realizethelies 8:54 am on May 7, 2022
Tags: Data Collection ( 19 ), Data harvesting, Data Tracking ( 4 ), Domestic Spying, F.B.I, National Security ( 6 ), Social Media ( 2 ), STUDI, Web Surveillance

FBI Spying On Americans Nearly Triples In 1 Year

The FBI made queries into almost 3.4 million Americans between December 2020 and November 2021, the US intelligence community admitted in an official report on Friday. The FBI said it was looking for foreign hackers, but civil libertarian groups called it an “enormous” invasion of privacy.

The FBI alone made “fewer than 3,394,053” queries of US citizens in that time period, related to information collected under the controversial authority to spy on foreigners. The findings were made public in the Annual Intelligence Community Transparency Report.

The electronic data was collected legally under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the report claims. According to the ODNI, the number is due to “a number of large batch queries related to attempts to compromise U.S. critical infrastructure by foreign cyber actors” in the first half of 2021, which “included approximately 1.9 million query terms related to potential victims – including US persons.”

This accounts for the “vast majority of the increase in US person queries conducted by FBI over the prior year,” There were fewer than 1.3 million such queries in the December 2019 to November 2020 period, according to the same findings.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has reacted, calling the FBI’s behavior an invasion of privacy “on an enormous scale.” “Today’s report sheds light on the extent of these unconstitutional ‘backdoor searches,’ and underscores the urgency of the problem,” ACLU Senior Staff Attorney Ashley Gorski said in a statement. “It’s past time for Congress to step in to protect Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights.”

Section 702 of the FISA act allows the DNI and the US attorney general to target non-US persons located outside of the US in order to acquire foreign intelligence.

Original story: Here

F.B.I. looks to (further) expand it’s Social media surveillance network

Data mining AI company Panamerica Computers is partnering up with the FBI to give a boost to their online surveillance capabilities. The contract is worth up to $27 million, and will provide the FBI with 5,000 licenses for one of its tools.

The licenses,give the FBI – specifically its Strategic Technology Unit of Directorate of Intelligence – the right to use a data analytics tool called Babel X, which harvests user data, including location, from the internet.

When the FBI issued a procurement call for a tool, whose purpose, boiled down, is to track a massive number of social media posts, the agency said that it must provide capability of searching multiple social media sites, in multiple languages.

As per FBI’s procurement documents, the tool had to be able to scrape data from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Deep/Dark Web, VK, and Telegram, while being able to do the same with Snapchat, TikTok. Reddit, 8Kun, Gab, Parler, ask.fm, Weibo, and Discord would be considered a plus.

In addition, the FBI said it would prefer more “fringe” as well as encrypted messaging platforms to be included in the winning bid. Another requirement was for the tool to carry out surveillance of these sites continuously, while the data collected would be held by the vendor and then pushed to the FBI.

Original Story via: Reclaim the Net

realizethelies 4:07 pm on August 16, 2016
Tags: ADS, Camera Drones, Domestic Spying, facial recognition software ( 8 ), Less than Lethal Weapons, LRAD, Microwave Weapons ( 7 ), UAV Drones ( 22 )

Terrifying New Weapons Police Are Using To Crush Protests

The future of police technology has arrived, and it’s stranger and more terrifying than we could’ve possibly imagined.

Conspiracy theorists’ worst fears were confirmed last month when the New York Post reported that the NYPD now maintains an undisclosed number of unmarked, military-grade vans with X-ray radiation, capable of scanning the public and looking through building and vehicle walls.

This technology, called the “Z Backscatter” van, was used by the military in Afghanistan and costs somewhere between $729,000 and $825,000.
However, there’s no way we can know for sure what these futuristic vans are capable of, including potential health impacts due to radiation exposure, because the NYPD refuses to talk about them. The NYPD’s insistence on complete, blanketing secrecy is part of a growing trend within the surveillance state that civil rights advocates have been fighting for decades.

The Backscatter vans are only the beginning. Police departments around the nation have deployed a whole host of new devices, from laser light guns to facial recognition scanners. Here’s what’s being used by police right now:

Pain Ray Cannon (Active Denial System)

What began in the early days of the Bush Administration as a way to quell Iraq war-era uprisings could soon end up at local police departments.
The pain ray cannon, or “Active Denial System,” (ADS) as the police call it, is the latest form of military-grade crowd control. The weapon uses microwave beams to heat up the water and fat molecules in a person’s skin, effectively heating the person up until they run away.

