NSA To Datamine Social Networking Sites 346
An anonymous reader writes "New Scientist has discovered that the NSA is funding research into the mass harvesting of the information that people post about themselves on social networks. And it could harness advances in Internet technology -- specifically the forthcoming 'semantic web' championed by the Web standards organisation W3C -- to combine data from social networking websites with details such as banking, retail and property records, allowing the NSA to build extensive, all-embracing personal profiles of individuals."
Standard Waste of Our Tax $ (Score:5, Interesting)
NSA Director Alexander: "Well, what have you found, son?"
NSA Researcher: "Well, sir, according to the report, this multi-billion dollar project has revealed that TripMaster Monkey [slashdot.org] is insightful, informative & interesting
NSA Director Alexander: "Yes, what else?"
NSA Researcher: "It's about Commander Taco, sir
NSA Director Alexander: "My GOD! Get me the president! And make sure he's dishonerably discharged immediately!"
NSA Researcher: "Yes SIR!"
How are they certain that the rules derived from these sites like MySpace or even Slashdot are even accurate? People post mis-information all the time & you can hardly call MySpace a reliable source for even seeding a semantic web. You can build a social network but even then it's hard because you're linking mostly aliases. Nowhere will you find my real name associated with my slashdot or myspace account--though you may be able to link them.
Re:Standard Waste of Our Tax $ (Score:5, Interesting)
Because, as we all know, no one lies on the Internet. :)
In all seriousness though, there is a difference between the NSA parsing MySpace pages and the NSA pulling down phone records. It's my fault if I put anything on the social sites that could be used against me in the future (see: retarded bank robbers who post pictures of their "loot" with masks off on their MySpace pages) as the site is public by its very definition (well, the publicly non-friend sections that is). My phone records on the other hand, are private.
Data mine all you want, I don't think it will give you that much information. That is, other than how not to style a webpage.
Re:Standard Waste of Our Tax $ (Score:4, Interesting)
Example: I don't participate in Payback schemes, because there is a difference between
1) the local gas station clerk knows what I bought in his station only and can maybe remember my face for some days.
2) the gas company knows what I bought nation-wide and can dig through it with unlimited accuracy.
If you have to be careful all the time about what you say publicly, guess what you have? Ask people from before-1989 easter germany or a chinese citizen. They can tell you.
Re:Standard Waste of Our Tax $ (Score:2)
You mention Payback schemes, by which I assume you mean "savings car
Re:Standard Waste of Our Tax $ (Score:2)
What you say in public and where you go is in your own hand, too. "Noone is forcing you to do anything" is a dangerous argument here, because essentially you are forced to behave differently through the knowledge that somebody is watching. It's a psychological thing. That's how oppressive regimes work and I don't think you realize this yet. People under control limit the
The NSA is out of control... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Standard Waste of Our Tax $ (Score:2)
You mean like the growing network of privately funded video serveillance in every store and the ubiquitous in urban areas traffic cameras at every intersection and at regular intervals on the highway?
Re:Standard Waste of Our Tax $ (Score:2)
PS: I never said that everything is still fine and dandy. On the contrary, I'm very worried we're way too far down the hill already.
Re:Standard Waste of Our Tax $ (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Standard Waste of Our Tax $ (Score:2)
It's my fault if I put anything on the social sites that could be used against me in the future
That brings up an interesting question, though. Your example of the bank robbers posting pictures of their crimes is something that could be used against them today. But what if you post information that's legally/socially benign today, but can be used against you in the future? It gets stored in your "permanent record" for some time, but then later resurfaces at a time when it _can_ be used against you?
Pro
Re:Standard Waste of Our Tax $ (Score:2)
Re:Standard Waste of Our Tax $ (Score:2)
What I mean is, if NSA or the police is using the data
Re:Standard Waste of Our Tax $ (Score:2)
Re:Standard Waste of Our Tax $ (Score:3, Interesting)
The current administration wants to "protect the children" by not only disallowing teenage tramps to not post pictures online, but legal consenting adults to not be able to post alluring pictures online either. We've gone from one extreme to the other. When can we get a reasonable, level-headed moderate? The more I think about the current administration, the more reasonable I think that libertarians are, because they're all about personal responsibility. Compared to
Re:Standard Waste of Our Tax $ (Score:3, Interesting)
The amount of influence the man on the street has over policy is basically microscopic.
