Google’s Earth: how the tech giant is helping the state spy on us

[Delicieuxz]

Main article: Google’s Earth: how the tech giant is helping the state spy on us

 

"We knew that being connected had a price – our data. But we didn’t care. Then it turned out that Google’s main clients included the military and intelligence agencies."

 

 

These are small excerpts from the large article:

Quote

 

Uber, Amazon, Facebook, eBay, Tinder, Apple, Lyft, Foursquare, Airbnb, Spotify, Instagram, Twitter, Angry Birds – if you zoom out and look at the bigger picture, you can see that, taken together, these companies have turned our computers and phones into bugs that are plugged in to a vast corporate-owned surveillance net-work. Where we go, what we do, what we talk about, who we talk to, and who we see – everything is recorded and, at some point, leveraged for value.

 

...

 

Even as Google grew to dominate the consumer internet, a second side of the company emerged, one that rarely got much notice: Google the government contractor. As it turns out, the same platforms and services that Google deploys to monitor people’s lives and grab their data could be put to use running huge swaths of the US government, including the military, spy agencies, police departments and schools. The key to this transformation was a small startup now known as Google Earth.

 

In 2003, a San Francisco company called Keyhole Incorporated was on the ropes. With a name recalling the CIA’s secret 1960s “Keyhole” spy satellite programme, the company had been launched two years earlier as a spinoff from a videogame outfit. Its CEO, John Hanke, told journalists that the inspiration for his company came from Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash, a cult science-fiction novel in which the hero taps into a programme created by the “Central Intelligence Corporation” called Planet Earth, a virtual reality construct designed, as the book describes, to “keep track of every bit of spatial information that it owns – all the maps, weather data, architectural plans, and satellite surveillance stuff”.

 

...

 

In 1999, at the peak of the dot-com boom, the CIA had launched In-Q-Tel, a Silicon Valley venture capital fund whose mission was to invest in start-ups that aligned with the agency’s intelligence needs. Keyhole seemed a perfect fit.

 

The CIA poured an unknown amount of money into Keyhole. The investment was finalised in early 2003, and it was made in partnership with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, a major intelligence organisation with 14,500 employees and a $5bn budget, whose job was to deliver satellite-based intelligence to the CIA and the Pentagon. Known as the NGA, the spy agency’s motto was: “Know the Earth … Show the Way … Understand the World.”

 

...

 

Keyhole gave intelligence analysts, field commanders, air force pilots and others the kind of capabilities we take for granted today when we use digital mapping services on our computers and smartphones to look up restaurants, cafes, museums, traffic or subway routes.

 

Military commanders weren’t the only ones who liked Keyhole. So did Sergey Brin. He liked it so much that he insisted on personally demoing the app for Google executives. According to an account published in Wired, he barged in on a company meeting, punched in the address of every person present, and used the programme to virtually fly over their homes.

 

In 2004, the same year Google went public, Brin and Page bought the company outright, CIA investors and all. They then absorbed the company into Google’s growing internet applications platform. Keyhole was reborn as Google Earth.

 

...

 

The purchase of Keyhole was a milestone for Google, marking the moment the company stopped being a purely consumer-facing internet company and began integrating with the US government. When Google bought Keyhole, it also acquired an In-Q-Tel executive named Rob Painter, who came with deep connections to the world of intelligence and military contracting, including US Special Operations, the CIA and major defence firms, among them Raytheon, Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin. At Google, Painter was planted in a new dedicated sales and lobbying division called Google Federal, located in Reston, Virginia, a short drive from the CIA’s headquarters in Langley. His job was to help Google grab a slice of the lucrative military-intelligence contracting market. Or, as Painter described in contractor-bureaucratese, “evangelising and implementing Google Enterprise solutions for a host of users across the intelligence and defence communities”.

 

Google had closed a few previous deals with intelligence agencies. ...

 

 

 

The business of harvesting data is the business of profiting off of the data that is harvested. All data that is harvested is compiled into virtual profiles of the accounts that the data originates from. And so companies like Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, and Google have a god-view over many aspects of many people's lives.

 

The US government wants all of that data. The US government can pay for that data or can make deals to trade for that data. And if US government agencies can't get the data they want through negotiations, then they just get it by hacking. Just about all routers and mobile phones are hacked by the CIA and NSA. Likely so are all ISPs. And if there's a perceived legal issue with any of it, then it's solved simply (at least in the preferred view of US agencies) by directing and harvesting the wanted data outside of US borders.

