Those spinning information to provide misleading information to impact public opinion, according to this video below, indicates that in the end this will become evidence. I sense future inquiries. It is not unlike airing dirty washing publicly. Information is emerging to expose criminality.
This video provides an alternative view in respect of the war between Trump and the Patriots and the Deep State and Shadow Government. The latter is often called globalists. There is a war going in respect of sovereignty vs totalitarianism. The latter is predictable, the former is not.
It is going to be interesting to see how the drama unfolds.
Following the previous post, I am now going to provide alternative information from a quantum possibility that the coronavirus is cleared.
The best way I can describe what the channel is saying is from my own video. In my video (see below) I went to stillness and indicated ‘the alpha and the omega’ of the coronavirus, which means the beginning and the ending. I felt that it would end not as a guess. Now how can I know ahead of time that it ends as a knowing? I might frame it from ‘What the Bleep do I Know’ by saying that there is no past, present and future, just the Now moment. Carl Jung, the famous Swiss psychoanalyst (contemporary of Freud), reported metaphysically that he experimented with the notion that there is no past, present and future. He did experiments through meditation. Therefore, the ‘Now moment’ exists simultaneously. Therefore, when frequency (vibration) is high one can gain insight into events or possible timelines. Positivity is what lifts vibration and is why love is the answer, as is popularly and wisely stated.
What the channel is indicating is that it will not get worse, the coronavirus is in a form of cosmic containment. She described the coronavirus as consciousness, which I found interesting. So it appears we have external assistance from an higher perspective.
The law of attraction works on visualisation. What you think about you bring about. I understand that we are playing out an experience which will change us as we recognise what is important to all of us. Sometimes we have to go through the dark to get to the light of REAL HOPES. Our world is recalibrating to a higher trajectory of awareness as it is time to harmonise with earth systems. The disruptions are system interrupts, in truth.
Our preparation for this crisis is part of the process of awakening as we recognise we are ONE, reflecting on who we are and our needs, and that we are in this TOGETHER. I don’t find it hard to hold the knowingness that the virus has ended in a future now moment. I am aware as I think it – so it is or what I think about I bring about. This is how the quantum field works. It takes time to get a handle on this type of consciousness as we take small steps towards opening our awareness to alternative ways of seeing as reality. Often it can sound confusing as we analyse through logic rather than quantum sensing. So what is stated is good news.
I will just add that I felt to post this before hearing it all, my comments came before my hearing the channel’s explanation. I get confirmation as she speaks the words I was feeling. Scientifically that is how I get validation, I follow the feeling so instantly these days. Similar to her it is hard to explain, you have to experience it. So I felt to demonstrate this as a means of providing real hope in uncertain times for many.
I found this article by the famous Australian journalist John Pilger. I met him many years ago and did attempt to interview him, but it didn’t happen. What I like about John Pilger is that he is not unlike the Fool speaking truth to power. He has spoken opening about US crimes against humanity. He walks where few fear to tread. He is very courageous.
so it is no wonder he stands by Julian Assange when so many run for cover to not attract the disapproval of those US powers who have a vested interest in destroying Julian as a message to any would be whistle-blower.
Every citizen has a duty to expose corruption and criminality. What we witness is the demonization of anyone who steps out of line, they are persecuted, set up and criminalised when innocent. This is the nature of bullying at the international level. Yet bullying is criminalised where I live, those in positions of power are often above the law as they have the power and money to deflect and mould public opinion.
Before we get to John Pilger’s piece outing the Australian government, I wish to sit still and feel Julian.
The first words are: a pawn of US imperialism. I see the tower of London. Dungeons. These are the dark places those in power use to hide from the light of public scrutiny. Julian is crying. He is alone. I feel to put my arms around him. It is a crucifixion. He has made a sacrifice for a higher purpose. It is not unlike the gallows. Waiting for a verdict when the judges work for the e-state. Yet he need not feel disheartened, like Snowden he has brought what is dark to light. He is a white knight sitting at a round table where all are equal. The lowest are equal the highest are equal. As no-one is immune from prosecution in truth. He has defenders of Justice around him. I see the scales rebalancing. As justice MUST be seen to be done and MUST be done, in his case. He is the line in the sand. He is the Joker that was unexpected. He is the wild card that has revealed the card from under the table, these are the real architects of global terrorism. The arrow turns. He has been the mirror and the mask that reveals a shadowy image presented to the world as pristine. A shape changer. This contrasts with the Harry Potter mirror of Erised where Harry looks into the mirror to see what he wants to see as a desperate desire. Only a happy person sees themselves (there is no mirror). Dumbledore explains the mirror gives neither knowledge or truth. Many have wasted their lives gazing into the illusionary mirror thinking it is real (global media spin).
