Why You Should Embrace Surveillance, Not Fight It

Raise your hand if you think we should embrace surveillance instead of fighting it. Anyone?

We’re expanding the data sphere to sci-fi levels and there’s no stopping it. Too many of the benefits we covet derive from it. So our central choice now is whether this surveillance is a secret, one-way panopticon — or a mutual, transparent kind of “coveillance” that involves watching the watchers. The first option is hell, the second redeemable.

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Nope!

I fear corporate surveillance more than government surveillance, although I prefer neither.. The reason I fear it from corporations more is because they've already conditioned people to believe that it's necessary part of a "free market".

It's easier to fight it with the government, because we can actually back getting rid of the Patriot Act and push for reform.

Either way we have to stop buying the bullshit.

The author, Kevin Kelly, sounds ready for the insertion of his personal survelliance probe. I, for one, am not.

I'm way ahead of the curve on this one. Each month I prepare a complete list of my activities (life, books, movies, internet usage, cell calls, etc . . . ) with logs, and send them into the government. I win. *mass sarcasm*

And more and more, "corporate" and "government" surveillance lines are blurred. Whether the NSA taps into a router and captures traffic outside, to and from your network, or whether the NSA pays xyz company to install monitoring stuff because of some quasilegal "court order" from a "secret court", it still results in greedycorporatedouchebags.com in bed with bigbrotherassholes.gov

Buehler? Buehler? *looks for raised hands*

I'm a bit closer to the political left than to the right but surveillance is something we should all be agreeing on. Heck no! I don't care of it's corporate or from the government.

The author of this article is a loon. We can and should push back against all forms of surveillance until they're the least restrictive form absolutely necessary to do the job.

Let me quote Ben Franklin on this one:

"They who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

And I'll add that you'll receive neither, so no way.

If today’s social media has taught us anything about ourselves as a species it is that the human impulse to show off trumps the human impulse for any sense of modesty.

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Fixed.

I also knew this would be another quality article based on the clever Minority Report photo that no blogger has ever used on an article concerning privacy/surveillance.

Our government loves us. It's the nicest, mostest wonderfulest thing in the whole wide world. It keeps us safe from those awful, evil terrorists who hate Americans because of our freedoms. Those awful, evil terrorists hijacked airplanes and flew them into buildings on 9/11 because women have the right to vote and can drive cars. That's why we must embrace unlimited surveillance. Because our government loves us.

Much as I would like to say, "Fight the power!" I think that unless you're planning to become the next Richard Stallman and live without a cellphone and do weird shit like having a remote server download and e-mail websites to you so you can't be tracked, you're just going to have to accept that you're being watched. Surveillance is going to become part and parcel to convenience in modern life going forward.

"The first option is hell, the second redeemable."

Neither is desirable nor wanted. This is an all or nothing proposition. Do you want to live in an all-seeing police-surveillance state that watches your every analogue and digital move or not? It's a matter of mitigation at this point, but the blithering obliviots will just keep tuning into reality TV and waiting for their bread and circuses without a care in the world and then it will be too late. The battleground I think is right here and right now. Either we as a society push back at this thing they will faceroll everyone and shove it down our throats. Then what after that?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scmMJuT65Cs

'nuff said.

Who watches the Watchmen?

You don't have anything to hide people so chill.

PiSquared said:

Buehler? Buehler? *looks for raised hands*

I'm a bit closer to the political left than to the right but surveillance is something we should all be agreeing on. Heck no! I don't care of it's corporate or from the government.

The author of this article is a loon. We can and should push back against all forms of surveillance until they're the least restrictive form absolutely necessary to do the job.

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This, who the hell wants their every day life infringed on?

Where the fuck do these idiots come from?

I don't really care about surveillance until all the data is consolidated. When a party can politically shame anyone by tracking their every movement and action and comment made over the course of their life, its too much power.

Worst part about all this is that I can guarantee that politicians will be exempt from all tracking and tracing activities; When in truth it should only be the politicians that are under this kind of extreme surveillance during their tenure.

Tekara said:

Worst part about all this is that I can guarantee that politicians will be exempt from all tracking and tracing activities; When in truth it should only be the politicians that are under this kind of extreme surveillance during their tenure.

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Make that politicians, their cronies, stooges, lobbyists, and any other special interest that pays the politicians enough money will be exempt from the surveillance.

Freedom, choice, options?
Who needs those.

Submit slaves!

Comments are closed on the article. Or I'd give him the response he deserves.

What a fucking idiot.

Fine, track people, but track EVERYONE or noone. No exceptions! If you make exceptions, i want to be an exception too. I'd like to see some dirt on politicians.

