Are We Heading Into a Global Surveillance Superstate and Why?

Are We Heading Into a Global Surveillance Superstate and Why?

Within rapidly advancing tech sectors of capitalist economies an invisible interface between internet infrastructure, the state and the military-industrial complex has been developed, with decidedly negative and oppressive outcomes. Silicon Valley in the US is the global epicentre of this big data cartel and its practices are highly dubious, decidedly unethical.  Tech corporations are vastly…

The American Surveillance State – When Will Big Brother Fall?

The American Surveillance State – When Will Big Brother Fall?

Definitions: “impunity, noun, the exemption from punishment or freedom from the injurious consequences of an action.” In 2013, Edward Snowden leaked information from the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) about massive surveillance being carried out on individuals, companies, and governments on a global scale. Snowden released to the media millions of documents and kept essential files to…

Ballooning Rhetoric: Aliens, Escalation and Airborne Surveillance

Ballooning Rhetoric: Aliens, Escalation and Airborne Surveillance

Things are getting rather bizarre at the US Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). Its increasingly prominent commanding chief, one General Glen VanHerck, has abandoned any initial sense of frankness in discussing the destruction of an alleged Chinese surveillance balloon on February 4. Since that disproportionately violent event, more public relations…

Towards an Anthropology of Surveillance

Towards an Anthropology of Surveillance

With the rapid growth of metadata and political and corporate surveillance in America during the last two decades, anthropologists Roberto J. González and David H. Price—long-time contributors to CounterPunch—have been studying the impacts and implications of these developments. Both Price and González recently published books that critically examine surveillance in the United States (Price’s The…

2022’s Danger Signs: From Totalitarian Paranoia to Authoritarian Madness

2022’s Danger Signs: From Totalitarian Paranoia to Authoritarian Madness

The danger signs were everywhere in 2022. With every new law enacted by federal and state legislatures, every new ruling handed down by government courts, and every new military weapon, invasive tactic and egregious protocol employed by government agents, we were reminded that in the eyes of the government and its corporate accomplices, “we the…

The Eyes of Amazon: A Hidden Workforce Driving a Vast Surveillance System

The Eyes of Amazon: A Hidden Workforce Driving a Vast Surveillance System

Inside a vast Amazon warehouse in Beaumont, California, squat blue robots carrying eight-foot yellow shelving units perform a jerky, mechanised dance around each other as they make their way to human workers. Amari* works 42 hours a week there as a stower, placing products on the shelves robots bring to him. “Cameras are trained on…