Meet "Beware" - The New Police Tool That Data-Mines Your Life
Submitted by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,
As officers respond to calls, Beware automatically runs the address. The searches return the names of residents and scans them against a range of publicly available data to generate a color-coded threat level for each person or address: green, yellow or red.
Exactly how Beware calculates threat scores is something that its maker, Intrado, considers a trade secret, so it is unclear how much weight is given to a misdemeanor, felony or threatening comment on Facebook. However, the program flags issues and provides a report to the user.
– From the Washington Post article: The New Way Police are Surveilling You: Calculating Your Threat ‘Score’
When it comes to life on planet earth in 2016, it increasingly feels as if we are all livestock constantly being monitored, prodded and surveyed by the oligarchy and its minions. The latest example revolves around a software program for police called Beware, developed by Intrado, which consists of a secret algorithm that determines an individual’s threat levels based on a multitude of unknown factors.
Does it work? Does it violate civil liberties? Is there any public debate? These questions and more are addressed in a recent Washington Post article. Here are a few excerpts:
FRESNO, Calif. — While officers raced to a recent 911 call about a man threatening his ex-girlfriend, a police operator in headquarters consulted software that scored the suspect’s potential for violence the way a bank might run a credit report.
The program scoured billions of data points, including arrest reports, property records, commercial databases, deep Web searches and the man’s social- media postings. It calculated his threat level as the highest of three color-coded scores: a bright red warning.
As a national debate has played out over mass surveillance by the National Security Agency, a new generation of technology such as the Beware software being used in Fresno has given local law enforcement officers unprecedented power to peer into the lives of citizens.
In many instances, people have been unaware that the police around them are sweeping up information, and that has spawned controversy. Planes outfitted with cameras filmed protests and unrest in Baltimore and Ferguson, Mo. For years, dozens of departments used devices that can hoover up all cellphone data in an area without search warrants. Authorities in Oregon are facing a federal probe after using social media-monitoring software to keep tabs on Black Lives Matter hashtags.
But perhaps the most controversial and revealing technology is the threat-scoring software Beware. Fresno is one of the first departments in the nation to test the program.
As officers respond to calls, Beware automatically runs the address. The searches return the names of residents and scans them against a range of publicly available data to generate a color-coded threat level for each person or address: green, yellow or red.
Exactly how Beware calculates threat scores is something that its maker, Intrado, considers a trade secret, so it is unclear how much weight is given to a misdemeanor, felony or threatening comment on Facebook. However, the program flags issues and provides a report to the user.
Nabarro said the fact that only Intrado — not the police or the public — knows how Beware tallies its scores is disconcerting. He also worries that the system might mistakenly increase someone’s threat level by misinterpreting innocuous activity on social media, like criticizing the police, and trigger a heavier response by officers.
“It’s a very unrefined, gross technique,” Nabarro said of Beware’s color-coded levels. “A police call is something that can be very dangerous for a citizen.”
The Fresno City Council called a hearing on Beware in November after constituents raised concerns. Once council member referred to a local media report saying that a woman’s threat level was elevated because she was tweeting about a card game titled “Rage,” which could be a keyword in Beware’s assessment of social media.
Councilman Clinton J. Olivier, a libertarian-leaning Republican, said Beware was like something out of a dystopian science fiction novel and asked Dyer a simple question: “Could you run my threat level now?”
Dyer agreed. The scan returned Olivier as a green, but his home came back as a yellow, possibly because of someone who previously lived at his address, a police official said.
“Even though it’s not me that’s the yellow guy, your officers are going to treat whoever comes out of that house in his boxer shorts as the yellow guy,” Olivier said. “That may not be fair to me.”
The number of local police departments that employ some type of technological surveillance increased from 20 percent in 1997 to more than 90 percent in 2013, according to the latest information from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. The most common forms of surveillance are cameras and automated license plate readers, but the use of handheld biometric scanners, social media monitoring software, devices that collect cellphone data and drones is increasing.
The surveillance creates vast amounts of data, which is increasingly pooled in local, regional and national databases. The largest such project is the FBI’s $1 billion Next Generation Identification project, which is creating a trove of fingerprints, iris scans, data from facial recognition software and other sources that aid local departments in identifying suspects.
This FBI project is something I’ve written about previously. See the 2014 post: The FBI Unveils its Controversial Facial Recognition Database with 52 Million Photos to be Stored.
This is not what freedom looks like.
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Even though I have no criminal record and don't use social media, I'm guessing the my threat color has a warmish hue just based on the number of 4473s I've filled out.
Mobile home of the brave!
oh right, that's why I need guns... thanks for yet another reminder, .gov
Yet another reason to avoid large cities.
I feel safer already.
"a police operator in headquarters consulted software that scored the suspect’s potential for violence the way a bank might run a credit report."
Maybe citizens need something like this to assess a cop's potential for violence--even better they could wear a color coded armband.
