Unless you were specifically talking about facial recognition-related items, in which case, Wikileaks not needed, they'll just tell you:

Homeland Security’s New Database to Include Faces, DNA, and Relationships - https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/06/hart-homeland-security...

http://www.theverge.com/2017/4/18/15332742/us-border-biometr...

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/mar/27/us-facial...

http://jacksonville.com/public-safety/2016-11-11/how-accused...

Bonus, from the fascism side (the real definition, government and corporate cooperation): http://massprivatei.blogspot.com/2016/07/10k-google-wi-fi-ki...

And from the speculative side: https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-baltimore-secret-sur...

Just saw an article I can't find any longer about China using 10-sensor cameras to do facial recognition at a city-level. Built by a university in the US....things do not look as bright as you're painting them, I'm afraid.

America has a long history of facilitating other nations' experiments in tyranny. Like, a really really long one. I learned the other day that many of the atrocities committed in the Belgian Free Congo were actually committed by American and British companies, and the details were covered up after it became public.

In order to get me interested in a new Threat To American Democracy and Freedom, you need to show that it's actually novel and unprecedented. And then it's only as interesting as its potential to actually scale. Remember red-light cameras? In Georgia they had to take them out because after the public bitched, they had to increase the length of the yellow light and the company running them couldn't make ends meet.

Without economic incentives, the political will to keep it going, and a novel approach, it's really hard to get interested in outrage or fear over technological dystopia.

Technology like storage and cameras is cheap and becoming cheaper. What's lacking is legislation which always lags behind technology, typically decades.

>America has a long history of facilitating other nations' experiments in tyranny. Like, a really really long one. Considering how long America has been around say compared to Europe that's quite a claim.

I saw a deck of cards featuring 'friendly' dictators, and I have a feeling it is incomplete.

I think this might have been it:

https://www.amazon.com/Friendly-Dictators-Americas-Embarrass...

I agree with you for now. However, these things are going to advance and improve. I think the biggest Orwellian issue is the targeting of dissonance. The government can't watch everyone and process the data but they can target those who disagree with policy X or politician Y or company Z.

Algorithmic processing of keywords, sentiment, and then, metadata, to suss out those who speak truth (treason) in an empire of lies.

There's nothing new about government targeting of dissidents. The worst case scenario there played out in the fifties with McCarthy. Society survived.

"Society survived" is a pretty low bar to set. Why not aim for "innocent people don't face negative consequences for harmless acts"?

The bar is getting ordinary people to be concerned about the possibility for America to turn into dystopia. While yours is a laudable goal, it's well within the ability of our existing political-economic system to ratchet closer to over time.

> nobody's found anything really interesting.

You're kidding, right?

This is biased in selection, but I would call Wikileaks releases anything other than uninteresting. http://www.mostdamagingwikileaks.com

If you have to use selection bias just to conjure up interest, I'd say there's no fire amongst all that smoke. I read through 7 of those and while some of them were mildly interesting when they hit the news cycle, they're certainly not now. Grist for America's identity politics rumor mill, but certainly not remarkable in any other sense.

A financial institution hand-choosing Presidential administration employees is underwhelming to you.

Okay.

I skimmed through the list to find it but I couldn't find anything like you were describing. What I did find, was "Spirit Cooking". That's not selection bias, that's out and out making shit up.

It's not. Keep reading.