Dirty Tricks by State

Maharashtra: Activists, Lawyers Added to 'Union War Book', Listed as 'Enemies of the State' https://thewire.in/rights/maharashtra-activists-lawyers-union-war-book-enemies-of-state  Sukanya Shantha 31 July 2021

The Union War Book, which has existed since the colonial era, is periodically revised, depending on the security concerns of the time.

An annexure to the book, accessed by The Wire, lists 18 different categories of “suspects”.

The list says the lawyers should be profiled for being associated with the Indian Association of People’s Lawyers (IAPL). Most lawyers who were arrested and questioned in connection with the Elgar Parishad case are directly associated with the association. During the Devendra Fadnavis-led government, the organisation was accused of being a “Maoist front”. The lawyers have, however, denied the charges.

These activists and lawyers have been added under ‘Category C’ of the Union War Book, which calls for “surveillance at all times for as long as may be necessary”.

From time to time, the “requirements” of the Union War Book are tweaked and the ‘threats’ are redefined. Sources in the state home department said that the recent exercise was done on the Union home ministry’s directive and is being carried out across the state.

Wassenaar Export Controls on Surveillance Tools: New Exemptions for Vulnerability Research  https://www.lawfareblog.com/wassenaar-export-controls-surveillance-tools-new-exemptions-vulnerability-research Garrett Hinck Friday, January 5, 2018

Shedding Light on the Surveillance Industry The importance of evidence-based, impartial research  https://citizenlab.ca/2013/12/shedding-light-on-the-surveillance-industry/ By Irene Poetranto
December 20, 2013 Fulfilling the demand for surveillance tools, a range of companies now sell surveillance backdoors and vulnerabilities, described as “lawful intercept” software. The term leverages the assertion that malware for surveillance and 0-days for hacking have the same status as statutorily mandated (and regulated) “lawful intercept” functionality in telecommunications equipment, when they are sold to government purchasers. As the commercial surveillance industry grows, so too must the bridges between research, policy, and advocacy communities. We must work together to ensure that the expansion of these technologies and markets is tracked with transparency, appropriate regulation, and the rule of law. 

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/dec/26/british-company-gamma-international

What your smart devices know (and share) about you | Kashmir Hill and Surya Mattu https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POHYyP4EbzE  Aug 15, 2018

Once your smart devices can talk to you, who else are they talking to? Kashmir Hill and Surya Mattu wanted to find out -- so they outfitted Hill's apartment with 18 different internet-connected devices and built a special router to track how often they contacted their servers and see what they were reporting back. The results were surprising -- and more than a little bit creepy. The data from your smart devices reveals about your sleep schedule, TV binges and even your tooth-brushing habits -- and how tech companies could use it to target and profile you.

Surya monitored everything what stuff the devices sent to its manufacturers/owners -  Surveillance economics? You own the device, but the company owns your data.  Is this the "social contract" in the modern world - give up a bit of your privacy for some convenience?

 "The House that Spied on Me" w/Kashmir Hill & Surya Mattu | Legends & Losers Podcast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9x8QlU7M6I   Dec 11, 2018 

Our homes have always been sacred and private spaces until they became “smart”. What data is produced by our smart devices and how is it used? Is sacrificing our privacy worth all the tracking and data gathering? Is the data innocuous or is Big Brother really watching our every move? On this episode, the writers of the brilliant Gizmodo story, “The House that Spied on Me” are here to discuss the experience of having over 15 smart devices in the home and what it taught them about data, the accountability of data companies, and whether or not smart devices actually improve our lives.

"Usually the modern contract is that we trade privacy for convenience, but living in the smart home I felt like I was trading privacy and convenience." -Kashmir Hill

The House That Spied on Me https://gizmodo.com/the-house-that-spied-on-me-1822429852  2/07/18

Surya Mattu:  After Congress voted last year to allow ISPs to spy on and sell their customers’ internet usage data, we were all warned that the ISPs could now sell our browsing activity, or records of what we do on our computers and smartphones. But in fact, they have access to more than that. If you have any smart devices in your home—a TV that connects to the internet, an Echo, a Withings scale—your ISP can see and sell information about that activity too. With my “iotea” router I was seeing the information about Kashmir and her family that Comcast, her ISP, could monitor and sell.  After a week of living in my newly smartened home, I could tell why the Beast was always in such a bad mood: The animate objects in my home were becoming a constant source of annoyance. I thought this was going to be a story about privacy, but instead I was finding out how infuriating it is to live in a janky smart home.

The whole episode reinforced something that was already bothering me: Getting a smart home means that everyone who lives or comes inside it is part of your personal panopticon, something which may not be obvious to them because they don’t expect everyday objects to have spying abilities. One of the gadgets—the Eight Sleep Tracker—seemed aware of this, and as a privacy-protective gesture, required the email address of the person I sleep with to request his permission to show me sleep reports from his side of the bed.

It turns out that how we interact with our computers and smartphones is very valuable information, both to intelligence agencies and the advertising industry. 

Ultimately, I’m not going to warn you against making everything in your home smart because of the privacy risks, although there are quite a few. I’m going to warn you against a smart home because living in it is annoying as hell.

Surveillance and human rights Report of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression*

https://undocs.org/A/HRC/41/35 28 May 2019

Extract from the report:  The General Assembly has condemned unlawful or arbitrary surveillance and interception of communications as “highly intrusive acts”that interfere with fundamental human rights (see General Assembly resolutions 68/167 and 71/199). However, unlawful surveillance continues without evident constraint. 

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