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New documents reveal scale of US Government’s cell phone location data tracking

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Re: New documents reveal scale of US Government’s cell phone location data tracking

#31

Post by shadowgovt »

sva_ wrote: post #9

I wonder why are we so complacent with these kind of things? Is it really just the fact that we got our bellies full, and live in climate-controlled homes? Or has there been some degeneration of the human body brought upon us with all kinds of new artificial materials we use, that might affect our bodies in ways we can't yet comprehend; or is it a psychological thing based on the results of technological achievements…

> Is it really just the fact that we got our bellies full, and live in climate-controlled homes?

Why would it need to be more? People feel no need to fear their government when they are content.

Re: New documents reveal scale of US Government’s cell phone location data tracking

#32

Post by newsclues »

sva_ wrote: post #9

I wonder why are we so complacent with these kind of things? Is it really just the fact that we got our bellies full, and live in climate-controlled homes? Or has there been some degeneration of the human body brought upon us with all kinds of new artificial materials we use, that might affect our bodies in ways we can't yet comprehend; or is it a psychological thing based on the results of technological achievements…

Identity politics is a distraction from class struggle.

Marxist theory acknowledges that capitalism provides too much to the proletariat to desire revolution, thus the focus on destroying capitalism and society.

Re: New documents reveal scale of US Government’s cell phone location data tracking

#33

Post by corrral »

g8oz wrote: post #21

I'm wondering when citizen vigilante groups will start buying location data from these brokers to solve crimes.

Or foreign governments or corporations (think: taking down a competitor or extorting business favors) for blackmail purposes.

Re: New documents reveal scale of US Government’s cell phone location data tracking

#34

Post by encryptluks2 »

asdff wrote: post #19
sva_ wrote: post #9

I wonder why are we so complacent with these kind of things? Is it really just the fact that we got our bellies full, and live in climate-controlled homes? Or has there been some degeneration of the human body brought upon us with all kinds of new artificial materials we use, that might affect our bodies in ways we can't yet comprehend; or is it a psychological thing based on the results of technological achievements…

I think the problems affecting the system are just too widespread and bespoke for the individual to resolve. To actually understand fully the scope of tracking etc, you probably need to be qualified to be a computer engineer or someone with a similar resume. That limits the amount of the population that is even capable of comprehending the news to a small sliver. Extend that to any field: biology, law, physics, econo…

> To actually understand fully the scope of tracking etc, you probably need to be qualified to be a computer engineer or someone with a similar resume.

I think it is much more severe than that. To understand the full scope you'd be labeled a conspiracy theorist.

Re: New documents reveal scale of US Government’s cell phone location data tracking

#35

Post by buscoquadnary »

time_to_smile wrote: post #13
hunglee2 wrote: post #2

I used to be skeptical of the skeptics, thought they were paranoid to worry about 'big tech' snooping and tracking our lives. Turns out it is not big tech but 'big govt' that I should've been worried about. We are in danger of turning into a surveillance state

I've worked for the Federal Government and for a variety of ad-tech companies. I am still much more terrified of "big tech" (and small tech) than "big government". When I worked for the government I wanted to scrape some publicly available data from the web. Because the data involved information about people I had to write up a document explaining exactly what I was using the data for, exactly what information I woul…

I'll agree with you that big tech is largely just an extension of big government. But I fear the government more than a large corporation because the government is the only agency with the authority to use lethal force.

That being said my understanding is that there were organizations that have ties back to 3 letter agencies that helped put up capital for several of the big tech companies back in the day.

Re: New documents reveal scale of US Government’s cell phone location data tracking

#36

Post by encryptluks2 »

asdff wrote: post #23
Retric wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference is surveillance states have historically leveraged people rather than passive tracking. It’s wildly different knowing your friends, family, even children are being indoctrinated to report you for things that may or may not have happened at which point you just disappear like many people you never heard from again. It’s actively stressful in a way that cellphones just don’t evoke.

People with a bag of weed in their pocket in middle america probably feel the same way

No post body was provided.

Re: New documents reveal scale of US Government’s cell phone location data tracking

#37

Post by encryptluks2 »

time_to_smile wrote: post #13
hunglee2 wrote: post #2

I used to be skeptical of the skeptics, thought they were paranoid to worry about 'big tech' snooping and tracking our lives. Turns out it is not big tech but 'big govt' that I should've been worried about. We are in danger of turning into a surveillance state

I've worked for the Federal Government and for a variety of ad-tech companies. I am still much more terrified of "big tech" (and small tech) than "big government". When I worked for the government I wanted to scrape some publicly available data from the web. Because the data involved information about people I had to write up a document explaining exactly what I was using the data for, exactly what information I woul…

The government is humongous. It would be naive to think all of government worked that way. There are certainly parts of the government that essentially answer to no one. There are trillion dollar black holes that still can't be explained.

Re: New documents reveal scale of US Government’s cell phone location data tracking

#38

Post by encryptluks2 »

g8oz wrote: post #21

I'm wondering when citizen vigilante groups will start buying location data from these brokers to solve crimes.

More like malicious criminal organizations that want to ensure you pay off your gambling debts

Re: New documents reveal scale of US Government’s cell phone location data tracking

#39

Post by Mo3 »

gruez wrote: post #5
Mo3 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Damn, even most of what we know is already a decade old information. I wouldn’t be surprised if the intelligence agencies had much more crazy new projects going on the last few years. I also suspect there will be a point in the future where they’ll break encryption and we won’t find out until years later.. they already started looking into building a quantum computer in 2014, and I’d bet it’s not necessarily for mora…

>I wouldn’t be surprised if the intelligence agencies had much more crazy new projects going on the last few years. except this isn't even from "the intelligence agencies", it's from data brokers: >The bulk of the data that CBP obtained came from its contract with Venntel, a location data broker that aggregates and sells information quietly siphoned from smartphone apps

What I meant is, I wouldn't be surprised if the actual intelligence agencies themselves had much more crazy projects going on.

Re: New documents reveal scale of US Government’s cell phone location data tracking

#40

Post by ok_dad »

photochemsyn wrote: post #29

Note that this is just records of some of the federal agencies, not all of them, according to the linked ACLU report: > "Although the litigation is ongoing, we are now making public the records that CBP, ICE, the U.S. Secret Service, the U.S. Coast Guard, and several offices within DHS Headquarters have provided us to date." The NSA is still vacuuming up all the metadata and a good fraction of the content from the ma…

Funny thing is, they started the surveillance in late-2001 to suck all the records up. Where did they get the computers and storage devices to do that all at once? They must have been installing equipment for months or years, especially since I am pretty sure they even built a new data center on Fort Mead for it around that time. Now, this is 2001, when building a datacenter didn't just involve spinning up 1000 AWS EC2's and opening the spigot to S3, so this type of thing would have taken some time.

So the question is: did they pass a law to allow data collection because of 9/11 and other attacks, or did they pass a law because they wanted the NSA to be able to collect this data using computer systems they had been planning for years, and used those attacks as a pretext?

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