Privacy, encryption vs. Surveillance state

Welcome to the Precious Metals Bug Forums

Welcome to the PMBug forums - a community supported watering hole for folks interested in gold, silver, precious metals, sound money, investing, market and economic news, central bank monetary policies, politics and more.

Register a free account to join the discussions. When you register an account and log in, you may enjoy additional benefits including access to market data/charts and additional members only rooms (including one for trade/barter with the community).

ICE windfall from Trump megabill fuels surveillance juggernaut​

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is on a surveillance spending spree:

  • The agency is using much of its windfall from this summer's "big beautiful bill" to fund a major expansion of biometric identification, cellphone tracking and other electronic capabilities.
Why it matters: The megabill's $75 billion cash infusion for ICE was sold by Congress as a way to speed up hiring new agents and adding detention space. But ICE is also going big on surveillance.

Read it all:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/othe...lance-juggernaut/ar-AA1OS9zM?ocid=socialshare
 

How Police Around the Country Are Conducting Mass Surveillance​

Oct 31, 2025
When you get in your car, you might be tracked by a network of AI-powered surveillance cameras. These cameras upload their information to a central database, where government officials around the country can see a detailed record of your movements.
But we're fighting back against mass surveillance. Today we’re joined by IJ attorney Michael Soyfer and Communications Project Manager Dan King to discuss IJ’s new Plate Privacy Project and how everyday people are opposing this new threat to our constitutional rights.

32:29

- Plate Privacy Project: https://plateprivacy.com/
- Norfolk Cameras: https://ij.org/case/norfolk-virginia-...
 
One woman's experience with a Flock camera.

Cop tells her, "We have cameras. You can't get a breath of fresh air without us knowing", after falsely accusing her of a theft he is 100% certain she committed.

Flock should have to pay a million $ to anyone falsely ID'd as a criminal by their system.
....and the cops who blindly accept that ID, fired.



It's a darn good thing that lady had her own dash cam and records to prove she couldn't have taken the pkg.
Had she not been able to prove her innocence, she would have likely been falsely convicted.
 

ICE’s biometric dragnet is a 21st century general warrant for your body​

This summer, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested George Retes, a U.S. citizen and an Army veteran, during an immigration sweep as he was driving to work. Although Retes repeatedly told the officers he was an American and showed them proof, ICE detained him for days, strip-searched him and forced him to provide a DNA sample — all without charges. (Weeks after Retes’ story became public, the Department of Homeland Security said that he “became violent and refused to comply with law enforcement,” challenging agents and blocking their route “by refusing to move his vehicle out of the road.”) Retes has teamed up with our organization, the Institute for Justice, and brought claims for damages alleging violations of his constitutional rights. But that is not the end of the story.

Now, as ICE ramps up this type of data collection, Retes and countless other Americans are at risk.

In addition to our DNA, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has recently and quietly authorized ICE officers to forcibly collect and retain intimate identifiers: our fingerprints and digital images of our faces. Combined with other technologies, the department is creating a general warrant for our persons, the kind of abuse that ignited the American Revolution.

More:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/i...nt-for-your-body/ar-AA1Qx9wM?ocid=socialshare
 

EDWARD SNOWDEN’S CHILLING WARNING IS NOW UNFOLDING IN REAL TIME

What China built… is exactly what Western governments are quietly preparing for.

Snowden is crystal clear:

Every photo, every purchase, every message, every movement — all of it is being fed into algorithms that decide your future.

In China, AI “city brains” now track:

Where you live
Who you visit
How you dispose of your rubbish
Every step you take in public
Whether you “follow rules” or not

Break a rule?

A camera catches you from three angles.

Your score drops.

Your life collapses.

Snowden’s warning:

“If any of your activities differ from what the government wants, you won’t get on a train.

You won’t board a plane.
You won’t get a job.

An algorithm will decide your fate.
And what they are selling… is us.”

This is not a future threat.

It is happening now — in Shanghai, in Beijing… and creeping into the West through digital ID, AI policing, and “misinformation scoring.”

China built the prototype.

Our governments are importing the blueprint.

