There is almost certainly no smartphone privacy app that you can install on your phone to block monitoring and spying by the “government,” meaning the Total Information Awareness system constructed by the NSA and other security/intelligence agencies in the United States. There are almost certainly low level hardware or firmware backdoors in all popular smartphones such as Apple’s iPhone and the many Android phones that enable the “government” to access the phones at will. These backdoors operate at a low level below any installed app.
The Total Information Awareness (TIA) Program’s Original Controversial Logo
In the case of the iPhone the backdoors are probably in the Apple multitouch firmware that customers use to enter their password and interact with the iPhone; it is a little known but not secret fact that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) funded the development of this multitouch technology at Fingerworks which was acquired by Apple both for the software and the Fingerworks development team.
“More directly, academics at the University of Delaware, funded by a National Science Foundation and CIA fellowship program, developed multi-touch scrolling and gestures for screens; they created a company called FingerWorks that was bought by Apple in 2005, two years before the iPhone was launched.”
These low level smartphone backdoors are very risky. With a large fraction of the human race using smartphones, they are tempting for abuse and almost certainly are being badly abused by the small cadre of intelligence officials with access to the system. The most likely abuse is mass/global scale blackmail and psychological manipulation for the acquisition of money and power. As the case of former New York governor Elliot Spitzer illustrates, many powerful people are remarkably careless with their electronic communications and would be subject to manipulation or blackmail by anyone with access to this system.
These backdoors are a high value target for the intelligence services of various nations such as Russia and China as well as organized criminal gangs, terrorists, and other groups. They are vulnerable to technological surprise by other as yet unknown actors who may develop the technology to take over the system or somehow already have the capability.
What Can You Do to Protect Your Privacy?
The reality is there is no app you can install to protect yourself and continue to use a smartphone — or many other devices — in the modern world of nearly ubiquitous high speed wireless networks. The practical options at present are either simply to stop using smartphones entirely or keep them in a sealed radio proof case, a “Faraday bag,” except for emergencies and special situations.
Such cases are currently available for purchase at Amazon and other sources. One can also use hermetically sealed metal food containers that are still widely available. Some games and other products are also marketed in such containers. It is possible to make secure cases for smartphones using metal foil (aluminum foil), painters tape or other tapes, and a ruler and pair of scissors — all common inexpensive household items.
Commercially Available Secure Case for a SmartphoneHermetically Sealed Food Container that Can Isolate Smartphone from the Radio NetworksDIY Secure Case Made with Painter’s Tape and Aluminum Foil
More detailed information on these options can be found here:
How to Stop Your Phone from Spying on You? Demonstrates methods to isolate your phone from cellular and other radio networks while keeping the phone easily accessible for emergencies or other special cases.
We do not receive any compensation for using or demonstrating these products.
(C) 2020 by John F. McGowan, Ph.D.
About Me
John F. McGowan, Ph.D. solves problems using mathematics and mathematical software, including developing gesture recognition for touch devices, video compression and speech recognition technologies. He has extensive experience developing software in C, C++, MATLAB, Python, Visual Basic and many other programming languages. He has been a Visiting Scholar at HP Labs developing computer vision algorithms and software for mobile devices. He has worked as a contractor at NASA Ames Research Center involved in the research and development of image and video processing algorithms and technology. He has published articles on the origin and evolution of life, the exploration of Mars (anticipating the discovery of methane on Mars), and cheap access to space. He has a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a B.S. in physics from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).
Complete demo how to make a spyproof case for your smartphone using aluminum foil, painter’s tape, a ruler, and a pair of scissors. Inexpensive DIY home project.
“More directly, academics at the University of Delaware, funded by a National Science Foundation and CIA fellowship program, developed multi-touch scrolling and gestures for screens; they created a company called FingerWorks that was bought by Apple in 2005, two years before the iPhone was launched.”
Will they ban secure cases for smartphones and other devices?
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A search engine for censored web sites and content.
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John F. McGowan, Ph.D. solves problems using mathematics and mathematical software, including developing gesture recognition for touch devices, video compression and speech recognition technologies. He has extensive experience developing software in C, C++, MATLAB, Python, Visual Basic and many other programming languages. He has been a Visiting Scholar at HP Labs developing computer vision algorithms and software for mobile devices. He has worked as a contractor at NASA Ames Research Center involved in the research and development of image and video processing algorithms and technology. He has published articles on the origin and evolution of life, the exploration of Mars (anticipating the discovery of methane on Mars), and cheap access to space. He has a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a B.S. in physics from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).
Internet Censorship can be defeated using the RSS (Really Simple Syndication) News Feed, Mail Filters, and Message Search Function in the free open-source Thunderbird email and personal communication program and similar programs. This post demonstrates how to use Thunderbird to do this.
John F. McGowan, Ph.D. solves problems using mathematics and mathematical software, including developing gesture recognition for touch devices, video compression and speech recognition technologies. He has extensive experience developing software in C, C++, MATLAB, Python, Visual Basic and many other programming languages. He has been a Visiting Scholar at HP Labs developing computer vision algorithms and software for mobile devices. He has worked as a contractor at NASA Ames Research Center involved in the research and development of image and video processing algorithms and technology. He has published articles on the origin and evolution of life, the exploration of Mars (anticipating the discovery of methane on Mars), and cheap access to space. He has a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a B.S. in physics from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).
