This is just the beginning as we become more and more wired to enhance our comfort, entertainment and, ironically, safety.
Meanwhile, though experts agree that the next war will be in cyberspace, Trump spends hundreds of billions on bigger tanks, bigger planes, bigger boats, bigger missiles, bigger.... If it weren't so sad--and scary -- it would be downright comical with his obvious phallic obsession.
But the truly sad irony is that we have failed to realize, as a species, that our constant grasping for more power in order to keep us safer is going to lead to exactly the opposite result.
8
This technology is very possibly a black ball pulled from Nick Bostrom’s urn of invention. An eventual ubiquitous invention that will cause human extinction. We will be algorithmic driven lemmings.
2
Corporations that capitalize on the research activities of the NSA and Mossad are merely functioning in the interests of Washington/Jerusalem Consensus Capitalism.
1
Money trumps honor too often. Perhaps these brilliant but ethically flawed men get together for networking. The agenda would be frightening.
2
Not only did we win the cold war, but our Anything For Money brand of capitalism found yet another way to strike at socialists/liberals who try to take away our freedom to do as we darn well pleased.
2
Unfortunately, most people won't ever see or read about this.
News outlets are focusing on Trump's idiotic tweets, attacks of a dead war hero and fights with George Conway.
Important stories like this one repeatedly get buried in the news cycle.
6
Just unplug.
Saudi’s contracting Israeli’s to maintain power...Pretty clear that money and power is (and always has been) more powerful than God. Christians included.
1
Voting may be a waste of time ?
I am currently working in the teaching profession responsible for the content of the minds and social expectations of young, just developing human beings.
It is a constant grappling of consciousness to be torn between the despair born out of a sense that we are progressively losing the battle to a spy state where ever human privacy and the elemental aspects of our need as any animal’s for privacy is violated by this vortex of digital surveillance and the foul product of a camera and computer police state.
I feel such ultimate empathy for these innocent, yes innocent, human souls who will enter an adult life having never known the extreme privilege that I did of inhabiting a world where we were not prisoners from cradle to grave to this deranged and abnormal digital entrapment the age of the Internet has delivered us all.
For it has swooped almost the entirety of humanity in its aptly named “Net” -a well-hooked fishnet that has most members of the so-called civilized modern world lost in the daily morass of an unyielding and aberrant level of intrusion upon our privacies. These young people are still so versatile, pliant, open, curious and it concerns me. I know the state of constant hyper/vigilance/digital connectivity is already affecting them drastically emotionally. They are 24/7 tuned into gun massacres, sex, violence, and drugs, but the digital tyrant me wounds me most when I contemplate the loss of so many elemental, human things they have already lost in this age
21
This is astonishing and chilling information. And Congress is a willing, if perhaps unwitting, accomplice to all of it. Most seem clueless when questioning someone like Mark Zuckerberg, but happily vote "aye" for ever increasing military/"defense" budgets. Thanks for the excellent report here, NYT.
22
Well, no need to worry about government turning into Big Brother any more. Corporations have already co-opted that position, and "Free Market" Big Brother is watching us all now. Money, money, money, indeed.
7
Why is not spying on Americans considered important ?
Just because this is he rule ( often it appears ignored ) applied to American spies why would anyone expect another country to follow that.
if Germany did not allow spying on German citizens would NSA respect that??? Or would they just hack into the current leaders phone anyway
3
At a time when the state has become a plaything h the hands of market forces and the democratic political space has been allowed to be owned and manipulated by the dark forces of market, why should it be surprising if there's digital espionage on hire in the same marketplace, now under the dictates of big tech?
6
This is an amateurish story. First, is surveillance warfare? No. Are you "doing battle" is you track someone's communications and they are unaware? Also no. All countries surveil their populations, the only differences among them are the rules they follow for surveillance and how much they tell their public. Spare us the hyperbole and breathlessness
This is a fascinating and very scary article about malicious hacking of cellphones to gain intelligence against rival countries, rival corporations and dissidents. The New York Times and reporters Mark Mazzetti, Adam Goldman, Ronen Bergman and Nicole Perlroth are to be congratulated.
The first question is, “What, if anything, is the United States going to do about this threat?”
Ironically, and perhaps not coincidentally, this story breaks at the same time as we hear about the use of private, unencrypted cell phones in the U.S. and abroad by various people in the Trump White House and family, including Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump.
