Search results for tag #bigbrother
![[?]](https://media2.ai6yr.org/accounts/avatars/109/321/592/360/914/018/original/f918064fa4350d36.jpg)
Texas Observer: As License Plate Readers Expand in Texas, Privacy Advocates Are Fighting Back
The Kyle City Council voted to apply for more state grant money for Flock Safety cameras despite a string of local-level contract cancellations of the booming surveillance company’s services.
https://www.texasobserver.org/license-plate-readers-texas-privacy-advocates/
![[?]](https://stockage.framapiaf.org/framapiaf/accounts/avatars/000/044/766/original/ba0dafb122370d1c.png)
ChatGPT : OpenAI officialise la surveillance de vos conversations dans un billet de blog surréaliste - Les Numériques
https://www.lesnumeriques.com/intelligence-artificielle/chatgpt-openai-officialise-la-surveillance-de-vos-conversations-dans-un-billet-de-blog-surrealiste-n255180.html
> Dans un très curieux billet de blog, OpenAI détaille pour la première fois l'infrastructure qu'elle déploie pour scanner, analyser et potentiellement signaler aux autorités les échanges de ses abonnés. Sous couvert de p…
#Surveillance #CyberSurveillance #BigBrother #IA #IArienQuiVa
👀
LA Times: Disneyland rolls out facial recognition at park entrances. Here’s how it works
"...Disneyland has deployed facial recognition technology at park entrances to verify tickets and prevent fraud — a trend spreading across major U.S. entertainment venues.
Privacy experts caution that the technology normalizes surveillance and poses security risks, though Disney says facial recognition is optional and data are deleted after 30 days...."
Mercury News: Residents sue San Jose in federal court over automated license-plate reader cameras
Lawsuit filed by the Virginia-based Institute for Justice seeks class-action status, claims cameras and police database searches are unconstitutional and unwarranted surveillance
"...SAN JOSE — Three San Jose residents backed by a national justice nonprofit have filed a federal lawsuit alleging that the city’s vast network of automated license-plate reader cameras violate the Constitution by subjecting citizens to nonstop warrantless surveillance...."
KTLA: Former Orange County officer used police database to track mistress, harassed her with thousands of texts and phone calls
"...Between June and December of 2023, Josett was accused of using the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (CLETS) database to make 13 inquiries on people and vehicles not related to his job, including his mistress, someone she dated and his own wife, prosecutors said.
He also used the police department’s FLOCK license plate reader system to find his mistress’ car and the vehicles of her romantic interests with the intent to follow them, court documents said..."
404 Media: This Company Is Secretly Turning Your Zoom Meetings into AI Podcasts
"...WebinarTV, a company that bills itself as “a search engine for the best webinars,” is secretly scanning the internet for Zoom meeting links, recording the calls, and turning them into AI-generated podcasts for profit. In some cases, people only found out that their Zoom calls were recorded once WebinarTV reached out to them directly to say their call was turned into a podcast in an attempt to promote WebinarTV’s services.
WebinarTV claims to host more than 200,000 webinars. It’s not clear how it’s recording so many Zoom calls without permission, but in some cases the stolen videos posted to WebinarTV can put call participants at risk. ..."
https://www.404media.co/this-company-is-secretly-turning-your-zoom-calls-into-ai-podcasts/
LAist: South Pasadena cancels contract with Flock Safety, citing privacy concerns
"...while city officials seek alternative camera vendors...."
https://laist.com/news/south-pasadena-cancels-flock-safety-contract-privacy-concerns
The Guardian: Kash Patel admits under oath FBI is buying location data on Americans
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/18/kash-patel-fbi-location-data
The Intercept: Trump Wants to Put You in a Massive, Secret Government Database
Agencies are reportedly pooling immigration data, Social Security numbers, and more into a central database. FPF is suing to learn how deep it goes.
https://theintercept.com/2026/03/17/government-surveillance-centralized-database-privacy/
Instagram's end-to-end encrypted chat to be shut down Meta has announced plans to discontinue support for end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for chats on Instagram after May 8, 2026. #privacy #security #bigbrother thehackernews.com/2026/03/meta...
