Privacy, encryption vs. Surveillance state

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Last week, the Trump administration announced the streamlining of access to illegally seized personal data from unsuspecting Americans, thereby making warrantless domestic spying easier for the spies.

Here is the backstory.

The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees the right to privacy. Like other amendments in the Bill of Rights, it doesn’t create the right; it limits government interference with it. President Joe Biden often misquoted the late Justice Antonin Scalia suggesting that Justice Scalia believed that the Bill of Rights creates rights. As Justice Scalia wrote, referring to the right to keep and bear arms but reflecting his view on the origins of all personal liberty, the Bill of Rights secures rights; it doesn’t create them. It secures preexisting rights from interference by the government.

blog.tenthamendmentcenter.com

The Right to be Left Alone | Tenth Amendment Center

Today, the government rarely bothers to obtain a search warrant for surveillance because it is cumbersome to do so and because it is so easy to surveil folks on a massive scale without one.
blog.tenthamendmentcenter.com blog.tenthamendmentcenter.com
 
Call it what it is: a panopticon presidency.

President Trump’s plan to fuse government power with private surveillance tech to build a centralized, national citizen database is the final step in transforming America from a constitutional republic into a digital dictatorship armed with algorithms and powered by unaccountable, all-seeing artificial intelligence.

This isn’t about national security. It’s about control.

According to news reports, the Trump administration is quietly collaborating with Palantir Technologies—the data-mining behemoth co-founded by billionaire Peter Thiel—to construct a centralized, government-wide surveillance system that would consolidate biometric, behavioral, and geolocation data into a single, weaponized database of Americans’ private information.

This isn’t about protecting freedom. It’s about rendering freedom obsolete.

blog.tenthamendmentcenter.com

Trump’s Palantir-Powered Surveillance Is Turning America Into a Digital Prison | Tenth Amendment Center

President Trump’s plan to fuse government power with private surveillance tech to build a centralized, national citizen database is the final step in transforming America from a constitutional republic into a digital dictatorship armed with algorithms and powered by unaccountable, all-seeing...
blog.tenthamendmentcenter.com blog.tenthamendmentcenter.com
 
searcher said:
www.eff.org

San Diegans Push Back on Flock ALPR Surveillance

Approaching San Diego’s first annual review of the city's controversial Flock Safety contract, a local coalition is calling on the city council to roll back this dangerous and costly automated license plate reader (ALPR) program.The TRUST Coalition—a grassroots alliance including Electronic...
www.eff.org www.eff.org
Click to expand...

www.eff.org

Victory! Austin Organizers Cancel City's Flock ALPR Contract

Austin organizers turned out to rebuke the city’s misguided contract with Flock Safety— and won. This successful pushback from the community means at the end of the month Austin police will no longer be able to use the surveillance network of automated license plate readers (ALPRs) across the...
www.eff.org www.eff.org
 
Related.

The Shady World of Surveillance Pricing (Ft. Lina Khan)​

Jun 10, 2025
Should corporations be able to weaponize your personal data to rip you off?
Well, they may already be doing that thanks to a shady tactic called “surveillance pricing.”
Former FTC Chair Lina Khan explains what we can do about it.


5:10
 

Washington State Patrol to Find Speeding Hot Spots Using Harvested Phone Data​

Historically, it's been car enthusiasts of the particularly determined variety who have created technological ways to deal with speeding, with mostly legal radar detectors and extra-legal laser jammers being the most popular countermeasures. However, there's a new threat out of the Northwest to the lead-footed among us — and it might be one that isn't easily avoidable.

That's because the Washington State Patrol has revealed it will crack down on speeding by locating areas where fast driving is common using cell phone data, according to local NBC news affiliate KING 5. It sure sounds frightening, but it's not as Enemy of the State as it seems at first, as the way that law enforcement officials in the Evergreen State are using the phone data doesn't involve real-time tracking.

More:

 
Food for thought.

lens.civicus.org

Weaponised surveillance: how spyware targets civil society

Revelations that the Italian government has used spyware against civil society and media – including activists for migrants’ rights – are the latest chapter in a catalogue of evidence that states are spying on people who present no criminal threat, creating a chilling effect on free speech and...
lens.civicus.org lens.civicus.org
 
www.eff.org

How Cops Can Get Your Private Online Data

Can the cops get your online data? In short, yes. There are a variety of US federal and state laws which give law enforcement powers to obtain information that you provided to online services. But, there are steps you as a user and/or as a service provider can take to improve online privacy.Law...
www.eff.org www.eff.org
 
searcher said:
Related.

