Tag: mass surveillance

5 Devices You Can’t Hide From the Government ‘Alphabet Agencies’

I’m going to alert you to what many are considering to be on of the worst doomsday scenarios for free American patriots. One that apparently not many are prepping for, or even seem to care about.

By now everybody knows that the government ‘alphabet agencies’ including mainly the NSA have been methodically collecting data on us. Everything we do, say, buy and search on the internet will be on permanent data base file by next year. All phone calls now are computer monitored, automatically recorded and stored with certain flag/trigger words (in all languages).

As technology improves, every single phone call will be entirely recorded at meta-data bases in government computer cloud storage, when ‘They’ finish the huge NSA super spy center in Utah. Which means they will be available anytime authorities want to look them up and personally listen for any information reference to any future investigation. Super computer algorithms will pin point search extrapolations of ANY relationship to the target point.

You can rest uneasily, but assured, that in the very near future when a cop stops you and scans your driver license into his computer, he will know anything even remotely ’suspicious’ or ’questionable’ about ALL the recent activities and behavior in your life he chooses to focus upon!

This is the ‘privacy apocalypse’ coming upon us. And you need to know these five devices that you can run to protect your privacy, but you can’t hide from.

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CARNIVORE (DCS1000): FBI Files on Their Email and Electronic Communication Monitoring Software

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the FBI’s Carnivore system drew considerable attention and debate. Unveiled during this period, Carnivore was a sophisticated email wiretapping system designed to intercept and analyze digital communications. The system’s capabilities and the implications for privacy and civil liberties were subjects of intense scrutiny and concern among privacy advocates, Internet service providers (ISPs), and the public at large.

Carnivore, officially known as DCS1000, was a network diagnostic tool utilized by the FBI to monitor and intercept email and other online communications. The system was installed at an ISP’s premises and was capable of scanning vast amounts of digital data passing through the ISP’s network. Carnivore specifically targeted communications of suspects under investigation, allowing the FBI to capture emails, chat sessions, and other forms of online interactions.

The Carnivore system operated by tapping into the ISP’s network and filtering the data packets that flowed through it. According to an internal FBI document, the system was designed to “ensure that only the exact communications authorized by the court to be intercepted are what is intercepted”​​. This meant that Carnivore could be configured to capture only the communications of a specific target while excluding all other traffic.

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Scotland Plans Live Facial Recognition Technology

More controversy is developing in the UK, this time in Scotland, around the use by law enforcement of cameras equipped with live facial recognition technology.

Reports say that the police in Scotland may intend to start using this tech to catch shoplifters and persons who break bail conditions. But civil rights group Big Brother Watch is warning against any kind of deployment of live facial recognition as incompatible with democracy – primarily because it indiscriminately jeopardizes the privacy of millions of people.

To make sure this is not happening, the non-profit’s head of research Jake Hurfurt has told the press that the tech should be banned.

That would be an improvement also from the point of view of legal clarity around how AI and big data are used by law enforcement; since currently, Hurfurt remarked, the government and the police “cobble together patchwork legal justifications to experiment on the public with intrusive and Orwellian technology.”

Big Brother Watch offered another observation – the UK is a rare country outside of China and Russia (apparently, even the EU is “scaling back”) that is ramping up this type of surveillance.

The previous heated debate over live face recognition had to do with the London police, and at the moment, the Met’s decision to deploy it – besides being “a multi-million pound mistake,” is also facing a legal challenge, the group said.

They are hopeful this might serve as a teachable moment for the police in Scotland and dissuade them from repeating the same costly “experiment” of trying to usher in a “hi-tech police state.”

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The UN Cybercrime Draft Convention is a Blank Check for Surveillance Abuses

The United Nations Ad Hoc Committee is just weeks away from finalizing a too-broad Cybercrime Draft Convention. This draft would normalize unchecked domestic surveillance and rampant government overreach, allowing serious human rights abuses around the world.

The latest draft of the convention—originally spearheaded by Russia but since then the subject of two and a half years of negotiations—still authorizes broad surveillance powers without robust safeguards and fails to spell out data protection principles essential to prevent government abuse of power.

As the August 9 finalization date approaches, Member States have a last chance to address the convention’s lack of safeguards: prior judicial authorization, transparency, user notification, independent oversight, and data protection principles such as transparency, minimization, notification to users, and purpose limitation. If left as is, it can and will be wielded as a tool for systemic rights violations.

