Privacy for Billionaires vs. Privacy For You
Billionaires understand the value of privacy. A new amendment to the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) passed into law May 16th, 2024 will give private aircraft owners a way to hide their ownership information from the public registry.
We’ve seen that the best way to get under a billionaire’s skin is to track their private flights. Jack Sweeney, the individual responsible for the Twitter bots, got served a cease and desist by Taylor Swift and was also banned by Elon Musk for tracking his flights.
“It’s a security risk”, Elon reportedly said in a DM.
On the other hand, perhaps they got tired of seeing their CO2 emissions broadcasted to the world in real-time, by their flight transponder data.
Even though these celebrities go straight from their private jet to their private car, in a private airport that normal people can’t even touch - they demand security and privacy at every step.
Now if you’re like me, humble reader, you don’t have a private jet. But you do have something that can broadcast your location in real-time - your technology. And its been made abundantly clear that our devices track our movements, our conversations, and our likeness.
Unfortunately, the government cares little about the privacy woes of everyday people and continues to propose laws that erode what little privacy we have left.
It’s one big club and you’re not in it.
We already know that we can’t look to laws for protections, instead we need to understand how our technology works and make better choices for ourselves. Today, you’ll get the download from #TBOT (Take Back Our Tech) on the greatest privacy violations over the past few years and solutions that will help you rise Above the surveillance.
Backdoors In Our Phone
With the rise of spyware like NSO’s Pegasus, we’ve all become hyper-aware of ‘backdoors’ in our phone. We all share the same fear: that a hacker could install something on your phone without you knowing, turn on your phone’s sensors and extract data out.
On June 19th 2021 in Massachussetts, large numbers of reports started coming in. People received a notification that an app was being updated, one that they never installed. Not just any app but a contact tracing app: ‘MassNotify’, created by Google for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. This app was deployed to 1M phones in the states, including residents and those traveling into MA for work.
Google confirmed in a comment they "automatically distributed" the app.
The deployment was targetted to those in the state at that time. No one was told in advance, and people could not find the app in the usual place apps live - it was hidden deeper in the settings. Like a virus, it couldn’t be uninstalled - it simply re-installed itself when people tried.
Worst of all, it enabled Bluetooth and began transmitting contact tracing data.
That my friends, is a backdoor.
In the world’s short-lived obsession with contact tracing, Google spokespeople and state officials made the point to emphasize ‘contact tracing is voluntary’. But this event proves that they have the capacity to force surveillance upon millions of people at a push of a button.
It also proves that big tech phones have backdoors. This software (GAEN) is still inside Android and iOS phones today. Given that 99% of people use big tech phones, its inside your phone right now, waiting for potentiality of an event like this one.
Contact Tracing Sucks
Like most contact tracing apps, this app used GAEN (Google Apple Exposure Notifications), a contact tracing framework designed to “help track the spread of COVID-19.” Once fierce rivals, these two heroic companies joined forces to ‘help save lives’ in the face of the pandemic.
GAEN uses Bluetooth Low Energy to estimate how close people are to each other, collecting data on close encounters throughout the day. At the end of the day it cross-references positive COVID tests and notifies anyone who comes into contact with a positive case through a notification.
News is coming out now that social distancing first touted by Fauci and the CDC was not based on science but actually created by the National Security Council - a board of military and intelligence people.
This GAEN framework that Google, Apple and state governments are so proud of was completely incapable of judging proximity. Tested in independent studies, researchers found that proximity events were unpredictable and could be generated at distances up to 5 meters away. (15 feet)
Despite this, public health authorities pushed forward with contact tracing projects. 40% of the United States deployed contact tracing apps utilizing GAEN. 50 countries developed contact tracing applications. Google, Apple and public health authorities spent hundreds of millions of dollars (of our tax dollars) building useless software and then automatically deployed it on billions of big tech phones.
This secretive operation was not about health, it was a massive surveillance experiment.
Face It, Apple Isn’t Private
Even though Apple wasn’t caught red handed enabling contact contact tracing like Google was, there’s plenty to be concerned about for you Apple lovers.
Apple's has recently come under the spotlight for its Face ID technology. A viral TikTok video claimed that iPhones take front camera pictures every few seconds, which (rightly) alarmed many users. The video showed iPhones "flashing" without the owner's knowledge, leading to speculation that the devices were constantly taking pictures and surveilling users.
