"Europe is urged to embrace globalization" by Andrew Higgins and Stephen Castle | New York Times, June 17, 2013
BRUSSELS — Divided on how to revive its stagnant economy and protect its culture from a feared onslaught by Hollywood, Europe must shun “reactionary” opposition to globalization, the head of the European Union’s executive arm said in a strikingly robust critique of French-led efforts to limit the scope of a trade pact with the United States.
José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, speaking before a meeting on Monday with President Obama and other leaders of the Group of Eight industrial nations, described the commission as one of the “champions of trade liberalization in the world.”
And you are all seeing how it is working out, right?
Discussion of the proposed trans-Atlantic trade pact is expected at the G-8 meeting as a result of an agreement that EU trade ministers worked out in a marathon bargaining session Friday in Luxembourg. Barroso scorned a view, which France’s Socialist government successfully argued at that session, that Europe’s movie and television industries, at least initially, must be excluded from the trade negotiations to protect the region’s cultural diversity.
“It’s part of this antiglobalization agenda that I consider completely reactionary,” Barroso said, adding he believed in protecting cultural diversity but not in sealing Europe off. “Some say they belong to the left, but in fact they are culturally extremely reactionary.”
I'm tired of the ad hominem attacks by a**hole elitists that have ruined the planet while enriching themselves beyond belief.
At a meeting of EU trade ministers Friday in Luxembourg, France cleared the way for the European Commission to begin negotiations with the United States on a free-trade pact.
You know, I have notes regarding these talks in months worth of Globes I have not gotten to -- and now won't. It was all agenda-pushing bulls*** because talks haven't even begun yet.
But the French trade minister, Nicole Bricq, secured a pledge that the talks, at least initially, would not cover movies, television shows, and other audiovisual products. Discussion of these would require a further decision by EU states at a later stage.
This agreement does not end the debate but does lift a cloud hanging over the G-8 meeting....
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Related: US, Europe to start ambitious, delicate trade talks
Oh, the French were indignant at those comments, 'eh?
"Lines fuzzier in US-Europe austerity debate; After pressing Europe to focus on stimulus, US now feeling effect of own cutbacks" by Jackie Calmes | New York Times, June 17, 2013
NEW YORK — As President Obama begins an annual meeting with the leaders of some of the world’s richest nations on Monday in Northern Ireland, the economic-policy gulf that has divided them since the global crash in 2008 has narrowed significantly — just not exactly in ways the White House would have liked....
“President Obama will continue trying to lead by persuasion rather than by example, but the reality is that the United States can only jawbone. It cannot really influence policies in any substantive way,” said Eswar Shanker Prasad, an economics professor at Cornell University and a former International Monetary Fund official.
Do as I say and not as I do is never a winning argument, and the end of empire is near, AmeriKa.
American and European officials said that arguments over austerity versus stimulus are likely to be overshadowed by the allies’ intensifying foreign-policy debate over whether and how to intervene in Syria’s worsening civil war....
Oh, so THAT is what this is ABOUT!
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It’s a sustained depression, but that is not important. Syria is.
"David Cameron, Vladimir Putin hopeful on Syria; Want factions to meet at talks set for next month" by Raphael Satter | Associated Press, June 17, 2013
LONDON — The leaders of Britain and Russia said Sunday they are hopeful that Syria’s warring factions can resolve their differences at upcoming peace talks tentatively planned for next month in Geneva....
The Kerry conference of peace that the "opposition" wouldn't attend has been called off.
Asked whether the proposed introduction of a ‘‘no fly zone’’ over parts of Syria or moves by Western powers to funnel weapons to Syria’s rebels had sabotaged the peace talks, President Vladimir Putin of Russia said no.
‘‘I don’t think that the idea of the conference is buried for good,’’ he said. ‘‘This is one of the most reasonable and acceptable ways of solving this problem. Only by joint efforts is it possible to definitively settle the problem and persuade the warring sides to sit down for talks.’’
