The Death of Privacy

“If the War on Drugs was an erosion of the Fourth Amendment, the ‘War on Terror’ sounded its death knell.  The NSA’s warrantless domestic spying program has turned America into the most surveilled society in history, eclipsing conditions of East Germans under the Stasi. The government is illegally monitoring (in real time) activities not tethered to any suspicious or illegal conduct—for example, phone calls, purchases, email, text messages, Internet searches, social media communications, health information, employment history, travel, and student records—and creating dossiers on everyone (even senators, congressmen, and decorated generals).”

http://www.fee.org/the_freeman/detail/the-death-of-privacy

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Rapid DNA analyzers coming to every police station and TSA checkpoint in America

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“According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, ‘In the amount of time it takes to get lunch, the government can now collect your DNA and extract a profile that identifies you and your family members’ using a device called a Rapid DNA Analyzer, which can ‘process DNA in 90 minutes or less.’  The EFF says these machines are not the imagination of science fiction writers. Rather, the group says they are ‘an operational reality’ and are currently being marketed to federal, state and local law enforcement agencies all around the nation.  Well, what’s the big deal? After you, you haven’t done anything wrong – have you?

http://www.naturalnews.com/038625_rapid_DNA_analyzers_police_stations_security_checkpoints.html

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America Is Setting A Dangerous Precedent For The Drone Age

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“Micah Zenko of the Council of Foreign Relations makes this argument in a new report:  ‘A major risk is that of proliferation. Over the next decade, the U.S. near-monopoly on drone strikes will erode as more countries develop and hone this capability. In this uncharted territory, U.S. policy provides a powerful precedent for other states and nonstate actors that will increasingly deploy drones with potentially dangerous ramifications.’  Jim Michaels of USA Today reports that 75 countries, including Iran and China, have developed or acquired drone technology in the wake of America’s prolific program.”

http://www.businessinsider.com/america-is-setting-a-dangerous-precedent-for-the-drone-age-2013-1

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NYPD ‘looking into’ drones to survey crowds

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“New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said on Thursday that his police force is ‘looking into’ using drones to survey demonstrations, reported DNAinfo.  During an interview at the 92nd Street Y in New York City with Reuters News’ editor-in-chief, Kelly explained the need to look into ‘anything that helps us,’ although a drone program was not being aggressively pursued currently.  He also discussed the department’s counter-terrorism programs and the fact that the force has privately paid officers in 11 cities worldwide to ‘act as tripwires or listening posts for the city.'”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/01/11/nypd-looking-into-drones-to-survey-crowds/

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Judge rules TX school district can make students wear locator chips

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“A U.S. District Judge upheld a Texas school district’s rule requiring students to wear locator chips on Tuesday, Reuters reported.  Judge Orlando Garcia overturned an injunction won by John Jay High School sophomore Andrea Hernandez requiring the school to let her continue her studies without wearing the tag. The Northside Independent School District mandated students wear the chips as part of a policy tracking attendance via radio frequency identification, or RFID, technology.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/01/09/judge-rules-tx-school-district-can-make-students-wear-locator-chips/

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Doug Casey on Orwell’s Nightmare – the Darker Side of Modern Technology

“I’m an optimist on the future of technology. But the way a lot of it is going to be applied by people in government is a different question. The current developments are quite disturbing, especially the emerging capability of police to use cameras and computers to scan millions and millions of people and identify individuals in seconds. They say it’s to track sex offenders or catch terrorists, but what’s clearly at stake here is the universal monitoring of everyone all the time – just like in 1984. The bad news is that it’s here now, and spreading around the world.”

http://www.caseyresearch.com/node/40551

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Supreme Court to decide whether police can take your blood without your permission

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“‘It comes down, basically, to are you going to see blood draws every single time someone gets pulled over for a DUI,’ said Michael A. Correll, a litigator with the international law firm Alston & Bird, who examined the legality of blood draws in the West Virginia Law Review last year.  Because drunk-driving stops are such an everyday occurrence, ‘it’s going to affect a broad area of society,’ he told NBC News, adding: ‘This may be the most widespread Fourth Amendment situation that you and I are going to face’ for the foreseeable future.”

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/08/16416051-supreme-court-to-decide-whether-police-can-take-your-blood-without-your-permission

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Barter and Alternative Currencies Growing in Greece

“The issue of tax reporting is brought into the article – and an insinuation is made that people are dodging taxes by using these systems. But so far as we can tell, such systems need central bookkeeping, which is one reason why we figure the United Nations has been a supporter of them.  Gold and silver are far harder to track for personal usage than barter/currency systems that use a centralized bookkeeping system.  Are Greeks turning to gold and silver as well, as those in Zimbabwe have done once the economy collapsed? We would bet gold and silver are finding their place alongside such barter/currency systems.”

http://www.thedailybell.com/28549/Barter-and-Alternative-Currencies-Growing-in-Greece

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Rocky Mountain high: Pot a $200M industry in Colorado

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“Vigorous regulation of a thriving medical-marijuana industry in Colorado offers the best glimpse of what is coming to Washington when it launches its voter-approved social-use market. With continuous surveillance, bar-coded plants and strict financial background checks, Colorado’s rules allowed capitalism to be unleased, creating an instant $200 million industry.”

http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2020067771_marijuanacolorado06m.html

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Secret NSA cybersecurity program to protect power grid confirmed

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“Newly released documents confirm that the National Security Agency (NSA), America’s top cyberespionage organization, is spearheading a cloaked and controversial program to develop technology that could protect the US power grid from cyberattack.  Of the 188 pages of documents released by the agency, roughly half were redacted to remove classified information. Even so, the documents show Perfect Citizen to be in the fourth year of a five-year program begun in 2009. Valued at up to $91 million, the Perfect Citizen technology is being developed by Raytheon, the Waltham, Mass., defense contractor that won it.”

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2013/0103/Secret-US-cybersecurity-program-to-protect-power-grid-confirmed

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