Internet Censorship can be defeated using the RSS (Really Simple Syndication) News Feed, Mail Filters, and Message Search Function in the free open-source Thunderbird email and personal communication program and similar programs. This post demonstrates how to use Thunderbird to do this.
Thunderbird Landing Page (July 20, 2020)
Dangerous and Unprecedented Censorship
Internet censorship has been escalating dramatically in the last few months. This includes explicit banning of videos by YouTube, dissident web sites by various social media companies, as well as shadow banning of web sites, videos and articles online. Targets have expanded from fringe sources such as Alex Jones and David Icke to qualified scientific researchers such as John Ioannidis at Stanford University, licensed medical doctors, and others who dissent from the rapidly changing coronavirus COVID-19 orthodoxy: masks don’t work and are bad for you, masks do work and you must wear them, protests spread the coronavirus and pose a deadly threat to public health, protests don’t spread the coronavirus and must be supported, the coronavirus is not spread person to person, the coronavirus is spread person to person, there are no asymptomatic carriers, there are asymptomatic carriers and be afraid, very afraid, and many other examples.
This censorship of open scientific discourse appears to be continuing and expanding despite the remarkable admission by purported “public health expert” Tony Fauci that he lied about the efficacy of masks early in the crisis on camera. If his recent statement is not true, he is lying now. Nonetheless, the de facto censorship appears to continue to support and protect Fauci, an admitted liar on a matter of great life and death importance. Nor is this bizarre support of him by the censorship machine exceptional or unusual.
“Well, the reason for that is that we were concerned the public health community, and many people were saying this, were concerned that it was at a time when personal protective equipment, including the N-95 masks and the surgical masks, were in very short supply,” Fauci said. “And we wanted to make sure that the people, namely the health care workers, who were brave enough to put themselves in a harm way, to take care of people who you know were infected with the coronavirus and the danger of them getting infected.”
Tony Fauci on TheStreet
Tony Fauci is an unelected civil servant in a democracy and also a scientist. His job is to give the objective scientific truth to the political leadership and the public, not to decide public policy by lying to the political leadership and/or the public, especially who should live or die due to a shortage of masks if they work as he now seems to claim.
Why did Fauci and other public health authorities lie about the effectiveness of masks — or if they were telling the truth then, why are they lying now? Saving courageous front line health care workers is almost certainly the best possible excuse for lying even though it should be an unacceptable excuse in a free democratic society. The other possible explanations are Fauci and his fellow public health authorities simply don’t know what they are doing or they lied to promote the spread of the diseaseto create a crisis that would boost their budgets, power, and make them national heroes.
A censorship machine that prevents open scientific discourse on major health issues such as a pandemic is a massive threat to the health, safety, and lives of every person on Earth: rich, poor, Black, brown, white, urban, rural, liberal, conservative, Republican, Democrat, … everyone.
What if a faulty coronavirus vaccine with deadly long term effects is approved in a panic and given to most of the human race, protected from criticism or independent review by this censorship machine?
Defeating Internet Censorship with RSS
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is an established, proven, widely used technology that is decentralized and difficult to suppress or manipulate unlike Facebook news feeds, Twitter feeds, Google search results, and other news and information sources controlled by a small number of giant social media companies. A user can subscribe to the RSS feed of a web site directly using Thunderbird or other programs that support RSS. Many web sites currently offer one or more RSS feed. It is easy to add an RSS feed to most web sites.
My Home Blogs and News Feed Section (Account) in Thunderbird
The user can add a single RSS news feed to Thunderbird manually. RSS is frequently identified by this icon:
RSS Standard Icon
Many web sites that support RSS include this icon somewhere on their site. Usually, the visitor can right click on the icon and copy the RSS news feed URL (aka link).
Right Clicking on RSS Icon to Copy the RSS News Feed URL on My Blog
RSS is not as popular as it was ten years ago. As a result, some web sites that in fact have RSS news feeds “hide” it as a text link somewhere in the fine print. This may be labelled as “feed” or “feeds,” “RSS”, sometimes “subscribe” although subscribe usually refers to an e-mail mailing list, or other obscure ways of identifying the RSS news feed link.
Censored web sites should add an RSS news feed and use the RSS standard icon prominently to identify the RSS news feed or, failing that, at least a very clear text link such as “RSS News Feed Link.”
In Thunderbird 78.0, click on “Manage Feed Subscriptions” to bring up the Feed Subscriptions dialog box to manually add the RSS News Feed to a Thunderbird News Feed account/section:
Manage feed subscriptions link in Thunderbird 78.0
Clicking on this link/button brings up the Feed Subscriptions dialog box, shown here with my blog’s RSS news feed URL pasted into the Feed URL text box. Then click the Add button in the lower left corner:
Thunderbird 78.0 Feed Subscriptions Dialog Box with my Blog RSS News Feed URL
I configure Thunderbird to check the RSS feed every three days. Why do I do this? I don’t want to be distracted or upset/angered/outraged/emotionally manipulated by headline writers at bad times. Rather I set aside some time each day to review the “news of the day,” in the spirit of the evening news in the old days. Right click on the RSS News Feed section/account and click “Get Messages” to control when you get the RSS news messages; something similar can be done with e-mail mailing list subscriptions.
