China is developing a national program to monitor and rate the behavior of its citizens, where access to loans, jobs, schools, and visas will depend on one’s “citizen score.”
There is, a core existential conflict for Facebook and Twitter because of the value of information which social media companies control.
The people with the lowest incomes are most likely to fall victim to a data profile aggregated from public records, aerial and audio surveillance of public spaces, social media postings, and third-party reports of late payments and defaults.
Three recent stories about police conducting citizen surveillance outside of the oversight of their uniformed and civilian authorities have made the news in the past month. At the same time, some police forces have mounted active resistance to reform efforts.
Philanthropist Laura Arnold says that secretly funding an aerial surveillance system that was eventually exposed through an investigative report was all a part of a democratic process.
The transparency and accountability of donor-advised funds is becoming an issue in the wake of examples like a Baltimore DAF being used to support controversial law enforcement tactics.
The U.S. is becoming increasingly isolated in the world in its dedication to prosecute NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden under the Espionage Act, which would not permit him to raise a public interest defense.
Edward Snowden’s latest revelations concern the expansion of surveillance by the National Security Administration, authorized by the Obama administration but without public notice, legislative review, or public debate.