Countries committed to human rights and the rule of law must unite to demand stronger data protection and human rights safeguards or reject the treaty altogether. These domestic surveillance powers are critical as they underpin international surveillance cooperation

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Musk Declares War on Apple: Threatens to Ban Devices Over “Creepy Spyware” AI Integration

Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and X (formerly Twitter), has declared war on big tech Apple.

The tech mogul threatens to ban Apple devices across his companies unless Apple abandons its plans to integrate OpenAI’s woke ChatGPT technology into its operating system.

Apple announced on Monday that it would be integrating ChatGPT into iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. This integration would allow users to access ChatGPT’s capabilities, including image and document understanding, without needing to switch between tools. Siri, Apple’s virtual assistant, could also tap into ChatGPT’s intelligence when necessary.

“We’re excited to partner with Apple to bring ChatGPT to their users in a new way. Apple shares our commitment to safety and innovation, and this partnership aligns with OpenAI’s mission to make advanced AI accessible to everyone. Together with Apple, we’re making it easier for people to benefit from what AI can offer,” said Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI.

“It’s personal, powerful, and private—and it’s integrated into the apps you rely on every day. Introducing Apple Intelligence—our next chapter in AI,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO.

In response to Tim Cook’s announcement, Musk stated, “Don’t want it. Either stop this creepy spyware or all Apple devices will be banned from the premises of my companies.”

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Ugandan human rights lawyer’s arrest exposes use of national ID for surveillance

A Ugandan human rights lawyer’s recent arrest highlights the country’s surveillance and government control via the use of the national identification card.

First introduced by the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) nearly a decade ago, Uganda’s national ID card was initially touted as a solution to streamline administrative processes and bolster citizen services.

However, Nick Opiyo, one of Uganda’s human rights lawyers, believes that there was an ulterior motive for his December 2020 imprisonment as he became ensnared in this surveillance dragnet, enduring arbitrary detention and harassment for his endeavors to expose state-backed human rights transgressions, a Bloomberg feature uncovers. His plight spotlights the impact of state surveillance on dissent and freedom of expression.

In fact, a 2023 study by the African Center for Media Excellence (ACME) concludes that the implementation of biometric and digital identity (BDI) programs in Uganda has given room for surveillance and intrusion on journalism and media in the region, unveiling that journalists in the country have become targets due to the mass collection of data under the government’s biometric and digital ID programs and its ability to engage in communications surveillance.

The expansion of Uganda’s surveillance apparatus hasn’t gone unnoticed by the global community.

Presently, in the country, possessing a NIRA-issued ID card isn’t just advantageous but essential for accessing fundamental services and participating in societal affairs.

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Pentagon’s AI office awards Palantir a contract to create a data-sharing ecosystem

The Department of Defense’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office, or CDAO, leveraged its marketplace for fast-tracking the acquisition of innovative technologies to award Silicon Valley-based Palantir a contract to develop a data-sharing ecosystem — a tool that will help the Pentagon with its connect-everything initiative.

CDAO announced last Thursday that the ecosystem — known as Open Data and Applications Government-owned Interoperable Repositories, or Open DAGIR — will enable the Department of Defense to scale its use of data, analytics and artificial intelligence capabilities through greater collaboration with private sector partners. 

Palantir said it received a $33 million prototype Other Transaction award from CDAO “to rapidly and securely onboard third-party vendor and government capabilities into the government-owned, Palantir-operated data environment to meet priority combatant command digital needs.”

The contract was awarded through CDAO’s Tradewinds Solution Marketplace, which allows private firms of all sizes to pitch DOD their AI, machine learning and data capabilities through five minute infomercial-style videos. Once companies are accepted into the marketplace, Pentagon components can search the platform to view videos of solutions from industry partners. Companies, in turn, are able to access post-competition, readily awardable contracts. 

Bonnie Evangelista, CDAO’s acting deputy for acquisition directorate, told Nextgov/FCW earlier this year that the platform can significantly shorten the time it takes for companies to receive DOD contracts.

During a NetApp conference on Tuesday, CDAO Director of Procurement Quentin McCoy said Palantir’s use of the Tradewinds marketplace allowed it to receive the award for Open DAGIR in 30 days. 

“It’s a sort of healthy prototype,” McCoy said about the Open DAGIR solution Palantir will provide, noting that “it’s going to allow industry and government to ingest data together and share and bring in third-party vendors to do this action.”

DOD said it will initially use Open DAGIR to support its Combined Joint All Domain Command and Control — or CJADC2 — initiative that is designed to promote interoperability across disparate military environments. Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks announced in February that CDAO had achieved “the minimum viable capability” of the information-sharing network.

