Conspiracy Theories 101 Series
Part 5 of 12:
The Surveillance State
Conspiracy Theories 101 Series Part 1 of 12: Introduction
Conspiracy Theories 101 Series Part 2 of 12: The Deep State
Conspiracy Theories 101 Series Part 3 of 12: Conspiracy Theorists - Part 1 and Part 2
Conspiracy Theories 101 Series Part 4 of 12: Pedophile Rings
Conspiracy Theories 101 Series Part 5 of 12: The Surveillance State
Conspiracy Theories 101 Series Part 6 of 12: The Banking State
Conspiracy Theories 101 Series Part 7 of 12: The Environmental Movement
Conspiracy Theories 101 Series Part 8 of 12: Breaking Up the Family Unit
Conspiracy Theories 101 Series Part 9 of 12: The Conspiracy Against Women - Part 1 and Part 2
Conspiracy Theories 101 Series Part 10 of 12: The Conspiracy Against Visible Minorities - Part 1 and Part 2 and Part 3 and Part 4
Conspiracy Theories 101 Series Part 11 of 12: The Media - Part 1 and Part 2
Conspiracy Theories 101 Series Part 12 of 12: The Stigma of Being a Conspiracy Theorist - Part 1 and Part 2
By: Shawn Alli
Posted: October 10, 2017
Updated: July 2, 2022
*This article was updated in July 2022 because the original web pages were too large to be indexed by Google.
In the past, the surveillance of your social media profiles is a conspiracy theory. Today, it's a reality. Are there any apologies for vilifying conspiracy theorists in the past in regards to surveillance? No. Liberal media outlets just pretend that it doesn't matter and that we'll take it from here. Sorry, but that's disingenuous.
You should be aware of the 2013 Snowden leaks and CIA WikiLeaks by now (if not, just Google it or see Whistleblowers: True Patriots of Humanity). But it's still worthwhile to note the level of surveillance via social media:
Many of the most popular applications, or "apps," on the socialnetworking site Facebook Inc. have been transmitting identifying information in effect, providing access to people's names and, in some cases, their friends' names—to dozens of advertising and Internet tracking companies, a Wall Street Journal investigation has found.
The problem has ties to the growing field of companies that build detailed databases on people in order to track them online—a practice the Journal has been examining in its What They Know series. It's unclear how long the breach was in place. On Sunday, a Facebook spokesman said it is taking steps to "dramatically limit" the exposure of users' personal information. [1]
Facebook showed advertisers how it has the capacity to identify when teenagers feel "insecure", "worthless" and "need a confidence boost", according to a leaked documents based on research quietly conducted by the social network.
The internal report produced by Facebook executives, and obtained by the Australian, states that the company can monitor posts and photos in real time to determine when young people feel "stressed", "defeated", "overwhelmed", "anxious", "nervous", "stupid", "silly", "useless" and a "failure". [2]
Facebook claimed the report was misleading, assuring the public that the company does not "offer tools to target people based on their emotional state". If the intention of Facebook's public relations spin is to give the impression that such targeting is not even possible on their platform, I'm here to tell you I believe they're lying through their teeth. [3]
The constant need to look down at our smartphones has had a negative impact on our lives, says Dugan, but with the new technology that Facebook is developing, you won't need to worry about being rude when you check messages. If Facebook's mind-reading software is successful, you'll never need to actually look at your screen, or even type; Facebook will simply read your thoughts.
The company currently has 60 employees working to develop non-invasive sensors that can measure brain waves, decoding the brain signals associated with language. Basically, the software will decode the words you're thinking, as you think them, and translate them directly to your device. [4]
Tech companies are facing demands from the home secretary, Amber Rudd, to build backdoors into their "completely unacceptable" end-to-end encryption messaging apps.
This may sound familiar. Two years ago, after the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris, the then British prime minister David Cameron said Britain's intelligence agencies should have the legal power to break into the encrypted communications of suspected terrorists. He promised to legislate for it in 2016.
In the standoff between Apple and the FBI over the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone, the tech giant stood firm. It refused to compromise the security of its operating system and in the process the security of all other iPhone users. Eventually the FBI was forced to find another way to access the device. [5]
All conspiracy theorists know that the more terrorism that happens, the greater the loss of civil rights. Hence, more terrorism is good for GSIGs because it keeps the public scared, surveilled, and under control:
A system intended to scan emails for child pornography and spam helped Yahoo satisfy a secret court order requiring it to search for messages containing a computer "signature" tied to the communications of a state-sponsored terrorist organization, several people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.
...The order was unusual because it involved the systematic scanning of all Yahoo users' emails rather than individual accounts; several other tech companies said they had not encountered such a demand. [6]
U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday signed a repeal of Obama-era broadband privacy rules, the White House said, a victory for internet service providers and a blow to privacy advocates.
...The signing, disclosed in a White House statement late on Monday, follows strong criticism of the bill, which is a win for AT&T Inc., Comcast Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc.
