#WORLD #WORLDWIDE #SPAIN #ANARCHISM #News #Journal #Update - (en) [Spine], CNT Levante: Forge Social No. 19 - Do we fight against mass surveillance and control? (I) (ca, de, it, pt)[machine translation]

 Although many people seem to ignore it, including important libertarian sectors,

we live in the capitalist era of surveillance and population control. With it,
the states deprive us of freedom and try to frighten the social movements. On the
other hand, corporations exploit us by collecting our data to enrich themselves
with it. This surveillance and control affects us at all times. In order not to
be complicit or to let ourselves be intimidated and prevent surveillance, it is
necessary to fight against repressive measures and use devices and messages safely.
States and companies monitor and control us in its stage of decadence and
barbarism, capitalism and its minority in power have subjected us to a brutal
deprivation of civil liberties through surveillance and social control. They
record in real time all the content and metadata of the communications that take
place in any country. The information they record reveals what we say or do in
each moment, as well as the links and associations between people. The new
information and communication technologies have served for the states to
implement an infrastructure that allows total social control . This state
surveillance has a long history of repressing social movements.

Corporations (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, telephone companies,
etc.) subject us to enormous surveillance and permanent tracking of our behavior,
to carry out massive collection and analysis of large amounts of information.

Thus, all Google company services are designed for massive data extraction. In
the Gmail email accounts it so "generously" offers, the terms of use say that
Google reserves the right to scan and store the content of the emails, even after
the user deletes them or cancels the account. Google Maps and Google Earth were
funded by the CIA's In-Q-Tel program, which is the most powerful spy agency in
the world.

Surveillance and control of people in real time
The smartphone was created with the purpose of permanently monitoring and
controlling people. Not only does it record conversations, it records images and
sound without our consent and has at least four geolocation systems. Because the
most valuable thing about a person is their geographical position at all times.

Google's Android operating system is installed on 80% of the world's mobile
phones. People usually carry the mobile with them and keep it on almost
permanently. It has two cameras, an average of fourteen sensors and at least four
geolocation systems. In addition to GPS, the Wi-Fi card of a mobile phone has two
positioning systems: The RSSI that indicates the intensity of the received
signal, measures it in a wireless network environment and compares it with a
database of Wi-Fi networks to connect to the closest. Fingerprint is the most
used positioning algorithm and is based on the map of Wi-Fis that we have
previously connected to. Bluetooth emits short-distance signals to connect to
other devices giving information about the phone. Almost all internet devices
work via bluetooth.

The phone's SIM card constantly sends a signal to the nearest cell towers every
few seconds to receive service. Telephone operators know how far away the user is
using Cell ID technology. The greater the density of antennas, the greater the
location accuracy of everything that happens in its domain range. That is, they
know all the mobiles that pass through the radius of an antenna. This technique
is known as cell tower dump. It allows governments, for example, to identify all
the people who are attending a demonstration by their mobile number. But it is
also used by marketing companies and to sell the information they monitor in real
time to insurance companies, car dealers, etc.

Another surveillance and control technique used by governments is based on a
device known as StingRay or IMSI-catcher that tracks all mobile phones around.
The police use it in their helicopters and vehicles to find out in real time who
is in a demonstration or who is inside a building.

All applications that use GPS know where we are at all times. The same as the
telephone operators if there is coverage. Disabling geolocation services does not
prevent companies from locating users. When they do not have access to GPS,
Google and Facebook locate the mobile thanks to the Wi-Fi card and the IP address.

They use our personal data, information from our emails, the sites we visit when
browsing the Internet, etc., to trade with them.

Those who are dedicated to spying know that the most valuable piece of
information about a person is their geographical position . Knowing at every
moment of your life where you are, they know where you live, where you work, how
many hours you sleep, when you go for a run, who you hang out with, where you
travel, how you get from one place to another, in front of which shop windows you
stop What stores do you shop at, do you take drugs, take contraceptives, do you
go to church, to concerts, to fast food restaurants. They know who she likes and
who she tries to avoid, who she has lunch and dinner with, how much time she
spends with each one, and where she goes next. They know if he has a lover, if he
plays sick, if he bets, if he drinks. They may even know things that the person
himself does not know, such as his unconscious routines and their subtle
correlations. a smartphoneit tells all these things to the applications inside
it, a bottomless gold mine for the industry[1]that uses and develops information
and communication technologies, that is, surveillance and population control to
enrich itself.

Mobile sensors monitor and control us
In addition to geolocation, smartphones have a series of sensors. The camera and
microphone are the eyes and ears of the phone, but it is impossible for the user
to know when they are working and who they are communicating with. There are
applications, such as virtual assistants built into 4G smartphones, that perform
a permanent listening function. Apps can turn the camera and microphone on and
off without permission, record images and sound, send them to a server, and
stream them. They can also take photos and videos of the fingertips that touch
the screen (they collect the fingerprint) or of faces to send them to a server
where a facial recognition algorithm enters or compares them in a database. The
gyroscope records the position and orientation of the phone and knows what we are
doing with it (turn it horizontally, write, take a photo or watch a video...);
where is it (in the pocket or bag). The accelerometer measures the speed and the
direction in which we move, whether we are walking, cycling, driving... The
magnetometer is a metal detector, in addition to measuring magnetic fields and
compass on maps. It also has light, infrared, ambient light sensors, etc.

A team from the University of Newcastle demonstrated that with the data from the
sensors, even the passwords that the user types, either in the applications or in
the browser, can be extracted. According to a study by the University of Oxford,
90% of apps on Google Play (on Android phones) share the data they collect with
Google. Half of the apps share their data with third parties that typically
include Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft and Amazon.

