Leaked Emails Allegedly Tell of Global "Trapwire" Spy Network 149
judgecorp writes "The British government and police are customers of a controversial surveillance network called TrapWire, according to emails published by Wikileaks. The messages suggest that Scotland Yard and Number Ten Downing Street are customers of Abraxas Corporation, whose TrapWire network combines CCTV, license plate capture systems and databases. The TrapWire network has caused concern amongst online activists and Abraxas' site is currently not available, possibly due to attacks by Anonymous." There seems to be no end to the Trapwire conspiracy stories today, there's even one going around that various large companies such as Salesforce and Google were offered the chance to be part of the spy club.
Ah, progress... (Score:5, Interesting)
Well, well. Isn't it so nice that after 'Total Information Awareness' was canned for being slightly too creepy even for congress, it has resurfaced as a free-swimming and not-at-all-sinister corporation heavily larded with CIA alumni. I assume that this is the American analog of our pal Putin's pithy "There is no such thing as a former KGB man"
Privatized Big Brother? (Score:5, Interesting)
I think this may be something that really does qualify as a legitimate answer to the age olde question, "What could possibly go wrong?"
SCORPION STARE? CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN is starting! (Score:2, Interesting)
I'll just leave this here: http://www.goldengryphon.com/Stross-Concrete.html [goldengryphon.com]
Re:Here's a video released by Anon about surveilla (Score:5, Interesting)
Hmm, lets see... a reading where Winston is the bad guy huh? Does the government still unleash angry, starving rats to eat through his face because he had the temerity to have sex with someone and talking about political change? (do note: Winston never actually does anything to hurt anyone)
Sorry, not buying the "Winston was the real bad guy interpretation".
Re:Just a matter of time (Score:5, Interesting)
abraxas says that if you upgrade your video cameras they will scan the feed in real time and alert you of suspicious activity like known or highly suspected shoplifters coming into the store or being in the area. or if someone applies for a job they will scan the applicant's face and look to see where else he worked and the shrink levels before and after
there is your ROI
Re:Here's a video released by Anon about surveilla (Score:4, Interesting)
There was a Canadian show I watched one episode of called "Continuum", the "good" guy (well, girl) is a "Protector" in the "CPA" (I forget if it's "civilian" or "corporate" protection). In other words, she's a secret police officer. No uniform, license to kill. The "government" is the Corporate Congress. After bringing about additional market collapses they bought out the world governments and dissolved them. The CPA doesn't arrest people directly, they implant "trackers" which work not by actually being a GPS tracker, but by inducing more and more pain until the "perp" turns themselves in at the CPA station for sentencing and removal of the excruciator (hungry rats are sooooooooo 20th century). (The pilot has her smashing somebody's face in for vandalism then implanting the excruciator). Her suit/implants record everything she sees and hears and transmits it to HQ for filing. So, bringing it back to the second post in this thread, one of her buddies calls the government Big Brother, and she says the exact same thing "It can't be because otherwise you'd be dead". All while her implants are filming and recording, and transmitting back to HQ for processing and filing.
Anyway, the whole show is so heavily "1984 but the government is the good guy" I couldn't believe it. But they make sure the "bad guys" (pro-democracy rebels) are equally unsympathetic by having them kill as many innocent people as possible 24/7 for no reason. (PS the bad guys are a government trained death squad used to put down protests, but for some reason maybe explained in episodes I didn't watch, they rebelled.)