Surveillance State
What do you have to contribute about #Surveillance State?
You must be logged in to contribute!
Here’s the deal: FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed to Congress that the FBI is buying Americans’ location histories and other personal data straight from data brokers, sidestepping the warrant requirement entirely, while government requests for user data from Big Tech companies have surged 770% over the past decade. Meta and Google make nearly all their money off your data, and now the government just gets to “cut in line” and tap into that same pipeline instead of building its own surveillance system from scratch. It’s not really a conspiracy theory at this point ; it’s a warrantless data-buying loophole hiding…
Turns out Flock and SignalTrace aren’t rivals at all; they’re basically working hand in glove. SignalTrace clips right onto the same poles as existing Flock cameras, no new infrastructure needed, and starts harvesting Bluetooth and WiFi signals from your phone to build what they literally call an “electronic fingerprint” of you and your vehicle. So while people are out here thinking these are competing companies, they’re actually stacking on top of each other to create an even bigger tracking net, and nobody voted on any of it.
Mobile games are basically running a sneaky little data hustle right under our noses. That “innocent” puzzle game or battle royale app you downloaded isn’t just tracking your gameplay. Games are routinely tapping into your GPS, WiFi connections, and cell tower data to pinpoint exactly where you are. Regulators like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have flagged that gaming companies collect significant financial and personal data, sometimes including users’ banking information through in-app purchase systems, all while roughly 86% of mobile games in North America collect personal data without proper consent, according to one 2023 analysis. The wild part? We…
Leah over at The Leah Files just dropped a deep-dive tracing how license plate readers, drones, 911-call hacking tools, and phone-tracking tech from companies like Flock Safety, Carbyne, Toka, and Leonardo all connect into one surveillance web, with the same venture capital firms: Andreessen Horowitz and Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, funding multiple pieces of the puzzle. She even connects some of the money trail to Jeffrey Epstein, who reportedly had a financial relationship with Ehud Barak, the guy who founded or co-founded several of these Israeli surveillance firms. But she doesn’t just blackpill herself; she points out that over 80…
Big news for anyone who uses Facebook or Instagram: starting this month, Meta is killing off the setting that let you opt out of them tracking your activity on other websites and apps. Basically, that little bit of control you had over how much of your life outside their apps gets fed into their data machine? Gone. It’s yet another reminder that Big Tech keeps finding sneaky ways to grab more of your personal info while acting like it’s no big deal.
This introduction to Data Republican and what her work entails is really worth a look (15 min). She covers her objectives and her values. Interesting that she is a software engineer with bloodhound instincts. She also has an incredible video explaining how AI and indexing work. Will update with that.