NSA adds “watching” to its list of “listening” and “reading” privacy intrusions
In its never-ending quest to turn the United States into a Big Brother society, the Obama Administration’s National Security Agency has been putting together a collection of electronic facial images of millions of people.
That’s not really news to most people who have known for years that this is the direction our country is heading. After all, we’ve learned over the past couple of years that the NSA listens to our phone calls and reads our emails. They tell us that they are only searching for terrorists, but then why aren’t they targeting specific people? Why are they gathering everyone’s information?
The New York Times has acquired documents showing that the NSA’s facial recognition program is growing at a rapid pace globally. The new software that the NSA is using is capable of processing huge amounts of digital communications such as emails, text messages and video conferences to build its facial recognition technology. It’s estimated that the agency intercepts millions of images daily.
Because there are federal privacy and surveillance laws protecting the images of Americans, the NSA claims that it is only capturing images of people overseas and not those of Americans living in one of the 50 states, unless that American is communicating with someone overseas. I’d love to know how many people actually believe that.
Even if the Obama Administration’s only goal was to protect Americans from terrorists – and I don’t believe that for a minute – it would still be an enormous invasion of our privacy to build a database of our images and it would only be a matter of time before this administration or a future one used those images to target and harass political opponents, just as the IRS and EPA has already done.
Do you trust the NSA to only use our images in a way that protects us? I’d love to hear from you about this subject.
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I can’t believe you people. You cry about privacy. You say you don’t want government in your business. You say you want independence . But you constantly give up your right to privacy every day???? wake up people. If you have a smart TV, or a smart phone, or On Star in your car. you are chipping away at your freedom of privacy. You put up pictures of you and your family to include the dog or cat in face book twitter and you think its private??? Hello !!!!! Did you fall off a tree and hit your head????? The Government has pictures of you already. There is no privacy. They listen to your conversations and they take pictures of you now. The real question is? What are you ready to do for yourself and your family’s rights? Do you have a plan when the SHT F? I don’t think sooooo!!! Relax when you get shafted you need to relax and know that you were part of your undoing. That’s all. Obama ? He is just a puppet. He is doing what he is told. The hand behind the government is the one calling the shots not so much Obama. Yeah he does play a good part. Sometimes he thinks he is doing something, but the truth is not what he thinks. So what can we do?????? NOTHING :( The only thing we can do is elect the right people into office that do actually represent your interests. I know lets vote for Donald Trump into office. Yeah !! then we will see what really happens to the USA????? A circus circus event in the white house. Maybe he will paint it GOLD? Who do you think allowed the 9/11 tragedy to happen? at that time the homeland security and the anti-terrorist bill were layed out. The USA people in power needed something to make the bills pass with a land slide. What happened after 9/11? Both bills passed. How did that happen? Open your eyes people. Now the USA has so much power that if you do anything worth doing The CIA with in the CIA will come and get you. They probably will send the special military group “Night Stalkers” after you????? So assimilate yourself into the new age of what ever the new America is going to be. Get happy because your destiny is now in there hands. :)
Well put. It’s all the sheepel that gave up our rights. The government wants our guns and our free speach. Why do you think we are letting soo many illeagles stay and bringing more in to this country?? This is part of the NEW WORLD ORDER. GLOBALISM. ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT. …..WELCOME.
If it does no good to contact your representatives in government because they actually listen to actors in a elite global organization . They are bought or threatened. Makes more sense to go after these corrupt people whose brain children are the G-8 and G-20. This organization plans their summits — decides what policies they want to see enacted in the leaders’ countries…policies benefiting the rich and powerful. Most policies center around tax, tax, tax, control of money, food, drugs and the sheeple.
Maybe we should start wearing masks outside so that the government can’t see our faces.
Perhaps burkhas for everyone would be the order of the day?
trusting the government these days is like asking for a death sentence with your own head on the platter.
Trusting the government is an oxymoron. The words Trust and government never go together.
Trusting the government is an oxymoron. The words Trust and government never go together.
Trust me folks… I studied Common Law for a few yrs. some 20 years ago. My very estute mentor had the gift of understanding and figuring out the hows and why’s that led us to where we are now regarding laws and our so called judicial system. ALL of our courts are Administrative and ADMIRLTY courts. Very few people (even patriots) understand this and it’s true implications to the public at large. Citizens are nothing more than Chattel to the elites of the world. They along with there so called governments are played like pawns on a chessboard. The true Elites of the world, The Warburgs, The Rothchilds and the Rockefellers etc. are or have been in control for Hundreds of yrs. Our so called politicians and politics are truly nothing more than a dog and pony show to keep us entertained on CSPAN and the daily or nightl;y TV news shows.
