I have people who comment that they don’t allow devices in their home to track them because their devices aren’t connected to the Internet. Obviously, if you are reading this, you are connected to the Internet in some way. That means you are being tracked. There is no avoiding it.
The internet many people imagine is a collection of websites. The internet that actually exists is a collection of websites layered on top of a hidden surveillance infrastructure.
When you visit a page, you are not just interacting with the site you intended to visit. You are also interacting with dozens of advertising, analytics, marketing, and data collection companies operating behind the scenes. Most users never see them, never consent to them in any meaningful way, yet those companies know far more about us than we realize.
Most people understand that websites collect data. If you shop on an online store, it’s reasonable to assume that store knows what products you viewed, what you purchased, and perhaps even what ads convinced you to buy.
What you may not realize is that some of the largest advertising companies on the internet may be tracking you even when you never visit those companies’ websites. The modern advertising industry is built on a vast network of invisible tracking technologies that follow users from site to site, quietly collecting information about their interests, habits, and behavior.
Imagine you’re reading a blog about home improvement. You never visit Amazon. You don’t click any ads. You simply read an article. What you don’t see is that the blog may contain a tiny piece of code provided by Amazon’s advertising network. (This blog does not permit advertising of any kind, so that isn’t an issue here, unless it’s being somehow done without my knowledge or consent.) As soon as the page loads, your browser contacts Amazon’s servers and sends information about your visit. This technology is commonly called a tracking pixel, web beacon, or advertising tag.
The pixel is often invisible. It may be a 1×1 transparent image or a script that runs silently in the background. Yet it can tell advertising companies:
- Which website you visited
- Which page you viewed
- When you visited
- Your IP address
- Your device type
- Your browser version
- Whether you’ve been seen before
The result is that companies can learn about your online behavior without you ever intentionally interacting with them.
The Myth of “I Never Gave Them My Information”
Many people assume that if they never create an account with a company, that company cannot build a profile about them. Unfortunately, that’s not how modern tracking works, advertisers don’t necessarily need your name to identify you. Instead, they assign identifiers to your browser or device. These identifiers may include:
- Cookie IDs
- Mobile advertising IDs
- Browser fingerprints
- Device fingerprints
- IP-based identifiers
Over time, these identifiers become associated with patterns of behavior. A profile begins to emerge:
- You read articles about hiking.
- You browse reviews of pickup trucks.
- You compare mortgage rates.
- You visit travel websites.
Even if your name isn’t attached immediately, the behavioral profile becomes increasingly detailed. Over time, the advertiser gets a pretty accurate picture of who you are and what you are interested in. Cookies get most of the attention because they’re visible and users occasionally receive cookie consent popups.
But some tracking techniques don’t rely on cookies at all. For example, browser fingerprinting collects characteristics about your device and browser, including:
- Screen resolution
- Installed fonts
- Operating system
- Browser version
- Language settings
- Time zone
- Graphics hardware
Individually, these details seem harmless, but combined, they create a surprisingly unique identifier. Think of it like recognizing a person from dozens of small clues rather than a single name tag. Even if you delete or refuse cookies, fingerprinting can sometimes recognize the same user each time they return. It’s becoming more and more sophisticated, and there is nothing that you can do about it except stay off the internet completely, and that may not even be a solution.
The real power comes from scale. You see, a single website knows what you do on that site but an advertising network embedded on thousands or millions of websites can observe behavior across the internet. If the same advertising company appears on multiple websites, it can potentially see that:
You visited a health website on Monday.
A car review website on Tuesday.
A financial planning website on Wednesday.
A travel booking site on Thursday.
Viewed separately, these visits seem insignificant. Viewed together, they reveal a great deal about your life, which is why people often feel like advertisements “know” what they’re thinking about. In reality, the advertising ecosystem may have observed enough behavior to make highly accurate predictions. That leads us to the reality of data brokers.
Tracking doesn’t stop with advertising platforms, because there are entire industries that exist to collect, aggregate, analyze, and sell consumer data. These companies, called data brokers, gather information from:
- Websites
- Mobile apps
- Loyalty programs
- Public records
- Commercial databases
- Marketing partnerships
The information can then be used to predict your buying habits, health concerns, and tons of other information. Most consumers have never heard of the companies creating these profiles, yet those profiles influence which ads they see, what offers they receive, and how businesses evaluate them as potential customers. It’s a huge business, and it’s what the new AI systems are being optimized for.
