Government Spying Just Got Worse

Not too previously, my neighborhood’s net chat area was buzzing with anger at the county government (well … overthe same old anger). folks were upset thanks to county government spying via aerial drones.

These drones aren’t getting used to help in enforcement, firefighting or anything to try to to with protective life and limb. They’re getting used to extend our taxes.

According to Georgia law, the county is answerable for change residential property valuations each few years. however the county during which I live is badly run and constantly wanting cashso that they struggled to search out competent appraisers to travel door-to-door.

So in associate degree “aha!” moment (occurring with increasing frequency in bureaucracies across the nation), the county set to show to at least one of the bang-up technologies developed in our country’s endless “wars” within the Middle East — aerial spy-cameras.

Apparently the federal agency had its “aha” moment yet … and it’s coming back to your house before long.

From national capital to a Street close to You

In my neighborhood, drone-mounted spy-cams ar accustomed establish extensions and different enhancementsthat would increase a property’s price. (They are accustomed levy fines for “unauthorized” renovations.) as an example, one neighbor’s valuation inflated by over $20,000 as a result of she ordered low-cost pavers in her yardto make a areathat the county set was a “driveway.”

I’ve long warned that any technology developed by the govt. to conduct its wars and policing can inevitably be place to use against innocent voters. My prognosticative diary during this regard is 100%.

License-plate readers developed to observe traffic in Iraqi cities ar currently getting used to trace drivers here reception and to compile databases of our movements. The colossally wasteful JLENS police work blimps outside port were at the start designed to hover over capital of {afghanistan|national capital}, Afghanistan. a similarmobile police work tools employed in Iraq and Islamic State of Afghanistan are deployed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to spy on lawful public gatherings in portmetropolis and different cities.

Even the gear and techniques that enforcement agencies use of late ar traced directly from the combat area — like the Department of mother country Security’s “forward operative bases” within the border areas of the Southwest.

Now the federal agency has picked abreast of another period of time innovation: the “Stingray.”

Stingray technology is thus prized by the govt. that prosecutors have united to drop cases instead of disclose dataregarding it, even in serious criminal cases. The U.S. Marshals Service once forcibly taken over documents regarding the utilization of Stingrays so as to stay them from being delivered below a public records request by the yank Civil Liberties Union. They invoked the independent agency Act to justify their action.

Eyes and Ears within the Sky

The ray could be a subtle cellular phone dragnet device that mimics a cell tower, scanning all cellular phone signals in an exceedingly given space and observation communications on them. It is deployed on the bottom or by air. a minimum of fifty seven agencies in twenty two states and therefore the District of Columbia have Stingrays.

It seems there’s an honest reason the govt. can go to date on use laws designed to combat terrorist act to forestall the general public from checking out additional regarding the ray. Despite constant government denials, Stingrays is accustomed capture and record voice calls and text messages.

Another reason for the government’s reticence? though police forces round the country have even their acquisition of ray technology as “vital to the war on terrorist act,” a recent study shows that, in most cases, Stingrays ar solely used for domestic enforcementnotably associated with the questionable “War on Drugs” and money “crimes.”

Now we discover that the federal agency has had ray technology since 2009, upgrading it frequently and disbursement thousands on coaching its Criminal Investigation agents in its use.

As Ye Sow, thus Shall Ye Reap

The path from our failing wars (both abroad and at home) to Stingrays as a tax-enforcement tool is evident. One former Deputy federal agency Commissioner aforementioned that once agents worked with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to discover concealing by drug organizations, “the federal agency had … learned plenty of aggressive techniques … and these unhealthy habits were unseaworthy over into the tax world, that was speculated to be their real mission.”

I rest my case.

Every day, government spying is being honed into tools which will be accustomed take your wealth. the solethanks to stop them is to maneuver a number of your wealth out of the reach of Stingrays, license-plate scanners and tax-enforcement drones.


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