If a person today is unable to think about a topic, recall history, and reflect on events, they will follow whatever an 'intelligent' person says. Observe this article, the root issue:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...ites-making-hard-people-think-themselves.html

Here is a highlight: "We think people are unwilling to reflect more because it takes time and effort"

So they start believing and following whatever someone else says. So in essence you just need a few clowns to say that something bad is in fact good, and then that's it.... SOOOooLLllDdd...

Additionally, "The study concluded that our addiction to social networks leaves us little time to work things out on our own". Another avenue; if a person is working, working, working, hard, they are unable to find time to reflect and think. So then they just accept whatever can sound convenient. This is dangerous because polls that say "x% of Americans think Y" are messed up since is it really what people think? Polls become a scam to get the stragglers who can think to believe Y.

Companies are a lot creepier than a government. Don't look down when you're wearing Google Glass or you'll start getting advertisements for penis enlargement. On the other hand, the NSA will just laugh about your bad luck and confirm/deny you bought an expensive car to feel better about life.

UrielDagda said:

I fear corporate surveillance more than government surveillance...

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This is silly. Corporations don't have armies. Government surveillance is far worse, though you are correct that neither are desirable.

Tekara said:

Worst part about all this is that I can guarantee that politicians will be exempt from all tracking and tracing activities; When in truth it should only be the politicians that are under this kind of extreme surveillance during their tenure.

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no man lol politicians will be tracking opponents and their own subordinates. That's how they retain power and moving against primary oppositions.

The politicians who can control the most communication wins the game.

amddragonpc said:

The author, Kevin Kelly, sounds ready for the insertion of his personal survelliance probe. I, for one, am not.

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seems alot of people are these days.

i hope the zombies or aliens get them first

CPY said:

Fine, track people, but track EVERYONE or noone. No exceptions! If you make exceptions, i want to be an exception too. I'd like to see some dirt on politicians.

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This is the way all government should be run. Full transparency or just don't do it.

bucketlist said:

You don't have anything to hide people so chill.

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That's a bullshit platitude. It doesn't matter whether I have anything to hide or not. It is not the governments business to be in my business without a warrant or probable cause.

UrielDagda said:

I fear corporate surveillance more than government surveillance, although I prefer neither.

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That makes no sense to me. You should fear your government instead of a corporation for a multitude of reasons. The first is that a corporation doesn't have a standing armed military forces. Governments do. Second, corporations don't print or sell money. Governments do. Third, governments can tax you at or to the point of a gun. Corporations can't do that. There is so much more, but need I go on?

CreepyUncleGoogle said:

Companies are a lot creepier than a government. Don't look down when you're wearing Google Glass or you'll start getting advertisements for penis enlargement. On the other hand, the NSA will just laugh about your bad luck and confirm/deny you bought an expensive car to feel better about life.

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Really? Can a corporation prosecute you and use anything and everything under the sun or what the court would allow against that prosecution? Don't think so. You want ever piece of dirty bones to be brought to bear against you, then get prosecuted by a state or federal agency vs. say Walmart. Get back to me and let me know how that goes and who you prefer?

CreepyUncleGoogle said:

Companies are a lot creepier than a government. Don't look down when you're wearing Google Glass or you'll start getting advertisements for penis enlargement. On the other hand, the NSA will just laugh about your bad luck and confirm/deny you bought an expensive car to feel better about life.

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I can opt out of google glass.

aardvark sandwich said:

I can opt out of google glass.

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Only until it's required by a law that is passed along party lines with a net-negative approval from the public, then passes a Supreme Court battle by (most likely) bribing or blackmailing the Chief Justice...

Oh wait, we aren't talking about Patient Prevention and Unaffordable Care Act?

Wow, a good entertaining read, but entertainment is all it is because it fails the reality check.

This reality check is simple and it involves a very basic rule that is inviolate.

If a bad guy becomes aware of how you are watching him, he will avoid that risk.

If he knows you listen to phones he will not use phones.
If he knows you travel by train he will avoid trains.
If he knows you meet confederates at libraries he will avoid libraries.

This writer has written his article from the position that the surveillance is directed against our own people when this is not the case. The surveillance is directed against foreign targets and as read each new article on NSA techniques and capabilities we are presented by these reporters with an opportunity to jump to the conclusion that we are the targets when in most cases the reported hasn't actually said this at all. In some articles the reporters have even openly admitted that our own citizens are specifically NOT the targets of a newly revealed practice.

You can not have coveilance with someone who is hostile to you. It's absurd.

