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>... we won't know, for sure, that this device isn't being used by the political elite in order to maintain their powers. As much as I'd love to agree with you
by rl3 10y ago
>... we won't know, for sure, that this device isn't being used by the political elite in order to maintain their powers.
As much as I'd love to agree with you, I don't realistically see how it would be practical to blackmail people with a blimp.
For targeting the vast majority of people (politicians included), accessing the sum total of that person's digital life already sitting in storage is more than ample. Browsing history, chat logs, video calls, phone conversations, banking information, medical history, geolocation data. It's all there already.
- lallysingh 10y agoYou don't have to blackmail. When you know enough about a person, you can control them with just the right messaging (ref: the point of ad tech). Quick example: An incumbent could use this to have substantially better data on their voter's preferences and tune their campaign appropriately. Or generate just the right kind of fake news to push major policy changes against people's interests. The real potential here is how subtle these moves can be while also being quite effective.
- rl3 10y agoI completely agree, my only point was that a blimp really can't add much to existing surveillance measures that essentially capture everything. A blimp might help you target extremely paranoid people, that's about it. Even then, having actual human tails would be more effective, especially in NYC. For foreign operations blimps are amazing though, since a place like Afghanistan doesn't necessarily have modern infrastructure or any shortage of people trying to hide.
- lallysingh 10y agoThis whole blimp thing is ridiculous. Perhaps they're worried about CB/Ham or the towers (or wiretap authorization) didn't support what they wanted. Are blimps threatened by AK-47s?
- rl3 10y ago>Are blimps threatened by AK-47s? Not at altitude, no.
- mmjaa 10y agoYours is rather a naive point of view. You can do a lot with a little bit of information - it doesn't necessarily need to be blackmail. Just knowing what your political opponents are investing in, for example, can be enough to exert un-seen control over them in such a way as to weaken their ability to usurp your current power status. Its not all just blackmail and Hollywood-style intrigue...
- PJDK 10y agoIs there any evidence anything like this is happening?
- mmjaa 10y agoWikileaks is full of it.
- SomeStupidPoint 10y agoSo link any evidence of it happening, from Wikileaks or otherwise.
- kingexe 10y agoits literally what Hillary was accusing Russia of doing when the whole 'fake news' & her emails getting hacked debacle started.
- PJDK 10y agoDon't get me wrong. I'm sure intelligence services use intelligence they gather to help their country achieve some objective - that's sort of what they're for. That's a pretty massive difference from intelligence services in western democracies being used to further the interests of specific elites - that would be a gigantic scandal.
- mmjaa 10y agoThe point is, which you missed, that Wikileaks is all we've got. So far. There really isn't any way to know, for sure, that these apparatus aren't being used for politically motivated means, with all else being considered. We, the people, from who the politic derive their powers, have no idea what they are doing with it. The secrecy level is too damn high.