Dystopian, Borderless Social Control System

[Hervé]

Edward Snowden: US Government Corrupted Technology for 'Military Purposes'

Sputnik World (https://sputniknews.com/world/)
17:30 02.06.2019


https://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/images/104956/52/1049565278.jpg
© AFP 2019 / Eric FEFERBERG


Six years after former NSA contractor Snowden shed light on the US government's questionable intelligence collection efforts, his message about the right to privacy appears to have been largely forgotten.


Edward Snowden, a disgraced US intelligence staffer who leaked troves of classified documents, has warned of what he described as the intelligence services' ever-increasing efforts to build a dystopian borderless social control system.


Speaking via a livestream (https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1766&v=oizhVJstxC4) from Russia during the Open Dialogue event at Canada's Dalhousie University, Snowden argued that US elites have become "absolutely intoxicated" by scientific advances and corrupted human knowledge toward a "military purpose".
"We're in the midst of the greatest re-distribution of power since the industrial revolution, and this is happening because technology has provided a new capability. It's related to influence that reaches everyone in every place. It has no regard for borders. Its reach is unlimited, if you will, but its safeguards are not," he said.
Snowden, a former US National Security Agency (https://sputniknews.com/tags/organization_National_Security_Agency_NSA/) (NSA) contractor, came to international prominence in 2013 after leaking a cache of highly sensitive documents about the agency's mass surveillance efforts.

It was revealed that the NSA had intrusively monitored US citizens' internet and phone connections, and spied on citizens and even heads of allied countries.

Snowden also exposed the so-called Five Eyes, a coalition of five Anglophonic countries (the US, the UK, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand) whose intelligence agencies are said to be cooperating through secret spying programmes and intelligence-sharing agreements.


https://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/images/107404/34/1074043473.jpg (https://sputniknews.com/us/201906011075540467-snowdens-leaked-archive-shows-israel-got-nsa-intel-for-conducting-strikes--report/)
© AP Photo / Friso Gentsch/dpa


During the livestream, Snowden went on to show what he called a global heat map of mass surveillance carried out by the United States, which appeared to show that the US most closely monitors Asian countries such as Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as China.

Notably, he added, the map indicates that the 'Big Brother' is more invested into surveillance inside the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany, rather than in Russia, which is viewed in Washington as a traditional adversary.

He said human desire for interaction and communication is being exploited by commercial and government institutions, which monitor and influence the behaviour of people who voluntarily − yet often unwittingly − consent to it through contracts and agreements they don't care to or simply cannot examine thoroughly enough.
"Everything has hundreds and hundreds of pages of legal jargon that we're not qualified to read and assess and yet they are considered binding upon us," he said.
The whistle-blower maintained that these institutions

"have structuralised and entrenched it to where it has become now the most effective means of social control in the history of our species."
He referred to the so-called PRISM programme, which the NSA reportedly uses to gather private electronic data belonging to users of social media platforms and customers of tech giants.
"This technology allows these institutions to monitor and record the private activities of people on a scale that's broad enough that we can say it's close to all-powerful," he said, adding that the government appeals to corporations' patriotism, cites security risks, or sometimes coerces them into giving out the information it wants.
Snowden is facing espionage charges in the United States, carrying a sentence of at least 30 years in jail combined; he has received asylum in Russia and is currently living at an undisclosed location in Moscow.

Snowden's revelations sparked a public debate on the relationship between mass surveillance and the right to privacy, with some people justifying the NSA's intrusive actions with the threat of terrorism.

He claims, however, that plans for such a programme were laying on the shelf for quite a while even before 9/11, but that legislators were "not in a position" to pass it until the whole nation was united by the tragedy.


Related:


Snowden's Leaked Archive Shows Israel Got NSA Intel for Conducting Strikes – Report (https://sputniknews.com/us/201906011075540467-snowdens-leaked-archive-shows-israel-got-nsa-intel-for-conducting-strikes--report/)



US Declared War on Journalism — Snowden on New Charges Against Julian Assange (https://sputniknews.com/europe/201905241075299528-snowden-assange-charges-opinion/)

[johnf]

"Notably, he added, the map indicates that the 'Big Brother' is more invested into surveillance inside the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany, rather than in Russia, which is viewed in Washington as a traditional adversary."


So Snowden drops this tibit, yet , for me raises some very important questions as to what is really going on between the other Anglophonic countries
and Russia. Isn't that a rather important loose thread to pull on?