The bill repeals regulations adopted in October by the Federal Communications Commission under the Obama administration requiring internet service providers to do more to protect customers' privacy than websites like Alphabet Inc.'s Google or Facebook Inc. [7]
While many conspiracy theorists support Trump's policies, his surveillance policies are in question. It's the deep state not Trump. Sorry, but that's disingenuous. In the mind of many conspiracy theorists, anything good from Trump comes from him and anything bad comes from the deep state. Yah...no. Either trump is in charge or he gets played by GSIGs. It's one or the other. Though it's too soon to make judgments, it's not looking good for Trump.
While you may think that social media surveillance is bad, it gets much worse:
As of January, there were 234 Android apps that were created using SilverPush's publicly available software developer kit...That represents a dramatic increase in the number of Android apps known to use the creepy audio tracking scheme. In April 2015, there were only five such apps.
The apps silently listen for ultrasonic sounds that marketers use as high-tech beacons to indicate when a phone user is viewing a TV commercial or other type of targeted audio. [8]
Metrolinx has been quietly sharing Presto card users' private travel records with the police, the Star has learned. The transit agency has received 26 requests from police forces so far this year and granted 12 of them, according to Metrolinx, which is the provincial transit agency that operates the Presto fare card system used across the GTHA [Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area] and in Ottawa. It is not known how many requests Metrolinx granted in previous years because the agency only began tracking them in 2016.
The agency says it does not always require law enforcement agencies to produce a warrant or court order to obtain detailed data about transit riders' trips and doesn't always notify customers that police have asked for the information. [9]
...Internally, however, Walmart considered the group [Walmart union effort] enough of a threat that it hired an intelligence-gathering service from Lockheed Martin, contacted the FBI, staffed up its labor hotline, ranked stores by labor activity, and kept eyes on employees (and activists) prominent in the group.
...The Analytical Research Center, or ARC, is part of Walmart's global security division. Ken Senser, a former FBI officer, oversees the entire group.
..."ARC had contracted with Lockheed leading up to Black Friday to help source open social media sites."
Lockheed Martin is one of the biggest defense contractors in the world. Although it's best known for making fighter jets and missile systems, it also has an information technology division that offers cybersecurity and data analytics services. Tucked into that is a little-known operation called LM Wisdom, which has been around since 2011. LM Wisdom is described on Lockheed's website as a tool "that monitors and analyzes rapidly changing open source intelligence data...[that] has the power to incite organized movements, riots and sway political outcomes." [10]
While I'm against unions (aside from maintenance staff), I'm also against the surveillance state. The fact that Wal-Mart is making use of Lockheed Martin only adds evidence to their GSIG connections.
And what about electric cars? How do you think you’ll be paying at the recharging station? With credit card, debit, or your smartphone. All methods that can collect, store, and help build profiles or where you are and what you’re doing. And the surveillance state continues:
...according to a lawsuit filed this week by headphone owner Kyle Zak in Chicago federal court, my QC 35s also are enabling Bose to spy on me. Via a smartphone app, Bose can tell when I'm using the device and the music I'm playing through them. This is done through a smartphone app called Bose Connect, which the manufacturer encourages me, and all other owners, to download and install. Bose says the app is necessary to "get the most out of your headphones," which is absolutely untrue. [11]
The voice-activated smart speaker Google Home will offer "proactive assistance" rather than waiting for you to say "OK, Google" to wake it up. For example, it might notify you if you have to leave your house earlier than expected because traffic is particularly heavy. Perhaps the company will start proactively advertising to customers in the future? [12]
You idly browse a pair of shoes online one morning, and for the rest of the week, those shoes follow you across the Internet, appearing in adverts across the websites you visit.
But what if those ads could pop out of your browser and hound you across different devices? This is the power of ultrasound technology, says Vasilios Mavroudis at University College London – and it offers a whole new way in for hacking attacks and privacy invasions.
So far, this kind of ultrasound technology has mainly been used as a way for marketers and advertisers to identify and track people exposed to their messages...But the technology has many more applications. Some shopping reward apps, such as Shopkick, already use it to let retailers push department or aisle-specific ads and promotions to customers' phones as they shop. [13]
According to data from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), searches of mobile phones by border agents grew from fewer than 5,000 in 2015 to 25,000 in 2016...Anecdotal evidence indicates that searches have risen further in the wake of the election of Donald Trump.
Border agents carry out these invasive searches without any warrant or even suspicion, going through text messages, social media accounts and photos, while asking the owner about the people they are interacting with, their religious affiliations and travel patterns. [14]
As I mention in Whistleblowers: True Patriots of Humanity, the US government has the strongest constitution on the planet. But the implementation of that constitution is one of the worst out of all WE countries. In the end, you'll get your justice, but only after the US government is done f*cking up your life and the lives of your friends and family.
And the surveillance state continues:
British security agencies have secretly and unlawfully collected massive volumes of confidential personal data, including financial information, on citizens for more than a decade, senior judges have ruled.
The investigatory powers tribunal, which is the only court that hears complaints against MI5, MI6 and GCHQ, said the security services operated an illegal regime to collect vast amounts of communications data, tracking individual phone and web use and other confidential personal information, without adequate safeguards or supervision for 17 years. [15]
If you want evidence that US intelligence agencies aren't losing surveillance abilities because of the rising use of encryption by tech companies, look no further than the testimony on Tuesday by the director of national intelligence, James Clapper.
