Earlier quoted context omitted.
>you're fucked I'm sorry but any anecdotal spinning of history and current events supporting a bold claim about the downfall of western society is just outright non scientific, immeasurable, and quite frankly below educated discourse. Now if you have a thesis about the sunset of western hegemony backed by reduced gdp numbers, geopolitical influence, and crime stats, thats a more worthwhile discussion. Call me old fas…
Going full tinfoil hat... We've seen the GDP number manipulated during this crisis, Gov propping the economy up with lots of self-debt that we cant pay back. We've seen that other developed counties in the world bawk at us. Example being the American woman who killed a guy in the UK by driving on the wrong side; and the US said she had diplomatic immunity, when she did not. [0] Crime stats... Crime isnt crime if it i…
The FBI tracking your browsing history without a warrant might be the beginning
41–50 of 182 posts
Re: The FBI tracking your browsing history without a warrant might be the beginning
#42If this is true, the silver lining is that it could become an albatross around the Patriot Act; spying on browser history is not a defensible means of preventing terrorism without absurd arguments. But hold up. Has anyone read the bill? I haven't read the full text of the bill, but reading the summary [1], parts of the bill actually sound positive to me: > The Federal Bureau of Investigation may not seek certain FISA…
After making the claim, the article mostly seems an opinion piece; there doesn't seem to be a substantiation of the lede.
As an aside, Cybernews is a new resource to me; while the author of the article seems a well-established technology writer, Cybernews itself is absent a masthead. All I could discern is that it's governed by the laws of the Republic of Lithuania; not much else to go on wrt their values, opinion stance, etc.
Re: The FBI tracking your browsing history without a warrant might be the beginning
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
The United States used to be an example to the world. As a nation it used to take its founding principles seriously. That started changing during the cold war and became most obvious post-9/11.
if that's true then the terrorists have won.
See the patriot act, TSA, DHS, and other nonsense.
The terrorists won the moment we decided to live in fear.
Re: The FBI tracking your browsing history without a warrant might be the beginning
#44So the US, with its Constitution protecting the people from its Government, is allowing this whilst also considering Edward Snowden a traitor? It seems something has shifted 180 degrees since WW2, and the US Government has quietly won the game where the goal was to shit on the entirety of the history upon which it was built whilst, at precisely the same time, pointing to the Constitution as the reason why "America is…
Liberal democracy is definitely a step forward from monarchy, but the freedoms it offers have always been built on the oppression of many. It's no surprise that the oppressive arm of imperialism, which has targeted the rest of the world since WWII, would start to turn inwards and target US citizens.
Re: The FBI tracking your browsing history without a warrant might be the beginning
#45Here is what I do myself to avoid surveillance culture, in case anyone find it useful. 1. I always use local apps rather than webservices if possible. I use only free software, built from source, to be sure there's no tracker in it (I would love to find a way to whitelist which apps can access the network, but I haven't found a way for that yet). There's almost always a way to perform a task locally. 2. I have a copy…
> 6. when it's not enough, I have a chromium build, in which I have disabled javascript and images by default. I use chromium rather than firefox because it allows me to load extensions from sources. I have such extensions to enable javascript and images if needed, but this is the ultimate recourse.
Your browser fingerprints are probably so unique that you stick out like a sore thumb and data aggregated from exit nodes could probably be correlated to you. It might just be better to use the Tor Browser with NoScript enabled, where you at least look the same as every other user of it (assuming you don't customize the browser and leave the defaults).
> 8. if I post online (like now), I make a different account every time I post, using always a different email address.
This is a PITA, with many of the email providers now wanting your phone number or they ban the account.
Re: The FBI tracking your browsing history without a warrant might be the beginning
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
Going full tinfoil hat... We've seen the GDP number manipulated during this crisis, Gov propping the economy up with lots of self-debt that we cant pay back. We've seen that other developed counties in the world bawk at us. Example being the American woman who killed a guy in the UK by driving on the wrong side; and the US said she had diplomatic immunity, when she did not. [0] Crime stats... Crime isnt crime if it i…
Her husband did NOT have diplomatic status.
Didn't realize the US was that bad.
Re: The FBI tracking your browsing history without a warrant might be the beginning
#47I can't even imagine how muted the Civil Rights era would have been had the FBI had this power back then.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FBI%E2%80%93King_suicide_lette... Let's not pretend that things are materially worse than they were back then. We certainly aren't blackmailing civil rights leaders into suicide anymore within the FBI.
Re: The FBI tracking your browsing history without a warrant might be the beginning
#48Re: The FBI tracking your browsing history without a warrant might be the beginning
#49Yesterday, Judicial Watch published the DoJ's release of the electronic communication from 7/31/2016, where FBI agent Peter Strzok opened Crossfire Hurricane. [1, 2] Despite the magnanimity of the disclosure, there's very little press coverage of the document that began the investigation of the President and subsequently, the former Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency who happened to be in a personal feud with the outgoing President. To be clear, Gen. Flynn should be criticized for certain actions but all of Washington D.C. participates in them (e.g. technology transfers to authoritarian countries, consulting, lobbying).
I'm biased against the FBI because I saw how "special agents" and US Attorneys treated my friends in the 90s. Curious minded, non-malicious teenagers (!!) had their lives destroyed by aggressive, unethical and unintelligent FBI agents. I'll never accept nor forgive the tactics used by FBI agents, prosecutors and the federal courts against teenage kids. We have all become targeted by tactics created for the Mafia and international terrorists -- it's been normalized.
[0] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/17/obituaries/john-raines-84...
[1] https://www.judicialwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/JW-...
[2] https://www.judicialwatch.org/press-releases/declassificatio...
Re: The FBI tracking your browsing history without a warrant might be the beginning
#50So the US, with its Constitution protecting the people from its Government, is allowing this whilst also considering Edward Snowden a traitor? It seems something has shifted 180 degrees since WW2, and the US Government has quietly won the game where the goal was to shit on the entirety of the history upon which it was built whilst, at precisely the same time, pointing to the Constitution as the reason why "America is…
The Twin Towers were destroyed, the Pentagon was damaged, and an additional plane was crashed, via a successful conspiracy that could have been detected by blanket, passive surveillance. That's what changed.
The threat model the US defense department is concerned about has changed significantly since WWII. The threat to Pax Americana is not direct military intervention, since the possession of atomic weapons ensures that's a short trip to annihilation for any nation-state that tries it. It's small-cell actors using sabotage tactics and technology as huge force-multipliers.
As for individual citizens, it appears most still see the threat of asymmetric warfare as a more profound threat to their life and livelihood than passive, blanket government surveillance.