If local law enforcement can do this, imagine what Homeland Security can do.
And don’t give me terrorists, they’re not using this stuff.
Anybody can do it, that information is available for sale to companies for ‘marketing’ or whatever. Little dots moving around a map, no personally identifying data attached to the little dots who weirdly go somewhere every night and stay still for around 8 hours.
William Binney spelled it all out years ago. In the name of fighting terrorism, the power to surveil everyone was granted, keeping data on us all, including who we know and talk to, what we talk about, where we go, what we do. And Eric Snowden further spelled out that much of it is done through tech companies such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, and so forth.
Isn’t that even worse??
These companies are profiting from what you do. Shouldn’t you be compensated for that?
Oh wait, that’s right, you already told them it was OK.
A follow up to my original post.
I thought this part of the story was interesting:
The new policy establishes a 15-month pilot program, which would allow the SFPD to "temporarily live monitor activity during exigent circumstances, significant events with public safety concerns, and investigations relating to active misdemeanor and felony violations"
What the article doesn’t mention is how they do that.
In the case of the Ring doorbell cameras, that’s Amazon, right? So what do the police do? Do they call up Amazon and say “Hey, connect me with the camera at such and such address”, or do they have their own software that lets them tap into that video?
Seems to me if you’re trying to catch a crime while it happens, you need to get to that feed pretty quickly.
If it has live requirements it has to be automated and it can only be a ‘request’ in the sense that it could be denied on an opt-in/opt-out basis or whatever. I can’t imagine Amazon wanting to employ people for any reason.
Even if there is an opt out, I imagine the PATRIOT Act or similar trumps that.
I’ve never set one of those up so I don’t know how it works.
But I would think if there was some kind of opt out to allow the government to tap into your video feed, there would be people screaming about it all over the internet.
But to be on the safe side, just simply “DITCH YOUR DEVICES!!!” 
I think in general that people feel powerless on this stuff and so don’t want to think much about it.
It’s like all things, “in moderation”.
They’re great tools no doubt, but that’s all they should be. Just how much of this stuff do we really need?
People living and dying by all the crap they’re connected to. Put that shit down and go out and talk to people.
I love the scene from Wall-E where two fat inhabitants of the space station are talking to each other via their devices when they are right next to each other. We’re nearly there I think.
Just read an interesting article about how Gen Zr’s are dumping their smartphones for flip phones.
The article speculated on a couple of reasons for that. Partly nostalgia, but also speculated they are getting tired of being bombarded with all the 7/24 garbage on social media.
The article also stated that companies like Samsung, Nokia, and Motorola have ramped up production on those phones.
Just one article, so take it for what it’s worth. But maybe my prediction of people getting tired of all the social media BS may have some merit.
Excuse me for a bit while I pat myself on the back! 