Much has been written, twitted and youtubed about the extent to which the WTBTS may go in order to keep its members from peeking out of the box. From name calling, constantly telling members about the dangers of apostasy, all the way to DFing anyone who dares to look outside. Many tools and theories have been brought forward. The latest of this, has been the upcoming of new electronic means of distributing information. From the well known website, to mobile apps and electronic literature distribution, many wild theories have been put forth as to what is the real purpose behind it all.
While I am sure that the GB would not pass on any opportunities to root out defectors, lets not forget that, like any business, they also need to make new members. Keeping the current count is not a viable solution. All businesses, for profit or not, require a factor of growth in order to just survive, let alone thrive. I would ask that you keep this in mind as you read. I believe it is one of the key factors in understanding what might be going on at WT HQ.
Many people have feared of what could happen if they were to install the new apps on their mobile devices. Comments of potential spying and site tracking have been presented. Whie technically speaking (and only if strictly technically speaking), everything is possible, I will attempt to explain, from my IT background, what makes financial sense, which in the end, will tell the likelyhood of the WT of embarquing on some of the huge tasks of habit tracking.
To begin, lets take a quick look at the technical aspect of it. The internet of today, is a heavily distributed network, where hardly any single stream of information comes and goes on the same connection at the same time. The trend is to make this diversification even more complex. This is the very tactic that keeps the internet running smoothly and reliably, so we can only expect it to get worst. Depending on how you get your internet, chances are that the minute the information comes from or leaves your household, it takes a redundant route. And from here, it only gets more complex. Meaning that the route the information took to get to you, is not necessarily the same route it would take when it goes up grom your connection. Sometimes this can be even for your neighbor, who may have the same service as you, but his information may come and go from and to a complete different paths than yours. The point I am trying to make here is that it is really difficult to track information live. Having work for an ISP for over 10 years, I can tell you that it is a whole lot easier to do when you own your network, but this only allows to you to work with your own connections. I am pretty sure that not all JW use the same ISP.
This is why it is not far fetched to think that having an app made by them is about the easiest chance they get to peek into your privacy. This is true to some extent, and technically speaking, everything is possible, but not likely. This would be the most incidious form of spying on you. They could actually get to know every single word that you type on the device. Software that do this are found on the internet every second. They are called "Key loggers" and are usually part of virus programs. Hackers use this to capture your password and credit card numbers, among other things. Most times, however, antiviruses would pick this up and let you know. What is the likelyhod that the new apps are spying on you? I'll say close to none. See, for starters, the WTBTS needs to become a registered developer with the companies that develop the devices. This is in order to gain access to the developer tools and kits that are required to succesfully launch an app that actually works. From here, you may market your app indepedently from the device manufacturer, but the development interface still requires certain things. For the most parts, apps are not able to access all your information without permission. When, for example, you get a pop-up in your ipad that says "X app would like to access your photos", this is an example of the manufacturer requiring that apps ask for consent before accessing critical information. Such message is nor part of the app you develop but rather the system in the phone or tablet detects an unwarranted access. While this is not always flawless, any unkown breach or lack of check by the manufacturer, will be eventually corrected. Many years ago, an app came out that made it possible to turn your iphone into a wifi hotspot without paying extra. The app made use of a flaw in the IOS design that allowed for this without checking for payment. This was eventually discovered and the gap closed, rendering the app useless. In the other hand, if you do market your app over the, for example, apple store, then apple will first certify your app to be free of this issues. One of them being security and assuring that the app would not access information without your consent.
On another corner, you have the possibility of them capturing what you do while using the wifi at the KH. Here they have more lineancy. This is their turf now and they have more right than you do. However, they will eventually, for their own protection, have to provide you with a thing called "acceptable use policy". If they plan to continue letting publishers to use their wifi, they will need this. If they have not done so yet, it is proof that their IT IQ is far behind or disconnected from the legal aspects of what they are doing (By the way, the main point of my writting surround the technical/financial feasability, not legal). If they thing about it for just about 10 minutes, they will realize they might be shooting themselves in the foot by allowing anyone to use their wifi. All it takes if for one person to do something illegal, and get in trouble. The acceptable use policy would show that they have made you aware of the limitations on using it and thus providing certain level of protection for the org. Most times this are done electronically. Very much like when you log in to the free wifi at a hotel. You are redirected to a page (called a captive portal) where some of your information is collected in order to track you later if needed. This can be done off site too. For example, you could jump into the KH wifi, which will, upon first connecting, redirect you to a JW.ORG server for authentication. Here some information about your device will be collected. What other personal information is collected at this time is up to them, but they need to let you know (this would be part of the acceptable use policy). Here they could, without much effort, track the sites you visited. Their acceptable use policy would have to clarify which sites or type of sites are not allowed before they can question or ban your activity. They, however, would have to block the sites directly rather than come to you later asking for an explanation. This, however, would not stop them from questiioning a certain site on spiritual grounds, even if they did not provide you with an acceptable use policy. As you can see, this is very much a possibility, but who in the right mind would come visit apostate sites at the KH? I would not dare to use their wifi even to check the weather. If someone was to do something illegal, authorities could come around asking to check your device. This has happened to regular folks in their home. I can recall a news article from years ago where a person's home was broken into by the SWAT team. He reportebly downloaded tons of child porn. Upon further investigating his computer, they realized his wifi had no protection. Someone had been using his wifi to do this and he got the blame.