Now to John Pilger the Fool (child) that realised the Emperor has No Clothes. When you choose to see clearly you will not believer the illusion spun around those of power. You will see them naked before truth and then you will be denigrated as power can only be maintained by secrecy.
On Saturday, there will be a march from Australia House in London to Parliament Square, the centre of British democracy. People will carry pictures of the Australian publisher and journalist Julian Assange who, on 24 February, faces a court that will decide whether or not he is to be extradited to the United States and a living death.
Some Australian history
I know Australia House well. As an Australian myself, I used to go there in my early days in London to read the newspapers from home. Opened by King George V over a century ago, its vastness of marble and stone, chandeliers and solemn portraits, imported from Australia when Australian soldiers were dying in the slaughter of the First World War, has ensured its landmark as an imperial pile of monumental servility.
As one of the oldest “diplomatic missions” in the United Kingdom, this relic of empire provides a pleasurable sinecure for Antipodean politicians: a “mate” rewarded or a troublemaker exiled.
Known as High Commissioner, the equivalent of an ambassador, the current beneficiary is George Brandis, who as Attorney General tried to water down Australia’s Race Discrimination Act and approved raids on whistleblowers who had revealed the truth about Australia’s illegal spying on East Timor during negotiations for the carve-up of that impoverished country’s oil and gas.
This led to the prosecution of whistleblowers Bernard Collaery and “Witness K”, on bogus charges. Like Julian Assange, they are to be silenced in a Kafkaesque trial and put away.
Australia House is the ideal starting point for Saturday’s march.
“I confess,” wrote Lord Curzon, Viceroy of India, in 1898, “that countries are pieces on a chessboard upon which is being played out a great game for the domination of the world.”
We Australians have been in the service of the Great Game for a very long time. Having devastated our Indigenous people in an invasion and a war of attrition that continues to this day, we have spilt blood for our imperial masters in China, Africa, Russia, the Middle East, Europe and Asia. No imperial adventure against those with whom we have no quarrel has escaped our dedication.
Deception has been a feature. When Prime Minister Robert Menzies sent Australian soldiers to Vietnam in the 1960s, he described them as a training team, requested by a beleaguered government in Saigon. It was a lie. A senior official of the Department of External Affairs wrote secretly that “although we have stressed the fact publicly that our assistance was given in response to an invitation by the government of South Vietnam”, the order came from Washington.”
Two versions. The lie for us, the truth for them. As many as four million people died in the Vietnam war.
When Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975, the Australian Ambassador, Richard Woolcott, secretly urged the government in Canberra to “act in a way which would be designed to minimise the public impact in Australia and show private understanding to Indonesia.” In other words, to lie. He alluded to the beckoning spoils of oil and gas in the Timor Sea which, boasted Foreign Minister Gareth Evans, were worth “zillions”.
In the genocide that followed, at least 200,000 East Timorese died. Australia recognised, almost alone, the legitimacy of the occupation.
When Prime Minister John Howard sent Australian special forces to invade Iraq with America and Britain in 2003, he – like George W Bush and Tony Blair – lied that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. More than a million people died in Iraq.
Wikileaks
WikiLeaks was not the first to call out the pattern of criminal lying in democracies that remain every bit as rapacious as in Lord Curzon’s day. The achievement of the remarkable publishing organisation founded by Julian Assange has been to provide the proof.
WikiLeaks has informed us how illegal wars are fabricated, how governments are overthrown and violence is used in our name, how we are spied upon through our phones and screens. The true lies of presidents, ambassadors, political candidates, generals, proxies, political fraudsters have been exposed. One by one, these would-be emperors have realised they have no clothes.
It has been an unprecedented public service; above all, it is authentic journalism, whose value can be judged by the degree of apoplexy of the corrupt and their apologists.
For example, in 2016, WikiLeaks published the leaked emails of Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager John Podesta, which revealed a direct connection between Clinton, the foundation she shares with her husband and the funding of organised jihadism in the Middle East – terrorism.
One email disclosed that Islamic State [Daesh (ISIS/Isil)] was bankrolled by the governments of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, from which Clinton accepted huge “donations”. Moreover, as US Secretary of State, she approved the world’s biggest ever arms sale to her Saudi benefactors, worth more than $80 billion. Thanks to her, US arms sales to the world – for use in stricken countries like Yemen – doubled.
