Did Mark Zuckerberg Just Expose Big-Tech's Real Endgame? Ousting Trump

The COVID-19 epidemic has changed the world in many ways - globalized supply chain fragilties are exposed, proximity to poverty (even in developed markets) has been exposed, lack of preparedness is now obvious everywhere, and everyone is now a social-distancing germophobe; but hey, on the bright side, pollution is down (so there's that). While the headlines scream about the need for bailouts, rescues, handouts for large- and small-businesses and even more so 'average Americans', there is one trend, that was occurring before the pandemic struck, that has accelerated drastically (and is willingly accepted and demanded by many) - the tyrannical surge in the surveillance state. "As the Coronavirus has heightened fear and threatened health across the world, it has been the perfect time for new surveillance measures to be rolled out. Will tracking the global populace aid in stopping the spread of COVID-19, or does the virus simply make for a convenient excuse? And what will become of these digital surveillance strategies once the virus is either overcome or simply accepted as part of our new reality?"

Top10VPN, a VPN advice website, has published a COVID-19 Digital Rights Tracker, logging instances of digital tracking, physical surveillance, and censorship brought about by the virus. “Some of these may well be proportionate, necessary, and legitimate during these unprecedented times. However, others have been rushed through legislative bodies and implemented without adequate scrutiny,” states the site. “As the virus continues to spread around the world, so too do sophisticated surveillance measures and restrictive censorship practices.”

Asia is still leading the scoreboard when it comes to censorship, but Europe quickly caught up and surpassed everyone in the digital-tracking stakes. Physical surveillance is a more even split between those two continents and North America. Here is a sampling of measures from around the world: Taiwan has erected an “electronic fence” that monitors phone signals and notifies police if anyone who is supposed to be in quarantine leaves their homes. Authorities can contact or visit the offenders within 15 minutes. Ecuador has a similar “epidemiological fence” monitored by satellite. (Have we reached the point where people can no longer conceive of leaving their homes without their device – even if this is how the police surveil them?)

Hong Kong has handed out location-tracking wristbands for those in quarantine. At least these can be discarded after the COVID-19 crisis and do not track one’s personal device.

Poland launched an app that not only tracks locations but also forces people to take a photo of themselves at certain intervals so that the location data can be cross-referenced with facial recognition. This is intended to simulate a police visit.

Various countries, including the U.S., U.K., Germany, and Austria, are collecting anonymized location data from smartphones.

Aerial drones have been used in Australia, Belgium, Spain, and the U.K. to patrol public places – New York City used helicopters to much the same effect.

In the U.S., anonymized location tracking has been the primary mode of digital surveillance, and the White House is reportedly in talks with tech companies to utilize smartphone GPS data.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/did-mark-zuckerberg-just-expose-big-techs-real-endgame-ousting-trump

NYPD Confiscates Drone Belonging To Freelance Photojournalist Documenting NYC's Mass Burials

By now, many Americans have probably seen the photos of mass graves being dug at New York's Hart Island, a small island in the Bronx that has for more than a century served as a burial ground for NYC's unclaimed bodies. Over the past few weeks, the city has accelerated the burials taking place at the island from a pace of about 25 a week to more than 25 a day, as we reported a few weeks ago. To be sure, not all of those bodies are victims of the coronavirus outbreak. But many of them are, and the story has acquired a kind of lurid fascination, making it an object of widespread interest among the public. Perhaps it was this tremendous public response to certain photos, clearly taken with an aerial drone, that drew the interest of the NYPD. Because as the NY Post reported Sunday, the NYPD has seized the drone of a photojournalist documenting the mass burials on Hart Island amid the coronavirus crisis.

The photographer, a freelance photojournalist presumably intending to circulate the photos to media organizations, had an FAA license to fly the drone, but his property was confiscated, and he was given a misdemeanor summons for "avigation", an ancient city ordinance prohibiting flying anywhere that's not an airport (an ordinance that's clearly in conflict with federal regulations on drone piloting). Aerial photographer George Steinmetz, who has an FAA license to fly a drone, had launched the $1,500 device from a City Island parking lot Wednesday morning to film the somber work on Hart Island when he was suddenly stopped. Just minutes after he began, Steinmetz was confronted by a group of plainclothes NYPD officers who stepped out of an unmarked van. The cops confiscated the drone and issued him a misdemeanor summons for “avigation,” an antiquated law prohibiting aircraft - including drones - from taking off or landing anywhere in New York City that isn’t an airport, the report said.

A frustrated Steinmetz posted to his Instagram: "For over 150 years this island with no public access has been used to bury over a million souls who’s bodies were not claimed for private burial. With the morgues of NYC strained, the pace of burials on Hart Island has increased dramatically. I was cited by NYPD while taking this photo, and my drone was confiscated as evidence, for a court date tentatively scheduled for mid-August. #keepthememorycard." When approached by Gothamist and asked why he felt compelled to document the burials on Hart Island, the photographer, whose name was George Steinmetz as noted in the above-quote, replied that: "these are human beings, and they're basically being treated like toxic waste."

The photos are a poignant reminder that during times of tremendous peril, the living sometimes don't prioritize the dead when they're trying to save others from suffering the same fate. And while that might be sad, that's simply the way it is. However, the NYPD's decision to effectively censor this man's reporting seems not only arbitrary, but cruel: stealing a man's valuable property, property he may need to make a living, during a crisis where the focus should always be on saving lives and helping the needy.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/nypd-confiscates-drone-belonging-freelance-photojournalist-documenting-nycs-mass-burials

TOP 10 MEMES President Trump Trolls the Media

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These are HACKED emails anon's…