Feds Drafting Plan to Monitor All Internet Activity

[3 of 7]

This will make warrantless wiretapping seem like a walk in the park. In the January 21st print edition of New Yorker magazine, Lawrence Wright's piece on Mike McConnell, Director of National Intelligence, The Spymaster, has some disturbing info about new measures the government is planning. These measures will infringe still further on our privacy - if in fact we have any after they are instituted.

SNAFU-ed .... Situation Normal: Feds Drafting Plan to Monitor All Internet Activity

[k0NG0]

In Soviet Union, you don't browse the Internet, the Internet browses you...

[ctal]

While I don't doubt that the focus on homeland security is and will increasingly compromise privacy, to a significant degree, I think that the headline writers are, as usual, being misleading and sensationalistic.

The headline: "Feds Drafting Plan To Monitor All Internet Traffic"

The content: "to give the government the authority to ..."; "every bit of information ... could be monitored"

Not quite the same thing, I would submit. Also, the unfathomable volume of internet traffic in itself would be protective of most people's communications and privacy; the monitoring algorithms would have to be designed to filter out about 99.9999% of all traffic for the results to be of any use.

-- Al

[k0NG0]

Originally Posted by ctal

While I don't doubt that the focus on homeland security is and will increasingly compromise privacy, to a significant degree, I think that the headline writers are, as usual, being misleading and sensationalistic.

The headline: "Feds Drafting Plan To Monitor All Internet Traffic"

The content: "to give the government the authority to ..."; "every bit of information ... could be monitored"

Not quite the same thing, I would submit. Also, the unfathomable volume of internet traffic in itself would be protective of most people's communications and privacy; the monitoring algorithms would have to be designed to filter out about 99.9999% of all traffic for the results to be of any use.

-- Al

Which is to say: it's completely unnecessary and fiscally moronic. It won't stop terrorism that, say, spending the money on more cops or better investigators couldn't stop just as easily.

There are areas where data mining works, but that's for extremely structured cases such as credit card use (it's fairly easy to tell when you've bought mostly groceries and consumer electronics and flag your card when suddenly someone buys two dozen Harley Davidson bikes). To mine normal Internet use would require basic filters such as "if packet contains words='terrorist, cheese' dial mommy". That those won't work doesn't take a CS degree to understand.

Whatever they tell you about the good things that will come from mining all the Internet traffic, or how feasible it is, assume it's lies. Because it almost always is. The terrorists stupid enough to get caught through an Internet dragnet will be caught by regular police before they end up doing something bad anyway. Because they are stupid! Like the shoe bomber, who tried to light the bomb's fuse in the cabin, out in the open.

More sophisticated terrorists would at the very least encrypt their data. And with freeware tools and unique keys never divulged electronically it'd take NSA's most powerful supercomputer dozens of years to decrypt even one transmission (usually hundreds, but anything above 5 years is way too much even when counting sleeper cells). AES 256-bit isn't patent encumbered, there exists lots of implementations, including NIST-approved free ones.

And "it's not a problem if you've got nothing to hide" is the explanation used by those who still deserve privacy but clearly don't understand the concept or the unalienable right to it that exists.

It's complete BS and I sure do hope the US populace realizes this will hurt them way more than it will help securing them against terrorists or any other (real or imaginary) threat.

[TQ]

Ironically, some of the people that will scream the loudest about this are the same folks that want to keep my name on a permanent list stashed somewhere in the Department of Justice just because I own a few guns.

...OK, a lot of guns but that's beside the point.

[Deer Slayer]

Originally Posted by k0NG0

Which is to say: it's completely unnecessary and fiscally moronic. It won't stop terrorism that, say, spending the money on more cops or better investigators couldn't stop just as easily.

There are areas where data mining works, but that's for extremely structured cases such as credit card use (it's fairly easy to tell when you've bought mostly groceries and consumer electronics and flag your card when suddenly someone buys two dozen Harley Davidson bikes). To mine normal Internet use would require basic filters such as "if packet contains words='terrorist, cheese' dial mommy". That those won't work doesn't take a CS degree to understand.

Whatever they tell you about the good things that will come from mining all the Internet traffic, or how feasible it is, assume it's lies. Because it almost always is. The terrorists stupid enough to get caught through an Internet dragnet will be caught by regular police before they end up doing something bad anyway. Because they are stupid! Like the shoe bomber, who tried to light the bomb's fuse in the cabin, out in the open.

More sophisticated terrorists would at the very least encrypt their data. And with freeware tools and unique keys never divulged electronically it'd take NSA's most powerful supercomputer dozens of years to decrypt even one transmission (usually hundreds, but anything above 5 years is way too much even when counting sleeper cells). AES 256-bit isn't patent encumbered, there exists lots of implementations, including NIST-approved free ones.

And "it's not a problem if you've got nothing to hide" is the explanation used by those who still deserve privacy but clearly don't understand the concept or the unalienable right to it that exists.

It's complete BS and I sure do hope the US populace realizes this will hurt them way more than it will help securing them against terrorists or any other (real or imaginary) threat.

WOW, well said man!! That's better than I could have put it myself, unfortunately, people have their heads imbedded too far up their butt's to care or do anything. This country is going down the swirly bowl, nothing is going to stop it. By the time the general population gets fed up with the intrusions into their privacy, nothing could be done short of a MASSIVE uprising. The brainwashing that goes on here DISGUSTS ME, people just swallow whatever they're fed. A WHOLE NATION OF MUSHROOMS (kept in the dark and fed excrement)! The future looks BAD, and keeps getting worse. If things keep up the way they seem to be going, I don't want to see it.

[3 of 7]

The thing that amazes me is the acceptance of demonization of whole groups of people as an excuse to not look where the real problem lies.
We see it in the media daily, leftist, Mexicans, liberals, Muslims etc. ad nauseum..
Anyone who has the guts to question the administration is labeled a conspiracy nut or a "liberal"
I could just vomit.

[Cogar]

Originally Posted by 3 of 7

The thing that amazes me is the acceptance of demonization of whole groups of people as an excuse to not look where the real problem lies.
We see it in the media daily, leftist, Mexicans, liberals, Muslims etc. ad nauseum..
Anyone who has the guts to question the administration is labeled a conspiracy nut or a "liberal"
I could just vomit.

Well then have some 7-up or unsweetened tea. It will help settle your stomach.