![[?]](https://kolektiva.social/system/accounts/avatars/109/367/437/697/238/997/original/9ab1f56484688a16.jpg)
#Bipartison! #DoublePlusUngood!
Congress Is Considering Abolishing Your Right to Be #Anonymous Online
The bipartisan push to remove #anonymity from the #Internet is ushering in an era of unprecedented #MassSurveillance and #censorship.
Taylor Lorenz
March 5 2026, 12:20 p.m.
"In August 2024, the Biden administration hosted hundreds of influencers at the White House for the first-ever Creator Economy Conference. Neera Tanden, a senior Biden adviser, took to the stage and bemoaned anonymity online. The influencers alongside her agreed, pushing the idea that anonymous speech on the internet is harmful, and regulation is needed to force the use of real names on social media. The audience whispered excitedly as those on stage spoke about how proposed laws like the #kidsonlinesafetyact or #KOSA, could unmask every troll.
"This narrative of online safety, particularly in relation to children, has become central to the bipartisan effort to #censor and #deanonymize the internet for everyone. Today, a package of a dozen 'child online safety' bills is moving forward in the House of Representatives with bipartisan support. The laws, framed as a way to crack down on harmful content and make the internet safer, would force social media companies to enact invasive identity verification measures in order to keep children from accessing online spaces.
"The problem is that there’s no way to reliably verify someone’s age without verifying who they are. A platform cannot magically discern that a user is 16 without collecting identifying information, whether through government documents such as a passport, payment information like a credit card, or other identity-disclosing data. Whether that data is stored by the platform itself or outsourced to a vendor, the result is always the same: A user’s offline identity is forever linked with their online behavior.
"Stripping anonymity from the internet would constitute one of the most sweeping rollbacks of civil rights in recent history. It would allow for unprecedented levels of mass surveillance and censorship, endangering the most marginalized members of society. #Whistleblowers exposing #corporate wrongdoing could be tracked and fired, #GovernmentEmployees speaking out about illegal behavior or bad policies could face prosecution, and #activists #OrganizingProtests could be identified and surveilled before ever setting foot on the street.
"Already, the U.S. government is flooding social media platforms with subpoenas seeking to unmask hundreds of anonymously run #AntiICE social media accounts. These laws would make it all the more easier for the government to target and prosecute those who dissent.
Vulnerable members of society will suffer most. #TransPeople under attack from the government could be identified and outed without their consent.
"Undocumented #immigrants could be cut off from the ability to communicate and connect with advocates. Young people seeking #abortions in states with restrictive laws might no longer have the ability to access information safely and anonymously.
"Not only will a de-anonymized internet be valuable to the government as it seeks to tighten control, it will also make it easier for any #corporation or bad actor to intimidate, #blackmail, or exploit people by leveraging their own data against them."
Read more:
https://theintercept.com/2026/03/05/kosa-online-age-verification-free-speech-privacy/
Archived version:
https://archive.ph/al8if
#USPol #Orwellian #BigBrother #SurveillanceState #Corporatocracy #CharacteristicsOfFascism #BigBrotherIsWatchingYou
LAist: Some South Pasadena residents want the city’s Flock license plate readers gone — they’re not alone
![[?]](https://soc.octade.net/octade/s/3f7f2b5eda4e392867c301c49c2daa16.png)
"While the [age verification] bill moved through the legislature, the OSI, FSF, Software Freedom Conservancy, and Linux Foundation all sat it out — no testimony, no public analysis, no formal opposition on the record."Are the adults listening?
California's computer age verification law is poison. The new California age verification law is a version of INGSOC's telescreen watching you. And the usual self-proclaimed software freedom fighters are AWOL as this attack on your freedom is executed.