The ‘flashing’ was coming from the infrared cameras built into every iPhone. These infrared cameras are a part of the TrueDepth Camera System, which project 30,000+ dots across your face to create a facial map.
When the phone is on and locked, this infrared system will turn on and scan the room for your face, scanning the area around you and any other faces that happen to be nearby.
Apple says Face ID data does not leave the device. Given how often these big tech companies lie, we need to remain skeptical. As with most big tech software, the source code of these systems is not open. There is no way for us to verify their claims and no transparency reports on whether governments request Face ID data from Apple.
Where’s your WiFi at?
No, that’s not your mooch friend asking - its Google and Apple on their quest to map out the world in extreme detail.
When you use Google or Apple maps, you see your precise location within a few feet, even when you’re indoors. These location services aren’t using GPS alone, they’re also using WPS (Wi-Fi Based Positioning Systems) that compare the nearby WiFi networks to infer your location.
This also raises a good question: how on earth do they have the location of so many WiFi devices?
We’ve all been instruments of this surveillance network collecting the data on behalf of Apple and Google.
All you have to do is walk around with location services enabled, and your phone will send BSSIDs (Basic Service Set Identifiers) of nearby WiFi networks that uniquely identify them, along with their strengths to Google and Apple. In exchange for this, Google and Apple tell you your current estimated location. Through these services Google and Apple build huge databases of WiFi networks and their locations.
Researchers at the University of Maryland exploited Apple’s location service to discover Apple had 2B+ WiFi access points and their locations. That’s nearly everywhere on earth except the most remote areas.
The researchers even managed to track military positions in Ukraine and Russia through their Starlink terminals, by geo-fencing requests to Apple Maps API. They were able to see Ukrainians fleeing the country from fears of mobilization, deployments of forward operating bases, and potentially WiFi networks being taken out due to bombardment.
Because the information is gathered from phone’s nearby, its practically impossible to hide your WiFi network from being scanned.
Don’t worry though, Apple and Google have given you a morsel of privacy back. All you have to do is change the name of your WiFi network by adding ‘_nomap’ to the end of it. That’ll block them from indexing its location (although the name change is advertised on your WiFi name to everyone).
Apple also admitted that there was no mention of this safeguard before, meaning that there was no way to opt out of Apple’s data collection until recently.
Every single WiFi network in the world is being tracked. I’m sure they’ll fix this exploit, but anyone with unfettered access to Google or Apple’s WPS data can easily track a WiFi network across the globe.
These WiFi positioning services are another piece of the surveillance grid that exist on 99% of phones. Blissfully unaware of how it works, people surveil themselves and their neighbors in exchange for directions to Starbucks.
Solutions
This article was a small glimpse of the privacy issues that we all face, even the poor billionaires. Surely, the Devil must be taking notes on the cunning of these big tech companies and how they can sit back, letting the victims gather surveillance for them.
As alarming as this information is, our choices matter. We must demand software and devices that respect our privacy and freedom.
The more of us that opt-out from this surveillance network, the weaker it gets.
The more of us that use friendly, open-source, freedom respecting software - the better the experience is for the rest of us.
Its our mission at #TakeBackOurTech and Above to help find solutions and champion them.
The root of the problems we discussed today stem from centralized big tech services in our phones. We encourage you to look into alternative ‘de-googled’ operating systems that avoid using these big tech services.
GrapheneOS is one operating system that we recommend due to its high standard of quality, privacy and security. If you’re technically inclined, we encourage you to install it yourself.
If you’re looking for a product that is ready out of the box, check out Above Phone, our privacy phone project which uses GrapheneOS under the hood along with a collection of apps and technologies.
Above Phone brings together secure hardware and operating system with open-source apps and privacy services. It works with any cell service, and you can still use the apps you love in a more private manner.
We’re determined to build privacy products that aren’t just alternatives, they’re better than big tech. You will find new ways of communicating and owning your data. You’ll feel peace of mind without advertisements or tracking.
And we’ve made the transition easy, each purchase of a phone comes with a free support call with a real support engineer (not an AI).
There has never been a better time to invest in your privacy, protect yourself from encroaching surveillance and build your skills with technology.
If you have any questions, chat with us using the chat button on the Above Phone website. We’re ready to assist.
We celebrate your journey to reclaim your privacy. Get empowered! Go Above!