costard Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 Recently I saw a link to a US Air Force advertisement for trolls - people paid to inhabit discussion forums for the purpose of disinformation. The idea that the USAF has a requirement for this is plainly ridiculous; more likely they were deliberately bringing into the light a practise they see going on in other arms of the US security apparatus. Meh, it makes no difference: apparently people can't find jobs as engineers or teachers or canine manicurists, but can find jobs as domestic spies. I thought I'd take a look at why this makes me so uncomfortable. The informant, the domestic spy, is universally loathed. He usually gives the game away by being dumb enough to believe that no-one can figure out what it is he does: he doesn't understand that the awkwardness he generates (by way of being incapable of taking part in an honest relationship) is felt by everyone else in the group, that someone with true ability in melding for the purpose of deception is being paid a much higher rate to perform in higher priority circumstances. As it is, he isn't bright enough to understand the reason for his being shunned and resents it: he becomes the perfect subject for a positive feedback cycle of corruption and power abuse. The domestic spy unit, when overfunded and thus represented by these bottom dwellers, has to protect itself from the populace it surveils: it does this by denouncing anyone brave enough to speak their minds, it chokes the channels of communication within the community, thus necessitating the establishment and maintenance of "approved" channels. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera... economic decline... fear... apathy... violence... despair... Do us all a favour: quit your jobs. Thanks. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pešadija Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 Very, very confused here. Little help? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pešadija Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 I mean, whence the ferocious rant about an old phenomenon? Caught a home spy? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted February 27, 2011 Share Posted February 27, 2011 The informant, the domestic spy, is universally loathed. He usually gives the game away by being dumb enough to believe that no-one can figure out what it is he does: he doesn't understand that the awkwardness he generates (by way of being incapable of taking part in an honest relationship) is felt by everyone else in the group... It's Sheldon! I just knew he was a traitor! Michael 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted February 27, 2011 Share Posted February 27, 2011 This thread also reminds me of an old Russian adage: When four men sit down to plan revolution, three are fools and the fourth works for the secret police. Michael 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abneo3sierra Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 Costard, it seems to be the ultimate in paranoia...that said, however, I have heard it said that "sometimes the voices are right, and they really are out to get you.." I cannot imagine a US Service Branch seriously running an ad for this, as generally the idea would be, if it even existed, a classified project. That said, however, out of ALL of our service branches, the Air Force would be the one I would most think to be interested in this. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
costard Posted February 28, 2011 Author Share Posted February 28, 2011 A long time ago I told my voices to organise themselves into a committee and report any stuff I might be interested in. Works a treat - they're so busy I hardly ever get bothered any more. linky Solicitation Number: RTB220610 Notice Type: Sources Sought Synopsis: Added: Jun 22, 2010 1:42 pm Modified: Jun 22, 2010 2:07 pmTrack Changes 0001- Online Persona Management Service. 50 User Licenses, 10 Personas per user. Software will allow 10 personas per user, replete with background , history, supporting details, and cyber presences that are technically, culturally and geographacilly consistent. Individual applications will enable an operator to exercise a number of different online persons from the same workstation and without fear of being discovered by sophisticated adversaries. Personas must be able to appear to originate in nearly any part of the world and can interact through conventional online services and social media platforms. The service includes a user friendly application environment to maximize the user's situational awareness by displaying real-time local information. 0002- Secure Virtual Private Network (VPN). 1 each VPN provides the ability for users to daily and automatically obtain randomly selected IP addresses through which they can access the internet. The daily rotation of the user s IP address prevents compromise during observation of likely or targeted web sites or services, while hiding the existence of the operation. In addition, may provide traffic mixing, blending the user s traffic with traffic from multitudes of users from outside the organization. This traffic blending provides excellent cover and powerful deniability. Anonymizer Enterprise Chameleon or equal 0003- Static IP Address Management. 50 each Licence protects the identity of government agencies and enterprise organizations. Enables organizations to manage their persistent online personas by assigning static IP addresses to each persona. Individuals can perform static impersonations, which allow them to look like the same person over time. Also allows organizations that frequent same site/service often to easily switch IP addresses to look like ordinary users as opposed to one organization. Anonymizer IP Mapper License or equal 0004- Virtual Private Servers, CONUS. 1 each Provides CONUS or OCONUS points of presence locations that are setup for each customer based on the geographic area of operations the customer is operating within and which allow a customer?s online persona(s) to appear to originate from. Ability to provide virtual private servers that are procured using commercial hosting centers around the world and which are established anonymously. Once procured, the geosite is incorporated into the network and integrated within the customers environment and ready for use by the customer. Unless specifically designated as shared, locations are dedicated for use by each customer and never shared among other customers. Anonymizer Annual Dedicated CONUS Light Geosite or equal 0005- Virtual Private Servers, OCONUS. 8 Each Provides CONUS or OCONUS points of presence locations that are setup for each customer based on the geographic area of operations the customer is operating within and which allow a customer?s online persona(s) to appear to originate from. Ability to provide virtual private servers that are procured using commercial hosting centers around the world and which are established anonymously. Once procured, the geosite is incorporated into the network and integrated within the customers environment and ready for use by the customer. Unless specifically designated as shared, locations are dedicated for use by each customer and never shared among other customers. Anonymizer Annual Dedicated OCONUS Light Geosite or equal 0006- Remote Access Secure Virtual Private Network. 1 each Secure Operating Environment provides a reliable and protected computing environment from which to stage and conduct operations. Every session uses a clean Virtual Machine (VM) image. The solution is accessed through sets of Virtual Private Network (VPN) devices located at each Customer facility. The fully-managed VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) is an environment that allows users remote access from their desktop into a VM. Upon session termination, the VM is deleted and any virus, worm, or malicious software that the user inadvertently downloaded is destroyed. Anonymizer Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Solution or equal. Contracting Office Address: 2606 Brown Pelican Ave. MacDill AFB, Florida 33621-5000 United States Place of Performance: Performance will be at MacDIll AFB, Kabul, Afghanistan and Baghdad, Iraq. MacDill AFB , Florida 33679 United States Primary Point of Contact.: Russell Beasley, Contracting Officer russell.beasley-02@macdill.af.mil Phone: (813) 828-4729 Fax: (813) 828-5111 https://www.fbo.gov/index?