Resisting the Police State
“… it is poor civic hygiene to install technologies that could someday facilitate a police state.”Bruce Schneier – Secrets and Lies (2000)
I was pretty taken by this quote when I first read it 25 years ago, and it has come to mind multiple times since, while I watched with dismay as the intelligence/industrial complex continued to expand its capacity and capabilities during both Democratic and Republican administrations. It came up most recently when Bruce included it in a post last month about Trump’s firing of the Director of the NSA and his concerns about how the NSA may be directed toward domestic surveillance. The clear implication is that the technologies are installed, and we are headed for (or are already in) a police state.
It would be hard to argue against that that premise as today the U.S has the most extensive and and invasive spying apparatus in the history of the world (in your face, Stasi!!) and it’s in the hands of someone who isn’t sure if people are entitled to due process and has shown no concern about abusing his powers to strike out at his enemies. This is a real ‘leopards ate my face’ moment for anyone, including myself, who knew what was happening but didn’t do everything they could to fight it. We should have listened. We should have acted. Rolling things back now will be a huge uphill battle, and all the while, damage to individuals and the country will continue, so it’s time to look for ways to make a more immediate impact in the short term while the longer fight is waged.
A key thing to remember is that none of the politicians and spooks who approved and used these surveillance tools developed them. If you take the word ‘install’ from Bruce’s quote above, it becomes clear (to me at least) that he was speaking to the technologists designing and deploying such systems as much as he is to the politicians who approved them. And so while techies might have exercised poor civic hygiene, they are in a uniquely powerful position to clean things up.
I have been in tech for a long time, and my counterparts and I tend to be social media adverse and pro-VPN because even if we aren’t directly involved in the surveillance industry, we know enough about it to be wary. In my experience, tech workers also tend toward the liberal side and have a strong history of standing up to their bosses when the tools they develop are used for evil. I can’t think of a better time to refuse to participate in the surveillance state than today. I am not naive enough to think that majority of those who work IT for the three-letter agencies or the contractors that support them will take action, but I am hopeful that enough to make a difference will.
As noted previously, tech worker standing is at an all-time low, so we can’t expect companies to bow to pressure like they have in the past. I’m afraid the only way to make an impact is for people of conscience to remove themselves and their skills from the equation by resisting or quitting. I know that those are scary prospects, but desperate times call for desperate measures. If someone isn’t ready to quit, they can resist by speaking up internally, publicly, or confidentially to a trusted news source. All of these actions pose a risk (particularly whistle-blowing, for which protections started declining during the Obama administration), but compare that to the danger of not taking action to protect your fellow citizens and yourself from something you had a hand in, and let your conscience be your guide.
EDITED TO ADD:
Resources in case you are so moved.
https://www.niemanlab.org/2025/04/how-to-leak-to-a-journalist/