Quote:
Originally Posted by rowan
A VPN does not protect you from 'big data'. It may hide your IP, but if your connections go anywhere near (including transiting) the USA, UK etc there's still plenty that can be deduced from the captured data.
Example, logging into GFY, which is not encrypted, reveals your username and password. If either or both of those are unique, and you use them anywhere else, it's a cinch to tie them together.
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Of course, heuristic tracking is the most dangerous thing there is, building a complete snapshot of a person via their cookies, usernames, passwords etc..... like you said but you are wrong on the VPN front, if you log into a site with a username and password using a secure offshore VPN, they can only correlate the username/pass to a useless IP that is encrypted, you simply use a different IP every time you log in or browse the net. Most good VPN's change your route and IP several times per hour. Of course NOTHING is full proof and if you are for some odd reason in the cross hair of the NSA they will get you of course simply because they have unlimited resources to wait you out until you make a mistake. Not because they can defeat the system. Same with police and the federal government/FBI they simply use old school tactics and wait until you slip up. Really want to mess with them, VPN in and then use TOR to do your dirty biz. But do this on a laptop you have hardware encrypted and not afraid to have wiped if you must. Have a gophone that is encrypted and uses rephone and textsecure separate from your daily driver.
The idea is STAYING off the radar of them, and if you do those things listed above you will be fine. It's when they know to focus on you that it can get tricky. LIke someone named you or flipped on you for whatever reason. I know for a fact since my best friend is supervisory agent at the DIA (defense intelligence agency) they can crack a password using their oakridge supercomputer complex in 2 days if it's 10 digits or less. IF you make it 15 to 20 and include special characters they cannot crack it no matter how much they throw at it, and for them to even want to do that you are in serious trouble already LOL. An easy way to beat that is what blackberry does, you have 10 tries to enter the correct encryption code, after 10 the device is securely wiped clean, totally bricked.