As Baron M.A. Rothchild said ” Give me control of a country’s currency and I care not who makes its laws”
This whole nightmare of intrusive surveillance has been going on for DECADES and I guarantee you … ANY new laws pro or con surveillance will NEVER change the status quo. The NSA is largely funded by Private corporations with the government benefitting from everything they vacuum up worldwide. Commentor Cliff A is right about the fact that this is all 100 times scarier than you know but un fortunately writing your congressman will never stop or slow this NSA freight train. It has been a LONG time runnin and No measly little law or court rulings will ever change that even if they lie and tell you they have changed.
9/11 was totally inside job to cover up things like illegal money movement, drugs and killing those who may blow whistle. Goes lots deeper to and very high up gov ladder. Do a little research, see who was where and when
It seems that every Government agency must feel that they have some sort of value and vindication if they can influence if not out right bully the general public into doing “what they are told to do.” If it isn’t the IRS, it is the EPA. If it isn’t the EPA then it is the FAA. If not the FAA, it is the NSA and the list continues on and on.
What these arms of the Federal Government fail to realize is that their so called regulations are not the law. By bullying the general public into thinking that what they said is the law makes them feel that they existence is justified, that the Government and the People can’t do with out them. These agencies will do anything to ensure this illusion continues on and on.
Are you aware that you are in violation of some Government regulation even if you are sitting in your own home or on your own property? Just like a cop pulling a car over. Chances are, he can find some sort of violation he can write you a ticket on.
The only power you have – now listen carefully – is to contact your Congressman about this Government agency and have them do “A Congressional Investigation” into the matter. That’s right, “A Congressional Investigation.”
“A Congressional Investigation” means that a Government Agency, no matter what Agency is involved, must stop what they are doing, drop everything, and answer the Congressional Investigation as quickly and as accurately as possible.
Now if you want to put the screws to any Government Agency this is the way to do it. If you get enough people raising questions about the same Agency, like the Veterans Administration, then there will justification for a Congressional Hearing. This will put the supervisors on trail. They must come up with the justification for their actions or inactions. Nothing worse that turning the tables on an indifferent Agency, whereby they must justify every move that they had made. Heaven help them if they have a computer malfunction and lose all their e-mails. :-)
Remember, “A Congressional Investigation” through your Congressman/woman or Senator.
Well said Cliff A. And thank you for lacking in the “Obama bashing”. All this started with george w. anyways. We’re best telling our congress people that we want “A Congressional Investigation” rather than bashing any one person. We do need to spend more time e-mailing our Congressional leaders than complaining on blogs like this one. Personally, I don’t like all black people, brown people nor white people. The way frank bates bashes Obama, he sounds like a grand dragon of the KKK. I think frank bates needs to spend less time on this blog and more time educating himself as to what’s, who’s, why’s, where’s and how’s of the problems he’s always complaining about. He only address’s his concerns and they are real, in deed. But, all it takes is one “half truth” or “uninformed statement” to make the whole arguement both fallacious and unsound. Thank you Cliff A for a solution rather than a whiney complaint.
Jeff, couldn’t agree more on the Obama bashing. Mr. Bates tends to parrot Fox News half truths and Glenn Beck’s drivel. What astounds me is the short memories left over after the Bush debacle. Dow at 5000 and falling, AIG failing, fuel at five dollars a gallon. Just a few of the truths of that era. I chuckle at the less government catch phrase, what they really want is no president, especially black, and no over site. Let the foxes run the hen house. And I totally get disgusted by spouting endlessly about the constitution.
When they adhere to the no toll roads clause, then come to me.
Aren’t we lucky to cry racist with every criticism of Obama? What a great cop out.
I find it interesting how many TV programs and movies “desensitize” us with their use of facial recognition, public surveillence systems, license plate readers, etc. Shows like the NCIS family, Criminal Minds, and Person of Interest regularly show the use of these personal intrusions to catch the terrorist and bad guys, probably with the unspoken thanks of the NSA. To their credit, Person of Interest has introduced a big brother surveillence system that is used for power and evil. The continuous display of this technology used for the good guys tends to build a mindset of it’s okay and we need it. Television has a huge influence on the public and we need Hollywood to show the evil side more often. How about a new Big Brother reality show that shows how easy and intrusive it is to watch and follow someone around.
I remember back in the late 60’s and 70’s al the police drams read their suspects their Marana Rights.
After 9/11, I never hear these Rights being read to a suspect. What I do hear is the suspect crying out, “I want to talk to my lawyer, now!”
