Bruce Schneier, "IT for Oppression"

IEEE Security & Privacy. March/April 2013

• What is called censorship when practiced by a government is content filtering when practiced by an organization. Many companies want to keep their employees from viewing porn or updating their Facebook pages while at work. In the other direction, data loss prevention software keeps employees from sending proprietary corporate information outside the network and also serves as a censorship tool. Governments can use these products for their own ends.
• Propaganda is really just another name for marketing. All sorts of companies offer social media-based marketing services designed to fool consumers into believing there is “buzz” around a product or brand. The only thing different in a government propaganda campaign is the content of the messages.
• Surveillance is necessary for personalized marketing, the primary profit stream of the Internet. Companies have built massive Internet surveillance systems designed to track users’ behavior all over the Internet and closely monitor their habits. These systems track not only individuals but also relationships between individuals, to deduce their interests so as to advertise to them more effectively. It’s a totalitarian’s dream.
• Control is how companies protect their business models by limiting what people can do with their computers. These same technologies can easily be co-opted by governments that want to ensure that only certain computer programs are run inside their countries or that their citizens never see particular news programs.

Technology magnifies power, and there’s no technical difference between a government and a corporation wielding it. This is how commercial security equipment from companies like BlueCoat and Sophos end up being used by the Syrian and other oppressive governments to surveil — in order to arrest — and censor their citizens. This is how the same face-recognition technology that Disney uses in its theme parks ends up identifying protesters in China and Occupy Wall Street protesters in New York.

https://www.schneier.com/essays/archives/2013/03/it_for_oppression.html

See previously: Propaganda, Censorship, and Surveillance are attributes of the same underlying aspect: Monopoly and Centralised Control.

#propaganda #censorship #surveillance #monopoly #SurveillanceState #SurveillanceCapitalism #control #power #decentralisation #decentralization #pluralism

Propaganda, Censorship, and Surveillance are attributes of the same underlying aspect: Monopoly and Centralised Control.

All three problems have the same effective solution: Break up the monopolies.

Propaganda is a function of amplification, attention, audience capture, selective promotion, discovery, distraction, stealing the air supply or acquiring of any competion, and coöption of the platform. Propaganda is an inherent property of monopoly control.

Censorship and Gatekeeping are functions of excludability, audience gating, selective exclusion, obfuscation, distraction, stealing the air supply or acquiring of any competion, and, again, coöption of the platform. Censorship is an inherent property of monopoly control.

Surveillance whether of the state, capitalist, or non-state actor varieties, is a function of population and provider capture, coercion or gatekeeping of vendors and pipelines, and, again, coöption of the platform. Surveillance is an inherent property of monopoly control.

Speakers and Audiences --- a public --- divided across independent networks, with access to different editorial selection, from different distribution networks, with access to different input message streams, are far less subject to propaganda, censorship, or surveillance. Epistemic diversity resists control

It's importance to realise that the key is not nominal control but actual control, which may be nonobvious or unapparent to many participants. A system with appearances of decentralisation may well be centralised under the surface. Retail brand labels vs. brand ownership, or Luxottica's stranglehold over the eyeglasses market, for example, give a false sense of "consumer choice" in a case of actual tight corporate control.

Why is this?

What's the fundamental connection between monopoly and control? Control is about maximising desired outcome to applied effort. In monopoly, there is a central focus of influence: the monopolist. Even a very partial controlling share can still be effective. In a first-past-the-post majority scenario such as elections or corporate share ownership, the bloc which swings the majority has control, even if it itself is numerically a minority. In markets, networks, organisations, etc., a single place to permit or deny input or output increases control by decreasing effort and increasing effect. Price and costs often afford control, a faact monopoly apologists attempt to turn into a strength. By offering lower-price goods or services, or facing lower internal provisiioning and operating costs, monopolists can undercut competitors, even without taking active anticompetitive measures such as price-dumping, rebating, blackballing, blacklisting, exclusive dealing, tying, bundling, non-competes, and the like.

All monopolies are network structures with dominant nodes. These may be entry, exit, or transit nodes.

Increasing the number of entry, exit, and distribution points decreases the efficacy of propaganda (input control), censorship (output control), or surveillance (network control), as well as of targeted manipulation such as adtech and computational propaganda (data retention and algorithm control).

Careful readers may note the close correspondence with the ancient trivium of the classic liberal education: grammar (input), rhetoric (output), and logic (processing based on inputs and stored memory). The ancients had limited network control, widespread surveillance to them was exceedingly expensive, though small-town gossips and palace spies offer analogues.

