12.30.20
Gemini version available ♊︎The War on Privacy, Bolstered by COVID Hysteria
Summary: While it is slowly turning out to be the case that novel coronavirus vaccines have limited efficacy and contact-tracing is worse than useless the surveillance capitalists together with the surveillance state wish to eliminate any remnant of personal privacy, even inside one’s home and car
THE alarming demonisation of privacy is a growing issue (we wrote several articles about that in the morning). When Edward Snowden leaked NSA documents the media bemoaned abuses of privacy. But now that there’s a pandemic the privacy-conscious people are increasingly being framed or stigmatised as selfish, highly suspicious, brainwashed nutcases who are generally a threat to the public.
A case of point was sent to us by an associate who is also a longtime reader (as long as this site has existed).
“…privacy-conscious people are increasingly being framed or stigmatised as selfish, highly suspicious, brainwashed nutcases who are generally a threat to the public.”“With the NBC article[1],” our reader noted, “the police should be able to get a warrant for the data but they should have to ask the car’s owner not Google or the car’s vendor.”
“There was another article[2] where the vehicle was stolen and the thief voice was recorded by the car and used to identify him while the car’s tracking placed him at the scene of the crime. ”
Our reader referred to it as “geofencing” and then asked, “who owns the smartphone and the data it collects?”
I decided to make a quick video about privacy (no notes or multiple takes) to express my personal views on these issues. █
Related/contextual items from the news:
- Insecure wheels: Police turn to car data to destroy suspects’ alibis
- She didn’t know her kidnapper. But he was using Google Maps — and that cracked the case.
- Bad Neighbors? How Amazon’s Ring Video Surveillance Could be Undermining Fourth Amendment Protections – California Law Review
- How your Tollway I-Pass could affect your divorce | Fay, Farrow & Associates, P.C.
- The Illinois Tollway Turns Over Your I-Pass Data