Revealed by WikiLeaks and published in the New York Times, the Podesta emails triggered a vituperative campaign against editor-in-chief Julian Assange, bereft of evidence. He was an “agent of Russia working to elect Trump”; the nonsensical “Russiagate” followed. That WikiLeaks had also published more than 800,000 frequently damning documents from Russia was ignored.
On an Australian Broadcasting Corporation programme, Four Corners, in 2017, Clinton was interviewed by Sarah Ferguson, who began: “No one could fail to be moved by the pain on your face at [the moment of Donald Trump’s inauguration] … Do you remember how visceral it was for you?”
Having established Clinton’s visceral suffering, the fawning Ferguson described “Russia’s role” and the “damage done personally to you” by Julian Assange.
Clinton replied, “He [Assange] is very clearly a tool of Russian intelligence. And he has done their bidding.”
Ferguson said to Clinton: “Lots of people, including in Australia, think that Assange is a martyr of free speech and freedom of information. How would you describe him?”
Again, Clinton was allowed to defame Assange – a “nihilist” in the service of “dictators” – while Ferguson assured her interviewee she was “the icon of your generation”.
There was no mention of a leaked document, revealed by WikiLeaks, called Libya Tick Tock, prepared for Hillary Clinton, which described her as the central figure driving the destruction of the Libyan state in 2011. This resulted in 40,000 deaths, the arrival of [Daesh] in North Africa and the European refugee and migrant crisis.
False and true journalism
For me, this episode of Clinton’s interview – and there are many others – vividly illustrates the division between false and true journalism. On 24 February, when Julian Assange steps into Woolwich Crown Court, true journalism will be the only crime on trial.
I am sometimes asked why I have championed Assange. For one thing, I like and I admire him. He is a friend with astonishing courage; and he has a finely honed, wicked sense of humour. He is the diametric opposite of the character invented then assassinated by his enemies.
As a reporter in places of upheaval all over the world, I have learned to compare the evidence I have witnessed with the words and actions of those with power. In this way, it is possible to get a sense of how our world is controlled and divided and manipulated, how language and debate are distorted to produce the propaganda of false consciousness.
When we speak about dictatorships, we call this brainwashing: the conquest of minds. It is a truth we rarely apply to our own societies, regardless of the trail of blood that leads back to us and which never dries.
WikiLeaks has exposed this. That is why Assange is in a maximum security prison in London facing concocted political charges in America, and why he has shamed so many of those paid to keep the record straight. Watch these journalists now look for cover as it dawns on them that the American fascists who have come for Assange may come for them, not least those on the Guardian who collaborated with WikiLeaks and won prizes and secured lucrative book and Hollywood deals based on his work, before turning on him.
In 2011, David Leigh, the Guardian‘s “investigations editor”, told journalism students at City University in London that Assange was “quite deranged”. When a puzzled student asked why, Leigh replied: “Because he doesn’t understand the parameters of conventional journalism”.
But it’s precisely because he did understand that the “parameters” of the media often shielded vested and political interests and had nothing to do with transparency that the idea of WikiLeaks was so appealing to many people, especially the young, rightly cynical about the so-called “mainstream”.
Leigh mocked the very idea that, once extradited, Assange would end up “wearing an orange jumpsuit”. These were things, he said, “that he and his lawyer are saying in order to feed his paranoia”.
US plans for Assange
The current US charges against Assange centre on the Afghan Logs and Iraq Logs, which the Guardian published and Leigh worked on, and on the Collateral Murder video showing an American helicopter crew gunning down civilians and celebrating the crime. For this journalism, Assange faces 17 charges of “espionage” which carry prison sentences totalling 175 years.
Whether or not his prison uniform will be an “orange jumpsuit”, US court files seen by Assange’s lawyers reveal that, once extradited, Assange will be subject to Special Administrative Measures, known as SAMS. A 2017 report by Yale University Law School and the Center for Constitutional Rights described SAMS as “the darkest corner of the US federal prison system” combining “the brutality and isolation of maximum security units with additional restrictions that deny individuals almost any connection to the human world… The net effect is to shield this form of torture from any real public scrutiny.”
