Movie Surveillance Quotes

To paraphrase Hannah Arendt - as portrayed in the recently released movie of the same name - the Nazi war criminal's actions stemmed from her well-known phrase "banality of evil," not as a result of mental illness but as a result of a lack of thinking. Their greatest error was delegating the process of thinking and decision-making to their higher ups. In Rudolf Höss's case, this would have been his superiors, particularly Heinrich Himmler.

To many this conclusion is troubling, for it suggests that if everyday, "normal," sane men and women are capable of evil, then the atrocities perpetrated during the Holocaust and other genocides could be repeated today and into the future.

Yet, this is exactly the lesson we must learn from the war criminals at Nuremberg. We must be ever wary of those who do not take responsibility for their actions. And we ourselves must be extra vigilant, particularly in this day of accelerated technological power, heightened state surveillance, and global corporate reach, that we do not delegate our thinking to others. ~ Thomas Harding

And when they spy on us let them discover us loving ~ Alice Walker

Corporate and government surveillance aren't separate; they're an alliance of interests. ~ Bruce Schneier

Of course, to be truly 'surveillance free' required unpredictability or its cousin, spontaneity. ~ Jeff Shear

Surveillance cameras might reduce crime - even though the evidence here is mixed - but no studies show that they result in greater happiness of everyone involved. ~ Evgeny Morozov

Sunsets require sunshine ["Surveillance: Out of the Shadows," New York Review of Books, June 2, 2015]. ~ David Cole

I did surveillance a lot, which sounds exciting, but it never was. ~ Miranda Lambert

Surveillance is surveillance. I can never understand why some people think it matters whether it's the government doing it to you or a company. ~ Ken Liu

I have been placed under surveillance, and I can't take a step without it being known to the Polish minister of internal affairs. ~ Konstantin Rokossovsky

At no time, when the astronauts were in space were they alone, there was a constant surveillance by UFOs. ~ Scott Carpenter

Bringing an end to mass government surveillance needs to be a central pillar of returning to the principles we have put in jeopardy in the early 21st century. ~ Yochai Benkler

What we got here is a failure to communicate. ~ Paul Newman

I don't think there's anything, any threat out there today that anyone can point to, that justifies placing an entire population under mass surveillance. ~ Edward Snowden

Metadata equals surveillance; it's that simple. ~ Bruce Schneier

What a jolly thing military surveillance is! ~ Belle Boyd

Open the pod bay doors, Hal. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Love and Freedom of Thoughts is a fast-acting antidote against the misanthropic cold sword of mass surveillance. ~ Kristian Goldmund Aumann

I don't think there's much distinction between surveillance and media in general. Better media means better surveillance. Cams are everywhere. ~ Bruce Sterling

Police in Washington D.C. are now using cameras to catch drivers who go through red lights. Many congressmen this week opposed the use of the red light cameras incorrectly assuming they were being used for surveillance at local brothels. ~ Dennis Miller

If U.S. schools don't prepare American children for careers in the surveillance industry, all our spying will be done from India. ~ U.S. Dept. Of Fear

Choosing providers is not a choice between surveillance/not; it's just choosing which feudal lord gets to spy on you. ~ Bruce Schneier

Options other than mastectomy include high risk surveillance and risk reduction. Surveillance is a combination of monthly self breast exam, annual mammography and whole breast screening ultrasound, annual breast MRI, and biannual clinical breast exam. ~ Kristi Funk

Today we are at a crossroads. The technology is available for two great options: The massive surveillance state, or the renewed freedom of a deeply-involved citizenry thinking independently and holding the government to the highest standards. ~ Oliver DeMille

If you're doing nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide from the giant surveillance apparatus the government's been hiding. ~ Stephen Colbert

Edward Snowden: The Whistleblower Behind the NSA Surveillance Revelations ~ Glenn Greenwald

Openness and participation are antidotes to surveillance and control. ~ Howard Rheingold

Destruction of privacy via surveillance programs engineered by Great Powers widens the existing power imbalance between the ruling elite and everyone else. Its impact on global south will be colossal. ~ Arzak Khan

Funny, for all surveillance, Osama bin Laden is still free-and we're not. Guess who's winning the war on terror? ~ Cory Doctorow

No matter the specific techniques involved, historically mass surveillance has had several constant attributes. Initially, it is always the country's dissidents and marginalized who bear the brunt of the surveillance, leading those who support the government or are merely apathetic to mistakenly believe they are immune. And history shows that the mere existence of a mass surveillance apparatus, regardless of how it is used, is in itself sufficient to stifle dissent. A citizenry that is aware of always being watched quickly becomes a compliant and fearful one. ~ Glenn Greenwald

