[jackyinger]

The same thing is happening in the US. The difference is that the authorities here use much more subtle methods so it doesn’t appear pervasive.

It is known that use and abuse of stingrays is rife in our cities and gag orders allow even wider silent collection of data we give up willingly to tech companies because we can’t see what’s done with it.

[Animats]

In the US, law enforcement is split among too many organizations to implement a Big Brother system competently. Every little police department has their own system, and private sector systems aren't integrated with government systems. Look at the mess in DC - their camera system was taken over by a botnet. Not even to use the camera data, just to mooch network resources.

There's an business opportunity here. There's an outsourced surveillance industry, but it's small.[1] One of the big players has only 9,000 cameras. Nobody has scaled this yet.

Amazon might. They've already convinced millions of people to put a microphone in every room, reporting to Amazon HQ. Now they're getting into cameras and door locks.

Google, probably not. Their Nest unit makes stuff that looks good, but doesn't work well.

[1] http://stealthmonitoring.com/

[hi-im-mi-ih]

I recommend against purchasing surveillance services from a company that does not have HTTPS on their landing page.

[kbart]

"In the US, law enforcement is split among too many organizations to implement a Big Brother system competently."

NSA begs your pardon..

[soundwave106]

As bad the NSA's current data collection activities are, I don't think it compares to China's Big Brother.

I seriously doubt in China, for instance, that the EFF that highlighted much of the NSA's surveillance activities would even be allowed to exist.

[nyolfen]

> In the US, law enforcement is split among too many organizations to implement a Big Brother system competently. Every little police department has their own system, and private sector systems aren't integrated with government systems.

look up so-called 'fusion centers'

[fortythirteen]

> The same thing is happening in the US.

Apologist nonsense. Have any of your neighbors been sent to reeducation camps?

Statements like this minimize the plight of these people.

Are authorities overstepping the bounds of the fourth amendment? Yes, and we should continue to fight them every step of the way. But we are still the country with the highest level of individual liberty in the whole world.

[floatboth]

Wasn't New Zealand the country with the highest level of liberty?

Also, yeah, no reeducation camps, but cops getting away with murder all the time…

[adventured]

> Also, yeah, no reeducation camps, but cops getting away with murder all the time

You mean like how the Chinese State has executed 50,000 to 60,000 people since 2000? Have you read about how those crimes are applied to the people being executed? Typically there is an unsolved batch of crimes, they tag random people with them at will, then execute the supposed criminals by the hundreds to wipe away all the unsolved crimes. It wasn't more than a dozen years ago that China was still executing people as a public sport in stadiums, where you could go and watch the state executions.

The US still has capital punishment in some states of course, it executes about two dozen people per year by contrast.

The law enforcement systems in the US deserve a lot of criticism. Cops killing people in the US is a serious problem. The scale of it however simply does not compare to abuses that go on in China. For example, China still tortures thousands of homosexual people each year, attempting to force-change their sexuality with things like electroshock and drugs.

[mac01021]

> Typically there is an unsolved batch of crimes, they tag random people with them at will, then execute the supposed criminals by the hundreds to wipe away all the unsolved crimes. It wasn't more than a dozen years ago that China was still executing people as a public sport in stadiums, where you could go and watch the state executions.

Citation? This seems like a phenomenon that I should know more about.

[floren]

> Typically there is an unsolved batch of crimes, they tag random people with them at will, then execute the supposed criminals by the hundreds to wipe away all the unsolved crimes.

Sometimes it's just that a high-ranking Party official needs a new liver...

[OisinMoran]

Do you have a good source for levels of individual liberty by country? Would be pretty cool to see how some places stack up

[rqs]

Well, at least you can protest about it.

In China, collecting your bio data is more like a procedure than a choose.

For example, I renewed my citizen ID card few weeks ago, and got my facial and fingerprint collected.

Also, some companies like Alibaba are helping the data collection: https://www.engadget.com/2017/09/03/alipay-facial-recognitio... and http://www.solidot.org/story?sid=47235 (In Chinese)

I believe all those data will be used to help tracking people.

[yadongwen]

it's bad for humanity but seems like most countries capable of doing this are following this trend now. any possible way to avoid this path? i doubt.

btw, your example is pretty weak. my facial features were collected many times in the last two weeks in US in airports and companies i visited