Thunderbird 78.0 Get Messages to Avoid Distraction and Emotional Manipulation
Subscribing to E-Mail Mailing Lists
Many censored web sites and sources are using mailing lists to directly communicate with their readers and viewers, cutting out manipulation or banning by “social media” intermediaries such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Google. I prefer the RSS news feeds as easier to manage and more private — I don’t have to give the web site my email.
To manage the subscriptions to e-mail mailing lists from web sites and sources that do not provide a working RSS news feed, I set up a disposable email censored [at] censored [dot] com for these subscriptions:
Disposable email account for e-mail mailing list suscriptions
I have Thunderbird Message Filters to route the email messages from the mailing lists to folders in my “Home Blogs & News Feeds” section.
Thunderbird 78.0 Message Filters to Route E-Mails to Folders in Home Blogs sectionMessage Filter Example in Thunderbird 78.0
These message filters can be configured for both RSS News Feed messages and for e-mail mailing list messages to prioritize messages and content, for example deleting content that is not of interest at one extreme and routing high interest content to a Very Important Folder.
Unfortunately, on my system (an LG gram laptop with Windows 10 and solid state memory) I have found creating and editing the Message Filters to be slow, often taking 10-20 seconds to bring up the Message Filter dialog box shown above. I can still work with this but it is annoying and Thunderbird should provide a fix for those who encounter this slowness. A filter should be a simple program automatically generated by the program and take much less than one second to generate and display in a dialog box.
Searching Censored Content in Thunderbird
Thunderbird has a built in search function that can function as a replacement for manipulated searches by advertising funded, censored search engines such as Google. This requires a broad sampling of increasingly censored non-mainstream content.
Searching for “Bill Gates” in Thunderbird 78.0Raw search results for “Bill Gates” in Thunderbird 78.0Restricting the search for “Bill Gates” to my Home Blogs & News Feeds with censored contentResults of search for “Bill Gates” in censored content (critical articles)
Sharing Lists of RSS News Feeds
Defeating the dangerous effects of Internet Censorship requires a broad sampling of different dissident sources and viewpoints. Every source has some bias, some editorial perspective. Every source, even the most reliable and competent, will make mistakes; everyone is human. Certainly most, probably all, people lie sometimes, even if rarely.
It is important to consider all points of view and also the possibility that all points of view are wrong, which has happened many times in human history. One should consider all relevant facts, including facts that seem inconsistent or contradictory.
It is possible for facts — not mistakes, inaccurate information, lies or “fake news” — to appear contradictory. How could both be true? Someone must be wrong or lying. Contradictory facts occur (often) when there is some hidden factor or factors that are being missed by everyone. There is an ancient folk tale about this: The Blind Men and the Elephant, in which several blind men encounter an elephant. One touches the trunk and thinks an elephant is like a snake. One touches the giant leg and thinks the elephant is like a tree trunk. One touches the pointy tusk and thinks an elephant is something else.
The Blind Men and the Elephant
The parable of the Blind Men and an Elephant originated in the ancient Indian subcontinent, from where it has been widely diffused. It is a story of a group of blind men who have never come across an elephant before and who learn and conceptualize what the elephant is like by touching it. Each blind man feels a different part of the elephant’s body, but only one part, such as the side or the tusk. They then describe the elephant based on their limited experience and their descriptions of the elephant are different from each other. In some versions, they come to suspect that the other person is dishonest and they come to blows. The moral of the parable is that humans have a tendency to claim absolute truth based on their limited, subjective experience as they ignore other people’s limited, subjective experiences which may be equally true.
Wikipedia on the Blind Men and the Elephant
Successfully defeating the dangerous consequences of Internet Censorship requires sharing not just a link or subscribing to a single RSS news feed or mailing list, but rather sharing a list of diverse sources. We can figure out what an elephant is by listening to all of the blind men.
Thunderbird can import and export lists of RSS News Feeds as OPML files. These files can be shared as email attachments, posted on blogs, etc.
Import and Export Buttons in Thunderbird 78.0 Feed Subscriptions Dialog Box
Below is the OPML file/code from exporting my Home Blogs and News Feeds. Note that inclusion in this list is not an endorsement. I deliberately include a broad range of content, both mainstream and alternative.
