HINWEIS: Wir müssen uns etwas zurückziehen, aber wir werden versuchen, zurückzukommen und mehr zu beantworten. Nochmals vielen Dank für Ihre Fragen.
Während wir beobachten, wie sich die Überwachungsdystopie in Trumps Amerika ausbreitet, haben wir über ein Jahr damit verbracht, über die von Trump eingesetzten Technologien zu berichten EISDHS und andere örtliche Strafverfolgungsbehörden, um Bürger und Einwanderer gleichermaßen aktiv zu überwachen, anzugreifen und festzunehmen.
Kürzlich haben wir das entdeckt Tool, das Palantir für ICE herstellt, um Stadtteile für Razzien zu findenwie lokal Die Polizei hat Millionen von Überwachungszielen aufgrund des Flock-Redaktionsfehlers entlarvt Und wie Das DHS lügt über die Tötung von Menschen in Minneapolis.
Fragen Sie uns etwas 4. Februar um 12 Uhr ET über den Zustand der Überwachung in Amerika. Stellen Sie jetzt Ihre Fragen.
Hi! We're 404 Media's Jason Koebler and Joseph Cox. AMA (us) about the tech ICE is using, Flock and the state of surveillance in the US on Feb. 4, 12 pm ET
byu/404mediaco intechnology
36 Kommentare
Can an individual’s location services/settings be siphoned into this program? If so, can a required location for logging into a work platform also be gathered and processed by this program, thereby jeopardizing staff’s safety?
I’ve been going back and rewatching Citizen Four and interviews with Snowden. We have things like Pegasus and the NSO group now also. And I just sit here and wonder to myself if there is any possible way to put the genie back in the bottle. Or is this it. It really doesnt seem like there is a concerted effort out of our politicians to make a change for the positive.
What are some of the most promising open-source or DiY projects you’ve seen for resisting Palantir surveillance tools in these times?
Have any cities or states been successful in broadly in restricting these „AI“ mass-surveillance companies through legislation, legal action, or other means?
Are public record requests Flock’s Achilles heel?
Do you ever hear from workers at Palantir (or other similar companies) about what things are like there? Like, are most employees enthusiastic about this kind of surveillance, or do they try to compartmentalize it as „just a job“, or is there resistance?
Does the Palantir app provide agents with a grand total of how many targets are in a specific state?
Do we know what information was handed over to Palantir from DOGE? I don’t think the majority of Americans understand just how dangerous this company right now. Thank you
Are new phones being built with spyware technology & how will we know? Will Independent Media be able to continue reporting if all of our technology blocks the truth from ever reaching the masses?
Given the breadth of these surveillance technologies, is there any hope or possibility of opting out or avoiding being „seen“? Do we accept surveillance and aggregated data about ourselves and our behavior as an inevitability?
Assuming this isn’t going away any time soon, what possibilities do you see as most beneficial for resistance or avoiding getting caught up in the big data dragnet?
I don’t think people understand the connection between the various data intake methods (license plate readers, phones, social media) and how that gets into ELITE for use with ICE.
They also don’t know the practical real world ways to coordinate pushing back. Like showing up to city council meetings to be a voice against Flock cameras and how that has had a real measurable impact, safe ways of using GrapheneOS, FUTO software, and local smarthome/security to reduce data leaks, and more.
People can take action, but they need to know what action and how that impacts themselves, their neighbors and community.
I also think people don’t believe they can have an impact, and the only thing they can do is complain on the internet. It’s important to show how real of an effect even the smallest actionable effort can have.
Is there any way to unwind this panopticon? Any way to put the genie back in the bottle?
My county has recently installed Flock ALPRs at several busy intersections. Beyond sharing my concerns with our County Board, is there anyway that I can confirm that those cameras are properly secured so that at a minimum there’s no public access to the data they’re collecting?
Outside of 404 Media, what books or resources do you recommend to folks looking to learn more about surveillance in America or globally?
Adjacent question: do you have any recommendations for resources or stories to tell less technical family members and friends who are curious about what’s happening, but may not have a deep understanding of the technology? My husband and I were sharing a bit about Flock and Palantir with his mother and stepdad, and they hadn’t heard of those companies, nor their activities – but in depth technical reporting is probably beyond them a bit.
Could you provide a technical outline for an architecture of a local near real time neighborhood monitoring service using raw data (ADS-B and RF traffic, multi-modal LLMs, stingray imsi detection, etc) fused together using a dedicated n8n service on a privatre website? Thank you!
I’m a big fan of doing public information requests with government agencies. What’s been your successes and failures with flock cameras and trying to get information from local police departments and cities? Are there any nuances in things they fight to release vs things they don’t seem to care about giving away?
Been subscribed since 2024. Keep up the great work!
