EOTO 2 Presentation Reflection

One thing I learned from these presentations is that the FVEY's alliance exists. In it are Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, United States, and New Zealand. This alliance was created to share surveillance information amongst each other. Together, this alliance has eyes on almost 500 million people. 

This immediately feels like a clear invasion of privacy, especially for the fact that it is being shared with foreign governments; so how is this legal? From the presentation, I learned that the FVEYs group allows the U.S. government to skirt the protection of the constitution because it is in the name of national security. 

BBC published an article about the abuse of power that happens when we enter a "state of emergency." He writes that politicians play into the notion that emergencies can only result in a chaotic mess, even though this isn't the case. This power grab is known as the Stomp Reflex.

I believe the excuses provided for international surveillance are similar to this ideology. The NSA says that they are helping out the safety of everyone by scanning for potential threats. In reality, they have a lot more information than they need or admit.

Another new piece of information I learned is the difference between disinformation and misinformation. It's pretty simple even though these words are often misused. Misinformation is spreading information that you think is true. Disinformation is spreading information that you know not to be true for an ulterior motive. 

This is a distinction that should be pushed more because it isn't very confusing. It is also important to understand that these two people are very different.