<opml version="1.0" xmlns:fz="urn:forumzilla:">
<head>
<title>Thunderbird OPML Export - Home Blogs & News Feeds</title>
<dateCreated>Sun, 19 Jul 2020 15:21:54 GMT</dateCreated>
</head>
<body>
<outline title="911Bloggercom">
<outline type="rss" title="911Blogger.com" text="911Blogger.com" version="RSS" fz:quickMode="false" fz:options="{"version":2,"updates":{"enabled":true,"updateMinutes":100,"updateUnits":"min","lastUpdateTime":1595171412487,"lastDownloadTime":1595120363436,"updatePeriod":"","updateFrequency":"","updateBase":""},"category":{"enabled":false,"prefixEnabled":false,"prefix":""}}" xmlUrl="http://www.911blogger.com/rss.xml" htmlUrl="http://911blogger.com"/></outline>
<outline title="Activist Teacher (Denis Rancourt)">
<outline type="rss" title="Activist Teacher" text="Activist Teacher" version="RSS" fz:quickMode="false" fz:options="{"version":2,"updates":{"enabled":true,"updateMinutes":100,"updateUnits":"min","lastUpdateTime":1595171411756,"lastDownloadTime":1595120362536,"updatePeriod":"","updateFrequency":"","updateBase":""},"category":{"enabled":false,"prefixEnabled":false,"prefix":""}}" xmlUrl="https://activistteacher.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default" htmlUrl="https://www.blogger.com/feeds/418581095311857454/posts/default"/></outline>
<outline title="Binnall of America">
<outline type="rss" title="Binnall of America" text="Binnall of America" version="RSS" fz:quickMode="false" fz:options="{"version":2,"updates":{"enabled":true,"updateMinutes":100,"updateUnits":"min","lastUpdateTime":1595171410602,"lastDownloadTime":1594663034287,"updatePeriod":"hourly","updateFrequency":"1","updateBase":""},"category":{"enabled":false,"prefixEnabled":false,"prefix":""}}" xmlUrl="http://www.binnallofamerica.com/feed/" htmlUrl="http://www.binnallofamerica.com"/></outline>
<outline title="Breitbart News">
<outline type="rss" title="Breitbart News" text="Breitbart News" version="RSS" fz:quickMode="false" fz:options="{"version":2,"updates":{"enabled":true,"updateMinutes":10080,"updateUnits":"d","lastUpdateTime":1595171413206,"lastDownloadTime":1595171413206,"updatePeriod":"hourly","updateFrequency":"12","updateBase":""},"category":{"enabled":false,"prefixEnabled":false,"prefix":""}}" xmlUrl="https://feeds.feedburner.com/breitbart" htmlUrl="https://www.breitbart.com"/></outline>
<outline title="CHD Mailing List"/>
<outline title="Democracy Now! (501 c 3 non-profit)">
<outline type="rss" title="Democracy Now!" text="Democracy Now!" version="RSS" fz:quickMode="false" fz:options="{"version":2,"updates":{"enabled":true,"updateMinutes":10080,"updateUnits":"d","lastUpdateTime":1595171413470,"lastDownloadTime":1595120364792,"updatePeriod":"","updateFrequency":"","updateBase":""},"category":{"enabled":false,"prefixEnabled":false,"prefix":""}}" xmlUrl="https://www.democracynow.org/democracynow.rss" htmlUrl="http://www.democracynow.org/"/></outline>
<outline title="Dig Within (Kevin Ryan 911)">
<outline type="rss" title="Dig Within" text="Dig Within" version="RSS" fz:quickMode="false" fz:options="{"version":2,"updates":{"enabled":true,"updateMinutes":100,"updateUnits":"min","lastUpdateTime":1595171409761,"lastDownloadTime":1591195847882,"updatePeriod":"hourly","updateFrequency":"1","updateBase":""},"category":{"enabled":false,"prefixEnabled":false,"prefix":""}}" xmlUrl="https://digwithin.net/feed/" htmlUrl="https://digwithin.net"/></outline>
<outline title="gunsandbutter - Guns and Butter (Bonnie Faulkner)">
<outline type="rss" title="gunsandbutter - Guns and Butter" text="gunsandbutter - Guns and Butter" version="RSS" fz:quickMode="false" fz:options="{"version":2,"updates":{"enabled":true,"updateMinutes":100,"updateUnits":"min","lastUpdateTime":1595171420850,"lastDownloadTime":1593704215948,"updatePeriod":"hourly","updateFrequency":"1","updateBase":""},"category":{"enabled":false,"prefixEnabled":false,"prefix":""}}" xmlUrl="http://gunsandbutter.org/blog/rss" htmlUrl="http://gunsandbutter.org"/></outline>
<outline title="Health and Coronavirus">
<outline title="Anthrax Vaccine -- posts by Meryl Nass, MD">
<outline type="rss" title="Anthrax Vaccine -- posts by Meryl Nass, M.D." text="Anthrax Vaccine -- posts by Meryl Nass, M.D." version="RSS" fz:quickMode="false" fz:options="{"version":2,"updates":{"enabled":true,"updateMinutes":100,"updateUnits":"min","lastUpdateTime":1595171412197,"lastDownloadTime":1595120362816,"updatePeriod":"","updateFrequency":"","updateBase":""},"category":{"enabled":false,"prefixEnabled":false,"prefix":""}}" xmlUrl="https://anthraxvaccine.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default" htmlUrl="https://www.blogger.com/feeds/6592607595936297457/posts/default"/></outline>
