[rrich]

For me, this is probably the most worrisome evidence of the current state of the government. I know FDR said there is nothing to fear but fear itself, but I fear nothing more than the wizard of oz, and I fear the wizard and NSA are one and the same. Back to programming this stuff scares the crap out of me.

[rdtsc]

> this stuff scares the crap out of me.

I used to live in the ex Soviet Union. Yeah, it was a time when things were thawing out, and people had stopped disappearing. One thing that was still there, that I remember, was a persistent fear of the state. Not acute, but kind of like a dull pain -- in the background, you feel it, and are aware of it. Jokes in private were made about the party and government, inefficiency and corruption. One had to be careful not too say too much in public, or they might find themselves without a job, or maybe worse.

With the recent NSA revelation, I am feeling the same kind of fear. I don't think they'll knock on my door later tonight. But instead I think about "should I post this comment?". Does it mean I will be put an a no-fly list? What if they mis-interpret my joke and then I can't get a job on a project because they'll read this joke 15 years later to me taken out of context? I would got to a protest to DC, but hmm, facial recognition will probably shove my image another another black list. Does that mean constant IRS audits from then on? Stuff like that.

It is not a fake fear, it is there. People engage in self-censorship already. I do it.

[ihsw]

> I would got to a protest to DC, but hmm, facial recognition

The GPS radio/cellular radio are used to find and pinpoint protester identities, at least momentarily. It is an eventuality that local police departments get such devices for $30K, but right now they cost an order of magnitude higher and it's not quite plug-and-play.

[cinquemb]

That is a pretty interesting point. Though, this is DC we're talking about, so local PD probably has attachés from all sorts of 3 letter agencies and access to gear for limited times (with oversight, most likely). Protests that are organized, so far, seem to give ample notice (as far as broadcasting to people) as to when they will occur so coordination probably isn't that hard (and because events take place all the time in DC that probably require such efforts that aren't protests).

Though thinking about this makes me wonder: what types of things we'll see evolve to counteract this type of surveillance, and I'll extend, that are available now to some degree? I keep thinking back to ideas of generating noise, and I wonder what that could potentially look like, what the catalyst for demand for that type of hardware/software would be, and the incentives for the makers of it.

[rdtsc]

Taking the battery out of the phone should work. Anyone tested or tried a Faraday cage case for a phone? Would a nice copper mesh case work?

Also in DC it is not illegal to wear a mask. In Virginia it is a felony, though (not an Onion article):

http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+18.2-422

[vinceguidry]

The good folks at ScotteVest will sell you one.

http://www.scottevest.com/v3_store/SHSK.shtml

[e12e]

To further fan the embers of your fear, please enjoy:

[edit: title of link "Logo of New NRO Spy Satellite: An Octopus Engulfing the World with the Words “Nothing is Beyond Our Reach” Underneath"] http://vigilantcitizen.com/latestnews/new-u-s-spy-satellite-...

and:

["Top 10 Most Sinister PSYOPS Mission Patches"] http://vigilantcitizen.com/vigilantreport/top-10-most-sinist...

I find it interesting (and sad) how the last few months have shifted my perspective on Bruce Sterling's "Zenith Angle" from leaning more towards satire, to leaning more towards hard sci-fi/telling the "truth" with fiction.

[pekk]

The thread about that patch discussed how typical it is to have crazy over-the-top patches, it's not new at all

[e12e]

I wasn't aware there was a tread on the satellite patch on hn, but seeing how it was featured on Ars Technica, I'm not surprised:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6880117

The second link is based on a book from 2007 that used FOIA requests to be able to study the patches, so part of the point is that it's nothing new...

Anyway, I don't fall into the camp that takes the patches very seriously -- in general, anything a covert organization/project projects about itself is bound to be either propaganda or misinformation.