John

[AutumnW]

johnF

I would imagine they are monitoring EU countries, because they consider them potential enemies. Though I am sympathetic to brexit desires, if it happens it will place Britain outside of the EU domain and the US will be happy to draw even closer to Britain, forming a strong alliance with another power right at the doorstep of the EU. So it makes sense. And Germany has always been regarded as a threat by those who fear a reawakening of dormant aggression.

[shaberon]

And Germany has always been regarded as a threat by those who fear a reawakening of dormant aggression.


If this means England, who considered it an immediate threat as soon as it unified, ok. Their worry was not aggression, but of it being an industrial powerhouse which would dent the British economy. It's pretty amazing how that switched around the 1,000-year enemy, France, into an ally, and the traditional ally of Germanic states then became something to extinguish. Russia drove them back from Moscow; are they worried about new German aggression?

There is so much fake, "possible" aggression these days, it is like when the Greek helots slew their own healthy civilian men working the fields, because they "might" make trouble. Go ahead and punish everybody before a crime is actually committed. Best way to hide your own crimes. I feel a bit sorry that Canada/Australia/NZ are lumped in with us; they provided some support, but it seems to me most of the aggression has been carried out by UK--US. The US might have done a good deed in getting rid of Pol Pot, but the rest of the military antics have been very stupid, like the policies that drive them. That is one thing that has come from the spread of information, most of the rest of the world now sees this, except in the place where it comes from, which prefers to repeat the Big Lie. No doubt I am surrounded by hundreds of millions of war and security freaks who won't budge from this machine until you pry it from their cold, dead fingers.

OP contains an interesting phrase, "Corporations' patriotism". Wow, just wow. What are they loyal to, some particular body of legislation that gives them tax credits? Has little to do with other rules about pollution or what have you, no moral value about the enrichment of society, just a soulless system increasing their collection of Federal Reserve Notes.

The patriotic American, or, at least, original American, view towards corporations is that they are limited to twenty-year charters, generally only for large infrastructure such as canals and bridges, and routinely dissolved for the least hint of corruption. That is the only way I could see letting some wealthy board of directors have any say-so; after all, they have no personal liability in whatever their company does. Their patriotism sure did get legislation shifted around favorably.

[XelNaga]

It is really interesting, or should I say ironic, how US treats every other country as potential enemy and aggressor, acting as a "world police", when in fact, the US itself is the biggest aggressor country in the world responsible for most conflicts :facepalm:

[Cara]

I am not sure if this is the best place to share this, but Yasha Levine was recently interviewed by Mint Press on his book Surveillance Valley (post about it here by Hervé: http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?101475-How-Google-Facebook-Yahoo-decide-what-you-re-going-to-see&p=1253473&viewfull=1#post1253473).

Toward the end of the interview, he also talks about the top-down orchestration of the Russiagate campaign. Since he was a soviet immigrant to the USA, it is interesting to hear how he frames and interprets it.

https://www.mintpressnews.com/mintcast-interviews-yasha-levine-author-of-surveillance-valley-the-secret-military-history-of-the-internet/260003/

MintCast Interviews Yasha Levine, Author of Surveillance Valley: The Secret Military History of the Internet

Investigative journalist Yasha Levine joins MintCast to discuss his book Surveillance Valley: The Secret Military History of the Internet, internet surveillance, the Tor Project and the xenophobia underlying Russiagate.

by Alan Macleod and Whitney Webb

MintCast hosts Whitney Webb and Alan MacLeod recently interviewed investigative journalist Yasha Levine about his most recent book Surveillance Valley: The Secret Military History of the Internet (https://www.amazon.com/Surveillance-Valley-Military-History-Internet/dp/1610398025) and his most recent articles on the xenophobia that lies beneath Russiagate and how this new anti-Russia fervor has impacted the Russian-American immigrant community at the national level.

In discussing his exhaustively researched book Surveillance Valley (https://www.amazon.com/Surveillance-Valley-Military-History-Internet/dp/1610398025), Levine details how the growing nexus between Silicon Valley monopolies like Google and Facebook and the U.S. government as well as today’s scandals over internet surveillance and warrantless spying are actually the logical consequence of the Internet’s origins as a U.S. military project aimed at predicting future insurgent behavior by means of covert spying.

https://booklife.com/image-factory/http/localhost/amazongetcover/9781610398022.jpg/w204.jpg

Also, discussed is Levine’s controversial but invaluable work on the hidden face of the Tor Project, which is included in Surveillance Valley (https://www.amazon.com/Surveillance-Valley-Military-History-Internet/dp/1610398025). Levine summarizes his research on the Tor Project, noting that — far from being the browser that is the ultimate tool against government surveillance — it has long been funded and continues to receive most of its funding from the U.S. government. In addition, leaders and top advocates of the Tor Project have been caught colluding with the U.S. government, particularly the government agencies funding the project, on more than one occasion, greatly undermining its carefully crafted public image as an anti-government surveillance-busting tool.

