Opinion: The Internet is a surveillance state. Bruce Schneier: Whether we like it or not, we're being tracked all the time on the Internet Schneier: Our surveillance state is efficient beyond the wildest dreams of George Orwell He says governments and corporations are working together to keep things that waySchneier: Slap-on-the-wrist fines notwithstanding, no one is agitating for better privacy laws Editor's note: Bruce Schneier is a security technologist and author of "Liars and Outliers: Enabling the Trust Society Needs to Survive.
" (CNN) -- I'm going to start with three data points. One: Some of the Chinese military hackers who were implicated in a broad set of attacks against the U.S. government and corporations were identified because they accessed Facebook from the same network infrastructure they used to carry out their attacks. Two: Hector Monsegur, one of the leaders of the LulzSac hacker movement, was identified and arrested last year by the FBI. Bruce Schneier The Internet is a surveillance state. So, we're done. Petro-state politics prompts CSIS to spy on citizens at alarming rate, FOIs reveal. Environmental activist Rod Marining knows the feel of steel handcuffs on his wrists. As co-founder of Greenpeace International, he sailed aboard Greenpeace ships campaigning against French atmospheric nuclear testing in French Polynesia, Japanese whaling in the Pacific and was thrown in jail for demonstrating against mahogany lumber imports to Europe. “I am considered a national security risk,” he said, noting that the RCMP keeps a file on him, for his eco-warrior activities on the high seas.
But these days, activists can get on the security radar for a whole lot less: according to a Guardian report on documents released under freedom of information laws, the RCMP and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) are increasingly blurring the line between real terrorists and average citizens who organize petitions, attend protests and express dissent. Fortier told The Vancouver Observer that that his group has never done anything to merit any police suspicion. Are You Feeling Safe Yet? CCTV cameras, drones, smart grid spying technology, online surveillance, and massive police budgets not making you feel safe? Do not fret! The Canadian government is putting in over time to ensure that you can rest easy! According to sunnewsnetwork.ca: “Armed US border guards may soon be on Canadian soil in Fort Erie, ON, pre-inspecting commercial vehicles before they cross the Peace Bridge into America. While details have not yet been determined, that’s one of the options being considered in a preliminary agreement that has been worked out between Canada and the U.S. to speed up traffic across the Peace Bridge.
The pilot agreement was announced earlier this week by New York Sen. The Peace Bridge and another unnamed international crossing will be the scene of the pilot project that begins in late December and will run for 18 months. Schumer called the pilot program a two-way victory for both countries because it will speed up traffic across the bridge.” That extra security is worth it no? RCMP supervisor's support for BCE-Astral deal criticized - Montreal. A high-ranking RCMP officer in B.C. has written a letter to Canada's broadcasting regulator in favour of media giant BCE Inc.'s plan to acquire Astral Media, a letter that the companies' rivals are denouncing.
Insp. Dana Hart says Mounties at the detachment in Terrace, which he runs, "rely on our local Astral Media extensively to inform the public" about safety issues in the area. For instance, the Northern B.C. city's Astral-owned TV station collaborates with the Mounties on filming and airing Crimestoppers video re-enactments, which help solve crimes, Hart writes. Hart also wades into broadcasting policy in his letter to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.
"BCE's acquisition will not only yield benefits for Astral's specialty and pay telelvision services and radio stations, but also for the Canadian broadcasting system as a whole in terms of investment and innovation. Quebecor, Cogeco piqued Read the letter Click here to read RCMP Insp. RCMP to toe Tory line. Stephen Maher, The Windsor Star Published: Tuesday, November 22, 2011 Last week, Tonda MacCharles of the Toronto Star received a brown envelope containing a leaked copy of the new Communications Protocol Between the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Public Safety Canada.
The two-page document outlines a new, closer relationship between the Mounties and the government, and raises the worrying possibility that the Tories will rebrand the force as the Royal Conservative Mounted Police. The Conservatives are trying to change Canada's brand, because the Liberals had been so effective at manipulating the country's image in their bilingual, multicultural, red-tie-wearing ways that the Tories always seemed somehow un-Canadian. Canada was the only country in the world where the conservative party wasn't the party associated with patriotism, so Stephen Harper's people have worked hard to link the Conservative brand with the flag, the military, the police and the monarchy.
Last year, Chief Supt. Anti-Harper Plane Banner: PSAC Says RCMP Grounded Plane For StephenHarperNousDéteste.ca Message. UPDATE: The RCMP's Cpl. Lucy Shorey said the plane hired by PSAC appeared to have entered restricted airspace, and so the RCMP ordered it to land, she told the CBC. Mounties maintain the banner wasn't a concern, according to Canoe.ca. This plane's critical message for Stephen Harper just won't fly. At least that's what the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) says the RCMP conveyed on Saturday. The union has accused the RCMP of grounding a plane it hired due to its political message: A banner that read “StephenHarperNousDéteste.ca.” That translates to "Stephen Harper Hates Us. " PSAC planned for the plane to fly over Gatineau and Ottawa for three hours on Saturday morning, but landed after an hour and a half.
The union said authorities ordered the aircraft to land because it had entered Parliament Hill's restricted airspace, although the pilot reportedly knew about the restrictions and steered clear of them, a claim Nav Canada confirmed, according to Canada.com. Related on HuffPost: NDP: Tories complicit in rights abuses. The Conservatives are condoning immoral abuses — and flouting the law — by allowing RCMP and Canada Border Services officers to use information obtained through torture, say opposition MPs. Newly disclosed records show Public Safety Minister Vic Toews quietly issued the instructions to the Mounties and the border agency last September after giving nearly identical orders to Canada’s spy service.
The government directives, released under the Access to Information Act, state that protection of life and property are the chief considerations when deciding on the use of information that may have been extracted through torture. They also outline instructions for deciding whether to share information when there is a “substantial risk” that doing so might result in someone in custody being abused. The Privy Council Office did not respond to questions Monday as to whether other ministers had issued similar directives. Interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae called the latest directives “quite shocking.” Border guards told to forget about illegal drug exports. The new totalitarianism of surveillance technology | Naomi Wolf. A software engineer in my Facebook community wrote recently about his outrage that when he visited Disneyland, and went on a ride, the theme park offered him the photo of himself and his girlfriend to buy – with his credit card information already linked to it.
He noted that he had never entered his name or information into anything at the theme park, or indicated that he wanted a photo, or alerted the humans at the ride to who he and his girlfriend were – so, he said, based on his professional experience, the system had to be using facial recognition technology. He had never signed an agreement allowing them to do so, and he declared that this use was illegal. He also claimed that Disney had recently shared data from facial-recognition technology with the United States military. Yes, I know: it sounds like a paranoid rant. Except that it turned out to be true. Man shot dead in patrol car while handcuffed reported as suicide. LITTLE ROCK, ARK. —A man whose hands were cuffed behind him in the back seat of an Arkansas patrol car shot himself in the right temple with a handgun he apparently concealed from arresting officers, according to an autopsy report released Monday that listed the death as a suicide.
The state crime lab report, signed by three medical examiners, said the muzzle of a gun was placed against Chavis Carter's head when it was fired. Police released the report to The Associated Press and other news organizations under a Freedom of Information Act request. The report said the manner of death was ruled a suicide based on autopsy findings and investigative conclusions from the Jonesboro police department. “He was cuffed and placed into a police car, where apparently he produced a weapon, and despite being handcuffed, shot himself in the head,” the report said.
Police have said officers frisked Carter, 21, twice after a traffic stop without finding a gun before he was fatally shot July 28. RCMP officer investigated over bondage photos - British Columbia.