As the Guardian reported, Clapper made clear that the internet of things – the many devices like thermostats, cameras and other appliances that are increasingly connected to the internet – are providing ample opportunity for intelligence agencies to spy on targets, and possibly the masses. [16]
And this mass surveillance happens during the Obama administration. This is what surveillance looks like when a Democrat is in power. While the jury is still out on Trump's surveillance state, it doesn't look good.
And then we have the microchips:
How would you feel about having a microchip implanted in your hand to make things more convenient at work?
In Sweden, some workers are actually volunteering to do just that, electing to have a chip the size of a grain of rice implanted in their bodies to help them unlock doors, operate printers, open storage lockers and even buy smoothies with the wave of their hand...Epicenter, a digital hub in Stockholm that houses more than 300 start-ups and innovation labs for larger companies, has made the implanted chip available to its workers and to member organizations in recent years. It's a biohacking experiment in simplicity that's been embraced by some early adopters associated with the center but represents a technological frontier sure to make others shudder. [17]
In Denmark, a Member of Parliament writes her utopian dream where she owns nothing, has no privacy, and is okay with that. [18] That's powerfully disturbing.
Generally speaking, people in Scandinavian countries are lost. They can't be helped. These people will open their arms to microchipping, 24 hour surveillance, and living in communal housing. They see it as moving forward in their development and the development of humanity. Most people in North America (aside from atheist liberals) see it as moving backwards. We'll have to agree to disagree and let them go their own way.
Allow me to be clear, if you think that microchipping yourself for convenience is beneficial, you're too far gone to be helped. I can understand nanobots and microchips for higher intelligence, but microchipping for convenience represents a rotting of the human soul. Microchip advocates are under the delusion of Elon Musk, Ray Kurzweil, and GSIGs. That's just sad.
Depending on what conspiracy theorist you're listening to, GSIGs believe that they'll be able to move forward into the future under their reptilian overlords via microchips and nanotechnology. With Scandinavian countries as the first WE countries to fall into line.
Perhaps someone should give them a wake up slap so they can remember why they incarnated on the Earth as a living organism. And just in case you're wondering, no, microchipping is not going to solve racism, sexism, pedophilia, or inequality. Technology is just a means to an end. It has no power to solve ideological problems.
And finally, we get to biometrics:
Some of the nation's largest banks, acknowledging that traditional passwords are either too cumbersome or no longer secure, are increasingly using fingerprints, facial scans and other types of biometrics to safeguard accounts.
Millions of customers at Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo routinely use fingerprints to log into their bank accounts through their mobile phones. This feature, which some of the largest banks have introduced in the last few months, is enabling a huge share of American banking customers to verify their identities with biometrics. And millions more are expected to opt in as more phones incorporate fingerprint scans. [19]
Facial recognition technology is coming to major Canadian airports as part of a new traveller screening program under development by Canada Border Services Agency, CBC News has learned.
...According to Lennon, the specifications for CBSA's PIK [Primary Inspection Kiosk] program outline two phases — facial recognition and fingerprint biometrics.
The kiosks can also capture iris data for those travelling under the NEXUS program. [20]
Approximately half of adult Americans' photographs are stored in facial recognition databases that can be accessed by the FBI, without their knowledge or consent, in the hunt for suspected criminals. About 80% of photos in the FBI’s network are non-criminal entries, including pictures from driver’s licenses and passports.
...The FBI first launched its advanced biometric database, Next Generation Identification, in 2010, augmenting the old fingerprint database with further capabilities including facial recognition. The bureau did not inform the public about its newfound capabilities nor did it publish a privacy impact assessment, required by law, for five years.
Unlike with the collection of fingerprints and DNA, which is done following an arrest, photos of innocent civilians are being collected proactively. The FBI made arrangements with 18 different states to gain access to their databases of driver’s license photos. [21]
Remember, all of this biometric surveillance in the US is happening under the Trump administration. Conspiracy theorists that have a hard-on for Trump (Alex Jones and his associate conspiracy theorists) should be mindful of the fact that they may lose their core followers as they support his surveillance state.
Biometrics are now being touted as the solution to passwords. This is classic conditioning for a conspiracy theorist. Introduce W (email). People get hooked on W but have problem X (passwords). Y (biometrics) solves problem X. Liberal media outlets push Y onto the global public as beneficial. Sadly, most of the public will fall into line because the conditioning process is so good.
And when the iris scanner, fingerprints, and facial recognition software are outdone by criminals, the last biometric that GSIGs will go for is your DNA. And when everyone's DNA is uploaded into massive data banks...that will be the beginning of the real surveillance state. God help us all.
A person's medical data/DNA is the most sacred of data. But that sacredness doesn't apply in the GSIG world of Big Data:
23andMe Inc., the genetic-testing startup backed by Google Inc., is sharing DNA data on about 650,000 individuals with Pfizer Inc., to help find new targets to treat disease and to design clinical trials.
The collaboration with Pfizer is the broadest announced so far in 23andMe's ambitious plan to become a repository for humanity's genetic makeup, and to turn data gathered from $99 saliva tests sold to consumers into multimillion-dollar deals with drugmakers.