Though “less-than-lethal,” its effects are anything but enjoyable. According to people who have had the pain ray tested on them, “it feels like someone opened an invisible door to a blast furnace in front of them, or that their skin was being scorched all over instantly. During protest situations, an ADS could be swept across large groups of people at a closer range than originally intended. The systems could be used to deter a crowd from a single area or to incapacitate drivers. If left unchecked, the pain ray cannon could allow for some pretty repulsive human rights violations.

LRAD Sound Cannons

Instead of tear gas and batons, departments have taken to using Long Range Acoustic Devices (LRADs), to transmit a super-loud high-pitched scream into crowds. The sound is literally too painful to be around and is intended to “shape the behavior of potential threats”
Police Departments from New York City to Toronto to Ferguson, Missouri are using LRADs indiscriminately on protesters, causing excruciating pain to anyone within range.

This is not a precision tool,” said Gideon Oliver, a lawyers who wrote to NYPD Commissioner Bratton. “This is an area-of-effect weapon. When the police use it, it’s not as if they’re just targeting one person. It’s indiscriminate like teargas.”

Facial Recognition Software

With secrecy and deception clouding any conversation about the militarized surveillance state, we can only assume that we are being recorded almost all the time, at least in urban areas. The market has more than tripled since 2008, with cameras being used more invasively every day.

Just last year the Boston Police Department was caught testing out its facial recognition technology on attendees of Boston Calling music festival without their knowledge. Data on each individual’s build, clothes and skin color was captured on thousands of people.

The ACLU claims police departments are also attempting to gain access to private security cameras in order to expand their surveillance reach without having to install new cameras of their own.

HD Camera Drones

Even more aggressive than thousands of surveillance cameras on every street corner is police reconnaissance from the sky. Several police departments have deployed aircrafts with high-resolution cameras and software that can identify and track people over long distances. FBI versions of these planes include technology that may be able to capture private data from cellphones as they track someone, according to the Associated Press.

Concerns have been raised regarding use of this technology for police surveillance, including protection from “unreasonable search and seizure.” The U.S. Department of Justice released its own guidelines on the matter in May, barring federal law enforcement agencies from using drones to “monitor activity protected by the First Amendment”, such as peaceful protests.

Original Article: CS Globe

realizethelies 3:40 pm on April 27, 2016
Tags: Domestic Spying, Pre Crime Technology ( 5 ), Pre-Crime ( 22 )

Predictive Policing Models Have Already Determined Your “Threat Level”

Whether you like it or not, police departments across the country have been accessing a special data base which contains a plethora of personal information on you and the rest of the American population. And much like a ‘credit report,’ these computerized predictive policing models have likely already issued your personal ‘threat level.’

So what started all of this?

These Pre-Crime systems and technologies were first introduced and were fully functional just days after the alleged attacks on the Pentagon and WTC in September of 2001 and have been advancing ever since. To put it in layman’s terms; if you have ever seen any of the Terminator movies — essentially “Skynet” has been activated right here in good old America and has been running now for some 15 years.

In fact, the systems are so advanced that police departments can now literally toggle between license plate, facial, iris, and gate recognition software/camera networks, along with satellite data, StingRay, and drone technologies to track suspects throughout the country in realtime, thus assigning any new active and open case a ‘targeted individual‘ status which also ties into the National Security Agency’s current Domestic Spying.

According to the Washington Post, “The number of local police departments that employ some type of technological surveillance increased from 20 percent in 1997 to more than 90 percent in 2013, according to the latest information from the Bureau of Justice Statistics,” which is alarming to say the least.

Via: IntelliHub

realizethelies 2:46 pm on April 27, 2016
Tags: Domestic Spying

The F.B.I. can turn on your webcam without you even knowing

Not only can the FBI activate cameras on civilian computers, but the agency has been doing so for several years. That’s according to Marcus Thomas, a former assistant director with the bureau, who spoke to the Washington Post about the controversial computer hacking technique used by law enforcement in the United States.

