Is Silicon Valley Building the Infrastructure for a Police State?

[timosman]

http://reason.com/reasontv/2017/11/1...d-the-surveill

November 10, 2017



Silicon Valley firms are building surveillance and profiling tools to help government agents make sense of the massive amount of information available on social media and in publicly accessible data sets. Are they using cutting-edge technologies to keep Americans safe, or laying the groundwork for a police state?

The Palo-Alto based Palantir is one of the biggest so-called threat intelligence firms, and it's primary backer is Peter Thiel, the PayPal founder, Facebook board member, and Trump supporter.

Also an outspoken libertarian, Thiel told Fortune magazine he hopes Palantir's technology will help protect the civil liberties of Americans because, given the massive amounts of Americans' data the government takes in, "if we could help [agents] make sense of data, they could end indiscriminate surveillance."

Thiel believes Palantir's technology will prove crucial in stopping future terrorist attacks. Some insiders credit Palantir for enabling the government to find Osama bin Laden's hideout in 2011.

Edward Hasbrouck of the nonprofit Identity Project says this technology enables the government to violate civil liberties without necessary checks on its power. He compares it to the Berlin Wall. "By building checkpoints—by building the control mechanisms," Hasbrouck says, "we're already putting into place the infrastructure for those who will abuse them in the future."

Paul Scharre, a policy analyst who studies artificial intelligence and defense at the Center for a New American Security, says the public shouldn't fear artificial intelligence tools just because they're new and unfamiliar. "There's no technology that's just inherently good or inherently bad," says Scharre. "It's about how we're using it, and to what ends."

Watch the video above to learn more about artificial intelligence, its application in government, and what precautions we might take to preserve our civil liberties going forward.

Produced by Zach Weissmueller. Camera by Alexis Garcia, Justin Monticello, and Mark McDaniel.

[RonZeplin]

Poppy Bush's NWO marches on. A seamless transition -- GHW Bush / Clinton / W Bush / Obama / Trump.

Resistance is futile, you will be assimilated?

[pcosmar]

Poppy Bush's NWO marches on.

It goes beyond him,, but he said it out loud.

[Raginfridus]

Are they using cutting-edge technologies to keep Americans safe, or laying the groundwork for a police state?

"If you answered YES, you're our lucky, grand-prize winner!"

What's the greatest movie ever made have to say about using the Palantir to watch the enemy?

[DamianTV]

I'd have to say yes they are.

Silicon Valley is now akin to what Big Oil used to be. In fact, Data Mining as an industry, you know, all the $#@! they record about everything that you do, then sell it, is now BIGGER than Big Oil. So it should come as no surprise that they have intentionally built the infrastructure of your digital prison.

But it goes even deeper. Fascism can be most easily described as a merger between government and corporations. According to Princeton, in a governmental system where politicians views represented the will of the people, if 0% of the people supported a particularly nasty bill, then 0% of the votes in govt would be for that system. Opposite of that is if 100% of the people supported a bill, then 100% of the votes in govt would be for that bill. What we have is about 30% of the bills get passed, regardless how much or how little support it has by the public. Smaller bills that dont really matter too much to the public tend to benefit either govt or corporations. The Princeton Study shows that the people in power truly do NOT care what the people want. And that holds true until you get to the top 1%. When you look at the richest 1% of people, then and only then does the voting pattern of govt officials match the will. Govt represents the rich, showing just how incredibly Fascist this country has become.

Understanding that corporations truly run this country, you can only understand that they are the ones to build the tools that will support their industry, which is the suppression of your rights against theirs. And the most effective way to do that is to build a Surveillance Society and call it "Social Networking". What people give away for free becomes the very thing that enslaves them to those in power.


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Semi related:

Germany Bans Children's Smartwatches
https://yro.slashdot.org/story/17/11...s-smartwatches

A German regulator has banned the sale of smartwatches aimed at children, describing them as spying devices. From a report:

It had previously banned an internet-connected doll called, My Friend Cayla, for similar reasons. Telecoms regulator the Federal Network Agency urged parents who had such watches to destroy them. One expert said the decision could be a "game-changer" for internet-connected devices. "Poorly secured smart devices often allow for privacy invasion. That is really concerning when it comes to kids' GPS tracking watches - the very watches that are supposed to help keep them safe," said Ken Munro, a security expert at Pen Test Partners.

[Raginfridus]

[LibForestPaul]

Is Silicon Valley Building the Infrastructure for a Police State?
You misspoke.

Have the front companies for the state built the infrastructure for a full police state?
Yes, they have.