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Cops wanted to keep mass surveillance app secret; privacy advocates refused

arstechnica.com

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Re: Cops wanted to keep mass surveillance app secret; privacy advocates refused

#71

Post by landemva »

javajosh wrote: post #30
polygamous_bat wrote: post #27

I believe I am not the only one here whose blood boils at such a news story. Thank you EFF for investigating this. My question is, what can we do to fight such oppressive surveillance mechanisms as individuals? Beyond the standard donation to EFF and such. In my rage I want to see the Fog Data Science people prosecuted and the police depts which unquestioningly used their product stripped of their post, but what powe…

Save your blood and accept the simple fact that "the police" are a actually a set of more-or-less independent small government departments who get to beat people up and get away with it. And then arrest the beaten up person putting them in jail indefinitely before trial, and creating an immediate huge financial and social burden on that person. Mostly the public is unaware of this because the frog has boiled in fits…

As you wrote, redress in the courts is expensive and unlikely to succeed against the government. The USSC made-up doctrine of government immunity should be removed. BLM got side-tracked into ineffectiveness by avoiding this underlying problem.

Re: Cops wanted to keep mass surveillance app secret; privacy advocates refused

#72

Post by kornhole »

Once something like this leaks, we need to realize corporations and intelligence agencies have been surveilling us in an unholy alliance for profit and power for a long time. Some people may have been placated by the Snowden leaks and thinking something must have been done about that, but it has only gotten much worse. There are solutions that individuals and communities can adopt, but experience tells me that few are willing or able to rewire themselves.

Re: Cops wanted to keep mass surveillance app secret; privacy advocates refused

#73

Post by butUhmErm »

shaftoe wrote: post #48
hnbad wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This assumes "charitable causes" can be apolitical. I guess the ACLU might be closer to what you want then? They have a recent history of criticism for defending the far-right in the name of free speech while generally being thought of as "liberal". The problem you're facing is that "fighting against power structures" is a political gradient starting short of authoritarianism and ending at anarchism (unless you're St…

The ACLU has increasingly become exactly what he seeks to avoid. https://reason.com/2022/08/31/the-student-loan-debate-shows-... I would support a truly civil-liberties-only ACLU, but not what they currently are.

No post body was provided.

Re: Cops wanted to keep mass surveillance app secret; privacy advocates refused

#74

Post by weberer »

quantum_solanum wrote: post #59
shaftoe wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ACLU has increasingly become exactly what he seeks to avoid. https://reason.com/2022/08/31/the-student-loan-debate-shows-... I would support a truly civil-liberties-only ACLU, but not what they currently are.

[flagged]

You've seriously misread that paragraph. It's not saying those ideas are absurd, but that they are not civil liberties issues. This is spelled out in the very next sentence.

>Such reasoning expands the ACLU's mission to include pretty much any domestic policy issue.

I wish people wouldn't be so quick to rush to take potshots at political opponents. It lowers the quality of discussion for everyone and will eventually just turn this place into another Reddit.

Re: Cops wanted to keep mass surveillance app secret; privacy advocates refused

#75

Post by maxehmookau »

sashahrzg wrote: post #56
maxehmookau wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To say that agendas around "gender and immigration" are unrelated to the EFF's goals is missing the point. You can guarantee that if society moves towards criminializing trans people, or further demonising immigrants, or tracking women's fertility for the purposes of further restricting access to abortion; surveillance technology will be at the forefront of that effort and the EFF's goals of technological privacy and…

People don't realize that once they're done coming after "them" they're coming after you. I think the EFFs efforts to support adjacent groups is awesome and completely inline with their goals. Thanks for pointing this out.

It concerns me that this is such a contentious argument. _Everything_ is political. Censorship, free speech and data privacy are about as political as you get. If the EFF did not take a political stance on these things, there would be no point to their existance.

Re: Cops wanted to keep mass surveillance app secret; privacy advocates refused

#76

Post by landemva »

upofadown wrote: post #39
polygamous_bat wrote: post #27

I believe I am not the only one here whose blood boils at such a news story. Thank you EFF for investigating this. My question is, what can we do to fight such oppressive surveillance mechanisms as individuals? Beyond the standard donation to EFF and such. In my rage I want to see the Fog Data Science people prosecuted and the police depts which unquestioningly used their product stripped of their post, but what powe…

The root problem here is the commercial exploitation of personal data. How can you deny law enforcement access to data that is, for all practical purposes, available to anyone? The solution to this particular problem is political. The USA needs federal privacy laws.

Another approach, which can be quickly implemented on the personal level, is to turn off phone GPS location, reset the advertising ID, uninstall apps, and set remaining apps to be restricted when in the background. In other words, don't voluntarily give so much away. Some of this is a choice.

Re: Cops wanted to keep mass surveillance app secret; privacy advocates refused

#77

Post by kornhole »

superkuh wrote: post #70

There is a simple way to avoid this. You do not have to carry a cell phone/tracker at all times. Stop taking your tracker transmitter with you everywhere. Or simply turn it off/remove the battery. I know a lot of people will say that cell phones are too useful to turn them off. And that's fine and reasonable. Just be aware they literally are tracking devices and it is your choice. There will be no legislative solutio…

Most phones do not actually turn off. You need to put them in a faraday sleeve. The other options more difficult for many is to use phones with alternative OS such as Graphene, Calyx, Lineage, Linux.. with only safe FOSS apps installed. SIM card mitigations are to switch number to VOIP and only occasionally use burner SIM's or https://invisv.com/pgpp/.

Re: Cops wanted to keep mass surveillance app secret; privacy advocates refused

#78

Post by kornhole »

robk wrote: post #10
charles_kaw wrote: post #7

The root of this investigation was the EFF. If you make tech money, you can toss $50 their way without any hesitation. https://supporters.eff.org/donate You'll get some cool swag and, more importantly, ensure that they continue their excellent work.

I haven’t followed them enough but is it possible to support them without supporting other charitable causes of a political persuasion I don’t support? I fully support everything directly related to their cause but it gets me very upset when charities are supporting other various agendas around gender/immigration for example that are unrelated to their main goal.

Once you start following them I think you will find that they are very focused and have been quite successful at not diffusing into other areas.

Re: Cops wanted to keep mass surveillance app secret; privacy advocates refused

#80

Post by [deleted] »

keyme wrote: post #28
polygamous_bat wrote: post #27

I believe I am not the only one here whose blood boils at such a news story. Thank you EFF for investigating this. My question is, what can we do to fight such oppressive surveillance mechanisms as individuals? Beyond the standard donation to EFF and such. In my rage I want to see the Fog Data Science people prosecuted and the police depts which unquestioningly used their product stripped of their post, but what powe…

You have no power. The moment you'll come close to regainig it in any way, it'll be called an "insurrection" and you'll be neutralized and disgraced.

[deleted]
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