What are we really putting into our homes?

[Stoner4Life]

the last cell phone I had in my name was in 2010 & I only used it for an extensive east coast road trip, done w/the trip I cancelled the phone. Next was a prepaid from Walmart, anonymous I used it for about 6-7 months then just gave up on the technology.

I find myself wanting one occasionally while in the car, but not needing it really, I don't covet the high end tech side either, I'm home or very nearby 95% of the time, I don't need to be checking emails or texting I even despise the idea of texts, F'ing ridiculous, duncebots staring @ their phones, putting their lives out there in cyberville on god only knows how many servers.

The only thing dumber than texting is putting an 'Alexa' device in your crib. I even had the option of getting a voice controlled Amazon FireStick TV device, pass, I'm able to operate the buttons on the remote just fine thank you.......

 

[9DRAGONS]

nothing like the old days

Bruce Schneier

 

[CosmicGiggle]

nothing like the old days

Bruce Schneier

He he he, now picture this sick futuristic scenario:

It's 2028 and you're in your self-driving car making a pick-up for a fun weekend when all of a sudden you hear the click of 4 doors locking and the car starts going in the wrong direction, headed directly to the nearby police station to drop you off at their direction.

..... and you can thank yourself, your computer, Alexa and alla the algorithms created by the stuff you've clicked on from Google, Youtube, Facebook etc.

'They' know all about you, more than you know yourself in fact.

'They' know what you're thinking and planning to plan before you do!

I'm thinking of buying a new PC and re-inventing my identity, a new, reformed 'me' who searches for info on families, children, local churches and bingo and beer!

 

[Ringodoggie]

Actually, they can do that already. Almost. They can shut down your vehicle and lock the doors. I don't think they can actually prevent you from getting out but I don't know for sure.

I could find out easy enough. A friend of mine is a hacker in Detroit (actually, he is in Chicago but he hacks Detroit). He gets paid giant sums from the car companies to hack competitors car computers. There's a ton of proprietary info in those chips. LOL

But, the fact still remains that WE can still reverse THEIR code. There is NOTHING THEY can put in there that WE won't find.

So, they will never put really scary code in there because they KNOW we will find it.

Search some of the better hacker forums. You'll see that they are reversing all the TV's, Alexa crap and everything else, just hoping to find something to blast them with. LOL

I was on the team that reversed the original DirecTV encryption that THEY said was unhackable.

NOTHING is unhackable. Therefore the designers know better than to put something in there that will shoot them in the foot.

If you REALLY want to know what's in your house, start searching hacker forums. Every single one has been reversed and the code commented and posted for ALL to see.

There is only danger in ignorance. Like being afraid to sail of the edge of the world. A'int gonna happen if you KNOW the world is round and not flat.

Computers rule over the world and I rule over the computer. What's to fear?

 

[St. Phatty]

He he he, now picture this sick futuristic scenario:

speaking of futuristic scenarios ...

drones with * * * firearms attached.

Actually the US military has already done that one.

It's portrayed fairly accurately in the scene in Aliens when they have robot sentries in the hallways, battling the invading Big Smart Bugs.

 

[Kankakee]

i had a friend in mid 90's who's family was running a ton of heroin into chicago.

they had busted supply chain out of texas a year prior then started watching family. in court it came out that they could listen into his parents home via the land line phone. even when hung up. ( as these conversations only took place at that table ) it was a large family with many liquor stores etc but kept touch at parents house for family meetings in kitchen. i would go in cabinet for chips or something and it was filled with cash. my other bud even seen a freezer filled with cash at dinner / liquor store in city .... they all drove broken down used cars none of us growing up had a clue -

a brother was busted unloading 90 kilo's from a produce truck at food mart. they also had connections with mob so brother kept mouth shut as entire family would have been at risk. they had another brother who lived in south america and had dated cartel family member. he did 19 years and others did time in family over tax evasion.

with technology in 2018 doing these kind of op's is risky, risky stuff because once state lines are crossed they can drop the hammer'

 

[Kankakee]

with the power of computing they can run facial recognition over live video now.

and with modern platforms they can have programs watch all digital communication. searching for key words so the man power is not needed computers will do it for them.

this drone below can continually watch a 26 mile wide area. and in real-time they can select one person then back-track into video and watch a persons movements over many months. and now the usa passed a law so they can fly anywhere with our borders. this thing pics up birds and guy in video explains they are not even showing you the true details yet in this video shown the detail is unbelievable. every single moving object is being recorded and information download at same time into storage facilities on the ground.