Stay informed.
Stay alert.
Do not let this system take root. EDWARD SNOWDEN’S CHILLING WARNING IS NOW UNFOLDING IN REAL TIME

What China built… is exactly what Western governments are quietly preparing for.

Snowden is crystal clear:

Every photo, every purchase, every message, every movement — all of it is being fed into algorithms that decide your future.

In China, AI “city brains” now track:

Where you live
Who you visit
How you dispose of your rubbish
Every step you take in public
Whether you “follow rules” or not

Break a rule?

A camera catches you from three angles.

Your score drops.

Your life collapses.

Snowden’s warning:

“If any of your activities differ from what the government wants, you won’t get on a train.

You won’t board a plane.
You won’t get a job.

An algorithm will decide your fate.
And what they are selling… is us.”

This is not a future threat.

It is happening now — in Shanghai, in Beijing… and creeping into the West through digital ID, AI policing, and “misinformation scoring.”

China built the prototype.

Our governments are importing the blueprint.

Stay informed.
Stay alert.
Do not let this system take root.
 
This one is a 3 way discussion, there's nothing to see so your best bet is to listen in one tab, play around the forum in a different tab.

Has The U.S. Become A Surveillance State? | Incognito Mode | WIRED​

Nov 17, 2025 Incognito Mode
Since the start of the second Trump administration, there's been open debate about whether the United States is descending into a modern high-tech surveillance state. But is there any truth to that? And what can existing surveillance states tell us about where the U.S. might be along the path? Today WIRED takes a deep dive to determine just that.

16:50
 
^

Secretive Border Patrol program is detaining US citizens for ‘suspicious’ travel​

Nov 20, 2025 #usa #surveillance #news
The U.S. Border Patrol is monitoring millions of American drivers nationwide in a secretive program to identify and detain people whose travel patterns it deems suspicious. (AP video: Marshall Ritzel)

7:23
 

Feds and Local Cops Team Up To Surveil EVERYONE​

Nov 23, 2025

9:08
 
Europe

EU's New Digital Package Proposal Promises Red Tape Cuts but Guts GDPR Privacy Rights

The European Commission (EC) is considering a “Digital Omnibus” package that would substantially rewrite EU privacy law, particularly the landmark General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). It’s not a done deal, and it shouldn’t be.The GDPR is the most comprehensive model for privacy legislation...
www.eff.org

After Years of Controversy, the EU’s Chat Control Nears Its Final Hurdle: What to Know

After a years-long battle, the European Commission’s “Chat Control” plan, which would mandate mass scanning and other encryption-breaking measures, at last codifies agreement on a position within the Council of the EU, representing EU States. The good news is that the most controversial part...
www.eff.org
 

ICE taps new surveillance tech as Trump cuts down privacy protections​

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is buying millions of dollars’ worth of new surveillance tools at the same time President Donald Trump has scaled back protections for use of civilian data — a combination that could lead to a vast expansion of domestic surveillance that goes far beyond immigrants.

Federal records show that ICE has increased its spending on surveillance technology, looking to spend more than $300 million under Trump for social-media monitoring tools, facial recognition software, license plate readers and services to find where people live and work.

These upgrades are expected to be used in ICE’s push to help fulfill the president’s campaign promise of “the largest deportation program of criminals in the history of America."

The high-tech capabilities are also coinciding with policy changes from the White House that lower the guardrails around the government’s use of data on millions of American residents and expand its potential surveillance targets. A set of executive orders is giving ICE workarounds for the decades-old federal standard that protects American residents' privacy, and the agency itself is signaling a shift in its enforcement policy, looking beyond immigrants and toward American critics of its officers’ behavior.

More:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/i...vacy-protections/ar-AA1T4fWx?ocid=socialshare
 
CHIPS ON THE TABLE: BYTEDANCE PLOTS $14 BILLION NVIDIA MEGA-BUY AS TRUMP REOPENS THE GATE

The AI arms race just shifted into a higher gear.

In a move that signals a massive bet on the future of generative AI, ByteDance is reportedly preparing to drop a staggering 100 billion yuan ($14.29 billion) on Nvidia chips in 2026.