On the other hand, before you write off our system as a failure, compare life in America over life in other countries. Surely most of us would rather live under our system of government than that of, say, Saudi Arabia or China. Even Europe has huge disadvantages over the American system, with its dec
Re:Standard Waste of Our Tax $ (Score:3, Informative)
From various objective standards the US is in decline relative to not only Europe, but also Japan and China. China is a less desireable place to live, but they are changing in a positive direction, while the US is changing in a negative direction. Will the qualities meet? Will China become superior? This is partially determined by
Re:Standard Waste of Our Tax $ (Score:3, Informative)
I'll agree with you about the proportion of male children in China being a significant negative factor, and raise you that it will decrease social stability over the next few decades. China is still improving as a place to live.
A declining population is not a negative sign, not as long as a civilization is above the long term carrying capacity of it's area. How it gets deal
Re:Standard Waste of Our Tax $ (Score:2)
There will be alot of unrelatable accounts for one person, I expect to read articles telling me the spooks are tracking 10 trillion people on the net, and have managed to connect M.Moore to OBL with less than six "go betweens".
Re:Standard Waste of Our Tax $ (Score:2)
Two Words: Chilling Effect (Score:5, Insightful)
The communist block's secret police didn't always have the indiscriminate brutality of Stalin's black cars and summary executions. It eventually evolved into something more "subtle": the widespread idea that somewhere they have a dossier of what you've said and who you've associated with. That even if you don't land in the Gulag (but then again, you might land there anyway) for going drinking again with comrade Piotr who speaks against the government, there'll be a page in your dossier for ever flagging you as sharing Piotr's subversive views. And it someday might bite you in the ass. E.g., maybe some day you won't get a promotion, or the party's approval to go abroad (on business or holyday), or whatever, just because somewhere there's a page in your dossier saying you're a subversive element and associate with traitors.
Now they didn't have the computers or manpower to actually do that on anywhere near the scale NSA is doing it, so the probability was really low, but the chilling effect was thorough anyway. People didn't want to take risks, so they tended to shut up.
But the effect was more perverse than that. Anyone who openly spoke against the government was seen as a potential agent provocateur, trying to bait you into saying something that'll come back to haunt you later. It's the most perverse thing you can do to prevent organized resistance: make sure that people don't trust each other. The guy shouting against the government might be paid by the government, or may be someone who has a petty grudge against you and tries to get you to say something you might regret.
Basically, the the most effective threats don't have to be explicit, but vague and implicit. People don't have to know that the government will swiftly come and send them to Guantanamo for speaking against it. The most effective threat is to just have everyone know that you know everything they did and everyone they associated with, that it's for ever attached to their file somewhere, and they don't know how or when you'll use it. Maybe you'll go for direct retaliation, or maybe their son won't be able to get a government scholarship/job/whatever because of what they said, or whatever. That unknown can pretty chilling while costing very little to maintain. (A lot less than trying to execute everyone who disaggrees, and creates less martyrs.)
And all this mining phone calls and social sites (a lot do have personal information, e.g., dating sites) has the potential to create a chilling effect of epic proportions. Is John speaking out against the new fascist government? Well, then better make sure you're not on his friends list or calling him every week. You don't want to have _that_ on your file, now do you? If you're an employer, better get rid of him on your own, because otherwise, you know, that relationship goes on your file too. Plus, you know they'll make a connection every time he calls you to take a sick day, or you call him to ask why the server isn't up. Better not risk losing a fat government contract just because you're associating with and employing undesirables.
Does that have to be accurate and filtered clean of character assassination bullshit? No, it's probably better if it isn't. Might get some people thinking they already have plenty of bogus or inaccurate stuff on their file anyway, so all the more reason not to add real stuff to it too. Better keep low and try not to trip their radar, than have to explain which stuff is bogus and which isn't
MOD PARENT UP (Score:2)
Re:Standard Waste of Our Tax $ (Score:2)
Re:Standard Waste of Our Tax $ (Score:2)
This makes me want to start writing a story from the first-person perspective of a fictional terrorist. An ideal way to go about it would be to create a MySpace account, and the story would reference this "diary" where the terrorist would be posting "coded messages" to his fel
scewing their data (Score:3, Insightful)
In fact, you probably already broke the law just for posting an article counseling how to obstruct the NSA datamining program.
