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Police seize on COVID-19 tech to expand global surveillance

14 Comments
By GARANCE BURKE, JOSEF FEDERMAN, HUIZHONG WU, KRUTIKA PATHI and ROD McGUIRK

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Police seize on COVID-19 tech to expand global surveillance

This headline and the one further down the page:

U.S. law enforcement seized more than enough fentanyl to kill all Americans in 2022

Could be nominated as some of the more dystopian headlines of 2022.

Most conspiracy theories are bunk but there is often a grain of veracity in them.

For example the idea of a slippery slope of emergency measures taken up by oligarchic authorities that are later exploited for the further aggrandizement of oligarchs and the control of the populace.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

That’s very much overestimated. In fact, although they might be capable to install surveillance everywhere, they don’t have the capacity afterwards, to use all the data amounts or sending enough people to the focus points in time. The highly developed countries are aging at high speed and are overrun by potential problems and troublemakers from outside, from countries where they are young, numerous, energetic and violent right from nature. So even if they have all the data masses from surveillance, there’s no one left to react , enforce, prosecute. Or does anybody think it’s possible in a few decades in practice, that a sophisticated artificial intelligence of course easily and fast detects a problem in the city but then a few remaining seniors in wheelchairs can timely reach the place and arrest some hundreds of young and rebellious and well equipped militants? No, maybe they can’t even read the AI system’s alert message because they have forgotten where they put their reading glasses due to Alzheimer disease, just only as an illustrated sample.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

We knew this mission creep was happening, despite the worthless promises of politicians. If you took a Covid test, I imagine they have your DNA too.

Ultimately, the solution is always the same. If a government breaks the social contract and becomes abusive, the government itself needs to be broken. That balance wavered briefly in China, and Xi's signature forever policy collapsed. They will inevitably round up those brave souls who put themselves on the line for this. We are all China to some extent, and a much greater extent than pre-Covid. There may not be many more investigative reveals further down the line. Most documents vanished from Wikileaks in November 2022 (in case there wasn't a report of it on your TV news). The mainstream net is not far away from being cleansed Chinese-style. Probably too late for the distributed tech alternatives now. Enjoy your Orwellian future. The default-to-open internet was great whilst it lasted, but the bad guys always win in the end.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

If I remember rightly........ 3 YEARS AGO.......so called Conspiracy theorist where saying thats exactly what the world governments were going to do ! Surprise !!! Conspiracy FACT.

6 ( +9 / -3 )

Good luck to the Japanese police. Japan's Covid app didn't work anyway.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Hmm suprised this article made it on here. I remember when many people were raising the alarm about this when it was being implemented and people said they were nutters and conspiracy therosists. Cats out of the bag now, you can't roll a system back like this as easily as implementing it, not much of a stretch to draw a link between this and the my number system here here in Japan or the various identity legislation bills being rammed through in other countries. People point the finger at China being a horrible authoritarian state that has Orwellian control of its population whilst at the same time silencing people trying to raise awareness of the warning signs happening in their own country. This type of system can serve only one purpose and that is control and enslavement of a population by the few who control it. They might not come for you know but they will eventually come for you and by then it's too late.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

“You have been spotted as having participated in acts of violence in the Al-Aqsa Mosque,” it read in Arabic. “We will hold you accountable.”

Go get him!

If this saves lives of innocent people, I'm for it.

-7 ( +0 / -7 )

In the UK, I had the 2 police come and check my whereabouts, for what reason?

To make sure I was quarantined at a hotel.

Never mind that the UK police aren’t interested in drug dealing or theft, breaking into vehicles etc.

It was a surveillance test on the population to be sure!

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Most conspiracy theories are bunk but there is often a grain of veracity in them..

Yep, some of these facts are deliberately packaged as conspiracy theories, as such nobody believes in them.. and subtly much later these become mainstream.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Israel is different, they are Arab or Palestinians were not their nationals, tyats

0 ( +0 / -0 )

That's why those non Jewish residents received those threatening message from authorities.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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