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The Average American Is RECORDED 238 Times a Week

October 10, 2020

The Average American Is RECORDED 238 Times a Week

Cameras are everywhere.

Do you have a cell phone? Unless it’s an old antiquated flip phone, there’s a camera. Public parks, roadways, the parking garage at your favorite shopping center, police officers wearing body cameras, school…they are everywhere.

There was a time when Americans viewed the presence of security cameras in a private business as a creepy Orwellian intrusion into their private lives. They didn’t want to be recorded and watched as they did their shopping or when they went into the bank to cash their paychecks. Those days came and went and Americans accepted and adapted those cameras.

Then along came public surveillance cameras and traffic light cameras. And, once again people felt their lives were being infringed upon. Not only were private businesses still conducting the surveillance, but the government was now watching too. This left many people feeling as though their privacy rights had been taken away from them.

All that changed when 9/11 happened. Suddenly Americans couldn’t be stopped from stuffing their concerns over privacy as far down the toilet bowl as they could.

Two decades later the “Privacy Train” has left the station.

Everywhere we go, there are cameras. Whether it be a camera in a retail store, at a stoplight, inside a hospital, inside an Uber car, inside a restaurant, possibly even inside your own home. Oh, and let’s not forget the doorbell cameras. like the ones surveilling the entire neighborhood without their consent. If you have a smartphone, it’s tracking everywhere you go and that data is being used to compile incredibly detailed information about you.

Cameras are everywhere…including in our own hands. While the images being posted on social media may just be static images, they are still pictures of someone who may not even know that image was posted.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Big Tech Is Turning Hospitals Into Real-Time Surveillance Centers

May 18, 2020

Big Tech Is Turning Hospitals Into Real-Time Surveillance Centers

Recent events have come to light about hospital surveillance that should concern everyone.

Big Tech is using the pandemic as an excuse to turn hospitals into mirror images of law enforcement’s real-time crime centers.

When Google announced that they were donating 10,000 Nest cameras to hospitals, my jaw dropped.

“With these Nest Cams, nurses and doctors will be able to check in on patients, supplementing in-person checks. This means there will be a reduction of physical contact, and therefore less of a need for personal protection equipment (PPE), which has fast become a scare resource.”

What makes Google’s donation so jaw dropping is how Big Tech companies are using the pandemic to make them appear magnanimous.

“With both contact tracing and the Nest Cam solution, however, Google needs to rebuild a reputation as a privacy concerned company due to the sensitive nature of both projects. It’s not going to be an easy task, but one that should remain at the forefront of all such efforts.”

Because nothing says reputation builder, like putting real-time surveillance cameras in patients rooms. Not only will hospitals record patients but they will record, nurses, doctors, hospital staff and anyone else who enters a patients’ room. That also includes minors, so no one will be safe from Big Brother’s prying eyes.

As The Guardian discovered, it also sends that information to Google servers.

“However, Nest admits that when connected to Google’s “Works with Nest integration” system, which allows other devices such as ceiling fans, washing machines and car sensors to integrate with Nest’s products, it does share personal information with Google.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

DEA And ICE Hiding Secret Cameras In Streetlights 

November 12, 2018

DEA And ICE Hiding Secret Cameras In Streetlights 

According to new government procurement data, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have purchased an undisclosed number of secret surveillance cameras that are being hidden in streetlights across the country.

Quartz first reported this dystopian development of federal authorities stocking up on “covert systems” last week. The report showed how the DEA paid a Houston, Texas company called Cowboy Streetlight Concealments LLC. approximately $22,000 since June for “video recording and reproducing equipment.” ICE paid out about $28,000 to Cowboy Streetlight Concealments during the same period.

“It’s unclear where the DEA and ICE streetlight cameras have been installed, or where the next deployments will take place. ICE offices in Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio have provided funding for recent acquisitions from Cowboy Streetlight Concealments; the DEA’s most recent purchases were funded by the agency’s Office of Investigative Technology, which is located in Lorton, Virginia,” said Quartz.

