When planning rebellions during dinner parties we always run the cold water tap just like my parents did in cold war days.
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Then again, it could be that all of the devices (Alexa, Smart Phones, Smart TVs) are made in China!
How about that?
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I will not wittingly buy anything made in China. Nothing against the chinese people per se - but I refuse to support a Communist regime.
As has been mentioned, I always knew that being on the internet is not anonymous, and you are a target from the commercial sector. Not always a problem as itās usually something you are interested in anyway, just a little bit annoying at times. But if you are being monitored by the business world, that you know about, what about the followers that you donāt know about. The establishment for exampleā¦When GCHQ can monitor conversations half way around the world, your living room would be easy pickings. And donāt underestimate the Russians. The Americans are not the only country who have spy satellites orbiting the earth capable of reading a newspaper on the street from several miles up in the sky. Try ordering some bomb making equipment or joining a patriotic organisation and see how long it would be before you get a knock at the door.
Not as free a country as you are led to believeā¦
So do you think we should be free to make bombs without the authorities poking their noses into our affairs, Foxy? 
I was going to say . . . I think that authorities keeping track of people doing harmful things has been going on way before smartphones. Regular phones are not impenetrable. And bugging devices arenāt unheard of.
If anything smartphones makes it harder because thereās so much noise. Itās harder to identify the threats if youāre monitoring innocuous things.
I know someone who has worked for both the military and the police intelligence services and he has told me what GCHQ themselves tell us - they can access data and content from mobile phones and devices but they need a reason to justify access - they donāt waste time listening in to every innocent conversation and staff are not allowed to access conversations on a whim - there would have to be a lead or an activity which triggered a reason to authorise investigation.
Being able to track people who are planning terror related activities is a good thing, in my book - and if an investigation into an observed suspicious-looking activity turns out to have an innocent explanation, with no crime being planned or committed, then no harm done.
Key Fact - Justifying Investigations
āBefore being able to use any of our databases, we must be able to justify our detective work. For each query that is run, the justification is recorded and can be audited.ā
āOur analysts must think about the threat they are investigating, which of GCHQās missions does it relate to? Is the investigation proportionate? Can they demonstrate the search is necessary to advance the investigation?ā
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