Most webcams come equipped with an indicator light, which alerts users when they’re being recorded. However, the FBI supposedly has the ability to disable this feature.The tactic has been utilized “mainly” against suspected terrorists but is also used in non-terrorism related investigations.

Legal limitations placed on online surveillance have long been considered a hindrance to the FBI. Compared to the National Security Agency, the FBI has been extraordinarily vocal about its intentions.The agency’s primary goal in 2013, as stated by Andrew Weissman at the American Bar Association, was to expand wiretapping capabilities to include all forms of real-time online communication, such as conversations that take place over Google chat.

Valerie Caproni, a former FBI general counsel, previously outlined the agency’s concerns before the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security. “The challenge facing our state and local counterparts is exacerbated by the fact that there is currently no systematic way to make existing federally developed electronic intercept solutions widely available across the law enforcement community.
Caproni’s testimony included descriptions of two criminal investigations, which she said illustrated the need for increased surveillance powers. The first case cited involved a narcotics investigation; the second, the distribution of child pornography. Both of these crimes, while serious violations of the law, do not constitute a threat to national security.

New wiretap technologies developed by The Domestic Communications Assistance Center (DCAC or NDCAC), are implemented through the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), a law that requires telecommunications carriers—including Internet service providers—to accommodate government surveillance by retrofitting their equipment. In coordination with other agencies, the FBI has continuously sought to expand the authority granted to it by CALEA.

The debate over state surveillance powers isn’t likely to end anytime soon. If you’d prefer to not get shy while standing in front of your appliances, you can always slap duct tape over your webcam.

Via: Daily Dot

realizethelies 2:51 pm on March 15, 2016
Tags: D.O.D. ( 4 ), Domestic Spying, Pentagon ( 5 ), U.S. Military ( 2 ), UAV Drones ( 22 )

Pentagon Admission: It’s Been Deploying Military Drones to Spy on Americans

Under a FOIA request, a Pentagon inspector general made public a report admitting to the use of drones to spy on U.S. citizens.The missions were non-military in nature, meaning they were used for domestic spying purposes. Naturally, the Pentagon is claiming it broke no laws in the deployment of said drones and contends that the flights were rare.

The idea of US military drones flying over the heads of US citizens and monitoring them is ominous, which explains why the Pentagon has kept it secret — despite the contention of breaking no laws.While the report on domestic drone use was completed in March of 2015, it was only quietly released last week.

According to USA Today’s report:

Shortly before the inspector general report was completed a year ago, the Pentagon issued a new policy governing the use of spy drones. It requires the defense secretary to approve all domestic spy drone operations. It says that unless permitted by law and approved by the secretary, drones “may not conduct surveillance on U.S. persons.” It also bans the use of armed drones over the United States for anything other training and testing.

The units who have been operating the drones stated to the inspector general they want to fly more missions domestically. “Multiple units told us that as forces using the UAS capabilities continue to draw down overseas, opportunities for UAS realistic training and use have decreased,”
However, drone usage overseas has not been reduced, and, in fact, their use has skyrocketed under the current administration. Just last year, the Pentagon announced that they had plans to sharply expand the number of U.S. drone flights over the next four years, giving military commanders access to more intelligence and greater firepower to keep up with a sprouting number of global hot spots.

Now, all the military has to do to fly weaponized drones over US citizens is say they are training.
The use of military gear on US citizens has sharply increased over the last decade as police departments have become heavily militarized with weapons once used on the battlefield. Now, instead of giving these weapons to police departments, the military seems to be conducting their own missions against US citizens.

Via TheRunDown Live

realizethelies 3:50 pm on March 14, 2016
Tags: Data Collection ( 19 ), Domestic Spying, F.B.I. ( 8 ), Federal Government, National Security ( 6 )

Public Data to be used by NSA for domestic policing

In the wake of recent public revelations about N.S.A. data collection and domestic spying, the New York Times reports that National Security Agency data will be shared with other intelligence agencies like the FBI without first applying any screens for privacy. What does this rule change mean for you? In short, domestic law enforcement officials now have access to huge amounts of public communications, obtained without warrants, that they can use to put people in jail.

Now Federal agents wont have to need a “national security” related reason to plug your name, email address, phone number, or other “selector” into the NSA’s gargantuan data trove. They can simply poke around in your private information in the course of totally routine investigations. If they find something that suggests, say, involvement in illegal drug activity, they can send that information to local or state police. That means information the NSA collects for purposes of so-called “national security” will be used by police to lock up ordinary Americans for routine crimes.