Both of them had been given security clearances at the insistence of President Trump over the objection of the American intelligence agencies
We also are learning that Jared, representing his father-in-law, was very involved with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in planning and implementing a brutal crackdown on dissidents, which included journalist Jamal Khashoggi, whose brutal murder shocked the world.
On top of everything, Israel – through former Mossad agents – is the center of the new hacking expertise. Donald Trump, of course, is helping his friend, Benjamin Netanyahu, in his bid to win re-election in Israel and carry his cruel campaign against Palestinians.
This is sickening. Everything about Trump World is sickening.
7
In politics, isn't this what opposition research is about. I wish both parties and the mainstream media would focus on the issues instead of charisma and sensationalism.
2
What Israel sows —so shall it reap.
Selling spyware to corrupt (or any frankly) government so it can dispose of its opponents and critics—-is seriously bad karma.
There are many governments and terrorist organizations who would love to listen in to Israeli citizen’s conversations to do them harm.
The technology Israel develops for its military then allows its citizens to make money from— will be used against them.
7
Welcome to Global Capitalism.
4
&& here’s where we need a “normal” POTUS. He’s trying to take us back to the 50s while the rest of the world seems light years ahead of us. Trump doesn’t understand tech & he certainly doesn’t understand cyber warfare. This stuff is seriously dangerous to everyone, but it’s like Pandora’s Box- once it’s out of the bag, it’s out. Here’s where ethics & morality comes into play. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should do something.
@NYT for the average person- how would they be able to find out if their phones have been hacked?
3
So what do Trump, Bolton, and Oliver North have planned with their surveillance?
3
The internet is a catastrophe for humanity.
1
So Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser. ... uses a messaging app to communicate with foreign leaders. As a matter of course.
An app which could be easily hacked. Additionally, there were long-standing problems with Kushner's security clearances.
Ivanka Trump, the president's daughter, didn't preserve all of her official email. And all of this goes on despite White House policy and the Presidential Records Act.
That law prohibits officials from sending a record "using a nonofficial electronic message account" unless the messages are copied to an official account within 20 days.
Yet all we heard during the Trump campaign was to "lock
up" Hillary Clinton for use of a private email server. The cognitive dissonance of the Trump administration is surreal.
This presidency is exhausting.
8
According to past reporting Trump is known to prefer an unsecured, personal phone. Aside from dangerous, inane and inarticulate tweets, what else are foreign adversaries listening in on? What about his “advisers” Jared and Ivanka, are we to believe they’re disciplined enough to always use secure devices?
1
I guess Non-Competes and Non-Disclosures are only for us, the mere mortals.
Who’s gonna watch everyone in Trump’s orbit, at least those not who are not in jail after he leaves office, to prevent them from shilling out state secrets to the enemy via analog or digital espionage?
Also, who’s watching Trump himself? Now while he’s in office? There have been reports that he uses an unsecured phone and shuns following protocol (like using the portable anti-snoop tent for example)?
Then again, he has already invited a couple of ex-KGB, current FSB officers in the Oval Office, so there might not be a need to hack his phone.
3
At Trump's next military parade they should play this old gem. 76 lap tops led the big parade/ with a 110 start ups close at hand/ they were followed by rows and rows of the richest CEO's/the cream of good broadband. The repeating rifle changed warfare and then the Gatlin gun. Both made killing someone less personal, you could spray bullets everywhere without looking in your victims eyes. Weaponry has become more brutal and more impersonal ever since. Today we bomb people with drones but draw the line at gassing them because it's not a clean way to die. The computers are now in charge, so I can take some comfort in knowing that the losing side of future battles will, at least, go out with a whimper instead of the big bang.
I suggest the authors of this article watch a few episodes of Inside the Mossad on Netflix to understand there are far better motives in play than just making money from neat hacker technology. Like keeping your enemies closer and supporting the opposition. It isn't all that difficult to foresee what chaos will happen when the inexperienced start using big boys toys.
Every time I read a cyber article like this, I repeat the mantra, Geneva Convention for cyberwarfare...Geneva Convention for cyberwarfare.
The film Zero Days opened my eyes to the world of cyber spying, and the global implications associated with such work.
1
One interesting aspect of this is the democratization of warfare. With warfare conducted in cyberspace, large expensive missiles, ordnance, and armies aren't quite so intimidating.
I wish our 'leader' were more aware of this rather than wasting energy on 'Space Force.' Of course, even if he were on top of it, it's hard to imagine him doing anything other than mucking it up.
Eventually, as always, this technology will filter down. Companies will be able to wage cyber war on one another. Even eventually individuals.