Constant surveillance has become the default business model of the internet. The problem isn’t merely that companies know what products you like, the problem is that detailed behavioral data can reveal:
- Political interests
- Religious beliefs
- Health concerns
- Financial circumstances
- Personal relationships
- Life events
Information that feels private can often be inferred from seemingly ordinary browsing activity, and that’s the uncomfortable reality of the modern advertising economy: some of the companies collecting information about you are companies you’ve never even met.
Your stuff doesn’t even have to be connected to the internet. Television broadcasts, radio shows, advertisements, and streaming content can contain embedded audio watermarks that are difficult for humans to notice. A smartphone app with microphone permission can detect these watermarks and determine:
- Which show you’re watching
- Which advertisement played
- When it played
Then report back to the “mother ship” and this exact method has been used for advertising attribution and audience measurement. You have just added to the file on yourself without even knowing it. The phone and TV aren’t directly communicating in a conventional sense; rather, the TV emits an encoded signal and the phone recognizes it.
The most famous air-gap compromise is probably the Stuxnet operation. That particular piece of malware reportedly spread through infected USB drives to reach systems that were intentionally disconnected from the internet. Once inside, the malware manipulated industrial equipment while concealing its actions. That attack demonstrated a crucial lesson: an air gap dramatically improves security, but it is not an absolute barrier.
Communication across air gaps including ultrasonic and near-subaudible signaling has been demonstrated by researchers, and some commercial tracking systems have used similar concepts for cross-device identification. Now that you know what advertisers are doing, what do you think the NSA is capable of?
My feeling on this? You can’t think about taking a crap without someone expecting you to reach for toilet paper.
29 Comments
Stefan v. · June 20, 2026 at 3:29 am
The processor chips are compromised from the factory. Remember the kerfuffle a few years ago? That makes all the super secret squirrel tricks worthless against the folks that built them. If it is electronic, it is compromised.
Brutus · June 20, 2026 at 10:39 am
The revenue from advertising pays for much of this surveillance. That’s why everyone should install an adblock. It starves the beast while making the internet more useable.
ghostsniper · June 20, 2026 at 6:31 am
I’ve long held that “they” possess the tech to imbed info (text, pix, vids) on your phone/device/PC that can incriminate you in a crime. I’ve been online in one form or another since 1988 and lately I’ve been considering getting completely out of everything. But the tendrils run deep and will be difficult to unwind and delete. I’m just kinda burned out on everything tech.
Mike in Canada · June 20, 2026 at 7:47 am
This description sounds a great deal like something we were being threatened with in the early nineties… do you remember the Total Information Awareness program from DARPA?
Chutes Magoo · June 20, 2026 at 9:12 am
I have never been directly advertised to on my puter or phone and I’m starting to think no one likes me! I search all matter of things from vitamin supps to zero drop footwear and nothing…nada…zip, no pop ups, suggestions or otherwise.
WTF could be going on?
Maybe it’s because I don’t scroll all day long looking at babies making cute fart noises or people bitching about their personal awakening and frustrated at the perceived lack of positive outcomes.
Divemedic · June 20, 2026 at 7:47 pm
Nearly every page you visit has advertisements built right into it. It’s annoying, which is why I made the decision to NEVER have any form of ads on this site.
Travis · June 20, 2026 at 12:02 pm
If one is willing to go to the trouble there is much that can be done to mitigate tracking.
This was specifically prepared for law enforcement as they are often targeted:
https://investigators-toolbox.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Digital-Exhaust-Opt-Out-Guide-for-Law-Enforcement.pdf
Bo · June 21, 2026 at 6:14 am
This document is a pretty decent intro actually, but caveat emptor. This document and it’s data is at least 6-7 years old.
Some of the topics are still relevant and actionable, but a lot of this has moved past Opting out at this point.
This is tantamount to saying “I will give you my SSN because you say you will never to lose it or misuse it.”, rather than just saying “no, I wont give you that because you don’t need it.”
Opting out trusts that the entity that is gathering the data will actually ethically use the data they are gathering from the start. Where by acting ethically they wouldn’t ask for it in the first place, so…. bit of a logical conundrum there aye?
And NO, it’s not “better than nothing” it’s literally acknowledging they are behaving poorly and since they admit it you trust them to behave poorly, but with boundaries.
Value your data, and don’t expect anyone else to value it more than you do. Just like your Rights, your Health, your Finances, your Relationships, your Vehicles, your Property, and on and on….
