On the darker side It’s just theory and the technology of it is very much over my pretty little head. But Bruce Schneier notes that it’s possible to insert surveillance almost undetectably at the microchip level. More evidence that while the NSA may know what you’re doing, it has no idea what its own people are doing. The ACLU doesn’t come right out and call the FBI America’s secret police. But pretty close. Alas, they still imagine the agency might investigate and reform itself. (Via Sipsey Street) But of course, it’s all just okey-dokey-hunky-dory-nifty-zorch because none of it’s unconstitutional! On…
Category: Privacy and self ownership
Owning our own information and telling Big Brother to get lost
Good news. There’s a typeface designed to be hard for NSA computers to read. Bad news. It’s pretty hard for humans to read, too. More of an art/protest project at this point (though created by a former NSA contractor). But just a taste of how smart people will ultimately defeat the Stasi. Kent McManigal on avoiding being sucked into people’s negative vortexes. You know those strange names parents are giving their kids, these days? Names like Naiphthan, Elyivya, and Nevaeh, and J’oshau? Well, we can all be glad nobody’s getting stuck with these names any more. And speaking of names…
Things are bad in the Stasi state. Things get worse in the Stasi state. Worse yet, each revelation of governmental lawlessness, Big Brotherism, and contempt for We the People is met with a giant yawn. It’s so easy to despair. Then along comes a reminder that not everybody is yawning. What you laugh at says a lot. The story arc for the above started with the September 6 panel. H/T to JB for making my day.
Swarms of tabs are buzzing ’round my head again. Some contain news that fills me with such loathing I can’t decide whether to blog about it or run for cover. I’ll avoid the most loathsome for now and merely blog the good, the bad, the indifferent, and the funny to clear my browser and my head. The NSA disguised itself as Google to enable even more spying. Part of me says this is bad in the same sense that the CIA’s longstanding practice of disguising its agents as journalists is bad (for the health of actual journalists). Part of me…
Since we haven’t done a Friday freedom question for a while, and since today is one of those Infamous Fridays — the thirteenth: What’s the best thing (or things) you can think of today that would cause some well-deserved bad luck to the Stasi or their pals, agents, and enablers who are ignoring the Bill of Rights and stealing our freedom? This could be something real and practical (therefore publically non-incriminating, please) or highly theoretical (therefore any fantasy scenario Hollywood could dream up).
Loving a bad dog. (Oh yeah. Been there …) News of the weird. Shelley’s Ozymandias. Um … with socks. Wall Street deals in physical commodities. Commodities producers operate hedge funds and sell derivitives. And there, and there, and there go the trillions. I really like Ricky Gervais and I want to see this. For anybody who still doubts that Edward Snowden did the right thing. Won’t get anywhere. Not enough. But the Surveillance State Repeal Act is a start. Yes, we already know that the fedgov is run not merely by narcissists but by full-blown sociopaths. Still, this Salon piece…
Apple unveiled its new iPhones yesterday. Their main new feature is that they give the NSA the chance to get your fingerprint, along with everything else. But! Not! To worry! They’ll only get your fingerprint “securely.” Because these phones are secure-secure-secure. (H/T O) Bravo, Paul Bonneau: “An appeal to NSA engineers.” L.A. sent this article along with the comment that if you have to get government permission to build a doomsday bunker, perhaps you’re in the wrong location for riding doomsday out. (Oh no, tsks the deputy mayor, “Children have been held in bunkers.”) This is a great program. Our…
I don’t have to tell you that this isn’t the sort of “roundup” where you get to go, “Yipee-i-o-kyaaay!” It’s the sort where you go, “OMG, what will learn next about these creeping, peeping totalitarians?” Some of the newest nooz: Got a smartphone? NSA can get your data. Not yet a mega-scooping data project; they have to really want your particular data to get it. Mega-scooping? That comes next year, no doubt. And when it comes it’ll be with the help of “Mr. Civil Rights” Obama himself. Seems two years ago the secret court, responding to a secret request, made…
Alas (but no surprise), the rumor that’s been buzzing around the ‘Net ever since Edward Snowden’s NSA documents began their slow leak has turned out to be true. The NSA has cracked the encryption on which the Internet thrives. All those assurances from our banks, insurance companies, doctors, credit card companies, etc. that our data is safe and secure? Blooey. Maybe “cracking” isn’t quite the right term. Apparently, they haven’t really gotten any great master key. Not even to one form of encryption (and there are many forms). This isn’t Bletchley Park and the Enigma machine. Nothing so grand. Simply…
The town of Deer Trail, Colorado, has already received requests (and checks) for 983 drone-hunting licenses — despite not yet having passed a license ordinance. Actually, they’ve gotten more than 983. That’s just where the town clerk stopped counting a couple weeks back.