MassPrivateICreating a nation of spies, Ohio DHS officials are asking smartphone users to “See Something, Send Something” with the release of an app to forward reports and photos of suspicious activity.
The “A Safer Ohio” app for both Apple and Android devices is being released shortly before the one-year anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombings.
Click here to watch the video.
DHS has expanded its citizen spying to other states, click here to see Virginia’s and here to see Pennsylvania’s citizen spying program.
The app now avaiable for free online allows Ohioans to relay both tips and photos of questionable activity to Homeland Security analysts for examination and potential investigation.
Officials hope Ohioans might use “Safer Ohio” to point out anything suspicious they spot at spring and summer events that attract large crowds.
“The public’s reporting of suspicious activity is one of our best defenses against terrorist threats …,” Ohio Department of Public Safety Director John Born said in a statement.
The app uses privacy-protection software that permits users to remain anonymous and does not track a smartphone user’s location or record other personal information. However, security analysts still would be able to contact anyone reporting suspicious activity.
Our government & the mass media is creating a nation of spies.
Here’s an example of citizen/terrorist paranoia and our complicit police: A North Carolina woman called police after seeing a statue of a homeless Jesus she said she was concerned for the safety of the neighborhood!
Click here to read the story in its entirety.
http://dispatchpolitics.dispatch.com/content/blogs/the-daily-briefing/2014/04/4-11-14-safer-ohio-app.html
http://fox8.com/2014/04/12/homeland-security-releases-see-something-send-something-app/
Out of touch TSA/DHS to expand ‘behavior screening’ program that doesn’t work:
The TSA was urged by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) to scale back or even eliminate its “behavior screening” program, in which TSA officers try to strike up conversations with passengers and airport employees as a means of discovering would-be terrorists. The study showed little evidence the program worked.
The GAO study claimed that the TSA program was a waste of money. The TSA is an agency within DHS tasked with ensuring the security of the traveling public. The head of the program, John Pistole, even admitted at the time of the report that the program had never caught a single terrorist. However, recent reports suggest that not only has the TSA not cut back on the program, it is expanding it.
Here are the general findings of the original GAO report:
In November 2013, GAO reported that (1) peer-reviewed, published research we reviewed did not support whether nonverbal behavioral indicators can be used to reliably identify deception, (2) methodological issues limited the usefulness of DHS’s April 2011 SPOT validation study, and (3) variation in referral rates raised questions about the use of indicators. GAO reported that its review of meta-analyses (studies that analyze other studies and synthesize their findings) that included findings from over 400 studies related to detecting deception conducted over the past 60 years, other academic and government studies, and interviews with experts in the field, called into question the use of behavior observation techniques, that is, human observation unaided by technology, as a means for reliably detecting deception. The meta-analyses GAO reviewed collectively found that the ability of human observers to accurately identify deceptive behavior based on behavioral cues or indicators is the same as or slightly better than chance (54 percent). GAO also reported on other studies that do not support the use of behavioral indicators to identify mal-intent or threats to aviation.
The TSA has simply ignored the GAO study and has expanded the behavioral observation program on passengers at Baltimore-Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport. A test extension of the program began on March 5 and is to continue through April 28.
Republican Bennie Thompson claims that the program is an intrusion into the privacy of travelers and has no scientific evidence showing that it is efficient. The TSA did not respond to his criticisms.
http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/16873783-tsa-to-expand-behavior-screening-program-even-though-it-doesnt-work
http://massprivatei.blogspot.com/2014/04/dhs-ohio-spying-app-see-something-send.html
Everyone should just spy on DHS and report their suspicious activity back to DHS. Shove it back in their face. Make them see that we are watching them.
I’d be real curious to know how many people might actually use this thing to make a more effective rat bastard out of themselves, but I think NC and the Farmer have good ideas for it too. (above)