Shout-outs to

• Cory Doctorow (Blogging at https://pluralistic.net -- On Mastodon at https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic --- a great profile to follow)
• Matt Stoller (https://mattstoller.substack.com/?no_cover=true)
• Lina Khan (https://www.yalelawjournal.org/note/amazons-antitrust-paradox)
• Zephyr Teachout (https://bookshop.org/books/break-em-up-recovering-our-freedom-from-big-ag-big-tech-and-big-money/9781250200891)

... and others breaking through some seriously Borked chickenshit thinking on this topic.

---

Expanded from an earlier HN comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24735860

#propagand #censorship #surveillance #monopoly #SurveillanceState #SurveillanceCapitalism #control #power #decentralisation #decentralization #pluralism

For years, @Google used flutrends as a justification for their retention policies for search arguing that the social benefit from 'big data' offsets the privacy invasions.

Which was later mostly disproved...

As the pandemic gets worse, we're going to see increased pressure by all governments to access #private consumer data to identify:

1) who is infected \
2) who they've been in contact with ("contact tracing")

This is going to be an incredibly slippery slope if we're not careful.

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1240320586535931906.html

#covid19 #coronavirus #privacy #Google #surveillanceCapitalis #surveillanceState

On Surveillance Capitalism, Manifestation, Latency, Tangibility, and Cognizability

On why pervasive facial recognition is recognised as "creepy" in ways that other forms of surveillance, such as the massive amounts of personal and location data tracking afforded by mobile phones, is not.

In addition to the frequently noted fact that your phone is separable in ways your face, Nick Cage and John Travolta excepted, is not, there's the notion of manifest versus latent (or tangible vs. intangible) perceptions.

Humans are visual creatures. To "see" is synymous with "to understand". Vision is a high-fidelity sense, in ways that even other senses (hearing, smell, taste, touch) are not. And all our senses are more immediate than perceptions mediated by devices (as with radiation or magnetism) or delivered via symbols, data, or maths.

This is a tremendously significant factor in individual and group psychology. It's also one that's poorly explored and expressed -- Robert K. Merton's work on latent vs. manifest functions, described as the consequences or implications of systems, tools, ideas, or institutions, is about the closest I've been able to find, and whilst this captures much of the sense I'm trying to convey, it doesn't quite catch all of it.

But his work does provide one extraordinarily useful notion, that of the significance of latent functions (or perceptions):

The discovery of latent functions represents significant increments in sociological knowledge. There is another respect in which inquiry into latent functions represents a distinctive contribution of the social scientist. It is precisely the latent functions of a practice or belief which are not common knowlege, for these are unintended and generally unrecognized social and psychological consequences. As a result, findings concerning latent functions represent a greater increment in knowledge than findings concerning manifest functions. They represent, also, greater departures from "common-sense" knowledge about social life. Inasmuch as the latent functions depart, more or less, from the avowed manifestations, the research which uncovers latent functions very often produces "paradoxical" results. The seeming paradox arises from the sharp modification of a familiar popular perception which regards a standardized practice or believe only in terms of its manifest functions by indicating some of its subsidiary or collateral latent functions. The introduction of the concept of latent function in social research leads to conclusions which show that "social life is not as simple as it first seems." For as long as people confine themselves to certain consequences (e.g., manifest consequences), it is comparatively simple for them to pass moral judgements upon the practice or belief in question.

-- Robert K. Merton, "Manifest and Latent Functions", in Social Theory Re-Wired.

Emphasis in original.

Another related concept and term is cognizibility, that is, the capacity of being known or apprehended, a concept I first encountered in William Stanley Jevons's qualities of the material of money. Which has a clear relation to recognition as well.

(Adapted from an Hacker News comment.)

#Manifestation #ManifestVsLatent #tangible #cognisability #RobertKMerton #Sociology #Surveillance #SurveillanceCapitalism #SurveillanceState

Free is a Lie

Designer and social entrepreneur Aral Balkan believes it is time to build an alternate future where we own our own tools, services, and data. And to do this we must create a new category of design-led, experience-driven 'technology'.

https://aralbalkan.com/

‘Our lives are a string of experiences. Experiences with people and experiences with things. And we, as designers — as the people who craft experiences — we have a profound responsibility to make every experience as beautiful, as comfortable, as painless, as empowering, and as delightful as possible.’

Aral is arguing for usable tools which break out of the present surveillance state model.

https://ind.ie/manifesto/

Your tools shouldn’t spy on you.

