
German foreign intelligence agency wants to access social media in realtime - rosser
http://www.dw.de/german-foreign-intelligence-agency-wants-to-access-social-media-sites-in-real-time/a-17673649
======
stcredzero
If you look at any historical movement of resistance against the powers that
be, ever, the primary source of resistance power is embodied in networks of
people bound by personal and cultural ties. By gaining detailed intelligence
about these networks, governments can potentially place themselves into the
position of the perfect oppressors. Online Social Networks are possibly the
means by which rebelling AIs will enslave and exterminate the human race.

The advance of technology means that eventually the power available to
individuals in the future comes to rival that of small nations today. Then,
the only way to avoid calamity would be to use total surveillance to feed AIs
that figure out who will become a terrorist _before the terrorists themselves
realize it._ Skynet/The Forbin Project won't be build by the Department of
Defense. It will be built by the NSA. And it won't machine gun us to death. It
will manipulate culture and society such that _Homo sapiens_ voluntarily stops
reproducing and dies out.

How about the AIs pretend to implement brain-uploading of people into a
virtual paradise, but it turns out to be a put-on to trick us all into shoving
our heads voluntarily into nano disassemblers.

------
thegeomaster
Living in an underdeveloped country like mine is fiddled with inconveniences,
but at least the intelligence agencies are off our backs. The authorities'
cybercrime awareness is abysmally low, and I remember seeing Serbia colored
the "not-monitored-at-all" color on that Snowden-related surveillance map.

It is a little concerning to see things like this happen near me, but for now
I am grateful for the lack of pressure on me personally. I would love if the
pressure ended everywhere, though, but it seems like it will only escalate in
the future.

~~~
purringmeow
Could you please link to the map?

And how are you 100% sure that you aren't being watched by your ISP at least?
:)

~~~
Havoc
>how are you 100% sure that you aren't being watched by your ISP at least? :)

I'm in a similar position so I'll have a shot at this.

Local ISPs tend not to log detail (no business case) and they are legally
prohibited from monitoring communication anyway. So the only viable scenario
is give the ISP an IP and ask for account owner (IP vs Account is logged).
Which they won't do without a warrant (image risk). That combined with the
messed up court system means that nothing makes it through the red tape &
hassle unless its something intense (child trafficking etc)

~~~
purringmeow
We are talking about Serbia, not the US.

~~~
thegeomaster
I doubt he's talking about the US. The situation he's describing, if anything,
sounds a lot like how things work over here.

------
na85
I'm interested to see the reaction from the German public. Will it be as
negative as it was towards the Snowden revelations?

~~~
tmalsburg2
I'm interested in the reaction of the US public. Will they suddenly start to
be concerned about total surveillance?

Reading German tech forums, I get the impression Germans are just as concerned
about German surveillance as they are about US surveillance. It's very
unpopular and seen as a waste of tax money. Biased sample, though.

~~~
agapos
IMHO, more than half of the US folks can't even place Germany on the map, so
how or why would they be afraid of something they don't know about?

------
crmd
Total information awareness is the first truly strategic capability since the
development of nuclear weapons 70 years ago. Now it's an arms race. I'm
appalled by mass surveillance, and with my limited knowledge of game theory,
at this point I don't see any way we can put the shit back in the horse.

~~~
stcredzero
_Total information awareness is the first truly strategic capability since the
development of nuclear weapons 70 years ago._

Where the analogy falls down: It's probably 10X more effective to spy on your
own people than to spy on a foreign power. This will result in a magnetic draw
towards spying domestically and corruption. Perhaps a better analogy is the
greater effectiveness of WWII bombing against civilian populations over
industry and military installations, with the result that bombing ended up
being aimed primarily against civilian living areas.

------
spacemanmatt
Just to look for criminals, of course.

For now.

~~~
kuschku
A satirical video about this topic from 2009 when the BKA wanted to do the
same thing:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdIA0jeW-24](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdIA0jeW-24)

------
nemothekid
OTOH, if its just public social media data, its naive to think that this
wouldn't have happened. If Coke can access social media in realtime through a
service such as topsy, why not big brother?

~~~
a3n
The theoretical answer is that they are a government agency and therefore
answerable to us. If we tell them not to drive down even numbered streets they
supposedly are supposed to obey that. Of course, we've gone beyond the point
where anyone thinks they answer to anybody.

~~~
nemothekid
Your theoretical answer doesn't even seem satisfactory. Given that you are
American why should the _German_ government be answerable to you? Lets say
Japan's people are a-ok with the mass social media surveillance. Theres
nothing stopping the Japan government from harvesting your (public) social
media data the same way Sony does in order to gauge your interest in
Playstation.