Lastly, Levine describes his most recent work on the Russiagate scandal, highlighting the often overlooked impact of the media-driven hysteria on Russian-Americans and Russian immigrants to the United States. As Levine notes, much of this rhetoric in recent years has implied that ethnic Russians have undesirable “genetic” traits or are all secretly connected to Russia’s current leader, Vladimir Putin, who is often portrayed by some mainstream media outlets as a supervillain. As a result, Levin argues that many Russian-Americans have become alienated from the Democratic Party and have either embraced Trump or complete disillusionment with both parties.

Follow Yasha Levine on Twitter (https://twitter.com/yashalevine) and check out his latest work on his website (https://yasha.substack.com/).

Direct link to podcast: https://episodes.buzzsprout.com/auexXgkwqvbkWwxyFNeUZBwx?response-content-disposition=attachment;%20filename=%27mintcast-interviews-yasha-levine-author-of-surveillance-valley-the-secret-military-history-of-the-internet.mp3%27;%20filename*=UTF-8%27%27mintcast-interviews-yasha-levine-author-of-surveillance-valley-the-secret-military-history-of-the-internet.mp3&response-content-type=audio/mpeg&client_source=small_player

[Tintin]

I am not sure if this is the best place to share this, but Yasha Levine was recently interviewed by Mint Press on his book Surveillance Valley (post about it here by Hervé: http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?101475-How-Google-Facebook-Yahoo-decide-what-you-re-going-to-see&p=1253473&viewfull=1#post1253473).

Toward the end of the interview, he also talks about the top-down orchestration of the Russiagate campaign. Since he was a soviet immigrant to the USA, it is interesting to hear how he frames and interprets it.

https://www.mintpressnews.com/mintcast-interviews-yasha-levine-author-of-surveillance-valley-the-secret-military-history-of-the-internet/260003/

MintCast Interviews Yasha Levine, Author of Surveillance Valley: The Secret Military History of the Internet

Investigative journalist Yasha Levine joins MintCast to discuss his book Surveillance Valley: The Secret Military History of the Internet, internet surveillance, the Tor Project and the xenophobia underlying Russiagate.

by Alan Macleod and Whitney Webb

MintCast hosts Whitney Webb and Alan MacLeod recently interviewed investigative journalist Yasha Levine about his most recent book Surveillance Valley: The Secret Military History of the Internet (https://www.amazon.com/Surveillance-Valley-Military-History-Internet/dp/1610398025) and his most recent articles on the xenophobia that lies beneath Russiagate and how this new anti-Russia fervor has impacted the Russian-American immigrant community at the national level.

In discussing his exhaustively researched book Surveillance Valley (https://www.amazon.com/Surveillance-Valley-Military-History-Internet/dp/1610398025), Levine details how the growing nexus between Silicon Valley monopolies like Google and Facebook and the U.S. government as well as today’s scandals over internet surveillance and warrantless spying are actually the logical consequence of the Internet’s origins as a U.S. military project aimed at predicting future insurgent behavior by means of covert spying.

https://booklife.com/image-factory/http/localhost/amazongetcover/9781610398022.jpg/w204.jpg

Also, discussed is Levine’s controversial but invaluable work on the hidden face of the Tor Project, which is included in Surveillance Valley (https://www.amazon.com/Surveillance-Valley-Military-History-Internet/dp/1610398025). Levine summarizes his research on the Tor Project, noting that — far from being the browser that is the ultimate tool against government surveillance — it has long been funded and continues to receive most of its funding from the U.S. government. In addition, leaders and top advocates of the Tor Project have been caught colluding with the U.S. government, particularly the government agencies funding the project, on more than one occasion, greatly undermining its carefully crafted public image as an anti-government surveillance-busting tool.

