"Israel’s intelligence assessments of Iraq’s prewar WMD capabilities were based mainly on speculation, an Israeli parliamentary committee said in a report released yesterday (see GSN, March 24)."
First paragraph clearly states that this was based on speculation.
“Why didn’t we succeed in laying down a broad and deep (intelligence) framework so we could rely on reports and not speculation and assumption? That is the central question,” said inquiry head Yuval Steinitz of the governing Likud Party.
"The failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has led to a close scrutiny of the role of intelligence agencies in both the United States and Britain. As Brigadier General (ret.) Shlomo Brom, points out, Israeli intelligence, which was in full agreement with American and British intelligence estimates, has, however, remained "in the shadows." General Brom, a senior research associate at Tel Aviv University's Jaffe Center, calls for an inquiry into the performance of Israeli intelligence agencies. In an article titled "The War in Iraq: An Intelligence Failure," first published in "Strategic Assessment," General Brom makes three key points: (1) Israeli intelligence agencies failed because they did not realize that Saddam Hussein's main goal was survival; (2) Israeli intelligence tends to adopt the worst-case scenario; (3) Inflated threat assessments exact a heavy price."
I'm not sure if you are unaware or not but there were no WMD's in Iraq. These are facts not allegations. The US, Israel and Britain were primary nations selling the American people a war based on bad intelligence and it can happen just as easily today as it did then.
I really hope this statement gets people to think about the crypto realm in a different way. What you described is exactly why I see this as a tool for revolutionary progress.
Not so long ago, you would have had little to no option and would have been a victim of oppressive systems. This technology allowed you to overcome something people have been helplessly outmatched by for a hundred years.
I am glad you shared this and sincerely hope you the best.
Its worth noting that many "western" cultures are becoming more hostile to their citizens, removing privacy and many things our parents and grandparents took for granted. We should be embracing things that gives us privacy.
We already have banks and payment systems playing alongside thought police. Saying something that is dissent has gotten people to lose their bank accounts [0]. I am not condoning these actions by this example but I am saying its becoming more normal. There are also issues with patreon dropping people over online political affiliation.
I don't know how many here follow the global economy but if you do, you will see the US economy is in a dangerous place. This commenter talks about the central bank taking his money and that can happen here with something call "bail-ins" [1] which takes money from account holders in the event of another "too big to fail" moment.
This may have been in Argentina but people should realize, that although you may not feel you need it today, you very well could need it I'm your country soon.
I am in the same boat with my unease of the situation. Entitlements are already putting the US in crippling debt, however, I am worried that automation will destroy so many jobs that we need a universal basic income.
Which I am personally not advocating. I am unsure of how I feel about it.
Every person in these towns that have this violation of basic rights, should be demanding the takedown immediately but they won't. Again and again the people of this country fall for the "trust us. We are her to help you." lie that our government sells. If they do care, many people are in a state of disagreement and division so much that they won't work together out of spite if it means working with another ideology.
America, land of the free and home of the obedient and fearful. Seeing this, I can't help but feel like we have gone too far to have any return to what privacy we did have.
I'll do my best to with the information I have to answer.
Can I name specific players who are brokers/buyers?
To put it simply no, I was never made aware to whom the company sold this information to exactly. I would be highly interested to know the specifics of this part of chain as well. I was lower in the totem pole with friends and good relations further up that made me aware of the practices.
In my role, we were told details on the collection of information and how the company used it in house. Those higher up were made aware of the practices I mentioned earlier and through conversations with multiple people who would know, it was made abundantly clear that this was going on and our competition was participating in similar practices as well.
How was it monetized?
So specifically, I can speak to the rewards card aspect and what the profiles looked like to us and what I was told happens to them when sold. Although I'm sure you probably know, when I say "plus" card or "rewards" card, I am referring to an in-house system that the customer signs up for in the store with personal information which they are then given a card for that retailer which gives lower prices and "bonus" coupons sent by mail, until coupons moved to a digital format. Some retailers do it differently but with ours, it was almost a necessity to have it just to shop there due to price differences. It would be much more expensive to not use our card system .
When the customer signs up, they are asked Name, Age, Address and Phone Number. Scanning the card at checkout gave the customer those possible savings advertised on shelf as well as later on in its role, the customer would have E-coupons loaded directly on to the account that this card was tied, which were based off of the buying habits and influenced by seasonal changes.
It put a list of everything you ever bought and applied that to the information given upon signing up such as age and where you lived which gave information on the demographics of the customer(I am not sure if it was in-house or if this was a third party's work).
It was shortly before I left in about 2014 that we had meetings discussing just how much data was in the card holder profile. Again not sure if all this was done by them but we talked about buying habits, health and wellbeing status based on diet, income, frequency of trips, gasoline purchases in our fuel centers and major gasoline player who had a partnership with us and there was specifically a push for the card system to be moved over to an app that gave the company location data. This was something they really were pushing for at the time.
So these profiles of a customer were sold in bundles of groupings. Demographics of a certain type would be in this group or that group based on what they could ascertain through your buying habits and social standings with groups of similar incomes.
