Bonum Certa Men Certa

Using the Pandemic as a Pretext by Which to Impose Surveillance Capitalism on Every Home (and Penalise Law-Abiding Citizens Who Reject That)

Private Terrain
Private terrain? Where? The woods?



Summary: Under the bogus guise (lie) of "progress" and "technology" (or "tech") our human rights are being robbed; "Smart" has nothing to do with that as it's never smart to abandon civil liberties for corporations' cost-savings, data extraction, and occupation by social control

MONTHS ago I politely ranted about our local government pushing people to use "apps" and "Web site" instead of traditional face-to-face meetings and verified paperwork. They not only punish "old people" (who aren't ready to familiarise themselves with technology that they hardly even need anyway); they harm human rights, too.



This week I've had yet more encounters with my energy provider -- the one that bought the energy provider we've long relied on. We already pay extra fees each year just to avoid "SPY meters" (so-called "Smart" meters), so why give up? In fact, when switching between providers they make it virtually impossible to reject those surveillance devices, which share collected data with all sorts of third parties or have the potential to do that at any time in the future.

"In fact, when switching between providers they make it virtually impossible to reject those surveillance devices, which share collected data with all sorts of third parties or have the potential to do that at any time in the future."Our new provider, which bought our prior provider, is truly terrible. I was warned about it in advance by a friend; he tried hard to abandon them, so I was preconditioned to distrust them. Yesterday I finally confronted them over the telephone for their considerable price hikes. Not small hikes, but very major ones -- almost 10%, for the second time in less than a year. I've long heard the theory about us having to collectively foot the bill for those unable to pay (due to job losses in a pandemic), almost as though the providers are just "Too big/important to fail," so customers need to bail them out or something (or cover outrageous costs of managers' massive salaries). Now it turns out that they're massively increasing energy prices even when the price of energy generally goes down (lowered demand worldwide) and moreover they're trying to penalise people, about 50 pounds a year (3 times more than before), for rejecting a SPY meter. There's nothing "smart" or "green" about forcing people to use Web sites (computers use power) and sending them no paper (gas consumption pollutes far more than a single sheet of paper).

"For the time being we're still assessing our options and speaking to friends."This isn't about progress or anything "Smart" (this isn't "high tech"; it could be done decades ago, feasibly and affordably, but the agenda was different back then). They're trying to push people to use "Web site" and "SPY meters"; sadly, they're not alone either, as they already use financial sanctions against people who don't obey unless they can provide proof they cannot physically cope with such 'technology' (old tech suddenly imposed by governments and companies that besiege those governments... how "Smart").

Remember that whatever version of "SPY meter" they offer today will later be replaced with "newer and better version" (the "old one" becomes "no longer compatible"), complete with additional and 'novel' spy features, e.g. sensors you cannot disable. The same has been happening with routers and TV sets. Nowadays many TVs "watch" the viewer (see Wikileaks/Vault 7 for technical details).

Don't be too shocked if future versions add microphones for instructions/directions by speech. The listening devices/bug makers (notable among them is Amazon) euphemistically call them "assistants".

For the time being we're still assessing our options and speaking to friends. Bringing surveillance capitalism to the very heart of every home ought not be an objective and should certainly not be imposed. Using the pandemic to speed up such a nefarious agenda is an insult to the many victims of COVID.

Note: names of vendors and brands are omitted; they don't matter as the problems are generic and largely applicable in many countries outside the United Kingdom

Recent Techrights' Posts

SoylentNews Grows Up, Registers as a Business, Site Traffic Reportedly Grows
More people realise that social control media may in fact be a passing fad
 
Engadget is Still a Spamfarm, It's Just an Amazon Catalogue (SPAM/SEO), a Sea of Junk Disguised as "Articles" With Few 'Fillers' (Real Articles) in Between
Engadget writes for bots now, not for humans
Richard Stallman's Talks in Switzerland This Week
We need to put an end to 'cancer culture'; it's trying to kill people and it is even swatting people
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, March 28, 2024
IRC logs for Thursday, March 28, 2024
[Meme] EPO's New Ways of Working (NWoW), a.k.a. You Don't Even Get a Desk at Work and Cannot be Near Known Colleagues
Seems more like union-busting (divide and rule)
Hiding Microsoft's Culpability in Security Breaches and Other Major Blunders (in the United Kingdom, This May Mean You Can't Get Food)
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is vast
Giving back to the community
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 28/03/2024: Sega, Nintendo, and Bell Layoffs
Links for the day
Open letter to the ACM regarding Codes of Conduct impersonating the Code of Ethics
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
With 9 Mentions of Azure In Its Latest Blog Post, Canonical is Again Promoting Microsoft and Intel Vendor Lock-in, Surveillance, Back Doors, Considerable Power Waste, and Defects That Cannot be Fixed
Microsoft did not even have to buy Canonical (for Canonical to act like it happened)
Links 28/03/2024: GAFAM Replacing Full-Time Workers With Interns Now
Links for the day
Consent & Debian's illegitimate constitution
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
The Time Our Server Host Died in a Car Accident
If Debian has internal problems, then they need to be illuminated and then tackled, at the very least in order to ensure we do not end up with "Deadian"
China's New 'IT' Rules Are a Massive Headache for Microsoft
On the issue of China we're neutral except when it comes to human rights issues
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, March 27, 2024
IRC logs for Wednesday, March 27, 2024
WeMakeFedora.org: harassment decision, victory for volunteers and Fedora Foundations
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 27/03/2024: Terrorism Grows in Africa, Unemployment in Finland Rose Sharply in a Year, Chinese Aggression Escalates
Links for the day
Links 27/03/2024: Ericsson and Tencent Layoffs
Links for the day
Amid Online Reports of XBox Sales Collapsing, Mass Layoffs in More Teams, and Windows Making Things Worse (Admission of Losses, Rumours About XBox Canceled as a Hardware Unit)...
Windows has loads of issues, also as a gaming platform
Links 27/03/2024: BBC Resorts to CG Cruft, Akamai Blocking Blunders in Piracy Shield
Links for the day
Android Approaches 90% of the Operating Systems Market in Chad (Windows Down From 99.5% 15 Years Ago to Just 2.5% Right Now)
Windows is down to about 2% on the Web-connected client side as measured by statCounter
Sainsbury's: Let Them Eat Yoghurts (and Microsoft Downtimes When They Need Proper Food)
a social control media 'scandal' this week
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, March 26, 2024
IRC logs for Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
Windows/Client at Microsoft Falling Sharply (Well Over 10% Decline Every Quarter), So For His Next Trick the Ponzi in Chief Merges Units, Spices Everything Up With "AI"
Hiding the steep decline of Windows/Client at Microsoft?
Free technology in housing and construction
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
We Need Open Standards With Free Software Implementations, Not "Interoperability" Alone
Sadly we're confronting misguided managers and a bunch of clowns trying to herd us all - sometimes without consent - into "clown computing"
Microsoft's Collapse in the Web Server Space Continued This Month
Microsoft is the "2%", just like Windows in some countries