{"id":1197447,"date":"2023-03-15T19:10:03","date_gmt":"2023-03-15T23:10:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/geofence-surveillance-first-they-spied-on-protesters-then-churches-youre-next\/1197447\/"},"modified":"2023-03-15T19:10:03","modified_gmt":"2023-03-15T23:10:03","slug":"geofence-surveillance-first-they-spied-on-protesters-then-churches-youre-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/geofence-surveillance-first-they-spied-on-protesters-then-churches-youre-next\/1197447\/","title":{"rendered":"Geofence Surveillance: First, They Spied On Protesters. Then Churches. You’re Next…"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Geofence Surveillance: First, They Spied On Protesters. Then Churches. You’re Next…<\/span><\/p>\n

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Authored by John and Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

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\u201cI know the capability that is there to make tyranny total in America, and we must see to it that this agency and all agencies that possess this technology operate within the law and under proper supervision, so that we never cross over that abyss. That is the abyss from which there is no return.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

– Senator Frank Church on\u00a0Meet The Press, 1975<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

If you give the government an inch, it will always take a mile.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is how the slippery slope to all-out persecution starts.<\/p>\n

Martin Niem\u00f6ller\u2019s warning about the widening net that ensnares us all, a warning issued in response to the threat posed by Nazi Germany\u2019s fascist regime, still applies.<\/p>\n

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\u201cFirst they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out\u2014because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out\u2014 because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out\u2014because I was not a Jew.\u00a0Then they came for me\u2014and there was no one left to speak for me.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This particular slippery slope has to do with the government\u2019s use of geofence technology, which uses cell phone location data to identify people who are in a particular area at any given time.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

First, police began using geofence warrants to carry out dragnet sweeps of individuals near a crime scene.<\/p>\n

Then the FBI used geofence warrants to\u00a0identify individuals who were in the vicinity of the Capitol<\/a>\u00a0on Jan. 6, 2021.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t long before government officials in California used\u00a0cell phone and geofence data to track the number and movements of churchgoers on church grounds<\/a>\u00a0during the COVID-19 lockdowns.<\/p>\n

If we\u2019ve already reached the point where people praying and gathering on church grounds merits this level of government scrutiny and sanctions, we\u2019re not too far from free-falling into a total surveillance state.<\/p>\n

Dragnet geofence surveillance sweeps can and eventually will be used to target as a suspect every person in any given place at any given time and sweep them up into a never-ending virtual line-up in the hopes of matching a criminal to every crime.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There really can be no overstating the danger.<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s efforts to round up those who took part in the Jan. 6 Capitol protests provided a glimpse of exactly how vulnerable we\u00a0all<\/em>\u00a0are to the menace of a surveillance state that aspires to a\u00a0God-like awareness of our lives<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Relying on\u00a0selfies, social media posts, location data<\/a>, geotagged photos, facial recognition, surveillance cameras and crowdsourcing, government agents compiled a massive data trove on\u00a0anyone and everyone<\/a>\u00a0who may have been anywhere in the vicinity of the Capitol on January 6, 2021.<\/p>\n

Included in that data roundup were individuals who may have had nothing to do with the protests but whose cell phone location data identified them as being in the\u00a0wrong place at the wrong time<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You didn\u2019t even have to be involved in the Capitol protests to qualify for a visit from the FBI: investigators reportedly tracked\u2014and questioned\u2014anyone whose cell phones\u00a0connected to wi-fi or pinged cell phone towers<\/a>\u00a0near the Capitol.<\/strong><\/p>\n

One man, who had gone out for a walk with his daughters only to end up stranded near the Capitol crowds, actually had FBI agents show up at his door days later. Using Google Maps, agents were able to\u00a0pinpoint<\/a>\u00a0exactly where they were standing and for how long.<\/p>\n

The massive amount of surveillance data available to the government is staggering.<\/p>\n

