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<br>
If everybody's head-mounted camera was connected to Google, taking
video of police misconduct would cause their credit ratings to drop
and their employment situation to become precarious. <br>
<br>
The thing that holds "the masses" down, isn't the threat of a
billy-club upside the head or a face full of pepper spray. It's the
threat of losing their job, their house or apartment, and their
medical care. Ask anyone who has kids. The degree of conformity
and everyday oppression that people are willing to endure "for their
kids' sake" is enormous. <br>
<br>
Government largely serves capital. What capital wants is to
surround every person with the equivalent of a Dyson sphere to
capture all of their energy output either in the form of work or
consumption. <br>
<br>
-G.<br>
<br>
<br>
=====<br>
<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 13-03-05-Tue 3:37 PM, Jehan Tremback
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CABG_PfRJExxZnD1Uh7S4w8sbfTZ7YfanzoME0ZYaBVEcupQrAA@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">If everybody had a head mounted camera, police
brutality would become non existent.</div>
<div class="gmail_extra"><br>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Mar 5, 2013 at 3:35 PM,
Anon195714 <span dir="ltr"><<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:anon195714@sbcglobal.net" target="_blank">anon195714@sbcglobal.net</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0
.8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><br>
(Matthew: I see your comment was posted to me but not posted
to list, so<br>
I've redacted it from this posting to the list, which is in
reply to<br>
you. If you want to post your comment to the list, feel
free. Everyone<br>
else: it wasn't a scathing criticism or something
scandalous, in fact I<br>
think Matthew may have wanted to post it to list but didn't
hit Reply<br>
All. That said, it's up to him.)<br>
<br>
The surveillance ecosystem is already enormous, and the vast
majority is<br>
in the private sector.<br>
<br>
General rule: "Dissipative structures form ecosystems
around<br>
entropy-gradients." Organisms are dissipative structures;
work is<br>
energy-conversion. This explains much of human social
behavior as well<br>
as physical ecosystem behavior.<br>
<br>
For example people want music and they're willing to work
hard (convert<br>
energy) to get it. Energy conversion produces an entropy
gradient. The<br>
music industry middlemen (RIAA) insert themselves into the
path between<br>
sources & sinks (artists & audiences, and that
relationship is two-way)<br>
to tap as much energy out of this process as possible, in
the form of<br>
money. Illegal file downloaders as well as self-produced
bands who use<br>
Creative Commons or Copyleft, are seen by the music industry
as<br>
short-circuits in the system.<br>
<br>
Consumer behavior in general is an enormous energy source
(money<br>
source), and the goal of capitalism is ultimately to
surround every<br>
consumer with the equivalent of a Dyson sphere to capture as
much of<br>
their work output as possible. The modern surveillance
ecosystem is all<br>
about "predicting and controlling" individual behavior,
toward that end.<br>
<br>
So, per Matthew, one way to counter this is to set up a
countervailing<br>
ecosystem, with entropy gradients tilted in such a manner as
to produce<br>
incentives to fight back against the surveillance.<br>
<br>
As for defending privacy: privacy is equivalent to free
speech. As a<br>
lawyer told us when I was working on "crypto for the masses"
in the<br>
early 1980s, the right to freedom of speech necessarily
includes the<br>
right to choose your audience. Today we commonly use the
term "chilling<br>
effect" to refer to what happens when you can't choose your
audience,<br>
e.g. when your boss and the credit bureaux etc. are likely
to be<br>
watching you on "social" networks.<br>
<br>
It's been said more than once, that you can tell when
someone's boss is<br>
watching them on Facebook: all of a sudden their comments go
totally<br>