1.8 gigapixel ARGUS-IS. World's highest resolution video surveillance platform by DARPA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGxNyaXfJsA

 

[JustSumTomatoes]

In my teenage years I was over paranoid to what big brother might know about me and what could happen at a moments notice given the will of the powers that be. I remember we would never talk about weed over the phone openly. It was only referred to as "poodle." How the hell we came up with that name is beyond me, but it was the jargon we used. Yes, your friendly neighborhood stoner living the double life as if he was some sort of international spy lol. I can see it now... Wire taps and groups of elite CIA spy hunters deciphering the code of stoned kids preparing to make the most insignificant of arrests. Ahh the good ol' days of when anything was possible.

In all seriousness big brother isn't the ultimate genius super villain he's made out to be. He deserves far less credit if you ask me. In fact he's probably a pothead too but prefers to remain in the closet while telling his younger bro to grow up for doing the same thing. He has self confidence issues and occasionally has a few slick moves to show off, but generally can't tell his ass from his elbow when caught in a bind himself.

Yep, the world is run by idiots. I can no longer bring myself to be paranoid over a group of people that can't balance a budget, stop getting caught for sex scandals or sending dick pics.

 

[Kankakee]

BuzzFeed News Trained A Computer To Search For Hidden Spy Planes. This Is What We Found.

From planes tracking drug traffickers to those testing new spying technology, US airspace is buzzing with surveillance aircraft operated for law enforcement and the military.
August 07, 2017

A secret spy plane operated by the US Marshals hunted drug cartel kingpins in Mexico. A military contractor that tracks terrorists in Africa is alsoflying surveillance aircraft over US cities. In two stories published last week, BuzzFeed News revealed the activities of aircraft that their operators didn’t want to discuss. These discoveries came not from tip-offs from anonymous sources, but by training a computer to recognize known spy planes, then setting it loose on large quantities of flight-tracking data compiled by the website Flightradar24.

Here’s how we did it.

Surveillance aircraft often keep a low profile: The FBI, for example, registers its planes to fictitious companies to mask their true identity.So BuzzFeed News trained a computer to find them by letting a machine-learning algorithm sift for planes with flight patterns that resembled those operated by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. Last year, we reported on aerial surveillance by these planes, mapping thousands of flights over more than four months from mid-August to the end of December 2015.First we made a series of calculations to describe the flight characteristics of almost 20,000 planes in the four months of Flightradar24 data: their turning rates, speeds and altitudes flown, the areas of rectangles drawn around each flight path, and the flights’ durations. We also included information on the manufacturer and model of each aircraft, and the four-digit squawk codes emitted by the planes’ transponders.

Then we turned to an algorithm called the “random forest,” training it to distinguish between the characteristics of two groups of planes: almost 100 previously identified FBI and DHS planes, and 500 randomly selected aircraft. The random forest algorithm makes its own decisions about which aspects of the data are most important. But not surprisingly, given that spy planes tend to fly in tight circles, it put most weight on the planes’ turning rates. We then used its model to assess all of the planes, calculating a probability that each aircraft was a match for those flown by the FBI and DHS. The algorithm was not infallible: Among other candidates, it flagged several skydiving operations that circled in a relatively small area, much like a typical surveillance aircraft. But as an initial screen for candidate spy planes, it proved very effective. In addition to aircraft operated by the US Marshals and the military contractor Acorn Growth Companies, covered in our previous stories, it highlighted a variety of planes flown by law enforcement, and by the military and its contractors. Some of these aircraft use technologies that challenge our assumptions about when and how we're being watched, tracked, or listened to. It's only by understanding when and how these technologies are used from the air that we'll be able to debate the balance between effective law enforcement, national security, and individual privacy.

Here are five of the most intriguing examples we found.

Some of the algorithm’s top matches were aircraft operated by state and local law enforcement: The top 20 candidates included aircraft registered to the cities of Mesa and Phoenix in Arizona, the sheriffs of Orange and Los Angeles counties in California, and the Ohio State Highway Patrol. In July of last year, the Ohio plane showed up above Cleveland during the Republican National Convention, where it watched for “suspicious persons in immediate proximity to secure areas,” a patrol spokesperson told BuzzFeed News at the time. The algorithm also highlighted a plane registered to a company called Five Point Aerial Survey, which seems to be a front for the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office in Florida. The fake company’s name recalls the sheriff’s badge, and the plane’s registration number, ending in the letters “RB,” is consistent with other planes registered openly by the office. The Palm Beach County Sheriff has reserved other registration numbers in the same format, giving an address for an outfit called Eagle Eye Investigations.