The Shady World of Surveillance Pricing (Ft. Lina Khan)​

Jun 10, 2025
Should corporations be able to weaponize your personal data to rip you off?
Well, they may already be doing that thanks to a shady tactic called “surveillance pricing.”
Former FTC Chair Lina Khan explains what we can do about it.


5:10
Click to expand...


More:

Pluralistic: Surveillance pricing lets corporations decide what your dollar is worth (24 Jun 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

pluralistic.net pluralistic.net
 

The Wearables Trap: How the Government Plans to Monitor, Score, and Control You​

“When the states legalize the deliberate ending of certain lives... it will eventually broaden the categories of those who can be put to death with impunity.”—Nat Hentoff, The Washington Post, 1992
Click to expand...
Bodily autonomy—the right to privacy and integrity over our own bodies—is rapidly vanishing.

The debate now extends beyond forced vaccinations or invasive searches to include biometric surveillance, wearable tracking, and predictive health profiling.

We are entering a new age of algorithmic, authoritarian control, where our thoughts, moods, and biology are monitored and judged by the state.

This is the dark promise behind the newest campaign by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services, to push for a future in which all Americans wear biometric health-tracking devices.

More here:

www.rutherford.org

Predict. Punish. Comply. Welcome to the Future of Health Surveillance | By John & Nisha Whitehead

Today’s fitness tracker is tomorrow’s surveillance leash.
www.rutherford.org www.rutherford.org
 
DNI Tulsi Gabbard said:
Over the past few months, I’ve been working closely with our partners in the UK, alongside @POTUS and @VP, to ensure Americans' private data remains private and our Constitutional rights and civil liberties are protected.

As a result, the UK has agreed to drop its mandate for Apple to provide a "back door" that would have enabled access to the protected encrypted data of American citizens and encroached on our civil liberties.
Click to expand...



More details:
www.aljazeera.com

UK agrees to drop mandate for Apple ‘back door’, US spy chief says

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard says change upholds privacy of US users.
www.aljazeera.com www.aljazeera.com
 
Also from England. If you're interested read the replies. Some good stuff on surveillance.


​

 
^^^ People think civil forfeiture laws are bad here, I saw a vid of a guy in England who got pulled over and had 1000 pounds in cash taken from him due to being unemployed at the time.
 
tenor.gif
 

Ice obtains access to Israeli-made spyware that can hack phones and encrypted apps​

US immigration agents will have access to one of the world’s most sophisticated hacking tools after a decision by the Trump administration to move ahead with a contract with Paragon Solutions, a company founded in Israel which makes spyware that can be used to hack into any mobile phone – including encrypted applications.

The Department of Homeland Security first entered into a contract with Paragon, now owned by a US firm, in late 2024, under the Biden administration. But the $2m contract was put on hold pending a compliance review to make sure it adhered to an executive order that restricts the US government’s use of spyware, Wired reported at the time.

More:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/i...d-encrypted-apps/ar-AA1LJtyv?ocid=socialshare
 
Heard of wifi sensing? It uses the 802.11bf standard

It can track you in your own home using your wifi


 
...
Yet, it seems FinCEN is determined to defy the spirit of the court’s orders. It has since decided to reintroduce the requirement—albeit at $1,000 instead of $200. The only mention of the active cases came in the form of two footnotes saying that the parties in those cases are exempt from the new order until the injunctions are lifted.

Making matters worse, the order now applies to a vastly greater area. The original order covered as many as one million people living in the thirty affected zip codes in California and Texas. However, FinCEN has now expanded the order to cover 3.2 million people living across 126 zip codes in Arizona, California, and Texas. Part of this expansion occurred because FinCEN decided to target entire counties instead of individual zip codes. The motivation for this expansion, however, is unknown.

Yet, as if that was not enough, the requirement also went into immediate effect. It was published in the Federal Register and became effective on the same day. The only flexibility that was given was a 30-day transition period for the newly affected areas.
...
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More:
 
When will the UK oust this dipshit WEF puppet?

 

Police Will Be Able to ASK for Ring Footage Through Flock​

Oct 20, 2025
Flock has announced that Ring cameras will allow police to ASK to see Ring footage - by placing requests through Flock. Flock says that the customer has the right to refuse for any reason.

13:12
 
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