Know the Enemy
In 2010, there were 1,271 counterterrorist, homeland security, and intelligence organizations, 1,931 private sector analogues, 10,000 locations of these organizations, and ~854,000 people with top-secret security clearances.1
The term “financial freedom” takes on an entirely different meaning when one considers not the amount of money one has, but how controlled one’s financial position is. Financial service providers, including banks and credit card companies, are required to collect Know Your Customer (KYC) & Anti-Money Laundering (AML) information from all of their customers. The government requires people to reveal the location of their cash and gold,2 does not permit people to leave the territory with certain amounts of precious metals,3 and innovators of new cryptocurrencies can be physically detained for their inventions.45 A significant portion of income, savings and other earnings are taken by means such as taxes, regulations, licenses and fees. All of this ensures that meaningful “financial freedom” is not possible within the confines of the system.
Virtually all other aspects of a person’s life are subject to some form of controls or surveillance. The FBI has spied on viewers while issuing gag orders against the internet providers through which the spying occurred,6 border security can detain any who refuse to unlock their phones,7 judges can imprison those who do not decrypt their hard drives,8 the government secretly surveys certain businesses such as gun dealers,9 the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) allows the NSA to force businesses to provide access to their communications equipment,10 most major manufacturers of printers encode an identification measure to trace printed materials back to that specific machine,11 government mail carriers store images of mail received through them,12 the NSA collects metadata of calls through major cellular carriers, and federal agencies collect information from major social media companies13 while boasting that their program “XKeyscore” can gather intelligence from online histories,14 businesses and agencies can identify a person’s online presence via their “browser fingerprint,” every smart device’s microphone can be turned on remotely15 while the location can be tracked within a meter,16 Intel computers can be remotely controlled and observed by government,17 and internet censorship as well as indoctrination protocols and the targeting of at risk audiences has been contracted out to obscure non profits.
Those are the facts so those who wish to think of a way around these challenges…have plenty of thinking to do. In this challenge, there may be more cause for hope than might be expected at first glance.
"A Hidden World, Growing Beyond Control". The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/top-secret-america/2010/07/19/hidden-world-growing-beyond-control-2/
"Lawyer Freed After Longest-Ever Term for Contempt”. ABC News. https://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=8101209&page=1
Kovan, Jason. “Expats and Precious Metals – Traveling Abroad with Currency, Silver and Gold. What You Need to Know”. Expat Tax Partners. https://expattaxpartners.com/2020/03/12/expats-and-precious-metals-traveling-abroad-with-currency-silver-and-gold-what-you-need-to-know/
Singh, Manish. “Suspected developer of crypto mixer Tornado Cash arrested”. TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2022/08/12/suspected-tornado-cash-developer-arrested-in-amsterdam/
De, Nikhilesh. Ligon, Cheyenne. “Samourai Wallet Founders Arrested and Charged With Money Laundering”. Coindesk. https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/04/24/samourai-wallet-founders-arrested-and-charged-with-money-laundering/
Zetter, Kim. “'John Doe' Who Fought FBI Spying Freed From Gag Order After 6 Years”. Wired. https://www.wired.com/2010/08/nsl-gag-order-lifted/
Farivar, Cyrus. “What could happen if you refuse to unlock your phone at the US border?”. Ars Technica. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/02/what-could-happen-if-you-refuse-to-unlock-your-phone-at-the-us-border/
Lee, Timothy B. “Man who refused to decrypt hard drives is free after four years in jail”. Ars Technica. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/02/man-who-refused-to-decrypt-hard-drives-is-free-after-four-years-in-jail/
Morris, David Z. “The Reality Behind the Crypto Banking Crackdown: ‘Operation Choke Point 2.0’ Is Here”. Coindesk. https://www.coindesk.com/consensus-magazine/2023/03/22/the-reality-behind-the-crypto-banking-crackdown-operation-choke-point-20-is-here/
Guariglia, Mathew. Crocker, Andrew. Cohn, Cindy. “U.S. Senate and Biden Administration Shamefully Renew and Expand FISA Section 702, Ushering in a Two Year Expansion of Unconstitutional Mass Surveillance”. Electronic Frontier Foundation. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/04/us-senate-and-biden-administration-shamefully-renew-and-expand-fisa-section-702-0
“List of Printers Which Do or Do Not Display Tracking Dots”. Electronic Frontier Foundation. https://www.eff.org/pages/list-printers-which-do-or-do-not-display-tracking-dots
"Monitoring of Snail Mail”. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/04/us/monitoring-of-snail-mail.html
“FAQ: What You Need to Know About the NSA's Surveillance Programs”. Propublica. https://www.propublica.org/article/nsa-data-collection-faq
“XKeyscore: NSA tool collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'“. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/31/nsa-top-secret-program-online-data
McCullagh, Declan. “FBI taps cell phone mic as eavesdropping tool”. CNET. https://www.cnet.com/news/privacy/fbi-taps-cell-phone-mic-as-eavesdropping-tool/
Swider, Matt. “Police can track your cell phone location history without a warrant”. https://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/police-can-track-your-cell-phone-location-history-without-a-warrant-1170152
“Intel’s Management Engine”. Purism. https://puri.sm/learn/intel-me/