US Intelligence Chief: We Might Use The Internet Of Things To Spy On You

[Purveyor]

Source: Guardian UK

Spencer Ackerman and Sam Thielman in New York
Tuesday 9 February 2016 16.51 EST

The US intelligence chief has acknowledged for the first time that agencies might use a new generation of smart household devices to increase their surveillance capabilities.

As increasing numbers of devices connect to the internet and to one another, the so-called internet of things promises consumers increased convenience – the remotely operated thermostat from Google-owned Nest is a leading example. But as home computing migrates away from the laptop, the tablet and the smartphone, experts warn that the security features on the coming wave of automobiles, dishwashers and alarm systems lag far behind.

In an appearance at a Washington thinktank last month, the director of the National Security Agency, Adm Michael Rogers, said that it was time to consider making the home devices “more defensible”, but did not address the opportunities that increased numbers and even categories of connected devices provide to his surveillance agency.

However, James Clapper, the US director of national intelligence, was more direct in testimony submitted to the Senate on Tuesday as part of an assessment of threats facing the United States.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/feb/09/internet-of-things-smart-home-devices-government-surveillance-james-clapper

[retrowire]

1. Well yeah

my phone alright knows the exact direction I'm facing within my own damn house. sigh........

[hobbit709]

2. I'll stick with my 1992 truck, my dumb TV, and my Android phone that's off 99% of the time.

Even when I have the phone with me it's usually off. And it has an easily removable battery.

[Wilms]

3. Your SmartTV will provide Intelligence.

[leveymg]

12. That is just so 1984.

Smith, Smith! If you do your exercises with more enthusiasm, you will go from this 98 pound weakling:



To this Hero of Airstrip 1:

[closeupready]

4. The idea of totalitarianism has always been seductive to authorities.

Who, from among those working within the loop, could argue that it would be bad to give authorities total, absolute control over society and everything that happens within it? Everyone in the loops always thinks more control in their hands is just groovy.

[Fast Walker 52]

5. exactly. And one thing that is little discussed is how much Hillary loves government spying, whereas

Bernie is appropriately cautious and worried about over-reach.

[Orrex]

6. In all the history of the world...

Has there every been a technology capable of spying on people that governments didn't use to spy on its own people? Certainly not in the last few dozen centuries.

This is annoying, but anyone with a pulse knew that this is exactly what would happen as soon as they first heard of the "internet of things." Absolutely no surprise.

[Mojorabbit]

10. Yep

and it seems that soon everything in the house will have some ability to be used to spy. Dishwashers? as per the snip of article in op. Who knew?

[A Little Weird]

7. Scary but not surprising. n/t

[noretreatnosurrender]

8. Turnkey Tyranny

It's gotten so bad that they don't even try to hide it anymore. They know that our bought and paid for politicians will do very little to rein them in.

By exposing NSA programs like PRISM and Boundless Informant, Edward Snowden has revealed that we are not moving toward a surveillance state: we live in the heart of one. The 30-year-old whistleblower told The Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald that the NSA’s data collection created the possibility of a “turnkey tyranny,” whereby a malevolent future government could create an authoritarian state with the flick of a switch. The truth is actually worse. Within the context of current economic, political and environmental trends, the existence of a surveillance state doesn’t just create a theoretical possibility of tyranny with the turn of a key—it virtually guarantees it.

Link feature not working for me so posting this.

http://creativetimereports.org/2013/06/25/surveillance-and-the-construction-of-a-terror-state/

[jtuck004]

9. "Might" < ROFL. . n/t

[olddots]

11. thankfully I have Charter Cable internet

its down so frequently the watchers will never know what I'm up to .

Convenience becomes very inconvenient .