Jester · June 20, 2026 at 2:17 pm
I’ve had my microphone disabled on my cell for a long time with two permissions given and may as well have it open fully. I will not even look up something but be in a discussion with someone or a group of people and something I’ve never been interested in, never looked at and frankly disagree with suddenly shows up on advertizements. Zacapa Rum case in point. I knew of it browsing liquor store shelves. Never looked at it on the internet or -anything- rum. Yet a friend mentioning I really need to try it? 15 minutes later nothing but adds for that rum showed up. I dont blame the distiller itself but that was when I started to really pay attention and sure enough there’s a lot of targeted adds for things I’ve only had face to face conversations over.
Divemedic · June 20, 2026 at 2:47 pm
My wife and I have done that- we talked about birdseed and ads began coming up on my phone for birdseed. I will have conversations at work about medical conditions or medications, and I will begin getting related advertisements.
Jester · June 21, 2026 at 5:40 pm
It’s gross frankly. I dont mind if I go to say a seed selling site, or a gardening site and sometime later I get adds for similar or competing sites. I dont like the above at all. And I feel you DM, working in a hospital will have devices come up on my phone that I’ve never looked at off of a work computer.
Mike Hendrix · June 20, 2026 at 4:33 pm
Excellent article, DM, as always. Me, I decided years ago when my then-roomie Kevin pulled up an NYPD website with an image showing all the street-corner spy cameras in Lower Manhattan (basically, every corner had one) that, seeing as how we are truly living in the Panopticon State now, I just wasn’t going to worry abut it anymore. If “they” want you then they’re gonna get you, one way or another, and there ain’t a single damn thing you, me, or anybody else can do about it. It’s very sad when you think about how this country started in the first place, but that’s just the way it is.
Divemedic · June 20, 2026 at 4:43 pm
It’s even worse. Just wait for the second post in this series, posting later this week.
Mike Hendrix · June 22, 2026 at 5:48 am
Phew! Boy, you weren’t kidding, were ya?
priv4u · June 20, 2026 at 4:53 pm
There are ways to avoid it or minimize it. Use a vpn, use tor browser(with ad blocker). Use an OS that doesn’t phone home like linux. Get a pixel phone and install GrapheneOS on it. Other more obvious things like don’t hook any of your “smart” devices up to the internet work. They can’t phone home if they aren’t online. There is plenty you can do if you are willing, most people arent but for those interested this url might be a good starting point:
[Link removed- advertising not permitted]
Divemedic · June 20, 2026 at 7:22 pm
Linux and VPNs can help with some forms of surveillance, but neither is remotely “immune” to the kind of tracking we are describing.
A VPN primarily protects your internet traffic from being easily observed by your ISP, local network operators, and anyone monitoring the connection between you and the VPN server. It does not stop your phone from broadcasting cellular identifiers, nor does it limit data collected by apps and websites you choose to use or visit. It doesn’t stop web beacons.
Using Linux doesn’t make you anonymous online. Websites can still identify and track you through browser fingerprinting, cookies, account logins, IP addresses, web beacons, and behavioral analysis. Some privacy-focused Linux users pair Linux with browsers configured to resist fingerprinting, but that only addresses a portion of the problem.
It’s like you didn’t even read the post. In fact, there is a link included in your comment that makes me believe your entire comment was spam. I’m willing to give the benefit of the doubt and post your comment with the links removed, just in case it was an honest link. You’ve never posted here before, and having a web handle and addresses that you posted here makes me think you might be a spammer. Spamming isn’t allowed on this site.
Priv4y · June 21, 2026 at 9:30 am
i wasn’t trying to spam, i was only trying to provide a link starting point for those interested in privacy. Tor browser and GrapheneOS are the primary things you can do to increase your privacy online. I have never experienced any of the issues you brought up in your post. I have never had any targeted ads based on something i said near my phone.
I use Ublock and noscript in tor browser. I use linux because it doesn’t phone home to Microsoft or Apple. I use a faraday bag when appropriate etc. There are many steps you can take to minimize tracking or what is being collected about you but most people won’t do it because its difficult. Using tor browser is a pain for most people because its slightly slower and some sites get blocked but it works.
Bob Alou · June 20, 2026 at 5:09 pm
Depending on the engineering, websites conform to you. That is, the “pages” you are seeing nobody else necessarily sees. Unless their preferences are like yours. This is particularly true if you have had previous purchases or interactions with the site. This can be very convenient for reordering consumables so that would be a positive. If you don’t want to interact with various retailers then don’t.
