The terrifying realization that Donald Trump is now Big Brother

The terrifying realization that Donald Trump is now Big Brother

Posted by John P. Bradford // November 13, 2016

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America in 2017 will begin to experience life under Big Brother Donald Trump.

The president-elect is still a little more than two months away from having the United States’s massive security apparatus at his fingertips, but it’s not difficult to imagine a spike in domestic surveillance after he sits down in the Oval Office.

Trump plainly laid out his thoughts on surveillance during the campaign and it is terrifying.

He said he’d like to restore parts of the Patriot Act passed in the aftermath of 9/11 that would allow for bulk data collection. A year ago, he said he wants “surveillance of these people that are coming in,” though he wasn’t clear about to whom he was referring.

He did make it clear, however, that he wants to keep an eye on “certain mosques.”

“We’ve had it before and we’ll have it again,” he said, referring to surveillance of mosques and Muslim communities that took place following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Experts Mashable spoke with see no reason not to take him at his word.

“We’ve never seen a president like him and so I think he will do his darndest to use the tools to surveil the people he wants to surveil,” Alex Ward, an associate director at the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security, told Mashable. “If there’s a pushback at all will remain to be seen.”

And if you take a look at a few of his quotes and a few examples from Trump’s personal life, it seems like he wants to surveil just about everyone.

At Trump National Golf Club, employees get a phone call if they walk into an area they don’t usually frequent, Buzzfeed reported. At Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, the president-elect is able to tap into any landline on the property. At Trump’s little-known Virginia residence, surveillance cameras watch all parts of the house, inside and out.

When Trump was asked in July about hacking the personal information of his opponents, he said I wish I had that power. Man, that would be power.

If he does begin to act on these impulses and statements, it won’t always be easy to tell.

Chad Marlow, who focuses on privacy and technology at the ACLU, told Mashable that looking for signs of surveillance is often like searching for shadows.

“You can prove there’s a tree in your yard because you can see the tree or see its shadow, and a lot of times when it comes to surveillance equipment, we have to see the shadow,” he said.

It’s important to remember that Trump hasn’t acted on any of these statements, Marlow said. He can’t yet. But there are signs to watch out for once he steps into the White House.

If more and more activists are arrested, or if police often show up to rally spots ahead of those activists, that should raise some eyebrows. If prosecutors going after activists and others obtain evidence but “aren’t at liberty” to say where that evidence came from, that should raise questions.

Until then, Americans concerned about increased domestic surveillance will have to remain alert.

Read more: http://mashable.com/2016/11/11/donald-trump-domestic-surveillance/