They are enriched by our information
So there is a growing number of companies that, from the applications they give
away, extract information from hundreds of millions of mobile phones to analyze
it, sell it to their advertisers or both. That is, they treat us like a commodity
, where the form of exploitation is so refined that they don't even pay us for
exploiting us anymore . And this exploitation is the main source of enrichment
for companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc. The surveillance and control
of these companies is as serious as state surveillance, since they have achieved
unprecedented power over the population .

Yes, indeed, they sell us to the highest bidder: Either by selling the
information to other companies, using it for advertising purposes to increase
their effectiveness, or as a bargaining chip to collaborate with state
intelligence agencies to monitor and control us. Telephone companies provide
governments with records of telephone conversations.

For years Google (Gmail), Microsoft (Hotmail, Outlook), Amazon, Yahoo, etc.,
through the PRISM program, have allowed the US National Security Agency (NSA).
mail from its users[2], just as the social networks Facebook and Twitter allow.
In turn, the NSA shares this information with the security agencies of other
countries, in Spain with the National Intelligence Center (CNI). WhatsApp and
Telegram are also today programs for mass surveillance of people through mobile
phones.

With 5G mobile technology, everything will be much worse , with almost unlimited
access to personal life, as is already happening in China, where there is a
brutal degree of permanent surveillance and control.

Digital gag decree
In 2013, the journalist Glenn Greenwald revealed that the NSA recorded all
electronic communications from around the world (including Spain), as evidenced
by the documents he had received from his source, Edward Snowden. He knew this
because he worked at the NSA.

In Spain, the Sánchez government's Digital Gag Decree (RD14/2019)[3]is the tool
imposed to legalize a covert practice of surveillance and social control that has
been carried out for years, including the one carried out by the NSA in Spain and
shares with the CNI. This norm, which enables surveillance and censorship with
impunity, is the greatest attack against freedom of expression and the right to
be informed and to communicate . As its article 6 says, it allows "the direct
management or intervention of electronic communications networks and services" .
And add that"may affect any infrastructure, associated resource or element or
level of the network or service that is necessary to preserve or restore public
order, public safety and national security" .

This norm imposed by the PSOE (the left of the Popular Party), is more repressive
than the Francoist Press and Printing Law of 1966. Its measures "will be adopted
by the Government on its own initiative." Which means that the current
PSOE-Podemos Government can arbitrarily and in 24 hours, close or intervene any
website, email account, telephone line, confiscate telephones, computers and
servers, etc., without notice and without judicial guarantees. The executing arm,
via online and in real time, will be the State security forces and bodies. The
repressive measures and deprivation of liberties of this rule will be enshrined
and amplified when the preliminary draft of the General Telecommunications Law is
tested[4]which, in addition, opens the doors to the unrestricted use of 5G in Spain.

Passivity or fight against surveillance and control
But this brutal degree of surveillance and capitalist control, which prevents
individual and collective freedom, is only possible due to the passivity and
unawareness of a large part of the population in the use of online electronic
services and devices. Passivity and unconsciousness that also occurs in broad
anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist sectors. This may bother and worry some people,
despite the fact that it affects two inalienable libertarian principles: the
fight for freedom and the fight against all forms of exploitation .

The truth is that there are many people who continue to ignore, for example, the
degree of surveillance and control through mobile phones, or that every email
message sent unencrypted over the network is intercepted by intelligence
agencies. Passivity and unconsciousness must be abandoned in order to resolutely
oppose and fight against all forms of surveillance and control, whether by the
State or by companies. Only our determined struggle through direct action is the
way to prevent exploitation and win our rights and freedoms.

As promoters of the social revolution, it is also our responsibility to apply and
disseminate the best security practices before the State. We must know and
effectively use encryption tools and techniques to anonymize. We must also know
our adversary: How phone calls are intercepted, that a secure line of
communication must be protected on both sides, that an encrypted email message is
only as secure as the words we put in the subject, etc.

Struggle for freedom (individual and collective)
If we allow companies and state security forces to monitor and control us through
different electronic devices (mobile phones, tablets, computers...), we are NOT
fighting for freedom, but by consenting to it we are accomplices .

When we accept an insignificant gift (be it an email account, an account in any
of the social networks, a certain space in the cloud or an app), we are giving up
our privacy and freedom . Behind that tiny gift hides a depersonalized machine
that records, filters, processes and analyzes all our movements.

Fight against all forms of exploitation (individual and collective)
When these companies offer us something for free, it is because we are the
merchandise and our data is the product that they want to exploit. They are
companies whose business model depends on user data. If we allow them to get them
and exploit us as a free commodity, we are NOT fighting against capitalist
exploitation , but by collaborating we behave like slaves .

Let's not be fooled: The best way to protect user data is not to have it.

Grades:

[1]Marta Peirano, The enemy knows the system, chapter 3. Surveillance,
https://www.epublibre.org/libro/detalle/50407

[2]Glenn Greenwald's book, Snowden, without a place to hide reveals a lot of
information (in which Spain is involved) and can be downloaded at this link
https://epublibre.org/libro/detalle/18859

[3]https://mega.nz/file/Nd1UXBAD#GnUYGDbQ-YpL1yCi_wdiO9jHedb90n-iSmBD6nK_tHQ

[4]https://avancedigital.gob.es/_layouts/15/HttpHandlerParticipacionPublicaAnexos.ashx?k=16842

janus

https://levantecntait.wordpress.com/2022/03/07/luchamos-contra-la-vigilancia-y-control-masivos-i/
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