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OGIS
04-25-2017, 12:32 AM
If you've done nothing wrong, Citizen, you have nothing to fear.


NSA Blimp Spied in the United States (https://theintercept.com/2017/04/24/nsa-blimp-spied-in-the-united-states/)
To residents of Maryland, catching an occasional glimpse of a huge white blimp floating in the sky is not unusual. For more than a decade, the military has used the state as a proving ground for new airships destined for Afghanistan or Iraq. But less known is that the test flights have sometimes served a more secretive purpose involving National Security Agency surveillance.
Back in 2004, a division of the NSA called the National Tactical Integration Office fitted a 62-foot diameter airship called the Hover Hammer with an eavesdropping device, according to a classified document published Monday by The Intercept. The agency launched the three-engine airship at an airfield near Solomons Island, Maryland. And from there, the blimp was able to vacuum up “international shipping data emanating from the Long Island, New York area,” the document says. The spy equipment on the airship was called Digital Receiver Technology (https://theintercept.com/surveillance-catalogue/drt-1301c/) — a proprietary system manufactured by a Maryland-based company (http://www.drti.com/) of the same name — which can intercept wireless communications, including cellphone calls.
With the exception of a few military websites that refer to the Hover Hammer as an “antenna mounting platform,” there is little information in the public domain about it. The classified NSA document describes the airship as a “helium-filled sphere inside another sphere, constructed of Spectra, the same material used to make bullet-proof vests. … It ‘hovers’ above small arms fire, has a negligible [infrared] signature, and radar can’t detect it.” The agency added in the document that it planned to conduct more tests with the Hover Hammer, and said it wanted to develop a larger version of the blimp that would be capable of flying at altitudes of 68,000 feet for up to six months at a time. “More experiments, including the use of onboard imagery sensors, are being conducted,” it said.

https://theintercept.com/2017/04/24/nsa-blimp-spied-in-the-united-states/

resister
04-25-2017, 12:46 AM
This is just one more example of big brother. I was downriver near dusk the other day in the boonies and saw a small drone zipping around at least 2 miles from any structure.

FindersKeepers
04-25-2017, 04:46 AM
If you've done nothing wrong, Citizen, you have nothing to fear.

Almost nothing you do anymore is private. Snowden tried to warn us.

You'd be amazed at some of the ways we're monitored these days.

For example, if you use a smartphone, everything you transmit, verbal or image-wise, can be captured by a simple StingRay device that spoofs a cell phone tower and redirects all transmissions in the area through the StingRay. NSA uses them but local law enforcement has been known to use them as well.

At bus stations, public parks, other public areas, "listening" devices are often placed, ostensibly to capture the conversations of suspects, but many, many others are overheard as well. In many cities, now, you'll notice cameras on every traffic light. Are they spying on you? They'll say "no," but why have a camera, then?

Wherever you are, whatever you do, there's a better than 50-50 chance Big Brother is nearby.

FindersKeepers
04-25-2017, 04:49 AM
This is just one more example of big brother. I was downriver near dusk the other day in the boonies and saw a small drone zipping around at least 2 miles from any structure.

You might have run into someone like us. My son has a Phantom 4 and we take it out to the lake and other places occasionally because it gets a little tiring flying it only around our house. It takes photos, and aerial photos are pretty cool, but it has no listening ability. We try to be respectful of other folks' privacy.

AeonPax
04-25-2017, 05:21 AM
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I try to live off the grid as much as possible. Any work related or personal data sent by any electronic device is always encrypted. Pay things in cash. Don't buy online. Stuff like that.

stjames1_53
04-25-2017, 05:24 AM
Almost nothing you do anymore is private. Snowden tried to warn us.

You'd be amazed at some of the ways we're monitored these days.

For example, if you use a smartphone, everything you transmit, verbal or image-wise, can be captured by a simple StingRay device that spoofs a cell phone tower and redirects all transmissions in the area through the StingRay. NSA uses them but local law enforcement has been known to use them as well.

At bus stations, public parks, other public areas, "listening" devices are often placed, ostensibly to capture the conversations of suspects, but many, many others are overheard as well. In many cities, now, you'll notice cameras on every traffic light. Are they spying on you? They'll say "no," but why have a camera, then?

Wherever you are, whatever you do, there's a better than 50-50 chance Big Brother is nearby.

if you have any google apps on your phone, someone, somewhere can turn it on and listen to your conversations. My cell is just this side of the Civil War. No apps at all.

FindersKeepers
04-25-2017, 05:31 AM
if you have any google apps on your phone, someone, somewhere can turn it on and listen to your conversations. My cell is just this side of the Civil War. No apps at all.

I have a smart phone so I know my calls and texts can be monitored. And, like you said the apps can be activated remotely.

On Windows 10, too.

Cortana, the "search" feature "listens," records what's going on in the room. I keep Task Manager running all the time and I slide my regular window slightly to the right so I can see when the background apps change. Cortana regularly restarts itself, even when you end the process, so when I see the familiar little blue thumbnail, I shut it down again. I don't have a mic or cam hooked up to the PC, however, so, it's not going to get too much.

FindersKeepers
04-25-2017, 05:32 AM
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I try to live off the grid as much as possible. Any work related or personal data sent by any electronic device is always encrypted. Pay things in cash. Don't buy online. Stuff like that.

That's a really good idea.

stjames1_53
04-25-2017, 05:35 AM
I've heard that win10 has a built-in key stroke logger..................I'll keep 7 as long as I can............

OGIS
04-25-2017, 09:04 AM
Almost nothing you do anymore is private. Snowden tried to warn us.

You'd be amazed at some of the ways we're monitored these days.

For example, if you use a smartphone, everything you transmit, verbal or image-wise, can be captured by a simple StingRay device that spoofs a cell phone tower and redirects all transmissions in the area through the StingRay. NSA uses them but local law enforcement has been known to use them as well.

At bus stations, public parks, other public areas, "listening" devices are often placed, ostensibly to capture the conversations of suspects, but many, many others are overheard as well. In many cities, now, you'll notice cameras on every traffic light. Are they spying on you? They'll say "no," but why have a camera, then?

Wherever you are, whatever you do, there's a better than 50-50 chance Big Brother is nearby.


I knew a guy at one time who worked for Caltrans, in their traffic planning department.

According to him, they use the intersection cameras to monitor traffic densities. At least in urban areas in So. Cal., the traffic light systems are highly computerized and linked. But Traffic patterns occasionally "bunch" up, and CalTrans can apparently manually tweak the signal patterns to try and kill those maddening "knots" of congestion. How well that works for them he didn't say (but I do know that his job was one huge series of frustrations).

I'm sure they also are constantly filming the traffic, and save the films for a certain length of time. LEOs probably use the recording on occasion (for instance, to see which way the bank robber in the green van went). Smae way they can use store videos. Or they can undoubtedly view it real time.

I'm not so sure how effective "Enemy of the State" measures are, however. There are simply not enough people to monitor a zillion cameras. Unless you hand off the viewing to an AI.... Then we got ourselves other problems.

Data is data, and the more data generally the better. What the State DOES with that data is another question entirely.

The traditional stopgap against tyranny has always been starving the Beast for data. What the Beast does not know it cannot get you on. My own opinion is that society is are far too interconnected and complex now for this to work. We have to find other methods of keeping the Beast at bay.

OGIS
04-25-2017, 09:06 AM
if you have any google apps on your phone, someone, somewhere can turn it on and listen to your conversations. My cell is just this side of the Civil War. No apps at all.

They can still listen to you any time you want.

Use smoke signals.