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Hands on with PRSM, the PRISM parody platform – the scariest, truest satire out there

hands on getprism is the easiest way to let internet know everything about you

Imagine if PRISM were a social network – what would that be like? Well some clever devs went out of their way to make it so. Introducing PRSM – the social network that really knows you. So we’re going hands on with the hypothetical platform. 

Have you ever had one of those days when you thought, “Hmmm… I wish there were a way people could quickly find out about what sort of sites I visit on a moment-to-moment basis?” Ever feel the need to tell all your friends about the contents of your Gmail account? Are you curious about how much money your best friend and your best friend’s husband make? Want to know who’s telling what to whom? Why, all that’s super easy through PRISM, the data collection program! If you thought oversharing was a way of life on Facebook, wait till you hear about what kind of service you’ll get from this everything-in-one-package of a site that’s so efficient, a lot of companies have already secretly gotten in on the action. Let us break it down for you.

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How it works

prsm not sharingThe great thing about PRISM is there’s absolutely no learning curve involved – even your non-tech-savvy, Internet-using grandparents can benefit from the service. So yes, no need to spend countless hours feigning patience over fruitless tutorial sessions with your elders about “the interwebs.” PRISM already took care of that for you behind the scenes.

The most accurate description of PRISM’s capabilities? Unlimited. It’s got the biggest data center anywhere on the planet, powerful enough to host up to five zettabytes of information. PRISM’s Titan Supercomputer is the latest in technology, capable of handling one quadrillion requests per second. With over 320 million users served (and more are catered to every second), the requests just keep coming in!

Advantages

Like I said, the pros of PRISM are limitless. Gone are the days of buffering videos on YouTube and waiting five seconds to a minute so an ad can play. PRISM promises no advertisements, no interruptions, no hassle. It’s never-ending awesomeness, all the time.

Portability is no longer an issue – PRISM works over any platform, any gadget, all day everyday. And even if you wanted it to, PRISM never misses a beat of your daily routine. It’s designed to keep track of your every single move.

google-gmail-search-results-fiAnd by every single move, I mean every. Single. Move. Every time you buy something –  whether it’s through an online shop or an in-person visit to your neighborhood WalMart – PRISM knows because it efficiently keeps an eye on your credit card activity. Every time you hit up Google for “teacup pigs” or “twerking” or “Chuck Norris movies,” PRISM records it and keeps a log of your searches for you. Same goes for every email you’ve ever received (including those in the spam folder) and every blog entry or comment you’ve ever posted on any site you’ve ever used.

Tired of having to keep track of the TV shows you’ve watched, movies and videos you’ve seen, songs you’ve heard? Want a secret backup of all the photos and videos you’ve ever uploaded online? PRISM’s  media-logging function was designed to cater to your every need and want in that department.

If you want the ability to keep digital evidence and hold it over the heads of the people who’ve wronged you, you no longer need to bother with screenshots or secret voice recording. Since PRISM works on all gadgets, it programs your smartphone to automatically listen in on every phone call and duplicate every text message sent to you. It even pinpoints your location through GPS and remembers it.

You can now cross “Facebook fatigue” off your list of social media-related ailments – PRISM collects all the data from all your social networking accounts so if you wanted to gain access to your personal information as well as your contacts’, it’s totally easy and completely pain-free. PRISM’s key partners include AOL, Apple, AT&T, Facebook, Google, Skype, and Yahoo, so rest assured that your log-in details on all these sites are kept within PRISM’s massive data center.

Disadvantages

There are none… would you believe it?

OK, maybe there are some, but as long as you’re smart about it, there’s always a way to get around roadblocks. Take for example the campaign spearheaded by Electronic Frontier Foundation, one of the organizations constantly discouraging Internet users from supporting the growing use of PRISM by some of the largest conglomerates in the technology industry as well the government. The awareness they promote sure puts a damper on the coolness and prestige connected to digital spying. It can get pretty annoying, but don’t worry: You don’t have to get involved in the cause.

Bottom line

At the end of the day, if you want to share everything important in your life, if you have the desire to be submissive to the powers of Internet spying and to flush all signs of privacy and security down the drain, you can do it by getting on PRISM and signing up today!

Oh wait, you’re already on it.

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If you use Instagram at all, you're no doubt bombarded with pictures of your friends' food on the regular. The "look what I'm eating" photo has become something of a joke to Instagram, but despite some of the negative connotations associated with this form of food porn, it's an incredibly popular Insta-pastime. But if you thought we were mostly bragging about all the lobster and prime rib and champagne we're daintily consuming, boy were you dead wrong. According to MomentFeed's tally of the most popular restaurants we're sharing Instagrams from, we are big fat fatties who like to shovel grease into our mouth holes.

While Starbucks far and away takes the lead (just can't get enough of that logo, can we?), the results show that we are eating and Instagramming primarily from fast food and chain restaurants - most of which boast notoriously high-calorie foods. Take a look - these numbers were based on geo-tagged Instagram images from the past three months.

