It occurred to me recently that surveillance satellites have a visual record of the path of every ship around the world, as they pass from port to port. Organizations with machine learning capability like the NSA or Google already have the ability and the motive to discern patterns in this ship traffic. Google for data mining purposes, NSA for intelligence purposes.
Such an organization could see, for instance, ships that regularly anchor outside of ports and ferry passengers surreptitiously.
Such an organization could also see exactly how many yachts of a certain size exist in the world, and where they frequent.
This is a huge piece of the puzzle that we know most major intelligence agencies have, that has not been acted on decisively. The question is, why not?
Is there a way that we can apply crowd-sourced intelligence analysis to these satellite imagery resources?
Exactly. That's why I'm trying to build public demand for the release of satellite data. Pressure from the public is the only way that any of these organizations is gonna crack.
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doubleherpes ago
It occurred to me recently that surveillance satellites have a visual record of the path of every ship around the world, as they pass from port to port. Organizations with machine learning capability like the NSA or Google already have the ability and the motive to discern patterns in this ship traffic. Google for data mining purposes, NSA for intelligence purposes.
Such an organization could see, for instance, ships that regularly anchor outside of ports and ferry passengers surreptitiously.
Such an organization could also see exactly how many yachts of a certain size exist in the world, and where they frequent.
This is a huge piece of the puzzle that we know most major intelligence agencies have, that has not been acted on decisively. The question is, why not?
Is there a way that we can apply crowd-sourced intelligence analysis to these satellite imagery resources?
Nana66 ago
This isn't their preferred type of intelligence....no money in it.
doubleherpes ago
Exactly. That's why I'm trying to build public demand for the release of satellite data. Pressure from the public is the only way that any of these organizations is gonna crack.
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