A core part of the business of harvesting and selling people's data is to downplay the risks and uses of that data in every way possible, and to act as if a leak of personal data is a surprise or a learning experience when it happens... despite those things being a sanctioned part of the business' basic practices. The reality is that the data is used in every way possible to generate as much money as possible, and PR gestures are only about throwing the public off the scent so that companies can continue to do in the background all the opposite things that they claim in public to be doing. The exploitation of people's data has always been leagues beyond what the public is ever let to know.

And as large for-profit websites are generally also in the business of harvesting and selling data, they don't want to kill their golden egg-laying goose by revealing the full ins and outs of the business.

 

 

Microsoft software has always been a major security risk as it's worn like a glove by the CIA and NSA, even with Microsoft's full blessing and assistance:

 

NSA Built Back Door In All Windows Software by 1999

Now FBI wants back door to all software

Microsoft openly offered cloud data to support NSA PRISM programme

Snowden leak: Microsoft added Outlook.com backdoor for Feds - NSA praises Redmond for 'collaborative teamwork'

NSA Backdoor Exploit in Windows 8 Uncovered

 

 

And Amazon, in addition to being a highly successful, profitable, and convenient place to shop, is also the CIA's primary business partner [2] [3] [4] and has expanded tactically into all as many extremities of daily societal life (groceries, home security, pharmaceuticals, personal assistant / perpetual eavesdropping devices) while harvesting data from all of those things, which gives Amazon, and expectedly also the CIA a very thorough overhead picture of many people's lives. And the US government may have rewarded Amazon in return [2].

 

Jeff Bezos' news outlet (though he also invests in others), Washington Post, has been closely associated with the CIA since at least the 1960s when The Washington Post's co-owner and publisher, Phil Graham, ran the CIA's media manipulation program called Operation Mockingbird - a project that continues today through various means. Since the 1960s until today, Washington Post has continued to publish anonymous CIA reports showing that the associations are still there - and I suspect that Jeff Bezos' purchase of WaPo in 2013 was also done under guidance from the CIA.

 

I think it's likely that Jeff Bezos was recruited by the CIA [2] either before he started Amazon, or early on in Amazon's creation, and that Amazon's development has been guided by US intel agencies.

 

 

The ominous and disheartening reality is that the large tech firms comprise a ubiquitous psyops and spy dragnet for US intel agencies, as well as a propaganda network, and that being perpetual victim of their taking and using our personal and personally-owned data means that societies are subjugated by those state agencies and are living in slavery to them.

 

 

Related articles:

 

How the CIA made Google

Google’s true origin partly lies in CIA and NSA research grants for mass surveillance

[The Benjamins]

Do I hear aluminum foil? 

[Delicieuxz]

8 minutes ago, The Benjamins said:

Do I hear aluminum foil? 

If you do, then check what you're wearing on your head. The bulk of the information I've presented is established, documented, verified, and non-contested fact - unfortunately.

[The Benjamins]

2 minutes ago, Delicieuxz said:

If you do, check what you're wearing on your head. What I've written is established, documented, non-contested fact.

I don't have the time to read all this now, some of it looks interesting. But it does have that conspiracy vibe.

[mynameisjuan]

5 minutes ago, The Benjamins said:

But it does have that conspiracy vibe.

You think? Its to early to read about how the CIA manipulated Jeff and the CIA owns Amazon. 

[Delicieuxz]

10 minutes ago, The Benjamins said:

I don't have the time to read all this now, some of it looks interesting. But it does have that conspiracy vibe.

I understand that response. It happens because the context people are most familiar with experiencing these topics in is as TV shows and Hollywood movies, often making fun of them and those that talk about them. But, there also exists the reality of these things - which pop culture tropes sometimes stem from, such as from Operation Mockingbird.

 

3 minutes ago, mynameisjuan said:

You think? Its to early to read about how the CIA manipulated Jeff and the CIA owns Amazon. 

Neither of which is claimed in the OP, so, aren't you spinning a little conspiracy of your own, there? Jeff Bezos and Amazon are major business partners of the CIA - that's reality.