There is no transparency, Marus. It can't exist. Surveillance doesn't go both ways. There are those who watch, and those who are watched; the powerful, and the powerless. ~ Celeste Chaney

You'll have the right to be angry about Vault 7 only after you boycott dragnet surveillance data providers like Google, Microsoft, Skype, Facebook and LinkedIn. The true threat is coming from the private sector surveillance profiteers. ~ James Scott, Senior Fellow, Institute For Critical Infrastructure Technology

There's been spying for years, there's been surveillance for years, and so forth, I'm not going to pass judgement on that, it's the nature of our society. ~ Eric Schmidt

The New York Police Department says Iran has conducted surveillance inside New York City. They say Iranian operatives are using special mobile surveillance units. I believe they're called taxi cabs. ~ Jay Leno

There is no denying that Snowden's dramatic disclosures, despite the damage they did to U.S. intelligence, accomplished a salutary service in alerting both the public and the government to the potential danger of a surveillance leviathan." (p.299) ~ Edward Jay Epstein

In digital era, privacy must be a priority. Is it just me, or is secret blanket surveillance obscenely outrageous? ~ Al Gore

Transparency means to dedicate our thoughts and efforts to non privacy rules and not to defend negative intelligence ideas or surveillance programs. ~ Auliq Ice

Surveillance of power is one of the most important ways to ensure that power does not abuse its status. But, of course, power does not like to be watched. ~ Bruce Schneier

When they say accountability, they mean surveillance and standardization. ~ Marc Lamont Hill

Everyone everywhere now understands how bad things have gotten - and they're talking about it. They have the power to decide for themselves whether they are willing to sacrifice their privacy to the surveillance state. ~ Edward Snowden

There will come a time when it isn't 'They're spying on me through my phone' anymore. Eventually, it will be 'My phone is spying on me'. ~ Philip K. Dick

To permit surveillance to take root on the Internet would mean subjecting virtually all forms of human interaction, planning, and even thought itself to comprehensive state examination. ~ Glenn Greenwald

We need to put the security back in the National Security Agency. We can't have the national surveillance agency. ~ Edward Snowden

So we are being systematically trained to fear this false 'rising crime' tide. This is all part of a system to lock up more people, and impose more control and surveillance. ~ Jerry Brown

I'm writing a film called 'Bug.' It's an original script, and it's not about killer insects. It's a thriller set in a high school. The bug of the title refers to a surveillance device. ~ Wes Craven

Society develops a type of self-censorship, with the knowledge that surveillance exists - a self-censorship that is even expressed when people communicate with each other privately. ~ Julian Assange

What is the society we wish to protect? Is it the society of complete surveillance for the commonwealth? Is this the wealth we seek to have in common - optimal security at the cost of maximal surveillance? ~ Tom Stoppard

Can a president who's presided over, and possibly encouraged, Chinese-style surveillance of The Land of the Free honestly expect to serve out his full term? ~ Damian Thompson

If we had failed to pursue the facts as far as they led, we would have denied the public any knowledge of an unprecedented scheme of political surveillance and sabotage. ~ Katharine Graham

These programs were never about terrorism: they're about economic spying, social control, and diplomatic manipulation. They're about power. ~ Edward Snowden

We must, therefore, quit our roles as jailers and instead take care to prepare an environment in which we do as little as possible to exhaust the child with our surveillance and instruction ~ Maria Montessori

For me, there is nothing more valuable than how people feel in a movie theater about a movie. ~ Will Smith

There is no better illustration of that crisis than the fact that the president is openly violating our nation's laws by authorizing the NSA to engage in warrantless surveillance of U.S. citizens. ~ John Conyers

Orwell wasn't right about where society was in 1984. We haven't turned into that sort of surveillance society. But that may be, at least in small part, because of his book. The notion that ubiquitous surveillance and state manipulation of the media is evil is deeply engrained in us. ~ Ramez Naam

Republicans don't want to shrink government. They want more and more military, more and more surveillance. They'd like to have the government banning gay marriage and so forth. ~ John Zerzan

I am disturbed by how states abuse laws on Internet access. I am concerned that surveillance programmes are becoming too aggressive. I understand that national security and criminal activity may justify some exceptional and narrowly-tailored use of surveillance. But that is all the more reason to safeguard human rights and fundamental freedoms. ~ Ban Ki-moon

Turn off your televisions. Ignore the Newt-Mitt-Rick- Barack reality show. It is as relevant to your life as the gossip on "Jersey Shore." The real debate, the debate raised by the Occupy movement about inequality, corporate malfeasance, the destruction of the ecosystem, and the security and surveillance state, is the only debate that matters. ~ Chris Hedges