Someone is here on a visa or is an illegal alien? They should certainly be tracked. Legal citizens? Recognize that they have inalienable essential liberties which are guaranteed by the Constitution, and using the War Powers Act to try to justify your actions is
Re:Standard Waste of Our Tax $ (Score:3, Insightful)
That said, I do hope they use a little common sense and realize that profiles and other statements on the internet may be wildly inaccurate. And this is one more occassion to remind users that they should post nothing that they wouldn't want just anyone to see.
I am Jack Bauer (Score:2)
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Welcome to.. (Score:5, Interesting)
The NSA's been intercepting & analysing any communications it can get its hands on since its inception.
Nothing new here, and its been going on since long before 1984 (although george was smart seeing it coming in '48).
Re:Welcome to.. (Score:2)
Re:Welcome to.. (Score:3, Insightful)
In 1984, I think you could not turn off the TV. In 2006, you can turn off your computer and TV and go outside.
You are not spied on inside your house without cause, but posting on the internet is like putting a big sign up in your front yard with information availalable to the public in general. If you don't like people reading your public information, don't post online or be ca
Re:Welcome to.. (Score:2)
The proles were not spied on and did not have the telescreen, but were happy (bread and circuses) and didn't care one way or the other about politics.
Party members at large were spied on, had telecreens and could turn the sound down but could not turn them off.
Inner power members (our analog would be elected officials at higher levels) could turn their telecreens off and were corrupt to the core.
Jus
Re:Welcome to.. (Score:2)
George Orwell
Just not feeling it today... (Score:3, Insightful)
You know, as much as I'd like to get all worked up about this issue and fire off another foamy-mouthed diatribe about the pervasiveness of government surveillance, Big Brother, etc., etc., I'm having difficulty justifying it. After all, this information is being posted out there, specifically for others to view. If you put a sign in your front yard declaring how much you hate the government, you shouldn't act too surprised when the government reads it.
Re:Just not feeling it today... (Score:2)
Re:Just not feeling it today... (Score:2)
What do you mean by "... should be a friend of a friend or attend OSU..."? As far as I know, I can do a name search on Facebook for whomever I want and read whatever I want from their profile page. Anything you put on Facebook is *public* information and should be treated as such. I've already seen articles in my local paper about hiring officers using alumni e-mail addresses to look at what a [startribune.com]
Re:Just not feeling it today... (Score:4, Interesting)
If you put a sign in your front yard declaring how much you hate the government, you shouldn't act too surprised when the government reads it.
True... but if you put personal data up on the Internet for everyone to see, hoping to attract like-minded individuals and get your personal ideas and beliefs out into the main stream, you really don't expect the Federal Government to take that information, process, and try to link you to nefarious doings, do you? Mind you, I think it's a poor idea to put too much correct personal information out there, because it's not just government snoops you have to worry about. Still, given the fact that it's easy to string together unrelated information to make a plausible case (prosecutors do this a lot), you have to wonder just how the Feds might misinterpret your information and calim your involvement in something you have nothing to do with. Remember, we interned Japanese-Americans during WWII, not because they were spies, but just because of their Japanese ancestry.
Re:Just not feeling it today... (Score:4, Insightful)
When I was in high school in the late 60s (yes, I'm THAT old) we knew that pictures were being taken of all of us at the anti-war rallies. For those of us on a stage from time to time, we were pretty darn sure we weren't going to be allowed to run for governor any time soon.
Yes, but those pictures would be placed in a physical file, then dumped in a filing cabinet somewhere, to languish and moulder until someone thought to try and use the data in it for some purpose, where they would have to drag it out, collate and coordinate it with data from god-knows how many other files.
We're talking the use of high-speed computers running efficient data mining algorithms which could potentially sift through billions of pieces of data and track trends in matters of hours, not weeks or months. Not to mention, data would constantly be added, and the trends updated on a daily basis. And you wouldn't be going to any rallies to have this done to you -- it could swept out of your blog or right off your personal MySpace page. And even though you haven't a traitorous bone in your body, these data mining algorithms could link your data to the data gleaned from others and create what amounts to a case that you're party to something you're not.
Think of the recommendations Amazon makes when you purchase something: they track trends in the purchase of items, and make suggestions about other items that others have purchased when they purchased the item you've selected. Now take that and expand it.
Re:Just not feeling it today... (Score:2, Insightful)
People in power want to stay in power. Information is power. The fact that it is more easily attainable and sortable and searchable tha
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Just not feeling it today... (Score:2)
Assuming your American, your government is spending money gathering data in the name of terrorism from MySpace?
