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Pentagon testing mass surveillance balloons across the US

theguardian.com

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Re: Pentagon testing mass surveillance balloons across the US

#31

Post by state_less »

tlb wrote: post #12
davisr wrote: post #5

I don't comment much, but I feel compelled to mention how this currently has a 36:1 vote-to-comment ratio. The kinds of thing the US military is testing on their own people is horrific, and it's our duty as American citizens to oppose this kind of surveillance. I sometimes feel I'm talking to a ghost. It is truly terrifying that my fellow Americans are selling themselves out. Ring will let the government, Amazon, and…

The fact that people haven't commented "this is bad" doesn't mean lots of people don't think it's bad. But such comments don't change anything, and the site guidelines specifically discourage them because they just add noise. Insulting people, however, tends to derail any useful discussion.

I've said the obvious before, but technology is going to make mass surveillance relatively easy. Natural protections are no more. We have to reaffirm our liberties and not tolerate unreasonable search.

Also, let's cut out the criminality when it comes to drugs. The rationality this rests on can be chopped out from under it if we just regulate the drug industry better. Give drug users the drugs with limitations, which is better than having them served via some barbarous criminal enterprise.

Re: Pentagon testing mass surveillance balloons across the US

#33

Post by blattimwind »

andrerm wrote: post #28

> “Obviously, there are laws to protect people’s privacy and we are respectful of all those laws,” Hartman said. “We also understand the importance of operating in an ethical way as it relates to further protecting people’s privacy.” Sure /s

I can practically hear the "xD" at the end of that statement.

Re: Pentagon testing mass surveillance balloons across the US

#34

Post by deelowe »

davisr wrote: post #5

I don't comment much, but I feel compelled to mention how this currently has a 36:1 vote-to-comment ratio. The kinds of thing the US military is testing on their own people is horrific, and it's our duty as American citizens to oppose this kind of surveillance. I sometimes feel I'm talking to a ghost. It is truly terrifying that my fellow Americans are selling themselves out. Ring will let the government, Amazon, and…

Wtf are you doing about it? Commenting on hackernews ain't solving anything.

Re: Pentagon testing mass surveillance balloons across the US

#35

Post by wallace_f »

ultrarunner wrote: post #25
davisr wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most important thing one can do is write, AND call, their legislature. Don't ever shut up about it. Does it stand a chance against corporate lobbyists? Probably not, but it leaves one with a clear conscience.

I don’t think that sending a sternly written letter should have any bearing on one’s conscious. I upvoted GP, but on the same note I know there is nothing we can do at this point against a powerful bureaucracy with a lot of ideological and financial incentive to proceed. That this has continued and accelerated under multiple administrations with varied talking points should tell you everything you need to know about…

That's sad. So why even have kids, or go to work?

Re: Pentagon testing mass surveillance balloons across the US

#36

Post by zaroth »

daeken wrote: post #14
sambull wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah so loon possibly was never about internet

Loon didn't supply the balloons, they just have a shared supplier.

That’s not usually how these supplier partnerships work.

Loon needed a balloon which was probably not available off the shelf. They paid a certain amount of money to get someone to build balloons to their specification which probably involved a great deal of R&D, manufacturing tooling, real world testing, etc.

Because Google didn’t develop the technology in-house, and perhaps as a consequence of how the contract was written, we cannot say how much of the technology developed for Loon could have ended up here, and if or whether Loon should have paid more for exclusivity or restrictions on how that R&D could be used, or if in fact Loon paid a lot less specifically because the supplier was able to defray development costs through expected future military applications.

Or maybe the tech really was off the shelf and destined for military use and Loon just happened to use the same thing for their own Good Samaritan project.

However, several of Google’s balloons crashed to Earth so it’s a pretty good bet that they were paying for prototypes and significant R&D was going into the balloons.

Re: Pentagon testing mass surveillance balloons across the US

#38

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

Spooky23 wrote: post #17
i_am_proteus wrote: post #15

There's a bit of scaremongering in the headline; these are being tested domestically by the DOD use outside of the US. The DOD isn't allowed to conduct domestic surveillance.

Sure. They parked a visible radar blimp over I95 outside of Baltimore and operated it for a couple of years. What’s the difference between “test” and “really using it” when the tests last that long? There are many loopholes for domestic stuff too. A National Guard member controlling the thing for example.

Full season durability testing. Developing operational procedures to deal with routine issues. These could easily take a few years.

Re: Pentagon testing mass surveillance balloons across the US

#39

Post by almostdeadguy »

tlb wrote: post #12
davisr wrote: post #5

I don't comment much, but I feel compelled to mention how this currently has a 36:1 vote-to-comment ratio. The kinds of thing the US military is testing on their own people is horrific, and it's our duty as American citizens to oppose this kind of surveillance. I sometimes feel I'm talking to a ghost. It is truly terrifying that my fellow Americans are selling themselves out. Ring will let the government, Amazon, and…

The fact that people haven't commented "this is bad" doesn't mean lots of people don't think it's bad. But such comments don't change anything, and the site guidelines specifically discourage them because they just add noise. Insulting people, however, tends to derail any useful discussion.

The site guidelines and moderation policies are intended to steer the comments towards as prissy, non-critical, de-politicized conversations as possible. Anger is a perfectly reasonable part of political discourse, and political discourse and thought is an important part of being a person in the world w/ agency. I think most would agree that there's a "beating a dead horse" point in comment sections, but the amount of preemptive moderation of anything mildly heated about politics is goofy, and not actually conducive to the goal of making a place for conversation that's "intellectually curious" or whatever. There is no topic that can be discussed in a political vacuum, and there's no conversation that's politically honest if there's not a little bit of struggle, but the mods on this site treat that like its a 5-alarm emergency.
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