[snakeoil]

It's comical reading the insane comments on this board. Outrageous, racist and wacko comments can come back to bite you big time. I know of a 20 YO that recently was refused a job because of a Facebook comment he made when he was 15. (I wonder how many of us would like to be judged by our statements/actions we made when we were 15?) Please believe me when I make this statement...the Federal Government knows and stores every statement, search, email, cell phone, landline conversation, GPS use and Web query that you make and they know who is making the comments on this board (your nick" does not afford you the protection you think it does.) The Federal Government is presently building a massive billion dollar storage facility to store a thousand years of data...http://gcn.com/articles/2011/01/07/nsa- ... -utah.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. Example...Recently Realjustme started a post calling he Rev. Jesse Jackson "nigga." One of these days that statement might revisit him to prove that he is a racist and not qualified for whatever job, loan or service that he is applying for. Other comments on this board, I'm sure, probably have caused someone in some small government office to research the individual who made that comment.

[tvd]

God damn!!!! Paranoid is the immediate word that comes to mind. Get some help.

[brandon]

So your saying that Big Brother is officially here now? That our thoughts, opinions, and speech now can be crimes used against us at any time?

Then we have lost our freedom. It's 1984.


Since you have such insight, what do you see in the future for us? Will we immediately be contacted, shamed, and jailed by Big Bro when we have an unapproved thought or opinion or action? Will we be prescribed the official way to think and live? Seems your type is the best at that lately. And who are you referring to as "They" in your thread title?

'Cause if this is what the new way is, you're on the radar too. And one of your types of federal judges just said it was all constitutional.


The tolerance crowd is always the most intolerant.

[brandon]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JSBhI_0at0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8de2W3rtZsA

How to defeat Big Brother

In 2013, we learned the terrifying scope of modern surveillance. Now it's time to fight back


Topics: Surveillance, panopticon, Netflix, Facebook, Edward Snowden, Big Brother, Best of 2013, Technology News, Politics News

How to defeat Big Brother


“Visibility is a trap.”

It can be safely argued that those four words, written by the French philosopher Michel Foucault in his discussion of the “panopticon,” were never more true than they were this year. Our visibility — defined as ubiquitous, networked digital connectedness — has at long last enabled an unprecedented surveillance state. In 2013, the negative consequences of our contemporary lifestyles were impossible to ignore.

But not just for the most obvious reason — the avalanche of revelations about the depth and scope of government spying delivered by Edward Snowden, which seized the world’s attention from June onward. The surveillance society is hardly limited to NSA spooks. We are now open books for everyone to read: Our friends and our enemies and our stalkers. Our providers of email and texting and social media and advertising and entertainment. Our employers, our doctors and our teachers. We have never been more visible, never been more willing or able to open up every moment of our existence to the outside world. And in doing so, we have handed the watchers fantastic power.

When you use something as seemingly innocuous as the flashlight app on your smartphone, it’s entirely possible that your location data is being gathered. The particular constellation of apps you use most often is exploited to build a profile for targeted advertising. Netflix makes note of every time you pause or fast-forward an episode of “Orange is the New Black.” Facebook is analyzing even the status updates that you delete before posting. Google Now knows when and where I am traveling, what packages are on the way to my house, and, of course, what I have been searching for recently. Your employer is gathering every conceivable data metric for evaluating your job performance.



Visibility is a trap. The convenience of the smartphone is a trap. The web of connectivity that binds us into a seething, ADHD hive mind is a trap. Our daily lives are constructed out of ones and zeroes and because they can be counted, they will be counted.

But understanding this fact is, and must be, the first step toward escape; the Panopticon doesn’t work if we watch the watchers back. Knowing exactly how we are being surveilled is the set-up for a prison break.

* * *

In its original formulation by the 18th century philosopher Jeremy Bentham, the “Panopticon” was an instrument of control, “a new mode of obtaining power of mind over mind, in a quantity hitherto without example.”