The agreement unveiled today gives the U.S.’s largest drugmaker access to anonymous, aggregated information from consumers who bought 23andMe's test over the past seven years to learn about their own genetic histories. It includes only people who agreed to let their data be used in research. [22]
While the agreement includes those who agree to share their data officially, unofficially, organizations are most likely sharing everyone's data. Even if they're not sharing the data, it only takes a simple cyberattack for someone to steal the unshared data (even the identities) and give it to Big Data aggregators.
Personally, I believe that GSIGs are the ones orchestrating some of the cyberattacks via low level hackers. And it's a good plan. Even if the hackers get caught, they're just low level people. They have no idea who the principal is, nor do they care. They get their money and GSIGs get their data. Be it officially or unofficially, legally or illegally.
Allow me to be clear. If you're medical history is online, it's already in their hands. All you can do is pray that governments don't let Big Data and Big Insurance to legally use that data to discriminate against you. But the FDA. Relative to GSIGs, the FDA has no significant power. And even if it does, it's already in the pocket of Big Pharma. And Big Pharma is an instrument of GSIGs.
And don't forget about the monetization of your medical data:
23andMe has managed to amass a collection of DNA information about 1.2 million people, which last year began to prove its value when the company revealed it had sold access to the data to more than 13 drug companies. One, Genentech, anted up $10 million for a look at the genes of people with Parkinson's disease.
That means 23andMe is monetizing DNA rather the way Facebook makes money from our "likes." What's more, it gets its customers to pay for the privilege. That idea so appeals to investors that they have valued the still-unprofitable company at over $1 billion.
...Even the U.S. government is catching up. President Obama's Precision Medicine Initiative will begin inviting citizens to join its own one--million-strong database this year. And just like 23andMe, it must find ways to entice the public to join. For now, though, 23andMe's biobank is the world's largest repository of DNA samples that also contains extensive health information, willingly provided by customers. [23]
Due to GSIG liberal conditioning, most people in the world don't care that they're selling themselves to the highest bidder. They may not be selling their soul, but a person's medical data is just as valuable.
While there are official laws against genetic discrimination in most WE countries, that's only officially. If the information "somehow" gets leaked to a person’s employer or Big Insurance, those annual employee evaluations may start to move into negative territory for no valid reason.
And let's not forget liberal media outlets selling what GSIGs are offering:
Scientists announced on Monday that they had pinpointed 15 locations in our DNA that are associated with depression, one of the most common mental health conditions and one that is estimated to cost the world billions in health-care costs and lost productivity.
...the data came from people who sent their saliva to Silicon Valley personal genomics company 23andMe... [24]
Sigh. Here we go. Contrary to what you may believe, there's no such thing as the depression gene, the schizophrenia gene, or the intelligence gene. It's all ideological junk science. The problem in the 21st century is that this junk science is being rebranded as objective science (see Philosophy of Science in Philosophy Reborn Part I: Purpose). And that's a problem.
And no, genetic testing (be it direct to consumers or from a doctor's office) is not accurate in the risk of getting a disease. Why not? Because all of their risk models are unfalsifiable. You can’t prove them wrong (see A Broken Peer-Reviewed Process in Part III: Science). Oddly enough, if you believe that you're going to get the disease (placebo effect), you’re more than likely to get it.
Just because your family has aberrant DNA doesn't mean that you have it. Just because you have it doesn't mean that it will manifest in a significant manner. If you want a good screening technique, look at your diet and environment. That will give you a better picture than most blood/DNA tests (see Genetics in Part III). Good health is not rocket science. It just takes a bit of effort, awareness, and intuition.
And no, depression isn't costing the healthcare industry billions of dollars. Rather, it's creating billions of dollars of revenue for them.The more depressed a person is, the easier they are to control with pharmaceuticals. Better to have submissive cattle than ones that fight back.
Contrary to what you may believe, the drugging of the WE public isn't accidental. It's intentional (see The War Against Natural Health in Part V: Naturally Unhealthy Big Gov't, Big Ag, Big Industry).
And just in case you think that you're safe because your medical data isn't online, think again. GSIGs (via hospitals) most likely have your DNA:
DNA taken from millions of newborn babies is quietly being stored by hospitals without proper parental consent.
The blood samples, taken in heel-prick tests that check for serious conditions, can be accessed by police, coroners and medical researchers, Freedom of Information Act requests reveal.
Despite Government guidelines advising hospitals to destroy the DNA after five years, some facilities have kept them on file for more than 20 years – prompting fears that a covert database is being created. [25]
Newborn babies in the United States are routinely screened for a panel of genetic diseases. Since the testing is mandated by the government, it's often done without the parents' consent...
In many states, such as Florida, where Isabel was born, babies' DNA is stored indefinitely... [26]
If you believe that you're relatively healthy by looking at your diet and environment, I recommend a natural home birth or a birthing center (see Infertility & Pregnancy in Part V).
But this is all pretty heavy stuff. Let's try and cool down with health devices tracking and storing your fitness data. While you may think that your fitness data isn't that valuable, it is to Big Gov't and Big Industry:
If you're wearing your fitness tracker now, you might want to check to see if your heart rate is going up. Here’s the reality of life as a wearable device owner: There's no doctor/patient privacy or patient privacy or any privacy for that matter. Monitoring your health and collecting data is like publishing your own medical autobiography online.