I'm going to be a great movie star some day. ~ Marilyn Monroe

Soon it will be possible to assert almost continuous surveillance over every citizen and maintain up-to-date complete files containing even the most personal information about the citizen ... ~ Zbigniew Brzezinski

In recognising the global problem posed by osteoporosis, WHO sees the need for a global strategy for prevention and control of osteoporosis, focusing on three major functions: prevention, management and surveillance. ~ Gro Harlem Brundtland

I see battlefields that are under 24-hour real or near-real time surveillance of all types. I see battlefields on which we can destroy anything we can locate through instant communications and almost instantaneous application of highly lethal firepower. ~ William Westmoreland

Racism is a moral catastrophe, most graphically seen in the prison industrial complex and targeted police surveillance in black and brown ghettos rendered invisible in public discourse. ~ Cornel West

As a result of the Stratfor hack, some of the dangers of the unregulated private intelligence industry are now known. It has been revealed through Wikileaks and other journalists around the world that Stratfor maintained a worldwide network of informants that they used to engage in intrusive and possibly illegal surveillance activities on behalf of large multinational corporations. ~ Jeremy Hammond

Doctors and nurses, with their training and their experiences, they would be able to detect unusual patterns of disease. That's why we say it is important for every country to have a proper surveillance system. The function of the surveillance system is to detect unusual patterns of diseases. ~ Margaret Chan

Never judge a book by its movie. ~ J. W. Eagan

Totalitarian rule thrives on its subjects' ignorance of the extent to which the surveillance system is monitoring their lives. The possibility, rather than the fact, of surveillance is enough to generate fear, anxiety, and informal pressures to conform, to downplay dissenting opinions, to declare one's absolute loyalty. Thus an enforced culture of self-censorship emerges in communities that used to express their political opinions freely. ~ Arun Kundnani

I worked with the March of Dimes to enact legislation for a national birth defects prevention program to provide surveillance, research and preventive services aimed at reducing the rate of birth defects. ~ Solomon Ortiz

Laws and regulations are supposed to restrict the kind of surveillance governments do. In fact, the U.S. government is quite restricted in what kind of surveillance they can do on U.S. citizens. The problem is that 96 percent of the planet is not U.S. citizens. ~ Mikko Hypponen

With all these tentpoles, franchises, reboots and sequels, is there still room for movies in the movie business? ~ Lynda Obst

[H]aving the career of the beloved CIA Director and the commanding general in Afghanistan instantly destroyed due to highly invasive and unwarranted electronic surveillance is almost enough to make one believe not only that there is a god, but that he is an ardent civil libertarian. ~ Glenn Greenwald

Dean Rolfe squirmed, coughed, and looked everywhere except in Frank's eyes. To do what was fraught with legal ramifications. These were the words he had carefully avoided, the hidden croutons in his carefully prepared word salad. "To give you the reach to keep tabs on certain people, no matter where they go. You know . . . a surveillance system. ~ Michael Ben Zehabe

Watching From Withing protagonist Dr. Jesse Baine says, "The only place I can fathom that is truly private is the space between your ears. Think about the sheer number of surveillance systems, automated ID tracking and police brain-print scanners. What is privacy anyhow? And, why would anyone protest the advancement of such tried and true [surveillance] technology? That's a bit like rising-up against the aspirin!" -Daniel LaMonte ~ Daniel LaMonte

Authorities this broad give the national security bureaucracy the power to scrutinize the personal lives of every law-abiding American. Allowing that to continue is a grave error that demonstrates a willful ignorance of human nature. Moreover, it demonstrates a complete disregard for the responsibilities entrusted to us by the Founding Fathers to maintain robust checks and balances on the power of any arm of the government. That obviously raises some very serious questions. What happens to our government, our civil liberties and our basic democracy if the surveillance state is allowed to grow unchecked? As we have seen in recent days, the intelligence leadership is determined to hold on to this authority. Merging the ability to conduct surveillance that reveals every aspect of a person's life with the ability to conjure up the legal authority to execute that surveillance, and finally, removing any accountable judicial oversight, creates the opportunity for unprecedented influence over our system of government. ~ Ron Wyden

Youre only supposed to blow the bloody doors off! ~ Michael Caine

Every actor you learn from, take something from everyone - big actor or not. Whether they're big movie stars or not doesn't really matter. ~ Diane Kruger

All Americans born between 1890 and 1945 wanted to be movie stars. ~ Gore Vidal

Right to peace stands on the pillars of freedom of expression, respect for human rights, cultural diversity and scientific cooperation. Right to peace transform culture of war to a culture of peace. It is also saving humanity from the dangers of dark democracy, which exploits innocent citizens by implementing wrong law, purchased press and digital surveillance. ~ Amit Ray

I am so impressed with people who can really make a big movie, a good movie. The amount of work that goes into it is incredible. ~ Stan Lee

