Every few seconds, data picked up at surveillance points in major cities and landmarks across the United States are recorded digitally on the spot, then encrypted and instantaneously delivered to a fortified central database center at an undisclosed location to be aggregated with other intelligence.
Awful and scary, isn't it? Let's now take a deep breath and read it again. We'll see how this article makes most mundane and unremarkable things sound like a spy triller, it's a nice piece of work:
Former senior intelligence officials have created a detailed surveillance system more accurate than modern facial recognition technology
More accurate how? Than which modern facial recognition technology? All of them together? Sounds unlikely that RT made a survey of all modern face recognition technologies. But even if they did - what exactly it allows to do more accurately and how much more accurately? From the descriptions it sounds like it is a facial recognition technology plus some pattern matching - but 99% of it is marketing-speak, so impossible to understand what it actually does.
Every few seconds, data picked up at surveillance points in major cities and landmarks across the United States are recorded digitally on the spot
So we have some data recording happening in some locations in the US. We don't know anything about these locations except that some of them are inside major US cities and some other are in known places which aren't cities. For all we know, it may be inside bank vaults in major cities, or inside private secure structures - but the authors certainly make it sound as it is practically in your bedroom. It's like they are in major cities and I am in a major city - OMG!
Then these ominous surveillance points record video digitally. Oh noes! Just like my digital camera! Must be made by CIA to spy on me too. And it does it on the spot! There must be some spy stuff going on. But you heard nothing yet:
then encrypted
As we all know, encryption is practically synonymous with shady business. Nobody who has nothing to hide uses encryption. They do, ergo they are up to something bad.
and instantaneously delivered
Instantaneously! I mean, move over, physics, CIA is here! Oh, you mean they just upload their videos to the central server over https using broadband networks? Just like I do with Youtube clips? So that must mean Youtube is under CIA control too, I guess.
to a fortified central database center
Fortified center! Certainly sounds ominous - nobody ever that is up to any good would have any physical security in his data center that stores millions of dollars in hardware and information. Fortified means bad. It's like Mordor, dude!
at an undisclosed location
Undisclosed location? Did you ever hear "undisclosed location" in context that meant anything good? It's or somebody is hiding from mafia hitmen, or some spooks are meeting to discuss their spooky things. Or it's a conspiracy-speak for "they didn't tell us where their data center is because they didn't think it's our business to know where their data center is".
to be aggregated with other intelligence
OMG, can it get any worse? Other intelligence! What kind of other intelligence? Who cares, it's obvious aggregating video with "other intelligence" can only make it worse. Other intelligence is spookier than anything else, just let your imagination run for a bit and you'd see how scary "other intelligence" can get.
It's like that face.com startup that Facebook bought - that allowed to combine facial recognition with "other intelligence" to sort facebook pictures or make logins via face recognition APIs. I didn't know those guys were CIA, I actually used them! Good thing facebook shut them down. Or maybe they just were not supposed to show this technology to the people? After all, Facebook is CIA too, so maybe they just went underground...
The employee roster at Arbaxas reads like a who’s who of agents once with the Pentagon, CIA and other government entities according to their public LinkedIn profiles, and the corporation's ties are assumed to go deeper than even documented.
And now's this. Some employees of these companies worked for CIA or DoD (we don't know in which capacity, but everybody that ever worked for DoD in any capacity is up to no good, it's clear) or "other government entities" - you know, Department of Education, EPA, NIH, Smithsonian, National Science Foundation - those all are "government entities", so we can cover a lot of ground here while sounding like we still talk about spies. And if we miss something, we can always say "it is assumed" - by which we mean we just assumed that because why not, but we will say it as if it is a known, even if undocumented, fact.
So what we have is a regular video surveillance system with some algorithms built on top, some company founded by people with govt connections, looking probably into some juicy govt contracts on securing some of the numerous govt facilities that need securing, and some creative writers making it all sound like the CIA is out to get us while giving us next to zero information on actually what we are supposed to be afraid of and what new is in what they tell us.
From the last paragraph I got you're OK with having an unregulated surveillance system in the US which records information about you and makes god-knows-what conclusions from your movements, behaviour etc. And that's absolutely fine, you are entitled to your opinion.
But you have taken much efforts trying to ridicule OP's use of words "digital", "encrypted, "instantaneously", "undisclosed" etc. How is this discussion tactics called?
He's ridiculing the article's use of the words "digital", "encrypted", "instantaneously", and "undisclosed" because the article's use of those words is in fact ridiculous.
To understand why, log out of Hacker News, and then log back in. Your browser and Paul Graham have conspired to instantaneously send sensitive encrypted digital information to an undisclosed location. I hope it's fortified.
When Paul Graham has instruments of state power and coercion at his disposal then the use of encrypted and undisclosed will be relevant. I do not wish for the state to have access to this information. It being located in an undisclosed location and being encrypted suggests to me that should the government be ordered by a court to reveal the extent of this information it will be hard to determine if full disclosure has occurred. The use of these words my be needlessly alarmist but I don't see evidence of this. The government ought not be engaging in this and it is worthwhile to be alarmed and to try to get others to be alarmed.
So you would prefer surveillance data (and let it be clear, security is not possible without at least some surveillance being conducted on secured facilities, for example - even a store like 7-11 has video surveillance systems nowdays) be transmitted in the clear, stored accessibly to any malicious intruder in a well-known location without any physical security to speak of?