Putin means well, but look who he has to deal with.
In Syria on Sunday, state TV and witnesses said an explosion shook a Damascus neighborhood where several embassies and a military airport are located. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a car bomb had been detonated at a checkpoint near the military airport in the western neighborhood of Mazzeh.
There were reports of casualties in the bombing, but details were not immediately available.
Also Sunday, Sunni extremists blew up a Shi’ite mosque in an eastern village of Hatla, which was stormed by rebels last week. Activists said Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria carried out the attack.
This is what you are going to get from now on now that the Al-CIA-Duh mercenaries have been defeated. A lot of random terror attacks in Syria. It's what western intelligence agencies do best. Just take a look next door at Iraq.
Last week, the White House announced the administration has agreed, after months of hesitation, to start supplying Syrian rebels with military aid.
I spent a week back in late February catching up on all the Syrian lies, and yet for the last four months they have been repeated and repeated and repeated.
Related:
"US intelligence agents have helped funnel arms to rebel groups."
"The Obama administration has been reluctant to provide arms to the Syrian rebels"
Which means they are providing.
Which means they are providing.
Let's just stop it with the distorted and contorted semantics, 'kay?
The Boston Globe's Invisible Ink: CIA Arming Syrian Rebels
Just wondering if you have had it with the AmeriKan media lying yet.
Russia and European powers, including Britain and France, are at loggerheads on the issue of supplying arms to the different sides of the Syrian conflict, with Russia sending arms to Assad’s military, while reacting angrily to any move by Western nations to do the same to Assad’s opponents.
Putin defended the distinction Sunday, saying Russia was providing arms ‘‘to the legitimate government of Syria in full conformity with the norms of international law.’’
British Prime Minister David Cameron admitted Russia and Britain are in opposition but told journalists there is still common ground.
‘‘It is no secret that President Putin and I have had our disagreements on some of these issues, but what I take from our conversation today is that we can overcome these differences if we recognize that we share some fundamental aims: to end this conflict; to stop Syria breaking apart; to let the Syrians choose who governs them; and to take the fight to the extremists and defeat them.’’
Yeah, well, that would be nice if the U.S. and the allied Gulf oil emirates were not arming them.
Although Britain was one of the leaders in the push to lift the European arms embargo on Syrian rebels, Cameron’s government faces opposition if it moves to arm the rebels.
Lawmakers from across the political spectrum have expressed unease with the idea of sending weapons to Syria, with many warning they could end up in the hands of Muslim extremists loyal to Al Qaeda.
Putin was in London ahead of the G-8 summit of world leaders in Northern Ireland, which begins this week.
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Staying on that track:
"Syrian civil war divides leaders at G-8 summit; Obama at odds with Putin, and US allies as well" by Julie Pace | Associate Press, June 18, 2013
ENNISKILLEN, Northern Ireland — The debate over the Syria conflict loomed large as the two-day summit of the Group of Eight industrial nations opened at a lakeside resort in Northern Ireland....
Perhaps signaling another fight to come between the United States and Russia, the foreign ministry in Moscow said Russia would veto a motion to set up a no-fly zone if the United States sought authorization from the United Nations Security Council....
And there is also no proof of chemical weapons use, so ONCE AGAIN the AmeriKan government and its mouthpiece media are PEDDLING a LIE!
After Iraq, HOW SHAMELESS!!
UPDATE: The Forbidden Truth: The US Is Channeling Chemical Weapons To Al Qaeda In Syria, Obama Is A Liar And A Terrorist!
In Syria on Monday, a car bomb targeting a checkpoint near a military airport in an upscale neighborhood of Damascus killed 10 soldiers....
That is what the Syrians can expect from now on, as it is the only card the regime change forces have left to play.
Despite their seemingly intractable differences, Obama and Putin did express a shared desire to stop the violence in Syria and convene a political conference in Geneva. US officials said they were still aiming to hold the summit next month, though that prospect was looking increasingly unlikely....