The world is a scary place.
63
@Justin On the other hand, if cyber-warriors are able to take control of our electronic systems, maybe the world will decide that ICBMs are too dangerous to even exist.
5
@Justin The predicted cyber-punk, Shadowrun future of the early 80's is rapidly approaching.
Thirty years ago, imagine your reaction if someone told you that, in the future, we'd all be carrying personal tracking devices that allow companies (and possibly criminals and governments) to follow our every move. In exchange, these devices allow us to make telephone calls, send messages to friends, and do things like send money remotely. Moreover, we will use "free" services that allow us to send messages and pictures to friends, but in exchange, these services monitor what we do, record our most personal information and triangulate it with our geolocation, and sell that combined information to advertisers and companies. And some people will even install listening devices in their own homes that monitor everything they say.
Whoever has access and controls personal information - whether individuals, companies, or governments - can more effectively control and exploit people. The Trump administration has been seriously lax in taking the threat of cybercrime, cyberwarfare, and disinformation serious. Rather, the President wants to manufacture more Abrams tanks in a swing state like Ohio.
As the article states, "American laws governing this new age of digital warfare are murky, outdated, and ill-equipped to address rapid technological advances." I would also add that the politicians who make those laws are themselves mostly murky, outdated, and ill-equipped.
202
@jrinsc
if you just add 5 years to your thought experiment, you'd find yourself in 1984 - 35 years ago.
Legend has it that somewhere in the Himalayas, around 1948, a yogi described a vision which got back to George Orwell and was the basis for his book.
Interestingly, it took slightly over 35 years from the apocryphal yogi's vision to the Orwellian nightmare.
Add 35 more years and....
14
@jrinsc
Well said.
A good reason to add a maximum age eligibility factor to elected officials is that few over the age of 60 have a clue when it comes to technology - hardware, software, internet, and communications.
This is why the hearings with execs of Facebook, Google, You Tube, etc. were so very useless. Even understanding entertainment and media mergers is out of their range of comprehension. And what about defense, intelligence, and national security technology?
Ages from 25 to 65 only.
3
I wonder about not just the states but also the corporations that these “spy services” have on their books. More and more, global corporations are acting as autonomous powers, especially in regions (Somalia, Sudan, etc.) where state authority is fractured and weak. They utilize both the kinds of cyber-firms discussed in this article and private military contractors to assist in their operations, and they shroud much of this activity in secrecy, employing (among other things) sweeping non-disclosure agreements with contracting firms and their own employees. Our ideas about how power works in this world need to change.
26
Unfortuately for 99.9% of us, Ms.Hoop, the same 0.01% International Mafia Robber Barons who own BIG corporations also own BIG tech. OUR governments are supposed to protect us from them but they have bought control of many of them, too.
Until now they have stopped any regulation that would prevent their gross invasion of OUR privacy and lives. However, people are finally waking up and together we will hire/elect Socially Conscious Women and men who will break them all up and tax back all the inherited/stolen wealthy they are using to try to control us and destroy our lives..
Anything that is developed for warfare will be stolen, commodified, spread and eventually used against its original developer.
14
Obviously anything can be weaponized, leaving us here in the US to struggle with just guns. Not a hopeful sign.
1
More than even Putin, Israel working with the despots of Saudi Arabia and the UAE has undermined democracy here as well as in the Middle East where they colluded to derail the Arab Spring. They must be held accountable.
7
This article is terrifying and makes Orwell's "1984" seem quaint.
I'm ready to stop using my phone and computer and start writing letters and paying in cash.
2
Guess what? This is just the dark side of the data divide. The much more impactful and mundane version of this happens every day, right under our noses, with our social media, shopping, voting, insurance, healthcare, banking, etc. etc. etc.
Outraged? If not, you're not paying attention.
9
Let me break this down:
1. Former NSA employees cannot spy on Americans
Question: How is this “rule” enforced?
2. Former NSA employees must report if they are employed by a foreign government or company.
Question: How does this stop these employees from using their expertise in a way against the security or interests of the US?
2
To add to my earlier post that this information confirms Trumps Russia collusion, I do not believe Trump initiated the DNC hack, no, that’s all Putin, but Trump knew about it. He preached it the afternoon before. But I believe Trump/Campaign facilitated the propaganda on social media. Having the email hack reach WikiLeaks was, how do you say it in Russian? Unfortunate? Da!