Below is the list Of contract actions for Cowboy Streetlight Concealments LLC. Vendor_Duns_Number: “085189089” on the Federal Procurement Database:

Christie Crawford, who co-owns Cowboy Streetlight Concealments with her husband, said she was not allowed to talk about the government contracts in detail.

“We do streetlight concealments and camera enclosures,” Crawford told Quartz. “Basically, there’s businesses out there that will build concealments for the government and that’s what we do. They specify what’s best for them, and we make it. And that’s about all I can probably say.”

However, she added: “I can tell you this—things are always being watched. It doesn’t matter if you’re driving down the street or visiting a friend, if government or law enforcement has a reason to set up surveillance, there’s great technology out there to do it.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

The Surveillance State: An Inexorable March Toward Totalitarianism

November 11, 2017

The Surveillance State: An Inexorable March Toward Totalitarianism

mass-surveillance2

Gizmodo released an article entitled “US Homeland Security Wants Facial Recognition to Identify People in Moving Cars,” on 11/2/17 by Matt Novak. The Surveillance State has slowed down its rate of growth since the President took office, however, it has not halted that growth. Instead, it lies festering below the veneer of daily events, inexorably growing its tentacles and extending their reach. Akin to an infestation of weeds, the roots are deep within the fabric of our communications networks: telephones, CCTV (Closed-Circuit Television) cameras, the Internet…all are thoroughly permeated.

Here is an excerpt from that article:

The proposed program would allow Homeland Security to maintain a database of everyone who leaves and enters the US that would now include photos taken by spying robot-cameras at every border crossing. Not only does DHS want this new facial recognition program to work without anyone having to exit their vehicle, the agency wants it to work even if the travelers are wearing things like sunglasses and hats. DHS also wants it to work without cars having to stop.

Seems they really want our information for their database. There is something more. One of the readers on the article’s website who uses the handle “Artiofab” posted this comment that is important, as he lives on the Texas border with Mexico:

“11/02/17 12:31pm  Hi everybody I live near the US-MX border so I’m happy to give informed opinions on this topic, since I know that a lot of the audience at Gizmodo dot com apparently lives closer to the US-CA border.

Near the US-MX border along major US highways there are these interior checkpoints. If you’re traveling “into” the US (e.g., if you’re in New Mexico and you’re driving north) you stop your car, a USBP agent asks if you’re all US citizens, you say yes, they let you keep going.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Wikileaks Reveals “Dumbo”: Tool That Allows CIA To Shut Down Cameras And Microphones

August 3, 2017

Wikileaks Reveals “Dumbo”: Tool That Allows CIA To Shut Down Cameras And Microphones

Since Wikileaks began releasing classified CIA documents back in March as part of its “Vault 7” series of leaks, purportedly the largest document dump in the agency’s history, it has publicly unveiled programs with innocent sounding names like “Marble”, “Scribbles” and “Archimedes” that the agency employs to help execute its operations, or to cover its tracks.

On Thursday, the group released the 19th installment in its series by publishing a series of documents detailing how the agency uses a custom-designed hacking exploit called “Dumbo” to destroy, or manufacture, evidence during field operations, according to a Wikileaks press release.

The CIA filed a request that such a tool back in 2012, according to a powerpoint presentations describing what capabilities it would need.

In a field guide for the tool, dated July 2015, the agency says “the intelligence community has identified a need…for a capability to suspend processes utilizing webcams and corrupt any video recordings that could compromise a PAG deployment.”

Once installed on a computer running the Windows operating system via a thumb drive, Dumbo identifies webcams and microphones and stops them from recording. The program notifies its operator of any files that were actively being written so that they can be corrupted or deleted, according to the field manual.

“Dumbo works by discovering which processes have access to the physical camera device and uses that information to corrupt video files.  In some instances, programs emulate a camera input to other programs; such is the case with Fujitsu’s YouCam.exe.  When this occurs, YouCam.exe will have control of the actual webcam, and feed input to other processes that record images to files as needed.  In this scenario, Dumbo will suspend YouCam.exe but will not be able to detect the other processes to which YouCam.exe is feeding images.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

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