This basically formalizes what was already happening under the radar. We’ve known for a couple of years now that the D.E.A. and the IRS were getting information from the NSA. Because that information was obtained without a warrant, the agencies were instructed to engage in “parallel construction” when explaining to courts and defense attorneys how the information had been obtained

Until now, N.S.A. analysts have filtered the surveillance information for the rest of the government. They search and evaluate the information and pass only the portions of phone calls or email that they decide is pertinent on to colleagues at the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other agencies. And before doing so, the N.S.A. takes steps to mask the names and any irrelevant information about innocent Americans.
The new system would permit analysts at other intelligence agencies to obtain direct access to raw information from the N.S.A.’s surveillance to evaluate for themselves.

It’s all another sobering reminder that any powers we grant to the federal government for the purpose of national security will inevitably be used just about everywhere else. And extraordinary powers we grant government in wartime rarely go away once the war is over.

Sources: Washington Post, New York Times

realizethelies 12:41 pm on March 10, 2016
Tags: Domestic Spying, Domestic Terrorism, Government Watch List, Terrorism ( 20 )

9 Ways To Get Your Name on a Government Watch List

You might think that government watch lists are reserved for violent radical extremists. You might be wrong.There is a very serious war taking place, a “war on terror“. Which should sound ludicrous to any rational, thinking human being. How can we wage a war on terror? Terror is a consequence of war itself. You can’t fight a war on something that war produces?

Talk about a vicious cycle. And terror doesn’t only exist overseas. There are apparently very dangerous people here on domestic soil, too. Dangerous people that don’t follow the herd. Who don’t walk in orderly lines. Scary people that oppose corrupt systems.

Some people consider earning a spot on the government watch list as a badge of honor. Fortunately for them, it doesn’t seem too difficult to land yourself on one of these government watch lists (at least not if you’ve ever had a thought independent of the ones the media is constantly spoon feeding you… or if you’re a fairly normal and boring human being).

1. Displaying Bumper Stickers on Your Vehicle

If you think the display of snarky bumper stickers all over the back of your minivan is just a form of self-expression, you’re wrong. It could be an act of terrorism. According to a training manual used in the State and Local Anti-Terrorism Training program for law enforcement. stickers could be indications of terrorist activity. Some suspicious sticker subjects include pro-life, pro-freedom, anti-genetic engineering, anti-United Nations, and patriotism.

2. Paying With Cash

Suspicious, isn’t it? That you would pay cold hard cash for anything? Maybe because it’s harder for the powers that be to keep tabs on cash purchases than electronic ones. Think twice about pulling out a few ones to pay for your morning coffee. It’s probably even more terrifying if you pay for your bulk peanut butter, toilet paper, and ravioli with a few twenties.

3. Voting Third Party

Step outside the two-party political illusion and you might be considered a terrorist threat. A law enforcement report (2009) from the Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC) listed libertarians (and Ron Paul supporters) as potential terrorist threats. In fact you probably don’t even have to vote with a third party, perhaps just thinking about voting for someone outside the two party system would be enough to get you in trouble with the “thought police”.

4. Homeschooling your child

Unless you’re teaching your kids how to field strip a rifle in under a minute you probably think that you’re safe. All of those worksheets and museum trips and popsicle-stick art couldn’t possibly be a threat to national security. Yet the documentary film, 9/11: The Road To Tyranny, featured footage of a lecturer at a FEMA symposium for first responders stating that homeschoolers were terrorists and should be treated with the utmost suspicion and brutality in times of national emergency.

5. Believing in Conspiracy Theories

After reading this list, it’s easy to believe in some insane government conspiracy to land every American citizen on a government watch list. Beware: Believing in conspiracy theories… well, that’s reason enough to land your name on a government watch list. In fact Half of the population is considered dangerous, due to free thinking and openly questioning official stories.

Full Story: The Rundown Live

realizethelies 3:30 pm on February 17, 2016
Tags: Domestic Spying, Domestic Surveillance ( 5 ), patriot act ( 2 )

Patriot Act going Global? UK Seeks Authority to Serve Warrants in America

Britain has been negotiating a plan with the United States which would allow the UK to directly serve wiretap warrants on American communications companies for national security and criminal proceedings.The claim is that everything has gone global and terror is no exception, so this is the only next logical step in combating it.