That Assange has been right all along, and getting him to Sweden was a fraud to cover an American plan to “render” him, is finally becoming clear to many who swallowed the incessant scuttlebutt of character assassination. “I speak fluent Swedish and was able to read all the original documents,” Nils Melzer, the United Nations Rapporteur on Torture, said recently. “I could hardly believe my eyes. According to the testimony of the woman in question, a rape had never taken place at all. And not only that: the woman’s testimony was later changed by the Stockholm Police without her involvement in order to somehow make it sound like a possible rape. I have all the documents in my possession, the emails, the text messages.”
Keir Starmer is currently running for election as leader of the Labour Party in Britain. Between 2008 and 2013, he was Director of Public Prosecutions and responsible for the Crown Prosecution Service. According to Freedom of Information searches by the Italian journalist Stefania Maurizi, Sweden tried to drop the Assange case in 2011, but a CPS official in London told the Swedish prosecutor not to treat it as “just another extradition”.
In 2012, she received an email from the CPS: “Don’t you dare get cold feet!!!” Other CPS emails were either deleted or redacted. Why? Keir Starmer needs to say why.
Australia’s role
At the forefront of Saturday’s march will be John Shipton, Julian’s father, whose indefatigable support for his son is the antithesis of the collusion and cruelty of the governments of Australia, our homeland.
The roll call of shame begins with Julia Gillard, the Australian Labor prime minister who, in 2010, wanted to criminalise WikiLeaks, arrest Assange and cancel his passport – until the Australian Federal Police pointed out that no law allowed this and that Assange had committed no crime.
While falsely claiming to give him consular assistance in London, it was the Gillard government’s shocking abandonment of its citizen that led to Ecuador granting political asylum to Assange in its London embassy.
In a subsequent speech before the US Congress, Gillard, a favourite of the US embassy in Canberra, broke records for sycophancy (according to the website Honest History) as she declared, over and again, the fidelity of America’s “mates Down Under”.
Today, while Assange waits in his cell, Gillard travels the world, promoting herself as a feminist concerned about “human rights”, often in tandem with that other right-on feminist Hillary Clinton.
The truth is that Australia could have rescued Julian Assange and can still rescue him.
In 2010, I arranged to meet a prominent Liberal (Conservative) Member of Parliament, Malcolm Turnbull. As a young barrister in the 1980s, Turnbull had successfully fought the British government’s attempts to prevent the publication of the book, Spycatcher, whose author Peter Wright, a spy, had exposed Britain’s ‘deep state’.
We talked about his famous victory for free speech and publishing and I described the miscarriage of justice awaiting Assange – the fraud of his arrest in Sweden and its connection with an American indictment that tore up the US Constitution and the rule of international law.
Turnbull appeared to show genuine interest and an aide took extensive notes. I asked him to deliver a letter to the Australian government from Gareth Peirce, the renowned British human rights lawyer who represents Assange.
In the letter, Peirce wrote: “Given the extent of the public discussion, frequently on the basis of entirely false assumptions… it is very hard to attempt to preserve for [Julian Assange] any presumption of innocence. Mr Assange has now hanging over him not one but two Damocles swords, of potential extradition to two different jurisdictions in turn for two different alleged crimes, neither of which are crimes in his own country, and that his personal safety has become at risk in circumstances that are highly politically charged.”
Turnbull promised to deliver the letter, follow it through and let me know. I subsequently wrote to him several times, waited and heard nothing.
In 2018, John Shipton wrote a deeply moving letter to the then prime minister of Australia asking him to exercise the diplomatic power at his government’s disposal and bring Julian home. He wrote that he feared that if Julian was not rescued, there would be a tragedy and his son would die in prison. He received no reply. The prime minister was Malcolm Turnbull.
Last year, when the current prime minister, Scott Morrison, a former public relations man, was asked about Assange, he replied in his customary way: “He should face the music!”
When Saturday’s march reaches the Houses of Parliament, said to be “the Mother of Parliaments”, Morrison and Gillard and Turnbull and all those who have betrayed Julian Assange should be called out; history and decency will not forget them or those who remain silent now.
And if there is any sense of justice left in the land of Magna Carta, the travesty that is the case against this heroic Australian must be thrown out. Or beware, all of us.
The march on Saturday 22 February begins at Australia House in Aldwych, London WC2B 4LA, at 12.30pm: assemble at 11.30am.
Published by agreement with John Pilger. A version of this article can be found at johnpilger.com
In the public interest. Modernisation is code for disruption.
