Random Scary Internet Conspiracy Theories (15 items)

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  (#12) The Great Firewall of China

  China’s Golden Shield Project is an ongoing effort to track, watch, and log everything China’s billion citizens do on the Internet – when it’s not simply blocking them from going where they want. The “Great Firewall of China” prohibits users from doing anything that might “harm national security; disclose state secrets; or injure the interests of the state or society, […] create, replicate, retrieve, or transmit information that incites resistance to the PRC Constitution, laws, or administrative regulations; promote the overthrow of the government or socialist system; undermines national unification; distort the truth, spread rumors, or destroy social order; or provide sexually suggestive material or encourage gambling, violence, or murder.”

  Needless to say, this can be interpreted to be just about anything, leading to an odious amount of censorship.
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  (#15) SIRI Knows When the World Is Going to End

  In late 2013, a rumor started going around that SIRI, the iOS navigator on the Apple iPhone, had predicted the date for the end of the world - July 27, 2014, to be exact. Users asked what that date was, and Siri responded with the chilling message “Opening Gates of Hades.”

  Further research showed that this had nothing to do with the Biblical concept of hell, but of Ghost Day, the traditional Chinese festival dedicated to the spirits of ancestors coming up from the lower realms. This always takes place on the fifteenth day of the seventh month in the lunar calendar – which happened to be July 27th in 2014. “Gates of Hades” is just a poor translation of the concept.
  
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  (#7) Superfish

  Your computer almost certainly either has been or is currently infected with some kind of ad-serving malware that broadcasts your personal information and passwords, and makes you vulnerable to serious hack attacks. This is the lesson of the Superfish debacle, when computer manufacturer Lenovo took a very public punch in the mouth after being exposed for installing this visual shopping adware on its recent computer models.

  Users were unaware that the software had been included, or that it was making it possible for ads to be placed on secure websites, and passwords from those sites to be intercepted and downloaded by third parties. The risk was so great that the Department of Homeland Security advised users uninstall the root kit and delete its accompanying certificates, due to the risk it posed for an organized cyber attack from another country.
  
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  (#11) Telematics

  Employers have long had the ability to monitor every keystroke their employees make on work computers. But the fairly new data science of telematics takes that monitoring one step further. It allows your boss to calculate and develop metrics for every single thing you do at work, developing algorithms for service oriented positions that can determine how much you work, what you make, and even if you keep your job.

  Telematics monitors, logs, and tracks how long it takes to edit a document, serve a customer, whether you upsell, if you have to ring something up twice, or even how many steps you take in an office. All of this data is stored, and can easily be hacked into – when it’s not being used to determine your workplace destiny.
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  (#2) Utah Data Center

  A gigantic data storage center designed to track everything you do in cyberspace, located in the middle of nowhere with a creepy name and an officially classified mission? Sounds like the stuff of conspiracy theorist nightmares – but it’s a real place. Officially named the Intelligence Community Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative Data Center, but better-known as the Utah Data Center, this million square foot complex cost over $2 billion to build, and can store as much as 12 billion gigabytes of information.

  What information does it store? If you believe the Edward Snowden disclosures, everything you do on the Internet and a log of every call you make or receive. Reactions to the sheer size, scope, and creepiness of the Utah Data Center have included protestors flying drones over it and Utah lawmakers proposing bills to cut off its water supply – all activities that are no doubt being logged and stored in the Utah Data Center.
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  (#10) Net Neutrality Is a Government Takeover of the Internet

  Is the 2015 Net Neutrality legislation, which will ensure the Internet is regulated like a utility, as opposed allowing service providers to throttle down speeds or block access to certain sites, actually a backdoor takeover by the government?

  Many opponents of the legislation believe so, calling it a “federal takeover” and a draconian measure that will lead to bureaucrats deciding where you can do, what you can download and what speeds at which you can do it. However, net neutrality supporters see it as the opposite of this – a codified continuation of the free and open Internet we have now.
  

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