Paul, yeah, this is the future. Remember the phrase that was used throughout the user interface in earlier versions of Windows: "My Computer"
Haven't seen that in a while.
If [when] "they" get their way, every single piece of equipment in your world, even your freaking toaster, will be based on the hosted PBX model.
As far as the rest of this thread, I feel there is no tin foil indicated. Governments, corporations, and their bastard spawn have various motivations, some overlapping, some not, for wanting the same thing. What is that, you ask? Allow me to put it this way: Their biggest fear is that you might read, watch, or hear any form of "content," and they won't know about it, or get to watch [and listen] to you doing it. No wonder they burned all the books in Ray Bradbury's best known work.
Try capturing the device fingerprinting process in real time. When you read through the logs, it absolutely will creep you out. If it doesn't, it should.
I could say a lot more about all this, but this is already hijacking Paul's original thread, so back to lurk mode now.
Jim
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Adding another layer of foil to my special hat.