<outline title="HIVAIDS Skepticism (Henry Bauer)">
<outline type="rss" title="HIV/AIDS Skepticism" text="HIV/AIDS Skepticism" version="RSS" fz:quickMode="false" fz:options="{"version":2,"updates":{"enabled":true,"updateMinutes":100,"updateUnits":"min","lastUpdateTime":1595171409767,"lastDownloadTime":null,"updatePeriod":"hourly","updateFrequency":"1","updateBase":""},"category":{"enabled":false,"prefixEnabled":false,"prefix":""}}" xmlUrl="https://hivskeptic.wordpress.com/feed/" htmlUrl="https://hivskeptic.wordpress.com"/></outline>
<outline title="The Infectious Myth (David Crowe)">
<outline type="rss" title="The Infectious Myth" text="The Infectious Myth" version="RSS" fz:quickMode="false" fz:options="{"version":2,"updates":{"enabled":true,"updateMinutes":100,"updateUnits":"min","lastUpdateTime":1595171412134,"lastDownloadTime":1595120362413,"updatePeriod":"","updateFrequency":"","updateBase":""},"category":{"enabled":false,"prefixEnabled":false,"prefix":""}}" xmlUrl="https://infectiousmyth.podbean.com/feed.xml" htmlUrl="https://infectiousmyth.podbean.com"/></outline></outline>
<outline title="In This Together Mailing List"/>
<outline title="Journeyman TV Mailing List"/>
<outline title="Just The News - Not The Noise (John Solomon)">
<outline type="rss" title="Just The News - Not The Noise" text="Just The News - Not The Noise" version="RSS" fz:quickMode="false" fz:options="{"version":2,"updates":{"enabled":true,"updateMinutes":10080,"updateUnits":"d","lastUpdateTime":1595171411867,"lastDownloadTime":1595171411867,"updatePeriod":"","updateFrequency":"","updateBase":""},"category":{"enabled":false,"prefixEnabled":false,"prefix":""}}" xmlUrl="https://justthenews.com/rss.xml" htmlUrl="https://justthenews.com/"/></outline>
<outline title="Last American Vagabond Mailing List"/>
<outline title="Lew Rockwell Mailing List"/>
<outline title="Making Sense with Sam Harris">
<outline type="rss" title="Making Sense with Sam Harris" text="Making Sense with Sam Harris" version="RSS" fz:quickMode="false" fz:options="{"version":2,"updates":{"enabled":true,"updateMinutes":100,"updateUnits":"min","lastUpdateTime":1595171410651,"lastDownloadTime":1595012600076,"updatePeriod":"","updateFrequency":"","updateBase":""},"category":{"enabled":false,"prefixEnabled":false,"prefix":""}}" xmlUrl="https://wakingup.libsyn.com/rss" htmlUrl="http://www.samharris.org"/></outline>
<outline title="Michael Prescott's Blog">
<outline type="rss" title="Michael Prescott's Blog" text="Michael Prescott's Blog" version="RSS" fz:quickMode="false" fz:options="{"version":2,"updates":{"enabled":true,"updateMinutes":100,"updateUnits":"min","lastUpdateTime":1595171410518,"lastDownloadTime":1594681065267,"updatePeriod":"","updateFrequency":"","updateBase":""},"category":{"enabled":false,"prefixEnabled":false,"prefix":""}}" xmlUrl="https://michaelprescott.typepad.com/michael_prescotts_blog/atom.xml" htmlUrl="https://michaelprescott.typepad.com/michael_prescotts_blog/atom.xml"/></outline>
<outline title="NYT US News (New York Times)">
<outline type="rss" title="NYT > U.S. News" text="NYT > U.S. News" version="RSS" fz:quickMode="false" fz:options="{"version":2,"updates":{"enabled":true,"updateMinutes":10080,"updateUnits":"d","lastUpdateTime":1595171411871,"lastDownloadTime":1595171411871,"updatePeriod":"","updateFrequency":"","updateBase":""},"category":{"enabled":false,"prefixEnabled":false,"prefix":""}}" xmlUrl="https://rss.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/US.xml" htmlUrl="https://www.nytimes.com/section/us"/></outline>
<outline title="Physics News - Physics News, Material Sciences, Science News, Physics">
<outline type="rss" title="Physics News - Physics News, Material Sciences, Science News, Physics" text="Physics News - Physics News, Material Sciences, Science News, Physics" version="RSS" fz:quickMode="false" fz:options="{"version":2,"updates":{"enabled":true,"updateMinutes":10080,"updateUnits":"d","lastUpdateTime":1595171412724,"lastDownloadTime":1595120364093,"updatePeriod":"","updateFrequency":"","updateBase":""},"category":{"enabled":false,"prefixEnabled":false,"prefix":""}}" xmlUrl="https://phys.org/rss-feed/breaking/physics-news/" htmlUrl="https://phys.org/physics-news/"/></outline>
<outline title="Radio Misterioso (Greg Bishop)">
