where is my shoe phone when i need it ?

Has our security really improved?

     When I am talking security I am talking in terms of past versus present and the innovations and how they have affected our life in terms of invasion of privacy. I was talking with mom the other day and we were discussing how the NSA is eavesdropping on peoples private conversations , and I asked her if it was really any different than it was years ago when they had party lines and operators who were able to listen in on anyone’s conversation at any time .

      She told me that years ago that our Uncle Clem had a party line and no tv, so they would pick up the phone and could tell by the voice on the line who was on there and they would listen for something to do . being real quiet or covering the mouthpiece so no one would realize they were being listened to.  At times there may be a person from every house on the party line as well as the operator , and all would be engaged in conversation. There was no TV and telephone was in its infancy as far as technology was concerned . you would know if it was your call by the number of rings in succession and then you would answer it. if you were from a small town and you didn’t answer then the operator would call you back later , tell you that you missed a call and place the call. Or a nosy neighbor would pick up the phone and call you later to tell you who had called.

      There was no privacy and the only way you could have a phone in those times was to accept the party line principle. Still even when you had private lines there was still an operator who actually had the ability to listen in on your conversation at any time she or he wanted to. There was no court orders or warrants, and admissibility of evidence was usually allowed in courts , especially if you overheard something on a party line.

        Not sure exactly when privacy was so cherished in telephone conversations , but I do remember the first radio telephones, a forerunner of the cell phone as we had these in 1974 when I was going to college soon after high school . these too were operator answered and monitored by an operator , by which you could be chastised by the operator for swearing over the phone and receive a FCC violation for using profanity in public. So much for thinking you had any privacy on those early models as they were based on shortwave principle.

     Back then most of the monitoring was done on a local basis and usually without anyone's consent as it was part of the operators job to monitor calls and provide service when needed. The digital age brought about transferring our talk into digital signals and our  messages would exchange into undecipherable code that when transmitted through the telephone lines would result in gibberish if one was to intercept the signal . As well the radio telephones of old went digital also and there signal was also changed, making it harder to listen in on conversations.

      This digitization of the telephone network eliminated the need for operators as switching equipment and computers readily transferred large amounts of data quite easily without any help from the operators who manually switched the calls years ago. Operators soon handled special requests for information and were used to report technical failures. These operator positions were then further eliminated again by computers that monitored and recorded line activity and performed random checks on line activity, and even reported downed lines or would record that information from the caller without the use of a human body.

    Of course most of the changes happened in my lifetime so far and one would think we should be safer or at least our conversations should have a veil of privacy unsurpassed by the days of old. But this is not the case . Cell phones and telephones with their advanced technology can still be hacked today . Anything basically that has computer programming to protect your identity is constantly being challenged by hackers. It may not be your phone instead it may be someone else's phone who shares the same technology. But once they get in one phone or system then it is possible to crack the rest of the systems similar to it.

     Now the government is stepping into the espionage business in a large way since 9-11 and is contributing again to our eventual loss of personal privacy as agencies like homeland security and the NSA and FBI are using supposedly counter terrorism techniques to monitor our telephone conversations in the name of providing us with a safe free place to live. Key words in everyone's conversations from cell phone to home phones and emails as well as records of sites visited on the internet results in a compilation of  possible terrorist activity due to guilt by association that may result in your arrest and conviction on a terrorist charge. This may happen by that same computer that initially helped you place a call, whether it be in a cell phone or in the switching rooms of our major telephone companies. Wholesale widespread information is now being shared with the government from a variety of sources.

      Back in the days of the party line if you overheard someone saying you were going to kill a person, and it so happened that person ended up dead and you reported it, would it be any different than today  when the NSA collects information on would be terrorists that want to blow up a school for instance. There is no difference.

     If a major federal authority want to eavesdrop on you I am sure they have a judge somewhere that will sign a court order giving them authority to do so. The have done it for years, and will continue to do it. With the loss of our personal freedoms under the terrorist acts legislation , it is actually easier for them to do it now legally.

       My advice is that if you have something to share with someone  on a personal basis that you really don’t want anyone to know about . Go visit them and share it in person. Including death threats etc, what ever, if you are so worried about your privacy. This is something that you are not going to change, as big brother is watching you no matter what you do.  Only it is easier now for them to pry their way into your personal life than ever before. Writing this blog may be cause to put me on some kind of a watch list.

    I have nothing to hide and will freely express my opinion and would hope that I never will be called up on speaking what I feel. But who knows? My understanding is that it isn't as if they are listening to every word of every conversation and recording it . Instead it is that it takes a combination of factors to elevate you to a watch list. Certain words , possibly foreign language used, or code words, as well as a history of over seas calls,or links to suspected terrorists . For the most part they are not worried about the ingredients to Aunt Minny’s favorite apple pie , and for the most part if you do nothing wrong then I doubt you will ever have a g-man at your door.

     If so invite him in and sit him down , offer him a a cup of tea and share a doob with him. it might throw him off his game, or at least humble him into sharing some of his stash with you.