Electronic Surveillance Up 500% In DC Area Since 2011, Almost All Sealed Cases (washingtonpost.com) 41
schwit1 quotes a report from Washington Post: Secret law enforcement requests to conduct electronic surveillance in domestic criminal cases have surged in federal courts for Northern Virginia and the District, but only one in a thousand of the applications ever becomes public, newly released data show. The bare-bones release by the courts leaves unanswered how long, in what ways and for what crimes federal investigators tracked individuals' data and whether long-running investigations result in charges. In Northern Virginia, electronic surveillance requests increased 500 percent in the past five years, from 305 in 2011 to a pace set to pass 1,800 this year. Only one of the total 4,113 applications in those five years had been unsealed as of late July, according to information from the Alexandria division of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, which covers northern Virginia. The report adds: "The federal court for the District of Columbia had 235 requests in 2012, made by the local U.S. attorney's office. By 2013, requests in the District had climbed 240 percent, to about 564, according to information released by the court's chief judge and clerk. Three of the 235 applications from 2012 have been unsealed. The releases from the Washington-area courts list applications by law enforcement to federal judges asking to track data -- but not eavesdrop -- on users' electronic communications. That data can include sender and recipient information, and the time, date, duration and size of calls, emails, instant messages and social media messages, as well as device identification numbers and some website information."
The Police State expands (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:The Police State expands (Score:5, Insightful)
And "privacy experts are concerned!" And the useful idiots think that Mrs. Clinton is their friend.
For decades it's been: "But if we vote 3rd-party/write-in the wrong lizard might get in! We'll just keep voting for the same 2 parties...one of them will eventually listen to us!"
"Doing the same thing over and over yet expecting different results is one definition of insanity."
Strat
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No, voting 3rd party is totally legit. Well, it would be, except this election, issue X is really super-really important, in that if you don't vote for one of the two established parties, your vote doesn't count and someone will be forced to come to your home and rape you and your wife. And probably your children as well.
This time around, it's supreme court justices. The world will come to an end if we don't have the right SC justices. And only D (or R) can hope to find the right candidates that will pr
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And "privacy experts are concerned!" And the useful idiots think that Mrs. Clinton is their friend.
Well, she wipes hard drives when she's done with them. That's S.O.P. for privacy, right?
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As a European I'm not a fan of either of the candidates, but do we have any reason to assume Trump is any better?
Seriously I have not seen Trump make any statements about privacy/mass surveillance/whistleblowers/etc that'd give me a reason to believe that he will somehow change or improve America's status quo when it comes to surveillance. In fact, a quick googling tends to reveal the exact opposite of that: [thehill.com]
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As a European I'm not a fan of either of the candidates, but do we have any reason to assume Trump is any better?
Well, for starters, please don't mistake this as an endorsement. Though I know I can't vote for her, I don't think I'll be able to vote for him when I'm standing in the booth. I'd have to look in the mirror the next morning and I'll need to explain to my kids how I could do that and still have principles.
That out of the way, if Hillary gets elected she will be corrupt. I base that on past behavior. She will not meet meaningful resistance from the Legislature or Judicial. I base that on prior, recent o
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Rs could have run Mufasa against these guys (Score:3)
The Republicans could have run Mufasa and beat these Democrats who have been running things the last 8 years, despite the fact that Mufasa is a cartoon character. They did nominate a cartoon character, but somehow they ended up choosing the one who polls worse than Hillary.
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Role Reversal (Score:5, Insightful)
The entire default stance for Private citizens and Public officials has been flipped.
We, as private citizens, are supposed to have our lives kept private, except in extreme cases where surveillance is required and granted sparingly and meticulously.
They, as public officials, are supposed to operating publicly, except in extreme cases of national security.
Somewhere along the lines, these roles were reversed. I'm not sure if we're ever going to get things back.
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I think it happened right after the end of the Cold War. During the Cold War, we had a bogeyman - trumped up but still a bogeyman. We would point to things that happened in the Soviet Union like excessive government intrusion into people's private lives, and proudly proclaim that that sort of thing could never happen here. Anyone in our government who even breathed a suggestion of it would be branded a commie and instantly torpedo their career.
The
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Apologist. (Score:2, Informative)
Apologist.
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Public officials are under more scrutiny than ever.
By a foreign government and not our own 4th-estate or oversight, and current US leaders are willing to rattle the thermonuclear sabres over it...but not Crimea, Ukraine, Syria, etc etc...oh, no! Those little Russian military faux-pas are not sufficient reason to threaten reprisals. But, just release some emails that were supposed to be "polished...with a cloth" and suddenly it's 1962 Cuba.
Kinda tells one where their priorities and loyalties lie, doesn't it?
Strat
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History would indicate that it will require a full cycle up to fascism and eventual complete economic collapse, before freedom is restored. Of course, most fascisms in history were established relatively fast and hence fell fast, so we cannot be entirely sure the eventual collapse will happen in what the US is currently establishing.
East Germany equals America (Score:1)
Except we have no rights in America
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"NSA Can Access More Phone Data Than Ever" (Oct 20, 2016)
http://abcnews.go.com/US/nsa-p... [go.com]
Welcome to the "USA Freedom Act" that gave the NSA 100% of all US domestic telecommunications companies.
"As a result, the NSA no longer has to worry about keeping up its own database
"Rathe
240% ?? Come on ... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:240% ?? Come on ... (Score:4, Insightful)
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Minor syntax error.
It increased to 240% of the previous year.
It did NOT increase by 240% from the previous year.
Ahhhh (Score:2)
I've heard this song before (Score:3)
"My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government." - President Barack Obama
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the... [whitehouse.gov]
That is what a GeStaPo is.... (Score:3)
The most extreme problems with government power always happen in secret (as long as a society is still somewhat free), because "law" enforcement universally runs amok when nobody watches them. By its very nature, the field primarily attracts people that value control and surveillance a lot more than freedom. The progression this causes is first to a police-state (the US is already there, still on the milder end though) and then eventually full-blown fascism. Of course, fascism is about the worst thing you can do to an economy, so collapse follows a few decades later.
It is like the US, the Brits, and some others that never had Fascism now want to try it out as well. And the Germans apparently want it back.
How much does this cost the taxpayer? (Score:2)
Discussions of police state, freedom and spying aside, which are the most important considerations - how much is all this spying on me, costing me? These are direct costs foisted onto the taxpayer with questionable value in terms of service it provides.
Then there is the secondary cost via the fraud it enables that has no impact on the state and only impacts the population. The convenience of a phone in your pocket has morphed to include an array of tools to gather intelligence on you. Gathered into infrast