Surveillance

Follow https://twitter.com/cyberplayground
and the blog https://cyberplayground.org

SURVEILLANCE

https://cyberplayground.org/2021/09/17/surveillance/

Reagan ushered in money and power hoarders hero Gorden Gecko to the masses, similar to Big Tobacco pursuing profits over consumers’ health.
Rich guys who hired lobbyists to bribe the politicians to pass billionaire-friendly bills. Facebook is absolutely desperate to find a way to track your physical movements now that Apple has shut down Facebook’s use of its phones for surveillance.

– An incredibly damning report on GDPR.
At a time when Europe should be leading the world in protecting the human right to privacy, Ireland is undermining by failing to enforce against the 2 largest surveillance capitalists in industry – Google and Facebook.

– Anyone who actually buys Facebook surveillance sunglasses is a chump.
Facebook’s Ray-Ban plan seems to be all about normalising #surveillance technology
Organisations that are funded by Facebook say they see no problem with Facebook’s surveillance sunglasses
Will Facebook need to offer these free to people who opt out of surveillance?

– this story really underscores that the problem with Facebook is not speech itself, or the fact that it’s a platform that hosts a wide range of speech (including terrible speech). It’s algorithmic manipulation & surveillance capitalism

Surveillance / “Gamed Democracy”

Governments should implement a moratorium on the sale and transfer of #surveillance technology until compliance with human rights standards can be guaranteed.

– Google and Facebook’s trade body is set to release its defense of surveillance advertising. Note how they’ll frame all discussion as “targeted advertising” in order to blend tracking users across the web with all sorts of benign targeting that doesn’t involve surveillance.

– The IRS has direct access to all of your bank accounts with more then $600. Because the Feds need to know how you spend and earn every dollar of your money.

– In a disappointing ruling today, a federal appeals court dismissed our client @Wikimedia’s challenge to the mass surveillance of Americans’ international emails, messaging, and web browsing. ACLU sued on behalf of the organization, challenging the NSA’s “Upstream” surveillance of internet communications — one of the mass spying programs revealed by Edward Snowden. Although the court held that Wikimedia had provided evidence that its communications with millions of users around the world are subject to NSA surveillance, the court said further litigation would expose sensitive information about the NSA’s spying activities. We disagree.
Congress has made clear that the courts can and should decide whether this warrantless digital dragnet complies with the Constitution. And yet, to date, not a single challenge to Upstream surveillance has ever been allowed to go forward.

– Australia gave police power to compel sysadmins into assisting account takeovers – so they plan to use it
Soon, authorities intend to flush out CSAM and the creeps who share it. After that … privacy types are worried
Under new powers granted by the August 2021 Surveillance Legislation
Amendment (Identify and Disrupt) Bill 2021, Australia’s Federal Police
force take over the accounts of selected social media users and then
deleting or modifying content they’ve posted.

– Modi govt’s refusal to submit an affidavit is eloquent admission that it has & is still using Pegasus spyware for surveillance on citizens violating fundamental right to privacy & destroying Democracy.

– Apple hasn’t promised they won’t conduct mass surveillance on their devices in the future.

– the city of Mesa is spending over $3 million of its pandemic relief funds on a police surveillance hub — which it calls a “public health” project.

– Oath Keepers status hearing. DOJ says it’s making “progress” on discovery Lol FBI put together still shots of USCP surveillance video for defense. DOJ does NOT want that video made public or even to defense. Just amazing. Reminder that DOJ and USCP have total control over 14,000 surveillance video from January 6. In a recent update, DOJ said half the footage was not relevant to J6 investigation. Judge Mehta asking if defense will be able to access video for a specific area of the Capitol. He says it’s “critical” for defense to access video. The legal battle for USCP footage will be huge.

– Activision Blizzard workers are suing, saying the company is using coercive tactics to stop them from unionizing — incl. intimidation, surveillance and hiring “notorious union busters.” The company faced a walkout in July over rampant sexual harassment and gender discrimination.

– NSA surveillance suit is down and nearly out. High court is last hope
America’s spy agency managed to duck civil claims on the basis of state secrets, some eight years after ex-pat Edward Snowden exposed the government’s mass surveillance of its own citizens.

– A Detroit community college professor is fighting Silicon Valley’s surveillance machine. People are listening.
Chris Gilliard grew up with racist policing in Detroit. He sees a new form of oppression in the tech we use every day.

– Peter “The Steal” Thiel.
We wanted flying cars. Instead we got targeted ads, more surveillance, insurrectionists, and Peter Thiel.
The inside story of how he gamed Trump, Silicon Valley’s biggest executives, and democracy itself to make billions, tax-free

– David Graeber’s “Of Flying Cars and the Declining Rate of Profit”