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Comment by _iyig | Hacker News Reader

What makes this “paramilitary spy gear?” It’s some portable security cameras positioned in a parking lot.

> What makes this “paramilitary spy gear?”

The need for an attention grab as confirmed by the hashtags. There's nothing "paramilitary" about this system [0] that wouldn't also apply to any number of other things like a laptop, or an OS, etc.

It's that much more amusing given that the author of the tweet (and the present submission) appears to be a Linux user, something some UK authorities using the same broken logic already deemed to be the hallmark of a criminal hacker.

[0] https://lvt.co/security/

The company responsible: LiveView Technologies https://lvt.co/

They specialize in surveillance gear for private and nation-state operations. They work with multiple federal TLA's, and also just announced a joint USA-Israel surveillance operations.

I talk more of it here https://www.reddit.com/r/bloomington/comments/f4xv9t/info_on...

Walmart sells guns; that doesn't mean everything they sell is a gun. If these are just cameras, does it matter where they came from?

‘Nation-state’ doesn’t mean what you think it means. It’s not a fancy way of saying ‘countries’. It means one small subset of countries such as Japan that are both nations and states at the same time.

Hmmm. I didn't know this.

What are some countries that aren't nations?

For example the UK is not a nation-state because it’s one state but four nations.

So "paramilitary" is still a clickbaity exaggeration. Their website mentions Target markets such as state DoTs, retailers (specifically Lowe's), oil companies, construction. Hardly a roster of paramilitary forces.

Are you buying military equipment any time you deal with a company that does business with a military? Would "man buys equipment from missile manufacturer Honeywell" be an appropriate description of me having bought an air humidifier from them?

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