Propaganda doesn't get any better than that, folks. Yeah, Obama is trying to stop the violence, sure. As for the peace conference, I no longer take such talk seriously and will illuminate that in future posts.
It’s unclear who would participate in such a meeting or whether the rebels, given their weakened position, would have any leverage if they did.
US officials say Obama’s decision to send the rebels weapons and ammunition for the first time was an attempt to increase their military strength in order to bolster their political bargaining power.
If that is the reason for doing it, that's gross, and it's not the first time weapons have rolled in from Jordan and Turkey.
But hey, what's another day of lies and distortions in a paper full of them every day?
But the American inventory for the rebels is not yet expected to include the high-powered weaponry sought by the opposition, raising questions about whether the deepening US involvement will be effective in changing the situation on the ground.
Answer: it won't, even if they do roll in heavy weapons (which I think they will or already have; they lied about arming them in the first place, so what makes you think.... never mind).
The White House also announced Monday an additional $300 million in humanitarian aid for Syria and neighboring countries absorbing refugees escaping the violence. The new money brings the total US humanitarian assistance to $800 million, according to the White House....
That's ALMOST a BILLION for a SITUATION the U.S. CREATED -- and after Syria was generous enough to absorb all those millions of Iraqi refugees.
This at a TIME of AUSTERITY for Americans back home -- even as the military-industrial-corporate-banking complex is fully funded.
Moscow’s continued support for Assad is based in part on Russia’s deep economic and military ties with his regime.
Yeah, good thing those are never AmeriKan concerns, SIGH!
Last month, Russia acknowledged it has agreed to sell Syria advanced S-300 air-defense missiles, which are considered to be the cutting edge in aircraft interception technology....
Message to Israel: don't even think about it.
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Well, I can scratch all the Kerry peace conference articles and Russian weapons sales to Syria articles of the notepad now.
Related:
Obama calls Northern Ireland progress a model for peace; Exhorts young in words that bring to mind Syria
What a piece of work he is. Peace is introducing more weapons into the conflict.
Obama and Putin neighbors at G-8 summit resort
Vladimir Putin denies taking Super Bowl ring
"Russian media is having some fun with the story, treating it as a somewhat less serious matter than, say, US military aid to Syrian rebels."
The Russian media is so much better than my own. What a sad statement having grown up with propaganda and Pravda.
Coming soon to the skies over Syria (if not there already)?
"In Europe, a push to end reliance on US-made drones" by Nicola Clark | New York Times, June 17, 2013
PARIS — Three of Europe’s top military contractors urged the region’s governments on Sunday to support a joint program to develop a reconnaissance drone to reduce dependence on American and Israeli manufacturers.
The EU is going to have its own drones! This the same EU that was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize? Between that and Obama winning one it shows you how worthless that prize has become.
In a joint statement, EADS, or European Aeronautic Defence & Space, the parent of Airbus, with Dassault Aviation of France and Finmeccanica of Italy, said a regional collaboration in unoccupied aerial vehicles would “support the capability needs of European armed forces while optimizing the difficult budgetary situation through pooling of research and development funding.”
I didn't want to say it, but as Europe is under the lash of austerity they are going to find the dough for drones. Hey, just playing their part in the EUsraeli Empire!
European Union governments have slashed spending on weapons in recent years as the Afghanistan war winds down and pressure builds to rein in public deficits. Recent interventions in Libya and Mali, meanwhile, have exposed a significant gap in Europe’s aerial capabilities, particularly in reconnaissance and combat drones, refueling tankers, and heavy transport aircraft.
Oh, yeah, somehow there is always money for wars.
After years of pitching competing programs to reluctant governments, the three companies said Sunday that they were prepared to work together to design a European medium-altitude, long-endurance, or MALE, drone, which could fly up to 48 hours at elevations of 10,000 to 30,000 feet. Normally for surveillance, such unoccupied vehicles can be equipped with missiles for combat....
