People used to hold up China as the prime example of Orwellian government monitoring of the citizenry. Now it looks like the US is giving them a run for their money. This spyware is for immigration officials, but how long before its use spreads to other government departments? Tied to AI, it will be a powerful way to identify and monitor "enemies" of the government.
This software takes control of your phone, meaning its users can act as you, too. Don't like all those social media posts you made criticising XYZ. Fine, we'll delete them for you. If you think the government wouldn't go that far, I've a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.
We used to speculate about a 100% surveillance future. It looks like it has arrived, and we're living in it.
Ice obtains access to Israeli-made spyware that can hack phones and encrypted apps
Are we headed for a 100% surveillance future? The US government has purchased spyware software that will allow it to read the contents of any citizen's cellphone, including everything on encrypted apps, without a person knowing.
byu/lughnasadh inFuturology
30 Comments
China was a development and testing site for western tech to then be deployed everywhere.
Israeli and American tech firms, some with really shadu names like Palantir, are at the point where they can dictate policy to keep selling their toy box of creepy shit.
Yes. Doing the same in the UK, not to mention restrictions on some websites without verification. Also increased our CCTV cameras too.
I do not believe that the US government relies on israeli spyware to monitor people. This is probably just a tool for the job, that doesn’t reveal their own internal software, and equips ICE to profile and discriminate at will.
I just cant see the NSA or CIA or whatever using foreign developed tooling. They have agreements with all the big tech companies. Their in house developed tooling would likely have much more capability as a result.
captcha was asking you to identify signs, addresses and objects for a reason.
We should just make an ai that floods the internet with fake posts from our actual accounts, so their data is useless.
the FBI already had Cellebrite… they used it to analyze a shooters phone back in 2021: [https://investors.cellebrite.com/static-files/70598f5e-82eb-48d8-b49a-52014f66b083](https://investors.cellebrite.com/static-files/70598f5e-82eb-48d8-b49a-52014f66b083)
Yes, and the US Supreme Court will ok it all. Time for a restart!
I mean, we’re definitely not headed away from it. We’re already there to be honest. The amount of data people have on the average person and sell it is absolutely ridiculous.
Unfortunately I’m in AdTech.
We’re there. The only difference between the U.S. and China, is Americans are under the illusion that they are fee.
I’m surprised the movie Minority Report isn’t spoken about more
The Chinese buy in was that accepting the authoritarians would bring about prosperity worth the loss of freedoms. A steady hand to captain the ship.
The American buy in is accept the surveillance state in a dictatorship of morons or else. By the way, keep consuming or else.
I mean this is just the start of everyone getting offline as much as possible. It’s not worth it anymore. I don’t have digital pen pals around the world like they told me in elementary school.
What makes it even more concerning is the mission creep we’ve already seen with other surveillance tools. First it’s immigration enforcement, then terrorism, then “domestic extremism,” then protests, then everyday policing. Once the infrastructure exists, it rarely shrinks; it expands.
You would have to understand that that is already a normality, they are just testing public perception and backlash now.
You have no privacy. None. Haven’t for years. The only reason they don’t know everything about you is if you haven’t popped up on their radar. Just give them a number or an IP address and they have everything on your phone or computer. It’s not hard for them, just a few button clicks. Your only defense is anonymity and that’s completely unreliable
Im just done going to the states, but knowing canada, this is in my future too. Maybe I just go back to a “dumb” phone and only access socials on a computer…. probably won’t be much different tho
At some point we’re going to insist that applications are decentralized ( blockchain ) because we can no longer trust our government nor companies.
Not unless there’s STRONG legislation from the government that protects liberties but considering how the current administration has dismantled nearly semblance of checks and balances in our government, what good can any legislation do to protect citizen’s rights if they can just be sidestepped by an executive order?
Combine spyware like this with integrated AI and we’re pretty well fucked, yeah. Absolutely every single thing we do on any digital medium will be analyzed, categorized, and profiled by AI that can make determinations about what kind of people we are and take action to deal with us. Not sucking corporate dick or licking cop boots hard enough? Prepare to see your digital experience dramatically change to push AI driven propaganda at you.
Read up on WW1 and WW2 spy novels for how to communicate. Using any technology will doom you.
This software has been around for a long time. We used it in the context of civil litigation and internal investigations in a job I used to be in. You should assume that there is a limited level of privacy on a lot of your technology.
I think two caveats to this article:
– there is money to be made by software providers and consultants promising governments and companies huge benefits from the ability to collect more data but you have to take their claims with a huge grain of salt because of the inherent conflict of interest. Their primary motivation is to sell more software or services- not to actually reduce crime, fraud, etc. except to the extent it helps their bottom line. If you actually intend to commit a crime or fraud or whatever and you’re not a moron you take efforts to avoid known parameters for detection. The idea that leaps in technology will eliminate that are a fantasy. Case in point here- all it takes to avoid the issue of Cellebrite detection is to speak over the phone (instead of email or text) or to simply avoid electronic communication if feasible.
– things could change with AI but a huge limitation in reality is that along with collecting all this data is the challenge of parsing through all of it- to the point that it may be pointless. Is it worth it having a team of 50 people reviewing keyword searches of everyone’s data in your company of 150 people? At a certain point the ROI doesn’t make sense and the actual malfeasance adapts to avoid your solution. Not speculation here. It reminds me of the stories of the East German Stasi where post Berlin Wall it was revealed something like 4 in t people were in the Stasi or in some form agents or informants- all informing on each other with dubious actual utility.
You used the wrong verb tense. We’ve been there for years. The Federal government can subpoena anything they want. There’s already multiple cameras pointing at multiple angles in most public spaces. They’re already tracking as much of everything else as they can. Whatever they’re asking for now is just icing on an already sizeable cake.
I thought they already had homemade spyware and backdoors, i dont know why they gotta buy a different one from Israel.
The ultra rich and powerful are taking control of the world. They want all the control they can get. They need everyone else to fight each other. All the leaders are in their pockets doing what they’re told. They want people to be poor, to be needy, to be desperate enough to make bribes easier. They’re like Nazi’s but it’s not about so called race, it’s about class culture and the ultimate power over everyone else. There will be wars and a lot of death over a lot of dis-information, we see this happening right now. I don’t know if it can be stopped. I just hope people come to their senses and get rid of all their fear and hatred.
Bring back f2f conversations. Don’t write things down.
Don’t look now but everything spies on you. Consider the OBD in your car. Do you know exactly what it can do? After all it’s connected to microphones in most cars. It can probably track you better than your phone because you don’t suspect it to have much in the way of capabilities.
Well, you can’t very well establish a technofeudal autocracy without the watchful eye of the state to keep all those dissidents in line.
I’d be surprised if we’re not essentially there now
We should return to the before times, before the smartphone nightmare began.
This is maybe the most terrifying issue of our time. In the past, tyrannical governments have tended to eventually collapse. I’m not so sure that happens in a complete surveillance state. It’s a threat we cannot accept, and it is a threat I am ready to fight.
I can’t believe this it what they’re using that power for. Out of everything it could be, immigrants… I don’t want ICE peeping at my shit. We already know they aren’t good people, how do we know they’re not gonna abuse this power against law abiding citizens? Who’s gonna hold them accountable?