Look, they are spending money You gave to them. Your comment is like saying you can't get fired up at government workers for playing solitaire all day because the computer they were provided has it pre-installed.
Of course you can!!!!
Re:Just not feeling it today... (Score:2)
Re:Just not feeling it today... (Score:2)
Yes, but if FBI agents start amassing in groups outside your house reading and pointing at your sign there's something wrong.
Many actions, especially many of those performed by the government has to be judged more by their potential for misuse than for their potential use.
Re:Just not feeling it today... (Score:2)
This intrusive goose-stepping must stop.
The New COINTELPRO (Score:5, Interesting)
This is scary. Just because this information is out there doesn't mean the government should datamine it or act on it. Even in public, one has a reasonable assumption that one won't be stalked or spied upon. Besides, this is a complete waste of resources that could go to doing soemthign effective to fight terrorism. But the powers that be honestly don't want that. If you are selling security, you have to make sure people feel insecure.
Re:The New COINTELPRO (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:The New COINTELPRO (Score:3, Insightful)
He didn't say "expectation of privacy", he said "reasonable assumption that one won't be stalked or spied upon." These are very different things. I don't expect to be able to walk around naked in a bank and scratch myself in front of the customer service re
Re:Just not feeling it today... (Score:2)
seriously some guys with black helicoptors could be flying around any time now. and the worst thing I've done is speak vocally against all the crappy censorship that people use all the time. i'm willing to bet that the fbi was monitoring all my internet traffic the past week, luckily i just got a virus. meh it was doing all kinds of crazy stuff >_.
oh well.
Re:Just not feeling it today... (Score:2)
People can't live free if everything they do in public is scrutinized and recorded by their government (or every employer) f
Re:Just not feeling it today... (Score:2)
Re:Just not feeling it today... (Score:2)
Yeah, I see what you're saying.. the information is in a public forum.
My main problem isn't that they're legally able to do this, but that they feel the need to collect as much information as possible on every person on earth.
I wouldn't feel comfortable being trailed by government
Re:Just not feeling it today... (Score:2)
Except everyone else walking by my yard doesn't have access to my bank accounts, credit history, phone records, tax forms, airplane travel, etc. All that private stuff that no one has any business in seeing. As far as I'm concerned: "no one" includes any governmental entity that doesn't directly deal with that information.
Sure, the IRS has business in my tax forms but not my bank accounts.
Sure, the FDIC has
First Post (Score:5, Funny)
And what has the NSA learned from this?
That I'm a lazy, self-aggrandizing slashdot reader with way too much time on my hands.
Re:First Post (Score:2, Funny)
Re:First Post (Score:4, Funny)
with way too much time on my hands
That's nothing! You should see what they're finding in MY hands on the internet!
Less false positives? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Less false positives? (Score:2)
Re:Less false positives? (Score:2)
Facebook (Score:2)
Hey I like it! (Score:5, Funny)
I have no problem with it (Score:2, Insightful)
How many times have you heard myspace on the news in a negative way? (except for "on the money", where they talk about how much it's worth) I don't mind it (NSA doing the datamining), being that you voluntarily post your information.
Public info (Score:5, Insightful)
But this does absolutely nothing for national security - which is the namesake of the agency. If a hate site goes up and government starts watching it to see if they're promoting violence, then fine. But creating profiles of everyone online is pointless. I'm sure they already have systems that scour the web and raise red flags. But putting my name and profile into a database at the NSA does nothing to aid security (I promise
Re:Public info (Score:2)
Re:Public info (Score:2)
Men acting as women online must be gay. Gayness is a threat to marriage. Any threat to marriage is a threat to our national security. C'mon, get with the program!
Re:Public info (Score:3, Insightful)
I've got a terrorist repellant rock that's worked just as well, it's even driven all the terrorists to Canada.
Re:Public info (Score:2)
This would be unreliable (Score:5, Insightful)
or am I missing something?
Re:This would be unreliable (Score:2)
This is why we're fighting against REAL ID as well (Score:5, Insightful)
Add in RFID chipped drivers licenses (not to mention the new passports which DO use RFID), and you have the making of a complete "We know who you are, who you hang out with, and where you were last night" totalitarian tracking system.