As reported in USA today:

British and U.S. officials have been negotiating a plan that could allow British authorities to directly serve wiretap orders on U.S. communications companies in criminal and national security inquiries, U.S. officials have confirmed

“Such an agreement would ensure U.S. access to data stored in the United Kingdom in support of law enforcement, terrorism, and other transnational threat investigations and support our partners’ ability to investigate serious crime, as well as terrorism and other transnational threats on a reciprocal basis,”

Considering how many threats they’ve known about and been able to actually thwart, this surely isn’t about further chipping away at everyone’s privacy along with American Constitutional protections as well as national sovereignty at all.

Never mind the fact that “Homeland Security” has not stopped one terrorist plot at all..ever( wouldn’t they have to, in order to justify their existence?) Or that a Majority of the supposedly thwarted plots were actually F.B.I. led contrived situations. You kind of have to ask yourself the question of, “is any of this increased security/spying actually working for or against the American People??”

It’s also no secret that U.S. and U.K. government’s have been sharing intelligence on each others citizens (Er, uh I mean Suspects) for decades. But now they are moving forward with the next phase in the global surveillance/Big brother Superstate.

Via Activist Post

realizethelies 10:19 am on April 12, 2015
Tags: Domestic Spying, Domestic Surveillance ( 5 ), patriot act ( 2 )

All of the Ways Big Brother Is Watching You

Privacy as we once knew it is dead. We now find ourselves in the unenviable position of being monitored, managed and controlled by our technology—specifically the technology employed by the government against the American citizenry. As a result, warns John W. Whitehead,we are becoming a nation where even the most virtuous citizen risks becoming an outlaw.

Via Activist Post

realizethelies 3:57 pm on August 2, 2013
Tags: Department of Homeland Security ( 4 ), DHS ( 3 ), Domestic Spying, F.B.I. ( 8 ), Terror Suspects, Terrorism ( 20 )

Every American Is Now A Terrorist According to The US Government

It’s official, every single American can now be classified as a terrorist by the US government. The label of ‘terrorist’ no longer applies to members of al-Qaeda of ‘extremists’, but the average citizen of this nation.

literally 100% of the population can be classified as a terrorist under the truly outrageous Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and FBI characteristics that define a terrorist or terrorist activity. These broad qualifications of ‘terrorism’ that have spawned a new wave of absolute paranoia within the population regarding their fellow citizens, who the nightly news says may be sleeper cell terrorists.

Simply doing a google search on Pressure cookers, or posting lyrics on Facebook,can now lead to federal investigation and being charged with “Terrorism’

Here are qualifications of a terrorist in the United States under the Department of Homeland Security and FBI guidelines.

‘Terrorists’ Pay With Cash
Have you ever payed with cash instead of a credit card? The FBI, operating alongside the DHS in helping to stop terrorism and detain terrorists, says you are likely a terrorist if you do so often. Under the FBI’s Communities Against Terrorism (CAT) program, using cash instead of debt-inducing credit cards means that you are a terrorist suspect

‘Terrorists’ Care About Privacy
If you’re concerned about the NSA spying on all of your private emails or listening to your intimate phone calls, you are likely a terrorist under FBI guidelines. And don’t even consider voicing concern for your privacy in a public area, which the FBI says is a definite red flag of a terrorist. According to the FBI and Justice Department’s Communities Against Terrorism initiative,being concerned about your privacy might just send you to Guantanamo.

(Because if you have nothing to hide, then you shouldn’t be concerened that every aspect of your life is spied on, It worked for the citizens of Nazi Germany, why not here?)

‘Terrorists’ Know About GMOs

Extremist terrorists most of all are familiar with GMOs and dare to agree that they should be labeled, which 93-96% of the country actually is in favor of. According to a major report out of Germany, this demographic is even targeted by the US military for desiring GMO labeling and all forms of political activism. So just this category alone covers about 96% of the US population alone, leaving around 4% left to be absorbed through other terrorist activities.

Full Story @ StoryLeak.com

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Tag Archives: Domestic Spying