If police had to carry armbands, they'd be all wearing swastika's.
Breaker, breaker for the Bandit.
Come on back, breaker.
Bandit I got a smokey report for you. Come on!
Well, talk to me good buddy.
You got trouble comin...
It's a way for the police to know how many flash-bang grenades to throw after kicking down the door, Extra points for cribs and dogs.
Well, shit, you just went up a few more shades of red.
...."I'm sorry Dave, but you bought that copy of the Anarchists Cookbook back in 1996....I'm afraid you are now considered a threat. Please get into the red-line for re-programming....and God Bless this President and America".....
The next phase of Obamacare...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jv1Bmne20l4&index=17&list=PLLnTMvLtgmIVh...
the white zone is for loading and unloading only
if you have to load, or unload, go to the white zone
you'll love it
it's a way of life
"This is the central screeeeewtinizer."
...."Don't you be Tarot-Fied....it's just a Token of my extreme"...
"...Fifty Bucks Please".....
Can I get the same data about the officer coming to my house?
You think he'll let you read his badge number before opening fire?
Beat me to it.
Im posting here to keep my "red" status
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
And all of this shit, including the CIA backed Google and their new pet Silicon Valley R&D department...Palantir...was created in Silicon Valley. And Wall Street LOOOOooooves Silicon Valley. You see how Fascism works now folks ?
http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/08/14/agent-of-intelligen...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palantir_Technologies
And by the way......Palantir was Saruman's Crystal Ball to spy on his enemies in the Lord of the Rings. They don't even fucking hide it anymore.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palant%C3%ADr
SOCOM LOVES Palantir ... and the guys programming that thing are SCARY smart.
If you don't like your government, "vote" in another...
Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.....,
I think I just peed my pants.
HAHAHAHAHA !!!
Nooo.....that was just me pissing through my pants on to yours. Sorry, bro' That guy's comment about voting was the funniest shit ever !! ROTFLMFAO !!!
Not sure why you have so many downvotes when it's obvious you were being sarcastic?
Either way, yeah. Just line up and vote! Until they start denying anyone without a Green color the "right to vote"
Have Zero Hedge account and not a .gov troll? Off to FEMA camp six with you bitchez!
I gonna miss you guys.
Whaddaya mean, you're going to miss us ? We're all going to be there.
They say you'll stay out of FEMA if you will wait
Some say it's better but I say it ain't
I'd rather laugh with the Hedgers than cry with the saints
The Hedgers are much more fun...
You know that only the good die young
you don't like your free range pen? no need for fema ;-}
"WARNING. WARNING. WARNING. Firearm owner AND Zerohedge poster!!! Send in SWAT to extract or kill. And stay safe out there. Out."
Deep web searches? So how does my porn viewing affect my threat score?
actually lowers the threat by a large amount---nearly certifies you as "gov-scum"-----
keep your porn running 6+ hours a day and you will be cleared as a .gov emp or contractor. Code green.
Well. I have my own Beware Hardware. Big sign on the door looking down the barrel of a revolver. "BEWARE of OWNER".
Anything else they can look to waste taxpayer dollars??
I neither have FB nor Twitter and always connected under a VPN, what is my level code?
Double++ red
Definately Un American subversive, multiple social stigmas.
deep purple
wonder how sophisticated this is being done w/college admissions? (sjw equivalent of a credit score) if not it's a given it's coming...
I live in the Brigalow corporation(Queensland Australia) registered in Delaware,I am an asset of this corporation yes livestock is the word,,,if people knew real civics they would be mortified
Can't wait for this system to get hacked. Do you think a seventeen year old gamer or an ISIS imigrant will get to it first?
Any article that uses "meaningful dabate" or "conversation" over and over is probably a plant by the security software company. These words really mean "we don't give a fuck what you think".
Just be glad they didn't use "indaba".
I am sure every cop on the force has seen me pretty much openly, yet subtly smoke weed. Our cops are so chill, they let me off with a verbal warning for drunk driving once. But then again I am respectful and I don't go out off my way to cause trouble.
Maybe they thought you were an illegal immigrant, or are you?
it aint the 70s no more where that was perfectly normal
Isn't it interesting that government intrusion into the lives of its citizens (that's a possessive "its") has pretty much ramped up with the technology allowing it to happen.
When I goggle earth my house I can damn near see in through the kitchen window.
So technology, like power, is at first USED, then ABUSED, and finally MISUSED
Oh my.
And they use it for Rel Estate Taxes purposes - I know. I have seen it done.
Yep, they are not allowed to tresspass on your property here to see what else they can tax you for so they do thermal flyovers to count and size your farm buildings and who knows what else.
Rumor is the EPA is using it to force people to get rid of old cars and stuff cuz they are such a threat to the environment.
Like my weapon, lays under my pillow and has never shot anyone either...
Since the killing of Kennedy the MIC took over US government and there a lot of people who think their votes have the power to choose the right leaders.