FBI Admits To Using Drones To Spy On Americans
from the feeling-safer? dept
Most people in the US still associate government use of drones with far away places. But they might want to start paying more attention to what's happening over their own heads. The FBI has now admitted that it uses drones for surveillance purposes domestically. Though FBI director Robert Mueller said that it was done in a "very, very minimal way, very seldom," this is still the first admission that it has happened. Mueller seemed open to having Congress legislate how it can use drones. Oddly, members of Congress who seem unconcerned about the NSA's mass dragnet of information, are apparently concerned about domestic drone use:Dianne Feinstein, who is also chair of the Senate intelligence committee, said the issue of drones worried her far more than telephone and internet surveillance, which she believes are subject to sufficient legal oversight.I would argue that both are worrying, in large part because the use of both have been secret to the American public until recent revelations. At the very least, these kinds of surveillance deserve a very public debate about whether or not they are appropriate.
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Filed Under: domestic surveillance, drones, fbi, robert mueller, surveillance
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http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130619/10213023529/fbi-admits-to-using-drones-to-spy-ame ricans.shtml#c203
Predictable troll is predictable.
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Watching hearing now
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Re: Watching hearing now
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Yes, I would like the url for your webcam feed.
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china
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Re: china
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Hell, that could save alot of miles.
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Price in Syria for a Russian “export” grade system?
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2344098/NSA-hearing-Hot-mic-catches-NSA-boss-pr aising-FBI-chiefs-supportive-testimony-surveillance-programs.html
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Btw. Merkel was digging a bit at Obama in Berlin on the surveillance cases: "There needs to be a balance and we will continue to work with USA to find the right balance."
Obama instantly answered that "USA already had found the right balance."...
Given how this balance is individual for every person on earth I call bull on that...
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What a jackass response.
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We've only pissed off half the country, so perfect balance!
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I know on Airplanes it's illegal due to pilot blinding, but that shouldn't be an issues with drones.
http://biglasers.com/1w-blue-laser-pointer
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Umm, Google has you all accustomed to its spying.
Take a loopy tour of Techdirt.com! You always end up same place!
http://techdirt.com/
Masnicking: daily spurts of short and trivial traffic-generating items.
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Re: Umm, Google has you all accustomed to its spying.
Here are a few reasons, off the top of my head, why it isn't...
1.) I don't have to use Google. I can use different products.
2.) Google is a private company. They cannot arrest me.
3.) The FBI/NSA are part of my government. They have the power to arrest me.
4.) The FBI/NSA have a long history of lying about who they are spying on and abusing their powers.
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Re: Umm, Google has you all accustomed to its spying.
That you go full conspiracy theorist with your ranting’s, it discredits your arguments. Your message ends up getting ignored and you get belittled. You do more harm than good. You accomplish nothing except to thrust people further into the arms of google.
If you’re actually concerned about google and want people to know about its follies, you’re doing an awful job. If you’re a troll just trolling to troll, well than, you’re doing a bit better at that. Perhaps if your true intentions are to enlighten people on google, you should consider just doing it to be a troll. Least than you’d be somewhat successful in your dealings.
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Re: Re: Umm, Google has you all accustomed to its spying.
Indeed. Speaking as a person who is highly critical of Google and encourages people to be wary of them, Blue's attempts are counterproductive in the extreme. He comes off as a lunatic, and so allows people to write off folks who point out the real trade-offs Google presents as just one of the lunatic crowd.
If Blue really wanted to raise awareness about Googly issues, he'd be well advised to talk like a rational person. Or, if that's impossible, to at least shut up and let others do the job.
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Re: Re: Re: Umm, Google has you all accustomed to its spying.
Counter-conspiracy-theory: Blue actually works for Google, who have hired him as a paid shill to discredit legitimate people seeking to expose their nefarious deeds.
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Re: Re: Re: Umm, Google has you all accustomed to its spying.
Why? A desperate ploy to get attention, perhaps.
