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UPDATE: CRYPTONATOR RESPONDED. FOUR TIMES.
Everything in our correspondence was wild. Instead of trying to create a thread (it would be 8,000 tweets long), I put together a story, including screenshots and transcriptions of each email, here:
https://catagaitan.com/2020/08/24/cryptonator-is-watching-me-its-also-watching-you/ https://twitter.com/catalinagaitan_/status/1296570533354455040
Everything in our correspondence was wild. Instead of trying to create a thread (it would be 8,000 tweets long), I put together a story, including screenshots and transcriptions of each email, here:
https://catagaitan.com/2020/08/24/cryptonator-is-watching-me-its-also-watching-you/ https://twitter.com/catalinagaitan_/status/1296570533354455040
It feels impossible to tl;dr this, but here are some key points:
- I was offered ~$10k per night to secretly film people at protests.
- The organization claims to bundle and sell this footage to local law enforcement, Department of Homeland Security and Department of Defense.
- I was offered ~$10k per night to secretly film people at protests.
- The organization claims to bundle and sell this footage to local law enforcement, Department of Homeland Security and Department of Defense.
- Freelancers hired wear a pea-sized recording device equipped with technology from FLIR (a designer of thermal imaging cameras and sensors) and Axon (a company based in Scottsdale, Arizona that develops technology and weapons for law enforcement).
- They claim to be building a national database of people at protests, and already have teams of hired freelancers filming at protests across the US.
- The organization is a private registered corporation in the state of Delaware that monitors and tracks âmany freelance press."
- The organization is a private registered corporation in the state of Delaware that monitors and tracks âmany freelance press."
- Their stated goal is to âdeconstruct extremism by identification and then neutralizationâ of âpseudo-pressâ and individuals who engage in ârioting and crime" (WHAT DOES âNEUTRALIZATIONâ MEAN?).
- If hired on, I would continue covering protests like I normally do, but secretly turn my body to face other press members and protesters to record them.
- If in distress, I could press an "SoS button" and they would stage a "pseudo-arrest" with local law enforcement.
- If in distress, I could press an "SoS button" and they would stage a "pseudo-arrest" with local law enforcement.
And so many other things! Read the story if you want and let me know what you would have done if you had gotten these emails, I'm curious. 
And as always: do your best to keep each other safe. As @FancyJenkins says, "head on swivel."
And as always: do your best to keep each other safe. As @FancyJenkins says, "head on swivel."
Here's the link: https://catagaitan.com/2020/08/24/cryptonator-is-watching-me-its-also-watching-you/
(FWIW: My money is on this being a scam. But I think it says something about the conditions we're living in that a part of my brain can't be fully convinced that this isn't happening, in some way or another.)
(Also, every night that I've covered a protest, I've seen a Portland police officer carrying a long pole with a small black camera attached to its tip, filming protesters from above. We're all being filmed already, and that's not a secret.)
