[dvtrn]

Reading that article reminds me of a rather prophetically-accurate movie starring Will Smith and Gene Hackman "Emeny of the State"[0]. Granted, for a film that came out in 1998 it probably wasn't too hard to guess where things were headed w/rt surveillance compared to how seemingly prescient writings from the likes of Orwell and Bradbury were for their respective times.

What stands out to me about the movie (because I went and fished out my DVD and decided to watch it this fine afternoon) was just how detailed David Marconi was in his depiction of brotherly tracking and surveillance.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enemy_of_the_State_(film)

Edit: attribution for the plot goes to writer David Marconi, I've fixed this for any fellow movie geeks who also care about such things ;)

[vermontdevil]

Hackman was also in another movie about spying and paranoia - The Conversation. Great movie. I know it’s not about nation states spying but wanted to add that here

[jhayward]

Hackman played the same character in both movies. His character in enemy of the state has some deliberate references (the raincoat, the workshop, the opening sequence).

[dvtrn]

Oh? Thanks for the recommendation, I'm a big fan of Hackman's acting and spy movies especially-lately, so I'll definitely be looking this up. Cheers

[sys_64738]

It's a great movie. Harrison Ford plays a secretary if I recall correctly.

[fzzzy]

The Conversation is an absolute classic.

[akira2501]

I hate to be this off topic, but also 'Heist' is a great movie which features a lot of social engineering and exploitation tactics to drive the plot.

[bookofjoe]

There are 2 films with this title, from 2001 and 2015. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heist_(2001_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heist_(2015_film) Both have stellar casts.

[hopler]

2001 had a much higher acclaimed script and was more appreciated by viewers

[paxswill]

Funnily enough, it also has Harrison Ford in it as well (one of the earlier films he was in).

[type0]

Yeah, he's great there, almost uncanny how different and cold he is in that role.

[braythwayt]

Francis Ford Coppola said that “The Conversation” was his favourite Francis Ford Coppola movie.

Watching “Enemy of the State,” it is quite clear that Hackman’s character is a nod at The Conversation’s Harry Caul. He plays an ex-spook who is extremely paranoid about surveillance, which is the exact state Caul gets into at the end of The Conversation!

[bookofjoe]

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola

[bookofjoe]

"Eye in the Sky" (2015) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_in_the_Sky_(2015_film) explores this theme as well. A very good film starring Helen Mirren that seems to have slipped under the radar.

[kirubakaran]

Too bad Gene Hackman became an actor, instead of a CRISPR scientist

[duxup]

I remembered watching that and thinking that it was apt.... but there's no damn way anyone gets access to all those different systems managed by different groups seamlessly. The bureaucracy involved would be immense, the various systems that can't talk to each other efficiently endless. I imagined all the overhead that would go into that and it hurt my brain ;)

[joshka]

A fun thought exercise to break the "can't do it" perspective. Imagine someone says they'll give you 10 million dollars to get it done, could you do it then?

[duxup]

I think the challenge is you don't know where the "runner" you're tracking is going and the variety of surveillance systems they tap into is a pretty big unknown.

[webreac]

The inefficiency of administration is the last protection of our privacy ?

[duxup]

I worry what happens when / if that isn't the case anymore.

Just with data we're crossing what seems like a lot of "too late" moments.

[hopler]

The modern solution is that they give a contractor like Palantir access to all the gov databases, and the contractor builds a unified UI.

[mirimir]

Well, there's DEA's Special Operations Division (SOD). As I recall, they've done ~real-time busts of drug shipments. That is, from a cellular intercept in California to pulling over a semi on I95 for a broken taillight.

[ImaCake]

>prescient writings from the likes of Orwell

While I agree some autocracies resemble Orwell's 1984, I hardly think western states fit the description. The powers undermining Western Democracies are a complex mix of corporate/state sponsored media, surveillance capitalism, and other more mundane forms of corruption and collusion. The fact that I can state these things without fear speaks volumes about the opposition to autocratic and anti-liberal forces. Bradbury's distraction based autocracy is a lot more interesting because it beats you over the head with a different type of control that in smaller doses could be used to disuade or control in a less Autocratic society.