<outline type="rss" title="Radio Misterioso" text="Radio Misterioso" version="RSS" fz:quickMode="false" fz:options="{"version":2,"updates":{"enabled":true,"updateMinutes":100,"updateUnits":"min","lastUpdateTime":1595171415144,"lastDownloadTime":1595120367751,"updatePeriod":"hourly","updateFrequency":"1","updateBase":""},"category":{"enabled":false,"prefixEnabled":false,"prefix":""}}" xmlUrl="http://radiomisterioso.com/feed/" htmlUrl="http://radiomisterioso.com"/></outline>
<outline title="Sam Husseini">
<outline type="rss" title="Sam Husseini" text="Sam Husseini" version="RSS" fz:quickMode="false" fz:options="{"version":2,"updates":{"enabled":true,"updateMinutes":100,"updateUnits":"min","lastUpdateTime":1595171412486,"lastDownloadTime":1595120363801,"updatePeriod":"","updateFrequency":"","updateBase":""},"category":{"enabled":false,"prefixEnabled":false,"prefix":""}}" xmlUrl="http://husseini.posthaven.com/posts.atom" htmlUrl="https://husseini.posthaven.com/posts.atom"/></outline>
<outline title="Scientific American News">
<outline type="rss" title="Scientific American News" text="Scientific American News" version="RSS" fz:quickMode="false" fz:options="{"version":2,"updates":{"enabled":true,"updateMinutes":10080,"updateUnits":"d","lastUpdateTime":1595171412194,"lastDownloadTime":1595120362976,"updatePeriod":"","updateFrequency":"","updateBase":""},"category":{"enabled":false,"prefixEnabled":false,"prefix":""}}" xmlUrl="http://rss.sciam.com/ScientificAmerican-News?format=xml" htmlUrl="https://www.scientificamerican.com/section/news/"/></outline>
<outline title="Scott Horton Show - Just the Interviews">
<outline type="rss" title="Scott Horton Show - Just the Interviews" text="Scott Horton Show - Just the Interviews" version="RSS" fz:quickMode="false" fz:options="{"version":2,"updates":{"enabled":true,"updateMinutes":100,"updateUnits":"min","lastUpdateTime":1595171410513,"lastDownloadTime":1595094717161,"updatePeriod":"hourly","updateFrequency":"1","updateBase":""},"category":{"enabled":false,"prefixEnabled":false,"prefix":""}}" xmlUrl="https://scotthorton.org/feed/podcast/" htmlUrl="https://scotthorton.org/"/></outline>
<outline title="Sharyl Attkisson (Sinclair Broadcast Group)">
<outline type="rss" title="Sharyl Attkisson" text="Sharyl Attkisson" version="RSS" fz:quickMode="false" fz:options="{"version":2,"updates":{"enabled":true,"updateMinutes":10080,"updateUnits":"d","lastUpdateTime":1595171411171,"lastDownloadTime":1595171411171,"updatePeriod":"hourly","updateFrequency":"1","updateBase":""},"category":{"enabled":true,"prefixEnabled":false,"prefix":""}}" xmlUrl="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SharylAttkisson" htmlUrl="https://sharylattkisson.com"/></outline>
<outline title="Skepticism about science and medicine (Henry Bauer)">
<outline type="rss" title="Skepticism about science and medicine" text="Skepticism about science and medicine" version="RSS" fz:quickMode="false" fz:options="{"version":2,"updates":{"enabled":true,"updateMinutes":100,"updateUnits":"min","lastUpdateTime":1595171409906,"lastDownloadTime":1594750317878,"updatePeriod":"hourly","updateFrequency":"1","updateBase":""},"category":{"enabled":false,"prefixEnabled":false,"prefix":""}}" xmlUrl="https://scimedskeptic.wordpress.com/feed/" htmlUrl="https://scimedskeptic.wordpress.com"/></outline>
<outline title="Skeptiko – Science at the Tipping Point (Alex Tsakiris)">
<outline type="rss" title="Skeptiko – Science at the Tipping Point" text="Skeptiko – Science at the Tipping Point" version="RSS" fz:quickMode="false" fz:options="{"version":2,"updates":{"enabled":true,"updateMinutes":100,"updateUnits":"min","lastUpdateTime":1595171410980,"lastDownloadTime":1594738237557,"updatePeriod":"hourly","updateFrequency":"1","updateBase":""},"category":{"enabled":false,"prefixEnabled":false,"prefix":""}}" xmlUrl="https://skeptiko.com/feed" htmlUrl="https://skeptiko.com"/></outline>
<outline title="Test Mailing List Folder"/>
<outline title="The Corbett Report">
<outline type="rss" title="The Corbett Report" text="The Corbett Report" version="RSS" fz:quickMode="false" fz:options="{"version":2,"updates":{"enabled":true,"updateMinutes":10080,"updateUnits":"d","lastUpdateTime":1595171411288,"lastDownloadTime":1595120360411,"updatePeriod":"hourly","updateFrequency":"1","updateBase":""},"category":{"enabled":false,"prefixEnabled":false,"prefix":""}}" xmlUrl="http://feeds.feedburner.com/CorbettReportRSS" htmlUrl="https://www.corbettreport.com"/></outline>
<outline title="The Intercept (Pierre Omidyar et al)">
