That the NSA is able to spy on you is an existence proof that criminals can also spy on you.
The downside of becoming known to the NSA is that you can get caught up as an "associate" in someone's drug, criminal or terrorism investigation, and you had no idea that the person was doing anything like that. You might even have no idea that the person exists, since the NSA is "allowed" to go out some number of degrees of freedom from the supposed suspect.
The downside of becoming known to criminals is that you can fall victim to criminal schemes. You don't even have to be known by name or association, your device just has to be discovered; owning it is the all too easy next step. You can be known by installing malware (see the articles on phone downloaded apps), or by criminals seeing your communication on the open internet and becoming aware of you.
That's what I'd tell my friends, if any of them were still listening.
The downside of becoming known to the NSA is that you can get caught up as an "associate" in someone's drug, criminal or terrorism investigation, and you had no idea that the person was doing anything like that. You might even have no idea that the person exists, since the NSA is "allowed" to go out some number of degrees of freedom from the supposed suspect.
The downside of becoming known to criminals is that you can fall victim to criminal schemes. You don't even have to be known by name or association, your device just has to be discovered; owning it is the all too easy next step. You can be known by installing malware (see the articles on phone downloaded apps), or by criminals seeing your communication on the open internet and becoming aware of you.
That's what I'd tell my friends, if any of them were still listening.