Lastly, Levine describes his most recent work on the Russiagate scandal, highlighting the often overlooked impact of the media-driven hysteria on Russian-Americans and Russian immigrants to the United States. As Levine notes, much of this rhetoric in recent years has implied that ethnic Russians have undesirable “genetic” traits or are all secretly connected to Russia’s current leader, Vladimir Putin, who is often portrayed by some mainstream media outlets as a supervillain. As a result, Levin argues that many Russian-Americans have become alienated from the Democratic Party and have either embraced Trump or complete disillusionment with both parties.

Follow Yasha Levine on Twitter (https://twitter.com/yashalevine) and check out his latest work on his website (https://yasha.substack.com/).

Direct link to podcast: https://episodes.buzzsprout.com/auexXgkwqvbkWwxyFNeUZBwx?response-content-disposition=attachment;%20filename=%27mintcast-interviews-yasha-levine-author-of-surveillance-valley-the-secret-military-history-of-the-internet.mp3%27;%20filename*=UTF-8%27%27mintcast-interviews-yasha-levine-author-of-surveillance-valley-the-secret-military-history-of-the-internet.mp3&response-content-type=audio/mpeg&client_source=small_player

:thumbsup:

Great post-up there, thanks :star:

I'd stumbled upon this already (I regularly visit Mintpress) Saturday evening without any clue as to whether anyone had posted it up here on the forum at all, until checking in just now. I'll revisit later on tonight as I'm only just 14 minutes into it, but, yes, very interesting and informative.

[Cara]

New documentary from James Corbett. As usual it’s clear, concise, well sourced and informative.

https://www.corbettreport.com/siliconvalley/


The Secrets of Silicon Valley: What Big Tech Doesn’t Want You to Know
Corbett • 07/05/2019

Once a sleepy farming region, Silicon Valley is now the hub of a global industry that is transforming the economy, shaping our political discourse, and changing the very nature of our society. So what happened? How did this remarkable change take place? Why is this area the epicenter of this transformation? Discover the dark secrets behind the real history of Silicon Valley and the Big Tech giants in this important edition of The Corbett Report.

TbKxUYl3WSE


Closing paragraphs from the transcript:


From the earliest days of networked computing—when the ARPANET was still just a twinkle in its engineers’ eyes and famed ARPA computer scientist J. C. R. Licklider was writing memos to his colleagues in Palo Alto updating them on his vision for an “Intergalactic Computer Network”—to today, when DARPA scientists are plotting military uses for the Internet of Things,the technology underpinning the US government’s plans for full-spectrum dominance of the cyber world has advanced by leaps and bounds. But the vision itself remains the same.

In this vision, every person is tracked, their conversations recorded, their purchases monitored, their social networks mapped, their habits studied, and, ultimately, their behaviours predicted, so that the Pentagon and the spies of Silicon Valley can better control the human population. And, with the advent of technologies that ensure that every item we own will be spying on us and broadcasting that data through networks that are compromised by the intelligence agencies, that vision is closer than ever to a reality.

And there, helping that vision to come to reality, are the giants of Big Tech who were founded, funded, aided and, when needed, compromised by the spooks, spies and soldiers who desire complete control over the cyber world.

This is the secret of Silicon Valley. In a key sense, the Big Tech giants are the Pentagon and the intelligence community. The DoD and the intelligence agencies are the Big Tech giants. It was this way from the very dawn of modern computing, and it remains this way today.

We should not be surprised that the world of the internet—the world bequeathed to us by the ARPANET—is increasingly looking like an always-on surveillance device. That was what it was intended to be.

Yet the public, blissfully unaware of this reality (or willfully ignorant of it) continues to record their every move in their Facebook LifeLog, flock like birds of a feather to ask their most intimate questions of Google, and feed their personal data into the gaping maw of the PRISM beast.

