Privacy: As Antiquated as Quill Pens

Being a hermit, I eschew “social media.” Alas, that isn’t enough anymore: Facebook’s “Atlas” tracks me (and you) regardless. Katherine Albrecht and Liz McIntyre explain this insidious threat to our privacy–and, what I appreciate even more, include tips for circumventing it. Lest you think a corporation’s spying on you is less dangerous than the State’s, remember that “Once a private company has your information, the government can get its hands on it, too.”

But the USSA Army’s hijinks make Facebook’s look positively benign. Mark Luedtke sent this article about a diabolical duo of blimps the Empire’s warriors will launch over Maryland in “just a few days.” These monstrosities are not only enormous (“They are 80 yards long and their total volume is somewhere around 600,000 cubic feet. That’s about the size of three Goodyear blimps. Or over 3,500 white elephants”) and expensive (the products of an “18-year-long $2.8-billion Army project”), but their visual surveillance equals the NSA’s audio eavesdropping: they will “watch what’s happening from North Carolina to Boston, or an area the size of Texas.”

Unlike the NSA, however, these blimps won’t be undetectable sans a whistleblower. They are easily visible–which may be part of the point. “…Ed Herlik, a former Air Force officer and technology analyst with a particular interest in airships,” says, “’If you put a camera in a sky over an area where you expect a lot of unrest, the area will calm down,’…”

As always, the Feds deny these boondoggles are watching us. No, they’re protecting us.

And the government really is there to help, too.

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11:24 am on December 18, 2014