WE HAVE MOVED!

"And I beheld, and heard the voice of one eagle flying through the midst of heaven,
saying with a loud voice: Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth....
[Apocalypse (Revelation) 8:13]

Monday, January 8, 2018

POLICE STATE: DEEP STATE PLOY For Mass Surveillance: Facebook Recognition AI Will Use Your Own Biometrics Against You

POLICE STATE: DEEP STATE PLOY For Mass Surveillance: Facebook Recognition AI Will Use Your Own Biometrics Against You
 
Sometime this year, Facebook plans to unveil a new facial recognition technology across the site which uses artificial intelligence to scan uploaded photos to analyze and recognize faces based on images previously uploaded to the site. But this is nothing more than a surveillance technique.
According to Natural News, this sneaky surveillance technique will link users to the people they meet in real life all while tracking their whereabouts and social circle even further. And the real kicker? Facebook will roll out this AI deep state mass surveillance under the guise of “protecting your privacy.”



Facebook will roll the controversial plan out all in the name of “protecting your privacy.” Facebook promises to alert users when someone uploads a photo of them to Facebook. This feature supposedly helps users “detect when others might be attempting to use your image as their profile picture.” This feature is just a façade to invade user privacy, as Facebook gets permission to analyze your photos and track your connections and whereabouts. – Natural News
But there is a way to mostly opt out.  By default, users will already be giving Facebook permission to use the facial recognition AI if their tag suggestions setting is currently “on.” In order to opt out, the user must switch the tag suggestions setting to “none.”
But even more horrifying, is the fact that we should have known that this was coming. Two and a half years ago, ARS-Technica said that Facebook will eventually be able to recognize you – even when you are facing away.
Facebook researchers have unveiled new research that allows for faces to be more easily recognized based on other contextual information, such as hair style, clothing, and body shape.
The research, which was published on arXiv.org in January 2015, was presented at a conference in Boston earlier this month and first reported by New Scientist on Monday.
According to the researchers, the system, dubbed Pose Invariant PErson Recognition (PIPER), is accurate 83 percent of the time—far higher than the current state-of-the-art, which primarily requires clear, full frontal photos to work well. –ARS Technica
But even though a user didn’t give permission to have their face analyzed, the picture could theoretically be analyzed anyway because it contains the face of someone who had given Facebook permission to analyze their pixels. There’s no way Facebook can ensure users that their photos won’t be analyzed. In the end, there really will be no consent or privacy with this AI facial recognition rollout.
There is no such thing as privacy when using Facebook; or any social media or chat app.  All the data that’s shared openly by Facebook users (including pictures, connections, interests, comments, likes, and personal information) is readily compiled and analyzed by algorithms to map out and predict who you are, where you go, what you’ll buy, and much more.
Most Facebook users naively share information rather liberally, only to have their life turned over to surveillance systems, marketing algorithms, and artificial intelligence which is capable of analyzing the pixels in your photos, micromanaging your life interests and dislikes, and tracking your every move.


Small California Town to be Surveilled by Police Drones

Police in Redding, California are set to be equipped with drones after a $25,000 donation from a local church.
With a population of about 89,000, Redding is a small town when it comes to California. It’s the largest city near Mt. Shasta, but its crime is absolutely nothing compared to the closest major city, Sacramento.
It’s odd that this small city would receive police drones this early in the roll-out of police drones for forces all around the world.
City Council accepted the donation from Bethel church to buy a couple drones, and enable 6 officers to use them.
According to Redding:
The donation drew some pushback from two people who spoke on the matter. David Robbins and Nicholas Gilliam both said they worried about possible Fourth Amendment and privacy issues raised by police using drones.
‘Yes, they could definitely be used to help track down fugitives and assist in search and rescue, I’m not denying that. They could also be used to spy on the citizens of Redding, particularly in low-income neighborhoods,’ Robbins said.
They also worried the drones would be used to spot homeless camps that would later be targeted for removal.”
Crime isn’t a big problem in Redding, but the homeless definitely exist there. It’s an astute observation that homeless camps could be spied upon with the drones. The officials admitted that the drones would be used to fight the drug war.
In other news, firefighting drones recently helped put out fires in Southern California. That is certainly positive.

The Spy Coalition In Congress Rushes Through Plan To Keep The NSA Spying On Americans


Source: Tech Dirt

This is, unfortunately, no surprise at all. It happens every time that a key surveillance provision is set to sunset. Rather than have any real public debate about it, the "surveillance hawks" in Congress refuse to do anything until there are just weeks left until the provision would expire... and then try to ram through a renewal. And, indeed, that's exactly what's happening. While people who are concerned about these surveillance powers have been urging debate on possible reform for basically two years, Congress has mostly ignored all such requests. Instead, they pushed for a very weak "reform" bill... and then did nothing about it for months. And now, they apparently announced just last week a plan to vote on a toothless bill today. No debate, no notice, no discussion. As EFF notes, this bill is bad:
As we wrote, the bill, originally introduced by Chairman Devin Nunes before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, “allows warrantless search of American communications, expands how collected data can be used, and treats constitutional protections as voluntary.”
The bill would  create an easy path for the NSA to restart an invasive type of surveillance (called "about" searches) that the agency voluntarily ended earlier this year because of criticisms from the FISA court. It would also give FBI agents the power to decide whether or not to seek a warrant to read American communications collected under Section 702.
Of course, it's particularly ridiculous that it's Nunes pushing for this broad renewal of Section 702. While he has a very long history of actively misleading the public about what the NSA can actually do, he was also the one who flipped out when he found out that Section 702 was used (legally under the law) to conduct surveillance that swept in the communications of General Mike Flynn's calls with Russians. And yet, here he is, making sure that that power continues, without restrictions, suggesting that maybe (just maybe) his public wailing about the surveillance on Flynn was political theater, rather than legitimate concern.
EFF has set up a page to let you contact your Representative to let them know to vote against the bill. Unfortunately, when surveillance hawks started screaming in Congress about how failing to pass this bill will "harm national security" and "put us at risk of terrorist attacks" or "take away a key NSA tool" many Congress members who aren't knowledgeable about the details will reflexively vote for the bill. Check out the EFF's page and make sure that your elected representative knows that this is a bad bill that wrecks the 4th Amendment rights of Americans and allows for massive domestic surveillance.
In case you want a refresher, a few months back we wrote about an an important report by Marcy Wheeler detailing twelve years of NSA surveillance abuse, much of it done under this 702 program that is set to expire at the end of the year, and which this new bill seeks to renew without any real change. Please read up and let your elected representatives know not to support this bill.
 


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