_cview=1&id=d88e9d660336be91552fe8c1a51bacb2&mode=form&s=opportunity&tab=core 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Smith Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 Haha - clearly fake for this geographacilly consistent. Geographacilly. Only shape-shifting lizards spell it that way. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Affentitten Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 I do know that the Israeli government was offering Wikipedia editing classes to people in various language groups with the intention of keeping pages there toeing the party line. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pešadija Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 WHAT? That a fact? One of the most preposterous things one could ever do. Exploiting people's depencence of the wiki to toot their horn. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dieseltaylor Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 Haha - clearly fake for this Quote: geographacilly consistent . Geographacilly. Only shape-shifting lizards spell it that way. Actually that makes it believable!. I have no doubt it is true. : ) 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dieseltaylor Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2011/feb/23/need-to-protect-internet-from-astroturfing Every month more evidence piles up, suggesting that online comment threads and forums are being hijacked by people who aren't what they seem. The anonymity of the web gives companies and governments golden opportunities to run astroturf operations: fake grassroots campaigns that create the impression that large numbers of people are demanding or opposing particular policies. This deception is most likely to occur where the interests of companies or governments come into conflict with the interests of the public. For example, there's a long history of tobacco companies creating astroturf groups to fight attempts to regulate them. After I wrote about online astroturfing in December, I was contacted by a whistleblower. He was part of a commercial team employed to infest internet forums and comment threads on behalf of corporate clients, promoting their causes and arguing with anyone who opposed them. Like the other members of the team, he posed as a disinterested member of the public. Or, to be more accurate, as a crowd of disinterested members of the public: he used 70 personas, both to avoid detection and to create the impression there was widespread support for his pro-corporate arguments. I'll reveal more about what he told me when I've finished the investigation I'm working on. Oh the joys of an unfettered state and a healthy democracy. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pešadija Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 Well, all modern citizens should be able to discover sham campaigns and protect themselves from this, right? ...right? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2011/feb/23/need-to-protect-internet-from-astroturfing Oh the joys of an unfettered state and a healthy democracy. Well, that would go a long way toward explaining a large number of otherwise inexplicably stupid and stubbornly wrong counter arguments I've received over the years. Next time I get one of those, I will assume it's from a paid trouble maker. Michael 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pešadija Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 . Next time I get one of those, I will assume it's from a paid trouble maker. Well, that's just giving undue credit to the internet's average Joe. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 Oh, granted that there are plenty of plain-jane idiots around. But when someone with a history of otherwise intelligent posting suddenly comes out of left field with an obviously dishonest denial of what is plainly true, my suspicions are aroused. Michael 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pešadija Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 Eh, such a thing as intellectual dishonesty can exist regardless of personal intelligence. Especially when sensitive topics are discussed. You know, religion, politics and the like. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abneo3sierra Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 Yes, just because someone disagrees with your point of view, it does not mean they are being paid by the opposition. Otherwise, I would probably feel the same about many people on here lol. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike_the_wino Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 astroturfing as jargon for artificial grass roots movement? At least that's how I interpret it from the context. Nice. Never heard that term before. Thanks for the info costard. Looks like the voices committee struck gold! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pešadija Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 oh, abneo, you! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Affentitten Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 I read an academic paper somewhere about the veracity of online reviews. The kind of stuff that gets posted on Amazon and the like. Lots of ulterior motives from authors and publishing companies there. And then of course there are the large number of Wiki edits that get tracked back to the offices of the politicians the articles cover.... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abneo3sierra Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 I read an academic paper somewhere about the veracity of online reviews. The kind of stuff that gets posted on Amazon and the like. Lots of ulterior motives from authors and publishing companies there. And then of course there are the large number of Wiki edits that get tracked back to the offices of the politicians the articles cover.... I would not doubt that at all, the primary reason I prefer to see many sources, because who knows what bias is in the one, if that is all you see. I have watched review of a book, on, I believe, Amazon.com, become a real fight between two authors, the one of the book in question, and the other of a competing book on the same subject, where both began calling the other's work drivel, etc....amusingly, it DID convince me to purchase both 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted March 1, 2011 Share Posted March 1, 2011 Yes, just because someone disagrees with your point of view, it does not mean they are being paid by the opposition. I have no problem with people disagreeing with me. They might even be closer to the truth than I am and able to teach me something I didn't know before. It's when they have the gall to say something that is merely a rhetorical trick to try to throw the argument out of gear that something is not right. Whether they are being paid by someone or are simply protecting their own agenda is not especially germane to what I am talking about here. Sorry not to have made that clear earlier. But I do agree that to do it simply because they've been hired to do it is especially disgraceful. Michael 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stalins Organ Posted March 1, 2011 Share Posted March 1, 2011 I read an academic paper somewhere about the veracity of online reviews. The kind of stuff that gets posted on Amazon and the like. Lots of ulterior motives from authors and publishing companies there..... Really?? I think we've had this one on here before, but it's still a hoot to read 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Affentitten Posted March 1, 2011 Share Posted March 1, 2011 I would not doubt that at all, the primary reason I prefer to see many sources, because who knows what bias is in the one, if that is all you see. Of course and if the eg. book is a best seller, with hundreds of reviews, the averages will balance out. This was the paper I was talking about. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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