8 ms·

“The Stasi Had a Giant Smell Register of Dissidents”

55 points by galuggus 5y ago

MikeUt 5y ago
"German police have been accused of using Stasi methods" I'm sure the Stasi also used fingerprints, yet no-one is asking German police to give those up. Perhaps the goals, rather than methods, are what should be under greater scrutiny - going after dissidents is not a thing of the past, they're just not called such: Germany’s existing Network Enforcement Act (aka the NetzDG law) came into force in the country in 2017, putting an obligation on social network platforms to remote hate speech within set deadlines as tight as 24 hours for easy cases — with fines of up to €50M should they fail to comply. - https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/19/germany-tightens-online-hate-speech-rules-to-make-platforms-send-reports-straight-to-the-feds/ https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/19/germany-tightens-online-ha... Germany's domestic intelligence agency hopes to place the entire Alternative for Germany party under surveillance. - https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/monitoring-the-right-wing-german-officials-seek-to-turn-up-the-heat-on-the-afd-a-c44c0a38-ee6b-4dc1-ac94-9fbee59b706f https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/monitoring-the-...
- galuggus 5y ago
  Perhaps they are referring to methods used by the stasi but not commonly used by law enforcement?
  - fidesomnes 5y ago
    The German state has no shortage of tools available to make their interest in you an uncomfortable situation.
aqme28 5y ago
This was a plot point in the wonderful Oscar winning German film The Lives of Others.
_Microft 5y ago
Scent sample collection by putting a dust cloth under the chair of someone who was interrogated (as it is described in the article) was shown in the German movie "The Lives of Others" [0]. Fast forward to ~4:30min if you are not interested in the rest of the film clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkRxvEjprBM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkRxvEjprBM (has English subtitles) [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lives_of_Others https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lives_of_Others
- fossuser 5y ago
  This is a really great movie - I know it’s popular in Europe, but many Americans don’t know about it. It’s worth watching and pretty relevant to issues today with surveillance and political risk.
  - nindalf 5y ago
    It’s #57 on IMDb Top 250 (https://www.imdb.com/chart/top/ https://www.imdb.com/chart/top/). Also won the Best Foreign Language Film that year (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/79th_Academy_Awards https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/79th_Academy_Awards). That’s how I heard of it. I saw it as a boy and it had a profound effect on the way I view government. Privacy feels like just a word until you see it violated like it is in this movie.
lazyeye 5y ago
Even in their wildest, most insane dreams, the Stasi couldnt possibly have imagined the scale of tracking and monitoring now practised by big tech.
JohnBooty 5y ago
What is with the sudden influx of smell-related articles on HN lately? Not that I mind. It's a fascinating topic. But, wow.
- jacobr1 5y ago
  I suspect the catalyst has been the media tour for the book, "The Joy of Sweat." It has been getting outsized press and I think a lot of knock-on related content on smell in general. But this is just wild speculation on my part.
the_optimist 5y ago
If we destroyed all the spy records of the US on its citizens (a la Snowden revelations), would anyone in the future view that as a loss? We have a turn-key dictatorship, the key hasn’t been turned yet. A pack of bureaucrats will have to get new jobs. Perhaps the rest of us can agree that we should tear this surveillance state apart before it is fully weaponized against us.

55 points by galuggus 5y ago

"German police have been accused of using Stasi methods" I'm sure the Stasi also used fingerprints, yet no-one is asking German police to give those up. Perhaps the goals, rather than methods, are what should be under greater scrutiny - going after dissidents is not a thing of the past, they're just not called such: Germany’s existing Network Enforcement Act (aka the NetzDG law) came into force in the country in 2017, putting an obligation on social network platforms to remote hate speech within set deadlines as tight as 24 hours for easy cases — with fines of up to €50M should they fail to comply. - https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/19/germany-tightens-online-hate-speech-rules-to-make-platforms-send-reports-straight-to-the-feds/ https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/19/germany-tightens-online-ha... Germany's domestic intelligence agency hopes to place the entire Alternative for Germany party under surveillance. - https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/monitoring-the-right-wing-german-officials-seek-to-turn-up-the-heat-on-the-afd-a-c44c0a38-ee6b-4dc1-ac94-9fbee59b706f https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/monitoring-the-...

galuggus 5y ago
Perhaps they are referring to methods used by the stasi but not commonly used by law enforcement?
- fidesomnes 5y ago
  The German state has no shortage of tools available to make their interest in you an uncomfortable situation.

aqme28 5y ago

This was a plot point in the wonderful Oscar winning German film The Lives of Others.

_Microft 5y ago

Scent sample collection by putting a dust cloth under the chair of someone who was interrogated (as it is described in the article) was shown in the German movie "The Lives of Others" [0]. Fast forward to ~4:30min if you are not interested in the rest of the film clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkRxvEjprBM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkRxvEjprBM (has English subtitles) [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lives_of_Others https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lives_of_Others

fossuser 5y ago
This is a really great movie - I know it’s popular in Europe, but many Americans don’t know about it. It’s worth watching and pretty relevant to issues today with surveillance and political risk.
- nindalf 5y ago
  It’s #57 on IMDb Top 250 (https://www.imdb.com/chart/top/ https://www.imdb.com/chart/top/). Also won the Best Foreign Language Film that year (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/79th_Academy_Awards https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/79th_Academy_Awards). That’s how I heard of it. I saw it as a boy and it had a profound effect on the way I view government. Privacy feels like just a word until you see it violated like it is in this movie.

lazyeye 5y ago

Even in their wildest, most insane dreams, the Stasi couldnt possibly have imagined the scale of tracking and monitoring now practised by big tech.

JohnBooty 5y ago

What is with the sudden influx of smell-related articles on HN lately? Not that I mind. It's a fascinating topic. But, wow.

jacobr1 5y ago
I suspect the catalyst has been the media tour for the book, "The Joy of Sweat." It has been getting outsized press and I think a lot of knock-on related content on smell in general. But this is just wild speculation on my part.

the_optimist 5y ago

If we destroyed all the spy records of the US on its citizens (a la Snowden revelations), would anyone in the future view that as a loss? We have a turn-key dictatorship, the key hasn’t been turned yet. A pack of bureaucrats will have to get new jobs. Perhaps the rest of us can agree that we should tear this surveillance state apart before it is fully weaponized against us.