Is IT digitisation of government or any organisation a modernisation in reality. When everything is shifted to a centralised (cloud) global control and command systems (IoT). Is this moving forward (evolution) or are we returning to feudal totalitarianism sold as the next digital revolution within the context of ecological collapse? This is the question not asked but it is the card on the table, that I would call the Joker. We can exchange this card for a better card, but it requires critical thinking and really looking through the smart marketing serving up control as freedom, freedom as access, mind control as choice and so on. In government the systems are becoming digitised by US multinational companies accessing government systems and redesigning systems with licencing agreements in contract relationships. How does this protect Australian sovereignty and citizens from foreign influence? I find this highly concerning.
As privatisation expands, non disclosure becomes the modus operandi. As cyber warfare escalates so does access to private information whereby governments can break encrypted data and call it national security. As governments become private entities they will act like corporations and the public right to know will disappear as a mist under the rising sun of change.
The digital reality is not a ecosystem it is bits and bytes (0,1) binary choices (yes/no) of code that creates the impression of reality and use 3D modelling through special glasses to emulate reality as another world, that appears real. It is confusing the senses and training people to follow the prompts, to tick yes to terms and conditions and ignore choice. To allow breaches of personal privacy but collecting information and selling data and calling this business. The reality beyond the mask of efficiency is full spectrum dominance. It is a business reality (not democratic) that is artificial intelligence (inclusive of those creating IT) that excludes the real human social emotional needs for a fantasy world of fake control, fake choices (algorithms will define) and false stimuli not based on your demand but based on augmented/promoted demand so you buy products. It has nothing to do with freedom of choice, freedoms of liberty and has everything to do with gaining control over the community to maximise profit.
I will post Deloitte in the next blog another major player shape changing our world into a Orwellian image and calling it modernisation and prosperity. It is not the real wealth of nations in my view. It is the road to Serfdom paved with marketed good intentions but creating a infrastructure of enslavement which will be hard to extract ourselves from as we will be locked into the system with no opt out. Optus always comes to mind ‘YES’ I believe that was code for there is no ‘NO’. No means no access. No means non compliance. No means exclusion from the system. I believe in democracy and choice so it clearly will not be for me. I have been locked out and experienced 2.5 years homeless without income as I did not comply. Not because I am rebellious but because I believe in freedom of choice. I believe in the internet serving the public not a commercial venture where the companies fish for customers using shop fronts as webpages where they can spin their stories making it hard for people to check. I do note on some website you can’t find the Board of Directors (governance) and I see it is window dressing. As governments shutdown their shopfronts which were face to face access points with the public, government will become a cyber reality that feels more and more remote. For me remote viewing comes to mind as the reality of life on the net. No real human contact, no real purpose only consumption to benefit the few over the many. This is the conversation we are not having. Yet it is in the public interest.
Canberra seeks vendor fluent in digital transformation to modernise public service
The
Australian Public Service Commission is looking for a vendor to train
public service staff so they can lead digital transformation within
their respective agencies or departments.
The Australian Public Service Commission (APSC) wants to
modernise the government’s workforce, heading to market for a the
provision of the design and delivery of an “intensive” digital
transformation development program for Senior Executive Service (SES)
staff within the public service.
The statement of requirement,
published Tuesday, explains the vision of the APSC is to create a
“flexible, efficient, and high-performing Australian Public Service
(APS) that delivers quality outcomes for government, business, and the
community”.
The APSC’s Centre for Leadership and Learning has
partnered with the Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) to deliver a
Building Digital Capability Program the APSC hopes will accelerate its
digital transformation agenda.
The program consists of four
areas, which includes a training marketplace, talent attraction, talent
retention, and a revamped culture.
As a result of the Building Digital Capability Program, the APSC is
expecting public service staff to be better skilled to support digital
transformation in their respective agencies or departments, which will
in turn transform government services.
The Approach to Market
(ATM) explains the APSC is seeking to partner with leadership and
executive education experts to design, develop, and deliver a
“longitudinal, multi-modal, executive leadership program”, with the
commission producing Learning Design Standards to guide the design and
development of the learning solutions.
According to the ATM, the successful supplier must have
the capability and capacity to deliver a program which includes a
“variety of modes in accordance with best practice in blended learning”.
These modes include immersive and intensive face-to-face delivery,
digitally delivered content, social media content, workplace-based
learning, webinars, virtual classrooms, self-paced instruction,
collaborative forums, and discussion groups with a variety of
approaches.
“It is expected that the program will be delivered
using agile processes allowing for the program to evolve and improve
from cohort to cohort using participant feedback and evaluation
results,” the ATM states.
