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A comment on The US Is Openly Stockpiling Dirt on All Its Citizens. Parent comment

Re:The US Is Openly Stockpiling Dirt on All Its Citizens by heavyset_go on Tuesday June 13, 2023 @02:49AM (#36306472)
> 2) restrict the government's ability to use or acquire through non-market-based means. The claim here is that there's already restrictions on this vs directly surveiling, but I haven't seen directly which specific restrictions those are for buying off-the-shelf info and the article doesn't specify.

This won't happen, our security state is built on private surveillance and partnerships between law enforcement and private surveillance companies.

Whether we like it or not, the intelligence and security apparatus feel like we need China-style surveillance, because terrorists/spies/civil unrest/FOMO/etc, and we're getting it one way or another. It's either outright illegal, or legally questionable, for the government to do exactly what the CCP has, but there's the loophole illustrated in the OP. Private companies are allowed to surveil Americans, and they're free to choose whether or not they share the data they collect with law enforcement.

Now we have companies like Amazon partnering with thousands of law enforcement agencies[1] to advertise[2], deploy and monitor Americans via their products like Ring. Amazon is free to share whatever data they collect from you whenever they want[3]. They can share your data with law enforcement without warrants and they don't even have to let you know that they did so[4].

The article in the OP goes into how phone records are being used to track people's locations, as well. As much as I'd like to, I can't see this genie being put back in the bottle.

[1] https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/31/22258856/amazon-ring-part...

[2] https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-ring-require-police-a...

[3] https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/14/tech/amazon-ring-police-foota...

[4] https://www.wired.com/story/amazon-ring-police-videos-securi...

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Re:The US Is Openly Stockpiling Dirt on All Its Citizens by cyanydeez on Tuesday June 13, 2023 @08:18AM (#36309143)
everything we're seeing is capitalism in action. the security state part of it is basically just the overall shittification of technology.
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Re:The US Is Openly Stockpiling Dirt on All Its Citizens by the_optimist on Monday June 19, 2023 @07:37PM (#36397808)
A government buying data for surveillance has little to do with capitalism. Perhaps part of the reason you see “everything” become “shitty” is you have a limited ability to identify, isolate, respond to, and avoid or change root causes.
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Re:The US Is Openly Stockpiling Dirt on All Its Citizens by foverzar on Tuesday June 13, 2023 @08:46AM (#36309443)
Gotta love how post-9/11 surveillance style got rebranded into "Chinese-style"
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Re:The US Is Openly Stockpiling Dirt on All Its Citizens by MobiusHorizons on Tuesday June 13, 2023 @08:54PM (#36319832)
Comparing to a country whose practices in this regard are broadly considered authoritarian makes a lot of sense here. It is quite descriptive. IMO no less descriptive than post-9/11 surveillance
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Re:The US Is Openly Stockpiling Dirt on All Its Citizens by heavyset_go on Wednesday June 14, 2023 @08:45AM (#36325054)
The weird smart city concept and the total surveillance fetishism that comes with it is a product of post-9/11 surveillance, but it's also something that the CCP really nailed in its implementation. The Ring surveillance partnership with law enforcement mirrors what's already been rolled out successfully elsewhere in places like China, while the US is quickly catching up.
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