Archive for the 'Dictatorship' Category
Google Settles with U.S. Government on Privacy Violations
July 12th, 2012Where does $22.5 million show up on Google’s list of expenses? Hmm… In other words, for Google and other companies: Do more of this. The penalty for getting caught is trivial. Via: New York Times: Google and the Federal Trade Commission are near a $22.5 million settlement agreement related to charges that Google bypassed privacy […]
Neurotechnology for Intelligence Analysts
July 12th, 2012Via: The Chronicle of Higher Education: In a small, anonymous office in the Trump Tower, 28 floors above Wall Street, a man sits in front of a computer screen sifting through satellite images of a foreign desert. The images depict a vast, sandy emptiness, marked every so often by dunes and hills. He is searching […]
Britain: 20,000 Army Personnel for Security Roles at Olympics
July 12th, 2012Via: Telegraph: The British Army has been ordered to provide more troops for the Games to make up for a shortfall in staff provided by private security contractors. The Daily Telegraph understands that defence chiefs have angrily complained to Olympic organisers, accusing them of mismanaging their security contract and leaving the Armed Forces to bear […]
Canada: Family Farm Expropriated for Gold Mine
July 11th, 2012Via: Chronicle Herald: Last week, Natural Resources Minister Charlie Parker made a clear choice about the kind of business Nova Scotia really supports. Rather than defend the rights and interests of a Nova Scotian family business, he sided instead with DDV Gold, a subsidiary of Australian company Atlantic Gold, granting the mining company vesting orders […]
New Department of Homeland Security Laser Scanners
July 11th, 2012Via: Gizmodo: Within the next year or two, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will instantly know everything about your body, clothes, and luggage with a new laser-based molecular scanner fired from 164 feet (50 meters) away. From traces of drugs or gun powder on your clothes to what you had for breakfast to the […]
Executive Order Grants Authority to Seize Private Communications Facilities
July 10th, 2012Via: Electronic Privacy Information Center: The White House has released a new Executive Order seeking to ensure the continuity of government communications during a national emergency. The Executive Order grants new powers to the Department of Homeland Security, including the ability to collect certain public communications information. Under the Executive Order the White House has […]
Rules of American Justice
July 10th, 2012Via: Salon: The next time an American political official is tempted to torture people or spy on Americans in violation of the law or destroy court-ordered evidence of wrongdoing — or the next time Wall Street executives are tempted to commit institutional fraud for personal enrichment — what incentives does anyone think will exist for […]
14 Incredibly Creepy Surveillance Technologies
July 10th, 2012Via: Blacklisted News: Most of us don’t think much about it, but the truth is that people are being watched, tracked and monitored more today than at any other time in human history. The explosive growth of technology in recent years has given governments, spy agencies and big corporations monitoring tools that the despots and […]
Pentagon Contractor Caught Illegally Selling Military Technology to China
July 9th, 20122002: U.S. satellite maker Loral Space & Communications Ltd. has agreed to pay a $14 million fine for passing missile technology to China. The satellite and communications company will pay the fine over seven years to the U.S. State Department, through its Space Systems/Loral Inc. subsidiary. The subsidiary neither admitted nor denied the charges but […]
Air Force Trains Drone Pilots by Tracking Civilian Cars in U.S.
July 8th, 2012Via: New York Times: Today many of the pilots at Holloman never get off the ground. The base has been converted into the U.S. Air Force’s primary training center for drone operators, where pilots spend their days in sand-colored trailers near a runway from which their planes take off without them. Inside each trailer, a […]
