Re: [liberationtech] Minorities & privacy/surveillance
Shava Nerad: > Have you looked for information specifically on COINTELPRO and the civil > rights movement? It might not be indexed under surveillance (a good deal > of the activity was sabotage and harrasment, too) but having grown up under > the FBI's eye, it's hard to imagine there isn't literature. > > Part of the problem with scholarship on the surveillance in that generation > is the conditioning to not speak out on the part of many subjects (for many > reasons), There is a tendency to blame victims who have been violated for that violation, as though it were somehow their fault. To admit rape traditionally has been a source of shame. I think we see something similar (not the same, obviously) with being put under surveillance. For instance, here in Chile I am under intense physical surveillance by the Chilean secret police. Why? Presumably because the FBI or CIA has asked them to babysit an American dissident in exile (me). Have I committed any crime? No. Do I have anything to be ashamed of? No. Will I continue to speak out on surveillance issues and against American imperialism in the region? Yes. And yet for many, to admit being under surveillance is risk people thinking you're a criminal, e.g. "Well the US gov't doesn't persecute people for political speech [LOL], so he must have done something wrong, so he probably deserves it." Let's be clear: being put under surveillance is to be condemned, Kafka-like, to live in an open-air prison. It's time people stepped forward and spoke openly about this abuse. I for one will not remain silent. Jens -- Liberationtech is public & archives are searchable on Google. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu.
[liberationtech] Trainees for SIN
Hey guys, we are currently looking for trainees and volunteers for our Strategic "Intellegence Network" in TOR: http://4iahqcjrtmxwofr6.onion/ If you are interested in joining our team please write a mail with your to "noergelpi...@riseup.net" or "ironsold...@safe-mail.net" Thank you! -- Liberationtech is public & archives are searchable on Google. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu.
[liberationtech] Information Politics: New Book
From: Timothy Jordan via http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org I hope some will be interested in my new book just out: Information Politics: Liberation and Exploitation in the Digital Society, with Pluto. The blurb and details on how to request information or review copies is below. It's part of a new book series called Digital Barricades edited by myself, Jodi Dean and Joss hands will also have a book from Nick Dyer-Witheford Cyber-Proletariat in May and a full series launch then. Cheers Tim Information Politics: Liberation and Exploitation in the Digital Society, http://www.plutobooks.com/display.asp?K=9780745333663 Conflict over information has become a central part of twenty-first century politics and culture. The sites of struggle are numerous, the actors beyond count. Currents of liberation and exploitation course through the debates about Edward Snowden and surveillance, Anonymous, search engines and social media. In Information Politics, Tim Jordan identifies all these issues in relation to a general understanding of the nature of an information politics that emerged with the rise of mass digital cultures and the internet. He also locates it within a field of power and rebellion that is populated by many interwoven social and political conflicts including gender, class and ecology. The exploitations both facilitated by, and contested through, increases in information flows; the embedding of information technologies in daily life, and the intersection of network and control protocols are all examined in Information Politics. Anyone hoping to get to grips with the rapidly changing terrain of digital culture and conflict should start here. To buy the book with a 10% discount and free UK P&P visit: http://bit.ly/1Go55pK Paperback | 9780745333663 | £15.99 / $27 / ?21 Hardback | 9780745333670 | £60 / $99 / ?75 Kindle | 9781783712984 | £15.99 / $27 EPUB | 9781783712977 | £15.99 / $27 PDF | 9781783712960 | £60 / $99 INSPECTION COPIES To request an inspection copy please send the following details to chr...@plutobooks.com: - the course name - the level of the course (level one, two, three or post-graduate) - the start date of the course - expected number of students on the course - name of local (or university) bookshop - full university address (this is where the book will be sent) We need all these details to be able to be able to process a request. Inspection copies are provided with an invoice that is cancelled if the book is adopted for a course, or returned in a resalable condition. You can also request inspection copies using our online form at www.plutobooks.com/lecturers.asp. EBOOKS All new Pluto books are available electronically. Libraries can subscribe to the Pluto eBook list via The Academic Library (www.theacademiclibrary.com). Individual titles can be ordered from many vendors, including Dawson (www.dawsonera.com) in the UK and Ingram (www.myilibrary.com) in the UK, US and worldwide. REVIEW COPIES If you would like to request a copy of a book to review for a journal or other publication, please email our publicity team at public...@plutobooks.com, providing your contact details and the name of the publication you intend to review the book for. ORDERS To place an order, visit our website at www.plutobooks.com. MAILING LIST If you would like to join our mailing list, which includes special offers, news and events, go to www.plutobooks.com/subscribe.asp. SOCIAL MEDIA Twitter: @plutobooks Facebook: facebook.com/PlutoPress Blog: plutopress.wordpress.com Professor Tim Jordan Head of School of Media, Film and Music University of Sussex 313 Silverstone Building Arts Road Falmer East Sussex BN1 9RG Email: t.r.jor...@sussex.ac.uk -- Liberationtech is public & archives are searchable on Google. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu.