It is an expectation that the chosen
supplier will work with the APSC to identify appropriate channels to
attract, engage, and retain participants in the program, by developing,
as one example, a digital solution that manages the user “journey” from
program awareness, through digital delivery of content and ongoing
monitoring and reporting.
The supplier will also be required to
work with the Centre’s Talent Strategies and Evaluation Team on
detailing evaluation and reporting techniques.
The
Australian government is implementing a digital transformation agenda
to transform the way it delivers services to citizens, business, and
other users. The DTA — formerly the Digital Transformation Office — was created to help lead that transformation.
Although kicking off a handful of digital transformation projects earlier in the year, the government outlined its series of initiatives in its Budget 2017-18, intending to modernise and consolidate its systems, as well as train staff members in digital skills.
“A
number of Commonwealth agencies are taking advantage of technology and
other innovations to provide more productive and efficient ways of
working such as establishing flexible working environments, including
converting offices to open plan and activity-based working facilities,
to enable co-location and improving remote access technology to allow
staff to work from anywhere,” the government said in its Budget 2017-18
documents.
The APS upgrade project will see a AU$350 million
investment over three years from the government in order to modernise
processes and systems.
“This measure, which is fully funded from
the additional efficiency dividend applied in the 2016-17 Budget,
provides for investments to advance the collection and use of government
data in the development of evidence-based policy, including
people-centred policy design,” the government explained in May.
“The
measure enhances service delivery through the Digital Transformation
Agency’s development of whole-of-government platforms, supports the
development of digital capability, and further modernises systems to
enable greater collaboration across the APS.”
The one year
contract with the APSC includes an extension option of either two
additional periods of one year each, or additional services at the
government’s discretion.
This is a real issue, particularly in the hands of industry and members of the public. There is a range of information provided below and videos. The one that concerns me is the 8 year old child who a hacker spoke to in her bedroom. What if this person is a paedophile?
The article below provides solutions on how to avoid surveillance and what to be aware of.
Is your cell phone spying on you? Even if it is, does it really matter? You’re no criminal, right? Should you protect yourself in any case? In this guest post, Lois Cadwallader answers all these questions and more and shares 15 ways you can protect yourself from this personal intrusion:
Have you ever had the feeling that “someone is listening?” Well, they are. And it’s more than just your cell phone. Most newer electronic devices are seeded with sensors.
What’s interesting, is the smartphone has probably become the most important personal identifier and locator. Think about it. What do most people have with them always? Their phones.
How do smartphones provide surveillance? They:
Listen
Locate
Log personal data
They Listen
I recently had my own experience with this. I carry my phone on airplane mode with Bluetooth and WiFi off to safeguard against exposure to electromagnetic radiation. (Find more information on Bluetooth radiation dangers here.)
I had turned my phone back on to check for messages and saw a friend zipping along on a bike path. “Diane Day! Diane Day,” I called out loudly. Well, she was riding so fast that she didn’t hear me. But someone else did.
Within a few hours, I had a personal message from her on Facebook … but it was suspicious. It didn’t sound like her. Sure enough, it was a hacker. Coincidental? Maybe. But the timing is just too close. I can’t help but wonder if my phone picked up her name, associated her with my Facebook friend, and someone went phishing.
I’d be interested in hearing your stories, please share in the comment section below.
It’s not just our smartphones.
Let’s take home managers, or smart speakers. Apple and Google admit that Alexa and Siri spy on you. Employees listen in on conversations, but only to monitor and improve the system, so they say. Industry claims the sampling is very small, and that they have in place strict anti-abuse regulations. [1,2,3]
And even more disturbing, the very systems we use to protect our homes may be the instruments of surveillance and invasive contact. An alarming report just surfaced about a hacker speaking to a young girl through the smart speaker in her bedroom. This video is downright creepy.
They Locate
Even when the GPS is turned off, your location can still be established using cell tower triangulation. Although this is not exactly “pin-pointing” it can get pretty close. This could be used for good or bad, depending on who wants to know your whereabouts. [4]
They Log Personal Data
Your smartphone and other smart devices collect, analyze, and record thousands of interactions every day. It is no secret that this information is available to 3rd party advertisers. But it’s for “your benefit” – It’s like having a “personal shopper” hunt out the best deals for you.
Google says they don’t “sell” your personal information. They just place advertisements in your purview, based on your trends and search history. [5]
And Apple boasts, “What happens on your iPhone stays on your iPhone.” However, a NY Post investigator begs to differ.
He discovered that he was being “tracked,” by 3rd parties and that personal information had been shared, contrary to the published privacy policy. [6]
Are You OK With Massive Data Collection And Retention?
