The US Is Openly Stockpiling Dirt on All Its Citizens - eviltoast
  • ytsedude@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Well, this is terrifying. The experience of slowly becoming not only a “product” but almost an “enemy of the state” has been surreal and disheartening to say the least.

  • Rottcodd@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Of course they are.

    A pertinent point that Solzhenitsyn made in Gulag Archipelago - he said that in all the time he spent in the gulags, he never once met a person who had not been legitimately convicted of a genuine crime.

    The way it worked was simply that the USSR had such an extensive and nebulous set of laws that it was effectively impossible for anyone to obey all of them all the time, and so much information on all its citizens that whenever an official wanted someone disappeared, it was just a matter of checking through their records and finding which law(s) they had broken, then arresting them, trying them and convicting them.

    The US oligarchy is actively pursuing the same basic strategy, and for the same basic reasons.

  • ScrollinMyDayAway@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Just my tin-foil hat opinion, but if anyone thinks the US is not heading towards a surveillance State on par with China, then I have a bridge to sell you.

    • Leminator@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I’m guessing virtually every government in the world is surveilling and collecting data on as many people as they can. I don’t think that’s tinfoil at all but actually a part of the job of modern intelligence. The only (sorta) counterbalance citizens have is the concept of citizen’s rights (including privacy), which may legally barely exist (if at all) in other countries.

    • 4lan@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      In Virginia you now have to show your government ID to view a porn site. Welcome to the nanny state

  • sramder@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Fairly longwinded article on the US government buying data to skip on getting warrants.

    The size and scope of the government effort to accumulate data revealing the minute details of Americans’ lives are described soberly and at length by the director’s own panel of experts in a newly declassified report. Haines had first tasked her advisers in late 2021 with untangling a web of secretive business arrangements between commercial data brokers and US intelligence community members.  What that report ended up saying constitutes a nightmare scenario for privacy defenders.  “This report reveals what we feared most,” says Sean Vitka, a policy attorney at the nonprofit Demand Progress. “Intelligence agencies are flouting the law and buying information about Americans that Congress and the Supreme Court have made clear the government should not have.”  In the shadow of years of inaction by the US Congress on comprehensive privacy reform, a surveillance state has been quietly growing in the legal system’s cracks. Little deference is paid by prosecutors to the purpose or intent behind limits traditionally imposed on domestic surveillance activities. More craven interpretations of aging laws are widely used to ignore them. As the framework guarding what privacy Americans do have grows increasingly frail, opportunities abound to split hairs in court over whether such rights are even enjoyed by our digital counterparts. “I’ve been warning for years that if using a credit card to buy an American’s personal information voids their Fourth Amendment rights, then traditional checks and balances for government surveillance will crumble,” Ron Wyden, a US senator from Oregon, says. 

  • MiddleWeigh@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    It’s already extremely easy for LE to drum up basically whatever charge and stick it to you, for the majority of citizens with no funds for a lawyer.

    We’ve already got the plate scanners. Everytime I drive by one, my file pops as a red flag and a stop is more than likely, just to “check in” with me, usually with some false pretense like “i thought your window was cracked, my bad, but where you going tonight?” I’m not technically on paper, but I am treated as such. Easy arrest potential with some bs probable cause.

    The fact that it will continue to go further doesn’t surprise me. Makes the job even easier for them. If you aren’t a good consumer, you will be prosecuted.

  • TheRazorX@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    The hilarious part (in a bleak fashion), is I can’t find many other articles discussing this.

    Then everyone will panic and go crazy when someone like Trump wins and they have access to all this. History repeats.

    • Dee@lemmings.world
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      1 year ago

      I can’t find many other articles discussing this.

      We’ve known they’ve been doing this since at least Snowden, what’s the story?

      Remember that government agency that hoovers up all our data? Yeah, they’re still doing that. Only they don’t have to try as hard because they can just buy our info instead of snooping for it (but they’re also still snooping).

      Maybe it’s good to remind people it’s still happening because apparently everyone forgot we were told they’ve been doing this, for a while.

      • hark@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        What really blows my mind are the people who attack Snowden while claiming this mass data collection is perfectly fine.

        • TheRazorX@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          I love the “If you’re not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to hide…”

          I usually respond to those folks with “Can I watch you fuck your spouse? You’re not doing anything wrong, they’re your spouse, so you shouldn’t have anything to hide”

          The crazy part is, I’ve gotten a few enthusiastic “Yes” responses to that…

      • AfricanExpansionist@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Nobody forgot. We all depend on the internet for daily life and livelihoods. We are largely powerless against these faceless institutions

        • Dee@lemmings.world
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          1 year ago

          Not that I disagree with you, but I was more responding to the fact that they said they can’t find anybody else reporting about it. I was saying that there’s not much to report because this is kind of old news. I understand why more news agencies aren’t picking up on this, like, government agencies known for sucking up data are still sucking up data. -shrug-

          • TheRazorX@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            I don’t disagree, and you’re absolutely right, but i’d argue there’s still a difference between a government organization collecting the data themselves, and the same organization buying it from other brokers. It’s semantics sure, but it’s a new dimension of this fucketry.