How do you think we can as a society deescalate tools designed to spy on citizens? I feel like once the police state bottle is open it’s near impossible to put it back in?
What do we know about the reselling, joining, de-anonymizing of this data outside of the Palantir realm? Does this make it to gray market data brokers? Is there a realistic angle for activism in polluting or exfiltrating this data stream?
What are some steps that tech aware people can take to limit exposure to the surveillance state beyond the normal measures. I know that’s vague but are there open source options that are security focused that people should be more aware of beyond what’s on the activist checklist type of thing?
How often do you think this technology is used by law enforcement to build a case against someone but isn’t disclosed to the defence that it was used.
How often do think people are stopped for traffic stops which are a pretext for something else flagged by surveillance gone wrong.
Edit. I’m in Ireland our government wan to introduce facial recognition technology for law enforcement for serious crimes child protection…. no I don’t believe them.
Any advice?
Have you found evidence of Flock and ICE tech being exported to other countries like Canada, or if other countries collaborate with surveillance tech companies to make their product?
How are you going through the Epstein files? The design of the website doesn’t make it easy to grab them to local and go through them. How are you a doing this? Just manual?!?
Also, just praise for 404media. You all are great and providing incredible content.
Have we seen any of this technology spread (or attempt to spread) beyond the US, perhaps to other governments? I’m certain these companies would love to increase their customer base and diversify. My fear is even if we can manage to push them out of the US, as long as these solutions exist *somewhere*, they can be used against people and also further develop them until one day they find their way back in, with even more invasive features.
If a local government such as a city, town, or county, wants to take measures to mitigate the problem and reduce the impact or effectiveness of ICE surveillance technologies & processes you’ve been reporting on,
* What are some measures you would suggest that they could practically take?
* Do you have any examples of cities or other local governments taking measures you believe have been effective?
Who is directly in charge of authorizing/extending local Flock pilot programs? I assume it’s a little different in each city, but who are the people we should we be exerting pressure on? Are local mayors implementing it, is it city councilors, is it Sheriff’s departments? I’m in Minneapolis and would like Flock out of my community, I’m just not sure where I should focus my energy.
Thank you guys for all that you are doing!
In layman’s terms how can we proceed to protect our privacy at this juncture but still be active in protecting our freedoms from tyranny and recording injustices that can’t be destroyed by a swipe of a finger or press of a button🤔 TIA
Our local PD has stated that they have control over their Flock data. To me this implies that other Flock users can’t search the ALPR data from our city, but from everything I’ve read it sounds like that’s the whole point of the system (searching across cameras all over the state for example). Can you talk about what in particular Flock users can search for? How specific can they be? Is it possible to cut off Flock from other orgs or is that just a misdirection?
What can you infer from the info you learned to explain why some agents just pull cars on the street to arrest people instead of going after them from their home?
In your opinions, what are the best ways to avoid surveillance in the US — and not just tactically now, but laws, politicians or new technologies to support to reverse this abhorrent trend?
Thank you for your journalism! Your article on ELITE made something click inside my brain that withholding data can be a form of protest.
I am a graduate student and am beginning an ‚organization‘ (just sit-ins the library) to inform students on how downloading browsers like Tor or using alternative social media sites could be a possible form of protest against monitoring. I plan on using a QR code to the Zine you guys sent out this week (beautiful work!) and was wondering:
Do you have any other material or information at 404 or from other journalists that also inform and illuminate the issue?
Joseph, can you talk about appearing on The Weekly Show podcast? How did that come to be and was there anything you wish Jon had asked or that you could have mentioned?
Where do local mesh networks fit into the security and privacy spectrum? In other words, are mesh networks a more or less secure way for groups to communicate? Thanks!
How can I organize to get my town to stop using license plate readers, or improve safeguards around then and other surveillance technology?
Also, I encourage everybody to become a paid subscriber or donate to 404. My subscription has been the most effective dollars I’ve given to resist ICE and support civil rights.
Do we know definitively (or with high likelihood) the different data types that have been integrated into the Gotham database and analytics suite (Palantir). Examples: individual and household data and photos, CBP/Passport data (incl photos), DMV/vehicles and license plate/drivers licenses/photos, real estate/residence address and photos, health/insurance/medical, voting/party affiliation, firearms ownership (ATF form 4473 and NFA records), political donations, social media activity (I read LLM experiments may have been performed in this area), military service records, and so on.
Given the topics 404 Media covers and the exposé nature of a lot of the articles, do any of you fear for your personal safety? I feel like the erosion of the 1st Amendment and the general disregard of the importance of the Fourth Estate is of serious concern in this regard.
Hi everyone! We’re here starting now and will be around for the next bit. Thank you so much for your questions, we’re excited to chat!
-Jason