From my understanding people in multiple industries were buying this so that could utilize a subset of the data within the profile to target certain people or build a profile of a certain area to get better ideas of future business opportunities possibly coming to those locations and how to maximize their profits by tailoring the services to that area.
How it got to them and how it was applied with facial recognition data, I was not aware of, only that it was also being sold in some way. I did not know what if any rules there were on competitors data and how that was handled once it went to those buying this information. I know our competition had many of the same practices that probably built similar data sets but I am thinking there were ways to mitigate anything being given out that would give an edge to competition. I say that based on how we viewed and interacted with those other stores and my employer were obsessive of getting the smallest of advantage over everyone around them.
I am sorry this is so long but I wanted to give what I could in as much details as I had. Its a very interesting topic that people are shocked by when they learn about it. I also wish I could give exact players further along the supply chain but I don't have the facts on that specific although, as I said, I would be very interested to know myself.
At the time I left, which was 4 years ago roughly, the facial recognition was used at the checkout area only. The perational area going from the beginning of the gondolas (aisles) that are where you might say the back of a line would be, all the way to the exit doors.
This covered a large area but the only area using this at the time. The face ID system worked with the thermal mapping, which was used throughout the store, to create a projected customer volume for the front end management to prepare for. For instance the system tells the team that they have 1 register open but need 3 open now and 5 in 1 hour.
The data from the facial recognition cameras was sold, this I know for certain, however, I do not know to what amount that data was put into the specific customer profile being built. My honest impression is it was being sold in a package with card profiles to make a better product for brokers.
I've gone through meetings of how much this company wants to track you, how granular the specific customer profile was before the face & heat map system and the companies drive to find a place in the newer data markets that its competition was dealing in, in order to stay in business.
Thanks for the recommendation. As for the year it doesn't shock me in certain aspects. The camera data in the early 2000's is something I didn't consider though.
I notice many people don't know or think that corporations use customer cards for more than a discount. I worked for one of the largest retailers in the U.S. and learned how far the "Plus" card data really goes. All of that data is sold as very in detailed profiles of customers to brokers who sell the data to other corporations and institutions.
I worked for them for 10 years and watched it evolve from data harvesting through rewards cards to utilizing the checkout as an avenue of further data collection through facial recognition cameras and even heat sensors throughout the store building heat maps of customer flow.
I am not sure exactly about the heat map data being sold or not, however, I am sure some broker could find a market for it but I do know the checkout camera data was sold.
The company started utilizing the card system in the 90's and its checkout camera with heat mapping in the early 2010's. Personally, I never used a customer card with my name or address just to maintain some privacy level.
I feel the same. When looking into some new linux distros out of curiosity, I'm noticing a trend that these new devs are putting it on source forge and immediately I am "turned off." Its not rampant but it has happened enough for me to hope this isn't going to be an escalating practice.
Speaking as another southerner, I can't agree more. Looking at how Seattle is doing it vs how it works down here made me jealous.
The place I live is under intense investigation for its confidential informant practices that are leading to people being framed and convicted for crimes they didn't commit. The use of surveillance here is something we should be worried about as it could and probably is being used in this process.
That said, I have had family in multiple southern states who were law enforcement officers for generations and I can say that transparency will come here last due to an ingrained culture within many law enforcement agencies here. Sadly, we probably need it more than anywhere.
Agreed. This is probably the most insane idea yet of government implementation of technology scam. Bet the people behind it get reelected which is the most astonishing thing to me.
The future looks more and more bleak as more and more authoritarianism is applied to technology which is supposed to be, to many, as a frontier of freedom.
Thanks for the links. I will check it out. Recently I created a hidden service using whonix but didn't get a chance to build the site itself. actually created a couple different types so I have a little, very little, experience in the creation and utilization of H.S. but I look forward to looking at your idea and work. The concept is something that has a lot of positive possibilities.
First paragraph clearly states that this was based on speculation.
“Why didn’t we succeed in laying down a broad and deep (intelligence) framework so we could rely on reports and not speculation and assumption? That is the central question,” said inquiry head Yuval Steinitz of the governing Likud Party.
Also included.
https://carnegieendowment.org/2003/12/11/israel-s-intelligen...
"The failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has led to a close scrutiny of the role of intelligence agencies in both the United States and Britain. As Brigadier General (ret.) Shlomo Brom, points out, Israeli intelligence, which was in full agreement with American and British intelligence estimates, has, however, remained "in the shadows." General Brom, a senior research associate at Tel Aviv University's Jaffe Center, calls for an inquiry into the performance of Israeli intelligence agencies. In an article titled "The War in Iraq: An Intelligence Failure," first published in "Strategic Assessment," General Brom makes three key points: (1) Israeli intelligence agencies failed because they did not realize that Saddam Hussein's main goal was survival; (2) Israeli intelligence tends to adopt the worst-case scenario; (3) Inflated threat assessments exact a heavy price."
I'm not sure if you are unaware or not but there were no WMD's in Iraq. These are facts not allegations. The US, Israel and Britain were primary nations selling the American people a war based on bad intelligence and it can happen just as easily today as it did then.