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Richard Stallman's Political Notes

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Climate Strike

mercredi 20 mars 2019 à 01:00

The organizers say that 1.4 million people participated in Friday's climate strike rallies.

The education ministers who criticized the student strikers are part of right-wing planet-roaster governments.

To make the planet-roaster politicians give ground, we need even bigger protests. You can help, by participating in nonviolent climate defense rallies in the future.

Israeli Politics

mercredi 20 mars 2019 à 01:00

A right-wing extremist Israeli politician is cozying up to the word "fascism".

Terrorism and Media

mercredi 20 mars 2019 à 01:00

Refusing to call the New Zealand terrorist by name is a good way of reducing the appeal of terrorism to others.

I do the same thing, including to the terrorism-promoter in the White House.

Tech platforms and state surveillance

mercredi 20 mars 2019 à 01:00

The main US tech platforms are integrating with the US "security" apparatus to form a system of total surveillance that would make the state totally "secure" against us.

Most criticism of these companies fails to recognize that aspect of what they do. Here is a criticism of Facebook from a former insider that addresses many of its dangers, but omits the danger of its collaboration with the state. Its suggestion that users "own" the data and metadata about them, and be asked to approve each use, would be inadequate unless it included use by the state.

In the US, the U SAP AT RIOT act prevents Facebook from carrying out such a policy even if it wanted to. However, even if that law were changed, I would not trust a data platform's word about this, unless it were headed by Ladar Levison. And even then, the state might find a way to take all the data without his knowing.

License plate tracking

mercredi 20 mars 2019 à 01:00

Many US cities use license plate tracking, even on parked cars. Even if they normally delete the data after a few days, there is no telling which other agencies might have got copies in the meantime.

A bill being considered in New York State would put limits on the use of data from license plate cameras.

This would be a big step forward, but I fear it would be insufficient because the FBI could seize the whole database every day under the PAT RIOT act.

To make license plate cameras safe, we need a law to require that the system fail to recognize any license plates other than those specified individually by court order.

Cameras are not the only way to track cars. "Digital license plates" could track a car's movements all the time.

Of course, a "connected car" does the same thing. The "connection" works via a cellular modem, and the phone system always knows approximately where it is. Perhaps the car also has a GPS system to give it more precise tracking data.

If you own a "connected car", I suggest you disconnect it. The car's computers might record all the GPS locations for the next time it is serviced. So I suggest disconnecting the GPS too.

Can anyone determine whether putting aluminum foil around the antennas is feasible, and whether it is effective at cutting off connectivity and GPS?

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