Information Age
NSA Pricked The “Cloud” Bubble For US Tech Companies
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on NSA Pricked The “Cloud” Bubble For US Tech Companies
The cloud is a growth industry. And a religion in Silicon Valley: you’re better off with all your data and software stored in a data center somewhere on the planet. It’s a beacon of growth that revenue-challenged global tech giants like Oracle and IBM wave in the faces of antsy investors. But now, they’re going to pay a steep price for their cooperation with the NSA.
Snowden Warns Americans: Fear The Military-Intelligence Complex
by Contributor • • Comments Off on Snowden Warns Americans: Fear The Military-Intelligence Complex
By Chriss Street: Unburdened by the constitutional requirement to get a search warrant, the NSA has teamed with Apple, Google, and Microsoft to capture your party pictures, intimate letters, and financial activities in order to build a “permanent file” to be used against you later. That’s Edward Snowden’s revelation as he accepted political asylum in Russia.
NSA Spying in Germany: Turning “A Parliamentary Democracy Into A Banana Republic”
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on NSA Spying in Germany: Turning “A Parliamentary Democracy Into A Banana Republic”
“The largest espionage scandal in the 21st century is shaking Germany,” wrote Peer Steinbrück, the man who’s desperately trying to unseat one of the most popular German politicians, Chancellor Merkel. Massive anti-NSA protests spread across the country. Well, 1,000 demonstrators straggled through Frankfurt. It’s going to be tough for him.
The Worldwide Surveillance And Privacy War (Which You Already Lost)
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on The Worldwide Surveillance And Privacy War (Which You Already Lost)
From tiny app makers to giants like AT&T, they’re all part of Big Data. They chase after billions by collecting, storing, and mining personal data. Data is money. Much more than money, if governments get it. Which led documentary filmmaker Cullen Hoback to lament: “The craziest thing is that I didn’t realize I was making a horror film.”
‘Total Surveillance’ Officially Brushed Off In Germany
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on ‘Total Surveillance’ Officially Brushed Off In Germany
Chancellor Merkel’s coalition is likely to emerge victoriously from the elections in September, unless a major debacle blows up. So no debacle is allowed to occur until after the election. But just then, new revelations about NSA spying blew up: turns out, all citizens anywhere can be under surveillance by any government, including their own, beyond control and oversight.
Surveillance Society: If You Drive, You Get Tracked
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Surveillance Society: If You Drive, You Get Tracked
A technology that surreptitiously captures data of people out on the street, combines it with other data, and mines it ad infinitum? Local and federal government agencies love it. It’s increasingly sophisticated and cheap. It’s spreading. And it led a professor at West Point to warn: “We don’t have a police state in this country, but we have the technology.”
Eerie Abandoned Japanese Island Hashima On Google Street View
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Eerie Abandoned Japanese Island Hashima On Google Street View
Ghost island: Hashima, a speck of land, used to be a coal mine where 5,000 people lived and toiled. But in the 1970s, it was abandoned and the concrete structures left to decay, only to resurface in the last James Bond movie. Now Google captured it for Street View – and made an awesome brief video of this eerie industrial wasteland.
Perfecting The Surveillance Society – One Payment At A Time
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Perfecting The Surveillance Society – One Payment At A Time
Governments, corporations, even that genius app developer in Russia have one thing in common: they want to know everything. Data is power. And money. As the Snowden debacle has shown, they’re getting there. Technologies for gathering information, then hoarding it, mining it, and using it are becoming phenomenally effective and cheap. But it’s not perfect.
Tech Companies And Their Love Affair With NSA and CIA
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Tech Companies And Their Love Affair With NSA and CIA
Keyhole Inc., a venture-capital funded startup, was acquired by Google in 2004. Its product became Google Earth. Its technology filtered into Google Maps and Google Mobile. One of the venture-capital investors? The CIA. It didn’t ruffle any feathers at the time. But now we have NSA leaker Edward Snowden and his media blitz.