These fitness trackers get a free pass from federal regulation and privacy protection.
...In certain cases, the government or legal institution could request your fitness tracker information and then use it against you in a court of law. That's what happened to Chris Bucchere, a San Francisco cyclist who struck and killed an elderly pedestrian. Bucchere was charged with felony vehicular manslaughter, carrying a potential penalty of six years in prison. Prosecutors obtained his data from his GPS-enabled fitness tracker to show he'd been speeding before the accident. Bucchere's self-monitoring became a piece of evidence against himself due to a lack of privacy. [27]
And all of this data is stored in your wearable device—or, more accurately, in its cloud software.
...If that data was carelessly stored, and then stolen through a data breach by a malicious third party and sold to unscrupulous organizations that want to use that data to assess your health risks, you could one day face steep increases in health insurance, or even a policy cancellation. The risk of this is so real that some companies are buying data breach insurance to protect themselves in the case of consumer information getting into the wrong hands.
If you've willingly shared this data with your health insurer, through discount options at work, you may already be facing rising insurance costs without any data breach necessary, since many employers offer "good health" discounts to employees who stay within regulation weight and exercise parameters to receive a significant savings on health insurance.
...By the end of 2015, there will be an estimated 200 million wearable devices on the market according to ABI Research. By the end of 2018, there will be 780 million wearable devices on the market. This gives hackers plenty of opportunities to steal sensitive data and benefit financially from it. [28]
Over 200 million sold? Kids are dying to get these things? Sadly, the younger generation is getting more submissive by the day, even with all of their Masters and PhDs. How sad. And the health surveillance continues:
The rights body analysed the four companies' privacy policies and found the terms allow them to collect more personal data than is required for their services.
It also said Fitbit, Jawbone, Garmin and Mio are not being sufficiently transparent about how their users' information is used, do not give users "proper notice" when changing their terms, nor do they provide sufficient detail about how long they will store users' data for. [29]
Some of the top-selling brands of fitness trackers that monitor wearers' heart rates, sleeping patterns and movement are putting user data and privacy at risk, according to a new report.
Cybersecurity researchers at the University of Toronto examined eight popular wrist-worn trackers. They tested how they communicate with mobile apps and even upload and store a user's workout information on manufacturers' computer servers.
...The researchers conclude that several models expose users to potential internet snoops and hackers even when devices aren't being used for exercise and mobile apps are turned off. [30]
Your heartbeat, location, diet, the quality of your sleep, and your lifestyle are all being monitored, stored, and sold to Big Industry and Big Gov't. Why? Because it adds to your profile. What profile?
The profile that exists on virtually every person in the WE world. Oh that's nonsense. I'll admit, it does sound like nonsense. Sadly, it's not. Let me get to Big Gov't surveillance and then I'll get back to the profiles.
Do you believe that your government or previous governments are transparent? Do you believe that the government is accountable to you, the taxpayer? If you do, you're most likely a liberal that's bought into the social conditioning. Aside from Trump, most liberals love Big Gov't. Sure, they criticize them from time to time, but they see Gov't as their Big Daddy who knows best.
Generally speaking, most conspiracy theorists are against Big Gov't. Sometimes, I feel bad for Alex Jones and all of his associate conspiracy theorists. They keep defending Trump while vilifying the House and Senate Republicans, while blaming everything on the deep state. Aside from the core followers of Jones, most people will be able to see the hypocrisy in Jones' actions.
But conspiracy theorists don't see surveillance as shocking (like liberals). They see it as a GSIG plan unfolding slowly. And sadly, that's the truth. Don't believe me? See for yourself:
*Note: I'll omit the Snowden leaks. See Whistleblowers: True Patriots of Humanity.
Ask the residents of any major American city to vote on a program of total aerial surveillance––where the cops would record footage of everything that happened within municipal borders, then store the high-resolution video on hard drives, so that they could effectively go back in time, tracing the outdoor movements of any individual––and the proposal would, at the very least, trigger furious debate.
But what if the police didn't ask permission? What if they began recording their city's residents from above without even bothering to inform their elected overseers?
That is what the police in Baltimore have just done.
It is illegal, in Maryland, to record a phone call without informing the person on the other end. Yet Baltimore police have been using an eye in the sky to surveil the whole city for months on end, recording hi-resolution footage and storing it on hard drives so that the movements of residents can be accessed at any time in the future. [31]
...philanthropist John Arnold got in touch with the owner of Persistent, Ross McNutt. Arnold and his wife, Laura, were intrigued by the technology's crime-fighting potential and agreed to fund a trial somewhere. With $360,000 from the Arnolds, McNutt struck a deal with Baltimore. From January to August this year, Baltimore police said at a news conference last week, the plane flew over the city for 314 hours, taking more than a million images.
This spurt of transparency was more than a little tardy. Until Bloomberg Businessweek ran a story in August, virtually no one knew about the surveillance programme, not even the mayor. [32]
When CSIS intercepted the communications of innocent people between 2006 and 2016 "all" the metadata related to those communications was retained in a controversial database, a top secret memo obtained by the Star suggests.
