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When the world says, Give Up, Hope whispers, Try it One More Time.
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[NOTES* from Leftish - are always in brackets]
They could be ripped from the plot of a sci-fi movie.
Since the erosion of Americans’ civil liberties depends on high levels of public apathy, some of the most dangerous privacy breaches take place incrementally and under the radar; if it invites comparisons to Blade Runner or Orwell, then someone in the PR department didn’t do their job. Meanwhile, some of the biggest threats to privacy, like insecure online data or iPhone GPS tracking, are physically unobtrusive and therefore easily ignored. And it’ll be at least a year or two until the sky is overrun by spy drones.
So when a method of surveillance literally resembles a prop or plot point in a sci-fi movie, it helps to reveal just how widespread and sophisticated commercial and government monitoring has become. Here are five recent developments that seem almost unreal in their dystopian creepiness.
1. Buses and street cars that can hear what you say .
Friends,
This is HUGE: President Obama just threatened to veto CISPA if it makes its way through Congress.
CISPA is up for a vote this week. It would obliterate any semblance of online privacy in the United States, giving the government — including the military — broad new powers to spy on Internet users.
The White House’s letter expresses precisely the concerns that we’ve been highlighting over recent weeks — and is a result of the public pressure against CISPA:
And the letter goes on to assert that:
The American people expect their Government to enhance security without undermining their privacy and civil liberties.
Without clear legal protections and independent oversight, information sharing legislation will undermine the public’s trust in the Government as well as in the Internet by undermining fundamental privacy, confidentiality, civil liberties, and consumer protections.
This is an amazing development. Let’s make the most of it:
Just click here to urge Obama to stand strong and to tell your lawmakers to oppose CISPA.
Thanks.
-Demand Progress
PS- We only have a few days left to kill CISPA. Please tell your friends to get involved by forwarding this email or using these links:
You can read the full letter from the White House here.
If you’re already on Facebook, click here to share with your friends.
If you’re already on Twitter, click here to tweet about the campaign: Tweet
Governments should be afraid of their people.”
~ V from the movie, “V for Vendetta”
Democrats, by contrast, are cheering for a war-escalating, drone-attacking, surveillance-and-secrecy-obsessed drug warrior.”
~ BILL MAHER (re Ron Paul v Obama)
in the service of a government you didn’t elect “freedom,” then you and I have a very different idea of what that word means.
~ by (ex-pat) lancefreeman76, from “America, The Grim Truth”
…the GOVERNMENT does!
~ Bumper Sticker
O_O
For anyone who has ever been freaked out by the idea of getting a tattoo, here’s a new invention that will really make you squirm: the Digital Tattoo, an implant which sits beneath a layer of your skin and shows up as a tattoo-like electronic interface. Here’s where things get really weird—this gadget can work as a phone or computer. So, yes, you could literally press a button on your skin and answer a call. Or, explains Geekologie, it can just look like a “traditional tattoo by downloading a picture of a unicorn from the internet.” Whaaaa??? What’s more is that it is powered by your very own blood. That can’t be good for you.
Is this for real? It seems like something out of a science-fiction movie, and we can’t quite wrap our heads around it. [Gizmodo via Geekologie]
Is this for real? Why do I want this?
Okay, I think I’m going to be sick right about now…I don’t know what makes me feel worse, that this was invented, or that somebody on Tumblr would WANT this!!
“This is far beyond what Orwell had predicted in 1984, and even Huxley. Americans need to be concerned about the level of monitoring we are being surveilled.” ~ Aton Edwards. Security Expert
(via mohandasgandhi)