Surveillance

Information

We first have to comprehend why people want information and why they need it?

Why does the military have a military intelligence unit? To succeed even in a cold war, you need to know your enemy, you need to have information on their capabilities, their position, their numbers and morale. Just as businesses have to know what their competitors are offering, along with pricing and future developments so that they can "keep up with the competition". Businesses also have to know their own people and the customers, just as the military have know their own capabilities and those of their allies. A military ally might have certain capabilities on paper, but you need your intelligence to check this, you would not want to find your side weak when on paper it should be strong. Government is about controlling people. To do this just like the military it needs to know as much about you as possible. In effect putting it simply government tells you what you can and can not do. It needs to know if you will do as you are told. It also needs to pay for all this, so it must take money from you, even if you don't consent you have no choice. You are in effect a slave. If you were free you could with a few exceptions do as you pleased. Of course you do not have the right to harm others, take or damage their property without consent. For some strange reason many equate freedom with anarchy, and so they are happy to be controlled. Businesses don't like competitors, so if they can influence government regulations to favour them and reduce competition they will often use this power. At a social level you hear people in discussion about other folks, notice often how eager people are to hear some information, some snippet of gossip. So how can we sum it up in one word? DOMINANCE We are in a constant information superiority war, just as air superiority allows the military to dominate conventional land battles. Information superiority allows people to dominate mind wars. It is all about control, in the military you have a chain of command, this allows the few to control the many. The same is true in business and in government. Why do companies pay vast amounts of money for advertising? The most dangerous enemy is the one you don't know, unpredictability is to many frightening. This is why the military hold war games, they run different scenarios, companies develop business models, governments and regulations. The last thing a business wants is to be surprised by the arrival of a foreign competitor, that is why companies will saturate your mind with constant advertising, and they will try to do it globally. Their brand is the trusted one, the one you use when you go abroad.

Espionage

Second we need to comprehend how they get the data?

It is not just the military and corporations who engage in espionage. Your neighbours probably do it to. Of course your neighbour most likely uses old fashioned methods when the mail goes astray and they accidentally open it and go wow, I thought you were rich, and you've only got that in your account! Opps, err. Companies use monitoring tools to keep tabs on their workforce, primarily using software to monitor web and email activities, along with some degree of phone call monitoring. This area, is often to protect their rears, and their bank balances, an employee calling premium rate lines you could think of a hundred more, including the commercially embarrassing release of private Christmas activities photos!!! Opps a share price drop there then. Of course they spy in other ways on themselves, often to ensure the customer gets good service by having mystery shoppers. Companies also head hunt from other companies, this brings in key players who have an inside knowledge of their competitors. Price watching and data-mining of freely accessible information can enable a company to get a reasonable model of their competitors operations. It can go deeper, a source might offer data aquired through questionable means, such as a back door into a companies system. It is even possible for employees to go work for the competitors to learn the fine detail and feed this info back to their previous employer. At trade exhibitions, the exhibitors get to know each others people, but they often don't know support staff, and third party contractors, all of whom can be sent on "fact finding" missions.

Let us just have a quick think, well, you use loyalty cards, credit cards, debit cards, items have bar codes, many increasingly have RFID chips (Read Spychips by Dr Katherine Albrecht for more about RFID), you shop online leaving a nice data trail there. It does not take a lot of effort to collect this data, so that companies can somehow make you offers that trigger your desires. Have you ever used systems where adverts pop up that seem remarkably related to key words in that email you are reading?

Government records, must be a positive delight for info squirrels.

Data

Third what do they do with it?

The classic is that a company boosts its green credentials by backing some environmental plan, which oh dear, also stops a competitor from developing in a particular location, ah.

Targeted selling, analysing data from previous purchases.

Loose it, yes those data hogs, leave sensitive data on laptop computers, for the enjoyment of train travellers.

Sell it, yes they love to make money from your information, companies salivate at the thought of more customer contacts who they can drive mad with "Great Offers".

Identify trouble makers, oh yes. There are some folks who talk funny, customers who want something better! Aghh. Even worse folks who question the glorious leaders, they have the temerity to be conspiracy theorists, yes.

Word can get about when a company is having some problems. Thus confidence drops, as do share prices making them vulnerable to a hostile take over. It is not unknown for companies to be bought up and closed down, removing competitors from the market.

Missuse

Maybe we should ask where things go wrong?

Like why do criminals want data? Huh? Why do they "case the joint" huh? Why did the Nazis have a census, oh, lordy lordy then they used the data to round up some undesirables. Hey but if you are innocent you've nothing to fear right? Why should you worry about government and corporate surveillance? Well roughly one third of the folks on America's death row have been proven to be innocent! That seems a pretty significant government error rate. In Britain we have government ministers who have had some questionable expenses, so can you trust these people?

Supreme Court rules prosecutors can lie and fabricate evidence

Indiana Sheriff Stands Up to FDA in Raw Milk Case



Recommended listening, Talk radio host Dr. Katherine Albrecht can be heard on GCN Live radio, The Dr. Katherine Albrecht Show Genesis Communications Network, M-F 4-6 PM EST




King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
Isaiah 59:7
Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths.

Exodus 20:17
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.

Proverbs 25:9
Debate thy cause with thy neighbour himself; and discover not a secret to another: