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Hidden Microphones Part of Government Surveillance Program in the Bay Area

sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com

51–60 of 293 posts

Re: Hidden Microphones Part of Government Surveillance Program in the Bay Area

#51
post #13

When will people say enough is enough?

I've become increasingly convinced that western society will accept anything so long as it's fed, housed, and safe. If that's true, as a society we have a lot of rights that we're not willing to fight for but which the government is highly intent on restricting - an equation for inevitably losing them.

Re: Hidden Microphones Part of Government Surveillance Program in the Bay Area

#52
post #36
post #2

If that's true we are moving into a scary world pretty much like 1984 where everything you do is monitored all the time. Add voice, face recognition, surveillance drones, cheap data storage and AI to the mix it seems pretty soon everything you do in a public place will be recorded and analyzed. And all this can be done fully automated. I hope people will recognize that some laws need to change. Surveillance makes sen…

We are moving in a scary world... technology is nice but it makes monitoring too easy. As I see it, updated laws is the only thing that can save us... One of so many examples would be to get rid of car license plates.

That will make insurance rates skyrocket.

Re: Hidden Microphones Part of Government Surveillance Program in the Bay Area

#53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that's true we are moving into a scary world pretty much like 1984 where everything you do is monitored all the time. Well, not everything. Plant a GPS tracker on a police car or a bug in the restroom at FBI headquarters and you'll soon discover some troubling asymmetries in the modern post-privacy paradigm.

If there aren't already intelligent criminals using the police's own tech and tactics against them, I would be very surprised.

Which is why the corruption is even worse. When before, the dirty tricks bag was mostly limited to domestic threeletters, largely due to tech limitations, now that both technical and legal barriers are lowered, every public figure of power is now more vulnerable than ever before.

Its closely related to the issue of gov mandated backdoors, in which the gov erroneously claims only they can do it, but in reality a backdoor is a backdoor for anyone.

Now, as for me, where did I put my camera detector/focused emp burst gun?

Re: Hidden Microphones Part of Government Surveillance Program in the Bay Area

#54
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that's true we are moving into a scary world pretty much like 1984 where everything you do is monitored all the time. Well, not everything. Plant a GPS tracker on a police car or a bug in the restroom at FBI headquarters and you'll soon discover some troubling asymmetries in the modern post-privacy paradigm.

You don't even need to go that far. Try to find the salary scales or FOIA the salary data of police. In most places, they cook up some reason why it's protected information. In many states, every aspect of public employee compensation is publicly available. As it should be. Public safety folks are usually exempt.

Secrecy is one of the government's greatest powers. Unchecked, they try to classify anything and everything.

Re: Hidden Microphones Part of Government Surveillance Program in the Bay Area

#55
Do we have secondary sources confirming this, specifically, lawyers in the case confirming this being brought up as evidence? If so, where is the public record of that?

What are CBSLocal's incentives? Can they push fearmongering without repercussions?

If this story is not true, where should we put the "flag" threshold? What are operational voting with money against stories like this ever, ever making HN frontpage again, and for the "news" industry to structurally reduce unfounded fearmongering?

Re: Hidden Microphones Part of Government Surveillance Program in the Bay Area

#56
post #2

If that's true we are moving into a scary world pretty much like 1984 where everything you do is monitored all the time. Add voice, face recognition, surveillance drones, cheap data storage and AI to the mix it seems pretty soon everything you do in a public place will be recorded and analyzed. And all this can be done fully automated. I hope people will recognize that some laws need to change. Surveillance makes sen…

Total surveillance is sold under guise of preventing terrorism, but the main effect is simple: it allows the status quo to become entrenched and permanent.

You are rendered economically exploitable and politically neutered. There is a reason the state and intelligencies, from the Pinkertons to the FBI, have had a historical obsession with extensive spying on political movements and economic assembly. Both have real potential to change society.

Would the civil or labor rights movements be possible under these conditions? Both threatened the bottom lines of powerful people. The FBI tried to persuade MLK to commit suicide by digging up dirt from his love life. He was considered a national security threat[0].

[0] http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/11/16/magazine/what-an-uncens...

Re: Hidden Microphones Part of Government Surveillance Program in the Bay Area

#57
post #37
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you qualify your use of "private property" to account for the many ways in which the "property rights" are assessed in terms of the 4A, e.g. in terms of surveillance?

Personally, I don't think the 4th amendment has much to say about surveillance. It protects four enumerated property rights: houses, persons, papers, and effects. If you have a property right in something, the government needs a warrant. If you don't, it doesn't. I don't think surveillance is good, but I'm strongly opposed to twisting the interpretation of the Constitution to fight in courts battles that should be fo…

I would just like to point out something, not entirely focused at you, but because I see that phrase and similar about "well thats democracy for ya.."

America is not a democracy.

It is a Constitutional Democratic Republic.

Words have meaning, And I would highly suggest that anyone reading this, begin using that phrase when referencing our government.

A democracy is mob rule, and with a "mob" so ruled by propaganda and easily influenced by the oligarchy corrupted fourth estate, democracy without the Constition or Representative government is nothing but doom.

What America needs is to forget their petty hegellian dialect issues, unite around the enlightenment ideals that inspired our hard won revolution from the british Monarchy, and focus on the return to and enforcment of the principles of the Constitution.

Re: Hidden Microphones Part of Government Surveillance Program in the Bay Area

#58
post #35
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was thinking the same thing. If no warrant is required then anybody can record whatever they want, right? edit I can't figure out how this could possibly be legal. It seems to me the rule for recording conversations is 1 party consent. [1] There is no way the FBI is participating in those conversations it's recording. I have no problem with law enforcement having special powers, but, isn't that special power a warr…

Whether a warrant is required is a federal Constitutional question. Requiring consent to record a conversation is a statutory creation (and state law at that). State law doesn't define what does or does not violate the Constitution.

State law can be a factor in determining whether there is a reasonable expectation of privacy, which is a key factor in whether a warrant is required.

Re: Hidden Microphones Part of Government Surveillance Program in the Bay Area

#59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that's true we are moving into a scary world pretty much like 1984 where everything you do is monitored all the time. Well, not everything. Plant a GPS tracker on a police car or a bug in the restroom at FBI headquarters and you'll soon discover some troubling asymmetries in the modern post-privacy paradigm.

If there aren't already intelligent criminals using the police's own tech and tactics against them, I would be very surprised.

There are, even if there aren't any who don't also work for the police department. Working in law enforcement doesn't mean you aren't a criminal.

Re: Hidden Microphones Part of Government Surveillance Program in the Bay Area

#60
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are moving in a scary world... technology is nice but it makes monitoring too easy. As I see it, updated laws is the only thing that can save us... One of so many examples would be to get rid of car license plates.

That will make insurance rates skyrocket.

why?
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