who can actually write in English, and explain to me what the hell this is all about? (See link below.)
I know I'm the tech dunce in this world of ours. I've only had a smart phone for a few years, and I still don't have any apps on it.
I'm very worried about anything involving this Zuckerberg guy. His FB empire is well know for violating people's privacy and that's something we in this hobby have to hold on to dearly.
Will these new information platforms have a role in how we hobby? Will wiggling my nose one day make an escort (Real or cyber, or will it even matter?) appear out of the blue?
Are we all already in the Matrix?
It's Mark's war on smartphones, (Apps), and Google. For instance Google Glass. Think of a computer in glasses. He just wants to do what others have tried, except far better. Google Glass relied a lot on smart phones, Mark wants to eliminate them basically, in layman's terms.
A lot more technical, but I think it will be a very long time before anyone wiggles their nose for an escort. Unless in person. lol... Could they have a role in how we do hobby? Possible. But not a huge difference than we already do.
We have been in the Matrix for awhile. Should have took the Blue Pill instead. 
First off, the NSA records every phone call (land line or cell), email, text and other electronic communication of every person in the country, every day, 24 hours a day, and archives all of them. Trillions of communications, located in a couple of facilities that are millions of square feet of computers. If the NSA flags one as not being related to international crime or espionage, but identifies it as local or state crime, the NSA can turn the communication over to state and local authorities. No warrant for a wiretap required. You just got busted.
Google is involved with the US intelligence services. None of your Gmails' are safe from the government. Hell, they're not even safe with Google. Nor are your emails through your internet service provider.
If you need a truly private conversation, meet whoever it is you need to speak to in a dense forest or in a very noisy place, such as a train yard. And cover your mouth while you speak. You want to stay out of a line of sight from parabolic microphones, or keep the background level noise so high that your voice can't be heard.
You're not safe in your own home, as some appliances (TV's, microwaves) can be used to monitor you, even when they're turned off. Your cell phone can be turned on or off remotely by the authorities, and can be used to reverse-tap your conversations.
Welcome to the land of the free.
That's not all strictly true. If something is encrypted end to end it's actually private. You can accomplish this through PGP, a one time pad, SHA-2, or really any number of mathematically perfect encryption schemes.
If you're using strong encryption, the only way anyone is going to know what you're transmuting is if they can get to it before it's encrypted. Totally possible, but much harder to do en masse and is mostly used in a targeted fashion.
The idea of the NSA intercepting the entire country's communication is also false. The can certainly tap into everyone's systems (with or without their knowledge) but they're not actively storing every text/voice/video/data stream in the entire country. The math on that just doesn't work out with what is currently possible on the storage/data transmission side. The content providers are the ones storing most of the data they have access to, so why would they *also* store the same data?
The NSA is likely storing your text messages, certainly. They also likely have some sort of speech to text capability that can take a phone call and store metadata of what it's about. Again, this would likely be deployed on the content provider side of things, routing everything through an NSA data center isn't really necessary when you can just ask AT&T for the keys to their castle. The nice thing about a text conversation is that it doesn't take up much storage space, and because it's just text, software can interact with it on a much higher level.
I'm just going on what Edward Snowden and Julian Assange have said.
Even if the .gov. is not monitoring and archiving calls, I'm just blown away by the fact that people aren't screaming up a storm because they're doing it at all. The country has become too jaded about this, the war on cash, and a zillion other things our betters are doing.
That's the brilliance of it.
They've kept it under wraps long enough that it was allowed to grow unabated to this point, and at this point the scope of what they're keeping track of is beyond what most people can easily comprehend.
Mix that with 24/7 terrorist attack media frenzy and you have the majority either A) Supporting the whole lot without a second thought or B) Just not caring. There's this minority 3rd group that seems to be filled with smart, well informed people, that is vehemently against what they're doing, but they get dismissed as conspiracy theorists. Granted, some of these people in group C are verifiable reptilian overlord prepping nutjobs, that is not the case for most.
As a side note, the term "conspiracy theorist" is made up, unsurprisingly, by the CIA.
https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/4o7w1r/why_the_cia_coined_the_term_conspiracy_theorist/d4a9vey/
True enough, and I'm not fond of the idea, but neither am I paranoid.