[mynameisjuan]

11 minutes ago, Delicieuxz said:

Neither of which is claimed in the OP, so, aren't you spinning a little conspiracy of your own, there? Jeff Bezos and Amazon are major business partners of the CIA - that's reality.

Spoiler

You said it yourself dude.

[Delicieuxz]

8 minutes ago, mynameisjuan said:

  Hide contents

You said it yourself dude.

Yes, I did write those things. What I didn't write is what you alleged: That "the CIA manipulated Jeff" or that "the CIA owns Amazon". If Jeff Bezos was / is a willing partner or possibly employee of the CIA, then he wasn't manipulated. A person isn't manipulated when they do what they want to and choose to do with full awareness of what they're doing.

 

And Bezos seems pretty satisfied about his relationship with the CIA: “We look forward to a successful relationship with the CIA.”

 

Why Amazon’s Collaboration With the CIA Is So Ominous — and Vulnerable

[mynameisjuan]

3 minutes ago, Delicieuxz said:

Yes, I did write those things. What I didn't write is what you alleged: That "the CIA manipulated Jeff" or that "the CIA owns Amazon". If Jeff Bezos was / is a willing partner or possibly employee of the CIA, then he wasn't manipulated. A person isn't manipulated when they do what they want to and choose to do with full awareness of what they're doing.

Not what I got from it but I am not about to argue conspiracies

[Delicieuxz]

1 minute ago, mynameisjuan said:

Not what I got from it but I am not about to argue conspiracies

Hopefully, you'll also feel the same way about creating them.

[GoldenLag]

6 minutes ago, Delicieuxz said:

And Bezos seems pretty satisfied about his relationship with the CIA: “We look forward to a successful relationship with the CIA.”

Isnt that US speak for: we are a US company that cooperates with the state because not doing so is less beneficial than actually doing so?

 

I mean, havent every major company used a variant of this sentance?

[Delicieuxz]

22 hours ago, GoldenLag said:

Isnt that US speak for: we are a US company that cooperates with the state because not doing so is less beneficial than actually doing so?

 

I mean, havent every major company used a variant of this sentance?

I think that their reason for partnering with the state to share their users' and customers' personal data is a (also important) side-topic to the fact that it's done with all the consequences that brings.

 

But, loads of US companies do indeed share user data with the US government for the sake of benefiting themselves - and this is a point I presented in the OP, in the final paragraph.

 

U.S. Agencies Said to Swap Data With Thousands of Firms

Quote

Thousands of technology, finance and manufacturing companies are working closely with U.S. national security agencies, providing sensitive information and in return receiving benefits that include access to classified intelligence, four people familiar with the process said.

 

These programs, whose participants are known as trusted partners, extend far beyond what was revealed by Edward Snowden, a computer technician who did work for the National Security Agency. The role of private companies has come under intense scrutiny since his disclosure this month that the NSA is collecting millions of U.S. residents’ telephone records and the computer communications of foreigners from Google Inc. and other Internet companies under court order.

 

Bezos' particular multi-contractual and closely-nit partnership with the CIA gives me the impression that he is eager for it and shares the values and goals of that partnership.

[yian88]

I could say what else is new, or that no one cares anymore( they dont). 

There is nothing we can do, at best you can get rid of windows in favor of linux, stop using google use duckduck go and somewhat trusty VPN outside of US, use a custom android build, disable most google stuff, dont use google account, install most apps by apk to avoid play store, dont use email for anything data critical since its unsafe even if they claim its encrypted,  use something like signal to communicate and even that keep it minimal, maybe build a custom app that's encrypted and talks peer to 2 peer and use signal to exchange ip/connection keys unique each time you want to reconnect.

Also build a bunker in the mountains and supplies just in case of WW3, nukes or alien invasion.

We are fucked man, unless we vote politicians who change laws and enforce them in favor of privacy we are fucked globally.

Just wait until US starts using all the data for social credit like China, just wait until Trump loses eventually and marxists take over government again and use that data against you in new social exclusion systems or worse.

All of this means shit for most people, they live their lives, work, waste money on shit, dont give a shit about anything privacy, global warming, pollution, ocassionally they protest that others should do something but not them ofc and thats how we roll, into  the future.

[Levent]

 

[Granular]

Heh, that article is on a page that wants to load tracking scripts from Google, Twitter and Facebook.

And this forum wants to load crap from Google and Amazon.

