
ICE Is Paying Millions to Surveillance Company to Spy on People’s Communications - oil25
https://privacyintyqcroe.onion/news-analysis/2995/ice-paying-millions-surveillance-company-spy-peoples-communications
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tssva
I'm not a big fan of ICE but this article is ridiculous fear mongering. What
ICE is paying for is implementations of lawful wiretaps after obtaining a
warrant from a court just as every other US local, state and federal law
enforcement agency does.

~~~
snazz
While I agree, that doesn’t mean that their usage of lawful wiretaps is
ethical, which is the bigger issue.

~~~
bradleyjg
I agree, but I think it is somewhat unfair to always make it about ICE, when
really it's about Congress and the President.

A public employee that does the right thing at great personal cost is a hero,
but our elected officials should never put them in that position in the first
place. That's where the bulk of the anger belongs--at a legislature that has
abdicated way too much of its responsibility and at an elected executive that
has taken that delegated authority and used it for things we find unethical.
Sure we can save some disappointment and anger for the foot-soldiers but not
at the cost of losing site of where most of the blame belongs.

We have protests about companies providing software to ICE, why don't we have
any protests about companies providing software to the White House and
Congress?

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TheRealPomax
This should have the URL changed to [https://privacyinternational.org/news-
analysis/2995/ice-payi...](https://privacyinternational.org/news-
analysis/2995/ice-paying-millions-surveillance-company-spy-peoples-
communications) (but also, as already pointed out by another comment, this is
an incredibly misleading title)

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deftnerd
For those who want to read the information without having to load TBB, you can
use the clearnet URL: [https://privacyinternational.org/news-
analysis/2995/ice-payi...](https://privacyinternational.org/news-
analysis/2995/ice-paying-millions-surveillance-company-spy-peoples-
communications)

~~~
random42
What is TBB?

~~~
ghostpepper
I think Tor Browser Bundle. This looks to be a dark-web page, since the TLD is
.onion.

~~~
markovbot
Can we at least not call it "dark-web" on HN? I get that media morons are
trying to come up with a way to make tor sound more scary, but that's a
meaningless term that IMO we should not use here.

~~~
ghostpepper
I actually wasn't sure what a better term was. Tor site? Onion site? Is "dark
web" ambiguous; can it refer to other technologies?

~~~
markovbot
"onion site" or "onion service" is probably preferred, "a site on the tor
network" would also probably work.

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tru3_power
On mobile. What do you recommend I should use to read this on iOS?

~~~
cmg
I believe that Onion Browser is the recommended app:
[https://apps.apple.com/us/app/onion-
browser/id519296448](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/onion-browser/id519296448)

Some discussion and notes from the Tor Project blog:
[https://blog.torproject.org/tor-heart-onion-browser-and-
more...](https://blog.torproject.org/tor-heart-onion-browser-and-more-ios-tor)

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microcolonel
A law enforcement agency is procuring products and services with money from
their budget, to carry out their work.

What is the practical difference between this and their own "open source
intelligence" efforts?

~~~
jMyles
> A law enforcement agency is procuring products and services with money from
> their budget, to carry out their work.

You can stop right there and it's already objectionable to many of us.

I don't want the federal government involved in "law enforcement," full stop.
It's not their job.

I especially don't want a domestic security agency spending $50 million
dollars on “phone records, consumer and credit bureau data, healthcare
provider content, utilities data, DMV records, World-Check listings, business
data, data from social networks and chatrooms, and 'live access to more than 7
billion license plate detections'."

So it doesn't matter that there is or isn't a practical different between a
the use of a contractor and 'their own "open source intelligence" efforts"' \-
I don't want them doing either one.

~~~
dsl
> I don't want the federal government involved in "law enforcement," full
> stop. It's not their job.

That is a broad cut if you just don't agree with ICE. There are tons of
federal LEOs that do the jobs states and local governments can't.

The US Marshall Service - Witness protection and relocation to other states.
Rounding up fugitives from the federal judicial system.

US Secret Service - which state should protect the US currency and our elected
officials?

BLM / National Ranger Service - who protects and enforces laws on lands
specifically owned by the federal government?

State Department, Diplomatic Security Service - what about visiting foreign
dignitaries?

United States Capitol Police - DC is a sovereign district. Should it be
policed by a neighboring state?

USPS Postal Police - investigates crimes committed using the mail service,
which often crosses state borders.

DoE/NRE Protective Units - Who should have ultimate control over nuclear
warheads in transit? Texas? California?

