I've been thinking of this for several months now !

I feel that I'm being watched and surveilled upon from unknown internet users or organizations, why, i don't know.

Here's what I'm thinking of:
What if microsoft has made certain components inside Windows which is the most widely spread operating system to keep track of everything that happens on the WORLD's PCs for security reasons?

What if antivirus software and firewalls designers made their programs able to connect to their servers by making hidden and secret connections from internet users to them for the benefit of security agencies widely spread all over the world like the pentagon, the CIA or the FBI or the KGB or any security agency?

What if the famous chatting programs like MSN or Yahoo or Skype are being funded by any hacking agency or terrorists SECRETLY behind all our backs and maybe behind the backs of these programs' creators ?!


You might ask: Are they going to monitor and watch tens of MILLIONS of internet users?

The answer is : Maybe by creating softwares that can filter the typed words or accessed websites according to some criteria they have in their minds, and i guess in the programming world, NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE.


Please share with me your thoughts because an idea like this might be disastrous

Hello Tassadar,

Highly unlikely for the following reasons:

>Political differences of the various countries that use the internet; witness the Yahoo and Communist China ballyhoo as only one example; countries just hate each other too much.
>with the gurus and really bright users throughout the world, there is no chance of any one or any group of companies conspiring together to monitor "big brother" style on the millions of computers throughout the world and keeping it stealth; they would quickly be caught. Witness the example of Sony last year, who attempted to install rootkit spyware on people's computers without their knowledge. They were caught by an ordinary guy who published on the internet what he found and it resulted in a major PR black eye for Sony and a multi-million dollar class action lawsuit. I, personally, have never purchased a Sony product since and never will again.
>there are no "hidden connections" or "stealth communications" that will not be noticed, because the only way that they can do that is by "dialing out" to another computer, and eventually that will be noticed.
>there is no way that all these internet security companies are going to get together to conspire against the general public. Big companies just do not operate that way, because they are interested in higher profits, especially if they are publicly held and accountable to their stockholders, and they want lower competition. You do not cooperate with your competition because then you must allow them access to YOUR product and that just ain't going to happen. Do you really think Microsoft is going to release its Vista code to several other software giants for some "international conspiracy" purpose? Yeah, right. Suddenly they all produce variations on the Windows Vista OS for $50 each, and Microsoft overnight has its biggest nightmare come true - serious competition.

Quote: You might ask: Are they going to monitor and watch tens of MILLIONS of INTERNET users? End Quote; They already do watch 100 times that number of people a day. So your not alone.
The answer is forget about it. Because it is going to happen like it or not.
I use to wonder "what if" the TV could be used to watch me in my living room like the situation you propose.
Why worry over something you can't stop or control?
Yet I to believe that governments do spy on their citizens and today info data is being built up, piled up and just runneth over. And who runs the government? Big Business who can use this over runneth info in every way possible. CONTROL will be when we least like it, but then way to late.