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Why are so many people seemingly happy to give away their personal information and power to increasingly authoritarian forces? And why are they so confident that this power will never be used against them?
Judith Butler
Spread Privacy: How Does Google Track Me Even When I'm Not Using It?
5/22/24
Malwarebytes: Microsoft AI "Recall" Feature Records Everything, Secures Far Less - Comes standard on all Copilot+ PCs
4/12/24
Guardian: House Votes to Reapprove Law Allowing Warrentless Surveillance of US Citizens
1/18/24
Intercept: NSO Founder Shalev Hulio Announces Millions for New Venture
12/8/22
NYTimes: How the Global Spyware Industry Spiraled Out of Control
11/13/22
PCMag: FBI Almost Deployed Pegasus Spyware in Investigations - So again, the FBI and CIA say, 'Just trust us.'
Anybody who believes that should carefully review what led up to the Church Committee and what they found - and also all of the things we wouldn't know about without Edward Snowden.
Also see New Yorker: J Edgar Hoover Public Enemy No. 1, regarding Cointelpro and his illegal pursuit and defamation of Martin Luther King.
6/21/22
NYTimes: Investigation Into China's Expanding Surveillance State -
Four key takeaways:
- Chinese police analyze human behaviors to ensure facial recognition cameras capture as much activity as possible.
- Authorities are using phone trackers to link people’s digital lives to their physical movements.
- DNA, iris scan samples and voice prints are being collected indiscriminately from people with no connection to crime.
- The government wants to connect all of these data points to build comprehensive profiles for citizens — which are accessible throughout the government.
6/20/22
Malwarebytes: Facebook Users Targeted in Massive Phishing Campaign - Solution? Quit using Facebook.
6/18/22
Verge: Former Amazon Employee Convicted over CapitalOne Hack - The employee hacked into the customer's cloud data, then exposed more than 100 million records.
1/28/22
NYTimes: FBI Secretly Bought Israeli Spyware and Explored Hacking US Phones - Pegasus from NSO Group which is designed to be inserted into the operating system of any cell phone. This gives access to an external surveillance organization the precise location history, all photos, phone calls, messages, all social media entries, even medical records, arrest information, and all other data on the phone remotely. Combine this with XKEYSCOR, Medusa, Palantir which are currently vacumming up vast quantities of data off the internet and storing it all in their ever expanding data center in the Utah.
Some previous entries:
Former FBI counterterrorism expert states matter-of-factly during CNN interview that ALL phone calls are being recorded: http://www.guardian.co.uk/comm...
Former NSA employee says the same: http://www.democracynow.org/20...
$2 Billion, 1 Yottabyte data center being constructed in Utah to hold it all: http://www.wired.com/threatlev... and here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
What's a yottabyte? More than necessary to store all phone calls, emails, Facebook entries, personal histories, even traffic tickets and library checkout data on every person in the USA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y...
Holder says we don't need to show you no stinkin' warrants: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1357...
Guardian: Israeli Citizens Targeted by Police using Pegasus Spyware - Here's the report.
1/10/22
NYTimes: Senators Wyden and Heinrich: CIA is Collecting Bulk Data Affecting Americans - According to the Times, all of this information - the nature of which cannot be revealed - is collected without any sort of warrant. A report on this data collection, by a watchdog group within the executive branch, was immediately classified by the CIA.
Based on the fact that this activity has been ongoing by the CIA and kept completely secret even from the Senate Intelligence Committee, the Senators asked that this activity be declassified. The CIA has ignored that request.
In 2015, under the Patriot Act, Congress specifically this kind of activity. The CIA has also ignored this statute.
12/23/20
Intercept: Powerful Cellphone Surveillance Tool Operates in Obscurity Across the Country
2/17/20
Intercept: NSA Whistleblower Reality Winner Submits Clemency Petition With 4,000 Letters of Support
9/7/15
NYTimes: Apple and Other Tech Companies Tangle With US Over Data Access
8/15/15
ProPublica: NSA Spying Relies On AT&T's 'Extreme Willingness to Help'
5/12/15
EFF: The NSA's Call Records Program, a 9/11 Hijacker and the Failure of Bulk Collection - From the article: "Beginning in 1992, the DEA began collecting—in bulk—records of billions of Americans’ calls to countries around the world."
Everyone from FBI Director Mueller to Sen. Feinstein to NSA Director Keith Alexander, to National Director of Intelligence James Clapper, etc. have stated that if this type of surveillance had been available prior to 9/11 then Khalid al-Mihdhar would have been caught and 9/11 would never have happened. This article explains why that's not true and is not a justification for universal surveillance. The NSA had the data they needed, they simply did not communicate it to other government agencies properly.
12/27/13
NYTimes: 11 Days After Federal Judge Calls NSA Unconstitutional, Another One Makes The Opposite Ruling - What does all this mean? Essentially, we have no reliable judicial branch anymore. You can get any ruling you want if you put it before the right judge. The reasoning for today’s ruling is totally nonsensical. Here’s his bottom line reasoning: “This blunt tool only works because it collects everything.” No. The 4th Amendment is not tricky: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” So a blunt tool works because it collects everything? That is pure nonsense. What happens next is abundantly clear: The Whore Court will find in favor of those currently in power. The wealth gap will continue to widen. The people will become less and less willing to live in such a system. All we need now is the spark. See entry below of 12/16/13.
...and to make it even more ridiculous...
ProPublica: Judge Cites 9/11 Report, But It Doesn’t Actually Support His Ruling - Judge Pauley cites an ‘intelligence failure’ from the 9/11 Report where the NSA intercepted phone calls from Khalid al-Mihdhar but could not identify his phone number. False on two counts. There is nothing in the 9/11 Report regarding these phone calls and the NSA already had the ability to specifically tap everything about his phone calls to Yemen. US intelligence agencies knew the identity of al-Mihdhar long before 9/11, and had the ability to find him, but failed to do so. Facts and logic have nothing to do with maintaining the corporate domination of our society.
12/30/13
CNN: Would NSA Surveillance Have Prevented 9/11? - No. The CIA had the phone records and much more information about the hijackers who were in the US before 9/11 and simply failed to pass the information along to the FBI.
Der Spiegel: NSA’s Top Hacking Unit Revealed and Democracy-NOW: That Hacking Unit Can Literally Watch Your Every Key Stroke
12/16/13
NYTimes: Federal Judge Rules NSA Unconstitutional and UK Guardian - He almost got a pair, but then immediately stayed his own ruling. What a country!!
12/6/13
USA Today: AT&T: We Don't Have to Disclose NSA Dealings
9/8/13
Guardian: Phone Companies Remain Silent Over Legality of NSA Data Collection
7/31/13
The Guardian: XKeyscore: NSA Tool Collects ‘Nearly Everything A User Does On The Internet’
7/22/13
Economic Times India: Update on NSA Data Center - First reported here 3/15/12. New pictures of the center in this slideshow.
7/17/13
The Atlantic: NSA Admits It Analyzes More People’s Data That Previously Revealed
7/3/13
UK Guardian: James Clapper, EU Play-Acting, and Political Priorities - Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR): “Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?” Director of National Intelligence James Clapper: “No, sir.”
6/6/13
Guardian: NSA Collecting Phone Records of Millions of Verizon Customers Daily
New Yorker: The NSA-Verizon Scandal
12/16/07
NYTimes: Wider Spying Fuels Aid Plan for Telecom Companies
10/12/07
5/12/06
Computer World: Qwest Praised for Declining NSA Phone Records Request
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