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How U.S. Tech Giants are Helping to Build China's Surveillance State:
AN AMERICAN ORGANIZATION founded by tech giants Google and IBM is working with a company that is helping China's authoritarian government conduct mass surveillance against its citizens, The Intercept can reveal.
The OpenPower Foundation — a nonprofit led by Google and IBM executives with the aim of trying to "drive innovation" — has set up a collaboration between IBM, Chinese company Semptian, and U.S. chip manufacturer Xilinx. Together, they have worked to advance a breed of microprocessors that enable computers to analyze vast amounts of data more efficiently.
Shenzhen-based Semptian is using the devices to enhance the capabilities of internet surveillance and censorship technology it provides to human rights-abusing security agencies in China, according to sources and documents. A company employee said that its technology is being used to covertly monitor the internet activity of 200 million people.
[...] After receiving tips from confidential sources about Semptian's role in mass surveillance, a reporter contacted the company using an assumed name and posing as a potential customer. In response, a Semptian employee sent documents showing that the company — under the guise of iNext — has developed a mass surveillance system named Aegis, which it says can "store and analyze unlimited data."
Aegis can provide "a full view to the virtual world," the company claims in the documents, allowing government spies to see "the connections of everyone," including "location information for everyone in the country."
The system can also "block certain information [on the] internet from being visited," censoring content that the government does not want citizens to see, the documents show.
[The Semptian video demonstration showing how the Aegis system tracks people's movements is embedded in the article]
[Related Cloud Platform by IBM - China]: SuperVessel
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 13 2019, @10:52PM (9 children)
I have worked with IBM's products on and off for 40 years already and can attest that IBM does all this and even more. Just one example (no, I can't find the link any more). In early 2000's I was looking for a solution and found an IBM paper produced by IBM's lab in China where they explained how they were able to monitor prison population on a scale larger than anybody else ever. It was just that - a very technical paper.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday July 13 2019, @11:31PM (7 children)
I.e. dispassionate engineering in action: describe the problem, get the best solution within technical/budget/time constrains. Can you blame the engineers?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 5, Informative) by c0lo on Saturday July 13 2019, @11:39PM (6 children)
To muddy the waters more:
See also Topf & Sons [wikipedia.org]
Where engineering ends and where does "business" begin?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1) by anubi on Sunday July 14 2019, @01:10AM (5 children)
Unfortunately, even engineers will whore themselves out.
This is why money is so desired. It can make a whore of damned near anyone.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Sunday July 14 2019, @01:33AM (1 child)
Do you take money to do a job, under direction from someone, whoch may, or may not, be in the best interests of your customer/society/the planet?
We are all already whores, all we're discussing here is thresholds and boundaries.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Sunday July 14 2019, @03:09AM
Interviewee: "So this CEO of Theranos, Elizabeth Holmes, what kind of corporate culture does she promote?
Interviewer: "Uh, well ..."
Interviewee: "Oh, I'm sorry, it's just "Thanos", and he's the CEO himself?"
Interviewer: "So ... we match 401k up to the full employer-sponsored maximum. Big yearly bonuses, too. No life insurance, though."
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday July 14 2019, @04:09AM (2 children)
Do you, lately?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1) by anubi on Sunday July 14 2019, @04:25AM (1 child)
Yes, I did.
Did not like myself much, but I had bills to pay.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday July 14 2019, @04:46AM
Glad to hear you could. Nobody likes it, but few realize is mean, not an end, and is better to look at it this way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by DavePolaschek on Sunday July 14 2019, @11:23AM
My experience was with the Big Red A (I worked on the "creative" products, not the marketing) where the CEO bragged at an all-hands about how very well people were being tracked. "[female name] will walk into her hotel in New York, and we'll send her key to her phone so she doesn’t even have to stop at the desk, and when she gets into her room, we’ll send her an offer for Knicks tickets that evening, getting paid by the team for the ad, plus a percentage if she buys."
That was almost three years ago, and I got creeped out enough that I had a long talk with my manager. I retired from there last week. Took me a while, but I got the hell out. I’m not the only one grumbling and looking into leaving, but clearly there are plenty of people willing to weaponize tracking in order to make a buck.