The American Surveillance State Is Here. Can It Be Evaded?

Right Wing

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On any given day, the average American going about his daily business will be monitored, surveilled, spied on and tracked in more than 20 different ways, by both government and corporate eyes and ears.

A byproduct of this new age in which we live, whether you’re walking through a store, driving your car, checking email, or talking to friends and family on the phone, you can be sure that some government agency, whether the NSA or some other entity, is listening in and tracking your behavior. As I point out in my new book, A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, this doesn’t even begin to touch on the corporate trackers that monitor your purchases, web browsing, Facebook posts and other activities taking place in the cyber sphere.

The revelations by Edward Snowden only scrape the surface in revealing the lengths to which government agencies and their corporate allies will go to conduct mass surveillance on all communications and transactions within the United States.

Erected in secret, without any public input, these surveillance programs amount to an electronic concentration camp which houses every single person in the United States today. Indeed, government whistleblower Russ Tice, who exposed the NSA’s warrantless surveillance of American phone calls as far back as 2005, insists that despite Obama administration claims that the NSA is simply collecting metadata, the NSA is in fact retrieving “the contents of emails, text messages, Skype communications, and phone calls, as well as financial information, health records, legal documents, and travel documents.”

These communications are being stored in the NSA’s Utah Data Center, a massive $2 billion facility that will be handling yottabytes of data (equivalent to one septillion bytes—imagine a one followed by 24 zeroes) on American communications. This Utah facility is opening amidst a backlash against NSA surveillance. Most recently, the Obama administration and the NSA went into overdrive to quash an amendment sponsored by Justin Amash (R-Mich.) that would have cut off funds to the NSA if it collects surveillance data on American citizens who are not under criminal investigation. It was a bold move, especially when one considers that the NSA operates off a budget of approximately $10 billion. After all, when the government no longer listens to the citizenry—when it no longer abides by the Constitution, which is our rule of law—and when it views the citizenry as a source of funding and little else, we have no choice but to speak to the government in a language it understands—money.

MORE: http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archive...veillance-state-is-here-can-it-be-evaded.aspx
 
There are some things an individual can do to improve his privacy:

1. Leave your cell phone at home whenever possible, and try to only make calls on it from home. Do we really need to take these with us everywhere? What did we all do before cell phones were invented? We relied on land lines and pay phones. We can return to those days when we didn't have a phone with us 100% of the time.

Another option is to carry the phone with you in case you need to make an emergency call, but keep it turned off and inside a metallic container (maybe a small cardboard box or bag wrapped with several layers of aluminum foil) so it can't send or receive signals. Test the container by asking a friend to call your phone while it's inside the container. If the metal is thick enough, the phone shouldn't ring. In the event that you need to use the phone, just take it out and use it, then put it back in the container when you're done.

2. When discussing anything sensitive, don't do so by any electronic means. Don't even trust encryption. Also, have your private discussions out of earshot of any cell phones, laptops, vehicles with OnStar or similar telematics systems (you should never purchase such a vehicle anyway), or anything else that could have a microphone in it. Again, imagine you're living back in the day when none of this electronic stuff was in widespread use. US government spooks are only allowed to discuss classified matters in special rooms (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensitive_Compartmented_Information_Facility). We The People should start taking similar precautions to protect our secrets.

3. Don't have anything in your home that can connect to the Internet except your computer and your phone. In particular, stay the hell away from these stupid "smart" appliances like refrigerators or dishwashers that can connect to the Internet and send messages to your phone. Who knows whether the American Stasi has made a deal with the manufacturers of these products to hide microphones or other sensors in them? Years ago I would have thought such a suggestion was paranoia, but nowadays just about anything seems possible.

4. Try to move out of the city and into the suburbs or, better yet, a rural area.

5. Whenever possible, ride a bicycle or walk instead of driving. It's healthier for you, anyway. For maximum privacy, do this at night with your head obscured (e.g., a hoodie). In some areas this may cause the pigs to hassle you, so use your judgment.

6. Avoid products by Microsoft (especially) and other companies that are willing to sell our privacy. Stick to open source software as much as possible.

While doing the above, we should all continue to spread the word to our family members, friends, and neighbors about the dangers of privacy loss. Explain that being monitored all the time isn't just "creepy," but that mass surveillance is a serious danger to civil liberties that can become a key enabler of a police state in which certain thoughts and opinions are outlawed. The recent NSA revelations have started to wake up a lot of people, so this is a good opportunity to retake some lost ground.

