I used my debit card, and I was on my home phone a few times, plus on the net and chatting on Skype. I didn’t take my cell phone with me when I went out - ha! that’ll fool them.
The Smoke?
Pretty traceable. I need to get behind a server but it costs money. I can’t stand being hacked and offline for days but that is just how it is.
Someone got through my firewall and shut down my anti virus programs, opened up an account on my ISP, erased my address book and Comcast took care of it. I think it was someone from Nigeria because I was getting a lot of spam?
My sons house was broken into twice in the last two weeks so today we installed a Front Point cellular alarm system where he can view anything happening in his home from his cell phone at work. He works nights and they broke in the door so we had dead bolts installed and a motion detector. It goes right to the police station if there is a break in of any door.
Stay safe online and off!
Well firstly, the nanobots in the straightdope weblink reported to the All-Seeing-Eye as soon as I logged on. They lost me for a bit when I logged off to go to the grocery, but found me again as I bought hot deli fried chicken and Fat Squirrel beer and paid with a credit card.
I came home and turned the TV on and was spotted by the backwards camera that inhabits all Simpson’s episodes. It lost me again as I switched to PBS because, as we all know, PBS can’t get enough contributions to afford serious spy technology.
I have a trakphone instead of a real cellphone, so I doubt I can be found through that, except by the FamilyDollar cosortium, and they just don’t care as long as I occasionally buy more minutes from them and don’t complain that they only sell Coke products.
So, all in all, I think I’m pretty safe. (With the exception of my nosey neighbors, but that is another tale.)
Was home and on the computer this morning but spouse has the ability to log on so…
Went to 3 stores. I used my debit card at one. Car was scanned at a toll booth with our EZPass, which (I think) also takes a picture of the car.
Oh, and I think she did it but I called it the day the poor kid went missing.
How do you people feel about being able to be traced? I’d like to live as much as possible without being tracable.
I hate it with a red hot passion, but what am I gonna do? I’m single. I’m unemployed. I don’t contribute to political campaigns. Even on this messageboard, I’m basically a threadkiller… I want to scream and fight and say ‘this is wrong at its base, a society based on the assumption that people are evil and need to be watched is wrong!’, but I am powerless and alone…
I am not a number, I am a free man!
I don’t like to be traced, but with stores having cameras it’s nearly impossible to escape. One cool thing I found out in a small mom and pop store I sometimes go to is their video surveillance. Four times and hour it uploads their video to a central server. This means if the crooks come in and bust up the video camera there is still a good chance their faces are on the tape.
In a way it’s the protection of the herd. Unless I do something to cause myself to get “on the radar” of the Powers That Trace, why would it matter? I’d be just another mackerel in the ball of 15,000,000+ fish that swarm around the NYC metro area on any given day.
I’d trade “off the grid anonymity” for the instant access to communications and information afforded by my smart phone, even if it weren’t for the fact that my job requires me to use a computer with a secure login (i.e., logged and traceable) as well as carry a BlackBerry.
I have a cell but it’s turned off, I tend to leave it off during the day unless I need to make a call.
I bought lunch this morning and paid with a debit card.
Been on the computer.
That’s about it.
(bolding mine)
Lucky me, I have AT&T so it’s anyone’s guess where I am. 
Spent several hours on the computer.
Drove a car equipped with OnStar.
Carried a cell phone that was turned on all the time.
Regarding OnStar. Mine is the old analog version. The car keeps reminding me to have it upgraded to digital, and I keep telling it to. . . well never mind that part. 
The questions is, can I still be tracked through OnStar? Is there passive tracking going on? Or would it just be if they needed to find the car, or track my movements?
If it’s passive, and still constant, then I am seldom more than 100 yards from my car, and therefore totally trackable for at least the last 6 years.
I’m a true crime buff and what gets me is when I read these cases is how many STUPID people get caught because they don’t realize cell phones can be traced.
I do wonder and one of the reasons I started this thread was to get people thinking. I bet in reality you are a LOT more traceable than you think.
For instance, I recall during the anthrax scare, one of the women who died from it, she had her entire day traced through her New York City Metro (public transit) card. Till then I never really realized that the cards were that traceable. (We have a simlar thing in Chicago).