State of Surveillance
As you read this, your government could be thumbing through your contacts, reviewing your text messages and uploading the photos you have stored on your phone without your knowledge. This is the new reality in a post-9/11 age. Most citizens around the globe were first made aware of this troubling phenomenon through the controversial actions of whistleblower Edward Snowden. In their new documentary titled State of Surveillance, VICE travels to Russia, where Snowden currently lives safe from persecution by the United States, to probe the depths of his particular area of expertise.
As discussed in the early section of the film, the most recent example of the U.S. government's dominance over privately owned digital devices was made clear in the aftermath of the San Bernadino terrorist shootings. After haggling with Apple over a means of gaining access to the perpetrator's phone, the government managed to hack it on their own. But that's a capability they've had all along, claims Snowden.
At a table sitting across from VICE host Shane Smith, Snowden performs a dissection of a common cellular phone - the kind used by many billions of people all over the world. He illustrates how the innards of every phone can act as pathways through which institutions can track your every move.
The intrusion doesn't stop with your cell phone or laptop device. Drone surveillance - the spying technology which allows organizations like the CIA to keep watch on suspected terrorist activities in countries like Iraq and Afghanistan - are now being employed by the U.S. government on their own home soil. In many cases, these drones are not being used to detect potential terrorist threats, but rather citizen-led protests such as the one which recently occurred in Ferguson, Missouri. According to Snowden and other figures interviewed in the film, missions like these are driven by the government's desire to suppress and deter the will and the rights of their people.
Apathy and ignorance will only breed a further deterioration of our rights to privacy. State of Surveillance understands that insidious security breaches like these will continue to occur until the public becomes more aware and vocal in their disapproval.
The tyrannical government uses Snowden to tell us what it is doing to us; it cannot come out and say the truth that it is watching us all the time in this fake democracy. When Snowden "exposes" nothing new as scripted, the government and Snowden put on a chicken-chase show for the world to see. It's all fake.
Pithy, succinct, to the point, nutshelled very well, yet TOTALLY worth yer 27 minutes. ES is a true patriot. What if he were POTUS? Fun for the whole freaking family
The Brave New World is here. Facebook, Twitter, Google,and Instagram work in concert with Govt. "Medical Marijuana", pills, etc are the Soma for the people. NSA, CIA, DOJ, FBI are the secret police. Privacy died quite a while ago.
The good thing is that most police departments in the United States are not using IMSI catchers due to recent SCOTUS rulings that this information needs to be retrieved AFTER a legitamite articulable warrant is secured. Now Norway? Oslo? Yea, there's not a whole crapload of privacy and freedom in a place like that....or ANY place in Europe for that matter LOL. But I have several inside sources and I can tell you no police department in the two state capitals I live within an hour of have A SINGLE IMSI. The FBI may have one, sure, but no police department does. You've got to get PRETTY HIGH on the FBI "radar" to rate being followed by an IMSI device in the United States. I'd be worried too if I was that "interesting" LOL.
I have a question...With all the surveillance, shouldn't the government find and stop shooters before they kill people?
I'm so tired of this being the top video for the past 2+ years,
Yes he fled to Russia, "worse than USA!"
At least Russia is not wanting to put him in jail for the rest of his life just for being what I call the greatest patriot in generations.
Yes he committed Treason but it is against a low life government ran by the likes of Obama and Hillary.
That is much like high Treason against the Nazi rulers.
Hero's, EVERY ONE OF THEM!
He fled to Russia which is even the worst than USA. pff
Snowden is at least free. No more US surveillence. What about Putin's blue eyed friends >?
The first premise of this doc is that FBI already had the tech. Joke show.
When people say "If you're not doing anything wrong, you don't need privacy" they assume "we the people" decide "right & wrong". We don't. The rulers do. "Right" is obedience to them, for them. We are their servants to be sacrificed. Rulers claim the opposite and people believe them, worship coercive gov and pretend they are free.
"As you read this, your government could be thumbing through your contacts"...could be? YOU MEAN ARE... with the help of Microsoft, facebook and all other social media who are giving or selling all your personal information to the government... how else do you think they stay in business....and their services are free? You are the prodct being sold.
safe to say that Snowden is under the same surveillance he warns us about LOL ironic
Seems like a hidden propaganda film. They mentioned terrorist attacks like 3 times.
for me, Snowden was preceded by people who worked under the same contractor, he ought to have contacted the people at the NSA but what does he do? He flees to Russia.
I was a lower level supporter of people who, during the cold war, in Turkey in the late 1950's. The collection of so called meta data is needed - the NSA selects the likely material and works on that. There is a problem that it is a politician who gives the ' go ahead' to institute this action.
Very sad that people's right to privacy is being eroded by governments and greedy corporations. That anyone for any reason can use your devices to listen in on your private conversations is chilling .and a wake up call to all of us that something is terribly wrong and must be combated.
@John Rossiter: " Arent [sic] all crimes solved then? Also, why aren't all conspiracies thwarted??" Well, because it's sometimes in the best interests of certain parties to not act on viable information. Are there bigger secrets involved? Is there a way to gain more information, or even influence, by not acting on such information? Sometimes inaction is the most effective form of action.
While I have great admiration for Snowdon, and do agree with the majority viewpoints written here, Why.... Arent all crimes solved then? Also, why aren't all conspiracies thwarted??
Either standard law enforcement dont have or use this technology, or, They dont wanna solve everything for fear of showing their full hand.
I dont know the answer. But if they know and see everything, it sure doesnt seem like it!
Here in the UK the Police are by law supposed to get a magistrate 's warrant to bug land lines , from the local exchange. However, often they do not even bother to go down this route instead they dress up an officer in BT uniform with the necessary 'fake warrant' which is never left with the telephone exchange staff. Their officer then proceeds to the line box exchange and fixes the bug!
"Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say" SO TRUE!
What gets me is that 2 independent committees (set up by the white house) found that mass surveillance doesn't work. Also the point that some make "If you aren't doing anything wrong then why are you worried about being spied on" is ridiculous. What these people who say this don't understand is the government don't just collect 'Bad people's' information they collect meta data from anyone and everyone. Just think, there is a very high chance that said government have nudes of you, have your intimate private conversations on record etc etc. Even if you respond to the prior with "It's fine I haven't done anything wrong" well as Cyborg009's joke suggests, maybe something innocent today will tomorrow be the opposite. It pains me how gutless and weak many citizens are today and just assume those in positions of power would never abuse it. Wake up and step out of your bubble.
so the message is the Boston Marathon bombing was real?? No it wasn't it was a staged false flag event. Snowden refers to the Tsarnaev brothers as terrorist while they weren't; they were patsies in a ridiculous theatre of fake terrorist events.
You're all missing something here. Many people in government already use surveillance to get ahead of people. They may have legal cases against the government, they may have research data they have been working on for their company or a deal they have been working on etc. Corrupt people in the government are using this information now to unethically get ahead of legal disputes or scoop deals or research from others. This is happening now. Don't trust people in government just because they are in positions of power. That is precisely why you shouldn't trust them.
The big problem with blanket surveillance is that the byproducts detected by the surveillance can be used maliciously. e.g. I get a court order to spy on a citizen who I (government agency) suspect is a terrorist. Surveillance proves that this citizen is not a terrorist but has not completed a tax return for the last three years. IRS then goes on the attack, freezes assets etc etc,
By the way. Tiger Lilly you are an i***t.