The Panopticon, in Bentham’s formulation, is a building in which a single watchman or “inspector” can see every prisoner “without being seen” himself. The theory is that if we know it is possible that someone is watching us, we will behave ourselves accordingly, even if no one is actually minding the store. The concept, as imagined by Bentham, applied to much more than just your local jail.


No matter how different, or even opposite the purpose: whether it be that of punishing the incorrigible, guarding the insane, reforming the vicious, confining the suspected, employing the idle, maintaining the helpless, curing the sick, instructing the willing in any branch of industry, or training the rising race in the path of education: in a word, whether it be applied to the purposes of perpetual prisons in the room of death, or prisons for confinement before trial, or penitentiary-houses, or houses of correction, or work-houses, or manufactories, or mad-houses, or hospitals, or schools.

At first glance, our ubiquitous closed circuit camera society — in which every keystroke might be logged, and the FBI could be watching us through our laptop camera, our GPS-enabled tablets and phones have become “NSA primate-tracking devices,” and the content of our emails is being analyzed by Google’s algorithms — maps quite nicely to the all-purpose utilitarianism of the Panopticon. We are all constantly being inspected; or, in what amounts to the same thing, we all might be under constant inspection.


It is obvious that, in all these instances, the more constantly the persons to be inspected are under the eyes of the persons who should inspect them, the more perfectly will the purpose X of the establishment have been attained. Ideal perfection, if that were the object, would require that each person should actually be in that predicament, during every instant of time. This being impossible, the next thing to be wished for is, that, at every instant, seeing reason to believe as much, and not being able to satisfy himself to the contrary, he should conceive himself to be so.

The irony here is that what Bentham conceived of as impossible — all the people in any given institution being watched, “during every instant of time” — is now quite within the realm of possibility, if we count the artificially intelligent algorithms chewing away at all our “big data” as essentially the same thing as Bentham’s all-seeing inspector. Certainly, no single human can read all our emails or texts, listen in to all our phone calls, track all our movements or record every song we listen to on our Sonos wireless systems or every TV show we watch on Netflix. The sheer volume of data that we are producing far outstrips the cognitive capacity of the mere human mind.

But the same networked computers that give us so much amazing access to everything that humans have ever written (or composed, or photographed) have unhappily returned the favor by making it possible to sift through that infinite firehose of data. The inspector is now everywhere — and again, at first glance, that appears to satisfy the conditions postulated by Bentham. I don’t know whether the FBI or NSA is watching me type these words through my laptop camera or keylogging software, but they could be, right? So I’d better watch out, right? I’d better be good?

Maybe.

What, ultimately, does it mean for us to know that everyone from the NSA to our boss to Netflix to Google could be tracking us and number-crunching us and targeting us? Does it mean we behave any differently, as Bentham predicted? Are we better consumers, buying what we’re supposed to buy? (Probably.) Are we more passive citizens, refraining from activism or dissent? (Almost certainly not.) Are we more diligent and productive workers?

It’s probably too early to make any conclusions from the data that has been gathered so far. We’re engaged in a huge, open-ended laboratory experiment with no control group to compare ourselves to. The science of “people analytics” is still in its infancy.

But one of the great paradoxes of the digital era is that even though we know we have no privacy, it doesn’t seem like very many people act accordingly. We embarrass ourselves on social media all the time. We construct track records for our employers and governments to pore over with hardly a second thought. There are some signs that we are beginning to seek out more privacy-conscious modes of living (See: Snapchat) but in general, we seem perfectly willing to live our lives in full-frontal public view. Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s Amazon wish list included five books on forging documents and making fake IDs!

So Bentham’s primary justification of the Panopticon — the notion that the illusion that someone is watching will encourage the proper behavior intended by whatever institution employs the technique — doesn’t appear to be borne out by contemporary practice. Furthermore, Bentham’s Panopticon only worked in one direction, whereas our surveillance-enabling devices also give us great individual power. One second after the first person posts on Facebook that the FBI might be able to spy through our laptop computers, the entire world has shared this information. Forewarned is forearmed, right?