They added that an effort on a European scale would “foster the development of high technologies and contribute to sustaining key competencies and jobs within Europe.”
Yes, the MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX is a KEY COMPONENT of the ECONOMY, and therefore WAR is NECE$$ARY!
Notably absent from the group was BAE Systems of Britain, Europe’s biggest military contractor, amid German political opposition.
BAE executives did not immediately reply to messages requesting comment. However, one person familiar with the drone proposal said the group was open to British participation.
“They can join anytime if they want,” said the person, who, lacking authorization to discuss the matter, spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The absence of a coherent European strategy for unoccupied aerial systems has been a source of frustration for the region’s military contractors, which have collectively spent billions of euros on drone projects that have yet to draw serious interest from governments. Yet those same governments have entered into negotiations with US and Israeli contractors about developing or buying drones to meet short- and medium-term needs.
Last month, Germany canceled a plan to buy five Euro Hawk drones that were being jointly developed by EADS and Northrop Grumman of the United States, citing the program’s escalating costs of more than $1.3 billion.
France, meanwhile, is in talks with companies in the United States and Israel to buy two surveillance drones to support military operations in sub-Saharan Africa, where it is fighting Islamist militants in Mali.
Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, who has criticized France’s lack of independent drone capability, has said that Paris could buy as many as 10 more such drones in the medium term.
Analysts said that for a pan-European program to get off the ground, the companies would probably need commitments from governments in the region for at least 40 drones.
The approval of host governments is an afterthought.
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All on the eve of the weeklong Paris Air Show, which opens Monday.
Let's get back to the G8:
"Report of Britons’ hacking of diplomats angers nations; South Africa and Turkey call for investigation" by Raphael Satter | Associated Press, June 18, 2013
LONDON — A newspaper report that British eavesdropping agency GCHQ repeatedly hacked into foreign diplomats’ phones and e-mails has prompted an angry response from traditional rival Russia and provoked demands for an investigation from Turkey and South Africa.
Yeah, people don't like being spied on, they don't like being deceived about hacking (blaming China all the time!), and this makes Murdoch's illegal tabloid spying look like a penny ante operation.
Although spying on diplomats is as old as diplomacy itself, the Guardian’s report laid out in explicit detail steps taken by GCHQ to monitor foreign officials’ conversations in real time, saying that British spies had hacked e-mails and stolen passwords and gone so far as to set up a bugged Internet cafe in an effort to get an edge in high-stakes negotiations.
But don't worry, they won't bug the G8 meeting like Clinton bugged Seattle.
The Guardian cited more than half a dozen internal government documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden as the basis for its reporting on GCHQ’s intelligence operations.
Yeah, we have to wait for the Guradian to break these stories -- to the shame of the AmeriKan pre$$.
The newspapers said those operations involved, among other things, hacking into the South African foreign ministry’s computer network, targeting the Turkish delegation at the 2009 Group of 20 summit in London, and using the vast spying base at northern England’s Menwith Hill to monitor the satellite communications of Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev.
Translation: watch what you say at the G8!
Russians responded angrily.
‘‘It’s a scandal! The U.S. and British special services tapped [then-President Dmitry] Medvedev’s phone at the 2009 G-20 summit. The U.S. denies it, but we can’t trust them,’’ Alexei Pushkov, the Kremlin-connected chief of foreign affairs committee in the lower house of Russian parliament, wrote on his Twitter feed Monday.
Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the report alarming, saying in a statement that if the story was true ‘‘this will evidently constitute a scandal.’’
‘‘Such [an] act by an allied country would clearly be deemed unacceptable,’’ the statement went on. ‘‘British authorities are expected to present an official and satisfactory explanation on this issue.’’
Good luck getting one of those.
South African diplomats said in a statement that they were concerned by the report, demanding that London ‘‘investigate this matter fully.’’
Experts say that while the expressions of shock may be spurious — it’s widely known that all nearly all countries spy on one another — Britain’s standing could nevertheless suffer real damage.