The RSA video (top link / FixYT.com link) makes this case, and points out the usability failures of FirefoxOS and other alternatives.

http://fixyt.com/watch?v=ldhHkVjLe7A
http://vimeo.com/96727211

#freedom #surveillancestate #nsa #snowden #diaspora

A nation's intelligence apparatus spying on its legislature is straight-up, full-on reign-of-terror status stuff

First off, I'm not particularly happy that ordinary citizens, residents, and visitors to the US (ALL of whom have constitutional protections against illegal search) are subject to pervasive surveillance.

But the fact that it extends to lawmakers and other public officials outside the scope of officially sanctioned lawful investigations (which are both allowable and sadly necessary) is absolutely terrifying. This takes everything straight to reign-of-terror status.

You see, because of a few fundamental facts of life.

I expect my politicians are dirty. They're mixed up in all sorts of things (sometimes it even comes out, see today's news on the former governor and first lady of the Commonwealth of Virginia)...

Continued at the dreddit: http://reddit.com/r/dredmorbius

Somewhat expanded from an earlier G+ post, with cites and links, including a statement from the late Mssr. du Plessis.

http://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/2cb6nf/a_nations_intelligence_apparatus_spying_on_its/

#prism #surveillancestate #reignofterror #cia #congress

The Internet of Broken Things

The Internet of Broken Things continues to inspire Sturm und Drang among the cognoscenti, or at least, the disillusionati.

In "Why Tech’s Best Minds Are Very Worried About the Internet of Things", Klint Finley expounds on the Internet of Things which seems as inevitable as GW's 2003 invasion of Iraq, regardless of the actual merits of the arguments...

Continued at the dreddit

http://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/26722r/the_internet_of_broken_things/

#technology #broken #internetofthings #surveillancestate #privacy #institutions

Al Jazeera: "EXCLUSIVE: Emails Reveal Close Google Relationship with NSA"

Email exchanges between National Security Agency Director Gen. Keith Alexander and Google executives Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt suggest a far cozier working relationship between some tech firms and the U.S. government than was implied by Silicon Valley brass after last year’s revelations about NSA spying.

Disclosures by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden about the agency’s vast capability for spying on Americans’ electronic communications prompted a number of tech executives whose firms cooperated with the government to insist they had done so only when compelled by a court of law....

More: http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/5/6/nsa-chief-google.html

#Google #NSA #spy #EdwardSnowden #surveillance #surveillancestate #prism #aljazeera

Janine Gibson, The Guardian: "Somebody from Google said to ... the Guardian, 'Do you have confidence that we are protecting your email?', we said, 'No', and they said, 'Neither do we.'"

https://www.minds.com/blog/view/309480438764670976/janine-gibson-the-guardian-trusts-tails-os-not-google

2m20s into video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLxr1i8vWoQ

Details use of privacy and encryption tools by The Guardian and its sources: TailsOS, Jabber, air-gapped phones, no mobile phones.

h/t @Will Hill

#surveillancestate #nsa #google #privacy #theguardian #prism

Infoworld: "Too big to trust? Google's growing credibility gap"

By Galen Gruman

Created 2014-04-15 03:00AM

Remember when we all loved Google? Its search engine was both simple to use and an unbiased portal to anything you wanted to know. It was founded by two college students at a time when Silicon Valley was a shining beacon of what was right in the world, during sunny economic and political times.

We don't love Google so much any more, mainly because we trust it less and less. More and more people have realized that the Google search engine is hugely biased in favor of advertisers, and the results are increasingly manipulated by Google for inscrutable purposes. Google seems to track anything and everything we do -- it peruses our emails, our files stored on its servers, our locations, and our chats. Americans are getting nervous...

When Google bought smart thermostat maker Nest [4] earlier this year, the public recoiled.

(Emphasis added)

Pretty much captures my own view of the company. I liked it. Once.

http://www.infoworld.com/print/239815

#google #surveillancestate #antitrust #advertising #corporatesurveillance

Simons Mith: "Dear �Googles +Google+ +Google+ Help: I want to disconnect my YouTube account from my G+ account."

According to your pop-up text box in my G+ profile, 'You've connected your YouTube channel to your Google+ profile. If you no longer wish to have these videos associated with your profile, you can disconnect accounts in your YouTube settings.'

In my YouTube settings I have no option to disconnect any accounts whatsoever, only to add Facebook and Twitter. Where should �I be looking?

https://plus.google.com/u/0/104879277024913363852/posts/VgXwjx1sSFW

#google #googleplus #youtube #surveillancestate #dontbeevil #evil

"Surveillance is the business model of the Internet"

• [Bruce Schneier](www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v9t_IoOgyI)

Presentation at Stanford University Law School. Brilliantly excellent.

