Dirty Filthy Public Servants busted creating fake social media accounts to spy on NZers! Fake Democracy Government too powerless to stop them!

23
60

Here we go again, on top of the state using corporate spies to illegally spy on activists, MBIE have been busted creating fake social media profiles to illegally spy on New Zealanders…

MBIE hired security firm to increase staff skills in gathering information from social media
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment has hired a security firm to increase staff skills in using fake social media profiles to gather intelligence.

Among the modules offered are harvesting information from social networks, creating back-stories for false online personae and creating dossiers on people and groups.

When informed of the training by the Herald, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones said senior ministers would be briefed on the issue when they returned to work at the end of the month.

“Kiwis should be able to go about their daily business without the fear of bureaucrats peering into their social media,” he said.

…I would bet that if we stared into MSD long enough we would find this type of surveillance to be rife against beneficiaries.

Remember, the Police have been allowed to ignore this inquiry, yet the SIS were busted using corporate spies. If the SIS used Thompson & Clark, the Police sure as hell did.

Look who has been spying…

Around 70 staff in areas including Immigration New Zealand, Radio Spectrum Management and the Immigration Advisers Authority had completed the one-day course but no staff had so far done optional modules which included harvesting information, analysing image metadata and creating dossiers.

…why the fuck does the Radio Spectrum Management team need to create fake social media profiles to spy on NZers???

Look at how they have been specifically trained to avoid the Official Information Act…

Perhaps worryingly for government employees subject to the Official Information Act, the training includes how to send and receive anonymous SMS and email messages.MBIE staff can also learn how to extract metadata from images, including GPS co-ordinates and device information such as mobile phone and camera models, and create detailed dossiers on groups or individuals.

…and who exactly are they spying on?

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

The ministry has responsibility for government portfolios including immigration, building and housing, energy, tourism, financial markets and competition regulation and economic development.

…so anyone involved in activism in the immigration, building, energy, tourism, financial markets or economic development fields are all targets of this kind of Government surveillance?
What the fuck is going on here?
As I have argued time and time and time again, our State agencies have become the threat to us, not the other way around!
It is increasingly becoming apparent that these neoliberal state agencies have become a law unto themselves and our politicians are merely the masquerade of a fake democracy. This Government are not in control of the public services, the public services are in control of the Government.
Jacinda announces in September 2017 an inquiry into the use of corporate spies and yet in December 2017 MBIE was secretly engaging in internal training of staff to start spying on people using fake social media profiles. The Prime minister’s view on this type of activity could not have been made clearer in September 2017, yet less than 2 months after that, MBIE was signing secret contracts to start doing it themselves!
MBIE knew the Prime Minister’s view, they went and did it anyway.
So again I ask the question, who the hell is running this Country? The political leaders we the people elected or an unelected Wellington Bureaucratic elite who secretly abuse our rights without a second thought.
  • Iwi protesting oil companies
  • Sexual assault survivors
  • Earthquake survivors
  • MANA
  • Green Party
  • Greenpeace
  • Migrant workers protesting slave labour conditions
  • Beneficiaries

The Kiwi Deep State is obscenely shallow.

If you’re not angry yet, you’re not paying attention.

23 COMMENTS

  1. Well put Martyn

    the “enemy within” is pretty obvious, and it is not the citizens these state sector snoops are spying on!

    in retrospect the merger of the old fighting FOL–Federation of Labour, and the cosy wozy CSU–Combined State Unions, back in 1987, was a major error for the NZ working class and society generally

    the NZCTU bar a few excellent struggles during Helen Kelly’s leadership, has been a middle of the road outfit seemingly subservient to the likes of the largely class collaborationist PSA

    committed union members could help stop this “junior Stasi” nonsense overnight

  2. yeah our government needs to get some guts (that john didn’t have ) and sort these people out who seem to be a law unto themselves your right Martyn.
    And they are not the only ones abusing their power.

  3. This post on other topic but suppressed by TDB:

    Dutifully, I have prepared this short analytical list;

    – 1080 campaign: is national, is socialist, is chemical total war
    – TB: Vaccinate the Cows ?
    – Dehumanizing: opponents refused validity, not entitled to “seriousness”
    – Anti Democratic: rights to object on principle? denied
    – Unprincipled: humane principles, animal welfare? denied
    – Elitist: browbeats with scientists, judges, uses police force
    – Religious Bird Iconography: fittingly Reichy all over the money, Forest & Bird imagery, elevated bird significance mind control
    – Ulterior motive: commercial greed unlimited
    – Paradoxical: crafted loophole in Animal Welfare Act is convenient
    – Atlantean: resurrection of great lost birdy land
    – Media/Gov axis of evil: near total media domination & Goebbels method
    – Corporate/Industrial hijack: Political Parties financially dependent on
    – Bullying: uses repetition of taunts, mockery, marginalization
    – Suppression of internet commentary

    In summary, the aerial poisoning regime is a 100% certified NAZI SCIENCE ABOMINATION and the SPCA should be commended for Gandalfing the Balrog. Remember folks you are entitled to object on pure principle, do not yield your discretion to bullies. The correct solution is always, and was always, and will always be INTEGRATED ECOLOGY.