What we need to do, is restore those tools that have been taken away by the president [Barack Obama] and others, restore those tools to the NSA and to our entire surveillance and law enforcement community. ~ Chris Christie

The terrifying breakdown of social cohesion in the American city, in spite of intense institutionalized police surveillance equipped with every sophisticated aid to public control, illustrates that social behaviour depends upon mutual responsibility rather than upon the policeman. ~ Colin Ward

When we've got these people who have practically limitless powers within a society, if they get a pass without so much as a slap on the wrist, what example does that set for the next group of officials that come into power? To push the lines a little bit further, a little bit further, a little bit further, and we'll realize that we're no longer citizens - we're subjects. ~ Edward Snowden

Your ideas are bound to forces of which you have no control due to the fact that you've voluntarily submitted your freedom of though to the perception steering censorship of Google, Facebook and other dragnet surveillance capitalists. ~ James Scott, Senior Fellow, Institute For Critical Infrastructure Technology

The way things are supposed to work is that we're supposed to know virtually everything about what they [the government] do: that's why they're called public servants. They're supposed to know virtually nothing about what we do: that's why we're called private individuals. ~ Glenn Greenwald

I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way. ~ Kathleen Turner

Those who are experts in the fields of surveillance, privacy, and technology say that there need to be two tracks: a policy track and a technology track. The technology track is encryption. It works and if you want privacy, then you should use it. ~ Laura Poitras

I just want to make one really good movie a year. And when I die, to know I was honest as an artist. ~ Milla Jovovich

The combination of the growth of these digital technologies, the ability of the government to conjure up these secret interpretations, plus a very unusual and novel court make for this ever-expanding surveillance state. We so treasure our freedoms; we will regret it if our generation doesn't use this unique time to reform the surveillance laws and make it clear that security and liberty are not mutually exclusive. We can do both. ~ Ron Wyden

The people who, in order to enjoy the liberty which suites them, resort to the representative system, must exercise an active and constant surveillance over their representatives, and reserve for themselves ... the right to discard them if they betray their trust, and to revoke the powers which them might have abused. ~ Benjamin Constant

The sorrow of not being movie stars overwhelms millions. ~ Mason Cooley

We all deserve credit for this new surveillance state that we live in because we the people voted for the Patriot Act. Democrats and Republicans alike ... We voted for the people who voted for it, and then voted for the people who reauthorized it, then voted for the people who re-re-authorize d it. ~ Stephen Colbert

I wanted to be a movie star. But movie stars are not what they used to be. ~ Lindsay Lohan

We've seen a departure from the traditional work of the National Security Agency. They've become sort of the national hacking agency, the national surveillance agency. And they've lost sight of the fact that everything they do is supposed to make us more secure as a nation and a society. ~ Edward Snowden

It is a pro-U.N. movie. It's a pro-American movie. It's a pro-American movie. It's a movie people should be watching and not denigrating. ~ Scott Ritter

Even though we don't know which companies the NSA has compromised – or by what means – knowing that they could have compromised any of them is enough to make us mistrustful of all of them. This is going to make it hard for large companies like Google and Microsoft to get back the trust they lost. Even if they succeed in limiting government surveillance. Even if they succeed in improving their own internal security. The best they'll be able to say is: "We have secured ourselves from the NSA, except for the parts that we either don't know about or can't talk about. ~ Bruce Schneier

Dragnet surveillance capitalists such as Facebook, Comcast, AT&T and Google, unfortunately, supply these manipulating forces with an endless supply of metadata for this information war against the American and European public. ~ James Scott, Senior Fellow, Institute For Critical Infrastructure Technology

I spent seven years of my life in the immediate aftermath of September 11th doing this work, working with the Patriot Act, working with our law enforcement, working with the surveillance community to make sure that we keep America safe. ~ Chris Christie

The most important thing to the United States is not being able to attack our adversaries, the most important thing is to be able to defend ourselves. And we can't do that as long as we're subverting our own security standards for the sake of surveillance. ~ Edward Snowden

The idea of aerial military surveillance dates back to the Civil War, when both the Union and the Confederacy used hot-air balloons to spy on the other side, tracking troop movements and helping to direct artillery fire. ~ Michael Hastings

Lombardi: [to his assistant] Could you get us some writing paper, please.
Eli: A lot of it. A whole lot of it. ~ Book Of Eli Movie

Any time anyone fires bullets in an action movie that don't hit the target it immediately undermines the movie. ~ Shane Black

'Scary Movie' has lost its way as a franchise. It has turned into 'Disaster Film' and 'Epic Movie' and 'Date Movie' and that isn't what I wanted. I wanted to do a movie that was just grounded in a reality that went to crazy places. ~ Marlon Wayans