bland (not that any of us should be using Facebook unless
we're<br>
deliberately using it as a publicity tool for political or
other<br>
campaigns). That's the chilling effect in action. And if
DARPA and<br>
Google have their way, where everyone's every conversation,
private and<br>
in-person included, is recorded and archived and made
searchable, the<br>
chill will be so total that it will make life in East
Germany under the<br>
Stasi look like a picnic by comparison.<br>
<br>
Knowledge is power: when THEY know all about YOU, but you
know nothing<br>
about them, who has the power?<br>
<br>
As the old song said, "Getting to know you / getting to know
all about<br>
you..."<br>
<br>
Not to mention, "He sees you when you're sleeping / he knows
when you're<br>
awake. / He knows if you've been bad or good / so be good
for (getting<br>
lots of presents) sake!"<br>
<br>
Going back thousands of years, societies envisioned deities
as concerned<br>
with individual "moral behavior" (i.e. sex) as a way of
strengthening<br>
tribal cohesion. Western cultures in particular evolved
with the very<br>
strong sense that their deities were keeping a close watch
over them.<br>
This gave people a sense of comfort and protection.<br>
<br>
Today as agnosticism, atheism, and various forms of
transpersonal<br>
beliefs (in effect religion without personalized deities)
are on the<br>
rise in the geek sector, the sense of comfort from "being
watched over"<br>
has transplanted itself from the deity to the surveillance<br>
superstructure. Many people are secretly fond of the idea
that Big<br>
Google is reading every word they write, listening to every
phone call<br>
they make, and following them around. This is nothing more
than a new<br>
deity taking the place of the old one: "someone big who
watches over us."<br>
<br>
It seems to me that a necessary part of the evolution of
rational people<br>
away from the need for personalized deities, is to get away
from the<br>
need for the "comfort" of being watched over. Individuals
who are<br>
rational self-aware autonomous moral actors have no need of
being<br>
watched over by anything other than our own consciences.<br>
<br>
-G.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
=====<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
On 13-03-05-Tue 2:43 PM, Matthew D. Howell wrote:<br>
<br>
(Comment was sent to me in private email, not to the list,
so if Matthew<br>
wishes he can repost it to the list.)<br>
<br>
<br>
=====<br>
<br>
On Tue, Mar 5, 2013 at 2:22 PM, Anon195714 <<a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:anon195714@sbcglobal.net">anon195714@sbcglobal.net</a>><br>
wrote:<br>
<div class="HOEnZb">
<div class="h5">>> Re. Anthony, Rachel, Matthew, re
"masking audio."<br>
>><br>
>> That was the first thing I tried when I found
out about NSA's voice<br>
>> recognition back in 1980 (if I recall correctly
it was the October 1980<br>
>> issue of _The Progressive_ that referred to the
HARVEST program, keyword<br>
>> rec and voice rec, and some stuff in a British
paper or magazine also, I<br>
>> may still have copies around).<br>
>><br>
>> The idea was that instead of using a voice
scrambler or crypto (which<br>
>> required a device at each end of a
conversation), voice rec could be<br>
>> defeated from one end of a phone call by
saturating the channel with<br>
>> just enough noise. What killed that idea was
the fact that long<br>
>> distance telephony used T-carrier that split up
the conversation into<br>
>> two different speech paths between telco
central offices (e.g. me to<br>
>> you, you to me). So a device would still be
needed at both ends, and<br>
>> one may as well just use a scrambler. That led
me down the trail to<br>
>> details about scramblers (bottom line, analog
scramblers aren't any<br>
>> good) and ultimately to cryptography by 1982 -
1983.<br>
>><br>
>> Re. "every person's voice has a distinct
signature that can be<br>
>> recognized...", yes, thus voiceprint
recognition, which was 99.6%<br>
>> accurate in 1960 according to an article in
_Telephony_ magazine at the<br>
>> time (I may still have that around also).
