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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It just scanned Yellen's face. Here is the read-out:
POLICE BEWARE Model 1.3.1.5
Tactical Scan Report Results
Target: Janet L. Yellen
Race: Caucasian
Facial Dimensions: Round/Slightly Obese 4.5.7 x 3.2.113
Eye Separation/Type: Wide separation. Reptilian, Likely to cause harm to others.
Facial Expression: Silly, bordering on clueless. Likely to cause harm to others.
Body Movement: Slow, sloth-like, with slight dragging leg. Likely to cause traffic delays or faint during presentations. Seems to be medicated to treat some depression or mental disorder.
Database Search Results: Wanted for questioning on numerous financial crimes.
Police Orders: Apprehend with caution. Suspect is extremely dangerous and a high risk to society at large.
Accuracy Probability: 99.99%
Known Aliases: The Hobbit.
Mr. Yellen
Sex: Unknown
Sexual Orientation: None/Self
What call marketing these days has become psychological manipulation on a dangerous level.
The marketeers are not to blame because most don't even know or realize what they do.
But the technology part and the central intelligence part that created the tools to spy on people made sure the tools where spread in a economical viable way and the marketeers took the technology because it saved them work and it's just easy.
And being spied on isn't a choice anymore. You can cut yourself off of the world but the implications are hughe.
Read this POS the other day on Drudge. Those morons need to run a citizen threat score on the police and Federal Agencies first. Would look like a mercury thermometer put in a fire. It's all people can think about these days is spying on one another. Not just the police, but employers, retailers et all. They even have your cars rat you out. TV's, Refer's. Washing machines record you at home, iThingies record you everywhere. Nothing is sacred!
Yeah. It isn't like they have authority to do this derived from any law whatsoever.
Let's not forget Sesame Credit.
Loads of links to pick from, I just avoided the BBC one.
http://metro.co.uk/2015/12/18/a-new-1984-china-has-gamified-how-good-a-c...
Take it to the next level. The software “Beware” gets infected with a virus. You call 911. Then Beware switches because of the virus and makes you the bad guy breaking into your own home and puts out a “…wanted dead or alive…” out on you. It is going to happen to someone sooner than later…
Everyone should work to be a code red - and the system will be worthless.
How hard could it be? Bomb, gun terror, revolution, C4, Bullets... There I tripped something.
when they come through your router & turn your computer off....consider that a ""BINGO!""
meh, you want to be on the high threat list then do something like this:
fractional reserve banking, public corruption, 2nd Amendment, Ron Paul was right
I feel like a free range chicken!!! aackk... no wonder people are acting debased...just want to perform for the cameras
I wrote the alogrithm for this.
The meat of the program is this:
if(suspect.race==NIGGER || suspect.race=WETBACK) alert();
I'm sure there is a neat jQuery plugin for this.
Or more like it: White Conservative, with Liberatarian leanings. Gun owner!
Percy "cancel and clean"
I get your drift, but you just set suspect.race to the value WETBACK. If you wanted to evaluate it for being equal to WETBACK you should have again used double equal signs. Ok, nitpicky, but remind me never to recommend you for a job writing programs. Did you even bother doing regression tests? In fact, your IDE should have caugnt this. Obviously, when it comes to programming, for you 2B||!2B isn't a question.
this is government code we're talking about; the assignment was intentional
When this piece of high tech wizardry starts fingering Neocons as being the biggest threat to our safety and well being then I might be interested.
Well, all I can say is to all you LEO's out there...just remember the next time your superiors send you into a potentially dangerous situation...the threat has been assessed by computer.
Yes, the same kind of system that gets hacked all the time by foreign operators and teenagers in their parent's basements...
But it's all ok...suit up and go on in...
"Running" Windows 10.
In USSA, Windows 10 runs you.
It may also squeal on you, but that's just a guess.
Excellent point.
"Yes, the same kind of system that gets hacked all the time by foreign operators"
Look up whats happened with Cloudflare. (Which BTW Zerohedge uses.) Anyhow, heavily armed SWAT teams have visited them on more than one occasion.
Mike Krieger says that it "increasingly feels as if we are all livestoc." It increasingly feels that way because we are all livestock. Sorry, Charlie! Starkist doesn't want tunas with good taste. Starkist wants tunas that taste good.
medical records...prescription records...grocery purchases...credit purchases...hunting licenses to 1970...credit score...cell records...auto travel history...web history...email history...real estate records...public records...fishing licenses...foreign travel...starbucks gold card history...tax records...linked-in data, resumes...online-dating bio...blogging activity...all social media...permits, licenses...lexis/nexus data...credit agency...banking...that chip in your ass...
well, someone has to step forward FIRST i guess..................FUCK YOU NSA and COMPANY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A little old...but it seems our corrupt .fedgov pigs are not only taking money from regular joes, but they have stolen 2.5 billion from Canadians who cross the border.
http://youtu.be/fVGp_H2uCCk
If you wear a badge you are the enemy of the civilian population.
Period.
Ban cash; starve the beast.
And above all hide your dogs! Fuck these cops, when the shit goes down your gimmicks and software won't mean shit.
The goddess Gaia is going to destroy this wicked and decadent civilization, just like She sank Atlantis for the reek of their sins.
"Beware" is going to get a lot of people killed.
"It calculated his threat level as the highest of three color-coded scores: a bright red warning."
"Given this highest tier threat result, officers preempted any and all investigatory discussion and simply shot the man when he opened the door of his residence."
Beware of Elwood Blues.
ringring... anonymous, please reset.
all in pink maybe?
Don't call the police. Don't talk to police. Ignore police.
Better.
Never, ever ever call the cops. Never!
COPS LOVE STEROIDS.
You're right - this is not what freedom looks like. Some days, I think the only thing that's left is to short cyanide capsules :(
Zuckerberg and Dorsey should get on this. This "Intrado" thingy is going to cause people to abandon Facebook and Twitter because they will be afraid they will get some dimwitted color code mistake getting them in trouble -- or dead...
This is bad for social medias business. Less users means less revenue. The free markets will sort this out ...
You actually believe that Facebook and Twitter, or Google for that matter are subject to the free market? I am amost certain that they were all funded by some VC front for the NSA and the CIA. Even if ad revenue dried up they would all still get funding from Big Brother.
Intrado? More like Intrudo
Good luck watching me at my off the grid hike in cabin. Is making pizza in an outdoor wood fired oven against the law yet?
Poor city folk. You wanted the bright lights, you got them. (pointed right at you!)
...outdoor wood fired oven...
Have you gotten your permit from the EPA? Have you paid your yearly carbon tax surcharge? Has the Fire Inspector approved your operation?
Such a scofflaw...
"How did you know?
Machine told me..."
Didn't they make a movie hinting at this called Minority Report?
One day commercial firms, HR depts, and rental managers could start using something like this for their decision-making. Ethical discussions and principles need to come into play from the beginning. But more, do the police really gain anything by using this that they couldn't get from common sense and drawing on experience?
I'm way ahead of this garbage by not having any social media presence. However, I wish the best of luck to all the sheep out there who do.
It is better to have an "inoquos" facebook presence than no facebook presence at all
No facebook is already a black ball on your account
I dunno
How
The US & UK establishments have
profiled me
(may not be too sweet for writing cabalA$$LickerLiarAddictObama
but who cares , I dont plan to visit evil America , the satan)
Btw I am only a law abiding , tax paying human