  4. I’m sort of angry, but also amused and saddened by all this shit.
    Angry that they’re repeatedly allowed to get away with this stuff (this is now the third high profile instance)

    Amused at the shear muppetry at time

    and Saddened by a number of things – not the least of which politicians have allowed themselves to be set-up (most recently Iain Lees-Galloway), and the effect it all has on a functioning democracy.

    My predictions are that if this problem isn’t addressed with a clear message (such as a few rolling heads), this may very well be a one term government. It’ll be a case of Cudda Shudda Wudda

    And whoever thought it appropriate to lump such disparate entities under one Ministry anyway – Radio Spectrum management and monitoring shitty steel imports for example with Immigration and monitoring working conditions UNLESS you were trying to make it all about commerce and business? Well we know that: Messrs Joyce and Coleman
    And then to stack it all with a number of ex policemen – some with unremarkable careers and wonder why they want to keep doing all this sort of shit.

    It won’t be long before old Viv Rickard has a few coffees at Astoria with former colleagues to ask for one or two favours

    • yes, the top echelons of the State Sector need a damn good clean out for starters, with restraints of trade slapped on some of them to prevent them ever working in the public service again

      then, the admin and front line staff need clear directives–the people seeking services and assistance are valued citizens not the enemy! and further the practice of layoffs, and then a conveyor belt of rehired “consultants” and fixed term “contractors” needs to end also–public servants should be fully employed

      if the Govt does not sit on the neo liberal zoo that the public service has largely become since the State Sector Act all those years ago under Rogernomics, then they will indeed have little show of getting a second term–where the hell does the PM think various “scandals” and “gottyas” come from? it is from within Govt Departments…

      • Well we’ll know soon enough – another summons to the Beehive for a ‘please explain’
        It’ll either be “we’ve asked our officials and been assured there’s nothing sinister in all this”
        or it’ll be “the matter has been referred to the SSC with the message this is unacceptable behaviour for our public service and we expect those responsible to be sanctioned”.
        Bear in mind, some of them have the ability to look you in the eye and lie straight-faced – even some of the ‘nicest’ of them

      • Speaking of “citizens not being the enemy”, a number of retired public servants and I have been thinking about all this quite a bit, especially in light of Chippie’s desire for public service reform.
        (one example Chippie gave publicly was to do with what happens when someone has a child).
        Then there’s the issues to do with immigration where it has become solely to do with economic and commercial imperatives and nothing to to with whether an immigrant is committed to Aotearoa NZ in any wider context. It’s probably why INZ has made so many fuckups to date – let alone why the IAA now sees a need to embark on this sort of shit when they should have been perfectly capable of determining where alarm bells might ring given that Munstry is also responsible for the companies register.

        It doesn’t really matter whether they put it down to under-resourcing (probably all that means in the current environment is that if you give us more resources, we’ll deliver you more of the same and maybe a little quicker).

        No, if we’re to reclaim an impartial apolitical and impartial public service, then there needs to be a few changes which don’t have to be that traumatic – gradually pealing off various functions spread among departments and Ministries with some sort of Head geebungwonder with the correct credentials.
        The approach so far is piecemeal

  5. I’ve heard rumours from Wellington that these contractors and methods were used against migrant workers protesting their treatment as “modern slaves”.

    It would not surprise me if the National Party did that because they seemed to see working conditions that come under definition of modern slavery were encouraged by the National government. Michael Field has said his car and house were broken into when he was writing his book about Modern Slavery on the high seas, “the Catch”, so it would not surprise me at all!

  6. [Comment declined for publication. Abusing the host of a Forum who pays the bills so you can post comments, is never a good idea. – Scarletmod]

  7. The monolith that is MBIE will no doubt justify their snooping by saying they have strict controls and systems in place to protect peoples’ privacy and they are simply profiling (not targeting) fraudsters. What a crock of s….! Everyone with a social media profile is being or is open to being targeted just for the hell of it. When will this all end? Probably never because breaching peoples’ privacy is fast becoming a national sport.

    Let’s face it this is the sort of corruption that organisations like MBIE (also HNZ, MSD, WINZ) are getting away with under the banner of protecting us all from the ravages, or should it be savages, of crime. It is a corruption that, like a cancer, grows and morphs into different forms under excuses that are an absolute insult to the intelligence of the right thinking people in society.

    Heads should roll but they won’t. Criminal prosecutions should be brought but they won’t be. The smugness of these organisations and those that run them should be wiped away but it won’t be.

    • Winz’s facebook examination division should be shut down.