This is why many of us are moving to New Hampshire, joining the http://freestateproject.org/ [freestateproject.org], and working against these things. We nearly stopped New Hampshire from participating in REALID (the Republican Senators are selling out the state for a mere $3 million...) and we're not done yet.
Re:This is why we're fighting against REAL ID (Score:3, Informative)
We had a wide range of supporters, Left and Right, Atheist and Christian, all working together to help stop this....
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=830740502
Re:This is why we're fighting against REAL ID as w (Score:3, Interesting)
How do you sleep at night, NSA workers? (Score:4, Interesting)
Seriously, as a citizen of this great country, I couldn't sleep at night if I were personally responsible in some way for collecting and aggregating this information.
Re:How do you sleep at night, NSA workers? (Score:3, Insightful)
I know a guy who applied to the NSA. I don't know whether he got in, but I've known him since high school. He was a math major in college, played a lot of D&D, Lord of the Five Rings, Warhammer 40k, and World of Warcraft. For all intents and purposes he was completey apolitical. He thought he was a paga
Myspace (Score:5, Funny)
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Yes, because terrorists use MySpace (Score:2)
I rather doubt that Osama bin Laden has a MySpace too, his idea of crimes against humanity are usually a bit grandiose...
In all seriousness, there's a lot that can be learned from online communities. Jihadi groups are as wired as any other group, and learning how social networks develop online helps determine how jihadi bulletin boards and websites connect with terrorist cells worldwide. Terrorist groups like al-Qaeda also recruit online more and more these days, and being able to stop that will be of gre
Re:Yes, because terrorists use MySpace (Score:2)
As I often suggest in slippery-slope discussions, perhaps we should actively encourage this sort of behaviour by the government. It's going to happen anyway: power corrupts, sheeple are naive, and all that. But the sooner it gets to the point that the average voter in the street sees the dangers, rather than just those who believe in civil liberties and scrutinise government actions, the sooner the popular feeling will start to turn against it.
Then the media will pick it up, and government popularity will
Osama does! (Score:3, Funny)
Why, just today, in fact. See [myspace.com]?
Potential terrorists _should_ use MySpace (Score:2)
(Shit, I just Googled "jihad virgins" 'cause I couldn't remember the number. Am I in trouble now?)
It's an ideal solution (Score:2)
We should all be relieved! (Score:2)
We should expect that actually. (Score:5, Interesting)
I got worked up about this a while ago and the hard truth is that free speech is just that --free! We all are big kids and have spoken on the Internet. If what we have written is defensible, then we can expect to live by it. Those of us older school netizens are very likely to understand this and post accordingly. I honestly worry about the current generation however. It's difficult to differentiate casual speech where feelings are expressed in less than flattering ways from more serious speech with some measure of intent behind it.
Which again brings me back to some worry where this administration is concerned. The fact that they are looking to do this because they can suggests to me the motivation is less than pure. Honestly, why bother unless there is some benefit to all of us for doing it. Afterall we are the ones paying the bill.
We, as a people, are reaching a general state of unrest --and we've got reasons for that. The Internet empowers us to trancend the ordinary media channels and exercize our role in ways that make established power channels nervous. Real change brings with it some accountability for those gaming the system toward their own ends. Given their position, this is a perfectly logical reaction.
A government doing the right things, that has the high ground where justifying it's actions is concerned, has little reason for efforts like this. Take this as strong evidence this is not the case with our current leadership.
So, even though we have all spoken on the net and technically should not worry because it's all legal, I say there is some cause for worry for the accountability factor. (Not us, our leadership.)
Here's the takeaway: If you want to speak, in this connected day and age, on matters of government, you had better make sure what you write is defensible and that you have the high ground in your convictions. If not, you will be marginalized at some time in the future if your activities merit the effort. That sucks, but that's gonna be the way it is until such time as we elect a solid government that will modify existing legislation to keep such activities in check. Trust me, this particular one is just not ever going to do that.
The good news, IMHO, is that this same connected power that puts us in an exposed position also permits us to work together toward solid reform that is in our best interests! Best to take serious advantage of that now, before the advantage is lost, or legislated away. Is there no longer any doubt about the true intent of net neutrality? Sure, money is the big driver here, but so is speech! The blogs, for better or worse, have made complete fools of the established media channels and a growing number of people grok that now. (Why the hell did it take so long?)