Don't listen to apologists who claim this isn't a big deal. It is a huge deal. This law is not about protecting children. The California law is a ruse for laying the foundation and precedent for mandatory remote control of all operating systems. They are using children as a shield for their true intentions. It's called a 'subterfuge' or a 'pretext' to hide the real rationale. And in politics subterfuge is very common. These politicians don't care about your children. They care about control and information is control. Compliance with California's new law is highly corrosive to free software and deadly to personal privacy.
With the mandatory age verification API in place, legislators can later add more laws mandating retrieval of even more privacy-invasive information just to install and use any operating system. This is Big Brother's telescreen in your living room. And the Linux community is nearly silent on the matter, instead focused on artificial intelligence investment.
Where were the software freedom organizations when California was mandating installation of #spyware in all free and open source operating systems? Did they oppose it? Or did they support it by silence? The California age verification law is the greatest threat to software freedom in recent history., striking right at the root of software installation for all users. Yet (((crickets))).
Is silence really tacit support?
"While the [age verification] bill moved through the legislature, the OSI, FSF, Software Freedom Conservancy, and Linux Foundation all sat it out — no testimony, no public analysis, no formal opposition on the record."[https://boingboing.net/2026/03/02/californias-age-verification-law-could-regulate-every-linux-command.html]
Where were they when this mandatory spyware infrastructure was being shoved down our throats? Where were the self-proclaimed software freedom fighters? Where were the calls to action? I didn't see any.
Is silence golden ... or is gold buying silence?
Let these organizations know that you oppose California's age verification spyware law and that you expect them to rally in defense of true software freedom--freedom from government oversight of your software systems. Parents--and not the spyware state--should protect their children. The government is neither your parent nor your god nor your savior and the people should send a clear message stating that.
California, stay out of my operating system! And stay the hell away from children!
@eff@mastodon.social
@linuxfoundation@social.lfx.dev
@fsf@hostux.social
@osi@opensource.org
@conservancy@sfconservancy.org
#AgeVerification #Linux #EFF #OSI #LinuxFoundation #FSF #Privacy #Cybersecurity #Surveillance #Spyware #OpenSource #OperatingSystems #FreeSoftware #SoftwareFreedom #Panopticon #BigBrother #Government
CC: @laffer1@bsd.network @leo@twit.social @MichaelRoss@social.linux.pizza @rms@mastodon.xyz @thenewoil@mastodon.thenewoil.org @TechDesk@flipboard.social @remixtures@tldr.nettime.org
Alt...
A crowd of sillouettes of people stands in front of a giant telescreen depicting a single giant eye watching them.
![[?]](https://files.mastodon.social/accounts/avatars/109/323/111/344/531/443/original/dbf564e776d6aabb.jpg)
Meanwhile, amid special elections, testimony by #KristiNoem - and #war coverage eclipsing #TrumpEpsteinFiles.... #AI
>. OpenAI backtracks on new Pentagon contract, says it will revise deal
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2026/03/03/AI-OpenAI-revises-deal-with-Pentagon/4371772541303/
> OpenAI said it will revise its agreement to supply the U.S. Department of Defense with AI to include provisions banning the use of its tools by the intelligence agencies for domestic mass surveillance purposes
#OpenAI #Anthropic #privacy #TrumpVirus #surveillance #BigBrother
LA Times:
"...After previously denying it had federal contracts, Flock Chief Executive Garrett Langley admitted in interviews in recent months that the company has worked with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security Investigations. ..."
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-03-01/surveillance-company-flock-safety-los-angeles
#privacy #surveillance #bigbrother #flock #ICE
Alt...
Much of the backlash has been aimed specifically at Flock — a heavyweight in the surveillance market that contracts with a reported 5,000 U.S. policing agencies. The company’s data-sharing with federal authorities and cybersecurity lapses have been documented by 404 Media and other outlets.
