Private Policing organisations
The internet enjoys freedom of censorship and control, well free for the most part, I say for the most part as this site is under the scrutiny of the U.S. Military machine and I have no doubt the secret services of the US and UK. (US military IP 26.0.0.0 – 26.255.255.255)
Yes there are criminals who use the internet, I hear you say, but criminals use cell phones, they also use computers, they also use laptops and tablets, criminals also use motor cars and buses. But that does not mean Internet is criminal, or cars are criminal or phones are criminal, only the ones who use these great tools for criminal purposes are criminal. So remember, this when you’re digging your garden, you are a criminal as they use spades to bury murder victims too.
To blame the internet for crime is quite bluntly, stupid and shows pure ignorance and those who think so please leave the planet now, you are not required. As for policing the internet, it is policed by law enforcement agencies and private police agencies.
It is these private uncontrolled agencies that worry me, they are more dangerous than any dictator or enforced ruler, they are as bad if not worse than those who use scare tactics to obtain public obedience, control and compliance.
The private police fall into three categories;
- A company or professional body (generally a money-making exercise).
- Egoist dream (commonly know as a wannabe, their ego’s write cheques the body can’t cash).
- A collective of knowledge (acquired through actions of perpetrators not theories).
I belong to one of the number one category and several memberships of number 3 category. The first is an organisation (company) that has written a plug-in for the Firefox browser and others, that will alert you if a site is malignant, in malware, scams, child welfare or privacy. That’s good you say, yes in theory it is, but if the tag for a site is bad yet its a harmless site or service then it’s far from good, its worse than not there at all.
I have come across two reported bad sites that were listed on this popular plug-in as MALWARE SITES. One site is a text only output of local council housing record of dwellings in UK (council is local government). How on earth this got listed as Malware and dangerous to children is beyond comprehension.
But worse yet is a particular contributor of this service (I use the term service very loosely), has now listed the privacy.org as a malware site that is and I quote, “Hiding criminals and has malware software’s”. ???
Interestingly enough,as a contributor to this service once you have reported a certain number of sites you can acquire a program that will bulk search and report (goes against what it’s all about really, meant to be reports of findings).
Because the person who listed it has this theory, (its only a theory he has) only a criminal would hide their real identity if they have a domain, as it’s for criminal use. Before I explain a little further about how domains work and the machinery behind them, I asked if he thinks its so wrong to hide behind privacy when holding a domain, why does he use a handle when he posts comments and ratings about the privacy site. OK this is how a website and/or domains work.
If you want a website like this one, you think of a name that is close to what the site is about (company name or your site about the cat rescue that you run). You then find out if it’s already in use and if not you register your domain name with a registrar, this is normally in the country or region where you live, but is not mandatory. Under international laws and agreements you must have a valid name (checkable and verifiable) address (again genuine) and telephone number, this is a legal requirement.
So for example Mary Poppins who lives alone has a domain called cats-r-us.org. her name address and telephone number is now public knowledge world-wide, UNLESS, she uses a privacy service. She according to this moron is a criminal because she wants to protect herself from deranged idiots who will (Guaranteed) prey on her and either stalk her, telephone her, mail and email her or all of the above.
Don’t think this will happen? No? Look at the page at the top of this site called Trevor Muirhead – Internet menace. Do you think I would have any peace and tranquillity if this madman got my telephone number, address etc. I had to move home because of this idiot, so this service is for protecting people, got that!
But people will install this plug-in and get a false rep from this bad unregulated police organisation, because the ones who supply information to its database are basing this on unverified statements.
The second organisation type is one I had some experience with a few years ago. I run a gaming squad (also with a website) game servers and we are known as a battle squad or clan. We were approached by another squad who’s website was full of lets ban these people and spread the word etc. We were asked if we would like to subscribe, after joining the forums to this site and posting one or two messages, I and others came to the conclusion that this squad doesn’t actually play any games or have game servers either hosted or rented. The whole thing was the ego of one person, I and the squad declined and his subsequent actions led other squads who had joined them to drop out.
The third is the collective types and I am a member of 4-5 of these. The mission is all about knowledge sharing and protecting, no policing or going after them, only share the hacker spammer actions and keep them out of the forum or Blog. The three main ones are Project Honeypot, stopforumspam and spambot. They are a collective of knowledge and has to be sought after, and used by webmasters to keep comment spammers and email harvester away from websites.