Yeah, with Israel leading the pack.
And this offhanded way of minimizing it all is offensive.
Btw, who gives a f*** about the government's image?
The report was awkwardly timed, coming as Britain opened the G-8 summit, a meeting of the world’s leading economies that include Russia, in Northern Ireland on Monday.
Yeah, maybe the EUROPEAN PRESS has not taken to kindly to ALL THEIR COMMUNICATIONS being SCOOPED up and STORED for SIFTING by supercomputers!
The allegation that the United Kingdom previously used its position as host to spy on its allies and other attendees could make for awkward conversation as the delegates tackle the issues of Syria, taxes and free trade.
Ya' think?
‘‘The diplomatic fallout from this could be considerable,’’ according to British academic Richard J. Aldrich, whose book ‘‘GCHQ’’ charts the agency’s history.
Speaking at the G-8 summit, Prime Minister David Cameron declined to address the issue.
So much for that explanation.
‘‘We never comment on security or intelligence issues and I am not about to start now,’’ he said. ‘‘I don’t make comments on security or intelligence issues. That would be breaking something that no government has previously done.’’
Yeah, they only do it when some pathetic Muslim patsy is trotted out for some bogus terrorism hoax.
GCHQ also declined to comment on the report.
It wasn’t completely clear how Snowden would have had access to the British intelligence documents, although in one article the Guardian mentions that source material was drawn from a top-secret internal network shared by GCHQ and the NSA. Aldrich said he wouldn’t be surprised if the GCHQ material came from a shared network accessed by Snowden.
Not really a surprise, is it?
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Related: Government Snow Job?
Could be, although if it is it is one more example of a staged and scripted psyop blowing up in their faces, as they all do these days. It's signaling the decaying carcass of a dying empire.
"NSA leaker denies providing China with classified data; Calls allegation a predictable smear by officials" by Charlie Savage | New York Times, June 18, 2013
WASHINGTON — Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who has confessed to disclosing troves of highly classified documents detailing American surveillance at home and abroad, said Monday that he had not given any classified materials to the government of China.
“This is a predictable smear that I anticipated before going public,” Snowden said, adding that such speculation was “intended to distract from the issue of US government misconduct.”
“Ask yourself: if I were a Chinese spy, why wouldn’t I have flown directly into Beijing? I could be living in a palace petting a phoenix by now.”
Or why wouldn't he have just kept working? And would the PtB really release him to China?
Snowden made his comments in an online question-and-answer session with readers and reporters that was hosted on the website of The Guardian, the British newspaper that has published most of the secret information to date. He implied that he was still in Hong Kong, where he has sought refuge from the US government, but did not describe his location specifically.
NSA and GCHQ got all that.
Snowden’s choice to go to Hong Kong to decry oppressive government surveillance, and his decision to tell the South China Morning Post about NSA hacking into computers in mainland China and Hong Kong last week, has fueled attacks on portraying him as a whistleblower.
On Sunday, for example, Dick Cheney, former vice president, defended the surveillance programs — including one that keeps a record of all domestic calls that he said was designed in his office — and called Snowden a traitor, hinting that he might be a spy.
Why am I not surprised?
“I’m deeply suspicious obviously because he went to China,” Cheney said. “That’s not a place where you ordinarily want to go if you’re interested in freedom and liberty and so forth. So, it raises questions whether or not he had that kind of connection before he did this.”
What about those Israeli spying connections to 9/11, Dick?
But Snowden, in his Web chat, denied any such connection. “I have had no contact with the Chinese government,” he said. “Just like with The Guardian and The Washington Post, I only work with journalists.”
Asked by a Guardian reporter why he did not go directly to Iceland, where he has said he would like to obtain asylum, Snowden said his decision to leave the United States without providing advance notice of foreign travel to the NSA was “an incredible risk,” and he needed a place where he was less likely to be immediately arrested.
