us spy on you and you'll benefit, because we'll be able to send targeted ads to you. Hmm, that's funny, it sure seems more like the beneficiary is Yahoo and their ad revenue. Secondly, it has been reported that Yahoo also scanned emails for U.S. intelligence; that is, they were spying on users. So now maybe we can call the company, "Yahoo the Gestapoo." "Maybe" that will have to become the norm, in some form, monitoring emails, as the world is vastly changed, and the need to get the "bad guys" may outweigh personal privacy, but that is a discussion we need to have, and it should NOT be done without public discussion. Even if that is the course chosen, it won't be perfect either, no system will likely be perfect, but the current system is way out of hand, they lost control of it by the very way the system was devised, now they are at a loss as to what to do.

As for some of the browsers developed by the scumbag privacy violators, they always seemingly devise them with the LEAST amount of concern for the privacy of users, like putting the sites a person visits into thumbnails for anyone to see who uses your computer ... these bastards! They are just blatantly disregarding your privacy! And they don't care! We need to try to patronize RESPONSIBLE companies, not Google or Microsoft or Yahoo, the best known of the private info mining companies, along with that bastion of intrusiveness, Facebook.

The "hate the government" campaign of the last 35 to 40 years has made us less safe, including our privacy, as it has done everything it can to scare the hell out of people regarding their own government, thus making some people believe the only alternative is to turn to private businesses, which do things FOR PROFIT! That should make you feel safe, right? We've heard how Russia and China lost the Cold War, but they may win the tech wars, and bring about the demise of their long time adversaries by other means. The whole system is under attack by crooks and by governments? Terrorists regularly use the Internet to communicate with each other and to recruit new members. Scammers and terrorists get domain names, email addresses by the gazillion, and what does anyone do about it? I have a sneaking suspicion it's all about MONEY! Only in a system that perpetuates terrorism and scams, would those in supposedly responsible positions then complain about terrorism and scams. They gave them access and let them remain, even if they first may not have known who or what they were. Something has to give folks. Webcams can be taken over and used to watch you. The technology monster needs to be reined in. Philosophical discussions are not the same as action, and the world needs action. The time for talk, talk, talk is long since over. The time for action is here!

It's the same with telephone numbers, how are there so many numbers being issued to scammers to make illegal calls? You don't think it's about MONEY, do you? Some people and groups have valiantly tried to stop the crap, but they are overwhelmed. They may win some battles, but at this time, they are losing the war. You block the number of "XYZ," they call you on another number, then another, then another ..... and on it goes. 

More in Part Four... watch out for "Yahoo the Gestapoo!"

WORD HISTORY:
Reason-This is for the noun form. This word, closely related to "rate," goes back to Indo European "reh," which had the notion of "to reason, to figure, to reckon." This gave Latin "reri," which meant, "calculate, reckon," thus also, "judge," and its participle form was "ratus," which produced "ratio," meaning, "calculation, a reason for," and its accusative case was "rationem." This gave Old French "reison," meaning "logic," which "seems" to have been carried to England as "raison," in Norman dialect, and where it then became "raisun," before being borrowed by English in the late 1100s, and meaning, "a person's sense and ability to calculate;" thus also, "a calculated explanation for something," as in, "the reason there is night and day, is that Earth rotates toward and away from the sunlight."