The Panoptican State

Texas Senator Gets Anonymous Phone Call

It seems that the Snowden revelations tell a far, far worse story than was imagined when they began.  Now it turns out the government spying agencies have been eavesdropping and watching private video exchanges between individuals.  No warrants.  No suspicion of spying.  Just snooping. Just testing out technical capabilities.  Imagine the local cop shop sneaking up to your house and peering the the windows at night just because they could.  We have a word for this--voyeurism.  But, far worse, is the realisation that the panoptican state is here, is now, and is operating.  All in the name of national security.  Does that make you feel any better? 

This, from The Guardian:

Britain's surveillance agency GCHQ, with aid from the US National Security Agency, intercepted and stored the webcam images of millions of internet users not suspected of wrongdoing, secret documents reveal.  GCHQ files dating between 2008 and 2010 explicitly state that a surveillance program codenamed Optic Nerve collected still images of Yahoo webcam chats in bulk and saved them to agency databases, regardless of whether individual users were an intelligence target or not.  In one six-month period in 2008 alone, the agency collected webcam imagery – including substantial quantities of sexually explicit communications – from more than 1.8 million Yahoo user accounts globally. [Emphasis, ours]

Snigger.  Snigger.  Snigger.  We are watching you!

Big Brother's Smothering Embrace

Not Just The Walls Have Ears

Things have become barrel scrapingly low when a majority of ordinary citizens no longer trust their governments.  Not that any citizen should extend trust to the government unilaterally.  "Trust, but verify" is an obligatory responsibility of all free citizens to demand and require from their governments.  Verification usually is through the oversight of separate powers of government, such as the judiciary, parliamentary committees, the courts, or special (independent) commissions.  In a free society, government agencies are mandated to watch other government agencies, reporting and accounting to separated governmental, representative powers.  Such things seem ancient history now.  Hence trust is evaporating faster than sweat in a Melbourne heat wave.  

We appear to have reached the bottom of the barrel in the trust stakes.  Here is the latest shakedown from the Snowden revelations, this time about the unwarranted, unauthorised collection of text messages, according to The Guardian:

Trust, But Verify

Reclaiming Vital Liberties

Blogger Patterico has been consistently has been critical of Snowden leaks.  Like many, he sees it as undermining the government which necessarily has to conduct some activities in secret.  Recent revelations, however, find him rethinking.

Snowden Document Reveals The Government Is Tracking Individuals’ Online Activities for the Explicit Purpose of Embarrassing Them

Filed under: General — 

Patterico @ 7:30 am

The latest Edward Snowden document shows the government tracking online activities of people in order to discredit them with charges of hypocrisy for viewing porn and such. But it’s OK, nothing to worry about . . . they’re all Muslims:

The National Security Agency has been gathering records of online sexual activity and evidence of visits to pornographic websites as part of a proposed plan to harm the reputations of those whom the agency believes are radicalizing others through incendiary speeches, according to a top-secret NSA document. The document, provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, identifies six targets, all Muslims, as “exemplars” of how “personal vulnerabilities” can be learned through electronic surveillance, and then exploited to undermine a target’s credibility, reputation and authority.

The NSA document, dated Oct. 3, 2012, repeatedly refers to the power of charges of hypocrisy to undermine such a messenger.”

It doesn’t take a genius to see how a brass knuckles politician might drool over access to information that would embarrass and destroy their critics and political opponents.

Keeping Perspective

The Greater Treachery

Ad hominem attack is mounting upon Edward Snowden.  Apparently he conspired from the get-go to infiltrate the government spy agencies and exfiltrate information and data.  A local blogger had this to say:

So let's put aside the fantasy of Snowden being some sort of caped crusader, fighting for truth and justice; he is anything But. He made a deliberate and conscious decision to take up a job with the pre-meditated intention of stealing data and releasing it publicly. We reckon that this will harden people's attitudes towards Snowden. He is a spy, just like those that he is trying to vilify. He has certainly forfeited the moral high ground.

It has been reported that the US Government has cancelled Edward Snowden's passport, so that he cannot legally enter Russia, nor can he go anywhere else legally. Perhaps 10 years "incarceration" in the transit lounge of a Russian airport might give Snowden the opportunity to reflect on his treachery and deceit.

Treachery and deceit.  Well, it seems to us that such a petard would hoist all whistleblowers.