Epic butthurt over something so trivial she's unwilling to talk about it in public?
Whatever it is, Cathy is so deranged she can't even get the other trolls on board.
Let's stop responding to her. She's too nuts to pay attention to anyone who doesn't immediately agree with everything she says.
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Re: Umm, Google has you all accustomed to its spying.
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Where can I torrent the "best of surveillance" video?
I bet there's just *tons* of surveillance done over by sorority row, too.
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Re: Where can I torrent the "best of surveillance" video?
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------------
I have come to the realization that nothing involving the present day scandals can be believed when I hear politicians mouths move.
The investigations into the NLS have already shown that any time the system can be abused it will be.
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Lots of room to debate drones
I know it's not against the law for an unmarked police car, for example, to follow me down the road as I drive. A manned drone seems, on the surface, to be an extension of this. However a drone is not restricted to the same paths and views that a car is (which is one of the strengths of a drone.) In my mind, this raises the following questions.
1. If a person is nude sunbathing in the privacy of their own, fenced, backyard and a police drone flies over.. what protections exist to prevent that part of that video from being kept, perused, taken home, posted on youtube, etc... Can an FOI be used to get copies of drone flight video's?
2. If damage is done by a drone (breaks window, shorts power line) who is responsible?
3. What type of encryption will be used to protect flight controls for drones from being hacked? What sort of encryption for video streams to prevent from being recorded by third parties?
4. What restrictions will be placed on the correct use of drones? can building and safety use it (as they have been using google maps) to look into peoples backyards for code violations? Will a warrant be needed to use them? Can they only be used to follow individuals or can the forestry service use them to look for fires/drugs/poachers/etc?
5. What laws will be in place for private use of drones? To the best of my knowledge, if your not using them for commercial purpose you can fly video drones right now below 500ft. but if your using them for commercial purpose then it's against FAA regulations.
So in my mind, there are lots of questions that need to be asked BEFORE we begin general use of drones within the borders of the united states. I hope they are being considered.
Boojum the brown bunny
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Re: Lots of room to debate drones
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Re: Re: Lots of room to debate drones
Under
Drones:
Death,
Injury, and
Trauma to
Civilians...civilians should be changed to "Everyone".
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Re: Lots of room to debate drones
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Re: Lots of room to debate drones
2. with the exception of search & rescue ops (which should not necessarily be a police/military function), i can ONLY imagine horrific consequences for this technology in the hands of the police-military (difficult to tell apart these days: our mercenaries, oops, military 'police' countries a half a planet away, and our police make war on the citizens here...
3. all we have to do to understand how police-military use of drones within the US, is to see how they are used on the rest of the world... which many legal minds and moral leaders (all four of them!) make an arguable case for the use of drones constituting war crimes...
if its a war crime 'over there', why ain't it a war crime 'over here' ? ? ?
4. lastly, the MOST scary prospect in this inhumane drone usage (and -not coincidentally- 'warrantless wiretapping', 'TIA' shit), is establishing the 'legal/moral principle' (sic), that use of unobtrusive, undetectable surveillance techniques make the 4th amendment obsolete...
*aside* from the mere factoid that 99%+ of our kongresskritters piss on the constitution and bill of rights on *at least* a three-month basis; *aside* from how our modern 'papers and effects' have mutated to a digital world unanticipated, BUT WHICH SHOULD STILL BE COVERED; and *aside* from the dubious value of these insane systems; i am looking in my popular science speculation crystal ball, and it ain't too long out where we have 'nanobots' of various scales...
if we establish the 'principle' that unobtrusive surveillance is 'okay', then what is to stop The They (tm) from putting a nanobot up your butt ? ? ?
nothing but a threadbare pair of tidy whities...
art guerrilla
aka ann archy
eof
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Re: Lots of room to debate drones
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Any strong source of infrared light blinds cameras.
