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Amazon's Ring and Google's Nest reveal the severity of U.S. surveillance state

greenwald.substack.com

11–20 of 696 posts

Re: Amazon's Ring and Google's Nest reveal the severity of U.S. surveillance state

#11
> But the graphic Amazon used seems to have unwittingly depicted how invasive this technology can be

This is a calculated move to normalize such technology. Yes, it will cause controversy in the short term, and these companies knew this was a possibility—but as a result the image in people's minds won't be the gestapo rounding up grannies; it'll kids finding puppies. To call this "unwitting" is simply naive (not surprising for Greenwald).

Re: Amazon's Ring and Google's Nest reveal the severity of U.S. surveillance state

#13
> "All of this is particularly remarkable, and particularly disconcerting, since we are barely more than a decade removed from the disclosures about mass domestic surveillance enabled by the courageous whistleblower Edward Snowden..."

With respect to Greenwald, I don't think it's remarkable at all.

I have learned, through experience, that sometimes when people want to do things they should not, or against which there is opposition, there is enormous power in simply doing it. If you ignore people enough, you can do anything.

Preventing this requires systems with accountability.

And as HN commenters frequently note, accountability for government, tech, or corporate leaders in general seems culturally missing in the US.

Despite Snowden, nothing here is remarkable. This has grown because it _can_ grow.

Re: Amazon's Ring and Google's Nest reveal the severity of U.S. surveillance state

#14

> But the graphic Amazon used seems to have unwittingly depicted how invasive this technology can be This is a calculated move to normalize such technology. Yes, it will cause controversy in the short term, and these companies knew this was a possibility—but as a result the image in people's minds won't be the gestapo rounding up grannies; it'll kids finding puppies. To call this "unwitting" is simply naive (not surp…

That’s why I’m hoping the news picks this up more - especially about the intended integration with flock/ICE. That might be the issue that brings awareness mainstream beyond the tech-aware circles

Re: Amazon's Ring and Google's Nest reveal the severity of U.S. surveillance state

#16
Who would have thought that after changing no laws to ban the behavior, firing nobody, and re-upping the post-9/11 laws consistently, that the process would continue? I, for one, am shocked... that anyone might be shocked about this.

Re: Amazon's Ring and Google's Nest reveal the severity of U.S. surveillance state

#17

> But the graphic Amazon used seems to have unwittingly depicted how invasive this technology can be This is a calculated move to normalize such technology. Yes, it will cause controversy in the short term, and these companies knew this was a possibility—but as a result the image in people's minds won't be the gestapo rounding up grannies; it'll kids finding puppies. To call this "unwitting" is simply naive (not surp…

No marketing team would willingly do this and it's insane to think otherwise.

Re: Amazon's Ring and Google's Nest reveal the severity of U.S. surveillance state

#18

> But the graphic Amazon used seems to have unwittingly depicted how invasive this technology can be This is a calculated move to normalize such technology. Yes, it will cause controversy in the short term, and these companies knew this was a possibility—but as a result the image in people's minds won't be the gestapo rounding up grannies; it'll kids finding puppies. To call this "unwitting" is simply naive (not surp…

No marketing team would willingly do this and it's insane to think otherwise.

And yet this went up. I understand it’s easy to just say “marketing teams don’t understand anything,“ but I have worked with many and they are incredibly sensitive to negative feelings/reactions. They get it wrong but they tend to air on the side of caution which means the vast majority of the time they avoid situations like this incredibly intentionally.

Re: Amazon's Ring and Google's Nest reveal the severity of U.S. surveillance state

#19

> "All of this is particularly remarkable, and particularly disconcerting, since we are barely more than a decade removed from the disclosures about mass domestic surveillance enabled by the courageous whistleblower Edward Snowden..." With respect to Greenwald, I don't think it's remarkable at all. I have learned, through experience, that sometimes when people want to do things they should not, or against which there…

USA society has devolved into a game. The only object is to win. Nothing else matters.

Re: Amazon's Ring and Google's Nest reveal the severity of U.S. surveillance state

#20
At this point, it's fair to assume that if the US government wanted to surveil you to a nefarious end, they absolutely could, easily, using things you bought to make your life more convenient.

The keys then become:

1) Implementing policies discouraging them from doing so at the societal level

and

2) Implementing force behind those policies at the personal and societal level

DHS isn't getting paid right now because Kristi "Dog Shooter" Noem managed to screw up so badly that even Congressional Republicans under Trump don't want to own her agency's behavior and carved DHS out of the normal funding bill. There's still a chance for #1 to be achieved. #2 remains to be seen at the societal level, but you can start working on that yourself for the personal level.

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