1. State and local cops, featuring the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s secret plane

The Five Point plane carries a surveillance camera and augmented-reality system, able to superimpose information onto live video, which is often used on law enforcement planes. But Teri Barbera, the sheriff’s director of media relations, would neither confirm nor deny that the Five Point aircraft belonged to the sheriff’s office — which denied a request for documents mentioning the plane, citing an exemption from state records law covering law enforcement surveillance and undercover personnel.

Over the past couple of years, the Five Point plane has regularly circled locations around Palm Beach and patrolled off its coast.

3. The military: Air Force Special Ops, Big Safari, and Air Cerberus

Most military aircraft don’t have civilian registrations and aren’t recorded on commercial flight-tracking websites. But a number of military spy planes nevertheless showed up in the Flightradar24 data. We were initially baffled by some of the aircraft the algorithm flagged: They included one plane that identified itself as a powered parachute, and another as a small drone owned by a photographer. The location of their circling paths, and some digging into the history of the aircraft registrations, solved the mystery. They were U-28A spy planes operated by US Air Force Special Operations Command from its base at Hurlburt Field in the Florida Panhandle. These planes are modified from civilian Pilatus PC-12 aircraft by the Sierra Nevada Corporation, a major defense contractor. Flying for the military, some were still transmitting the identifying code linked to their old civilian registration numbers, which had since been recycled.

Another aircraft in the algorithm’s haul belonged to the Air Force’s 645th Aeronautical Engineering Systems Group. Known as “Big Safari,” this secretive unit is based at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, and has run special operations overseas. At home, it flies a C-146AWolfhound aircraft that is a test bed for electronic surveillance equipment. We saw this plane circling over Raleigh and Fayetteville in North Carolina (near the Fort Bragg Army base), and near Denver.Widening the search to other aircraft registered to Big Safari, we spotted a Pilatus PC-12 that mostly circled near Denver. This appears to be one of18 planes prepared by the Sierra Nevada Corporation for transfer to the Afghan army’s Special Mission Wing to spy on Taliban insurgents. Big Safari declined to comment in detail on its operations. “To preserve our technical advantage over any adversary, we do not discuss specific capabilities or testing,” Emily Grabowski, a spokesperson for the US Air Force, told BuzzFeed News by email.

4. The drug cops: Silver Creek Aviation and Chaparral Air Group

After the DHS and the FBI, the largest fleet of federal law enforcement aircraft belongs to the Drug Enforcement Administration. The DEA is also the federal agency that has made the greatest effort to hide its planes from public view. According to records obtained by BuzzFeed News under a Freedom of Information Act request, in 2014 the DEA requested that the FAA remove 95 of its aircraft — mostly registered to front companies — from the feed of air traffic control data provided to commercial flight-tracking websites, including Flightradar24.

Nevertheless, a few DEA planes have slipped through the net, and two registered to the front companies Chaparral Air Group and Silver Creek Aviation Services were flagged by our algorithm in the Flightradar24 data. Other DEA aircraft still show up on ADS-B Exchange, a website that is entirely crowdsourced by aviation enthusiasts detecting aircraft transponder signals using their own antennae. ADS-B Exchange does not filter its display using the FAA’s list of blocked aircraft, and its data revealed that DEA planes and helicopters have been watching over many US cities over the past year. The DEA declined to comment on its aviation operations. “The DEA aviation section supports numerous operations that are law enforcement sensitive,” spokesperson Melvin Patterson told BuzzFeed News by email. “Sharing such information would allow criminals to use this to their advantage.”

https://www.buzzfeed.com/peteraldhous/hidden-spy-planes?utm_term=.mcodDb9L77#.jqwGMdYPWW

 

[Tudo]

I told FPL that I would personally take a baseball bat to that device they had installed on the house I bought years ago . They came and switched it back to the old style right quick.

 

[Dropped Cat]

Actually, it's not THEY or THEM. It is IT. There is not enough manpower in the world to monitor all communications. It's all done by computer. Listening to key (or as they now call them, Tag) words.

Well written post, very informative without leaning one way
or the other.

I have limited control of my devices, and I understand the
concept of what data you give them, versus that which the take.

Good thread.

 

[Max Headroom]

data is now a resource like oil.
and we're being milked like cows for it.