|
> 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. |
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.