;)
http://hacknmod.com/hack/blind-cameras-with-an-infrared-led-hat/
http://www.wikih ow.com/Blind-a-Surveillance-Camera
http://boingboing.net/2008/02/20/infrared-leds-make-y.html
Al so useful against speed cameras, they can't read the plate number and they just look like normal illumination.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=d85_1351163428&comments=1
http://mods-n-hacks.w onderhowto.com/inspiration/infrared-leds-protect-your-license-plate-number-from-police-cams-0128008/
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What do you honestly think they are going to do with these drones? Spy on you? Are you really that important? I'll bet my left one that they will use them to watch the borders for illegals, Chase bank robbers, Watch known drug houses, etc etc. Wow what a horrible idea.
If you don't want to be seen nude in your backyard than don't go outside without clothes on.
Stop bitching about everything that the government does. You elected them. If you don't like it than run for your local seat.
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No, it doesn't. It just means that they'll do three times as much surveillance.
As with the other spying issues, the point isn't that you, or I, in particular are being surveilled. It's that massive surveillance has a large number of detrimental effects to society as a whole, and that the cops & spy outfits have repeatedly demonstrated, over a period of many decades, that they will inevitably use their new power to do things like suppress legitimate dissent, punish political enemies, etc.
This is a stunning statement. So now we have to refrain from legal activity in the privacy of our own land just so cops get to play with their new toys?
I don't bitch about everything the government does. I bitch about the things I see the government doing wrong. This is not only my right, but it is my responsibility as a citizen.
For the record, I don't think the drones issue is nearly as big of a deal as the telephone spying, but there's no reason not to call out both of these as issues that need to be addressed.
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It is the "etc. etc." that concerns any rational person...mainly because that is the same description of the extent to which their surveillance is limited.
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How long before
Nazi Prison work camps
Nazi Death camps
soon , its in the works
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The Real Enemy
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Police and news copters
Maybe with drones we can get a closer view.
Looking on the positive side, it's very possible that if they see me without my clothes in my backyard they may not come back.
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Of course, seldom
because "We have very few and have limited use."
I'm sure that if they had a couple hundred thousand, it would have rather been done in a "very, very maximal way, very liberally."
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What is seldom?
What exactly do they mean? 0.005 percent seems like a reasonable figure for seldom and limited.
If it is just 0.005 percent of the population was watched by a drone then do the math:
300,000,000 X 0.005 = 1500000.
That's 1.5 million people!
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From Star Wars...
However, in our case, it's probably apathy and indifference.
No time for politics, gotta make my car payment, mortgage payment, get next to the cute blond, take the kids to school...
There are so many excuses.
Then, all of sudden and before you know it:
It's 3 am:
KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK! BAM!
Don't worry sir, this is for your own protection. Just put your hands behind your back while we put this black hood over your head...
Your family? What family...
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Drones
They've been looking down on us for years with satellites, but now that they've used a drone to do the exact same thing, suddenly we all clutch our pearls in horror? Makes no sense.
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Today's government
Hopefully people realize that we could overthrow the government
like it says in the constitution
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drooones!!!!!
here are a couple links that might nterest you
http://www.wired.com/2007/10/insect-drones-s/#previouspost
^This link is about how some drones that look like little dragonflies were spotted in the skies by some teenagers.
Heres a quote by the college senior of new york"I look up and I’m like, ‘What the hell is that?’ They looked kind of like dragonflies or little helicopters. But I mean, those are not insects.
http://www.wired.com/2009/01/pentagons-cybor/
^this link is about the cyborg beetles that are spying on you on behalf of the pentagon.
Here's a quote from Tech-Onreports... Perhaps you are not particularly worried about the idea of remote-controlled insects spying on you, on behalf of the Pentagon. Darpa-funded researchers at the University of California, Berkeley would like to disabuse you of that notion. They’ve succeeded in "controlling a live rhinoceros beetle by radio," Tech-Onreports.
DRONES ARE JUST CREEPY
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