Unmanned aerial vehicles | Michael Riordon

Mark Zuckerberg wants everyone to friend Facebook. And the billionaire CEO of Facebook does mean everyone.

Recently he announced a grand new plan : internet.org, a consortium of corporations and government agencies that will harness an array of drones, satellites and other technologies to wrap the entire world in a vast global WiFi.

The primary government partner? None other than the US National Security Agency.

This is beyond sinister, says writer/internet activist/organizer Alfredo Lopez. “The NSA spies on everyone it can. It collects all the data it can. It has shown no respect for people’s rights or for constitutional restrictions. It is a criminal organization and, under this plan, it would control Internet access for large parts of the world.”

So much easier than the cumbersome business of Facebook handing over our data to the NSA. Via internet.org they can both vacuum it up at the same time.

And note that drones, which already serve as Big Brother’s remote-control weapon of mass destruction, will be among the primary vehicles.

More depth and scary details here.

Follow the ever-deepening surveillance story in Bold Scientists: dispatches from the battle for honest science, coming from Between the Lines, autumn 2014.

Remote-controlled drones are used for aerial surveillance and assassination of designated enemies. Until recently most of the targets have been at a safe remove, over there where other people live. Now drones operate over the United States, and they will soon be flying over our heads in Canada.

In addition to military duties, drones will also do a range of civilian tasks in Canada. Profit potential is considered to be quite exciting.

Dazzling leaps in science and technology tend to obscure uncomfortable questions about control and consequence. David Lyon has built a career on asking such questions. I met Professor Lyon, an international authority on surveillance and identification systems, at his office in Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario. With quiet intensity he detailed what he sees and thinks, and what questions arise. For example:

“Several companies are setting up just now to manufacture drones in Canada – clearly they believe they can corner some part of this expanding market. Primarily they would produce surveillance drones, but even those raise significant questions. If you look at their marketing materials, they want to provide drones for private security companies to scan public events – sporting events, political demonstrations, picket lines, that sort of thing. These drones would operate in conjunction with facial recognition technology, generating very precise high-resolution images. This raises deeply important moral and ethical questions – or at least it ought to – for example about the kinds of things this technology allows us to do from a great distance, remotely, with impunity.* How do such vital questions go missing so easily? How have we managed to create a world like this?”

* Dreams in Infrared: The Woes of an American Drone Operator. Spiegel Online International, 12/14/2012.

Transport Canada looks at loosening restrictions on unmanned aerial vehicles. CBC News, August 2012.

The Coming Drone Attack on America. The Guardian UK, 22 December 2012.

Protect global internet freedom: OpenMedia.ca.

Liquid Surveillance: A Conversation. Zygmunt Bauman and David Lyon, 2012.

Michael Riordon

the view from where I live

Tag Archives: Unmanned aerial vehicles

Drones: coming home to roost?