It may be too late to pull back from the brink of this always-on, always-surveilled, wireless networked precipice . . . but until we look squarely at the facts showing that Big Tech is a front for the US government, we will never hope to escape the silicon trap that they have laid for us.

~~~

Thoughts and questions:

Is it possible to live in a modern environment without using these systems?
If not, can alternatives be created?

[Cara]

And the US military is now taking an active role in 5G.... I guess the only surprise is the open announcement.


DOD establishing a director role to lead 5G development
Jackson Barnett
Aug 13, 2019 | FEDSCOOP
The Defense Department is ready to get serious about adopting 5G.

Soon the department will create an assistant director-level position to oversee the DOD’s partnership with the private sector as companies race to create 5G networks. The position will oversee a new Pentagon initiative to support 5G development, DOD CTO Michael Griffin (https://www.fedscoop.com/tag/michael-griffin/) said Tuesday at an event at the Hudson Institute (https://www.hudson.org/events/1712-ensuring-u-s-technological-superiority-an-update-from-under-secretary-michael-d-griffin82019).

5G’s applications for the military range from improving the efficiency of ports — so-called smart ports — to the development of hypersonic weapons. The jump from 4G to 5G (https://www.fedscoop.com/tag/5g/) will bring an exponential increase in bandwidth and network capabilities, with advantages for both the private and public sectors. The Defense Innovation Board studied the implications (https://www.fedscoop.com/defense-innovation-board-5g-report-dod/) of 5G for the military in April, finding there will be many defense opportunities.

Griffin said the DOD knows it can’t build its own 5G technology, acknowledging it is “struggling to become the flee on the tail of the telecoms’ dog.” But, the Pentagon is willing to lend companies its infrastructure at bases across the nation to help test and develop 5G, he added

“The development won’t be led by DOD. We will be looking to be good customers,” he said, adding that the Defense Department wants to help “enable” good development.

Griffin, whose is officially the undersecretary for research and engineering, said DOD has a plan submitted to Congress for its role in developing and using 5G. The new assistant director position will ensure the department stays involved as a partner advocating for the technology’s development.

The increased bandwidth and network capabilities of 5G could spark massive growth in the Internet of Things (https://www.fedscoop.com/tag/the-internet-of-things/) — where devices, often ordinary things like knee replacements or bicycles, are connected to the internet. For the military, that increase in connectivity brings both battlefield and back-office capabilities.

It also introduces more threat vectors. “If everything is a part of the system, everything is a part of the attack surface,” Griffin said. With the increased points of attack, Griffin added the national security community will need to learn to have “trusted communications in untrusted environments.”

The race to get to 5G has also sparked an international confrontation between the U.S. and China, with the U.S. accusing Chinese-backed telecom giant and leading 5G developer Huawei (https://www.fedscoop.com/tag/huawei/) of being a possible tool for Chinese espionage and the federal government recently banning agencies from the purchase and use of Huawei products (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-huawei/u-s-government-contractors-get-first-look-at-huawei-ban-idUSKCN1UX1TF).
From: https://www.fedscoop.com/5g-assistant-director-and-initiative-dod/

[Bill Ryan]

New documentary from James Corbett. As usual it’s clear, concise, well sourced and informative.

https://www.corbettreport.com/siliconvalley/


The Secrets of Silicon Valley: What Big Tech Doesn’t Want You to Know
Corbett • 07/05/2019

Once a sleepy farming region, Silicon Valley is now the hub of a global industry that is transforming the economy, shaping our political discourse, and changing the very nature of our society. So what happened? How did this remarkable change take place? Why is this area the epicenter of this transformation? Discover the dark secrets behind the real history of Silicon Valley and the Big Tech giants in this important edition of The Corbett Report.

TbKxUYl3WSE



:bump: :bump: :bump:

Highly, highly recommended. Just 43 mins long, but packed with information. I knew some of this, but by no means all.

It's more than clear, concise, well sourced and informative. I'd suggest it's essential viewing for anyone who uses the internet.

[Bill Ryan]

This latest video by Richard Dolan also belongs here. It analyzes the content of the internal FBI document warning against 'conspiracy theories', dated 30 May 2019 but published (https://news.yahoo.com/fbi-documents-conspiracy-theories-terrorism-160000507.html) by Yahoo News on 1 August. The document itself is here:


http://avalonlibrary.net/FBI_Conspiracy_Theory.pdf


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jI9Vbk1ccNo

[Seabreeze]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKfdAEuEIus

RAF Menwith Hill, North Yorkshire, England, UK. Large US NSA base in the UK.
Time lapse footage filmed with a Canon XA20.

[Cara]

Facial recognition comes to France.... to “enable” access to government services.


France plans to use facial recognition to let citizens access government services
Charlotte Jee Oct 2