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Tweeting for rides? Here’s how to digitally find a driver without getting kidnapped
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The social Web has changed a lot of things - apparently, according to a new NPR report, it includes how we get around. The story says that teenagers are using Twitter to snag rides. It's official: Hitch-hiking has gone digital.
“Lots of us are using Twitter and Facebook to find rides and not just to school. Now that it’s summer, we cyber-hitchhike even more, because rides are scarce and parties are plenty. It’s awkward to call a friend and ask for a ride, and half the time, they’ll say, ‘Sorry, my car is full.’ But with Twitter, you just tweet #AshleysPoolParty and look for other people heading the same way,” says Youth Radio correspondent Bianca Brooks.
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Connections made via social networks, of course, don't always turn out well: Earlier this year, one teen was kidnapped and driven to Mexico by someone she met on Kik, and there's ample research that shows pedophiles use Twitter to target their victims.
People soliciting rides on Craigslist aren't necessarily safe either. There are more than a few harrowing stories in which trusting individuals have been harmed by strangers they connect with using the site.
Still, the ride solictitors keep hitting up these avenues to find rides. You can't fault them entirely: There is certainly a rationality behind using the Internet to hitch your next ride. What is the Web for if not to find a crowdsourced solution to your problems?
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But these basic precautions aren't always enough - plus, the younger hitch-hikers out there (who are reportedly spearheading this trend) generally are more cavalier about their safety than they should be. Luckily, we're living in the app age, and there are more digital solutions to Internet crowdsourced carpooling that a Twitter request.
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Carma is also self-regulating in the sense that everyone receives star ratings from their fellow travelers – if you find a match, you can see how many rides they have shared and how highly they have been rated. Users are advised to provide an updated profile photo, giving you a preview of the people you are hoping to ride with.
Another, Ridejoy, highly values safety. "The number one thing we want is for this to be safe and make sure users feel comfortable and that this is a good experience for them," Ridejoy told us in an interview last year. The app uses Facebook to backup identities, as well as a reputation system for users to endorse their drivers. You can also validate your license to give your riders more faith.
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It also encourages travelmate vetting by arranging in-person meetups prior to scheduled departure, in a public place, where they can discuss arrangements and exchange pertinent contact information (and verify authenticity).
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As a further safety precaution, ridesharing services like eRideShare and apps like Carma tend to have age restrictions on clients they cater to – probably because in most states, you have to be at least 16 to drive (and participate in a road trip/driver relief arrangement). Also, safety is better guaranteed with a price tag. However, that doesn’t mean teenagers completely have no place in the ridesharing market. Carma is currently conducting app trials for teenagers in select communities and their prices are pretty reasonable, almost comparable to fees one would pay for a bus ride. “Carma costs $1 for the first mile traveled and $0.20 for every mile after that . This is a highly affordable way to travel by car,” says Power.
Really, eRideShare sums it up best in blaring red letters on it's site:
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“We were watching [Facebook CTO] Bret Taylor’s talk yesterday about privacy settings on Facebook,” says co-founder Simon Murtha-Smith, “And someone said we should ask him where the privacy settings for how Facebook sees my data are.” He has a point, given that the social network has spared no expense educating users on how to curate their privacy settings in order to control what their friends see. But what about what Facebook sees – and what they do with that?
“One thing we’re trying to achieve is that Singly account holders have a clear understanding about what they’re doing with their data, and that it’s theirs entirely, and entirely in their control. That it’s not used in any other way.”
Make no mistake, Singly is not just another social network, and it has no aspirations to be. Basically put, Singly is a platform for you to manage your online life. It’s a digital home where you can save or pull and push data to and from via developer apps.
Its purpose is two-fold: One, it can solve syncing problems between your various Internet accounts. Murtha-Smith mentions the ensuing and infamous Google-Facebook scuffle over data syncing, remarking how unfair this is for the end-user—essentially, a loss of control over your own contacts. “These are my friends, this is my information I entered into Google contacts, the photos I put on Facebook…the fact that I can’t sync these because two companies have a debate is frustrating.”
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Secondly, Singly wants to safeguard your digital valuables. If you can, try to imagine the hoard of scrapbook-like information you have online. Your photos, your address book, personal emails—if something slips through the cracks, it could be gone forever. Singly holds on to this.
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Despite its technical, back-end-focused start, this is going to be a tool for the masses. “It’s really going to be for everyone.” The team says it’s something they want every generation to be able—and want—to use.

“We don’t want to be just ‘yet another service,’” Murtha-Simon says. He’s right to try and avoid that generalization. There’s a new service to do this and solve that, platforms to help you leverage your social networks or back up your content. But this one might be able to establish significance if it can really give users more control than we’ve previously had, and by showing us entirely how they’re doing it. “Everything is open source. We’re trying to do this in a way that it is kind of ‘for the people, by the people.’ All the technology is being built in the open and available for anyone to come in, inspect, and also contribute to. To help shape the way things are made.”
Data is a conversation that is just beginning. We’ve only scraped the surface of how we share, how we communicate, how we manage our Internet identities. And that means we can benefit by establishing a framework that offers up new, accessible tools to consumers.

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