If we fail in the end, at least we tried. And you know what else? The dickheads who contributed to the creation of this surveillance state will have to live in it, too -- or at least their children will.
 
The American Surveillance State Is Here. Can It Be Evaded?

Yes, it can.

When we, the people, grow the balls to smash the facilities, burn the machines and destroy the nerve centers of these surveillance hubs.

Like they did in the former DDR to the STASI offices when the Berlin Wall fell.

Anything short of that is just mental masturbation.
 
Yes, it can.

When we, the people, grow the balls to smash the facilities, burn the machines and destroy the nerve centers of these surveillance hubs.

Like they did in the former DDR to the STASI offices when the Berlin Wall fell.

Anything short of that is just mental masturbation.
That^^
 
It's here. Get a twitter account and/or a blogspot account and post links to every govt overreach and how wrong it is. The goons are people too. Maybe a few of those spying on you will think twice about their bosses.

They aren't going to "get" you for what you say online. They'll get you for the mundane everyday shit after they notice you online.
 
It's here. Get a twitter account and/or a blogspot account and post links to every govt overreach and how wrong it is. The goons are people too. Maybe a few of those spying on you will think twice about their bosses.

They aren't going to "get" you for what you say online. They'll get you for the mundane everyday shit after they notice you online.
Yup. They'll do something like follow your shopping patterns and conclude you're a turr'ist. What a world of fail. :(
 
It's here. Get a twitter account and/or a blogspot account and post links to every govt overreach and how wrong it is. The goons are people too. Maybe a few of those spying on you will think twice about their bosses.

They aren't going to "get" you for what you say online. They'll get you for the mundane everyday shit after they notice you online.

OMG! They have these tools to take your privacy? Quick! Sign up for their "free" services and fill in the blanks for them so they dont have to do ANY fucking work!

Runaway! Mentos and Diet Coke Bomb! Oh shit, that shits real?!
 
OMG! They have these tools to take your privacy? Quick! Sign up for their "free" services and fill in the blanks for them so they dont have to do ANY fucking work!

Runaway! Mentos and Diet Coke Bomb! Oh shit, that shits real?!
Or let fear run your life and hide under a rock. But you're doing that wrong if you're posting here.
 
OMG! They have these tools to take your privacy? Quick! Sign up for their "free" services and fill in the blanks for them so they dont have to do ANY fucking work!

Runaway! Mentos and Diet Coke Bomb! Oh shit, that shits real?!

I feel the need to stress this.

From what we now know; either go dark and get off the internet, or go full blown liberty movement.

If you are using RPF or any email, you are in just as much shit as the rest of us. Get a twitter account and use a fake username, just like you are doing on RPF, and start posting links to every news/video/blog where a cop/politician/soldier does something wrong.

Either get off this forum or shut up. I can appreciating staying off Facebook and not making it easy for them. I do it too. But posting here is no different than posting anywhere else. The NSA knows what you are doing and you have no reason to be ashamed of it.
 
OMG! They have these tools to take your privacy? Quick! Sign up for their "free" services and fill in the blanks for them so they dont have to do ANY fucking work!

Runaway! Mentos and Diet Coke Bomb! Oh shit, that shits real?!

I feel the need to stress this.

From what we now know; either go dark and get off the internet, or go full blown liberty movement.

If you are using RPF or any email, you are in just as much shit as the rest of us. Get a twitter account and use a fake username, just like you are doing on RPF, and start posting links to every news/video/blog where a cop/politician/soldier does something wrong.

Either get off this forum or shut up. I can appreciating staying off Facebook and not making it easy for them. I do it too. But posting here is no different than posting anywhere else. The NSA knows what you are doing and you have no reason to be ashamed of it.
 
When he was younger I showed my now four year old son the different types of cameras used for survaillence whenever we went out. Now, he points out every camera he sees. It's amazing the number of cameras he finds - they are positively everywhere. He points them out in restaurants and stores, along the street and on light poles, in the middle of nowhere along the highway, etc. you name the place and cameras are there.

He is not quiet about it at all. "Look dad a camera!" while we are out gets people looking around. I tell him not to look at the because the facial recognition software will be able to ID us, about the NSA, etc. He's heard it all before but it is a conversation that other people are clearly listening to. It drives my wife nuts but its our way of spreading the word.

To answer the question from the OP - The surveillance state cannot be evaded unless, as AF points out, someone starts messing up the equipment.
 
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