LOL !!! - Hilarious Meme Of The Day: The NSA Is Just A Giant Governmental "Tracking Cookie"

[WillyT]

Sounds kind of delicious, no?

[VanillaRhapsody]

1. No one said that....but Hypocrisy abounds...

read on...

http://thedailybanter.com/2013/09/how-the-guardian-is-quietly-and-repeatedly-spying-on-you/

Programmers for sites like The Guardian, and even here at The Daily Banter, have embedded tiny, invisible file objects within each page. When you view a page, web bugs are automatically downloaded to your computer along with everything else that appears on the page. From there, the objects send information back to servers owned by various corporate analytics and ad networks tasked with gathering, compiling and analyzing the data. Web bugs differ from “cookies,” small text files containing information about how you browse through a particular site, but can function in conjunction with cookies as a means of more thoroughly collecting your data and creating a profile of how you get to a particular site along with what you do once you’re there.

By gathering details about you and your internet browsing habits, the sales and marketing teams for each publication are not only capable of observing, among other things, who’s reading, but also where each reader lives along with each reader’s trail of clicks through the site. The goal is to know who’s clicking and how to best deliver targeted advertising that will encourage readers to click more often, thus increasing revenue.

Boiled down to an elevator pitch: it’s spying for profit.

snip...

On the page containing Glenn Greenwald’s latest post, “NSA encryption story, Latin American fallout and US/UK attacks on press freedoms,” 92 web bugs were embedded in the article as of Sunday evening..

[Egalitarian Thug]

4. And the combination of aggressive political and technological ignorance

makes it all possible. We all have the means at our disposal to cripple the efforts of corporate spying. I have, and enthusiastically use, the ability to say no to each of the methods used by these corporations to track my machines.

It all boils down to that capacity to say no.

[VanillaRhapsody]

7. Problem with that is...some sites refuse to give you access if you turn off all cookies...

and I doubt you can outwit all of them (the 92 webbugs for example on The Guardian) which are not "just" cookies.

[Egalitarian Thug]

8. So? I don't do FB, I don't buy from Amazon, and for the few sites that I do desire access

to enough to allow them some access to my system, don't get any significant, or even valid, information back (including The Guardian).

IOW, We all have the option to say no.

This attempt by some people to create a false sense of equivalence between a company trying to entice the unknowing and the uncaring with shiny objects, bells, and whistles, and the government that is still the only player with the power to take anything they want through force, is more than just silly, it's dangerous.

[AgingAmerican]

2. Just think of it as one way unlimited cloud storage!

nt

[hootinholler]

3. Willy, Come on man, gotta link that

Sounds, um, like some non-tech explanation, or some NSA fanboi is making shit up.

[WillyT]

5. No, No... It's Quite Local... Seen It Here Twice Today...

[woo me with science]

6. The cookie ration has been increased.

[PowerToThePeople]

9. mmm.

[Octafish]

10. It is to laugh.

[WillyT]

11. Thank You For That !!!

[cherokeeprogressive]

12. White Chocolate Macadamia Nut? Cuz if it is, I can live with that... n/t