Is US Surveillance Technology Propping Up Authoritarian Regimes? (washingtonpost.com) 83
A senior policy analyst from a non-partisan national security think tank -- and one of their cybersecurity policy fellows -- sound a dire warning in an op-ed shared by Slashdot reader schwit1:
From facial recognition software to GPS trackers to computer hacking tools to systems that monitor and redirect flows of Internet traffic, contemporary surveillance technologies enable "high levels of social control at a reasonable cost," as Nicholas Wright puts it in Foreign Affairs. But these technologies don't just aid and enable what Wright and other policy analysts have called "digital authoritarianism." They also promote a sovereign and controlled model of the Internet, one characterized by frequent censorship, pervasive surveillance and tight control by the state. The United States could be a world leader in preventing the spread of this Internet model, but to do so, we must reevaluate the role U.S. companies play in contributing to it....
On one hand, the United States cares deeply about protecting a global and open Internet... On the other hand, American companies are selling surveillance technology that undermines this mission -- contributing to the broader spread of digital authoritarianism that the United States claims to fight. (This also implicates allies such as Britain, whose companies have also sold surveillance technology to oppressive regimes.) We won't be able to allay this situation until the United States updates its approach to exporting surveillance technology. Of course, this must be done carefully. But digital authoritarianism is spreading, and U.S. companies need to stop helping it.-
On one hand, the United States cares deeply about protecting a global and open Internet... On the other hand, American companies are selling surveillance technology that undermines this mission -- contributing to the broader spread of digital authoritarianism that the United States claims to fight. (This also implicates allies such as Britain, whose companies have also sold surveillance technology to oppressive regimes.) We won't be able to allay this situation until the United States updates its approach to exporting surveillance technology. Of course, this must be done carefully. But digital authoritarianism is spreading, and U.S. companies need to stop helping it.-
Re: Yes. (Score:2)
It's nothing new, just business as usual since the end of WW2, it was so common during the Cold War that it was pretty much ignored.
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It's nothing new, just business as usual since the end of WW2, it was so common during the Cold War that it was pretty much ignored.
Yes, it's only brought up here to score partisan political debate points when it's totally bi-partisan, having gone on for decades.
It's just another sign of the corruption that accompanies nations and empires into decadence and decline before their collapse. If one looks back through history, the pattern is quite clear and has a period of about 250 years.
An excellent (and short) read on the subject is a book named "The Fate Of Empires" by John Glubb
The US and most of the rest of the West is already well dow
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It can't be! Arthurtanism is auntie-freedum, and freedum is good. Cawmnizzem is bad!
Re: Yes and no. Maybe. (Score:2)
Oppenheimer wishes he didnâ(TM)t help make the automic bomb, and many in the intelligence gathering community have come out against the technologies they developed under the strictest NDA youâ(TM)ve ever seen.
Engineers need to think about how the tools they are making are going to be us
Yemen (Score:2)
US foreign policy is what's happening in Yemen. So, uh, obviously?
The trick for many of these societies will be to depose their authoritarian oppressors before they get strong AI assistance. It will be a survival-level trait for those that evolve it. Bombmakers have poor sales during peacetime, so this trick is to not focus on the bombmakers but those who can declare war, on outsiders or their own citizens.
http://hawaii.edu/powerkills [hawaii.edu]
Re: Stop lying (Score:1)
Yes (Score:5, Insightful)
What pisses me off the most is we go down south, destabilize the region, a bunch of actual refugees fleeing violence come up here not "seeking a better life" but seeking to escape the violence we caused and then they're used as a political prop by the same folks who caused the violence in the first place.
This shouldn't work. It shouldn't be this easy to cow an entire population. We should be pissed at what our ruling class is doing and we should be at the polls stopping them. But in all my life we haven't done jack shit.
Re: Yes (Score:2)
Maybe most of us really are just dumb cows. Funny how in this case the mooooo troll becomes relevant.
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https://www.theguardian.com/wo... [theguardian.com]
Yep, here's something to start with. The DEA thugs that murdered innocent people in Honduras should have been put on trial over there and ended up in front of a firing squad.
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This shouldn't work. It shouldn't be this easy to cow an entire population.
It is once you realize that it hasn't happened all at once. As you mentioned, you've been aware of it going on for generations. It's been going on for quite a while, and they've been working on consolidating and perfecting their methods. In my opinion, the polls aren't where we are able to stop them now, as you can infer from my sig.
Show up at your primary (Score:2)
Also, and I keep saying this when voting comes up (or I'm just pissed at politics): vote for candidates who refuse corporate PAC money. Right now that means Democrats, because these guys [justicedemocrats.com] are the only ones I know of who make it a point to refuse corporate PAC money. I don't know any equivalent on the GOP side.
F
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IBM and the Nazis (Score:4, Informative)
Is this a trick question? USA has been helping dictators for decades
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IBM and the Nazis
OOOOhhhh, cool; a new group. Are they maybe like Huey Lewis and the News? Where are they playing, and what are some of their greatest hits? [leading question.]
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Hahaha, is this a joke? (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re: Hahaha, is this a joke? (Score:2)
A little history: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik... [wikipedia.org]
The overwhelming majority of Americans support the intelligence gathering mission of CIA et al. However only a very small fraction of the American people support the agency's special operations (such as overthrowing elected governments).
Re:Hahaha, is this a joke? (Score:4, Informative)
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Yes (Score:2)
Is there some reason this needs to be asked?
Oh get over yourself (Score:1, Flamebait)
It's not even a meaningful question, it's more an example of a bad attempt at linguistic programming.
Take a look at what it implies
1. Technology has a moral aspect in and of itself
2. The U.S. has a monopoly on any given technology
3. That it's actually possible to control the flow of technology (hint we can't even stop drugs or illegals from coming into our own country)
4. That it should even be our business what end users do with products.
The arrogance the above is astonishing even for what normally pops up
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That's too funny for words. Are you on crack or acid ? Let me know where you got it from, it's obviously primo stuff.
its been worse than that for decades (Score:3)
https://i.imgur.com/o4dydAI.pn... [imgur.com]
Once a nation invites the USA in (Score:2)
The police and security services get to go to the USA to get extra education.
US experts arrive to support police and the military with US methods.
The nation has to buy into US tech.
The amount of authoritarianism stays the same, the ability to buy into US tech and use US police/mil methods is all that matters.
All the USA wants is the hearts and minds of that nations mil, security services and police.
Open Internet (Score:2)
And if you buy enough weapons from the USA, it will support that regime , money beats morals.
Re: You are getting manipulated!!! (Score:2)
Either you support the neostalinist surveillance state - or you're an anarchist!!!!1!!11!!!