
EFF Sues FBI For Access to Facial-Recognition Records - rosser
https://www.eff.org/press/releases/eff-sues-fbi-access-facial-recognition-records
======
mtgx
I think the trend is pretty clear: increasingly more surveillance of
everything you do, biometric/DNA recognition systems implemented everywhere,
and bringing back army troops and military technology (including drones) for
"security" inside the country (and of course further militarization of the
police, too).

Look what they're doing at the Mexican border. That's only a sample and a
"test-run" of what they're planning for the whole country in the next 10
years.

Those sci-fi movies about an awful future where the civilians and the society
is highly controlled by the government are becoming reality.

Now it depends whether the people actually want this to happen, or don't even
care about what's happening. I think US has maybe _one_ more chance at the
next presidential election and next 1-2 Congress elections to turn this
around, if it's not already too late to stop this trend.

Once it's entrenched and hundreds of billions if not trillions of dollars are
spent on this effort, it's going to be very hard to roll it all back. Just
look what success Americans have had with rolling back the war on drugs or the
military industrial complex (which is to say absolutely none, and that's been
going on for decades).

~~~
cclogg
(Opinion from someone north of the border): The good thing about being
Canadian is we live mostly American-style lives but don't have to deal with
stuff like this lol (or at least it doesn't look like it, but someone can
correct me if we have secret PRISM projects too).

The bad thing is we have no say in what happens down there, and we are
dependent on many services the US provides (not that I'm complaining, but
PRISM stuff isn't comforting heh).

~~~
kefs
_On the basis of secret government directives, Canada’s national security
apparatus is conducting mass surveillance of Canadians parallel to, if not
directly patterned after, the domestic spying operations of the U.S. National
Security Agency (NSA)._

[http://www.globalresearch.ca/police-state-canada-
communicati...](http://www.globalresearch.ca/police-state-canada-
communications-security-establishment-canada-csec-runs-massive-domestic-
spying-program/5339250)

[http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/how-canadas-
sha...](http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/how-canadas-shadowy-
metadata-gathering-program-went-awry/article12580225/?page=all)

[http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/06/08/nsa-spying-
canada_n_...](http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/06/08/nsa-spying-
canada_n_3408662.html)

~~~
cclogg
There we go, I knew someone would find something. I guess ours just gets a lot
less press, even in our own country :(

------
ChrisAntaki
Suggestion: let's identify any elected officials who support this database,
and then offer support / donations to their opponents who vocally oppose it.

~~~
zhemao
Even if they vocally oppose it now, how do we know they will continue to
oppose it once in office.

Remember that Obama was pretty vocally opposed to secret government
surveillance prior to becoming president.

~~~
ChrisAntaki
You make a good point. How can we hold politicians accountable? Perhaps we
could vote to shorten terms.

~~~
zhemao
I don't think shorter terms would work. Obama backpedaling on all his initial
campaign promises didn't prevent him from getting re-elected. Representatives
in the House only have 2 year terms but the highest incumbency rates. I think
the main issue is the two-party system. It puts people into this "lesser of
two evils" mentality which, surprise, results in some form of evil always
persisting.