The document relates to CSIS’s Operational Data Analysis Centre (ODAC) and a now-discontinued program that stored data intercepted from the service’s targets — and people who were in contact with them at the time.
The Federal Court ruled in 2016 it was illegal for the service to indefinitely keep data on people who posed no threat to Canada’s national security — such as the family, friends or coworkers of CSIS targets — for future analysis. [33]
And journalists are not exempt from the surveillance state:
Quebec has announced a public inquiry into press freedom and police surveillance amid fresh disclosures that the monitoring of some journalists' cellphones lasted as long as five years and targeted an ever-growing list of reporters.
On Thursday, new evidence added to growing concerns about the scope of the police spying. Three of Quebec's most respected investigative journalists said they were told by the provincial Surete du Quebec that their phone data had been tracked from 2008 to 2013 – the very years police were unearthing and exposing corruption in Quebec's construction industry. [34]
Attkisson gained widespread attention last year when she quit CBS after two decades amid allegations that the network refused to run some of her stories critical of Obama. At CBS, she worked on stories including the "Fast and Furious" gun-walking scandal as well as the attack on the American embassy in Benghazi, Libya.
In her new lawsuit, she states that she "discovered that her computers and telephone had been 'hacked,' that an unauthorized party or parties had illegally installed software on her laptop computer, and that her confidential, professional, and personal information had been illegally accessed."
The journalist says she and family members — co-plaintiffs in the lawsuit — began to notice anomalies in their electronic devices in mid-to-late 2011, around the time she was reporting about the FBI's role in "Fast and Furious." [35]
And then there's GSIGs (via governments) overplaying their hand:
A bill giving the UK intelligence agencies and police the most sweeping surveillance powers in the western world has passed into law with barely a whimper, meeting only token resistance over the past 12 months from inside parliament and barely any from outside.
The Investigatory Powers Act, passed on Thursday, legalises a whole range of tools for snooping and hacking by the security services unmatched by any other country in western Europe or even the US. [36]
Ontario's counterterrorism plan directs local and provincial police to share relevant information gleaned from street checks — or "carding" encounters — with Canada's intelligence agency and the RCMP, according to the written plan reviewed by the Star.
Municipal police services "should ensure" that intelligence they gather "is shared regularly with key partners," including the Criminal Intelligence Service Ontario, the Ontario Provincial Police's anti-terrorism section, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and the RCMP...
..."Front-line officers across Ontario have the unique opportunity to recognize, identify, collect and report on intelligence gathered through primary response duties, such as street checks, vehicle stops and criminal investigations," the document states. [37]
Four ideas floated in the federal government's green paper on national security would enhance investigative capabilities, including the power to compel suspects to unlock their encrypted computers and cellphones and a law to require telecommunication and internet service providers to install interception and data-retention equipment in their networks. [38]
For nearly two decades, when Chicago's police brought people under arrest to their detentions and interrogations warehouse, not even the vast majority of the police force knew where they were..
Homan Square, a warehouse complex headquartering narcotics, vice and intelligence units for the Chicago police, has also served as a secretive facility for detaining and interrogating thousands of people without providing access to attorneys and with little way for their loved ones to find them. [39]
Public Safety Canada has repeatedly approved CSIS and the RCMP's use of devices to spy on Canadians' communications, documents obtained by CBC News reveal.
Canadians have been kept largely in the dark about police and intelligence agencies' surveillance capabilities.
...The new documents reveal Public Safety Canada approved requests from the RCMP, Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the Defence Department granting more than a dozen licences to an unnamed company (or companies) for the purpose of possessing, manufacturing or selling devices "used primarily for the interception of communications." [40]
Canadians who make large cash transactions, international wire transfers or win big at the casino could end up with a federal agency scrutinizing their Facebook pages and other social media posts, CBC News has learned.
The Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre (FINTRAC), the federal government body charged with monitoring financial transactions to detect money laundering and terrorist financing, has been quietly scrutinizing the social media posts of Canadians whose transactions attract its attention. [41]
...the idea of a UAE-based company recruiting an army of cyberwarriors from abroad to conduct mass surveillance aimed at the country's own citizens may sound like something out of a bad Bond movie, but based on several months of interviews and research conducted by The Intercept, it appears DarkMatter has been doing precisely that.
...Several researchers whom DarkMatter approached, including Margaritelli, confirmed they were specifically told they would be working on offensive operations. In Margaritelli's case, he was informed the company wanted to install a set of probes around Dubai, including base transceiver stations — equipment that allows for wireless communication between a device and a network — wireless access points, drones, surveillance cameras, and more.
Margaritelli said that the scale of the endeavor is unprecedented, creating a zombie hoard of infected devices, primed for hacking and surveillance. "In a near future, every single electronic device in the UAE will unwillingly be part of their state botnet," he said. [42]
The Intercept can now reveal that Palantir has worked for years to boost the global dragnet of the NSA and its international partners, and was in fact co-created with American spies.
..."Palantir" is generally used interchangeably to refer to both Thiel and Karp's company and the software that company creates. Its two main products are Palantir Gotham and Palantir Metropolis...