Fast-forward to today at the<br>
>> speed of Moore's law, and you can be quite sure
that voiceprint<br>
>> recognition is used for tracking.<br>
>><br>
>> This is one of the things I find most
pernicious about the decline in<br>
>> the use of landlines and the rise in the number
of people with "mobile<br>
>> only": A landline enables you to design,
build, connect, and use any<br>
>> hardware you choose, including digital voice
crypto devices, and<br>
>> including computers running digital voice
crypto. And with a landline<br>
>> phone, when the receiver is on the hook, the
microphone is physically<br>
>> disconnected by the hookswitch, a visible set
of switch contacts inside<br>
>> the phone.<br>
>><br>
>> Mobile devices are sealed black boxes, the
ultimate revenge against<br>
>> phone phreaks & phone hackers, where you
have no final control over<br>
>> what's in the black box. Just like the bad old
days of Ma Bell when it<br>
>> was quasi-illegal to connect "foreign
attachments" to your home phone<br>
>> line. Even a voice crypto app on a mobile
device is questionable at<br>
>> best, because you have no way of knowing if at
some level it's being<br>
>> undermined by something else in the device that
you can't detect. By<br>
>> analogy, crypto on your laptop, but a keystroke
logger hiding between<br>
>> you and the crypto app.<br>
>><br>
>> The mere possibility of being able to hack the
hardware provides more<br>
>> security than any sealed box, and best of all
is when you can design &<br>
>> build your own hardware, such as when people
build their own desktop<br>
>> machines from components.<br>
>><br>
>> Anyway, I agree with Rachel & Matthew that
audio masking isn't<br>
>> sufficient because it can be undone by the
watchers. It may have to do<br>
>> in some situations, but it would be better to
design more "aggressive"<br>
>> personal defense tech such as wearable
"resonant audio cannons" or<br>
>> something else.<br>
>><br>
>> -G.<br>
>><br>
>><br>
>> =====<br>
>><br>
>><br>
>> On 13-03-05-Tue 11:21 AM, Matthew D. Howell
wrote:<br>
>>> @Rachel The state of the technology for
recognizing and separating<br>
>>> patterns in audio is advanced enough to
overcome that sort of thing.<br>
>>> Every person's voice has a distinct
signature that can be recognized.<br>
>>> I would venture a guess that some kind of
encrypted digital signal<br>
>>> transmission would be the best way to keep
any sonic communication<br>
>>> private in the most extreme of situations.
(most interested party with<br>
>>> the best technology at their disposal)<br>
>>> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
– >8<br>
>>> /V\ /-\ + + |–| ø \/\/ ∂ £ £<br>
>>> –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––<br>
>>> Matthew D. Howell<br>
>>> misterinterrupt, tHe M4d swiTcH, the
RuinMechanic<br>
>>> cell: (617) 755-1481<br>
>>> –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––<br>
>>><br>
>>><br>
>>> On Tue, Mar 5, 2013 at 11:16 AM, rachel
lyra hospodar<br>
>>> <<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:rachelyra@gmail.com">rachelyra@gmail.com</a>>
wrote:<br>
>>>> Wouldn't it need to be non-commercially
available music, so they couldn't<br>
>>>> just find the audio data of the track,
invert its wave, and cancel it out of<br>
>>>> the recording?<br>
>>>><br>
>>>> CACOPHONY FOR THE REVOLUTION!<br>
>>>><br>
>>>> <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://mediumreality.com" target="_blank">mediumreality.com</a><br>
>>>><br>
>>>> On Mar 5, 2013 10:23 AM, "Steve Berl"
<<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:steveberl@gmail.com">steveberl@gmail.com</a>>
wrote:<br>
>>>>> You could carry a boombox around
playing loud music where ever you go.<br>
>>>>> Perhaps this would be the end of
earbuds. :-)<br>
>>>>><br>
>>>>> On Tue, Mar 5, 2013 at 10:20 AM,
Anthony Di Franco <<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:di.franco@gmail.com">di.franco@gmail.com</a>><br>
>>>>> wrote:<br>
>>>>>> People have rendered
surveillance cameras useless with very bright IR<br>
>>>>>> LEDs in their fields of view.<br>
>>>>>> Could something similar be done
for sound recording devices?<br>
>>>>>><br>
>>>>>> On Mar 5, 2013 6:17 AM,
"Anon195714" <<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:anon195714@sbcglobal.net">anon195714@sbcglobal.net</a>>
wrote:<br>
>>>>>>> Yo's-<br>
>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>> Something I forgot to add
re. DARPA's desire for universal recording of<br>
>>>>>>> face-to-face conversations.<br>
>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>> What's the ideal device for
doing all that recording?<br>
>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>> How'bout something you
wear? How'bout something that "everyone" wears?,<br>
