On the surface, from a US perspective, it seems like all publicly-funded surveillance should be accessible to...the public. I realize this is not the case, things don't usually work out [in government] the way they "should". There is a litany of canned responses to those types of requests, usually that involve the phrase "national security".
Consider though, the "hackers" mentioned in this story are wanting to see the footage that they bought with their tax dollars. If caught, they will be charged, convinced, and imprisoned...for wanting to see what they paid for. Sad state of affairs, but what can anyone do about it?
There's some speculation and evidence[0] that a great deal of state surveillance is actually dedicated to state-sponsored industrial espionage. On some level, any government is going to have to match rival governments' corporate spying or risk falling behind.
Can you explain further? Are you saying domestic surveillance is leveraged by external state actors? Or that domestic surveillance is used to stop external state actors ?
This is not a new idea. There's been plenty of debate and cases about whether FOIA applies to surveillance footage. Generally the raw footage is subject to FOIA requests, but any inferences are probably not.
I like to think the idea of freedom loving hackers are out there working to do good / making a difference.
But myself, and even folks in the media have been burned by other groups who we cheer on for a while, but have proven to have more specific motives and are happy to omit information or push their own, less honest narrative.
It's a tempting fairy tale. I wish it were true but I'm skeptical.
Yes, but there were a few other groups that claimed to be doing that thing even if for a moment.
Wikileaks too to some extent, not as hackers but as far as disseminating information.. but honestly I'd rather not get into that aspect too much as wikileaks is a hard conversation to have online these days.
These kind of stories serve primarily to further the interests of the surveillance state and its big tech competitors/enablers by making it seem as if there is a ethical outsider community with a real chance of being an effective counter-balance. There isn’t.
I like how the conditions they are showing in the prisons are exactly the same if they had hacked prisons in the USA. Government malfeasance seems to be a universal.
This is incredible. And although I can't condone unauthorized entry to any system or network. At least this was (on the surface) for a nobel cause. I don't think it will have any impact though, maybe the usual "we condemned these actions" with no action after.
If I remember Iran has in the past enacted some complete external lockdowns of the internet. I wouldn't be surprised to see more of that. Sadly.
Consider though, the "hackers" mentioned in this story are wanting to see the footage that they bought with their tax dollars. If caught, they will be charged, convinced, and imprisoned...for wanting to see what they paid for. Sad state of affairs, but what can anyone do about it?