...Palantir Metropolis is pegged to quantitative analysis for Wall Street banks and hedge funds, Gotham (formerly Palantir Government) is designed for the needs of intelligence, law enforcement, and homeland security customers. [43]
MPs do not have special protection from having their communications monitored by Britain's spy agencies, a tribunal has ruled.
The Investigatory Powers Tribunal said the so-called Wilson Doctrine, designed to stop intelligence agencies tapping MPs, was not enforceable in law.
It reveals MI5, MI6 and GCHQ have always had the power to monitor parliamentarian communications in "exceptional" circumstances. [44]
Why would GSIGs spy on their own puppets? Because not everyone is on board with the real plans. Sometimes you have do-gooder politicians. Sometimes you have asshole politicians that just want to screw people over.
Politicians that are onboard with the real plans are only loyal relative to their fear of GSIGs vs. the prize of immortality and power. I'm sure many politicians are freezing/plan to freeze their bodies via cryogenics. It would be a shame if some of the pods had a malfunction in the future (maybe the ones for Dick Cheney, Henry Kissinger, and George Bush Sr.).
And what about encryption, quantum computing, and air gapped computers? It's overrated. If the government really wants your data, they'll get it. Even if they can't get it now, they'll decrypt it in the future.
Journalists that claim that you can easily secure your digital footprint are deluding themselves. Don't believe me? See for yourself:
...security pundits have insisted the only way to ensure privacy, anonymity, and security when using computers is to unplug them (air-gap) from any kind of network infrastructure, especially the internet.
...researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology, beg to differ. The team explains in this paper...how keystrokes can be captured from a computer that is disconnected network-wise by receiving side-channel signals from the computer. [45]
...In recent years, methods that were once thought to be fundamentally unbreakable have been shown to be anything but. Because of machine errors and other quirks, even quantum cryptography has its limits.
...But in practice, quantum cryptography comes with its own load of weaknesses. It was recognized in 2010, for instance, that a hacker could blind a detector with a strong pulse, rendering it unable to see the secret-keeping photons.
...Any encryption method will only be as secure as the humans running it... [46]
Canadian researchers said they have found a way to partially replicate data from the highly secured quantum network, which could serve as an alarm for their Chinese counterparts who are spearheading a stateoftheart hackproof communications system. [47]
A new study has revealed just how easy it is for hackers to use the sensors in mobile devices to crack four-digit PINs and to access a wide variety of other information about users.
Cyber-security experts from Newcastle University in the U.K. found that once a mobile user visits a website, code embedded on the page could then use the phone's motion and orientation sensors to correctly guess the users' PIN. This worked on the first attempt 75 per cent of the time, and by the third try 94 per cent of the time. [48]
A specialized unit inside mobile firm BlackBerry has for years enthusiastically helped intercept user data — including BBM messages — to help in hundreds of police investigations in dozens of countries, a CBC News investigation reveals.
...Company insiders, meanwhile, say advances in encryption are making interception of mobile communications increasingly difficult for police. Yet they also say they are surprised criminals have been slow to pick up on BlackBerry's co-operation with police to access messages.
"They are making the mistake thinking it's untouchable and nobody can see it...not aware there is a group in Canada that can access it, decrypt it and send it to law enforcement," said a source, who also says the team has a sense of "mission" helping law enforcement. [49]
Fingerprint sensors have turned modern smartphones into miracles of convenience. A touch of a finger unlocks the phone — no password required. With services like Apple Pay or Android Pay, a fingerprint can buy a bag of groceries, a new laptop or even a $1 million vintage Aston Martin. And pressing a finger inside a banking app allows the user to pay bills or transfer thousands of dollars.
...New findings published Monday by researchers at New York University and Michigan State University suggest that smartphones can easily be fooled by fake fingerprints digitally composed of many common features found in human prints. In computer simulations, the researchers from the universities were able to develop a set of artificial "MasterPrints" that could match real prints similar to those used by phones as much as 65 percent of the time. [50]
If you can compromise someone's router, you've got a window into everything they’re doing online.
According to new documents published by WikiLeaks, the CIA has been building and maintaining a host of tools to do just that. This morning, the group published new documents describing a program called Cherry Blossom, which uses a modified version of a given router's firmware to turn it into a surveillance tool. Once in place, Cherry Blossom lets a remote agent monitor the target's internet traffic, scan for useful information like passwords, and even redirect the target to a desired website. [51]
And now we can finally get to conspiracy theory of gigantic databases building profiles on almost every person on the planet. It may sound farfetched but it definitely meets the indirect evidence requirements for a conspiracy theory. Don't believe me? See for yourself:
The big banks and Silicon Valley are waging an escalating battle over your personal financial data: your dinner bill last night, your monthly mortgage payment, the interest rates you pay.
Technology companies like Mint and Betterment have been eager to slurp up this data, mainly by building services that let people link all their various bank-account and credit-card information. The selling point is to make budgeting and bookkeeping easier. [52]
Have you been to a gynecologist in the last 12 months? Ever been treated for depression? Have you been raped? Data brokers may very well know about it and are selling that information to marketers in a largely unregulated $156 billion industry. [53]
...today we are giving up more and more private information online without knowing that it's being harvested and personalized and sold to lots of different people...our likes and dislikes, our closest friends, our bad habits, even your daily movements, both on and offline. Federal Trade Commissioner Julie Brill says we have lost control of our most personal information.