With those trillions of recorded communications, what are the odds anybody gives a fart about my personal business.
Unless I run for office, I'm not worried.
Common misconception that NSA can do as they please. Truth is, they have to jump through a lot of serious legal hoops to use any private information. So much that they wouldn't bother unless it was truly sinister. They have to prove it is a bonafide threat to national security. Unless it is, I wouldn't worry....Nobody gives a sh#t.
And they do catch some serious threats. And prevent even more. Just think, if you're worried, how dissuasive do you suppose it is to some actual harm doer? I'll take the risk vs. reward on this one.
Not knocking you my friend, just a fair look at the other side.
You have to consider what they can do with the data as a whole.
I'm sure that your data is profoundly disinteresting, but as part of a collection of tens of thousands of data points it becomes something much, much more powerful and interesting.
Take this story from target as an example: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/#72811f766668
Now remember, this is Target, they're big, but they aren't even in the major league when it comes to "big data", but they were able to design a system that can do this.
Also, don't think for a second that LE isn't all over this, they are: http://graymattersystems.com/big-data-crime-patterns
It's not as sci-fi as the Minority Report precognate tanks, but it's not far from being just as scary.
Point taken. I'd heard the Target story. More disconcerting to me was an article talking about using meta-data to "shape" the news and other media directed at you. So you and I, based on past data, get a different version of the news. That has a directive, self-fulllfilling prophecy air to it. My actions change the information I get, which affects my actions.
So, no doubt this mass data can have immense impact and consequences. Like anything with that kind of power, it can be used toward noble or harmful ends. I'm sure it will be used for both.
Seem odd to be having this conversation on an erotic review board. Now that scares me.
Somewhat odd, but we are a group of folks who are obsessive about privacy, so not surprising.
Now if only we could leverage this tech to get better provider recommendations... That'd be full circle.
It'll still work after the EMP so you can play Mozart until the radiation gets you.
So am I Fish! They're still the best!
I'm using a Dynaco PAT-3 pre-amp with Mk III power amps, and a Sherwood tuner. It's all from the 1960s, except of course the turntable which is a NAD from around 1980.
Those things suck.
I remember the first year of Facebook. Everything you put on your profile became searchable. If you put what dorm you lived in, you could click the dorm and see everyone else on Facebook who lived in that dorm. If you put what books you liked, you could click on the book and see everyone else who liked that book. And no one complained about privacy, because that was the whole point of Facebook - to find people with common interests, geographic location, whatever.
Privacy only became an issue after Facebook blew up, because anything that blows up that big is going to have some criticism. But Facebook didn't fundamentally change on privacy - it was the reaction that changed
This is all part of the Zuckerburg horse and pony show.
Fact is, people *like* physical things. I like how my 70in curved 4k tv looks, most people do. If I could only see it through my magic glasses I would like it less.
See, it's a value perception that we've bred into ourselves as humans. Valuable things have substance. You can touch them, feel their weight, their rigidity, etc. A virtual TV/Car/Bed/whatever doesn't satisfy that very basic need. You're not going to un-wire 10,000 years of caveman logic because you can have a TV in your glasses.
That said, if you have the charisma, can get in front of a room full of billionaires, and convince them that you're going to un-wire 10,000 years of caveman logic with a couple simple TV screens, you'll walk out of that room a very rich man indeed. That's all that's happening here.
Also, consider this, before you have a virtual house to live in, the hobby will probably be legal and legitimate, so absolute privacy (or the illusion of such) will be less of a concern for you.
Age demographics, with a larger and growing part of the population getting older--and LESS inclined to jump into new technology--will limit the real world implementation of this pie in the sky stuff.
Just about everything new that comes along has privacy concerns tied to it too.
Last week I had a younger provider I was exchanging messages with tell me to facetime with her. Actually it took a few messages back and forth to get that desire out of her. She wanted some facetime with me before agreeing to meet. Thankfully I knew what she was talking about and told her no. Can only imagine what someone who didn't know what she was asking would have thought! 
... so just take the blue pill, and relax. It will all be over soon.
Very safe for you but for guys that might talk drugs or underage girls would be snagged . Always use discretion anonymously names .