Sorry, I’m unable to comment on posts, so here’s my comment . . .
I think the government has a lot of collected information they’ve acquired over the years. If/when they want to “root out” any particular group or think, they’ll analyze said data and have a great list of names to choose from.
Veteran, conservative, Trump supporter, gun owner, book reader of certain books they have and will “flag”, member of a militia or similar group, subscriber to past and present You Tube (and other platforms) channels of a conservative or inalienable rights bent, and any Internet search (especially from Google, Chrome, and Safari) that asks questions that shouldn’t be asked.
So yes would be my best guess. 🙁
4 replies on “Reply to David Voinier About “Watch List” Post”
That said, have you ever noticed how bad “targeted advertising” is. Other than showing you an ad for something you just looked at on the web, how often are the ads you are shown on websites or video platforms really relevant to you. How often have you laughed and thought to you self “how could they possibly think I needed that?” With all that money on the line, Google et al. are very motivated to pigeon hole you and look what success they have. Making use of that data and making sense of it, given the tremendous volume out there, is much harder than we think. So, maybe you really are lost in the noise.
The ads you see on your device are derived from a algorithm based on what you click on, post, etc.
It’s a mathematical equation designed to “compute” what you may be interested in based on your own inputs.
So, if you click on a funny meme that has to do with spicy salsa and puppies, this mathematical “guess” would assume you like spicy salsa, puppies, salsa dancing, making salsa, puppy treats, vet services, and on and on.
Even though you don’t like spicy, don’t dance, don’t have any pets, etc. See?
I assure you, I’m not “lost in the noise”. I served in the military for quite a while and have seen/heard/know it.
Even the great Google doesn’t have the same “intelligence” equipment as the U.S. military/govt.
Ask any veteran.
To clarify, what I meant by that “lost in the noise” comment wasn’t a personal dig. What I was trying to say is that the volume of the data is incredible, and most of that data is just so much noise. You, me, all of us are just a very small part of that data, hence the idea that really we all are just ‘lost in the noise’.
I’ll also say that I work in software, have a background in physics, and my employer is a very mathy, data science kind of company. I’m not impressed with the actual useful knowledge that we can extract from our data and I’m definitely not impressed with what Google ‘knows’ about me if what ads the serve up is any indication. Data isn’t knowledge.
As for the military and government, I won’t dispute their ability to gather even greater volumes of information. Somewhere the NSA probably has a copy of every email and text I’ve ever sent. Multiply that by 300 million for everyone else. If anything they have made the problem of knowledge extraction much more difficult for themselves. The noise obscures the signal.
Thanks for clarifying. I agree with most of your assumptions. However, all the 3-letter agencies need is a “start” to make their lists of dissidents, terrorists, etc.
In the current environment they’d merely have to check say, gun ownership and say, member of a militia or other type group. Easy to search.