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Hundreds of surveillance experiments along the U.S.-Mexico border
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- threatofrain 7y agoWith something as important as data at the border being farmed out to so many parties, I can hardly trust information can be kept securely with so many 3rd party relationships, especially with foreign firms.
- GhettoMaestro 7y agoIf you are in the data path clear text you most likely have to abide by classified data handling procedures.
- gpm 7y agoNote that it looks like this technology is being deployed at the border not at border crossings. What threats are you worried about here? Privacy of people in the process of illegally immigrating? I don't think the people deploying these experiments share your concern. Privacy of people who happen to live near the border? It seems unlikely that they are collecting much data on them, just because it's not useful to collect... I can see it being a real concern if they are collecting data on them. Privacy of troop movements? Are there serious adversaries who are more likely to be aided by this data leaking than they are to be hindered by the increased surveillance? If a real war broke out on the US border I'm sure we would quickly become more selective about the providers, and where the data from the instruments is going.
- save_ferris 7y ago> Privacy of people who happen to live near the border? It seems unlikely that they are collecting much data on them, just because it's not useful to collect... I can see it being a real concern if they are collecting data on them. I could easily see an agency argue that it needs to collect data on everyone near the border in order to track coyotes and others inside the country assisting with border crossings, etc. After Snowden, it's hard to envision any agency with surveillance powers opting not to collect data for not being "useful". The justification is definitely there for those who are adamant about collecting the data.
- sgnelson 7y agoRight, because these companies are spending millions of dollars on R&D for new technologies that will only ever be used along the US/Mexican border. How about being worried because it's inevitable for this technology to be deployed elsewhere? And that's just one of the obvious problems.
- cedivad 7y agoFascinating. The article is talking about surveillance blimps and I can't help but wonder if someone is working on repurposing that tech to detect fires at their onset.
- dmitrygr 7y agoA lot of forest fires just starting are actually reported by small airplane pilots who notice them from the air. The controllers pass the information along to the proper authorities very quickly. I've reported a few. I note that half an hour later, there is already a response. So I guess NorCal approach calls the right people pretty quickly. So in a way, this is already being done.
- SiempreViernes 7y agoWell, there are satellites that have far larger fields of view, so the question is how much smaller fires you can see with a blimp compared to a satellite.
- giancarlostoro 7y agoHow many satelites are devoted to reporting fires on the other hand?
- Tepix 7y agoA company called Ticom Geomatics has applied for the most experimental licenses. From their homepage: "we offer challenging projects where the results make a difference globally" Note: "Make a difference" can be double-speak. They also mention their "diverse and collaborative environment". I wonder if there are Mexicans on their staff.
- bacondude3 7y agoThis is a picture of their staff. It looks reasonably diverse: http://www.ticom-geo.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/tgi-group2.jpg http://www.ticom-geo.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/tgi-grou... Remember, legal immigrants (from Mexico or anywhere else) tend to be among the strongest opponents of illegal immigration.
- heavyset_go 7y agoThis is like saying that people who sleep legally in their own homes are among the strongest opponents of those who sleep illegally under overpasses. I doubt there is much overlap in the two immigrant populations beyond their country of origin.
- Torches69 7y agoNo, if you want to use that analogy it's like people who sleep legally in their own homes being among the strongest opponents of those who sneak into other people's homes without their knowledge or consent where they present an unquantifiable economic, cultural, and safety burden to homeowners while calling them names and guilting them if they dare to discover or defend against the trespass.
- ikeyany 7y agoI don't understand how you look at that staff picture and say that it's "reasonably diverse".
- corporate_shi11 7y ago
- microdrum 7y agohttps://github.com/marcdacosta/border-radio-investigation/blob/master/jan2020-exports/USMX-Border-Experiment-Cos.csv https://github.com/marcdacosta/border-radio-investigation/bl... Anduril doesnt even show up, which probably means that it's overstating its progress.
- swalsh 7y agoUsing github for what amounts to reporting from investigative journalism is a fascinating use case.
- edm0nd 7y agoThese are some of my favorites! If anyone has anymore Githubs like this, please link them :)
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- psychanarch 7y agohttps://github.com/fivethirtyeight/data https://github.com/fivethirtyeight/data
- danso 7y agoFWIW, some other examples of journalists using Github to post the data and scripts behind investigations: https://github.com/BuzzFeedNews/everything https://github.com/BuzzFeedNews/everything https://github.com/datadesk/notebooks https://github.com/datadesk/notebooks
- jariel 7y agoDefense paying for a lot of R&D that will be materially useful in a lot of areas. Now we just need a ton of legislation to protect us from entities using this tech when they shouldn't.
- GaryNumanVevo 7y agoWhy are we spending presumably billions of dollars restricting movement of people? It would be by far cheaper to open the border and allow working age migrants to pay into our tax system legally....
- GaryNumanVevo 7y agoFollow up to this: First it's tested on the illegal citizens, then it's tested on the legal ones.
- m0zg 7y agoWhat's an "illegal citizen"?
- GaryNumanVevo 7y agoI think I might need to clarify my point here. I'm not placing any blame on migrant workers who come to the US to make a living, my biggest issue is with companies that take advantage of this labor without taxes. Having an easier system for migrant workers to have legal status here (i.e. able to bank in the US, pay taxes, etc) would raise their income, and benefit the US as a whole.
- m0zg 7y agoHow would a massively increased supply of unskilled labor (which is already abundant) raise anyone's wages? Say, for instance, tomorrow it became really, really easy for companies to hire programmers. Do you think the wages would go up or down?
- m0zg 7y agoBecause 12 million illegal aliens are currently paying something like $11B in taxes. That's $916 per person, per year. Now, some of that is because they're here illegally, but I bet a major part of it is that they aren't making much money, and in the US people who don't make much pay little to no taxes at all. Some even get money back from the government. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_impact_of_illegal_immigrants_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_impact_of_illegal_imm...