“There was a distinct possibility I would be interdicted en route, so I had to travel with no advance booking to a country with the cultural and legal framework to allow me to work without being immediately detained,” he said. “Hong Kong provided that. Iceland could be pushed harder, quicker, before the public could have a chance to make their feelings known, and I would not put that past the current US administration.”
In answering questions for about 90 minutes, Snowden said there was “no single moment” in which he decided to act, but decried “a continuing litany of lies” both from senior government officials to Congress and congressional leaders. In particular, he accused James R. Clapper Jr., the director of national intelligence, of “baldly lying to the public without repercussion,” saying that such actions subverted democratic accountability.
Since the disclosure that the NSA has been keeping records of nearly all domestic calls, Clapper has come under particular scrutiny.
In March, asked at a Senate hearing whether the security agency collected “any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans,” Clapper replied: “No, sir. Not wittingly.” He later explained that that was the “least untruthful” answer he could give in a public setting about a classified program.
Hey, it was the lesser of all lies, so cut 'em a break!
Snowden also suggested that his decision to leak the information about US government surveillance was influenced in part by the Obama administration’s harsh crackdown on leakers; the administration has filed charges in six cases, compared with three under all previous presidents combined, and several of those charged have been portrayed as heroes and martyrs by supporters. Like I said, it all backfires
Snowden mentioned by name two former NSA officials — Thomas A. Drake and William E. Binney — who were investigated for leaking; Binney was not prosecuted, while the prosecution of Drake collapsed.
But lives were ruined!
Related: Sunday Globe Specials: Getting a Hold of Obama's Scandals
Obama Can't Plug Leaks
I heard he is as obsessed about them as Nixon, and that is not a good sign. His prosecution of whistleblowers proves he's worse.
Maybe a domestic drone strike will get the job done.
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Also related:
"Deadlock in Assange WikiLeaks saga continues" Washington Post, June 18, 2013
LONDON — British and Ecuadoran officials said Monday that they had failed to make a breakthrough in the standoff over Julian Assange, the controversial WikiLeaks founder who has spent the past year holed up in the Ecuadoran Embassy.
Ecuador’s foreign minister, Ricardo Patino, who recently argued that Assange has a ‘‘fundamental right’’ to sunbathe, met with his British counterpart, William Hague, for 45 minutes Monday, but they failed to end the diplomatic deadlock.
Assange shot to international attention in 2010, when his website released a huge cache of confidential military and diplomatic cables, enraging the US government.
Army Private First Class Bradley Manning is on trial at Fort Meade in Maryland over allegations that he gave classified material to WikiLeaks.
A year ago this Wednesday, Assange dramatically sought refuge in the Ecuadoran Embassy — next to Harrods in London’s salubrious Knightsbridge area — in a bid to avoid extradition to Sweden, where authorities want to question him about alleged sex crimes. Assange, who denies wrongdoing, walked into the embassy five days after he lost a marathon legal battle in the British courts, which ultimately upheld an extradition warrant from Sweden.
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So what was collected today?
"Apple cites 4,000 US data requests; Records shared as part of NSA’s Prism program" Associated Press, June 18, 2013
NEW YORK — Apple says it received between 4,000 and 5,000 requests from US law enforcement for customer data for the six months ended in May.
The company, like some other businesses, had asked the US government to be able to share how many requests it received related to national security and how it handled them. Those requests were made as part of Prism, the recently revealed highly classified National Security Agency program that seizes records from Internet companies.
Prism appears to do what its name suggests. Like a triangular piece of glass, Prism takes large beams of data and helps the government find manageable strands of information.
Yeah, except a "a prism can distort, offering anything but an authentic glimpse of reality."
Prism was revealed this month by The Washington Post and Guardian newspapers, and has touched off the latest round in a decadelong debate over what limits to impose on government eavesdropping, which the Obama administration says is essential to keep the nation safe.
What debate?
