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

[hobobobo]

11 minutes ago, Curufinwe_wins said:

Anyways... so being perfectly realistic here...

 

Geotracking information was never fully decoupled from the military and the benefits to literally everyone involved have been dramatic more than worth the "oversight increase from sole military involvement"

 

So yes, I expect other companies and countries to continue to develop their individual geotracking networks, which diminishes a bit of that risk. But yes, geotracking has always been linked with the military, and likely always will be. Like for better or worse, space travel. Does that mean we need to kill either of those things? Absolutely not.

If it was only geodata it would be rose and dandy, but the aggregate data from all of those companies is enough to create a comprehensive profile with pain points, spending habits, political triggers and more or less a full manual on how to nudge a person towards whatever you want without them ever noticing

[Curufinwe_wins]

6 minutes ago, hobobobo said:

If it was only geodata it would be rose and dandy, but the aggregate data from all of those companies is enough to create a comprehensive profile with pain points, spending habits, political triggers and more or less a full manual on how to nudge a person towards whatever you want without them ever noticing

Obviously. So then, do you want to pass laws preventing companies from collecting meta data on their customers? Good luck getting that passed in the US.

 

 

[hobobobo]

10 minutes ago, Curufinwe_wins said:

Obviously. So then, do you want to pass laws preventing companies from collecting meta data on their customers? Good luck getting that passed in the US.

 

 

Good luck having anything pro-people passed in the USA, unless you count corporations as people. Feels like our biological and technological distinction is to be assimilated...

[Salv8 (sam)]

https://www.amazon.com/Reynolds-Wrap-Aluminum-Foil-500/dp/B001R2NM5U

here ya go, it's on sale...

[ZacoAttaco]

Didn't the Snowden leaks already confirm all of this anyway? PRISM and all that? Obviously that was some time ago now but it's not like they weren't going to progress their monitoring efforts.

[mr moose]

1 hour ago, Curufinwe_wins said:

Anyways... so being perfectly realistic here...

 

Geotracking information was never fully decoupled from the military and the benefits to literally everyone involved have been dramatic more than worth the "oversight increase from sole military involvement"

 

So yes, I expect other companies and countries to continue to develop their individual geotracking networks, which diminishes a bit of that risk. But yes, geotracking has always been linked with the military, and likely always will be. Like for better or worse, space travel. Does that mean we need to kill either of those things? Absolutely not.

Likewise government procurement contracts have always been a thing and will always be a thing, they are not in and of themselves pointers to illicit activity on citizenry (that is another discussion all by itself). 

[aezakmi]

9 hours ago, Delicieuxz said:

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.

Uber is illegal in my country so only works in large cities, well in the only large city and still city buses are way cheaper or even free sometimes so choosing this uber over one would be dumb if you care about money.

Amazon the same, there are so many taxes and restrictions and packages that get "missing" in customs that literally nobody uses it (same for ebay or any other intl. site)

 

Apple devices cost more than a kidney here, maybe corrupt politicians or narcos have them, but they're less than 0.1%, funny that they control 99% of the money tho

 

Never heard of Airbnb

 

I personally don't use facebook or twitter or even an spydroid phone. I do have one with Windows but it doesn't has SIM card or internet connection since I only use it to play music.

 

Tinder and Instagram are for thots anyway so it's not like they really have something to hide, maybe some dumb guys use them and then get kidnapped or robbed by gangs that use pretty girls to catch dumbasses lol

[Delicieuxz]

1 hour ago, Curufinwe_wins said:

Obviously. So then, do you want to pass laws preventing companies from collecting meta data on their customers? Good luck getting that passed in the US.

I can understand the idea seeming unlikely, but California has already passed it's own data privacy legislation that is more strict than GDPR, with that legislation to take effect January 2020. I've just made a new Tech News thread about a high-profile call for GDPR-like data privacy laws in the US.

[Curufinwe_wins]

31 minutes ago, Delicieuxz said:

I can understand the idea seeming unlikely, but California has already passed it's own data privacy legislation that is more strict than GDPR, with that legislation to take effect January 2020. I've just made a new Tech News thread about a high-profile call for GDPR-like data privacy laws in the US.

GDPR and the California lawsuits don't prevent companies from collecting that data with 'consumer consent' (but fail to reach standards that in the medical field would be considered 'informed consent'). Unless you find a way to prevent companies from collecting that data at all... people are people, and suck at keeping things secure and safe. Everything will be sold, always.

 

Also California has the benefits (and severe drawbacks) of a very unified ideological government. Nationally that just won't happen.

 

I'm not even sure if it should.

[Tenelia]

FYI: There's a thing called "National Security Letters" in ANY country. And no company in the world can operate in a country by defying National Security Letters. Defying it means leaving China like Google did in the past.

[Amazonsucks]

20 hours ago, The Benjamins said:

Do I hear aluminum foil? 

 

18 hours ago, Silentprototipe said:

Very tin foil hatty  

 

Not really. Its well written, and anyone who is capable of reading what is readily available online from Edward Snowden, Thomas Drake, Mark Klein and Bill Binney already knows its true.

 

If you dont know who those people are or what they disclosed about the illegal spying that has been going on literally for decades, you should probably get informed. If you think what he said is at all "tin foil hatty" you clearly havent been paying attention since the 2000s when Bill Binney, Mark Klein and Thomas Drake blew the whistle or 2013 when Edward Snowden did.

 

And while the OP bothered to make a well written and detailed post, so you attempt to make ad hominem attacks against him. Why? 

 

I honestly cant fathom how people can become so indoctrinated that they defend things like government spying reflexively. 

 

Thats really what it boils down to: years of conditioning to make people reject facts by reflex. "Oh thats tin foil hatty" when you can literally read over a decade of leaks about the subject if youre on the internet, which you clearly are.

 

You know what DOES seem really tin foil hatty to me?

 

That a bunch of corrupt politicians who make themselves rich by serving  corporate interests and screwing over the average person, and a bunch of unethical tech billionaires, many of whom dont allow their own children to use the very products they created, have your best interests in mind. That they arent using you like livestock and that they dont need to keep you docile and ignorant so you will continue to serve their interests while you have the illusion of freedom.

 

@ZacoAttaco

 

Yes Edward Snowden, Bill Binney, Thomas Drake, Mark Klein and a few others have been blowing the whistle on this for over a decade. Snowden probably is the best known and PRISM is actually really tame compared to the rest of what was disclosed. 

 

If you do some digging youll find that none of what the OP said is far fetched or tin foil hatty at all.

 

Here's a video from 11 years ago about it.

 

 

[Peskanova]

Is this news?  is it new to any of you? 

[Blade of Grass]

The relationship that Amazon has with the CIA is for AWS, idk how that really gives them a “close relationship”? Unless every customer has a “close relationship” with the companies they do business with?

[mr moose]

13 hours ago, Peskanova said:

Is this news?  is it new to any of you? 

not really.  It's like a persuasive text with links to 23 articles (many from years ago) telling us the same thing we already knew.  I am not sure why it is even in the news section seeing as it more of a personal blog than a news item.