14 ways the Govt. is watching us.

[TheTman]

I don't know if there's any truth to this, I'll let you be the judge:
http://lewrockwell.com/rep2/govt-watching-you.html

[O'Dell]

I don't know if it's all true or not, but I wouldn't doubt any of it. If our federal government were not so pervasive, invasive, and down right corrupt, they wouldn't have to be so paranoid. If I was lying to and and mistreating the people of this country like the feds, I'd be afraid of them too.

[OldLincoln]

Most I don't buy into, some possibly, and a couple I don't even mind. I support the police officers getting facial recognition to help spot wanted felons. I know it can be misused just as a baton can be misused but crime is getting the upper hand and bad guys more sophisticated. I guess it all boils down to this. If they ONLY used all that stuff to reprehend genuine bad guys its okay with me. However law enforcement has a history of not just using tools to go after bad guys, so I'm suspect over some.

[Popeye]

I think there's probably more truth to it then not. I see these camera type things on the street lights in my area and when I asked a cop friend about them and if they were for traffic control or anything connected to them and he told me he has seen them and has no idea what there for. Do I think big brother is whatching? You bet. It's only to what extent that is in question.:confused:

[ripley16]

The first thing I noticed about the "list" is that there are a whole bunch of technology and other methods not mentioned.

Second, most of what was mentioned is fairly normal, dare I say, benign to the civilian not indulging in a life of crime.

Third... law inforcement has only so many people and so much money in budgets. To really "spy" on people, as the more paranoid among us opine they do, there would be millions upon millions of listeners or watchers. There aren't.

The alert citizen, mocked a bit in the link, has already proven invaluable in stopping nefarious enemies. Only a fool thinks there aren't real dangers being brought to these shores by people bent on harming Americans.

I worry much more about dedicated jihadis trying to blow up my wife in downtown D.C. than I do the local police or the Marines at Quantico running me into a concertration camp. I live in Homeland Security Central, outside of Washington, and I've yet to run across any people bent on doing anything more than protecting and defending their own, (and mine for that matter).

What I have seen is several people wreak their health after 9/11 by working unbelievably hard, long hours, in prevention of other attacks. I firmly believe this government is largely staffed by people who are very dedicated to preserving freedom... not giving it up. They're my neighbors and I trust them.

[QuercusMax]

Technology will continue to get better and better, so it should be no surprise that government agencies will try to use it for various purposes.

But businesses are doing the same thing as well. Think of the electronic trail you leave behind when you use a credit card, or make a phone call, or buy something online or with a loyalty card, get a loan, get any type of license, etc. It is not that hard for certain companies - or government agencies - to collect a lot of this data from various sources and then match it up to create a very complete picture. There are companies who do a big business doing exactly that and then selling the information. For just a few dollars, they are very happy to sell you a detailed report on anyone you want that contains quite a lot of info, such as all the cars the person owns, all of the addresses and phone numbers they have had, their estimated income, debts, marital status, legal actions, etc, etc ... and then the same for their 5 nearest neighbors.

Even as these technologies advance - scary as that is - the one thing that will save us is the general incompetence and disconnectedness (is that a word?) of government agencies in this country. They are nothing like the slick outfits portrayed in the movies, where clever people easily do amazing things with just a few keystrokes on their computers. This is one case when government inefficiency and incompetence will work in our favor.

[JohnR]

And yet there are allegedly hundreds of Islamic terrorism training camps on US soil, and the government doesn't give a crap about them.

[OldLincoln]

Reminds me of the movie "Enemy of the State" with Will Smith. The technology in it was a bit scary although I doubt very much anybody would find my life the least bit interesting or threatening enough to waste resources on.

[Rainman48314]

And yet there are allegedly hundreds of Islamic terrorism training camps on US soil, and the government doesn't give a crap about them.Source please? Oh wait, Talk Radio....right. Carry on.

[Rainman48314]

I don't know if there's any truth to this, I'll let you be the judge:
http://lewrockwell.com/rep2/govt-watching-you.htmlThere were some half-truths there.

The first item fails to note the woman was trespassing at 3:00 A.M. in a closed public park. The egregious part was not asking for ID (I think this qualifies as a Terry Stop), it was that Officers were disrespectful to her and made certain she got lost in the system. Other Officers just looked away.

Several items referred to public information on social media sites. This is stuff we freely (sometimes accidentally) give out). Gov't isn't hacking into FaceBook or demanding records for fishing expeditions. If a warrant is out for someone, and the fugitive's location is determined by what he posts online, I expect the Gov't to use this tool to locate these criminals. No one is secretly saving the pictures of your vacation.

Based on the spin put on the first few items, I lost interest in reading the rest. Great food for consiracy theorists.

[yatyas42]

I would have to say that in my opinion a lot of this is sensationalized. I know as a LEO in Ohio a few of those would be illegal for us to do. We cannot search a cell phone without a warrant, you can record my converation with you as long as it does not impede my investigation, and you do not have to identify your self to me unless you are the subject of my investigation. It did not seem like most of those quotes came from any reliable sources, and we always forget there are two sides to every story. I am sure that the government does things they shouldn't, but most of this seemed like new technology (an inevitible thing) that only criminals should fear. I wouldn't like it, but big brother could watch me all day, it would make for one boring surveillance!