      • SterlingVapor@slrpnk.net
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        1 year ago

        Yes and no - prism and related programs weren’t that big a deal (besides morally and legally) - the NSA was collecting far more data than they could use at scale. It was a problem, but realistically it wouldn’t affect normal people - you’d have to catch a lot of attention first to even be searched in that system. It couldn’t be used for law enforcement or anything wide scale - the collection was there, but the analysis didn’t scale

        It was a problem because of where we are now - AI advancement means not only can they now process the insane amount of data they ingest and make terrifying associations, they can use the ridiculous amount of compute they’ve been building out to actually use all this data

        We’re most of the way down the slippery slope now, and still accelerating fast. The capability makes 1984 look quaint, and having the ability to flick on systems China drools over is pretty concerning

        People don’t even know they’re trying to make us use id to use sites “to protect the children”. Any site that might be inappropriate (of which, social media fits under the current definitions of) would be responsible for children getting access to their services - storing driver’s licenses seems to be the popular idea for compliance. Google’s web DRM might be pushed out so fast to offer this kind of service too

        Kosa has bipartisan support, the president has come out strongly supporting it, and it’s insane to me that people still don’t care

      • eldavi@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Maybe it’s good to remind people it’s still happening because apparently everyone forgot we were told they’ve been doing this, for a while.

        anecdotally: people chose to forget so that they don’t have to change their world view. every single snowden revelations denier i know is either software engineer, network engineer, or devops

        • Dee@lemmings.world
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          1 year ago

          people chose to forget so that they don’t have to change their world view.

          That’s a good point, as a Sys Admin I’ve ran into a few coworkers like that myself. Not sure how somebody could deny it at this point tbh though.

      • SterlingVapor@slrpnk.net
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        1 year ago

        Yes and no - prism and related programs weren’t that big a deal (besides morally and legally) - the NSA was collecting far more data than they could use at scale. It was a problem, but realistically it wouldn’t affect normal people - you’d have to catch a lot of attention first to even be searched in that system. It couldn’t be used for law enforcement or anything wide scale - the collection was there, but the analysis didn’t scale

        It was a problem because of where we are now - AI advancement means not only can they now process the insane amount of data they ingest and make terrifying associations, they can use the ridiculous amount of compute they’ve been building out to actually use all this data

        We’re most of the way down the slippery slope now, and still accelerating fast. The capability makes 1984 look quaint, and having the ability to flick on systems China drools over is pretty concerning

        People don’t even know they’re trying to make us use id to use sites “to protect the children”. Any site that might be inappropriate (of which, social media fits under the current definitions of) would be responsible for children getting access to their services - storing driver’s licenses seems to be the popular idea for compliance. Google’s web DRM might be pushed out so fast to offer this kind of service too

        Kosa has bipartisan support, the president has come out strongly supporting it, and it’s insane to me that people still don’t care

      • mithbt@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        We’ve known they’ve been doing this since at least Snowden, what’s the story?

        They’ve been doing this since the 1950s, younger generations just didn’t realize the scope until Snowden.

        • Dee@lemmings.world
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          1 year ago

          Yeah, that’s why I said “at least” because I’m sure there’s earlier examples but that was the largest recent example.

  • GodlessCommie@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I requested my data file from Lexis/Nexus several years ago, and the amount of personal data scraped from EVERYWHERE online was in it. AOL chat convos from the 90s, old, used once, throw away email addresses, pictures shared on social media. The damn thing was several inches thick and arrived in a box. We have zero privacy

      • twistypencil@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        100% the only difference is surveillance hides in the shadows and it’s easy for people to not see the effects, whereas the effects of climate change cannot be hidden. So surveillance feels way more nefarious, and climate change feels more honest about the pain is going to inflict on us

    • flipht@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I mean, we all will. But the question is how miserable will we be until then.

      • jantin@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I predict an unprecedented wave of suicides in about 10 years time. People who knew a nicer world (current 30-40 year olds) will ultimately understand how hopeless the future is. Younger people will break after 20-30 years of polarization, pauperisation and yearly disasters. This will overlap with natural timeline of passing away of today’s 60+ year olds. Not fun times ahead.

        • tallwookie@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          eh, I think it really depends on the individual. people need to go outside more and start caring less about things they cant change.

          • jantin@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            huh “go for a walk, it’s gonna help with depression” is not a take I expected here

        • arefx@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          Good more prospective homes for me to buy for myself to live in corporations to rent out.

  • tiredofsametab@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Well, where else would they store dirt? It’s not like you can just put it on the ground or something; on people is the only clear, reasonable choice!

  • YⓄ乙 @aussie.zone
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    1 year ago

    Lol i am.not concerned at all because whoever doesn’t know about “5 eyes” should go and read about it so its just not the US.