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FBI operating fleet of surveillance aircraft flying over US cities

theguardian.com

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Re: FBI operating fleet of surveillance aircraft flying over US cities

#141

Post by walshemj »

denzil_correa wrote: post #8
themartorana wrote: post #6

When it was imagined, we called it "distopian" - books were written and immortalized, movies were made, warnings were served. When it happened, there was barely a murmur.

> When it was imagined, we called it "distopian" I always though it was "dystopian" but your spelling made me check again. Apparently, "distopia" is used in some romance languages like Spanish - http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distop%C3%ADa Portuguese - http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distopia Italian - http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distopia

They are two related terms A dystopia is a particular society like Metropolis in the 30's Fritz lang film film. Dystopian is how you describe say ubiquitous CCTV cameras.

Re: FBI operating fleet of surveillance aircraft flying over US cities

#142

Post by [deleted] »

coldtea wrote: post #121
toomuchtodo wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd love to hear ideas on this. I am dismayed, nay, infuriated that we waste taxpayer dollars in such a manner when the returns have been found to be non-existent. Yet, I read about atrocities committed every day by ISIS and the US government sits back and does little. This is not the world I want to live in, and I have no idea how to solve these non-technical problems. EDIT: Regarding downvotes and the replies as of…

> If ISIS wants us to engage them, we just sit back and allow them to rape whole villages and sell women into the sex trade? ISIS are an insignificant mock army of goat herders with guns. They could be eradicated in an afternoon. It's presense though helps with strategic goals of instability for the region. > You don't go to war for oil. You go to war for human rights and to prevent the slaughter and abuse of innocen…

[deleted]

Re: FBI operating fleet of surveillance aircraft flying over US cities

#144

Post by [deleted] »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #130
coldtea wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Here's a chilling excerpt: "After attacking a village, [the Islamic State] splits women from men and executes boys and men aged 14 and over. The women and mothers are separated; girls are stripped naked, tested for virginity and examined for breast size and prettiness." So, like what Australians did to their indigenous population right until the 70's for example: > The Stolen Generations (also known as Stolen chil…

I'm not quite sure how, because atrocities previously have been committed, its acceptable to allow them to be committed now.

[deleted]

Re: FBI operating fleet of surveillance aircraft flying over US cities

#145

Post by JoeAltmaier »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #122
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People for the first million years, lived in one anothers pockets. There was no anonymity. Arguably we're designed to be social because of that. The modern tendency toward outbursts of antisocial behavior might be a product of anonymity.

What sort of "outbursts of antisocial behavior" are you talking about, and is there really a modern tendency towards it?

Oh anything really. Ranting on HN. Telling off sales clerks. Pushing to the head of the subway line. Anything you get away with because its anonymous. In the old days, you'd know every clerk, everybody in a line, and get harassed if you were antisocial.

Re: FBI operating fleet of surveillance aircraft flying over US cities

#147

Post by verbin217 »

Symmetry wrote: post #101
SomeStupidPoint wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it sounds scary anyway. I mean, I'd know everything about you -- where you lived, where you shopped, where you worked, where you ate out, where your friends lived, what you did with your friends, when you did it, etc. I could even get further than you might imagine: I probably have a really good guess (>0.99) what you do at your work, given your activities outside of work and the people you associate with. I…

You think people can't handle it but it's actually pretty close to the way most people lived before urbanization brought anonymity to the masses. Now, technological changes might eliminate privacy which would be unprecedented but it's anonymity that's historically weird, not its lack.

Anonymity sure. We're talking about privacy. It's always been at least non-zero available.

Re: FBI operating fleet of surveillance aircraft flying over US cities

#148

Post by msane »

underbluewaters wrote: post #103
msane wrote: post #25

I think this is our future, whether it's dystopian or not. Technology is eventually going to make it impossible to really prevent "Persistent aerial surveillance". What requires an expensive small blimp today might become the size of a ping pong ball (or wide area flock of them) and come out of a 3D printer tomorrow. So who will be using such tech? Governments and private entities alike - we can try to legislate agai…

"we can try to legislate against either but technology will probably overpower the legislation quickly" Technology is here to serve us. What's with this attitude that we don't have the tools (laws) to control what our government and people are and aren't allowed to do? It's like the good ideas of small government and libertarianism have been warped mean that laws are no longer the solution to anything.

Laws are great. Laws against use of information technology are pretty troublesome to enforce. Are you thinking of a law against building or operating drones? Or a law against using open source software which controls swarms of drones or stores video? Or a law against advanced 3D printers? I hear distributing copyrighted music is illegal...

Re: FBI operating fleet of surveillance aircraft flying over US cities

#149

Post by jjwiseman »

upofadown wrote: post #99
jjwiseman wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The surprising thing was how easy it was to do this. Really, all you had to do was look: These planes seem to literally use (unencrypted, easily decoded) transponder codes that mean "FBI surveillance", the public records show company names that mostly fit a simple regex, and one of the front companies even has the exact same address as the U.S. Dept of Justice.

Since you can look up the aircraft based on the N number using the same transponder code doesn't really make much difference.

Yes, but I did it the other way around: I found the aircraft that were using the transponder code, then looked up who they were owned by and what other aircraft they had. That's how I was able to identify potential front companies that don't fit the "XYZ Aviation w/ PO Box in VA" template.

Re: FBI operating fleet of surveillance aircraft flying over US cities

#150

Post by ianstallings »

istvan__ wrote: post #125
baddox wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't suggest that such a plan is remotely likely, but a massive organized tax protest would be interesting and probably even beneficial.

Totally agree. The first country where people do this will write history about who is really in charge in a country.

That's already happened - December 16, 1773.
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