CDAO is also planning to use its ongoing Global Information Dominance Experiments, or GIDE, to determine whether any additional capabilities should be added to the Open DAGIR ecosystem. GIDE is designed, in part, to help inform the Pentagon’s use of emerging technologies to support its CJADC2 initiative. 

The GIDE series — created by U.S. Northern Command and relaunched by CDAO last year — tests out AI and data analytics tools to determine how they can be used for military decisionmaking. The department finished its GIDE 9 iteration in March. 

McCoy said CDAO is planning to hold several industry days in the next few months, including one scheduled for mid-July, in preparation for the office’s next GIDE iteration. 

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Elon Musk’s X Urges Supreme Court for Review After Jack Smith Obtained Trump Files

Elon Musk’s X Corp. has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to consider stepping in against a process that lets officials obtain information from social media companies and bars the companies from informing people whose information is handed over.

The process wrongly enables officials to “access and review potentially privileged materials without any opportunity for the user to assert privileges—including constitutional privileges,” lawyers for X said in a filing to the nation’s top court.

Unsealed documents in 2023 showed that X provided data and records from former President Donald Trump’s Twitter account to special counsel Jack Smith after Mr. Smith obtained a search warrant.

X was blocked from informing President Trump by a nondisclosure order that Mr. Smith also obtained.

The order said disclosing the warrant would result in “destruction of or tampering with evidence, intimidation of potential witnesses, and serious jeopardy to the investigation,” and let President Trump “flee from prosecution.”

X challenged the order, arguing it violated its First Amendment rights and noting that President Trump might have reason to claim executive privilege, or presidential privilege. The company wanted to alert the former president so he could assert the privilege, but U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell ruled against it, claiming during a hearing that the only reason X was issuing the challenge was “because the CEO wants to cozy up with the former president.”

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Ottawa’s Hidden Agenda: Bill C-26 Aims for Secret Surveillance Backdoors

Canada’s Bill C-26, currently making its way through the country’s parliament, includes “secretive” provisions that can be used to break encryption, researchers are warning.

As far as its sponsors are concerned, Bill C-26 is cyber security legislation intended to amend the Telecommunications Act and other related acts.

But the way the Telecommunications Act will be amended is by allowing the government to force companies operating in that industry to include backdoors in networks protected by encryption, a pair of University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab researchers suggest.

In case the government decides its surveillance needs require altering “the 5G encryption standards that protect mobile communications” – then this can also be done, should C-26 become law.

This raises several important questions, such as whether the bill’s purpose might be precisely to undermine encryption, considering that the government decided not to include amendments in the text that would prevent this.

Another worrying aspect is that given the already lacking level of security in the telecommunications space, the government would be expected to try to fix the existing problems, rather than create new ones, the researchers note.

The amendment that could have rectified this situation was proposed last year by the Citizen Lab, while civil society and industry leaders and experts also participated in parliamentary hearings concerning C-26 to recommend restricting what are said to be the draft’s broad powers to prevent “technical changes from being used to compromise the ‘confidentiality, integrity, or availability’ of telecommunication services.”

However, these warnings fell on deaf ears, with the bill now progressing through parliament without the recommended changes, and despite MPs stating that facilitating and broadening mass surveillance in Canada was not the motive behind C-26.

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Biden wants U.S. government to scan all images on your phone to comply with new AI rules

To supposedly stop people from exchanging non-consensual artificial intelligence (AI) images of a sexual nature, President Biden wants to probe everyone’s smartphones as part of a sweeping surveillance effort.

A press release from the White House explains the Biden regime’s desire for the tech and financial industries to take charge in stopping the creation and spread of abusive sexual imagery created by AI robots.

According to Biden’s handlers, “mobile operating system developers could enable technical protections to better protect content stored on digital devices and to prevent image sharing without consent.”

The plan is to have mobile operating systems such as Android and iOS automatically scan and analyze people’s private photos to determine which ones are sexual or non-consensual. Users would not have the ability to keep any of their images private from government spooks.

It might sound like a good thing until you recognize the privacy implications of such an arrangement. Do we the people really want to allow the government direct access to our photos?

Beyond the search and analysis framework, the Biden regime also wants mobile app stores like Apple’s App Store and Google Play to “commit to instituting requirements for app developers to prevent the creation of non-consensual images.”

(Related: AI is just one component among many of the dystopian present.)

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