>>>>>>> or even a significant
fraction of "everyone"?<br>
>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>> Like maybe Google Glasses.<br>
>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>> Always on, camera and mic
always "connected" to "the cloud." Orwell's<br>
>>>>>>> telescreen gone mobile.<br>
>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>> Everyone who wears them
will become, in effect, _unpaid surveillance<br>
>>>>>>> drones_ watching their
family and friends, not from up in the sky, but<br>
>>>>>>> from up close where every
word can be heard.<br>
>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>> Some will say "oh, there's
no stopping technology." People said that<br>
>>>>>>> about the atomic bomb and
the hydrogen bomb. But public outcry led<br>
>>>>>>> first to treaties and then
to progressive degrees of nuclear<br>
>>>>>>> disarmament. We haven't
used that technology since it was first used in<br>
>>>>>>> WW2.<br>
>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>> We can stop pernicious tech
if we choose. We can refuse, we can<br>
>>>>>>> withdraw consent, we do not
have to press the Buy button.<br>
>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>> Technology should liberate
and empower people. "Conveniences with a few<br>
>>>>>>> strings attached" are not
liberation, they're puppet-strings.<br>
>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>> It's all about control:
technology that you can control, vs. technology<br>
>>>>>>> that can control you.<br>
>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>> -G.<br>
>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>> =====<br>
>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>> On 13-03-05-Tue 1:50 AM,
Anon195714 wrote:<br>
>>>>>>>> Yo's-<br>
>>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>>> This just in:<br>
>>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>>> "DARPA wants to make
[voice recognition/transcription] systems so<br>
>>>>>>>> accurate, you’ll be
able to easily record, transcribe and recall all<br>
>>>>>>>> the<br>
>>>>>>>> conversations you ever
have. ... Imagine living in a world where every<br>
>>>>>>>> errant utterance you
make is preserved forever. ... DARPA [awarded<br>
>>>>>>>> U.Texas comp sci
researcher Matt Lease]... $300,000... over two years<br>
>>>>>>>> to<br>
>>>>>>>> study the new project,
called “Blending Crowdsourcing with Automation<br>
>>>>>>>> for Fast, Cheap, and
Accurate Analysis of Spontaneous Speech.”"<br>
>>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>>> "The idea is that
business meetings or even conversations with your<br>
>>>>>>>> friends and family
could be stored in archives and easily searched.<br>
>>>>>>>> The<br>
>>>>>>>> stored recordings could
be held in servers, owned either by<br>
>>>>>>>> individuals<br>
>>>>>>>> or their employers. ...
The answer, Lease says, is in widespread use<br>
>>>>>>>> of<br>
>>>>>>>> recording technologies
like smartphones, cameras and audio<br>
>>>>>>>> recorders...<br>
>>>>>>>> [A] memorandum from the
Congressional Research Service described [an<br>
>>>>>>>> earlier DARPA project
of this type known as] EARS, as focusing on<br>
>>>>>>>> speech<br>
>>>>>>>> picked up from
broadcasts and telephone conversations, “as well as<br>
>>>>>>>> extract clues about the
identity of speakers” for “the military,<br>
>>>>>>>> intelligence and law
enforcement communities.”"<br>
>>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>>> <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/03/darpa-speech/"
target="_blank">http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/03/darpa-speech/</a>
(Yes, "real<br>
>>>>>>>> geeks<br>
>>>>>>>> don't read Wired," but
nonetheless its news pages are useful for<br>
>>>>>>>> keeping<br>
>>>>>>>> a finger on the pulse
of Big Brother and his corporate Brethren.)<br>
>>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>>> In short:<br>
>>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>>> DARPA is researching
the means by which every conversation you have,<br>
>>>>>>>> in-person, whether at
work or with family or friends, gets picked up<br>
>>>>>>>> by<br>
>>>>>>>> the mic in your
smartphone or other portable device, and stored on a<br>
>>>>>>>> server, where DARPA's
algorithms and human editors turn all of it into<br>
>>>>>>>> fast-searchable text,
that could be used by your employer, the<br>
>>>>>>>> military,<br>
>>>>>>>> law enforcement, and
intel agencies. Presumably the credit bureaus,<br>
>>>>>>>> insurance companies,
and financial institutions will want "in" on the<br>
>>>>>>>> data as well.<br>
>>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>>> Now connect that with
this, about cell-site tracking and call detail<br>
>>>>>>>> records:<br>