After previously denying it had federal contracts, Flock Chief Executive Garrett Langley admitted in interviews in recent months that the company has worked with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security Investigations. The company has since said that it has severed ties with both agencies, and responded to other concerns by giving communities more power to decide whom to grant access to state or nationwide lookup networks.
SFist: Lawsuit Says Flock Allowed Out-of-State Agencies Access to SFPD Cameras 1.6 Million Times
A local law firm filed a lawsuit against Flock alleging that out-of-state agencies were given access to the SFPD’s database more than 1.6 million times, and a recent audit by the El Cerrito's police department found that several federal agencies were briefly given access to its database.
From Oxnard PD:
"....When OPD heard about this vendor-related issue that occurred with the Flock Safety platform, it initiated an audit of its Flock Safety ALPR data for calendar year 2025. In 2025, OPD’s Flock system received over 5 million queries.
The audit revealed that even though OPD’s Flock Safety security settings had been set to “California only” access, a vendor-enabled “nationwide query” allowed agencies from outside of California, which also include federal agencies, to query OPD’s data without OPD's knowledge or approval...."
(!!!!)
Mercury News: Mountain View police say feds accessed license-plate data without permission
Chief Mike Canfield says cameras will be disabled pending further direction from the City Council
"MOUNTAIN VIEW – Federal agencies in 2024 accessed data from a camera in this city’s Flock Safety automated license plate reader system – something that the Mountain View Police Department says was done without its “permission or knowledge.”,,,,"
404 Media: Leaked Email Suggests Ring Plans to Expand ‘Search Party’ Surveillance Beyond Dogs
"Ring’s controversial, AI-powered “Search Party” feature isn’t intended to always be limited only to dogs, the company’s founder, Jamie Siminoff, told Ring employees in an internal email obtained by 404 Media....404 Media also obtained two earlier emails Siminoff sent to all Ring employees, about how Ring could have potentially been used to help find Charlie Kirk’s killer, and about the company’s “Community Requests” feature...."
(registration wall)
https://www.404media.co/leaked-email-suggests-ring-plans-to-expand-search-party-surveillance-beyond-dogs/
KSL TV Utah: Lawyer on doorbell cams: “We are participating in our own surveillance”
https://ksltv.com/local-news/lawyer-doorbell-cams-surveillance/878573/
EFF:
"...The New York Times reported that Meta is considering adding face recognition technology to its smart glasses. According to an internal Meta document, the company may launch the product “during a dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns.” ..."
EFF: No One, Including Our Furry Friends, Will Be Safer in Ring's Surveillance Nightmare
"...In the ad, disguised as a heartfelt effort to reunite the lost dogs of the country with their innocent owners, the company previewed future surveillance of our streets: a world where biometric identification could be unleashed from consumer devices to identify, track, and locate anything — human, pet, and otherwise...."
NPR:"....“She's using the city's license plate readers not to combat a wave of armed robberies, but to track down the everyday movements of an everyday citizen who dared to write the Kansas City Star and express their opinion,” Rhodes said...."
#alpr #privacy #bigbrother #freespeech #licenseplatereaders #flock
NPR: "...“This is MYOC,” Laffey said.
In Lenexa police parlance, MYOC is shorthand for “make your own case.” With no arrest warrant for Ashworth, police were looking for any reason to stop him.
... Chief Schmitz described MYOC this way: “You need to build your own probable cause, your own reasonable suspicion. It's pretty much that, make your own case.”
Kubic, from the ACLU, is especially worried about that.
“The idea that you can essentially just make something up to throw against the wall and see if it sticks to be able to go after someone, is a really chilling and dangerous thing,” he said..."
NPR: Lenexa police investigated author of column criticizing the department. He's 'pissed off'
"...A KCUR investigation discovered the department used the city’s license plate readers to track the writer’s movements and it issued a “be on the lookout” for him.
On Oct. 21 the entire Lenexa, Kansas police patrol division was hunting Canyen Ashworth.
At 1:50 that afternoon, the department issued a BOLO — police shorthand for “be on the lookout” — for the 28-year-old information technology consultant and sometimes writer.
