Genuinely odd article. I mean the observation is right, there's a baseline shift in privacy, but that's just... civilizational development. Modern technology just like virtually anything in modernity, at least when used collectively means you share data. Unlike ecological decline this is usually a voluntary trade off and not obviously bad. You can go and live off the grid. People make these choices because they don't value privacy as much as they value other things.
Calling this espionage is just a misuse of language because espionage is done with malicious and intent and without knowledge of the subject.
There's never a real argument in these articles about privacy that addresses the fact that most users, not because they're all trapped in some false consciousness, accept tools that give them some safety in exchange for privacy. If you ask people, do you want Microsoft to scan your stuff if it finds some malware most will just say yes. None of this is a scandal to the majority of users. Which is why there's never any outrage.
Espionage is not necessarily done with malicious intent if it’s for the good of the country, right? Doesn’t justify trampling peoples’ human rights in any particular instance tho
MKULTRA was some overprivileged Ivy League frat douchebags with security clearances playing God with drugs and prostitutes, not really espionage in my book.
Espionage against citizens in violation of the constitution is immoral, but spying on other countries is fair game. It’s a huge part of U.S. military dominance.
MKULTRA was nominally for the purposes of information extraction from unwilling targets, creating sleeper agents, and blackmailing/brainwashing foreign citizens/adversaries.
And was done by the CIA.
And while in hindsight it was pretty dubious if it was going to be effective, given the mindset and knowledge of the time? Plausible.
It fits under the umbrella of dirty tricks well enough to hang it at the feet of espionage to me. It was certainly gov’t sanctioned (by some definition). What else are we going to call it? ‘Frat boys misbehaving’ doesn’t give it the proper weight.
> Calling this espionage is just a misuse of language because espionage is done with malicious and intent and without knowledge of the subject.
State-based intelligence is not "malicious", and so you are misusing language yourself. State-based intelligence can be roughly divided into three sectors: Civilian, military and counter-terrorism. In peacetime, strategic civilian intelligence is by far the biggest, and is used to back trade agreements, various political decisions and so on. It's simply about preserving the country's interests.
With "malicious" out of the way: Most technological espionage is absolutely done with intent and without the knowledge or at least informed understanding of most subjects.
Calling this espionage is just a misuse of language because espionage is done with malicious and intent and without knowledge of the subject.
There's never a real argument in these articles about privacy that addresses the fact that most users, not because they're all trapped in some false consciousness, accept tools that give them some safety in exchange for privacy. If you ask people, do you want Microsoft to scan your stuff if it finds some malware most will just say yes. None of this is a scandal to the majority of users. Which is why there's never any outrage.