Technocracy

Steve Wozniak Laments Creating The Tools That Government Uses To Spy On Us

"When Morgan suggested the government would not be able to keep such a close eye on citizens without the work of innovators like him, Wozniak acknowledged: 'I actually feel a little guilty about that – but not totally. We created the computers to free the people up, give them instant communication anywhere in the world; any thought you had, you could share freely. That it was going to overcome a lot of the government restrictions. We didn't realise that in the digital world there were a lot of ways to use the digital technology to control us, to snoop on us, to make things possible that weren't.'" Continue reading →

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Web’s Reach Binds N.S.A. and Silicon Valley Leaders

"Although Silicon Valley has sold equipment to the N.S.A. and other intelligence agencies for a generation, the interests of the two began to converge in new ways in the last few years as advances in computer storage technology drastically reduced the costs of storing enormous amounts of data. The sums the N.S.A. spends in Silicon Valley are classified, as is the agency’s total budget, which independent analysts say is $8 billion to $10 billion a year. Current and former industry officials say the companies sometimes secretly put together teams of in-house experts to find ways to cooperate more completely with the N.S.A." Continue reading →

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FBI director admits domestic use of drones for surveillance

"The FBI uses drones for domestic surveillance purposes, the head of the agency told Congress. Robert Mueller confirmed to lawmakers that the FBI owns several unmanned aerial vehicles, but has not adopted any strict policies or guidelines yet to govern the use of the controversial aircraft. Mueller said the FBI has and will continue to weigh the possibility of publishing more information about its spy habits, but warned that doing such would be to the advantage of America’s enemies. 'There is a price to be paid for that transparency,' Mueller said. 'I certainly think it would be educating our adversaries as to what our capabilities are.'" Continue reading →

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Body scanner ruling could squelch NSA domestic spying

"A high-profile group of technologists and privacy advocates is attempting to halt domestic surveillance of Americans through a clever twist: using federal bureaucratic rules against federal bureaucrats. In a request today to National Security Agency director Keith Alexander and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, the group argues that the NSA's recently revealed domestic surveillance program is '' because the agency neglected to request public comments first. A federal appeals court previously ruled that was necessary in a lawsuit involving airport body scanners." Continue reading →

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How The USA Captures Whistleblowers And Other Political Enemies

"Snowden’s case would likely fall under the political crime statute of the U.S.-Hong Kong extradition treaty. Any extradition request would be difficult, complicated, and probably ultimately unsuccessful. However, if Snowden succeeds in fighting extradition from Hong Kong, the United States can revoke his passport. It’s also possible that because of the likely difficulty of extradition, U.S. authorities will simply revoke Snowden’s passport and demand his return, and bypass the extradition option entirely. Notice of the revocation, meaning that the suspect would then be illegally in the country, would be sent to Hong Kong authorities who could then deport Snowden." Continue reading →

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German Government Takes Off Mask, Emerges As Fascist Dictatorship

"The Greek national broadcaster was taken off air in the middle of a programme on Tuesday night without warning, without a public debate or a debate in parliament. A brave group of journalists have rebelled and keep a skeleton service going as a pirate station cheered on by supporters in scenes worthy of a fascist dictatorship. A poll shows two thirds of the Greeks oppose the closure of their national broadcaster, paid for by their taxes. The ERT was shut down by the police following a decree — considered illegal by many — by the EU/ECB/IMF Troika puppet, Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras. The move was greeted with applause by the German government." Continue reading →

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Cost to Store All US Phonecalls Made in a Year in Cloud Storage so it could be Datamined

"Because of recent news reports, I wanted to cross check the cost feasibility of the NSA’s recording all of the US phonecalls and processing them. These estimates show only $27M in capital cost, and $2M in electricity and take less than 5,000 square feet of space to store and process all US phonecalls made in a year. The NSA seems to be spending $1.7 billion on a 100k square foot datacenter that could easily handle this and much much more. Therefore, money and technology would not hold back such a project– it would be held back if someone did not have the opportunity or will." Continue reading →

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The Massive Facial Recognition Database That’s Hiding in Plain Sight

"The database isn't limited to just criminals, and it's completely searchable thanks to facial recognition tech. Generally, there's no need for a court order or warrant to make a search, just 'law enforcement purposes,' which is about as vague as it gets. As for reach, 42 states are involved with the system. The State department has its own little database, consisting of some 230 million faces belonging to visa-holding foreigners and passport-holding citizens alike. As video-surveillance becomes more and more common, it's easy to see how this becomes a modern-day fingerprint index of not just criminals but of anyone with an ID." Continue reading →

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Thousands Of Firms Trade Confidential Data With The US Government In Exchange For Classified Intelligence

"In other words, what is going on behind the scenes is nothing more than one vast, very selective, extremely secretive, symbiotic and perfectly 'legal' giant information exchange network, which allows corporations to profit off classified government information either in kind or in cash, and which allows the government to have all the information at its disposal, collected using public and private venues, in order to protect itself, to take out those it designates as targets, or simply said - to get ever bigger. The loser in all of this? You." Continue reading →

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Louisiana: Cops Used Red Light Cameras For Personal Profit

"Police officers in New Orleans, Louisiana filled their own pockets with red light camera cash by setting up a private company to 'review' photo citations off the official clock. The city's inspector general, E. R. Quatrevaux, on Friday released a report documenting how Edwin Hosli, the New Orleans Police Department's (NOPD) 8th District commander, formed his own limited liability company called Anytime Solutions to take advantage of the lucrative business opportunity. Hosli pulled down $7420 from the arrangement for himself. Hosli and several other officers overbilled ACS by $9075. Hosli's share of that was $2055, according to the documents." Continue reading →

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