<outline type="rss" title="The Intercept" text="The Intercept" version="RSS" fz:quickMode="false" fz:options="{"version":2,"updates":{"enabled":true,"updateMinutes":10080,"updateUnits":"d","lastUpdateTime":1595171412717,"lastDownloadTime":1595171412717,"updatePeriod":"hourly","updateFrequency":"1","updateBase":""},"category":{"enabled":false,"prefixEnabled":false,"prefix":""}}" xmlUrl="https://theintercept.com/feed/?mk=fl_is_on_feature_page&mv=1" htmlUrl="https://theintercept.com"/></outline>
<outline title="The Last American Vagabond">
<outline type="rss" title="The Last American Vagabond" text="The Last American Vagabond" version="RSS" fz:quickMode="false" fz:options="{"version":2,"updates":{"enabled":null,"updateMinutes":100,"updateUnits":"min","lastUpdateTime":1593653460494,"lastDownloadTime":1593477155705,"updatePeriod":"hourly","updateFrequency":"1","updateBase":""},"category":{"enabled":false,"prefixEnabled":false,"prefix":""}}" xmlUrl="https://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/feed" htmlUrl="https://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com"/></outline>
<outline title="The Ripple Effect Podcast (Ricky Varandas)">
<outline type="rss" title="The Ripple Effect Podcast" text="The Ripple Effect Podcast" version="RSS" fz:quickMode="false" fz:options="{"version":2,"updates":{"enabled":true,"updateMinutes":100,"updateUnits":"min","lastUpdateTime":1595171425715,"lastDownloadTime":1594786601947,"updatePeriod":"","updateFrequency":"","updateBase":""},"category":{"enabled":false,"prefixEnabled":false,"prefix":""}}" xmlUrl="https://rvtheory6.podomatic.com/rss2.xml" htmlUrl="https://rvtheory6.podomatic.com"/></outline>
<outline title="The Whistleblower Newsroom (Kristina Borjesson and Celia Farber)">
<outline type="rss" title="The Whistleblower Newsroom" text="The Whistleblower Newsroom" version="RSS" fz:quickMode="false" fz:options="{"version":2,"updates":{"enabled":true,"updateMinutes":100,"updateUnits":"min","lastUpdateTime":1595171414527,"lastDownloadTime":1595120367086,"updatePeriod":"","updateFrequency":"","updateBase":""},"category":{"enabled":false,"prefixEnabled":false,"prefix":""}}" xmlUrl="https://thewhistleblowernewsroom.podbean.com/feed.xml" htmlUrl="https://thewhistleblowernewsroom.podbean.com"/></outline>
<outline title="Upon Closer inspection (Norman Matloff)">
<outline type="rss" title="Upon Closer inspection" text="Upon Closer inspection" version="RSS" fz:quickMode="false" fz:options="{"version":2,"updates":{"enabled":true,"updateMinutes":100,"updateUnits":"min","lastUpdateTime":1595171409944,"lastDownloadTime":1593704206757,"updatePeriod":"hourly","updateFrequency":"1","updateBase":""},"category":{"enabled":false,"prefixEnabled":false,"prefix":""}}" xmlUrl="https://normsaysno.wordpress.com/feed/" htmlUrl="https://normsaysno.wordpress.com"/></outline>
<outline title="Wall Street Journal Opinion">
<outline type="rss" title="RSSOpinion" text="RSSOpinion" version="RSS" fz:quickMode="false" fz:options="{"version":2,"updates":{"enabled":true,"updateMinutes":10080,"updateUnits":"d","lastUpdateTime":1595171410888,"lastDownloadTime":1595123437409,"updatePeriod":"","updateFrequency":"","updateBase":""},"category":{"enabled":false,"prefixEnabled":false,"prefix":""}}" xmlUrl="https://feeds.a.dj.com/rss/RSSOpinion.xml" htmlUrl="http://online.wsj.com/page/2_0006.html"/></outline>
<outline title="WSJcom US Business">
<outline type="rss" title="WSJ.com: US Business" text="WSJ.com: US Business" version="RSS" fz:quickMode="false" fz:options="{"version":2,"updates":{"enabled":true,"updateMinutes":10080,"updateUnits":"d","lastUpdateTime":1595171412044,"lastDownloadTime":1595171412044,"updatePeriod":"","updateFrequency":"","updateBase":""},"category":{"enabled":false,"prefixEnabled":false,"prefix":""}}" xmlUrl="https://feeds.a.dj.com/rss/WSJcomUSBusiness.xml" htmlUrl="http://online.wsj.com"/></outline>
<outline title="WSJcom World News">
<outline type="rss" title="WSJ.com: World News" text="WSJ.com: World News" version="RSS" fz:quickMode="false" fz:options="{"version":2,"updates":{"enabled":true,"updateMinutes":10080,"updateUnits":"d","lastUpdateTime":1595171411230,"lastDownloadTime":1595171411230,"updatePeriod":"","updateFrequency":"","updateBase":""},"category":{"enabled":false,"prefixEnabled":false,"prefix":""}}" xmlUrl="https://feeds.a.dj.com/rss/RSSWorldNews.xml" htmlUrl="http://online.wsj.com/page/2_0006.html"/></outline>
</body>
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Conclusion
Thunderbird and similar personal communication program that support RSS News Feeds, email, and search offer a solution to rapidly escalating Internet Censorship. It is not perfect and better solutions are surely possible. It is however readily available, proven, well established, largely decentralized technology.