The main reason I don’t use online grocery ordering is that I like to get out occasionally and also to see the produce and other fresh foods. I got an Alexa years ago and it was interesting. Disconnected it a long time ago. Why do I need an additional eavesdropper?
TRX · June 20, 2026 at 9:07 pm
> (This blog does not permit advertising of any kind, so that isn’t an issue here, unless it’s being somehow done without my knowledge or consent.)
—
That sometimes happens without the site owner’s knowledge or consent. A few years ago a popular humor site I occasionally visited was infested with pop-up video ads. I was annoyed enough to leave a scathing comment on their “Contact Us” page, and got a reply from a very confused lady who said she had checked the site, seen the ads (which she didn’t put there), and contacted her hosting company, who, it seemed, had begun inserting their own ads into the pages being served from their servers. For a while that was pretty common; I’m not sure any more, other than almost every site is infested with dancing annoyances.
TP-link sold a bunch of routers that injected ads into the pages of the web sites their customers were looking at. They had to issue a firmware upgrade after the word got out about what was happening.
Jim · June 21, 2026 at 12:55 am
Maybe this is the price we pay to use the internet, monthly ISP fee considered. I suppose over the years I’ve used Google ten thousand to fifty thousand times to accomplish a web search, have yet to receive a bill for a search. Have used Google maps numerous times for directions, no bill received, unless you consider tax dollars used to maintain the GPS constellation. There are videos on youtube by defense attorneys advising us not to talk to the police without legal representation. I’d venture that we’ve all talked indirectly with the “cops” via websurfing. I think I have nothing to hide, but may have a lot to hide, I don’t know. Can a US citizen communicate with social security or medicare without an email? I suppose if you were to use snail mail. My guess is that most people on the internet are aware they are being tracked, yet realize that to counter this tracking may involve a herculean effort to stop the tracking. And most people just accept this as the cost of doing business. To trust is good, to not trust is better. I’m getting PDO (pretty damn old), and beginning to enjoy the natural apathy that comes with aging.
JB_Honeydew · June 21, 2026 at 12:59 am
I learned long ago I was being watched by the digital overlords. But dog food, incense, guitar strings and/or gear, old movies and tv shows and assundry clothing items is hardly a profile. Yeah, I’m being tracked, but if they wanna know about my mint infused anal bleach, that’s their problem. If it’s of any consequence, most of my transactions are done in a face to face manner, and if something can be gleaned from that…well they can kiss my ass. At least it’s mint infused.
Bo · June 21, 2026 at 5:41 am
You wrote a good post and it’s long and detailed, but not fully accurate, and starts from a false premise. You have created a scenario with the premise that it’s the only way to browse is to be exposed to this type of attack. While your not “wrong” you are inaccurate in your presentation. **(Just for tourist knowledge) Your website does attempt to use backend data connections to the domain fonts.googleapis.com but it’s a convenience thing probably baked into the utility you use to build your websites, and blocking it doesn’t break your site, so I believe you are correct and honest about your assertion that you are making every attempt to not be part of the problem and I do respect that**
What Priv4u posted isn’t wrong, and isn’t because they didn’t read your post, but the answer was equally overly simplistic and too short to explain where he disagrees. Proper application of Linux does fix almost all of the native windows/apple reporting issues, but as you say tracking is more a browser problem than an OS problem.
I am and IT professional and I have worked on Big Data for fortune 500 companies, while at the same time I am also concerned about my personal privacy. I say this not to make an “argument from authority” but to explain that addressing all of these things in text is a huge undertaking so I’m just not going to give that much expertise for free to people that probably can’t use it well, as unfair as it seems you can also understand this would be like me asking you for free medical advise, there is a limit to both time, effort, and liability.
To restate my ‘thesis’ – The main issue is you have created a scenario with the premise that it’s the only way to browse is to be exposed to this type of attack. While your not “wrong” from the point of view of a ‘common user’ (I don’t mean this to sound like a sneer but there is an aspect of ignorance involved), you are inaccurate in your presentation of what is actually possible if you aren’t a ‘common user’.
Now, an example to demonstrate my attempt to educate as well as disagree. Which is only fair since you have given a lot of time and thought to your post.