[hobobobo]

You know, at some point the pretty world picture you get from watching 80-90s us TV (and where im from it ran with a 10 year delay), the one which is futher reinforced by the major media, religion, advertisers, filmmakers and all other fluff creators, tends to crack and none of this shit seems surprising, its kinda expected. If doing some shady shit can be beneficial, you can bet its being done, i honestly wont me surprised if LMG got a some degree of shady deal with some big tech, nothing sinister, pure marketing and smart business desicion.

 

All of this can be boiled down to mind being the most valuable comodity, the more you own the closer you get to earthly "godhood", and while people cant attain that, organisations can. The catholic church managed miracles in backwards mediaval Europe, imagine what can be done in 50 years with all the current and developed tools, the possobilities for a wonder and dread, mostly dread, are endless. I honestly welcome a global near-exctinction event with open arms, force to tunnel-vision on rebuilding instead of control and a brave new world or self-destruction

 

 

@yian88 Try Umatrix, cool stuff)

[Levent]

1 minute ago, hobobobo said:

You know, at some point the pretty world picture you get from watching 80-90s us TV (and where im from it with a 10 year delay), the one which is futher reinforced by the major media, religion, advertisers, filmmakers and all other fluff creators, tends to crack and none of this shit seems surprising, its kinda expected. If doing some shady shit can be beneficial, you can bet its being done, i honestly wont me surprised if LMG got a some degree of shady deal with some big tech, nothing sinister, pure marketing and smart business desicion.

 

All of this can be boiled down to mind being the most valuable comodity, the more you own the closer you get to earthly "godhood", and while people cant attain that, organisations can. The catholic church managed miracles in backwards mediaval Europe, image what can be done in 50 years with all the current and developed tools, the possobilities for a wonder and dread, mostly dread, are endless. I honestly welcome a global near-exctinction event with open arms, force to tunnel-vision on rebuilding instead of control and a brave new world or self-destruction

you should have warned us before posting, I would have put my 3 layer tin foil hat on.

[Commodus]

My question is, if the OP is so convinced that major internet companies are enabling mass surveillance on the level he thinks they are, why is he online?  And what does he propose to do about it, exactly?  This seems more like an excuse to kvetch and strike a more-counterculture-than-thou pose.

[hobobobo]

9 minutes ago, Levent said:

you should have warned us before posting, I would have put my 3 layer tin foil hat on.

Nah, its not a conspiracy, its how normal, undamaged people operate. Minimally counterintuitive worlds is the proper name for this, its a usefull tool humanity developed evolutionary, as its a good coping mechanism for the unknown, and, as anything of the psychy, it can be and is manipulated for profit or whatever. Just so happens to be that the best way to manipulate this mechanism is to use positive association (look no futher then any ad for anything). Add time and you get products promising life-style, associating themselves with virtue etc. Add escapism of books, movies and other shit to that and you get the "world picture" im talking about. Zeitgeist is kinda close, but its more a part of it.

[TheRandomness]

1 hour ago, The Benjamins said:

Do I hear aluminum foil? 

It's funny because those tend to not actually block anything out.

[The Benjamins]

2 minutes ago, TheRandomness said:

It's funny because those tend to not actually block anything out.

That is what they want you to think.

[LAwLz]

18 minutes ago, Commodus said:

My question is, if the OP is so convinced that major internet companies are enabling mass surveillance on the level he thinks they are, why is he online?  And what does he propose to do about it, exactly?  This seems more like an excuse to kvetch and strike a more-counterculture-than-thou pose.

Because the world is not black and white?

It's like saying "if you believe conflict minerals are real, why do you own a laptop which contains them!?".

 

It is possible to acknowledge that something is happening/a problem without going to the extreme and seclude yourself from it completely.

[hobobobo]

Honestly, while kinda sinister, the wonder of possobilities is overwhelming. The insight into human condition this data, properly organized and analyzed, could grant is invalueable, its like having a standart model for humanity. Whether its wise is an open question, but fascinating none the less

[Silentprototipe]

Very tin foil hatty  

[RuffRuffmcgruff]

Completely terrifying but at the same time hopeless, the infrastructure setup now isn't going anywhere. From the very start all we've been is a number in a spreadsheet being milked for information and profit.

 

I'm fully onboard with the idea that we're experiments being tested by an Alien Race, for what i don't know but whatever it is don't trust people in power they're all lizards!