Police already have access to visors with built-in face recognition and fugitive spotting. The technology was in prototype stage a few years ago, and was successfully tested when police officers walked into dark cinemas full of people and got so-called People of Interest highlighted directly onto their field of vision. The future is approaching fast, and it’s not all shiny happy rainbow unicorns.
“We hope to find out the current scope and nature of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing agreement – and how much has changed since the 1955 version,” Privacy International legal officer Scarlet Kim tells WIRED. “We’d also like to know the US rules and regulations governing this exchange of information – what safeguards and oversight, if any, exist with respect to these activities?”
New Zealand airport customs agents force thousands of travelers every year to hand over the passwords for their devices, in some cases inspecting files and even copying the data for the government.
Softpedia: NZ Airport Travelers Forced to Surrender Device Passwords, Data Copied by Govt »
A team of international investigators brought to Mexico to unravel one of the nation’s gravest human rights atrocities was targeted with sophisticated surveillance technology sold to the Mexican government to spy on criminals and terrorists.
NYT: Spyware Sold to Mexican Government Targeted International Officials »
This is quite interesting. Who is to be considered being a terrorist? This is an especially important question, considering all new and far-reaching anti-terror laws.
Tim Pool @ Youtube: ANTIFA listed under domestic terrorism »
Will Scott, president of the African American Farmers of California, poses for a photo by the sorghum plants at the group’s demonstration farm in Fresno, Calif. on Thursday, September 15, 2011. (AP/GosiaWozniacka)
“It was almost as if the earth was opening up and swallowing Black farmers.”
Even accepting that free speech ends where criminal law begins, that doesn’t justify fining the platforms. If people are posting “illegal” content, go after them for breaking the law. Don’t go after the tools they use. By putting massive liability risks on platforms, those platforms will almost certainly overcompensate and over censor to avoid any risk of liability. That means a tremendous amount of what should be protected speech gets silence, just because these companies don’t want to get fined. Even worse, the big platforms can maybe hire people to handle this.
It’s become clearer than ever in recent months that this law is not fit for purpose. The government doesn’t need to spy on the entire population to fight terrorism. All that does is undermine the very rights, freedoms and democracy terrorists seek to destroy.
The Register: Civil rights warriors get green light to challenge UK mass surveillance »
The control of information is something the elite always does, particularly in a despotic form of government.
Information, knowledge, is power. If you can control information, you can control people.
Tom Clancy
I just read an interesting piece at Bloomberg: The Hackers Russia-Proofing Germany’s Elections »
It’s about the German Chaos Computer Club – CCC – and its fight for a free, open democratic society with a free flow of information. At the end, member Jan Krissler is quoted saying…
»All the stuff will happen in the end.«