Surveillance fears: If implemented, the plan would vastly expand government collection of biometric data from people who are not suspected of any crime, other than crossing the border illegally. Currently, migrants who cross the border illegally are fingerprinted, and those fingerprints are added to federal databases that can be accessed by law enforcement agencies (both state and local).

DNA is collected only in certain instances when someone is arrested on federal charges. This new plan changes the purpose of DNA collection from criminal investigation to surveilling the population, Vera Eidelman, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, told the Associated Press (https://www.apnews.com/f2d20b4a85e44ff48d628ddd20c7c48d).

Practicality: Beyond worries over government overreach, it’s not even clear if the plan could be implemented. It would require government officials to collect cheek swabs from potentially hundreds of thousands of people, requiring a huge expansion in funding and resources.

Correction: This story originally said the migrants whose DNA would be collected "are not accused of any crime." It has since been updated to clarify they are "not suspected of any crime other than crossing the border illegally."
From: https://www.technologyreview.com/f/614469/france-plans-to-use-facial-recognition-to-let-citizens-access-government-services/

[Cara]

Plans and implementation underway to develop a digital, biometric ID in tandem with vaccination programmes.


ID2020 and partners launch program to provide digital ID with vaccines
Sep 20, 2019 | Chris Burt

https://d1sr9z1pdl3mb7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/25115416/universal-biometric-identity-1024x576.jpg

The ID2020 (https://id2020.org/) Alliance has launched a new digital identity program at its annual summit in New York, in collaboration with the Government of Bangladesh, vaccine alliance Gavi (https://www.gavi.org/), and new partners in government, academia, and humanitarian relief.

The program to leverage immunization as an opportunity to establish digital identity was unveiled by ID2020 in partnership with the Bangladesh Government’s Access to Information (a2i) Program, the Directorate General of Health Services, and Gavi, according to the announcement.

“We are implementing a forward-looking approach to digital identity that gives individuals control over their own personal information, while still building off existing systems and programs,” says Anir Chowdhury, policy advisor at a2i. “The Government of Bangladesh recognizes that the design of digital identity systems carries far-reaching implications for individuals’ access to services and livelihoods, and we are eager to pioneer this approach.”

Gavi CEO Seth Berkley says that 89 percent of children and adolescents who do not have identification live in countries where the organization is active. “We are enthusiastic about the potential impact of this program not just in Bangladesh, but as something we can replicate across Gavi-eligible countries, providing a viable route to closing the identity gap,” he says.

A partnership was also formed earlier this year between Gavi, NEC, and Simprints to use biometrics to improve vaccine coverage (https://www.biometricupdate.com/201906/nec-and-simprints-join-forces-with-gavi-to-extend-vaccination-coverage-with-biometrics) in developing nations.

“Digital ID is being defined and implemented today, and we recognize the importance of swift action to close the identity gap,” comments ID2020 Executive Director Dakota Gruener. “Now is the time for bold commitments to ensure that we respond both quickly and responsibly. We and our ID2020 Alliance partners, both present and future, are committed to rising to this challenge.”

ID2020 also announced new partnerships and provided progress reports on initiatives launched last year. Since last year’s summit, the ID2020 Alliance has been joined by the City of Austin, UC Berkeley’s CITRIS Policy Lab and Care USA.

The City of Austin, ID2020, and several other partners are working together with homeless people and the service providers who engage with them to develop a blockchain-enabled digital identity platform called MyPass to empower homeless people with their own identity data.

A pair of inaugural pilot programs launched last year in partnership with iRespond and Everest (https://www.biometricupdate.com/companies/everest) have each made progress, ID2020 says. The iRespond program has improved continuity of care for more than 3,000 refugees receiving treatment for chronic conditions from the International Rescue Committee in Thailand, according to the announcement, while Everest has assisted with the provision of access to critical energy subsidies and a range of additional services with secure and user-centric digital identities without relying on a smartphone.
From: https://www.biometricupdate.com/201909/id2020-and-partners-launch-program-to-provide-digital-id-with-vaccines

[onawah]

Government Wants ALL of Your Vital Health Data, Universal Health ID
Oct 12, 2019
Sarah Westall
"Twila Brase, Founder and President of Citizens Council for Health Freedom, rejoins the program to discuss the very serious data and power grab over your personal health data. They claim they want this data to do good for society, but there are serious dangers lurking behind this $30 billion electronic initiative to control your personal data from "womb to tomb". They want your genetic code, your family history, and even knowledge of conversations you have with your doctor! What do they want ALL this data for? Listeners will be shocked to learn that their health data is already not protected by law. You can make a difference today by contacting members of congress and senate letting them know that you do NOT want a Universal Federal Health ID. Also, contact Senator Rand Paul and show your support on his initiative to block any legislation supporting a Universal Federal Health ID. This is SERIOUS, call them today."