[liberationtech] Democratic judiciaries and internet protocols both embed racial profiling
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 A packet sent by an American or European should be given no greater privileges then a packet sent by someone from the middle east. Those holding dual citizenry (one being of their locale and the other a product of the internet' stateless generation) will not find this question odd. But to end racial profiling in the protocol (example [1]) questioning the rationale of stateful civil liberties is also required. Initially this argument will seem a moral one but there are practical reasons to consider. The increasingly globalised society is doing little to stem the threat of terrorism while at the same time increasing the call for more equal rights. Together this warrants questioning the justification and benefits of discriminatory rights. ## Justification A primary tool for the arbitration of discriminatory surveillance policies are secret courts. One justification for secret courts is the protection of sources and methods. Any investigation into an on-going threat requires some form of secrecy. Terrorism is one such threat. But this is not the only on-going threat that courts handle. We should consider whether the vanilla judicial systems cannot already handle this requirement. Existing courts must also handle on-going threats and have to do so while considering how the utilisation of secrecy for greater security, and perhaps more efficient investigation, balances against the risk to social contracts that define liberties and rights. With each justification for protection of methods when investigation terrorism threats we can ask if these were any different for investigations into the racketeering ring of, say, Al Capone. Clearly such investigations would be more efficient when perpetrators can be swept off into secret prisons on the signature of a secret judge. Existing courts already provide some room for discretionary secrecy. The prosecution can determine which evidence they disclose to the courts or wider public. In many nations there is also room for disclosure only to the judge while avoiding exposure to the wider public record. Finally parallel construction [2] is a questionable but often used method for protecting both sources and methods. Further, some exposure of methods provides an early feedback to individuals that they can get caught. Whereas when the means to find criminals are unknown and the criminals themselves are whisked off into secrecy this benefit is completely lost. Another justification for secret courts may be risk of spys within the court itself. With intent to obtain influence or at least advanced warning of investigative activity. But are our judiciaries less equipped to handle this threat than when it comes from state sponsored intelligence agencies? If anything the threat is diminished because the architecture and premise of terrorist institutions is much more decentralised than state intelligence. Terrorist institutions are one partly of memetics. The violent form of "grumpy cat" [3]. Within societies threatened by their ideologies the appeal reaches only a few in like mind. Unlike your 3-letter-agency-of-choice they lack the appeal to mount sufficient infiltration of any local judiciary. Further, the centralisation of all terrorist based investigation in the form of a handful of secret courts may be one of the few reasons left consider the threat of infiltration. Whereas if public courts were used this threat would be diffused as is the case with investigations into other national or international on-going threats. Therefore... **The justification for nationalist or racial rights may be efficiency alone. But at what cost?** ## Benefits and Cost For most the foundational documents of their country of origin are held in almost religious regard. As in religion these documents are subject to interpretation even though the indoctrinated claim they are timelessly impervious to it. They are social contracts. The cost benefit analysis weighed tacitly by judges when permitting secrecy is a consideration of the social contract a given case may effect. They collectively change that contract through their actions. This subjectivity is both a risk and a necessity. I once asked a rabbi why kosher laws do not allow Jews to eat a chicken and cheese sandwich? What the Bible forbids is boiling a "kid" in its mothers milk. I've rarely enjoyed boiled sandwiches and never heard of chicken milk. The Rabbi explained something to the effect "God gave the law to man for the rabbinate to change and interpret. The kosher laws are as much about how behaviour is perceived as it is about what God commands. Someone on the other side of the room may just see you eating meat and cheese together. This would encourage the wrong understanding of that law." Interpretation is a slippery slope. Yet, at least Judaic law acknowledges the social contract and that perception is important. Where as our governments, through secrecy, negate even the possibili