Steve Kroft: Are people putting this together and making dossiers?
Julie Brill: Absolutely.
Steve Kroft: With names attached to it? With personal identification?
Julie Brill: The dossiers are about individuals. That's the whole point of these dossiers. It is information that is individually identified to an individual or linked to an individual.
…Sparapani thinks people would be stunned to learn what's being compiled about them and sold, and might end up in their profiles; religion, ethnicity, political affiliations, user names, income, and family medical history. And that's just for openers.
Steve Kroft: What about medications?
Tim Sparapani: Certainly. You can buy from any number of data brokers, by malady, the lists of individuals in America who are afflicted with a particular disease or condition.
Steve Kroft: Alcoholism?
Tim Sparapani: Yes. Absolutely.
Steve Kroft: Depression?
Tim Sparapani: Certainly.
Steve Kroft: Psychiatric problems?
Tim Sparapani: No question.
Steve Kroft: History of genetic problems?
Tim Sparapani: Yes. Cancer, heart disease, you name it, down to the most rare and, and most unexpected maladies.
Steve Kroft: Sexual orientation?
Tim Sparapani: Of course.
Steve Kroft: How do they determine that?
Tim Sparapani: Well, based on a series of other data points they bought and sold. What clubs you may be frequenting what bars and restaurants you're making purchases at, what other products you may be buying online.
Steve Kroft: And all of this can end up in a file somewhere that's being sold maybe to a prospective employer.
Tim Sparapani: Yeah, not only can it, it is, Steve.
Steve Kroft: With all this information and your name attached to it?
Tim Sparapani: Yes. Exactly. [54]
If you control your garage door, your heating and your fridge from your smartphone, expect that someone else could get control of them, too, cybersecurity expert Scott Wright says.
The explosion of the so-called Internet of Things — the gadgets we strap to ourselves or install in our homes, offices and cars that are connected and controlled by a network — leaves a data trail for hackers. It can tell them when we're home, what we're saying, and about our health. [55]
The Nazis didn't have computers in the 1930s. They used punch-card sorting machines that were manufactured by a German subsidiary of IBM.
...It's easier to believe America's largest corporations have good intentions. It's easier to believe nothing so nefarious will ever happen again in a civilized society.
Last week, the Federal Trade Commission published a detailed report on all the information that private data brokers have collected on you.
The nine companies that the agency studied— Acxiom, CoreLogic, Datalogix, eBureau, ID Analytics, Intelius, PeekYou, Rapleaf and Recorded Future —apparently know just about everything. [56]
Exactly two weeks ahead of the Nov. 13 anniversary of last year's Paris attacks, the French government quietly created a massive database that will collect and store the personal information of its 60 million citizens. [57]
Every minute we produce hundreds of thousands of Google searches and Facebook posts. These contain information that reveals how we think and feel. Soon, the things around us, possibly even our clothing, also will be connected with the Internet. It is estimated that in 10 years' time there will be 150 billion networked measuring sensors, 20 times more than people on Earth. Then, the amount of data will double every 12 hours. Many companies are already trying to turn this Big Data into Big Money. [58]
You've probably had the experience of receiving mail, paper or electronic, from companies that obviously obtained your name from another company's list of customers. But what if you were to have a medical operation refused, without knowing it was because the hospital obtained a secret report that listed you as unlikely to pay? What if a college covertly turned you or your child down because they suspected you were unlikely to complete four years of payment? What if you didn't get a job, without knowing it was because of a report that listed you as a possible drug addict?
Those are the claims being made by critics of data brokers, companies which collect personal information on people through both public and private sources—from court records to websites to store sales—and provide it to a wide range of buyers. [59]
Sure, you can officially opt out of data mining, but unofficially, they'll still have everything and will continue to sell it to the highest bidder. Aside from Big Data and mass surveillance, there's one piece of good news from all of this.
GSIGs (via Big Gov't and Big Industry) are losing their ability to influence the global public. While the surveillance state is a bad sign of things to come, it's a great indicator that despite the billions of dollars and decades in conditioning, much of it is useless. Hence, the surveillance state is the only option to keep people in line.
The fact the GSIGs have to resort to data mining, spying on your emails, and blackmail means that GSIGs have no significant power over the mind of the global public. The surveillance state is merely a short term reactive solution.
A large chunk of people are becoming stronger than GSIGs' ability to influence them. That's fantastic news. If you're one of these people, you should congratulate yourself. Celebrate with a full body massage, wine, and some dark chocolate. You've earned it.
If GSIGs use force to crack down on self-empowerment, natural health, natural birth and such...it will only enable such things to grow larger. Hence, the massive amount of time, money, and effort being spent on conditioning at every level.
But all of that money and effort has no significant effect on people who have character and a strong sense of purpose. If you don't have such things but want it, I recommend radical dualism (see Philosophy of Mind in Part I: Purpose and Autoimmune Diseases For Everyone in Part IV).
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