A Promise That I Keep

Home again. I had a great time in Northumberland. Although I admit, it can get a bit lonely, if you go to a place like Kielder alone. I spent a lot of time walking, and also, as I have stated before, I drove around to visit several sites. And, being in the north, I couldn't leave out Lindisfarne, could I?

It's really cool. especially on a stormy day!

Cragside

OK, I haven't blogged much lately, mostly because I had so much work,  I just couldn't get myself to blog. And stories? Oh, well. Still working on my first novel. I'm hopeful to see the thing finished by the end of the year. But no promises...

Now I'm on a holiday in Northumberland, and I must say: Good decision. Even during the bank holiday it wasn't overcrowded, the air is fantastic and it's wonderfully quiet. And did I mention there is no mobile signal here? So my boss can call as he wants, he won't be able to reach me. It might be a major inconvinience to the locals, but for me it's heaven. If you ever worked in the software industry, you know what I'm talking about.

I'm staying at a lovely inn near Kielder in the Kielder National Park.  Today, I went to see Cragside. Cragside  is one of the most magnificent houses of the Victorian Era.

How you are tracked on the internet

"You're good with computers, aren't you?" When I hear this question, I know that either someone wants their broken Macbook repaired for free, or -what has become a more frequent question lately- asks me about how this data collection stuff on the internet works.

In the wake of the revelations on NSA and GCHQ spy programs more people than ever have asked me about it, and how they can protect themselves. Therefore, I decided to do a blog article about it. I will not cover much of the secret service programs, because I don't know more than the newspapers. What GCHQ does is basically plugging into an overseas cable, and dumping all the data that comes through to a serious batch of hard-drives.

Now, what a about those data-gathering molochs such as Google and Facebook? They cannot just plug themselves into your internet cable, so how do they do it.
 They use different approaches to identify you on the internet, I can cover only a few of them in a humble blog-post, but I'll try.

 It is important, that identifying doesn't automatically mean, they now your name and home address. In the first step, it is only important to find you again. Getting your personal details can be done later, by combining the data.