There is an addon for firefox called uBlock (uBlock Origin) that you can configure to screen a lot of what your talking about, but for it to be truly effective you need to have a solid idea about webpage design and how java/c++ interact. Used in conjunction with strong privacy settings, cookie management, and other addons like ‘No Script” you CAN block pretty much all of this. Here’s the rub, using it isn’t easy for the ‘layman’. By “isn’t easy” I mean, it breaks a lot of websites if you don’t know how to configure it, or you will find that you can only load them after doing a great deal of trial and error to figure out, or you may find that some websites are designed specifically NOT to be bypassed. You are then left dealing with the time and frustration vs just loading it normally and letting the tracking happen. You have to decide if it’s worth it to you to continue or to recognize that this site/app/function is just not available to you and live with it.
This is the main thing your post fails to recognize is that most of this comes back to a willingness to both participate in your own security, AND to decide you have the ultimate vote to not use the website/app/function. You don’t have a “right” to twitter/whatsapp/netflix/amazon/google play/etc etc etc… You pay for it with your information, you are the product that pays for the function.
The most fundamental aspect of this problem is what needs to be acknowledged is the compromise you have to make. There is a way to avoid much of this by taking certain actions. More secure browsing, more secure OS, VPNs, Virtual boxing (this is a HUGE one btw), and understanding the technical details of how this data is gathered (webdesign/java/c++/coding).
All of this MUST be coupled with an understanding that some websites/apps/products are just not going to be available without some interaction with this problem, and managing it is not convenient, simple or without learning a skill that will be basically a part time job and frustrating beyond belief once you go down this rabbit hole.
Big Data is integrated into every aspect of “free” or volume based internet transactions. You can only avoid it completely by not participating in the internet at all. Much like politics you can only try to manage or mitigate it if you intend to participate in this type of society. If you try to ignore it, it will happen around you anyway, you withdraw completely and hope to be left alone and live with not having the positives at all.
You are touching on this with the way your configuring your homes VLANs, much as I do when I take courses to do advanced/wilderness First Aid (depending on the country you live in).
I am not telling you to stay in your lane, not even a little bit, what I am pointing out is that even with all manner of advanced first aid training I should not be telling others how to stock a trauma unit.
I will try to locate some resources that are digestible for you and others here, but it’s a little outside my wheelhouse since I don’t usually interact with ‘beginner IT themes’ in my every day life. (believe me my wife is a saint for dealing with this and my family lives with it daily. Living with the answer of “you just aren’t going to be able to use that dear. I have no way to make that work in a way that makes me comfortable having it on the PC VLAN but doesn’t put all the work and effort on me to maintain.” or my kids for “Sorry you can’t print from your phone because as long as you are using those other apps I’m not opening those ports for your phone to talk to the printer VLAN, email it to your PC and print it.”
Divemedic · June 21, 2026 at 8:30 am
You obviously didn’t read it either. Stuxnet infected an air gapped system. I worked for a hospital that got pwned by hackers with ransomware. I’m sure their IT guys were confident as well. Nothing is completely safe.
I don’t think we actually disagree on the underlying facts. My article was written from the perspective of what an ordinary person experiences, not what is technically possible for someone willing to invest hundreds of hours learning privacy and security practices.
VPN’s are an issue- I once had a VPN for the entire house. It turns out that many websites, and most streaming services, block IPs associated with VPNs. It made many of the places I wanted to surf impossible to access. I’m sure there are workarounds, just as I am sure you will point them out, but at some point, it becomes a full time job, and who has that kind of time for a process that won’t fully work, anyhow?
You’re absolutely correct that Linux, browser hardening, uBlock Origin, NoScript, virtualization, VLANs, compartmentalization, and a willingness to simply refuse certain services can significantly reduce online tracking. The problem is that most people won’t do those things, and many couldn’t do them even if they wanted to. A mitigation strategy that requires becoming a competent amateur systems administrator is beyond the reach of most internet users.
To respond to and further your point about the medical profession: I don’t pretend to have the power to prevent death. I’m an amateur in the networking field, as you point out. Still, I know my skills are far beyond that of the average computer user, and even the full time professionals can’t manage to secure their systems. Just as you won’t spend thousands of hours learning critical care medicine, most people won’t and can’t spend that time becoming professional network gurus. There is a cost/benefit analysis, and beyond some few steps, the equation results in increased costs for reduced received benefits.
It sounds like you think you are immune to data tracking. I think the evidence points the other way. Still, there is a post publishing tomorrow on even more that’s being done to track you. In that sense, I think your comment reinforces rather than contradicts the broader point: meaningful privacy is still possible, but it has become something that must be actively maintained rather than something people can reasonably expect by default.
Bo · June 22, 2026 at 4:13 am
Except for the first and last two paragraphs, I would completely agree with your responses.