If we know that advertisers are watching our iPhone apps to figure out what kind of customer we are and what we are most likely to buy, shouldn’t that give us some agency in the equation? Shouldn’t that knowledge — that what’s been presented to us is no accident — engender skepticism and wariness?

If 2013 was the year in which we finally started to grasp the awesome scope of the surveillance — that our daily lives are exposed to all the watchers out there, all the time and by multiple inspectors — then maybe 2013 is also the year in which we started to figure out what the truly appropriate response to our predicament should be.

Here’s hoping it’s not what the operators of these panopticons are hoping for. Let’s make some noise in 2014!

Edward Snowden, whether one considers him a traitor or a hero, indisputably put the issue of government spying on the national table, and provoked a conversation that seems likely to have real political consequences. He used the technology available to him to turn the camera back on the watchers. It’s a model we should be following in every domain. Let’s turn a closer eye on our employers and our content providers and our advertisers.

Maybe the full potential of the Panopticon will only be realized when everybody — the powerless and the powerful, the leaders and the led, the stalkers and the stalked — realizes that everyone is watching everything. Maybe then, we’ll be able to achieve a respectable state of civilization. Maybe then, the “trap” of “visibility” will turn out to liberate, rather than imprison.

[johnforbes]

Good post. We discussed the "Panopticon" in college.

Both Repubs and Dems are at fault for allowing our once-free society to devolve into this Orwellian scenario in which the 4th Amendment is almost a joke.

[RealJustme]

Recently Realjustme started a post calling he Rev. Jesse Jackson "nigga."

Jesse Jackson is a nigga and so are most other blacks in politics and shake down punks.

Nigga is a black that maintains racial separation and dwells on events over one hundred years ago.

"You caint say nigga cuz you aint black you is white and you great great great grandaddy kept my great great great grandaddy as a slave, so you need to give me yo money, dawg."


I do agree with one part of snakeoil's post, under Obama the Government will target and attempt to destroy citizens that don't support the agenda. Trust me I've been on Obama's "bad boy" list since he became President, they already know I will never vote Democrat, especially after the damages the hollow chocolate bunny has done.

Carlos

[Grog]

Why do you think they've spent close to eleventeen trillion dollars getting the FEMA reeducation camps ready for conservatives? It would be a terrible waste of hard earned taxpayer dollars if the camps are not used.








Marco

[sillydaddy]

Snakeoil, do think if I wear a tinfoil hat I will be safe from the Feds ?

[RealJustme]

Snakeoil, do think if I wear a tinfoil hat I will be safe from the Feds ?

Mine has protected me, look at the anti-Obama Administration stuff I've posted for years and they still can't find me. According to Snakeoil they're finding the people not wearing tinfoil hats and destroying their lives for expressing their opinions.

https://www.google.com/search?q=tinfoil ... B250%3B338" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Carlos

[elklindo69]

Twitter is a soapbox for all kinds of racists, bigots, and all other types of miscreants.

I hope they don't ban it. Its entertaining to see how people can make complete idiots of themselves...

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/a ... n?s=mobile

[johnforbes]

ESPN is just running the story about the Wepner-Ali fight when Ali was asking Wepner to call him racist names on the Mike Douglas show to whip up interest in the fight.

So, in that casual way, Ali was seeking to promote racist themes, and that's the same sort of game being played today by Al Shapton, Jesse Jackson, Jeremiah Wright, et al.

[brandon]

"the Bush administration’s surveillance policy ‘puts forward a false choice between the liberties we cherish and the security we provide" ~Barack Obama 2007

Now we know for sure: The Obama administration has presided over the most thorough expansion of the domestic surveillance state of any U.S. presidency.