But I will bring you to something that is slipping the radar, something flying low that was missed by the [H] yesterday but posses the greatest risk imaginable.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/03/10/us-officials-plan-system-to-monitor-behavior-workers-with-security-clearances/?intcmp=latestnews

George Clapper, the DNI, and other offials are talking about a new series of programs where the watchers are going to be watch, because of Snowden, Manning, and others. It is focused on the insider threat. Up until recently, the Intelligence Community mostly operates on a Trust Model. Yes there are Investigations and polygraphs and such on new people and periodically just to keep tabs. But for the most part, those who are granted their security clearances do not overly sacrifice their freedoms and privacy. According to this article, the Trust Model is going to be replaced with the very surveillance that so many of you claim that we are already subject to. In an effort to eliminate future Snowdens, the Government is going to create the very real beast that did not yet exist, and they are going to put that beast on their own Intelligence people first.

In ten years, long after people like me, who will leave this work behind unwilling to sacrifice my privacy for your fear and lack of trust, there will only remain people like "them", enured to living under the gaze of the beast. And how much will people like "them" care about your privacy when they sacrificed their own so long ago?

Some of you will read this article and say "Great news, know they will know what it feels like, they deserve what they get".

Some of you will believe me and realize that although the NSA's bulk phone meta-data collection program strays close to dangerous ground, it can be managed. But more importantly, the damage caused by Edward Snowden, the loss of previously effective techniques now revealed and useless, the damage to the trust placed in our Intelligence Professionals, these issues misrepresented by the media, are driving our country to actual start doing the very things we do not want them to do.

Please try and think this through fellas. I know I speak like I blame you individually, but you really do have more impact on the whole then you realize. I would hope it's not too late but I am starting to get nervous about this. This is truly becoming a self fulfilling prophecy that we do not want to see become a reality.

I hope some day you don't look back and wish you had believed me. I myself hope I am wrong but here it is and it's bad and no one is even noticing it. These politicians are not always so bright, they are too absorbed in their political games to see the reality of what they are doing. They like to think they are the real power of this country but they are fools to think so. The bureaucratic machines they have built, the great organs of our government, that is the real power and like animals they will always fight in self-preservation. Now that they are threatened, really threatened for the first time ever, they seek to turn their power on their own to keep the reins held tight, to hold their secrets closer. It will not take long for this new animal to lose any reluctance it might feel towards turning it's power on us. What so many fear and claim is reality today will become the reality of tomorrow and it will be our own fault, not theirs.

We are the ones driving them to this.

So now I will begin dissecting so many of these comments that were made here in light of my last post.

By ChoppedLiver;
Whether the NSA taps into a router and captures traffic outside, to and from your network, or whether the NSA pays xyz company to install monitoring stuff because of some quasilegal "court order" from a "secret court",

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A simple fallacy, the government can't contract and pay a private company to do something that they themselves can't do. Contractors must obey the same rules as their Government customers.

By 460cidpower;
Who watches the Watchmen?

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Because you and thousands of others keep typing this bullshit the Watchmen are going to begin watching themselves. After a few years of that, they won't think twice about watching you anymore, they'll think nothing of it.

By Ducman69;
When a party can politically shame anyone by tracking their every movement and action and comment made over the course of their life, its too much power.

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The internet is pretty wild right now but a political party or any organization for that matter, doesn't need the NSA to amass enough information to do these things, people put all kinds of stuff out there all the time, it's too easy. That being said, no Political Party has access to NSA surveillance data like so many of you imagine. But all the calls for "oversight" and investigations are going to see that plenty enough of these guys will get access and then the slide starts. "Who watches the watchmen?" He asked, well it's the watchmen who will first have their lives on record so who will be the first to feel the "squeeze", yes, the very ones who can have the reins of the surveillance machines. Now the politicians will have a way to pressure these guys into giving them the dirt and focusing the eyes of the machine on those that should be safe from it. See how it works? Create what you fear and then fear what your create.

Tekara;
When in truth it should only be the politicians that are under this kind of extreme surveillance during their tenure.

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Please don't ask for this because if they can stand being watched all the time then we sure as hell will have nothing to complain about.

Ahh well, work calls.

Tyler-Durden said:

Our government loves us. It's the nicest, mostest wonderfulest thing in the whole wide world. It keeps us safe from those awful, evil terrorists who hate Americans because of our freedoms. Those awful, evil terrorists hijacked airplanes and flew them into buildings on 9/11 because women have the right to vote and can drive cars. That's why we must embrace unlimited surveillance. Because our government loves us.

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/thread winner

460cidpower said:

Who watches the Watchmen?

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Operation Fast and Furious proved resoundingly that NO ONE watches the watchers.

The government can traffic firearms to drug gangs, grant cartels immunity deals to traffic drugs into the country, have foreknowledge of murders and do nothing to stop it, they do what every they want to because "they are the good guys".