Failing again. Failing better.
News outlets today are abuzz about the National Security Agency’s (NSA’s) TOP SECRET PRISM program that allegedly had direct access to Google, Facebook, Yahoo!, and other big internet companies. The story goes that it’s sweeping up a ton of data for national security purposes. People are very concerned not only about the broad nature of…
Today, Don Hodges wrote an article in The Telegraph calling for more Big Brother, not less. This article was written in response to the UK Government’s plan to increase surveillance of e-mail, telephone calls, and internet traffic. Hodges first writes: My idea of the perfect society is one where every street corner has a CCTV…
The Department of Homeland Security recently put out a call for a “Wide Area Surveillance System” capable of monitoring five to ten square kilometers (about two to four square miles). Homeland Security wants this system to fit on a manned P-3 Orion spy plane or one of the two Predator drones DHS already has. Homeland…
Yesterday, Boing Boing commented on a Bloomberg Businessweek article describing Palantir, a threat-tracking software. Originally developed as a way to detect criminals using PayPal for illicit purposes, Palantir tracks seemingly innocuous data points to determine whether a terrorist plot is in the works. More importantly, it has the ability to raise alarms before the attack…
Yesterday I posted about the concept of the surveillance state. Although this post will largely focus on a new technology for the War on Terror, the applications for the surveillance state should be clear. And creepy. As described here on Wired Magazine’s Danger Room blog, Progeny Systems Corporation recently won and Army contract to begin…