I absolve Trump of hacking ( I know, I said it) a hanging offense, but he IS guilty of *collusion*, working with a foreign government to influence a presidential campaign of the United States.
Firing squad? No. Jail? Yes.
1
Excellent NYT reporting. This is exactly why I bought a subscription. Please keep it up.
3
Sounds like Spear Phishing with 0days is NSO's bread and butter, Humans are still the weakest part of that link and someone who is relatively knowledgeable should be able to combat this moderately.
Exploiting weaknesses in the IoT space is where things become dire, one bad firmware update on your fridge will mean these guys know how many milliliters of water you drink, your home eating habits and god forbid if you connect it to any assistants like Siri.
The new warfare is cyber-warfare—
And the U.S. (as the largest weapons manufacturer) has been slow on the draw.
19
These types of businesses are new versions of old attempts at nefarious interventions of governments.
But they too blur the line between online reputation management (my field) and using it for evil, which, of course, I condone.
This exposes a grey area of cyber intelligence that can be extremely harmful because it is so hard to determine what is real and what is contrived.
4
@Steven W. Giovinco: "...using it for evil, which, of course, I condone." I hope you meant "condemn." And isn't "reputation management" another term for "the truth well told," a phrase which I was taught in junior high school was another definition of propaganda? Gray areas, indeed.
4
Our 2020 election cycle will see the greatest incursion of hackers in history, and the vast majority will undoubted be paid to try to re-elect The Dotard, Comrade Trump. He did it once already and lost the popular vote by 3 million!
I have seen no significant action by the Trump Administration to protect us from violation of our most sovereign right - our free and fair elections. The old rules no longer apply; we need serious cyber security at every level including "social media". In a country where many people get their partisan "news" from propagandists on Twitter and FaceBook, separating truth from fiction is essential.
It is obvious from the number of people who watch late night FOX "news" that truth is often irrelevant. So much for a healthy, intelligent society.
48
@RealTRUTH
That’s why it is so important for normal people to listen to our candidates and begin using our criticL thinking skills.
We need to get off social media attend town meetings and vote. No time to stay home but a time to seize control of our lives and democracy back.
Knowing that technology is not going to be addressed in time for our elections . We know technology is not our friend we need to return to the fundamentals for securing our knowledge.
4
@Chris Yoder
OK Chris, so take all that "complaining and explaining" energy and do something to correct this. If you and others don't we'll have no freedoms, worth and progress to be worried about in the future.
2
@Tony
How right you are, Tony! We are raising a generation of morons in this country; children who have no critical thinking skills and who are susceptible to the lowest levels of political pandering and lies.
Trump is a symptom - I blame irresponsible parents.
1
Americans with inside information going to work for ruthless authoritarian foreign dictators? Does this sound like Donald Trump 5 days after he is out of office? Okay, okay, he will be going into partnerships with their lackeys, not working directly for the tyrants, but you get the picture.
18
Over 40 years ago, anyone convicted of hacking emerged from court to piles of job offers.
Old news.
7
Thank you, this is timely as it follows and puts into 21st-C perspective Peter Navarro's recent plea for more Abrams tanks.
13
"Last month, NSO’s co-founders raised enough money to buy back a majority stake in NSO at a valuation of just under $1 billion... making its major investors, including the Oregon state employees’ pension fund and Alaska’s sovereign wealth fund, part owners of NSO, according to public records."
No fund that claims to invest ethically can have anything to do with NSO or its competitors. Those that are tempted, take a good look at Ahmed Mansoor. That was NSO's work.
25
Thank you for shining sunlight on the likes of NSO, NYT. Great reporting. Let's hope the NYT is protected by the most robust cyber security tools (and human eyes) available to protect its assets, including its readership and subscribers who posts comments.
I wonder which of djt, trump organization, jared kusher and his companies own and utilize companies like NSO.
23
We can only hope that the NSA, et al. is on the side of the American people, and that we are treated as citizens and not subjects of this very frightening and psychologically destructive realm. Let me say that if our government has knowingly failed us, in putting the American citizen before interests that are beyond our own borders, then the lessons from the Declaration of Independence has meant nothing to our leaders whose oath is to our Constitution. Furthermore, if Israeli agents, foreign operatives, or any derivative organizations have been operating on our own soil with impunity riding rough shod American citizens, then clearly justice must prevail, if not the result will be a constitutional crisis. We are a nation with self interests as a nation, and of a people distinguished from other people and nations with their separate constitutions. This is not a gray area that can be gamed for the purposes of protecting or enriches only a select few. That would be tyranny.