Of course I'm OK with having unregulated private video recording systems. I have 6 of them around me right now - my Macbook Pro, my iPad, iPhone, two digital cameras and home security system. Why would I want the government to tell me how to use these? Because you're afraid of the government? Fine, it is prudent, but why your fear of the government turns you to regulation which is government? Maybe you mean government should report on information it collects and not collect it without a good reason? But then sensationalist description of the technology has nothing do do with the topic, does it? Then the reporting should be - which information is collected, why and why I should be concerned about it. I would certainly welcome such article. But RT does nothing of the sort.
But you have taken much efforts trying to ridicule OP's use of words "digital", "encrypted, "instantaneously", "undisclosed" etc. How is this discussion tactics called?
I'm ridiculing them not because they use these words, but because their narrative is non-existant without these words and spooky style of their arrangement. If you strip them, you are left with "Some company has video recording security system, that involves recording data, storing it on the server and then running some algorithms on it. Some law enforcement agencies use it, and the management of the company has worked for the government in the past and now is probably using their past contacts to get government contracts". I do not see anything spooky here, and it's definitely not as sensationalist as the article is, and not nearly as interesting. That's what I am ridiculing them for - for sensationalizing a mundane piece of uninteresting information into a full-blown conspiracy theory.
"From the last paragraph I got you're OK with having an unregulated surveillance system in the US which records information about you and makes god-knows-what conclusions from your movements, behaviour etc."
And no evidence for this has been supplied.
For example, you're assuming the "central database" is one big one run by the government. The term would equally well apply to a computer in a university's security office, which receives feeds from all the university's security cameras, which it likely records digitally, because it's 2012 and that's how we do things now.
The location of that university security office is probably "undisclosed" because really who cares if you don't need to go there? It's "disclosed" to people for whom that information is relevant, like people who work there.
Every few seconds, data picked up at surveillance points in major cities and landmarks across the United States are recorded digitally on the spot, then encrypted and instantaneously delivered to a fortified central database center at an undisclosed location to be aggregated with other intelligence.
Awful and scary, isn't it? Let's now take a deep breath and read it again. We'll see how this article makes most mundane and unremarkable things sound like a spy triller, it's a nice piece of work:
Former senior intelligence officials have created a detailed surveillance system more accurate than modern facial recognition technology
More accurate how? Than which modern facial recognition technology? All of them together? Sounds unlikely that RT made a survey of all modern face recognition technologies. But even if they did - what exactly it allows to do more accurately and how much more accurately? From the descriptions it sounds like it is a facial recognition technology plus some pattern matching - but 99% of it is marketing-speak, so impossible to understand what it actually does.
Every few seconds, data picked up at surveillance points in major cities and landmarks across the United States are recorded digitally on the spot
So we have some data recording happening in some locations in the US. We don't know anything about these locations except that some of them are inside major US cities and some other are in known places which aren't cities. For all we know, it may be inside bank vaults in major cities, or inside private secure structures - but the authors certainly make it sound as it is practically in your bedroom. It's like they are in major cities and I am in a major city - OMG!
Then these ominous surveillance points record video digitally. Oh noes! Just like my digital camera! Must be made by CIA to spy on me too. And it does it on the spot! There must be some spy stuff going on. But you heard nothing yet:
then encrypted
As we all know, encryption is practically synonymous with shady business. Nobody who has nothing to hide uses encryption. They do, ergo they are up to something bad.
and instantaneously delivered
Instantaneously! I mean, move over, physics, CIA is here! Oh, you mean they just upload their videos to the central server over https using broadband networks? Just like I do with Youtube clips? So that must mean Youtube is under CIA control too, I guess.
to a fortified central database center
Fortified center! Certainly sounds ominous - nobody ever that is up to any good would have any physical security in his data center that stores millions of dollars in hardware and information. Fortified means bad. It's like Mordor, dude!
at an undisclosed location
Undisclosed location? Did you ever hear "undisclosed location" in context that meant anything good? It's or somebody is hiding from mafia hitmen, or some spooks are meeting to discuss their spooky things. Or it's a conspiracy-speak for "they didn't tell us where their data center is because they didn't think it's our business to know where their data center is".
to be aggregated with other intelligence
OMG, can it get any worse? Other intelligence! What kind of other intelligence? Who cares, it's obvious aggregating video with "other intelligence" can only make it worse. Other intelligence is spookier than anything else, just let your imagination run for a bit and you'd see how scary "other intelligence" can get.
It's like that face.com startup that Facebook bought - that allowed to combine facial recognition with "other intelligence" to sort facebook pictures or make logins via face recognition APIs. I didn't know those guys were CIA, I actually used them! Good thing facebook shut them down. Or maybe they just were not supposed to show this technology to the people? After all, Facebook is CIA too, so maybe they just went underground...
The employee roster at Arbaxas reads like a who’s who of agents once with the Pentagon, CIA and other government entities according to their public LinkedIn profiles, and the corporation's ties are assumed to go deeper than even documented.
And now's this. Some employees of these companies worked for CIA or DoD (we don't know in which capacity, but everybody that ever worked for DoD in any capacity is up to no good, it's clear) or "other government entities" - you know, Department of Education, EPA, NIH, Smithsonian, National Science Foundation - those all are "government entities", so we can cover a lot of ground here while sounding like we still talk about spies. And if we miss something, we can always say "it is assumed" - by which we mean we just assumed that because why not, but we will say it as if it is a known, even if undocumented, fact.
So what we have is a regular video surveillance system with some algorithms built on top, some company founded by people with govt connections, looking probably into some juicy govt contracts on securing some of the numerous govt facilities that need securing, and some creative writers making it all sound like the CIA is out to get us while giving us next to zero information on actually what we are supposed to be afraid of and what new is in what they tell us.