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- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
The United States has emerged as the largest investor in commercial spyware—a global industry that has enabled the covert surveillance of journalists, human rights defenders, politicians, diplomats, and others, posing grave threats to human rights and national security.
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I love democracy
They really shouldn’t call it spyware. What they’re talking about is investment in the cyber mercenary industry
This is the original article
In the case of AE Industrial Partners, investment performance reports show that the firm was backed by several US pension funds—among them the Contra Costa County Employees’ Retirement Association, Baltimore Fire & Police Retirement System, Houston Firefighters’ Relief and Retirement Fund, and the New Mexico Educational Retirement Board—providing cash that could help support the deal with Paragon, which could reach $900 million.
Daymn. Firefighters unknowingly profiting from for-profit cyber mercenaries
What do they define as an “investment”
The irony is I remember growing up with numerous stories about how expression is locked down in China and everything there is surveilled and if you speak poorly against the government you’ll get arrested etc. And thank goodness we are free in America to express ourselves even if it’s against the government because, my gosh, I might not like what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it!
And as if with no sense of irony and not even a remote bit of critique, all those stories about surveillance in China (true or not, I don’t know) were actually true, are currently true, or are becoming true here in the USA. And in many cases they’re just sold as commodities back to us e.g. ring doorbell cameras.
And a final thought: the USA used to be able to justify many of its foreign interferences on a sort of moral high ground, including freedom of expression and all that. That mask was slipping but now with Trump2 seems to have just fallen off. The pretense has given away to crass might makes right international relations. I consider the USA becoming a hyper surveilled state to be part of this story.
Both are terrible
Indeed, I’m not justifying surveillance in either country. Just reflecting on how it’s been portrayed and is progressing here in the USA
Ironically, many americans are now using chinese platforms to freely discuss things without fear of the US government.
That mask was slipping but now with Trump2 seems to have just fallen off. The pretense has given away to crass might makes right international relations. I consider the USA becoming a hyper surveilled state to be part of this story.
the USA has always been like this and the only reason why they don’t like him is that he never bothered with the mask.
Yeah, because being crass is the ONLY reason to not like trump. 🙄
i failed clarify an important distinction: the only reason why [the ruling class] don’t like him is that he never bothered with the mask.
I just want to ask on behalf of people who don’t care about this, “why should I care about this”?
Because every time I bring up how much we’re being spied on by the government or Amazon or Google, et al, people just shrug it off. At best, they’ll admit it’s a problem - for people who should be worried about it. Meaning, “I’ve got nothing to hide”. If nothing else, Americans lack (or choose to reject) the basic concept of a shared society. If there’s a threat that the government is spying on people, we believe it’s the “other” people, not “us”.
Threats to our privacy is largely hypothetical for the majority of people. I’d even argue that the whole premise of privacy is no longer what it was just 15-20 years ago. I’ve even had people argue with me that they ‘want’ to be tracked so the ads they see are relevant to them.
So, I could see some Americans read this story and be in full support of this. They believe in a spy state as a means of protection. Ironically, these are also often the same people flying “Don’t Tread On Me” flags.
That enforces my point. Why should anyone care about some other person who, some may say, should have been spied on?
That’s why I am moving away from all US services, selfhosting and well vetted European services are the only viable way forward.
For individuals who want encryption, wouldn’t client-side checks (aka self hosting) be better than trusting all European services?
Cheaper than to rely on the NSA because people have terrible privacy practices anyway?