As investigative journalists Charlie Warzel and Stuart A. Thompson\u00a0explain<\/a>, \u201cThis [surveillance] data\u2026provide[s] an intimate record of people whether they were visiting drug treatment centers, strip clubs, casinos, abortion clinics or places of worship.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

In such a\u00a0surveillance ecosystem<\/a>, we\u2019re all suspects and databits to be tracked, catalogued and targeted.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Forget about being innocent until proven guilty.<\/p>\n

Although the Constitution requires the government to provide solid proof of criminal activity before it can deprive a citizen of life or liberty, the government has turned that fundamental assurance of due process on its head.<\/p>\n

Now, thanks to the digital trails and digital footprints we all leave behind, you start off guilty and have to prove your innocence.<\/p>\n

In an age of overcriminalization, when the average American unknowingly commits at least three crimes a day, there is no one who would be spared.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The ramifications of empowering the government to sidestep fundamental due process safeguards are so chilling and so far-reaching as to put a target on the back of anyone who happens to be in the same place where a crime takes place.<\/p>\n

As Warzel and Thompson\u00a0warn<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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\u201cTo think that the information will be used against individuals only if they\u2019ve broken the law is na\u00efve; such data is collected and remains vulnerable to use and abuse whether people gather in support of an insurrection or they justly protest police violence\u2026 This collection will only grow more sophisticated\u2026 It gets easier by the day\u2026 it does not discriminate. It harvests from the phones of MAGA rioters, police officers, lawmakers and passers-by. There is no evidence, from the past or current day, that the power this data collection offers will be used only to good ends. There is no evidence that if we allow it to continue to happen, the country will be safer or fairer.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Saint or sinner, it doesn\u2019t matter because we\u2019re all being swept up into a massive digital data dragnet that does not distinguish between those who are innocent of wrongdoing, suspects, or criminals.<\/p>\n

Case in point: consider\u00a0what happened to Calvary Chapel<\/a>\u00a0during COVID-19.<\/p>\n

Government officials in Santa Clara County, Calif., issued a shelter-in-place order in March 2020, dictating whom residents could see, where they could go, what they could do, and under what circumstances.<\/p>\n

County officials imposed even harsher restrictions on churches, accompanied by the threat of crippling fines for those that did not comply with the lockdown orders.<\/p>\n

Then Santa Clara officials\u00a0reportedly used geofence surveillance technology to monitor the concentrations of congregants at Calvary Chapel during the COVID-19 lockdowns<\/a>\u00a0in 2020 and 2021, using their findings to justify levying nearly $3 million in public health fines against the church for violating the county\u2019s strict pandemic restrictions.<\/p>\n

Despite the U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s ruling that similar restrictions unconstitutionally singled out houses of worship for especially harsh treatment and \u201cstruck \u201cat the very heart of the First Amendment\u2019s guarantee of religious liberty,\u201d county officials have sought to collect millions of dollars in fines levied against churches, including Calvary Chapel, for violating the county\u2019s mandates.<\/p>\n

At a minimum, the use of geofence surveillance to monitor church attendees constitutes an egregious violation of the churchgoers\u2019 Fourth Amendment rights and an attempt to undermine protected First Amendment activities relating to the freedom of speech, the free exercise of religion, and the right of the people peaceably to assemble.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Still, the government\u2019s use of geofence surveillance goes way beyond its impact on church members and anyone in the vicinity of the Jan. 6 protests.<\/p>\n

The ramifications for all of us are far-reaching.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mass surveillance has been shown to chill lawful First Amendment activities, and historically has been used to stifle dissent, persecute activists, and harass marginalized communities.<\/p>\n

A study conducted by Roger Clarke, the famed Australian specialist in data surveillance and privacy, indicates that the\u00a0costs resulting from the erosion of personal privacy<\/a>\u00a0are so significant that they essentially threaten the very foundation of a democratic society.<\/p>\n

Some of the\u00a0most serious harms include<\/a>:<\/strong><\/p>\n