7
@Joshua C, your assessment of what constitute tyranny is correct. Your only oversight is not recognizing that it already exists. The massive economic inequality that characterizes the American economy is an existential threat to our democracy.
4
@M E Sink
You're very right. Thank you.
So Lori Stroud and other mercenary hackers all of a sudden have moral scruples when it comes to spying on their own fellow citizens, but sending foreign journalists, aid workers, human rights lawyers to the butcher is just part of their work.
If you want to feel righteous get Trumps tax filings.
30
“Psy-Group, an Israeli company specializing in social media manipulation, worked for Russian oligarchs and in 2016 pitched the Trump campaign on a plan to build an online army of bots and avatars to swing Republican delegate votes.”
OK, this completes the circle. This, along with Michael Cohen’s trip to Prague, completes the collusion aspect of Trumps visits to Russia. This is the How. The Hotel, the Presidency, and Sanctions are the Why.
It has now all come out. Most excellent. If Robert Mueller cannot us this, I’m at a loss for words.
39
I think this is the answer to the Venezuela problem. If the Generals check their offshore bank accounts and see that the balance is $13.13, a promise to return the strayed funds might convince them to do the right thing.
8
always there will those seeking to overthrow even the weakest of foes, with nothing but loss of trust and regard for life, liberty or freedom for many. has been ongoing as evidenced by the structure of kingdoms and dynastys emerged. families as a single element of community remain perhaps the only true instance of real unity. even those have become targets for careful management by religions, cults, and other less than competent organizations.
2
So Edward Snowden is hiding out in Russia. Russia hacks the DNC and interferes in our election. Does anyone really believe they haven't tapped him to do work for the Kremlin or threaten to send him home to face prosecution? Is anyone looking into this? Didn't he have some assistance from Asange? Didn't he sign a letter to Trump asking for the US to drop the charges against Assange?
28
Let us not give Trumpies any ideas as he has just coopted the military as his personal army. The Chinese model of monitoring everyone's attitude toward their leaders by scoring them with social credits. If you wear a MAGA hat and praise Trump on social media you will get great jobs and high credit ratings . THe appetite of authoritarian leaders knows no limits it is always more, control the military and police, control the media ,control the economy and TRump marches on attacking McCain to assert his control over the military and with Hannity as his minister of information we may wake up to a dictatorship in 2020 a slow moving coup.
43
@REBCO
Your point is well taken. Both Barr and Kavanaugh auditioned for their jobs by saying exactly what DT wanted to hear and it worked especially for Kavanaugh who is not qualified to be on the Supreme Court by any stretch of the imagination.
We have been witnessing a slow moving coup since McConnell dismissed the Constitution and didn’t allow Obama’s nominee Garland to even have a hearing.
McConnell has been usurping power even before this lunatic became POTUS.
45
As did the acting AG between Sessions & Barr.
I can’t recall his name - Wilkes/Wilkerson, etc.
If I recall correctly he was hired by Trump after making the public rounds (talk shows etc) as an anti-Mueller investigation political pundit.
I think I MAY have even read somewhere that this guy allegedly claimed that getting a position in the Trump Administration via these means was his goal.
Terrible way to hire people in government.
Won’t happen, but Senate shouldn’t confirm those that are clearly nominated based on their allegiances (public and/or privately expressed) to a President’s PERSONAL interests, agenda(s), etc.
1
@marian, Thank you for pointing out McConnell’s treason. He has played a leading role in the right wing’s decades-old war on American democracy. If academic freedom continues to exist, history will not be kind to McConnell. See Nancy MacLean’s remarkable study, “Democracy in Chains” https://history.duke.edu/book/democracy-chains
4
I do not know when--if ever--we will get a handle on the likes of Facebook, Google, Twitter and their ilk.
As to the issue of cyber-warfare, there have been warnings for a long time: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2018-10-04/what-clausewitz-can-teach-us-about-war-social-media ("What Clausewitz Can Teach Us About War on Social Media: Military Tactics in the Age of Facebook," 4 Oct 2018). The concluding paragraph from that essay is none to cheery:
"Those who can direct the flow of this swirling tide can accomplish incredible good. They can free people, expose crimes, save lives, and prompt far-reaching reforms. But they can also accomplish astonishing evil. They can foment violence, stoke hate, spread lies, spark wars, and even erode democracy itself. Which side succeeds will depend above all on how much the rest of us learn to recognize this LikeWar for what it is."