      They have no damn need to snoop on your private social media full stop.

  8. Oh dear they have summoned to the Beehive for a slap with a wet bus ticket and to continue doing whatever they want.

  9. This is what happens when governed by a mob of empty headed careerists with no common ideology much less a strategy to implement it.
    Aotearoa has been rudderless for more than a decade, frankly anyone who considered the gang of self-serving drongos led by a dead set airhead who won government in 2017,and expected something other than this is as self-deluded as Ardern.
    Yes, they aren’t as evilly venal as the natz mob but that is hardly a glowing recommendation.
    There is so much that needs to be done which could easily be done but for the coalition’s lack of will due chiefly to their ridiculous obeisance to the corporate idjits that took control when the Key creep deceived his way into power.
    None of those corporate types will ever do the coalition a good turn yet why is this mob of dingbats kissing their bums?
    Of course the mice of the public service are gonna play up if there is no cat to police ’em & the moggie has been gone since Clark & Cunliffe shot thru.
    For me the worst example of governmental laziness is the state of the kiwi dollar.

    It like the Aussie, has been in freefall for over a year for no good reason.

    The cause is simple, the kiwi and the Aussie don’t rate teams of researchers and analysts because they are not big enough nor traded sufficiently to warrant that outlay.
    When the forex tech and associated forecasting was digitised all that happened was the currencies of Aotearoa and Australia were linked to the englander pound as the humans who had always manually calculated their value had the new game be just like the old game.

    Nevermind that england is no longer a leading trading partner nor leading foreign investor of either economy, that spot goes to China, the banksters figured “near enough is good enough” and left our finances tied to england’s.
    Now we are paying a huge price as the quid goes down the gurgler thanks to the nervous nellies scared and/or trying to obstruct brexit.
    The Kiwi and the Oz are going the same way when there is no rational reason for it.

    The trade off for the privatisations of the 80’s was meant to be cheap consunmr junk. We pay much more for food and accomodation but cars, clothes, phones and the rest of the whitefella detritus are meant to be much cheaper.

    Now they aren’t at all – the kiwi has plummeted against the value of all the currencies (aside from minor player england) we do bizness with.
    The mob of dingbats led by an airhead occuppying the beehive have done nothing about this.
    Why? Cause the cow cockies and other exporters are loving this; they are making a lot more money for no increase in costs. Wages for average kiwi have remained stagnant while the richfellas have suddenly and unexpectedly got a whole lot richer.

    There is no one in government going out to New York or Beijing and pointing out that the kiwi is seriously undervalued and there is money to be made, or even better getting the reserve bank to go long on the kiwi, then going out and spruiking it.
    The reason is simple, the mental midgets whose job it is cannot work out that this is what they need to do and all their advisors for whom a good economy is one where the gap between the wealthy and the rest of us gets bigger, are telling the fools that everything is as it should be.

    Allah the merciful, please protect us from know nothing careerist drongos.

  10. I have had decades of experience of dealing with nasty NZ Inc bureaucracy. I would not have thought any different of them, when learning what they have been up to. I am not at all surprised.

    Only a fool would believe NZ bureaucracy is somehow ‘purer’ than the same in many other countries. Sleepy Hobbits are asleep at the wheel again.

  11. Yeah, even the Herald coverage which you quote, exposed the dirt. Your analysis Bomber, made it punchier.

    When I reflect on my own experience with Winz’ predecessor, I think there was always a propensity to belittle their public. I went in person to sort out my change of status from solo mother to married mother, & complained about the tone of the letter I received. Nasty/objectionable. The response was that Oh! we get such dreadful types in here = translate, it’s the sort of letter the great unwashed deserve (you’re the exception). When I chaired a union branch I encouraged those outraged at a bully boss, to stand up to him, challenge him, because I knew he would back down. They did, & he did. Do the same to these bully public servants who give you the run-around. Complain to your MP too, they are there to look after their constituents. We could start a movement to destroy these nasty bureaucrats. Power to the people!

    • Spot on Janio. Stand up to these bullies. I know it is easier said than done but it works in the end.

      New Zealand has a peculiar trait in that there is much comment about bullying of kids in schools and on their social media accounts and talk about zero tolerance to bullying but this does not apply to organisations like MBIE and the like when they bully adults by snooping on them and breaching their privacy, not to mention nurturing a culture of bullying within their own work places – recall the suicide of the HNZ employee because he was severely bullied by a manager. That was quickly shut-down by the senior management of that dreadful organisation.

  12. No surprised in the least! ACC & near ALL central & local government departments SPY on us citizens. More especially if you are not a MUTANT!
    Time Jacinda showed EVERYONE which side of the fence she’s on???????

    • We k now what side of the fence she is on, she is a political careerist, full of lip-service, for the most hollow and self serving, although she likes to pretend the opposite.

Comments are closed.