Utah is becoming a next generation surveillance state

[TG]

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/k...nce-panopticon

The state of Utah has given an artificial intelligence company real-time access to state traffic cameras, CCTV and “public safety” cameras, 911 emergency systems, location data for state-owned vehicles, and other sensitive data.

The company, called Banjo, says that it's combining this data with information collected from social media, satellites, and other apps, and claims its algorithms “detect anomalies” in the real world.

The lofty goal of Banjo’s system is to alert law enforcement of crimes as they happen. It claims it does this while somehow stripping all personal data from the system, allowing it to help cops without putting anyone's privacy at risk. As with other algorithmic crime systems, there is little public oversight or information about how, exactly, the system determines what is worth alerting cops to.

In its pitches to prospective clients, Banjo promises its technology, called "Live Time Intelligence," can identify, and potentially help police solve, an incredible variety of crimes in real-time. Banjo says its AI can help police solve child kidnapping cases “in seconds,” identify active shooter situations as they happen, or potentially send an alert when there's a traffic accident, airbag deployment, fire, or a car is driving the wrong way down the road. Banjo says it has "a solution for homelessness” and can help with the opioid epidemic by detecting “opioid events.” It offers “artificial intelligence processing” of state-owned audio sensors that “include but may not be limited to speech recognition and natural language processing” as well as automatic scene detection, object recognition, and vehicle detection on real-time video footage pulled in from Utah's cameras.

In July, Banjo signed a five-year, $20.7 million contract with Utah that gives the company unprecedented access to data the state collects. Banjo's pitch to state and local agencies is that the more data that's fed into it, the better its product will work. Thus, the company has spent the last year trying to get as many state and local agencies as possible to give it access to its CCTV and traffic cameras, audio sensors, and other data.

On this it has been incredibly successful. Banjo has installed its own servers in the headquarters of the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT), a civilian agency, and has direct, real-time access to the thousands of traffic cameras the state operates. It has jacked into 911 systems of emergency operations centers all over the state, according to contracts, emails, and other government documents obtained by Motherboard using public record requests, as well as video and audio recordings of city council meetings around the state that we reviewed.

Its contract with the state says that Banjo’s technology will be deployed or is in the process of being deployed in all 29 of Utah’s counties, in the state's 13 largest cities, and in 10 other cities with “significant relevance” as well as for “campus security” for the University of Utah. A representative for Banjo told the city of Springville, Utah in January that a total of roughly 70 other cities and counties within Utah had agreed to give Banjo their data. It is also working with the Utah Department of Public Safety and the Utah Highway Patrol, according to public records.

a lot more in the article
holy shit

[shroom]

gross

[schindlerpiste]

Sounds like Cold War Russia to me

[muted]

I have worked for this company before, and seen a lot of the footage it has produced. IMO, it clearly shows that Bunny is in fact a horrible skier.

Also, Iceman, I think your condo is unlocked.

[alias_rice]

I have worked for this company before, and seen a lot of the footage it has produced. IMO, it clearly shows that Bunny is in fact a horrible skier.

Also, Iceman, I think your condo is unlocked.

Did I leave the iron plugged in by chance?

[muted]

Did I leave the iron plugged in by chance?

Yes, but I can turn it off for you, don't worry.

[Skidog]

Did I leave the iron plugged in by chance?

With your cash reserves I expected the iron was wifi connected and part of your whole home IoT system.?

Sent from my Pixel 2 using TGR Forums mobile app

[old goat]

Solve homelessness? Sure, if you're idea of solving the homeless problem is to round them up, put them in freight cars, and ship them off to concentration camps. I'm sure the technology will be great at finding them all.

[iceman]

Do the people of Utah have any say in this?

thanks for the heads up on the condo muted, I'll get one of my people on it.

[MultiVerse]

Sounds like Cold War Russia to me

In America it's called it surveillance capitalism.

[TBS]

Banjo can solve crimes before they happen, end the opioid epidemic and solve The homelessness problem!
But will it Brighten my teeth, add to my bank account and make me more attractive to women?

[glademaster]

Yet another reason I'm glad I'm not any younger than I am, and why I wouldn't dare subject children to the world we're building for them.

[Core Shot]

Utard is the site of the largest data sucking center.


Utah fits well with the image Banjo CEO Damien Patton has cultivated. He’s more rugged and wholesome than your average Silicon Valley CEO. He’s a former NASCAR pit mechanic, a "one-time crime scene investigator," and did two tours in Operation Desert Storm during his time in the Navy. He races Banjo-branded trophy trucks through the Utah desert, rides motorcycles, and in the last few years he’s grown what can only be described as a ZZ Top beard. He wears camouflage suit jackets to public speaking events.


This reeks of deep state frontman
#tinfoil
#watchyourcornhole

[TG]

trust us, we're only going to use all of this infrastructure to save kidnapped children

[alias_rice]

With your cash reserves I expected the iron was wifi connected and part of your whole home IoT system.?

Sent from my Pixel 2 using TGR Forums mobile app

Unfortunately, all of my cash reserves were held in Chevron stock.

[Tiktaalik]

Utah: We have no money for transportation infra for cottonwoods.

Also Utah: Hey! here's 20 mil for some hack to `import tensorflow` and sausage heavily biased data into uninterpretable linear algebra blackboxes.

[iceman]

They'll know they're getting their money's worth when they count all the crimes that never happened. Wait.

[muted]

The Utah State Legislature declines to fund Banjo, and now could look at regulating it: https://www.fox13now.com/news/local-...-regulating-it

That Tribune article woke up some legislators. Might be too late.

[stuckathuntermtn]

I always new Utah was a fascist Police State!

[irul&ublo]

I always new Utah was a fascist Police State!

They have grammar police too

[TG]

another article shedding a bit more light on what kind of company this is. Very deep scraping of people's social media, much like Cambridge Analytica did with facebook.
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/z...cebook-twitter

Banjo, an artificial intelligence firm that works with police used a shadow company to create an array of Android and iOS apps that looked innocuous but were specifically designed to secretly scrape social media, Motherboard has learned. The news signifies an abuse of data by a government contractor, with Banjo going far beyond what companies which scrape social networks usually do. Banjo created a secret company named Pink Unicorn Labs, according to three former Banjo employees, with two of them adding that the company developed the apps. This was done to avoid detection by social networks, two of the former employees said. Three of the apps created by Pink Unicorn Labs were called "One Direction Fan App," "EDM Fan App," and "Formula Racing App." Motherboard found these three apps on archive sites and downloaded and analyzed them, as did an independent expert. The apps -- which appear to have been originally compiled in 2015 and were on the Play Store until 2016 according to Google -- outwardly had no connection to Banjo, but an analysis of its code indicates connections to the company. This aspect of Banjo's operation has some similarities with the Cambridge Analytica scandal, with multiple sources comparing the two incidents. [...] The company has not publicly explained how it specifically scrapes social media apps. Motherboard found the apps developed by Pink Unicorn Labs included code mentioning signing into Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Russian social media app VK, FourSquare, Google Plus, and Chinese social network Sina Weibo.

[basinbeater]

All they will find out a out me is that I buy too many used car parts. Sometimes twice. In all seriousness, it may be time to cut the facefuck app out of the phone and permanently disable Google location services. I'll read up on it more in self quarantine.

sent from Utah.

[stuckathuntermtn]

They have grammar police too

Fuck!

[SB]

But those morman chicks are good to go.

Amirite?

[crashtestdummy]

The local State Liquor Store now scans the ID's of anyone even going into the store. Banjo isn't the only problem in this semi-fascist state.