We see our attorney general saying he is open to the idea of prosecution for whistle blowers, our President and Vice have claimed to be above the law and cloak pretty much everything in secrecy, our global actions are more self-serving than ever, recent court appointees are screened for their deference to established power channels, and our expectation of privacy is being marginalized under the ruse of greater security. (God damm it, a whole lotta people have no fucking backbone!) --And there is more, but hey --I've gotta work you know?
Show me some benefit and I'll ignore this whole thing. Until then, it's probably safe to say this will be used to marginalize any potential challengers to the current status quo politically.
Despite this, I personally will continue to speak. Our speech lies at the core of our freedom. Stay quiet and all is lost. Join me, put aside your fear they cultivate and speak your mind --just be sure it's true and just. --eventually we all will be better for it, IMHO.
Re:We should expect that actually. (Score:2)
ECHELON was a Clinton era problem, don't blame W for this intrusion because you don't like his politics. Dems and Pubs have reduced your freedom for years.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/12/19/1148 07.shtml [newsmax.com]
And what some call prosecution of whistle blowers, others call revealing state secrets or treasonous behavior. The spy program you say was "above the law" was briefed to congressmen of both parties and nobody raised the issue. Dems came out against spying on terrorists only after the news broke
Thank you NSA!!! (Score:2)
I want to see a contest. (Score:2, Interesting)
I want it all to point to some abandoned house that's supposedly a terrorist cell.
I want a webcam and computer to snap a picture of NSA agents busting in, and then print
them out a little message :
"Stop domestic spying. Stop hurting America with your un-American actions. Stand up. Do
something. Speak out."
please stop the terrorists! (Score:2)
Little known fact: he posted a bulletin on his Myspace page inviting his friends over for a barbeque.
Even provided a link to google maps so they could find his place.
Next they're going to look at his top 8 to crack down on the rest of Al Quaeda.
It's only a matter of time before the war on terror is over, thanks to this datamining of Myspace.
Man, today is just a bad news day. (Score:2)
I have to wonder what having a massive databank of emo kid profiles is go
What about friends who post your information? (Score:2, Insightful)
I for one ... (Score:3, Funny)
Why is this a big thing? (Score:4, Interesting)
Seriously, the issue is not the NSA is doing this. The issue is the NSA appears to be doing this from publically available information. Or, as the first line of the article puts it:
"I AM continually shocked and appalled at the details people voluntarily post online about themselves." So says Jon Callas, chief security officer at PGP, a Silicon Valley-based maker of encryption software.
Monkey see, monkey do (Score:2)
Its bad enough we have pedos and all sorts of unsavory people browsing myspace looking for people to exploit. Now the government wants in on the action too.
ZING!
Finding the bad guys (Score:3, Interesting)
Why? (Score:2, Interesting)
Federal Profiles (Score:3, Interesting)
As-if the federal gov't didn't already have personal information about all of it's citizens and most non-citizens. I mean come on guys - let's not spin another scare tactic. Social Security numbers - the fed has access to your criminal records, financial records, work records, purchase records, etc. This has been the case for many many years - way before the Internet.
This is nothing new. The only thing we need to do is to make sure the gov't does not misuse the information. Yes there are cases where it has been misused, and in instances where it was maliciously done so we should punish the culprits so heavily as to scare the crap out of any would-be evil-doer. In the case of accident, fix the mistake and put in prevantative measures.
Good news (Score:2)
MySpace Data Mining (Score:2)
Better delete my "m4d_sk1llz_terr0rist201" profile (Score:2)
-Eric
I don't see a tremendous issue here. (Score:2)
The misinformation that is out there will need to be dealt with; statistical analysis can not yield to-the-person accurate data 100% of the time, but it can yield a wealth of other information.
To deny our own government permission to look at (or even examine in detail) anything that is by definition public is tantamount to insisting that our government conduct all of its affa
, but I don't have a social networking account! (Score:2)
Re:Not so cowardly now are we? (Score:2)
Mr. Coward,
Please remain at the registered missle address for 66.35.250.150 for another three minutes.
Re:Won't someone think of the children???? (Score:3, Interesting)
I think there are two aspects to this. The first is the mining if information which is subvertly obtained. An example of this is the ATT monitoring case - this is not appropriate and assumes everyone guilty. As to your point, most people I talk to don't mind this because "they have nothing to hide". Get real, sure you may have nothing to hide, yet. What guarantees do you have that the powers that be won't dictate "X" as an unsuitable activity. We should absolutely not teach our children that