Smart meters are one more step towards a total surveillance society, along with electronic money, cloud computing, RFID tags, compulsory car GPS, video surveillance with facial recognition,

Posted By: Ed Davieshttp://abstrusegoose.com/553

The scary thing in that cartoon is the flush volume! 3.5 gallons for a pee. That's 16 litres, or 13¼ if they're in the good ol USA.

Posted By: fostertomWhat you think of the idea that surveillance/information will eventually be so total that no one incl govts, activist/terrorist groups and corporations will be able to keep any secrets?

I think that's the way things are tending to go but it's not completely inevitable; if enough people don't want it (though I'm not sure many people care until it directly affects them) it can be prevented but they need to make active choices which may not always be in their short-term interest, e.g., not the cheapest or most convenient solution.

Posted By: fostertomwill be a kind of freedom and security for everyone. What you think?

So if I have the freedom to know that my neighbour had done time for attempted murder (missed at point blank), how does that make me feel secure. Would I be allowed to insist on his removal from vicinity? Should I be allowed to know (and the neighbour) that my other neighbour keeps firearms in his property?

Women who are victims of violent partners and need protection, keep their location secret?

There was a spate of articles on this idea few yrs ago but I can't find/google anything now. Still, don't just extrapolate the present (growing surveillance capabilities - them of us) into the future - look for inversions, where the tail starts wagging the dog. That's how the surprises happen in history.

Not their style - they let us zombies rubbish such stuff for ourselves

Ukraine's dictatorship is reveling in its new, self-appointed dictatorial powers. The million-plus participants in the latest round of protests received a text-message from the government reading "Dear subscriber, you are registered as a participant in a mass disturbance."

The identification of protesters was almost certainly accomplished with a "Stingray," a fake cellphone tower pioneered by police in the USA, who routinely and secretly deploy them around cities and especially during protests. The Stingray tricks nearby phones into associating with it, giving police a census of who was where, with whom, and where they went. A US federal judge found this to be legal, even without a warrant, because he believes you have no expectation of privacy when it comes to having your movements and associations tracked by the police in secret.

Which is to say that the thing that the Ukrainian police did to those protesters is something that US police forces do routinely to protesters, all the time.

The only difference is that American cops don't brag about the fact that they are building dossiers on participants in peaceful, lawful protests by sending taunting and intimidating texts to protesters. Instead, they just build the databases in secret against the day that they're looking for a pretense to arrest someone.

The moral of the story is that when you build surveillance technology, you load a weapon that will be inherited by every government that is to come.

Posted By: bot de pailleThe moral of the story is that when you build surveillance technology, you load a weapon that will be inherited by every government that is to come.

Exactly. How often to do we hear “oh, but the law won't be used like that” only to find that it is. Whenever a power or authority is given it needs to be circumscribed to limit it to the intended uses - it's easy to widen the powers if circumstances require it but often difficult, legally and politically as well as technically, to narrow them down retrospectively.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/send_snowden_home_loc/?bPKymab&v=34724


SIGN THE PETITION
"To the President of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, and Minister of Justice, José Eduardo Cardozo:
As citizens from around the world deeply concerned with the massive violation of our privacy, we call on you to grant asylum to whistleblower Edward Snowden. As the leader of a global movement for internet freedom and privacy, Brazil is the perfect home for a man who sacrificed his life to disclose invasive and illegal US spying."

I always thought the Renault 5 were innocent

Posted By: fostertomIn case smart meters are yet another thing that needs to be revealed as surveillance devices, formally protect whistleblowers as essential to the system.

Fair point, but it might be better to have a separate thread on that so that it's not buried somewhere where people might not see it.

Paul in Montreal.