Apple Inc. said that between 9,000 and 10,000 accounts or devices were specified in data requests between Dec. 1, 2012, and May 31 from federal, state, and local authorities and included both criminal investigations and national security matters.
That seems like a lot to me in a short time span -- if that is indeed the actual amount, and not a lowball. Besides, NSA is SCOOPING UP EVERYTHING and STORING it for SIFTING, so what are we talking about here other than damage control diversion?
It said that the most common form of request came from police investigating robberies and other crimes, searching for missing children, trying to locate a patient with Alzheimer’s disease, or hoping to prevent a suicide....
Yeah, right, it was ALL DONE FOR GOOD THINGS and PUBLIC SERVICE -- which is why it had to be secret, huh?
And remember way back when it was just supposed to about terrorists -- and people like me were hollering just wait, it will be more later?
Apple explained that its legal team evaluates each request and that it delivers ‘‘the narrowest possible set of information to the authorities’’ when deemed appropriate. The company said that it has refused some requests in the past.
Uh-huh.
Facebook Inc. has said that it received between 9,000 and 10,000 requests for data from all government agencies in the second half of last year. The social media company said fewer than 19,000 users were targeted.
Hmmm, Facebook received the same amount requests, huh? What a coincidence.
Apple’s stock rose on Monday.
That's the important thing!
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And from a once-respected reporter:
"Big Data’s big deal; The power of pattern in collective human behavior" by Farah Stockman | Globe Columnist, June 18, 2013
It’s important to remember all the good things that can be done with Big Data at a time when so many are focused on the bad....
The truth is, we still don’t know whether those programs are mining metadata for patterns of behavior. Fred Cate, director of the Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research at Indiana University, says that if they are not, “they should be.”
The FBI and CIA have always mapped social networks to figure out who is talking to known terrorists. Big Data makes that process faster and more detailed. It can also generate clues in a cold case.
“There is an old joke about the FBI investigating a lot of pizza delivery places,” he said. “People in hiding tend to have food delivered, and make a lot of calls for pizza.”
Okay, so if you are a teenage boy and buy toilet bowl cleaner you may be a terrorist, and NOW if you ORDER a PIZZA DELIVERY you MAY WELL BE a TERRORIST!
Yeah, that's REAL FUCKING FUNNY, ha-ha!!!!!!!
The idea of the government snooping in our data without permission has understandably aroused outrage and fear. Some worry about a return to the bad old days of the 1960s, when the FBI tapped the phones of civil rights activists....
But what, Farah?
“What we need to fear from Big Data is not necessarily old-fashioned surveillance, but probabilistic predictions that punish us not for what we have done, but what we are predicted to do,” said Victor Mayer-Schonberger, co-author of “Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think.”
In other words, the real-life version of "Minority Report."
*********************
The issue is not really how to protect privacy in the age of Big Data. Privacy, in the old fashioned sense, is already gone.
I agree with that.
The question now is: How can we be sure that the Big Data out there on us will be used only for good?
You can't.
Well, I guess you can since Big Data will be able to peer into your heart and mind.
***************************
Far too much energy is spent hand-wringing about who can collect data, for which purpose, and whether they have gotten consent. Those questions become almost meaningless. Collection is happening already, everywhere, at a rate we can’t control. So let’s focus instead on creating good rules for how Big Data can be used....
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Related:
"We are becoming a surveillance society: insurers watching drivers, parents watching kids, advertisers watching customers....
Already are, and have been for a while (interesting that he left government watchers off the list)
And then there’s the TV that sees you. There used to be an old joke about a fool sitting at home watching a game show, eagerly raising his hand to answer questions. It’s a joke no more. Televisions soon will be equipped with front-facing cameras that observe the viewer even as the viewer observes the show. That feature could open up some neat new worlds of entertainment — truly interactive game shows, for instance. But it’s also scary stuff."
I don't like horror movies.
See: Is Your TV Watching You?
They already have the technology because the patent was rejected.
Of course, if government ordered installed how would we know?