To address the first paragraph my response would be. Ok, now what? If all you were doing with these posts was pointing out stuff that CAN happen, I missed the intention of your post. There is also for sure a big grey area that we may flat be missing each other, and I acknowledged that, where you refer to “ordinary people problems”. I freely acknowledge that it is possible that I attribute far too much awareness and technical capability to the average person. I can only use myself and people I interact with as an objective metric. It may well be that my assumption of what normal is, isn’t.
I never even inferred that you could prevent death, anymore than I could prevent tracking and still utilize all the services of the Call Phone and Internet. In my mind that analogy is pretty strong but somehow you got a very different impression.
To the last paragraph, I assume that was just a mic drop because I in no way insinuated that I was immune to it. I thought I was communicating clearly that a lot of it is voluntary and within a persons control, but it is proportionate to what you are willing to do to get there.
I do have a very tightly curated presence on the internet, always have, to the frustration of some people and occasionally to my own detriment. But I have never tried to convince myself or anyone else that I could beat these systems entirely, I manage them as best I can with intention.
Your VPN experience is a perfect example of what my initial post was about. You found services that were being blocked by the solution you chose, at that point you have to make a decision “is the service worth what Im giving up”. Sometimes it may well be and that might be the last misunderstanding between us. It may not have been clear that I was acknowledging even in my life there are holes in “anonymity perfection” because the alternative was not being able to do online banking from overseas (as an example). Managing my finances was more important to me than attempting to have internet anonymity with an organization that already has that information on record. The flip side of that is they can’t get more details from my browsing when I leave their site, but they are fully aware when I spend money on Amazon because they are the facilitators of that financial transaction. It just doesn’t make sense to spend a lot of effort hiding details about me they will have because I need their service. What my bank doesn’t know is because when it comes to browsing other websites they don’t need that info.
I was really confused by this line “I think your comment reinforces rather than contradicts the broader point: meaningful privacy is still possible, but it has become something that must be actively maintained rather than something people can reasonably expect by default.”
My comment(s) 100% reinforce exactly that statement and was never intended to contradict that, my post was because I felt that’s where you were going with it.
Lets hold off more commenting till I have time to read your next post on the topic, perhaps we’re just missing each other on verbiage and intent. Other than degree it doesn’t seem like we are actually disagreeing on our stance on “meaningful privacy is still possible, but it has become something that must be actively maintained rather than something people can reasonably expect by default.”
Brutus · June 21, 2026 at 8:33 am
UBlock origin is exactly the adblock I recommend. No Script is also useful to stop garbage webpage scripts from freezing your computer with a memory leak. The FSF has a useful addon called Privacy Badger that’s also worthwhile. None of these are panaceas, but they make your internet less annoying and help block some of the surveillance funding.
A Faraday bag for your phone is another useful tool, if you don’t mind being unreachable for a while.
Rob Braxton has made videos on how to be more thorough, and it’s frankly more effort than most are willing to do.
Divemedic · June 21, 2026 at 8:35 am
Read tomorrow’s post, and you will see how much harder that’s become.
Divemedic · June 21, 2026 at 8:37 am
The key point is that they’re mitigations, not solutions. They can block some trackers, some ads, and some data collection, but they don’t eliminate surveillance. They don’t stop your ISP from knowing you’re connected, they don’t stop cellular providers from tracking your phone, and they certainly don’t stop license plate readers, Bluetooth tracking, vehicle telemetry, or the growing web of physical-world surveillance systems.
The Faraday bag is a good example. It works, but only while the phone is inside it. The moment you take the phone out and reconnect to the network, much of the value disappears unless you’re very disciplined about how and when you use the device.
That’s really the broader point. Privacy today is no longer the default state; it’s something that must be actively maintained. The more privacy you want, the more inconvenience, knowledge, and effort are required. Most people simply aren’t willing to pay that price, which is precisely why these surveillance systems have become so pervasive.
Also, Privacy Badger is not a product of the Free Software Foundation. It’s actually developed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, not the FSF.
Unknownsailor · June 21, 2026 at 11:02 am
I solve most of my tracking problems at home by running a pi-hole DNS black hole device on my network. It is only as good as the IP address lists it uses, but it is better than nothing.
They Know – Area Ocho · June 22, 2026 at 4:32 am
[…] Saturday, we talked about how you are being followed on the internet, even if you think you aren’t. Yes, I know there are plenty of people out there who claim […]
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