America's Expanding Domestic Surveillance

(wsj.com)

55 points | by Brajeshwar 2 hours ago ago

19 comments

  • JumpCrisscross 2 minutes ago

    What’s the fix? What’s a simple rule change that would, at the very least, take these data out of law enforcement’s hands outside the most-necessary situations?

  • 2ndorderthought 38 minutes ago

    The time to resist against these policies and technologies was 2-5 years ago.

    Every single person in the US's future, safety, rights and freedom is currently at stake. There is no more time left to wait and see how things play out.

    • JumpCrisscross a minute ago

      > time to resist against these policies and technologies was 2-5 years ago

      The time to resist the next crop of policies and technologies is today.

      And I disagree the ground was more fertile for action in Covid. The silver lining to the AI companies’ PR and political ineptitude is that there is widespread, bipartisan pushback against tech in all stripes.

    • an0malous 23 minutes ago

      Flock is a YC company. I don’t think the resistance will be organized on HN in spite of its ostensibly hacker ethos

      • 2ndorderthought 20 minutes ago

        There are enough normal people here it is still worth trying.

    • lotsofpulp 24 minutes ago

      Enemy of the State came out in 1998, and the capabilities in that movie were not far fetched, just lacking in bandwidth.

  • SilverElfin 42 minutes ago

    Age verification is part of this. Submit your IDs to use AI. Now they know all about you. All done for “safety” but we know that’s an excuse.

    https://reclaimthenet.org/senate-panel-backs-guard-act-ai-ag...

    • 2ndorderthought 36 minutes ago

      So is AI and the push for more data centers than the country can afford or supply power too.

      And the ever increasing desire to break encryption.

      And the increase in technology companies who have metadata about us citizens becoming offense and defense contractors.

      And... The list is so long.

  • google234123 37 minutes ago

    Hopefully this will translate into less petty crime- most theft now goes unpunished. I want to live in a society where bikes aren't stolen

    • xantronix 8 minutes ago

      If you want less petty crime, bring back social safety nets. Pay people better.

      I'm dead serious.

    • analog8374 a minute ago

      If it's a choice between stealing a bike and homelessness, I'll steal a bike. So the problem is the threat of homelessness. Right?

    • Der_Einzige 2 minutes ago

      You're free to move to Singapore/South Korea/Japan whenever you want. Your USD (assuming you are one) will go far there, and if you are lucky enough to be white you will get treated like a king/queen there.

      As it turns out, society is a lot more fun when there is just a bit of risk of crime. I'll 1000000000% take the additional freedom to do "stupid shit" in the USA over living in one of these boring dystopias.

    • 2ndorderthought 35 minutes ago

      A better economy would help more than surveiling every single persons every moves and all of their communications.

      I would literally buy you a bicycle to change your mind. Or sit down and review countries where theft is minimal so we could brainstorm real solutions.

    • jmcgough 34 minutes ago

      Doubtful, it's never really deemed worth LEOs time to pursue bike thieves.

      • brandonmenc 26 minutes ago

        Then we need to make it work their time by bringing back broken windows policing.

        • 2ndorderthought 18 minutes ago

          Or solve the problem by addressing the root causes of crime like other societies do. The American prison industrial complex is not a cure for a sick society. It's a profitable black hole that encourages recidivism at the expense of tax payers.

    • henry2023 21 minutes ago

      1984 was not an instruction manual.

    • pessimizer 19 minutes ago

      Your goals are petty and short-sighted. One nice thing about the current state of economics, technology, labor and inflation is that we'll have fewer people who can only imagine suffering to the extent of having a bicycle stolen, and would not give the worst people in the world an infinite amount of power in order to prevent this from happening to them again.

      The 20% of the country that thinks that shoplifting is the real problem are a problem. They will always vote for the biggest liar.

      I'm right now imagining a counterfactual world where there is no property crime or physical assault, and petty reactionaries are demanding surveillance in order to keep people from swearing.