The above could be extended into your home. If you were to willingly allow your internet traffic to be scrutinized (as part of your spiritual e-shield LOL). In the very same token, you could have your wifi be setup the same as the KH. This, however, is not as easy. The KH can be required to acquire certain equipment that can be too expensive for your own use. It would not be the most effective way to keep track of your activity, specially when you can always say a relative was using it, visiting sites you would have not dare to visit. A second twist to this, could be if they offered to filter your traffic. This is much easier to achieve from a subcriber perspective. However, the amount infrastructure required on their end, may make this an undesirable option. They would basically need to create an internet of their own. Many governments do this, to some degree, but it has proven to be ineffective against those who are resolved to get thru it. Most JW may not have the tech know-how to avoid the system, but just as easy as one can follow instructions on how to get in on the sytem, someone could provide instructions on how to get out. They could do this filtering for you by means of a fee... sorry, donation. Giving them the financial support needed for the infrastructure but my feeling is that given the increasing number of witnesses that have embraced the internet, soon it would be too much of a burden for them to carry. Besides, they would have to give the option to filter or unfilter certain sites that you find objectable but they don't. You know, those that are left to your concious?
Last but not least, I am fairly sure that they are tracking your visits to their site. Chances are they are also getting a clue of what other sites you visit. Cookies and other tracking mechanisms can provide and summarize this information for them without much effort. This, however, can not be used to personally idenify you, unless there was a legal ground for it. Basically, you would have to have their infrastructure attacked (digitally) for them to use that information and demand, over the legal system, that your name and address be provided. Another cause would be if you were distributing their copyrighted material. But they would need electronic evidence of this. At most, with the current information that they are surely tracking on JW.ORG, they can probably tell what percentage of visitors have actually gone to apostate sites or watched porn before going to JW.ORG. What clothes you buy, what online channels you watch, what plans of travel you have, and so fort. But none of this can be pinned to you personally without legal grounds.
So far, we only explored the tools they could use to retain memebers or cast out apostates. None of the above will necessarily help them get new members or assure that those that are considering it, will not be made aware of their mistake. This is why I consider all of the above to be a bit of too much of an effort in order to keep people from starting out of the org. Like I said before, they also need to grow new members. I would not discuss how they would do this, my writing is about what I fear or do not fear about the new JW.ORG
So what is it that I fear from JW.ORG? It is certainly none of the above. What I really fear is the push they have on producing everything electronic. At this moment, we still enjoy the ability to do independent research by consulting old publications. Most magazines and books are still downloadable. It is known though, that most of us have 1000s of personal and family pictures stored in our computers without backup copies. While our old paper picture albums were too dear to us to toss away, the same can not be said about our digital lives. We feel like the computer is always going to be there. Many have resorted to the "cloud" in order to have our information be available. That is a fairly good move. Most JWs, however, would not likely save the old mags or will delete them unrecoverably if asked to do so. The moves towards an JW Library app is by far the worst. When connectivity becomes more and more common, and cloud storage continues to get cheaper and cheaper, I can see the org moving towards and all-cloud based architecture. Where you app will be "synched" to the latest "light". There will be no need to redownload a book or a magazine because of a change. Mistakes and "changes in understanding" will be corrected on their own servers and synched to you the next time your device gets online. That's right, there won't even be a need to push a "synch now" button. There will be no way for someone to read old material. Someone technically savy, although more towards an expert level, could certianly find a way to save old mags and articles, but I am pretty sure that such literature will be distributed using electronic certificates as means of "seals of authenticity" and in order to read the material, a hacker would have to hack the certificate as well, rendering in non-authentic, or at the very least, unchallengeable by someone without the knowledge to verify. If any of it succeds, it is always possible to say that it has been altered and therefore is not trusworthy. You won't have the good-old scan type digital file, where the most untrained of audiences could judge wether it was an original magazine or a photoshopped one.
And that my friends, is what I truly fear about an organization that already has the attitude but lacks all the tools. Now we are witnessing a process, in my point of view, where the tools are catching up to the attitude.
My two cents, which just like that widow old lady, are the only means of survival I have.