The TV programs you see today; are 10 years behind the times. If I really told you what the Government is actually doing and how it involves you; you would drop a load in your pants and run for the woods.
It is people like me, Frank Bates and others that are trying to educate you in drips and drabs. It is a hundred times worse that you really think. Look at it this way, your the chicken with his head on the block and the Government is about to chop your head off without hesitation or reservation. You are nothing more than a commodity to be controlled and used, according to the whims and wishes of your Government. There is nothing, I repeat nothing, to stop them at this time because the people are clueless, unaware that they have been under Government control this entire time.
And what happens when the masses wake up and realize their lives belong to the government, the same govt that lulled them to sleep with promises of “change”…and the change means Americans have no more rights or privacy! Yes, the poor are already there; the middle class is questioning and the upper class is laughing at the gullibility and lack of intelligence of the American public. When our schools under perform and breed students that can’t even give the correct change from a dollar without a calculator or cash register, how are the American people ever going to acknowledge we are being used as nothing more than puppets being controlled by billionaires who tire of their own folly and would rather “make war” with people’s lives not caring abt the hurt or disaster they cause to World economies. If and when Americans wake up to this travesty of wrongs from a morally weakened society of billionaires and realize they no longer control their own lives, a deeply burning anger will be released upon those responsible as was done when this Nation fought for Independence…a revolt to end the lunacy and hypocracy of a group of people who have lost their humanity and replaced it with tyranny…and may the strongest, most morally driven men win!
On Sept. 22 I received an email from Modern Farmer with an article about the USDA buying up SUBMACHINE GUNS because if they needed to make an inspection or a raid of a remote property they had to be able to defend themselves. I want to know what they think we are growing on our little farms that is so scary. Attack chickens? Stealth tomatoes? Radar radishes? Boy I bet we have some subversive tobacco farmers out there….creepy!
Boys and their toys. (Shaking my head from side to side.)
Behind every farm animal, under every leaf there hides the Terrorist, Farmer John. Watch out, I think that tomato is loaded and Farmer John isn’t afraid to use it, neither.
It’s sad to see a group of people (our Government) spend so much time and resources on trying to control us and other countries around the world. If they would allow people to be free a natural order would take place. But, as history has shown, control freaks usually climb their way into power and then they want to control everyone, and everything. There’s a word for these types of people — narcissistic! And, a huge portion of our government is filled with them!
The very reason if forbid anyone from “tagging” my image on FaceBook. Also I’m there under an alias but they will figure it out anyway. And please don’t blame Obama for this! It started with Bush! He’s the one who really got into our privacy after 9-11. I feel 9-11 was his excuse to get into our private lives and gather information on us in the name of “Terrorism” . He was and is an idiot and Obama has had to work as hard as he can to circumvent this atrocity. Congress has blocked him so blame them as well!
The idea being that after most of us are exteminated by ebola and other inported biohazards the ones left will be totally controlled slaves. It’s obvious that the elites have an antidote or a vaccine that will prevent them from getting this stuff, otherwise the wouldn’t be encouraging outsiders to come here. It would be funny if the elites were made to believe that their vaccines won’t work- you want to see the worlds quickest 180* turn -it would make your head spin!
“and the Meek shall inherent the Earth.”
My last drivers license photo 5-25-12 I had to brush my bangs aside off my forehead, smile showing no teeth. I felt violated.
9/11 caused all of us to get a grip so to reevaluate our circumstances. Our Government used this time of insecurity and Patriotism to make a power grab in the extinguishing or grabbing the power we were willing to give up to feel safe. As one Senator from Virginia put it ,”the people are unable to make good choices on their own we need the Government to decide what’s best for us”. Why did we need a Patriot Act to do what was already in the Constitution? When I was growing up my father taught me that you must have principles. You must stand up for those principles and they must be worth dying for. We as a nation have lost that element that has made us special. The majority of us that have that quality now are in the Military. Our Governing official are doing all they can to break the Military’s spirit. When the last refuge of freedoms light is gone, THERE WILL BE NO FREEDOM.
I am so glad you pointed out that all of this started after 9/11, the author of this article was trying to pin all of this on the current president and lost site of the fact that our rights to privacy started to erode long before he was in office.
gim3544, my question is this, Why is the “Patriot Act” still in effect? Just because the Government can use it against anyone and everyone, and get away with it? Perhaps it is time that we repeal this un-American Act.
Rand Paul just did a filibuster on that very thing. EVERYONE NEEDS to contact their Congressman and Senator and tell them to keep it that way!