You can purchase a copy of Twila Brase's book, "Big Brother in the Exam Room - The Dangerous Truth About Electronic Health Records" at https://www.cchfreedom.org/ehrbook.php

Learn how to take back your freedom and leave the Government health care system at http://JoinTheWedge.com

Get important tools to help you navigate through the healthcare system @ http://patienttoolbox.cchfreedom.org/

See an exclusive with Twila Brase on the legal battles and agendas regarding you and your children's right to protect the privacy of your genetic code and DNA @ http://Patreon.com/SarahWestall

YE8R4p9E7g8

[Cara]

From MIT's Technology Review:


The Pentagon has a laser that can identify people from a distance—by their heartbeat
The Jetson prototype can pick up on a unique cardiac signature from 200 meters away, even through clothes.

by David Hambling
Jun 27, 2019

Everyone’s heart is different. Like the iris or fingerprint, our unique cardiac signature can be used as a way to tell us apart. Crucially, it can be done from a distance.

It’s that last point that has intrigued US Special Forces. Other long-range biometric techniques include gait analysis (https://www.technologyreview.com/f/613045/the-pentagon-wants-smartphones-to-track-how-you-strut/), which identifies someone by the way he or she walks. This method was supposedly used to identify an infamous ISIS terrorist before a drone strike. But gaits, like faces (https://www.technologyreview.com/s/613536/facial-recognition-ban-san-francisco-surveillance-privacy-private-corporate-interests/), are not necessarily distinctive. An individual’s cardiac signature is unique, though, and unlike faces or gait, it remains constant and cannot be altered or disguised.

Long-range detection
A new device, developed for the Pentagon after US Special Forces requested it, can identify people without seeing their face: instead it detects their unique cardiac signature with an infrared laser. While it works at 200 meters (219 yards), longer distances could be possible with a better laser. “I don’t want to say you could do it from space,” says Steward Remaly, of the Pentagon’s Combatting Terrorism Technical Support Office, “but longer ranges should be possible.”

Contact infrared sensors are often used to automatically record a patient’s pulse. They work by detecting the changes in reflection of infrared light caused by blood flow. By contrast, the new device, called Jetson, uses a technique known as laser vibrometry to detect the surface movement caused by the heartbeat. This works though typical clothing like a shirt and a jacket (though not thicker clothing such as a winter coat).

The most common way of carrying out remote biometric identification is by face recognition. But this needs good, frontal view of the face, which can be hard to obtain, especially from a drone. Face recognition may also be confused by beards, sunglasses, or headscarves.

Cardiac signatures are already used for security identification. The Canadian company Nymi (https://events.technologyreview.com/video/watch/andrew-dsouza-bionym-heartbeat-password/?_ga=2.265492175.1555663529.1571215020-2114471509.1571215020) has developed a wrist-worn pulse sensor as an alternative to fingerprint identification. The technology has been trialed by the Halifax building society in the UK.

Jetson extends this approach by adapting an off-the shelf device that is usually used to check vibration from a distance in structures such as wind turbines. For Jetson, a special gimbal was added so that an invisible, quarter-size laser spot could be kept on a target. It takes about 30 seconds to get a good return, so at present the device is only effective where the subject is sitting or standing.

Better than face recognition
Remaly’s team then developed algorithms capable of extracting a cardiac signature from the laser signals. He claims that Jetson can achieve over 95% accuracy under good conditions, and this might be further improved. In practice, it’s likely that Jetson would be used alongside facial recognition or other identification methods.

Wenyao Xu of the State University of New York at Buffalo has also developed a remote cardiac sensor, although it works only up to 20 meters away and uses radar. He believes the cardiac approach is far more robust than facial recognition. “Compared with face, cardiac biometrics are more stable and can reach more than 98% accuracy,” he says.

One glaring limitation is the need for a database of cardiac signatures, but even without this the system has its uses. For example, an insurgent seen in a group planting an IED could later be positively identified from a cardiac signature, even if the person’s name and face are unknown. Biometric data is also routinely collected by US armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, so cardiac data could be added to that library.

In the longer run, this technology could find many more uses, its developers believe. For example, a doctor could scan for arrythmias and other conditions remotely, or hospitals could monitor the condition of patients without having to wire them up to machines.
From: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/613891/the-pentagon-has-a-laser-that-can-identify-people-from-a-distanceby-their-heartbeat/

[Cara]

Facial recognition, coming to a bar near you:

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