What About Hackers?
In the article, “Smart Homes Might be Getting too Smart. Start Worrying,” the author makes the stunning point that the danger is not just that hackers could know when you are on vacation and hack your smart lock and break into your home. That’s bad enough. But also there is the broader danger that hackers could commandeer hundreds of thousands of smartphones and smart devices to request access to a bank, social media platform, or government agency, thus forcing a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack. [7]
This is actually what happened in the 2016 Mirai botnet that crashed the web. [8]
Isn’t Being Connected A Good Thing?
In the book, Owned: Property, Privacy and the New Digital Serfdom, by Joshua A. T. Fairfield, 2017, the author discusses what it means that our environment is seeded with more sensors than ever before. [9]
Our dishwashers, smart televisions, internet-enabled home thermostats, smart meters, Fitbits and smartphones constantly gather information about us and our environment.
Who owns that information? You might be surprised at the answer.
When you purchase a smartphone or any smart device you relinquish ownership of your personal information. Industry owns your personal information. It is buried in hard-to-read, small-font terms-of-service agreements.
5G will only make it worse, as the sensors and transmitters are brought closer and closer, right into our neighborhoods, connecting all of the smart gadgets in the smart homes. This is not just “real time” listening. There is huge data collection, analysis, and retention by government and industry. [10,11]
Why? You guessed it. There is nothing new under the sun.
Money and power, money and power, money and power.
Money, Money, Money
Technology is a trillion dollar business. Industry and government are riding high on the enormous profits. Smartphone ownership is fast becoming a “right” and a “necessity” for life. Ask any person under 50 years old, “What’s the one thing you cannot and will not go without?” The answer is usually, “My phone.”
So, we now have a product with almost 100% dependence for both business and personal use. And the consumer is more than happy to pay for the latest smartphone upgrade.
American companies alone are estimated to have spent over $19 billion in 2018 acquiring and analyzing consumer data, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau. [12,13]
And Then There’s Power.
They would need an Infra-structure in place for surveillance and compliance assurance.
They would need to control technology in order to control information.
They would need to control financial transactions.
They would need to control the military.
Food, prescriptions, electricity, fuel, etc., all controlled by technology.
They would want to keep the population dependent (if not addicted) to the services under their control.
In short, they would need surveillance, surveillance, surveillance.
Where could this possibly be going? Dr. Jeremy Naydler, author and philosopher writes about the disturbing scenario of the global electronic intelligence in, “5G – The Big Picture.” [14]
And check out this edgy film, 5G APOCALYPSE – THE EXTINCTION EVENT. It is a full-length documentary by Sacha Stone exposing the 5G existential threat to humanity. OK, it might be a little hyperbolic. But if even half of this is true, yikes!
The power of artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies will be enormous. Vladimir Putin said, those in possession of artificial intelligence will rule the world. The processing speed and knowledge base of artificial intelligence will be so great, it will seem all-knowing to most. [15]
And President Trump states in the National Security Report, “We will improve America’s digital infrastructure by deploying a secure 5G Internet capability nationwide. These improvements will increase national competitiveness, benefit the environment and improve our quality of life.” [16]
Linked to a global network of cameras and audio devices, made of non-biological materials, artificial intelligence will appear to be omnipresent, omnipotent, and immortal. Those acquainted with biblical prophecy speculate that AI will be the platform for the one-world dictator. [17]
There’s a race for technological domination because that equals power. And surveillance is a necessary part of it.
But I’m Not A Criminal
The thinking goes something like this, “If I’m not engaged in any criminal behaviors, I shouldn’t mind if I’m monitored. Surveillance keeps us all safer from crime and terrorism.”
To be fair, there are some benefits to this “tracking” involving safety, identifying medical emergencies, solving crimes, finding missing persons, etc.
So, why should you care? One word. China.
China is using smart phones and other smart devices to massively spy on its citizens. They assign a “Social Credit Score” to base reward and punishment. [18,19,20,21]
“It could never happen here.” Famous last words.
Silicon Valley is already building a Chinese-style social credit system. [22] And one could argue that in the US there is already an un-written social credit system solidly in place, just waiting for the right people to implement its rewards and punishments.
It all sounds a little far-fetched; conspiratorial. But still, it should give reason for pause and reflection. How much of our privacy are we willing to relinquish for the sake of convenience? What are we exchanging for ultra-connectivity? And is it worth it?
Is There Anything We Can Do?
