Book Reviews
Recent reviews from Slashdot readers:
- Advanced Excel for Scientific Data Analysis Learn to turn Excel into something that rivals Mathematica using VBA, brains, and a heaping helping of fortitude.(Jack Herrington's review.)
- Nagios 3 Enterprise Network Monitoring A great book for anyone using Nagios as more than a casual user.(jgoguen's review.)
- Schneier on Security Schneier argues that security is not something you can buy; it is something you must get.(Ben Rothke's review.)
Submitting a review for consideration is easy; please first read Slashdot's book review guidelines. Updated: 2008114 by samzenpus
6289275
story
Comments: 125 +- Your Rights Online: Details On Worldwide Surveillance and Filtering on Wednesday October 07, @06:57PM
Posted
by
samzenpus
on Wednesday October 07, @06:57PM
from the eyes-eyes-eveywhere dept.
from the eyes-eyes-eveywhere dept.
background: url(//a.fsdn.com/sd/topics/topiccensorship.gif); width:44px; height:55px;
censorship
background: url(//a.fsdn.com/sd/topics/topicgovt.gif); width:57px; height:80px;
government
background: url(//a.fsdn.com/sd/topics/topicsecurity.gif); width:59px; height:78px;
security
background: url(//a.fsdn.com/sd/topics/topicinternet.gif); width:70px; height:73px;
internet
background: url(//a.fsdn.com/sd/topics/topicit.gif); width:75px; height:61px;
it
An anonymous reader writes "Help Net Security is running an interview with Rafal Rohozinski, a founder and principal investigator of the OpenNet Initiative, which investigates, exposes and analyzes Internet filtering and surveillance practices all over the world. Rafal provides insight on the process of assessing the state of surveillance and filtering in a particular country and discusses differences related to these issues in several regions, touching especially the United States and Europe. In the US, censorship is more difficult to implement if for no other reason than the court systems offer greater protections for freedom of speech. However, in both places surveillance is on the rise particularly as law-enforcement agencies become more adept at working in the cyber domain."
Related Stories
: by
Without followers, evil cannot spread.
-- Spock, "And The Children Shall Lead", stardate 5029.5
All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. Comments are owned by the Poster. The Rest © 1997-2010 Geeknet, Inc.
Just Remember. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
You forgot pedophiles! The internet is filled with old creepy men who want to have sex with young girls and boys! I saw it on the news!
Re:Just Remember. (Score:5, Funny)
Really? I thought those was US congressmen!
Shennanigans in the cloakroom, Shennanigans in the bathroom, Shennanigans on the internet just seems logical!
They want the cameras so they can spy on us naked! Those pervs!
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
That's right! There's noth8ing worse than naked pervs sitting in front of their computers watching surveillance tapes.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
That's because they already fuck us over. Why would we want to go through that again?
Re:Just Remember. (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re:Just Remember. (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
I am Jesus (Score:3, Insightful)
and I command you to stop using table-based layouts!
Hey, if you can't disprove it, it must be true!
Re:Just Remember. (Score:4, Funny)
Fixed... no charge.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
phew.. For a minute there, I thought I was in trouble or something. Thank god my van is blue.
I'm not a pedophile but I was thinking I just got labeled as one when I shovel the snow in the winter time or go hunting from my blind.
Re: (Score:2)
> Thank god my van is blue.
I refer you to suspiciousvans.com [suspiciousvans.com]. As the first image says, "Free Candy!"
Re: (Score:2)
I had a good laugh at that site. Some of those vans make you wonder though.
My van isn't pictured there so I guess I'm good. Mine looks a lot like this one [kingsusedkars.com] except it has a sliding door on the side and a TV antenna in the shape of a V on the top of the cab portion in front of the two front windows of the raised portion. Oh and my van is blue and gold, the guy who owned it before me was a West Virginia football fan and had it custom painted for that reason.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Nice job going for the cheap +5 (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
>> The US has taken a few steps backward since 9-11 - but it still has greater protections over free expression than any other country of which I am aware.
You must not be aware of at least six other countries then, since the US ranked 7th over-all in the 2006 State of World Liberty Index (www.stateofworldliberty.org), and one should reasonably doubt the USA has moved up the scale since.
nor a credible citation (Score:5, Insightful)
"The State of World Liberty Project was founded in 2006 by Nick Wilson, an activist and co-founder of the Libertarian Reform Caucus, an organization working to turn the United States Libertarian Party into a viable political party."
Their compiled list is nonsensical at best, and relies primarily on nebulous ratings of "economic freedom" from well known right wing political groups - like the Heritage Foundation.