>>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>>> "The government
maintained [that] Americans have no expectation of<br>
>>>>>>>> privacy of such
cell-site records [call detail records or CDR] because<br>
>>>>>>>> they are in the
possession of a third party — the mobile phone<br>
>>>>>>>> companies."<br>
>>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>>> <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/03/gps-drug-dealer-retrial/"
target="_blank">http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/03/gps-drug-dealer-retrial/</a><br>
>>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>>> The key point is that
the gov's current position is that data stored<br>
>>>>>>>> on<br>
>>>>>>>> a third party's servers
have "no expectation of privacy." What begins<br>
>>>>>>>> with CDR will
eventually include voicemail messages stored on the<br>
>>>>>>>> mobile<br>
>>>>>>>> phone companies'
servers, and then eventually all of your live<br>
>>>>>>>> in-person<br>
>>>>>>>> conversations that are
stored "in the cloud."<br>
>>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>>> "Anything you say can
and will be used against you..." Mark my words.<br>
>>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>>> Meanwhile people keep
using gmail and Google Voice, and smartphones<br>
>>>>>>>> from<br>
>>>>>>>> which they can't remove
the batteries. Because nothing is more<br>
>>>>>>>> important<br>
>>>>>>>> than "convenience,"
right?<br>
>>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>>> As a character in a
sci-fi piece I wrote in the mid-1980s said, "Why<br>
>>>>>>>> put<br>
>>>>>>>> a person in prison,
when you can put prison in the person instead?"<br>
>>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>>> -G.<br>
>>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>>>
_______________________________________________<br>
>>>>>>>> sudo-discuss mailing
list<br>
>>>>>>>> <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:sudo-discuss@lists.sudoroom.org">sudo-discuss@lists.sudoroom.org</a><br>
>>>>>>>> <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/sudo-discuss"
target="_blank">http://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/sudo-discuss</a><br>
>>>>>>>><br>
>>>>>>>
_______________________________________________<br>
>>>>>>> sudo-discuss mailing list<br>
>>>>>>> <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:sudo-discuss@lists.sudoroom.org">sudo-discuss@lists.sudoroom.org</a><br>
>>>>>>> <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/sudo-discuss"
target="_blank">http://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/sudo-discuss</a><br>
>>>>>>
_______________________________________________<br>
>>>>>> sudo-discuss mailing list<br>
>>>>>> <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:sudo-discuss@lists.sudoroom.org">sudo-discuss@lists.sudoroom.org</a><br>
>>>>>> <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/sudo-discuss"
target="_blank">http://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/sudo-discuss</a><br>
>>>>>><br>
>>>>><br>
>>>>> --<br>
>>>>> -steve<br>
>>>>>
_______________________________________________<br>
>>>>> sudo-discuss mailing list<br>
>>>>> <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:sudo-discuss@lists.sudoroom.org">sudo-discuss@lists.sudoroom.org</a><br>
>>>>> <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/sudo-discuss"
target="_blank">http://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/sudo-discuss</a><br>
>>>>><br>
>>>>
_______________________________________________<br>
>>>> sudo-discuss mailing list<br>
>>>> <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:sudo-discuss@lists.sudoroom.org">sudo-discuss@lists.sudoroom.org</a><br>
>>>> <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/sudo-discuss"
target="_blank">http://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/sudo-discuss</a><br>
>>>><br>
>>>
_______________________________________________<br>
>>> sudo-discuss mailing list<br>
>>> <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:sudo-discuss@lists.sudoroom.org">sudo-discuss@lists.sudoroom.org</a><br>
>>> <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/sudo-discuss"
target="_blank">http://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/sudo-discuss</a><br>
<br>
_______________________________________________<br>
sudo-discuss mailing list<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:sudo-discuss@lists.sudoroom.org">sudo-discuss@lists.sudoroom.org</a><br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/sudo-discuss"
target="_blank">http://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/sudo-discuss</a><br>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
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