Dakinkat hipped me to Take This Lollipop, saying that this exposure of Facebook's intrusiveness would be right up my alley. Indeed so.
But as you watch that video, forget about the creepy stalker; instead, picture the NSA and the CIA. And now picture yourself as a protester: If you own a cell phone, you are trackable by GPS. Since Facebook now requires you to divulge your cell phone number, they can tell if you are part of the protests even if you've mentioned nothing about your participation online. The dataminers know your name, your address, your place of business, your family members, and your location 24/7. That's why the CIA funded Facebook in the first place.
And if you use an iPhone, you can't defeat GPS by taking out the battery. That's why the phone was designed that way.
Incidentally, Google asked me for a cell phone number when I signed into blogger a couple of weeks ago. I declined to provide one; fortunately, they let me sign in anyways. Let's see how long that situation lasts.
On a related note: In 2009, the cops in Pittsburgh zapped a G-20 protester named Karen Piper with a Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD), which caused permanent hearing loss. She's suing the police department.
I hope she wins -- but win or lose, her case highlights an important problem confronting all future protest movements: Non-lethal weaponry.
One of the major proponents of non-lethal weapons, Colonel John Alexander, used to justify his work with these words: "Would you rather be shot with a bullet?" This is deceptive. The problem with non-lethal weaponry is that it lowers the threshold for use. A cop -- if he's sane -- won't fire his gun unless he has reason to believe that someone poses a serious threat. But a cop may use an LRAD on someone he considers merely annoying.
As long-time readers know, I am not a revolutionary. I believe in slow and steady progress, achieved (whenever possible) by working within the system. History proves that revolutions can destroy the rebels along with those rebelled against.
Nevertheless, the threat of revolution is the only thing that has ever kept any government honest and responsive to the people. Non-lethal weaponry is designed to eradicate that threat. The primary impetus for the development of these devices has always been internal "security," not any external threat.
If revolution becomes impossible, tyranny becomes inevitable.
As I've said before: The USSR would still exist if it possessed the kind of non-lethal weaponry we now have in our arsenals.
8 comments:
Facebook just told me, they didn't ask, they told me, that I did not need a discussion app anymore.
The discussion app allows one to actually hold ongoing intelligent discussions about a specific topic while using the front of facebook as an ongoing chat messaging system.
Facebook is taking away the one way we had to keep a discussion active for more than a week or two. It's really a creepy site and if there was a facebook alternative I would join in a second.
Alessandro - if you have got a website, you can put a free chat room on it, e.g. using Spinchat. You can even put a free videochat room on it, e.g. using Oovoo.
I've got nothing but contempt for Facebookers and app-downloaders. They only realised they needed most of these services when the companies supplying them told them they did or their so-called 'friends' started using them. And they haven't got a clue what it's all for. What a bunch of morons. And the more that submission increases, intensively and extensively, the less fucking room there is for people like me to stay out of it all.
Ditto with mobile phones (US: cell phones). Unfortunately I need to use one from time to time, but 99% of the time, it's off. I mean how 'individual' is it to be on call all of the fucking time, to any fucker who's got your number and wants to ring you? My phone is not an iPhone (I don't know what an iPhone is!), but if I wanted to be sure that the security state didn't know my whereabouts, I wouldn't take it.
I think the position is much worse than is believed even by those who consider themselves 'in the know'. Face recognition and security cameras almost certainly mean that they know where you are, most of the time, even when you're not carrying a phone or any other electronics.
Alessandro - if you've got a website, you can put a free chat room on it, e.g. using Spinchat. You can put a free videochat room on it too, e.g. using Oovoo.
I've got nothing but contempt for Facebookers and app-downloaders. They only realised they needed most of these services when the companies supplying them told them they did or when their so-called 'friends' started using them. They haven't got a clue what it's all for. What a bunch of morons. And the more that submission increases, intensively and extensively, the less room there is for people like me to stay out of it all. That's a main feature in the current direction of history. Really we might as well call it fascism.
Soon will we be able to get a 'word processor' (i.e. electronic typewriter) that doesn't squiggly-underline stuff considered 'mistaken' as soon as we've typed it? Will be able to pay our bills without submitting to the direct debit scam?
As for those disgusting items called mobile phones (US: cell phones), unfortunately I need to use one from time to time, but 99% of the time, it's off. How 'individual' is it to be on call all of the fucking time, to any fucker who's got your number and wants to ring you? Is that what 'friendship' is about nowadays? Then shove it! My phone is not an iPhone (I don't know what an iPhone is!), but if I wanted to be sure that the security state didn't know my whereabouts, I wouldn't take it.
I think the position is much worse than is believed even by those who consider themselves 'in the know'. Face recognition and security cameras almost certainly mean that they know where you are, most of the time, even when you're not carrying a phone or any other electronics.
Google is even bigger than Faceshit. Google will soon be laying down all sorts of conditions for allowing people to continue to use their websearch services.
You heard it here first :-)
Minor nit, Joe:
Karen Piper was not a G20 protester. She was a bystander (according to the ACLU filing on her behalf).
As the song says:
"The Revolution will not be Twitified"
or something like that.
Please continue with this line of non-lethal weapon awareness.
I've been harping on this forever....to the air, since there has been no mass discussion on it!
I think the loss of the discussion app at the beginning of next year is real big deal. Facebook claims they are trying to help me get more traffic.
It's not traffic that I desire but actual intelligent conversation. By forcing me to use a facebook page, I am having my content converted to what I call slow motion chat. It lasts longer than regular chat, but ultimately will sink down the page to where nobody will bother to look for it.
Whereas the discussion page can hold ongoing topics for as long as I want. Facebook is telling me I don't need this discussion function. Can it get any creepier? Probably, but this is far too creepy for me already.
Post a Comment