iPhone patriotapp

[thetonka]

http://patriotapps.com/The_App.html

This scares me. Have we really got to the point where people think it is a good idea to spy on and snitch on our neighbors? Reminds me of all the horror stories I heard as a kid about the KGB.

[kysrsoze]

1. Doesn't look that bad to me. Did you see the list below of intended uses?

Enable citizens to communicate:

National Security, Suspicious activities, or Crime
Government Waste or possible violations
Environmental Crime or possible violations
White collar crime
Workplace harassment, discrimination, or other violations
Public Health concerns

They're not asking people to spy on their darker complected neighbors. The screen looks downright reasonable, and has whistleblower and product safety links too:

[thetonka]

2. You missed some

Simply download, report (include pictures) and submit information to relevant government agencies, employers, or publish incident data to social network tools.

Key Features:

* Integrated Reporting:
o FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation)
o EPA (Environmental Protection Agency)
o GAO (Government Accountability Office)
o CDC (Centers for Disease Control)
o Custom integration with employers
o Social Media (Facebook, Twitter)
* Finger-touch navigation
* View FBI Most Wanted
* Simple graphical user interface

Uses:

* Enable citizens to communicate:
* National Security, Suspicious activities, or Crime
* Government Waste or possible violations
* Environmental Crime or possible violations
* White collar crime
* Workplace harassment, discrimination, or other violations
* Public Health concerns

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. Have you seen their website? First thing that hits you is the use of flags and gravestones.

Esp. the bottom half?

and the emphasis on fear: "
PatriotApp encourages active citizen participation in the War on Terror and in protecting their families and surrounding communities."

The whole site is a Tea party wet dream.
it even has a Homeland Security Alert imbedded which always goes from orange to red, never to green.

Notice it focuses on use of Facebook and other "social websites".

worse yet, read the goals of this outfit:

The goals of Citizen Concepts are to:

* Provide instruction and increase consistency in actions while decreasing variance in human behavior to mitigate risk and error
* Increase the quality, procedure compliance, and efficacy of outcomes
* Provide closed network, high-value content information for collection and action purposes
* To serve civil, government and commercial communities entities
* Provide mechanisms whereby events, processes, and performance can be reviewed retrospectively

What do you hear in the above goals????

[thetonka]

5. To be clear

I don't think this is just a Tea Party problem, at least they are not the only ones I fear. The site is clearly catering to that mentality, but I had a real problem with the White House snitch email address as well.

When we get to the point where we are so suspicious and fearful we need new resources to snitch on our neighbors(one could argue new resources to encourage new segments of society to snitch) we are screwed.

The Us vs Them mentality is reaching critical mass and the end result potentials scare the crap out of me.

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. Before KGB, there was Germany...honestly.

Godwin's law be dammned.

There was 1930's Germany, and of course later the more familiar Eastern Germany, then the US famously gave money
as a reward for snitching, in Iraq and lol and behold, people with grudges towards their neighbors sent thousands to the prisons. this continues in Afghanistan and other countries.

I find this innocent looking idea horrifying.
Esp. coming out at the same time Neopolitano is urging the mouth breathers in Wal-Mart to accept the idea of
looking for.....something.....un-named....in their Wal-Mart and reporting it.
You can bet we will be seeing much more of this TELL TELL TELL meme.