Maybe some things are being done that are are not in the public eye. I gather the general arena is now a career path: https://fas.org/blogs/secrecy/2018/07/cyber-war-training/ .
18
It's about time that the press begin using the term "mercenaries" instead of "fighters," "para-military" and other such terms that obfuscate the basic idea that mercenaries are being paid and offered monetary and other incentives to fight for others under various cloaks.
And it's definitely NOT just "authoritarian governments" who're doing this!
The USA paid Blackwater big-time (run by Eric Prince, brother of Betsy DeVos) to provide what amounted to mercenaries in Iraq. With disastrous consequences too, in terms of crimes and atrocities committed , and a lack of clear accountability.
And Prince is advocating now for MORE use of private mercenaries in lieu of official military personnel! Profiting HIMSELF and his cronies, of course.
83
I had wished Blackwater had been mentioned in the film VICE. The mercenary slaughter of thousands of innocents was gotten away with. No one paid the price. No one went to court. They were not held to the terms of The Geneva Conventions of War. The vile inhumanity of these essentially, serial killers, has been confined as merely the price of getting the results they want, at any price.
25
Thanks NYT for this great piece of journalism.
A happy suscriber.
61
Just amazing information. A major threat without any apparent defense. The internet now blurs all national boundaries.
35
Good story ruined by a huge, even suspicious, omission: why leave out the mega-fact that Elliot Broidy was finance chairman of the Republican National Committee and a major Trump fundraiser?
127
so you use this stuff to track the bad guy. Problem is who gets to decide who the bad guy is. The person you define as a terrorist might be defined by others as a news paper reporter.
Guess we will not know what the definition of who a bad guy is until the police come and round them up....And then it may be too late
12
An 'internet mercenary' that engages in State-sponsored spycraft might be impossible on ideological grounds. In the cyberwar it's tough to know who to trust, and a mercenary has no political ideology to speak of. Imagine if an employee of one of these companies were snatched in-transit like Huawei's Meng Wanzhou in Canada, detained, and 'turned' to your side. Only State sponsored actors have the means for ideological inoculation.
The term 'mercenary' is probably limited to State sponsored activities. Otherwise, they would be known as a 'consultant'.
8
Any tool has the capacity to be used for both good and evil as well as all points in-between. Sadly, the mating of "mercenary" and "tools" can lead to exactly the kind of e-chaos described herein. Sadly again, Trumpism and Netanyahuism (largely the same thing, just different countries) have given the bad guys a license to pursue evil for profit. What a world. (And people wonder why I prefer to write checks instead of using credit cards or banking on-line....)
14
The notion that the« authoritarian governments», which former employees of US and Israeli spy agencies now aid in spying on their own and other people, are morally inferior to the two governments which originally trained these employees is comforting, but, alas, when examined found to be untenable. The new bosses are no better - and no worse - than the old ones....
Henri
11
Are internet mercenaries suppose to be worse than the expensively trained former U.S. Navy SEALs, Green Berets, Army Rangers, and Delta Force combatants, who are now killing for people like of Erik Prince...mercenary assassins for hire, worldwide?
25
Just like commanding/maintaining/owning a military these tools should not be for hire or owned by the civilian sector.
49
“We do not tolerate misuse of our products and we regularly vet and review our contracts to ensure they are not being used for anything other than the prevention or investigation of terrorism and crime.”
And I'm sure that your clients openly disclose every use they make of your product. This statement is PR crock.
150
The digital age is leading to mass chaos, crime and eventual catastrophe.
We need a digital-based rewrite and enforcement of domestic and international law before the internet and cellular data consumes humanity.
132
@Socrates
Yes, and it apparently already has consumed the US Presidency.
12
The eventual catastrophes are already happening (see, e.g., the software-overriding-humans 737 max crashes).
2
@Socrates I don't use "social media." Facebook is NOT really free--and the real price in having one's life and demographics exploited is much too high for this writer.
1
Once the genie is out of the bottle, there is no way to get it back in. Secrecy and confidentiality, it seems, belong to the past --especially where cell phones and computers are involved. Then again, even the walls may have eyes and ears that are all but impossible to detect.
67
@Penseur This was the factual story behind the "Kitty Salon," part of German intelligence during the war. It was a high-end brothel where the bedrooms were bugged. When Fritz Lang returned to Germany after the war, he made a mildly fictionalized version of it entitled "The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse" in 1959. It's well worth seeing.
1