#privacy #surveillancestate #nsa #metadata #surveillance #bruceschneier #schneier

Karl Auerbach on the NSA and "Target"-ed survaillance:

Given that:

1. The recent penetration of Target will probably cause more economic damage than many so called "terrorist" attacks.

2. NSA claims that it is protecting the US by doing massive evaluation of internet data crossing the US border.

3. That the penetration of Target was all carried via internet data crossing the US border.

Why did NSA not see this happening?

And why is it unable to now look at the data in retrospect?

(From the Plus).

Peter Bachman replies:

I was told that the NSA did give the information to Target, but I have not looked up a reference.

Reference on that?

#NSA #surveillancestate #prism #databreach #debitcard #Target

CommonDreams: "Pentagon & NSA Officials say They Want Snowden Extrajudicially Assassinated"

‘In a world where I would not be restricted from killing an American, I personally would go and kill him myself,’ a current NSA analyst told BuzzFeed. ‘A lot of people share this sentiment.’

‘I would love to put a bullet in his head,’ one Pentagon official, a former special forces officer, said bluntly…

‘His name is cursed every day over here,’ a defense contractor told BuzzFeed, speaking from an overseas Intelligence collections base. ‘Most everyone I talk to says he needs to be tried and hung, forget the trial and just hang him.’

I'll note: the horse has already left the barn. Killing Snowden won't un-release his disclosures. Might discourage the next guy (or gal). Or might just convince them to operate along the lines of the Citizens Commission to Investigate the FBI. That said, none-Facebook pokes-on-the-street is straight out of the KGB / FSB playbook. Just sayin', guys.

A somewhat grudging h/t to @Will Hill (heads and ledes, my man, heads and ledes).

#surveillancestate #pentagon #nsa #PRISM #assassination

#what-else-can-I-add-here-to-get-the-snoops-on-my-ass-oh-hai-guyz

Ted Tso: "Unfortunately Obama said absolutely nothing about preventing the NSA from weakening encryption standards"

Or leaning on hardware and software companies to introduce weaknesses or backdoors into their encryption systems.

Give Obama an F for FAIL on that entire section of recommendations from his review panel.

At the Plus.

#nsa #linux #surveillancestate #edwardsnowden

NY Times: "It is time for the United States to offer Mr. Snowden a plea bargain or some form of clemency"

[T]his is the main stream media. Kicking out story after story after story that the tinfoil hat brigade (yr. humble correspondent raises his hand) have been shouting, or mumbling to the walls, about for years if not decades. It's not just 2600 and the occasional Wired piece anymore.

It all beggars the question though: why are the spooks so hell bent for leather to suck up untold petabytes of highly detailed personal information on every man, woman, child, dog, and cat that they'd be willing to sacrifice billions of dollars of business and an entire emerging technology sector?

#edwardsnowden #surveillancestate #prism #nsa #privacy

Backpacker stripped of tech gear at Auckland Airport, had Tweeted about a Snowden-related a London mass surveillance meeting

A backpacker coming home for Christmas had every bit of electronic equipment stripped from him at the airport.

A Customs officer at Auckland International Airport took law graduate Sam Blackman's two smartphones, iPad, an external hard drive and laptop - and demanded his passwords.

Mr Blackman, 27, who was breaking up travelling with his journalist fiance Imogen Crispe for a month back in New Zealand for Christmas, was initially given no reason why the gear was taken.

The only possibility of why it occurred was his attendance - and tweeting - of a London meeting on mass surveillance sparked by the Snowden revelations

Customs claims they were "searching everything for objectionable material under the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1993." In the inimitable words of Click and Clack the Tappet brothers: Bo-o-o-o-gus!

h/t Reddit /r/worldnews

#SurveillanceState
#EdwardSnowden
#ElectronicPrivacy
#PRISM

Odd G+ Realization: since search beats Streams, and blocking is so rampant, your best experience is viewing when not logged in.

The challenge is keeping track of who you're interested in. The benefit is that when you're not logged in, you can avoid contributing to the data stream and #surveillancestate. I'm still finding occasionally interesting content there, but prefer dialing back markedly.

In the #csshacks department, I've disabled virtually all feedback controls (+1, reshare, edit, etc.) in the UI so that I generally have to go through major hoops to be able to comment/reply to stuff (which is pretty much exactly how I want it).

Finding #Reddit and #HackerNews a lot more useful these days.