[snakeoil]

Wow! I should have checked back on this board earlier. BTW, I have two relatives working at the super secret agencies; One is a upper level supervisor.

http://www.thedailysheeple.com/its-not- ... -to_122013" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[RealJustme]

Wow! I should have checked back on this board earlier. BTW, I have two relatives working at the super secret agencies; One is a upper level supervisor.

If you follow your theory, you just got your two relatives working at "super secret agencies" fired. The one who cleans the toilets on the upper level is really going be pissed at you dude.

Carlos

[snakeoil]

http://www.livememe.com/28zc8g1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[RealJustme]

Snakeoil you do realize that the link you referenced downloads a botnet on to your computer don't you? My virus program didn't catch it but my Malware program did. I know it's not your site but I'd watch using it again.

If you start getting directed to sites you didn't click on or you notice your hard drive is gong crazy although you're not running programs, I'd advise you down load the free Malwarebytes program. After you try the free version which is good for 14 days, you'll buy the full version, I did.

http://www.malwarebytes.org/lp/lp4/?gcl ... fgod92UAkQ" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[brandon]

...comments can come back to bite you big time. ....One of these days that statement might revisit him to prove that he is ... not qualified for whatever job, loan or service that he is applying for.

I guess Snake isn't going to comment any further. Just tell everybody they don't know what they're doing or what's happening and leave.

In 2007, Obama proclaimed that he would put an end to all forms of spying on citizens not suspected of a crime. In his words, he would make sure there was ‘no more tracking’ of citizens that weren’t doing anything wrong.

Seven years later, we now have the largest public leak of NSA spying data in history, with literally every citizen a target of what’s known as the ‘PRISM’ spy grid. The NSA actually goes directly to the servers of your favorite mega tech companies to grab your personal data and chats, from Google to Facebook and Apple. This was at first disputed by the tech companies themselves and even the United States Director of National Intelligence, but as it turns out a second leaked slide confirms that the entire basis of PRISM is actually 100% direct connection to these mega tech servers.

So what exactly is Obama saying when he says that he is going to put an end to the massive spying on citizens? The spying that he says was actually a part of the Bush Administration and something he was going to put a halt to once taking office. Well, we all know that spying on US citizens is not purely a Democratic of Republican thing. Instead, it’s more of an absolute power corruption thing. And Obama is continuing the trend of Big Brother government that has its roots far before the Bush Administration — despite his empty promises.

Let’s look at what Obama said in 2007 when vying for the vote in regards to his promises of alleviating spy programs in the US that target citizens who are not engaging in criminal activity (he even specifically mentions protesters, who are targeted most of all):

“This Administration also puts forward a false choice between the liberties we cherish and the security we demand…

That means no more illegal wire-tapping of American citizens. No more national security letters to spy on citizens who are not suspected of a crime. No more tracking citizens who do nothing more than protest a misguided war. No more ignoring the law when it is inconvenient. That is not who we are. And it is not what is necessary to defeat the terrorists… We will again set an example for the world that the law is not subject to the whims of stubborn rulers, and that justice is not arbitrary.”

Obama specifically spoke out in 2007 against the very thing we know is going on today, promising that he would take action and put an end to the surveillance state.

WUWT, ya'll ?

You all should be going crazy right now. I can't imagine being such partisan tools .

:lol:

[RealJustme]

Snakeoil...the Federal Government knows and stores every statement, search, email, cell phone, landline conversation, GPS use and Web query that you make and they know who is making the comments on this board (your nick" does not afford you the protection you think it does.) The Federal Government is presently building a massive billion dollar storage facility to store a thousand years of data

[RealJustme]

Imagine a liberal making the victims of spying by the Government into the villains. Shame on you snakeoil. Instead of chastising the ones being spied on warning the Government knows everything and they may destroy our lives, you should be chastising the Government for doing it....oh I forgot, Obama can do no wrong, my bad, carry on.

Carlos