Thankfully, yes.
Here are 15 steps you can take to reduce the spy-factor in your life.
1 – Unplug
Unplug, turn off, disconnect as much as possible.
2 – Be Aware Of Your Appliances
Seek out older models of appliances that do not have a WiFi feature or dis-arm the WiFi component of new appliances. This is difficult, but possible with a little bit of research. (Still confused about the dangers of WiFi? Read this article on why WiFi is not safe.)
3 – Keep Airplane Mode On And WiFi And Bluetooth Off
If you are “EMF savvy,” you know that other than completely powering off, the only safe way to carry a cell phone on your body is to:
Turn Airplane mode ON
Turn Bluetooth and WiFi OFF
This shuts down all electromagnetic energy. And of course, shuts down all transmission and reception. Thus, you are un-connected. So, you must check for messages periodically.
You can still use other features, like calendar and camera. And you can still access downloaded items.
But beware!Some of the newer phones (and tablets) have an automatic re-connect feature. So, you must double check to ensure that Airplane mode is ON and Bluetooth and WiFi remain OFF when your phone or tablet is close to you. These devices “want” to be connected and are programmed to do so. Learn about cell phone radiation protection here.
A “Faraday Bag” is another option for carrying your phone.
4 – Get A Meter
What about the sneaky factor? Since most phones have a sealed battery that can no longer be removed, one cannot really know if it is truly “off.” The only way to be assured that there is no beacon signal emitting from your phone or appliances is to meter.
You can do that yourself quite easily with the right kind of meter.
And as we progress deeper and deeper into the mesh of electronic surveillance, now might be a good time to acquire a meter.
5 – Use A Land-line
Many of my friends no longer have a wired telephone line. We still keep ours. I don’t know how much longer they will even be available. But, I recommend if you have a land-line, keep it. If you do not have one, inquire as to whether or not you can install one. Important – This should be completely wired with no additional wireless hand set.
They are fun…convenient. They are all the “new rage” in technology. But come on’ – do we reeeeeally need them? And do we really want them listening, locating, logging? I say, no!
7 – Be Mindful
Smart devices, appliances, electronic key fobs, and even toys are always listening. And sometimes even recording.
8 – Use Technology Against Technology
There are a few products that claim to block techno-spies. I have not checked them out yet. Worth a look. Use webcam and microphone blockers and anti-malware software. When browsing the internet, go “incognito.”
9 – Check Privacy Options If You Use Social Media
Use social media with caution. Be sure you are aware of and use privacy options. You need to check these periodically, as they do change.
You can take it a step further and have your social media presence scrubbed. While you can delete your Facebook account relatively easily, getting these firms to remove your information is time-consuming, complicated, and sometimes impossible. In fact, the process is so burdensome that you may want to consider paying a service to do it on your behalf.
10 – Hardwire As Much As Possible
Hardwire your computer, mouse, printer, etc. Wired is more secure than wireless as there is less chance of someone intercepting.
11 – Install Anti-Virus Systems On All Wireless Devices
Although not 100% fail-proof, they do make it difficult for hackers to intrude into your technology devices.
12 – Go To Advanced Security And Privacy Solutions
There are ways to disable the “listening” function of your smartphone and smart devices. There are also ways to delete your recorded information. Takes some research. I have not done this yet. I hear that it is difficult, but doable. My next project.
13 – Simplify
While cutting-edge technology can be exhilarating, there is something attractive about slow and simple living. Spend more time in the wilderness where there are no sensors. There is something restorative about the natural world and a small footprint.
14 – Take A detailed Audit Of Every Possible Source Of Surveillance In Your Home.
Bill shares over 30 pages of up-to-date information from his annual visit to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. You may be surprised how many things in your environment have turned “smart” and could be used as a surveillance tool, even when turned off.
15 – Some Would Say Completely Eliminate Technology
This is difficult. And I admire the purists. I really do. But to run a business in the modern world, I have to use a pc and smart phone. If you are completely retired and don’t need electronics, it might be doable. You also might be able to move to a rural area. That would be ideal.
We may not be able to avoid surveillance entirely. But we can reduce the spy factor by taking some simple steps. Do what you can do today.
Many thanks to Lois Cadwallader for this guest post.
Author bio: Lois Cadwallader, MA, has been a professional educator all her life. She lives in Las Vegas, Nevada and enjoys volunteering in after-school clubs, hiking and cycling. She is the co-author of Exposed: The Electronic Sickening of America and How to Protect Yourself.