There were two problems. They didn’t have a charge, and he was the wrong man....."
I guess this was one of my first "memes" -- from 2011, right after #IndefiniteDetentionBill was signed into law.
#Orwell #NineteenEightyFour #IndefiniteDetentionClause #NDAA #Trump #HR9495 #StopHR9495 #Gitmo #GuantanamoBay #IndefiniteDetention #CharacteristicsOfFascism #BigBrother #Orwellian #Disappeared #Deportation
Alt...
An faded image of two police officers, one a woman standing, looking very stern. The other is aggressively pushing a person to the floor, and is wearing a helmet.
The text (in a serif font, similar to a typewriter font) on the upper left reads:
"More commonly, people who had incurred the displeasure of the Party simply disappeared and were never heard of again. One never had the smallest clue as to what had happened to them. In some cases, they might not even be dead."
- George Orwell, 1984
The text on the lower right (in bold, sans serif letters), reads:
"The NDAA's dangerous detention provisions would authorize the president - and all future presidents - to order the military to pick up and indefinitely imprison people captured anywhere in the world, far from any battlefield."
- ACLU
Gizmodo: Amazon’s Ring Wants to Wash Away Your Surveillance Concerns With Lost Puppies
https://gizmodo.com/ring-wants-to-wash-away-your-surveillance-concerns-with-lost-puppies-2000716802?
#privacy #cybersecurity #fascism #ring #bigbrother
Alt...
Gizmodo: Amazon’s Ring Wants to Wash Away Your Surveillance Concerns With Lost Puppies
Those privacy advocates were right. 😬
"....based on data sourced from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and other government agencies..."
404 Media: Police Told to Be ‘as Vague as Permissible’ About Why They Use Flock
Jan 27, 2026 at 9:26 AM
The documents show law enforcement sees themselves as being consistently and universally under threat from the people it is supposed to protect.
https://www.404media.co/police-told-to-be-as-vague-as-permissible-about-why-they-use-flock/
KOB4: 4 Investigates: The push to regulate New Mexico’s mass surveillance tools
"...“I’ve just learned that we have had out of state entities and individuals who have been actually accessed license plate data for health care reasons for immigration issues, certainly not what this was ever intended to be used for,” Wirth said...."
![[?]](https://media.social.qoto.org/accounts/avatars/000/536/037/original/586c7abcda18ed45.jpg)
NOBODY WILL GIVE US RIGHTS OR FREEDOM at this stage of history... [SENSITIVE CONTENT]
@ScottLucas
I think NOBODY WILL GIVE US RIGHTS OR FREEDOM at this stage of history...
As much as I would want... I don't think any " #GOVERNMENT " or " #STATE " job is to give #freedom or anything other than what is that hidden #agenda - it's SOFT ECONOMIC-AND-OTHER WAR ON PEOPLE... even #supermarkets etc
Long term extraction (alive) VIA ECONOMIC #WARFARE (#BANKS) rather than destroying people (dead / completely) as the poor is no good for profits which was more the PHYSICAL #WAR before...
#Modern GOV AND STATE = destroying people softly ➡️ through money they exchange in their hands not knowing money (banks) are DESTROYING THEM / #FUNDING THE WARS).
It's like before but softer - NOBODY IN #POWER WANTS TO GIVE YOU REAL CHOICES... ❗ ❗ ❗
#Freedoms seems like something you have TO TAKE / DEFEND / ATTACK FOR YOURSELF AND NOT SELL OUT EITHER TO OTHERS...
IT'S FOR YOU AND OTHERS MORE INDIVIDUALLY TO HOLD FREEDOM RATHER THAN expecting #BIGBROTHER / STATE / #Banks to looking after freedoms for you!
Sometimes we look for what doesn't exist and ask the WRONG people ❗ ❗ ❗
We / most are looking for a magic way which is is sold to us and almost never wasn't created yet to actually get to real 'freedom' and let people go much more!