This is a 17% surge from their 2025 spending, and it hinges on one critical geopolitical pivot: the Trump’s decision to let the "H200" into the Chinese market.

ByteDance’s appetite for compute is skyrocketing as it scales its large language models (LLMs) and fuels the recommendation engines that keep billions of users hooked. But there's a catch.

This $14 billion spree is entirely contingent on whether Washington allows the H200 GPU, Nvidia’s high-performance workhorse... to cross the Pacific.

Earlier this month, Trump announced a dramatic shift in policy, greenlighting the sale of these advanced chips to "approved customers" in China, provided the U.S. government takes a 25% cut of the revenue.

But don't think ByteDance is putting all its eggs in one American basket. Behind the scenes, the Beijing giant is running a sophisticated "dual-track" strategy.

While they are ready to cut a massive check to Nvidia, they have also built an internal chip design unit with a 1,000-person army dedicated to semiconductor independence.

Reports suggest they’ve already made progress on a homegrown processor that matches Nvidia's lower-tier "H20" chip but at a much lower cost.

Source: Reuters, The Diplomat, South China Morning Post
 
I keep saying it and will continue to do so. I dont like all this tech one bit.
 

The Year States Chose Surveillance Over Safety: 2025 in Review

2025 was the year age verification went from a fringe policy experiment to a sweeping reality across the United States. Half of the U.S. now mandates age verification for accessing adult content or social media platforms. Nine states saw their laws take effect this year alone, with more coming in...
www.eff.org

Surveillance Self-Defense: 2025 Year in Review

Our Surveillance Self-Defense (SSD) guides, which provide practical advice and explainers for how to deal with government and corporate surveillance, had a big year. We published several large updates to existing guides and released three all new guides. And with frequent massive protests across...
www.eff.org
 

ICE Is Going on a Surveillance Shopping Spree

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has a new budget under the current administration, and they are going on a surveillance tech shopping spree. Standing at $28.7 billion dollars for the year 2025 (nearly triple their 2024 budget) and at least another $56.25 billion over the next three...
www.eff.org
 

So, You’ve Hit an Age Gate. What Now?

EFF is against age gating and age verification mandates, and we hope we’ll win in getting existing ones overturned and new ones prevented. But mandates are already in effect, and every day many people are asked to verify their age across the web, despite prominent cases of sensitive data getting...
www.eff.org
 

San Jose Can Protect Immigrants by Ending Flock Surveillance System

(This appeared as an op-ed published February 12, 2026 in the San Jose Spotlight, written by Huy Tran (SIREN), Jeffrey Wang (CAIR-SFBA), and Jennifer Pinsof.)As ICE and other federal agencies continue their assault on civil liberties, local leaders are stepping up to protect their communities...
www.eff.org

New Report Helps Journalists Dig Deeper Into Police Surveillance Technology

SAN FRANCISCO — A new report released today offers journalists tips on cutting through the sales hype about police surveillance technology and report accurately on costs, benefits, privacy, and accountability as these invasive and often ineffective tools come to communities across the nation...
www.eff.org
 
For anyone concerned about tracking and other spying being done by apps on your phone, I recently became aware of a tool you might be interested in.

The Duckduckgo browser has an app tracking feature that monitors your app's communications with 3rd parties and can block it.

What it does is setup an internal VPN that causes all traffic to be routed through duckduckgo so that it can then easily be monitored.

This is an easy way to see which apps are spying on you.

Btw, it's not an actual VPN. It's just to see what your app's are doing and with whom they are communicating.
 
In regards to the above, after one day it's blocked over 100 requests from just Google and Twitter (haven't opened a tab for either of them in this browser).

Was gonna list all the different things they were trying to collect, but the list is too long.

Everything from name to email to ip# and everything in between.
Ie: personably identifying data

I would highly advise for anyone concerned about data collection to try the Duckduckgo browser and to turn on the app tracking feature.

The good news is, no apps I installed on my device have been caught "phoning home", at least not so far.
 

https://hk.usconsulate.gov/security-alert-2026032601/

SCOTUS says this doesn't fly here in the USA, but the way things are going....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn more…