Random Scary Internet Conspiracy Theories (15 items)

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  (#5) MonsterMind

  Buried in the disclosures made by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden was information about an experimental cyber defense system that could autonomously neutralize and retaliate against foreign cyber attacks against the US. Nicknamed MonsterMind, it’s supposedly the project that caused Snowden to make his initial disclosures, as he was disturbed by the idea of a self-regulating system that has no oversight and can fight back against anything that it deems a threat. Theoretically, it could be turned against ordinary citizens, or decide it doesn’t want to do what it’s supposed to do and rain nuclear missiles on all of us. Or something.

  Proponents of the idea believe that a “cyber missile defense system” is exactly what we should be investing in, stopping hack attacks before they happen, rather than playing catch-up and cleaning up the damage.
  
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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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  (#6) Doxing

  Personal information, such as addresses, social security numbers and private pictures, is put on the Internet so often that there’s a newly coined word for it: “doxing.” Often done as a way to take revenge, or as a simple prank (for the LOLz, as the kids say), doxing first became a serious issue in 2011 when the hacker group Anonymous put the identifying information of 7,000 law enforcement officers online, as a response to a crackdown on their activities.

  At other times, doxing has been used to identify Ku Klux Klan members, gun owners, prolific Twitter trolls, women in video game development and journalism, and even the formerly anonymous creator of bitcoins. Piss off the wrong person online, so the theory goes, and they’ll dox you.
  
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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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  (#13) China Is Taking Over the Internet

  Conspiracy theorists lit up with news in March 2014 that President Obama was going to be handing control of the Internet over to hostile regimes in Russia and China. The crux of the complaint was that the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which is the non-profit that controls Internet domain names and assignments, was going to become an independent corporation, free of US oversight, when its contract with the US government expired in late 2015.

  While Obama opponents and one-world-government types saw it as an unacceptable breach of US sovereignty, others pointed out that America does not, in fact, run the Internet.
  
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  (#9) The Internet Kill Switch

  The idea of one single command bringing down the entire Internet has been referenced in both national security and conspiracy theory circles. Language written in the Communications Act of 1934 gives the president the authority to suspend radio and telephone communications in a time of national crisis. Proponents of a “kill switch” for the Internet contend that there might be a time when such a crisis might prompt the shutdown of the Internet.

  Its opponents believe that a power-mad president could activate the kill switch to prevent dissent and nationalize the flow of information – and point to countries like Egypt where the exact same thing has happened. Such a kill switch doesn’t actually exist in the US, despite several years of debate about it.
  

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