Means of ControlByron Tau
Means of Control
How the Hidden Alliance of Tech and Government Is Creating a New American Surveillance State
by Byron Tau · first published 2024
10mentions
4recommended by
7HN commenters
2024–2026first – last mentioned
57% recommend43% neutral
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It's a loophole, but it's willful by design on the government's part. The book "Means of Control" by Byron Tau covers this in great depth. It's so much worse than even those of us who are moderately interested in mass surveillance know.
on “Mobile carriers can get your GPS location” ↗…"turned off, battery removed" is a good enough way to keep your information less-available to "literally everyone who wants it." As is "not having any apps installed." The book that just came out, "Means of Control" by Byron Tau[0], goes into some of the details of just how information flows around, with a focus on the flows from adtech companies to government, and the deceit used to make that seem like it's not…
on “What is Your Private Phone setup? (2022-2024)” ↗There is a good book on the American surveillance apparatus Means of Control by Byron Tau. People are a lot more watched than they think. The Apple example is well-known because it is an exception. Much more common is not only compliance but making an entire business out of selling…
on “DJI ban passes the House and moves on to the Senate” ↗A really good book on this topic is Byron Tau’s Means of Control. His contention is that this surveillance data has made NSA warrantless wiretaps old news. Cops don’t need to do the spying themselves, they can simply buy the info. I am of the opinion that at this…
on “FTC takes action against Gravy Analytics, Venntel for selling location data” ↗The book Means of Control by Byron Tau goes deep into this realm. I thought I knew all the methods and sources and this book opened my eyes to even more goings on. https://www.amazon.com/Means-Control-Alliance-Government-Sur...
on “ICE's Tool to Monitor Phones in Neighborhoods” ↗Means of Control by Byron Tau and Surveillance Valley by Yasha Levine. Can’t recommend these books enough for anyone who is skeptical of the above claim.
on “Stop Flock” ↗…and it’s seen as very business friendly. Another thing to note, as I am learning more about it, is the extensive surveillance framework that is already available. (I’m about halfway through Byron Tau’s Means of Control now.) Surveilling people’s whereabouts is trivial, and for a nation state like China or the US it’s often easier to just buy information on the open market than allocate an agency to the task. My final…
on “Time for TikTok to cut its ties to China” ↗…in that it isn't /technically/ unlawful, although it would be unethical. Another avenue might also be purchasing data from ad brokers for mass-analysis with LLMs which was written about in Byron Tau's Means of Control[1] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third-party_doctrine [1] https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/706321/means-of-con...
on “OpenAI Executes Agreement with Dept of War for Classified Environment Deployment” ↗I haven't read it yet, but I have "Means of Control: How the Hidden Alliance of Tech and Government Is Creating a New American Surveillance State" by Byron Tau in my cart and that feels related so.. maybe look it up. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/706321/means-of-con...
on “How The Pentagon learned to use targeted ads to find its targets” ↗Here is a nice talk by Byron Tau who has also written a book titled "Means of Control" detailing some of these flows covering ad tech companies, data brokers and how government contractors use them and serve as a key player to provide services to intelligence agencies. - https://www.interface-eu.org/events/background-talk-with-byr...
on “NSA spied through Angry Birds, other apps: report (2014)” ↗