All #states want to capture and screw us!
Thoughts?
#IRAN #GOIRAN #GOGOGO #PROTEST #Banks = #Corrupt #root #USPol etc
Money is the main war on people,
#Money helps create more wars...
☑️ do not use money (as much as possible) ☑️
Inside ICE’s Tool to Monitor Phones in Entire Neighborhoods
"...404 Media has obtained material that explains how Tangles and Webloc, two surveillance systems ICE recently purchased, work. Webloc can track phones without a warrant and follow their owners home or to their employer...."
https://www.404media.co/inside-ices-tool-to-monitor-phones-in-entire-neighborhoods/
404 Media: Flock Exposed Its AI-Powered Cameras to the Internet. We Tracked Ourselves
https://www.404media.co/flock-exposed-its-ai-powered-cameras-to-the-internet-we-tracked-ourselves/
#privacy #AI #surveillance #bigbrother #dystopia
Alt...
Unlike many of Flock’s cameras, which are designed to capture license plates as people drive by, Flock’s Condor cameras are pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) cameras designed to record and track people, not vehicles. Condor cameras can be set to automatically zoom in on people’s faces as they walk through a parking lot, down a public street, or play on a playground, or they can be controlled manually, according to marketing material on Flock’s website. We watched Condor cameras zoom in on a woman walking her dog on a bike path in suburban Atlanta; a camera followed a man walking through a Macy’s parking lot in Bakersfield; surveil children swinging on a swingset at a playground; and film high-res video of people sitting at a stoplight in traffic. In one case, we were able to watch a man rollerblade down Brookhaven, Georgia’s Peachtree Creek
The Guardian: Home Office admits facial recognition tech issue with black and Asian subjects
Calls for review after technology found to return more false positives for ‘some demographic groups’ on certain settings
#surveillance #bigbrother #privacy #policing #facialrecognition #bias
AP: Border Patrol is monitoring US drivers and detaining those with ‘suspicious’ travel patterns
"...The predictive intelligence program has resulted in people being stopped, searched and in some cases arrested. A network of cameras scans and records vehicle license plate information, and an algorithm flags vehicles deemed suspicious based on where they came from, where they were going and which route they took. ..."
#ALPR #privacy #Fascism #ICE #bigbrother
Alt...
The U.S. Border Patrol is monitoring millions of American drivers nationwide in a secretive program to identify and detain people whose travel patterns it deems suspicious, The Associated Press has found.
The predictive intelligence program has resulted in people being stopped, searched and in some cases arrested. A network of cameras scans and records vehicle license plate information, and an algorithm flags vehicles deemed suspicious based on where they came from, where they were going and which route they took. Federal agents in turn may then flag local law enforcement.
"...More than 80 law enforcement agencies across the United States have used language perpetuating harmful stereotypes against Romani people when searching the nationwide Flock Safety automated license plate reader (ALPR) network, according to audit logs obtained and analyzed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
When police run a search through the Flock Safety network, which links thousands of ALPR systems, they are prompted to leave a reason and/or case number for the search. Between June 2024 and October 2025, cops performed hundreds of searches for license plates using terms such as "roma" and "g*psy," and in many instances, without any mention of a suspected crime. Other uses include "g*psy vehicle," "g*psy group," "possible g*psy," "roma traveler" and "g*psy ruse," perpetuating systemic harm by demeaning individuals based on their race or ethnicity. ..."
Gizmodo: U.S. Immigration Enforcement Apparently Provides Facial Scanning Tech to Local Cops
"It's part of a program that essentially deputizes police into the federal mass deportation effort."
City sends cease-and-desist after Flock reinstalls license plate cameras
The city sent a cease-and-desist to the company Tuesday and said ‘Flock reinstalled the cameras without the city’s permission’
September 24th, 2025
https://evanstonroundtable.com/2025/09/24/flock-safety-reinstalls-evanston-cameras/