To defeat the dangerous consequences of Internet Censorship the concerned public needs to collect and share diverse lists of sources, lists of RSS News Feeds, etc. rather than individual links (URLs), emotive meme images, and so forth. Only by listening to all the blind men can we figure out what the elephant is.
(C) 2020 by John F. McGowan, Ph.D.
About Me
John F. McGowan, Ph.D. solves problems using mathematics and mathematical software, including developing gesture recognition for touch devices, video compression and speech recognition technologies. He has extensive experience developing software in C, C++, MATLAB, Python, Visual Basic and many other programming languages. He has been a Visiting Scholar at HP Labs developing computer vision algorithms and software for mobile devices. He has worked as a contractor at NASA Ames Research Center involved in the research and development of image and video processing algorithms and technology. He has published articles on the origin and evolution of life, the exploration of Mars (anticipating the discovery of methane on Mars), and cheap access to space. He has a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a B.S. in physics from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).
Super Cheap Case to Stop Your Phone from Spying on You
How to make a durable good looking cheap secure case for your phone to stop it from spying on you using tape, aluminum foil, a ruler, and scissors — readily available cheap household items. Cost: less than one dollar if you already have the supplies. DIY Time: 15-60 minutes.
John F. McGowan, Ph.D. solves problems using mathematics and mathematical software, including developing gesture recognition for touch devices, video compression and speech recognition technologies. He has extensive experience developing software in C, C++, MATLAB, Python, Visual Basic and many other programming languages. He has been a Visiting Scholar at HP Labs developing computer vision algorithms and software for mobile devices. He has worked as a contractor at NASA Ames Research Center involved in the research and development of image and video processing algorithms and technology. He has published articles on the origin and evolution of life, the exploration of Mars (anticipating the discovery of methane on Mars), and cheap access to space. He has a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a B.S. in physics from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).
This is a long video (just over 1 hour) demonstrating how to make a visually appealing moderately durable secure case (aka Faraday Bag) to stop your phone from spying on you and tracking you from common materials: aluminum foil, tape, felt or other cloth, and hot-melt glue. The case will block communication with the cellular network and other radio networks.
John F. McGowan, Ph.D. solves problems using mathematics and mathematical software, including developing gesture recognition for touch devices, video compression and speech recognition technologies. He has extensive experience developing software in C, C++, MATLAB, Python, Visual Basic and many other programming languages. He has been a Visiting Scholar at HP Labs developing computer vision algorithms and software for mobile devices. He has worked as a contractor at NASA Ames Research Center involved in the research and development of image and video processing algorithms and technology. He has published articles on the origin and evolution of life, the exploration of Mars (anticipating the discovery of methane on Mars), and cheap access to space. He has a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a B.S. in physics from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).
DIY How to Stop Your Phone from Spying on You (Video)
Demonstrates how to make a DIY secure case (Faraday Bag) from aluminum foil and other readily available materials. The DIY case isolates your phone or other smart device from the cellular and other radio networks, preventing the phone from spying on you and tracking you.
John F. McGowan, Ph.D. solves problems using mathematics and mathematical software, including developing gesture recognition for touch devices, video compression and speech recognition technologies. He has extensive experience developing software in C, C++, MATLAB, Python, Visual Basic and many other programming languages. He has been a Visiting Scholar at HP Labs developing computer vision algorithms and software for mobile devices. He has worked as a contractor at NASA Ames Research Center involved in the research and development of image and video processing algorithms and technology. He has published articles on the origin and evolution of life, the exploration of Mars (anticipating the discovery of methane on Mars), and cheap access to space. He has a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a B.S. in physics from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).
How to Stop Your Phone from Spying on You? Demonstrates methods to isolate your phone from cellular and other radio networks while keeping the phone easily accessible for emergencies or other special cases.
Products Demonstrated:
Secure Case (Faraday Bag): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01HETGX00/
John F. McGowan, Ph.D. solves problems using mathematics and mathematical software, including developing gesture recognition for touch devices, video compression and speech recognition technologies. He has extensive experience developing software in C, C++, MATLAB, Python, Visual Basic and many other programming languages. He has been a Visiting Scholar at HP Labs developing computer vision algorithms and software for mobile devices. He has worked as a contractor at NASA Ames Research Center involved in the research and development of image and video processing algorithms and technology. He has published articles on the origin and evolution of life, the exploration of Mars (anticipating the discovery of methane on Mars), and cheap access to space. He has a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a B.S. in physics from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).
John F. McGowan, Ph.D. solves problems using mathematics and mathematical software, including developing gesture recognition for touch devices, video compression and speech recognition technologies. He has extensive experience developing software in C, C++, MATLAB, Python, Visual Basic and many other programming languages. He has been a Visiting Scholar at HP Labs developing computer vision algorithms and software for mobile devices. He has worked as a contractor at NASA Ames Research Center involved in the research and development of image and video processing algorithms and technology. He has published articles on the origin and evolution of life, the exploration of Mars (anticipating the discovery of methane on Mars), and cheap access to space. He has a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a B.S. in physics from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).