Also note, that if you discount the economic figures, the top dozen or so countries are scored closely enough to lack any statistical significance.
And the economic figures are all based on taxation - since libertarians have never met a tax they liked.
Further - without being intimately familiar with the culture of each country, I could not honestly evaluate them - and it's glaringly obvious that no effort was made to do so on the site you are promoting.
So in summary, you're flinging out weak, biased data to support a conclusion you've reached without making any reasonable effort to ascertain the actual facts.
I still remain unaware of any specific country with greater overall freedom than the US.
Nothing you've posted could rationally be expected to alter that fact.
Parent
Re:nor a credible citation (Score:4, Insightful)
Tell it to the Dixie Chicks.
Of course, now you're going to say that it wasnt the *government* which tried to censor them, it was just people who didn't like what they had to say. Sigh. A nation that turns to censorship every time someone says something they don't like is destined to become a police state.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Ok, I see your point. We don't run out and buy the records of people we don't like, we don't go to their movies so that's censorship?
You sir are a raving loon!
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Wow.. either you're incredibly naive or you're just a trolling idiot. The point is not that people who disagreed with the Dixie Chicks refused to buy their records.. that's exactly what George W. Bush said and why everyone with a clue hung their head in shame. The point is, people who *agreed* with the Dixie Chicks were unable to buy their records or their movies or hear them on the radio or see them on tv, because the people who disagreed had arranged for them to be banned. Surely you remember all this?
Re: (Score:2)
I take it you haven't visited Canada or Sweden in this millennium?
Re:Nice job going for the cheap +5 (Score:5, Informative)
Both Canada and Sweden have significant restrictions on what can be said in public.
They do this is the guise of protecting against "hate speech."
Parent
Re:Nice job going for the cheap +5 (Score:5, Interesting)
As opposed to the complete joke that is FOIA in the US, and the Patriot Act? The various porn regulations in the US, capriciously decided on a state-by-state basis? The DMCA? Software patents? Disney and the insanely extendend copyright laws? The very strange regulations in the US about publication of encryption technologies? "Hate speech" is an understandable concern both for crime prevention, and for free speech reasons. But in my opinion as an outsider, both Canada and Sweden are noticeably better about it.
For US citizens, the McCarthy era is still in living memory, for some of us. So are the 1960's and their repression of anti-Vietnam speech. I like to think we've progressed, and the Internet is very useful for getting around the current round of restrictions. But make no mistake, they still happen, sometimes in new guises.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Wow, I can't believe you got modded up for that snibbling rant. All you did was criticize some programs way out of context as if you didn't understand them and bark about something that happened, was ended, and everyone agrees should never happen again.
The 60's are over, we have all moved on and no one things they should return. McCarthyism is long dead and will not resurrect in out lifetime and it's pointless to drag out FOIA, DMCA, Software patents and so on. The DMCA and Software patents do not limit spe
Re:Nice job going for the cheap +5 (Score:4, Insightful)
Perhaps not in the form of protecting us from communists but it will undoubtedly come back in one form or another. With complacency like yours it will come back even quicker.
The DMCA makes it illegal to publish an entirely open source DVD player. It effectively grants a limitless patent to the DVD CCA which controls who can make a DVD player and under what conditions. Software patents limit my ability to publish ideas I developed on my own having never heard of an obvious submarine patent that will bar me from publishing my software.
What makes you so sure the protesters did that? COINTELPRO was an FBI program in which agents infiltrated protest groups and started riots to make the group look bad, and to give the authorities an excuse to interfere with the group's free-speech rights.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
McCarthyism is long dead and will not resurrect in out lifetime
Absolutely correct. Communism was a somewhat defined enemy that more-or-less went away after the USSR collapsed. On the other hand, "terrorism" is a much more handy nebulous enemy that can be used to ruin people's careers, freeze their assets, prevent them from traveling, and so forth, without the pesky problem of having the enemy ever disappear. Even better, we can just round up people (including US citizens) who have backgrounds and names that sound Muslim with the choice of imprisoning and possibly tortu
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Swedish army (FRA) is snooping practically every packet going out of Finland.
BTW, Slahsdot does not have ssl connection ...
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
It's interesting that you perceive the parent post as an attack on your country, not on a general mentality.
Re:Nice job going for the cheap +5 (Score:4, Insightful)
But I find the US none the less more scary for the ways they back up this surveillance.
As a single example, can you name a single western style democratic country where the government can legally set up and maintain something like Gitmo?
And the lack of recourse, for example no or hardly no limits on the retention of data or (well communicated) ways to be informed about what agencies store about you and how to appeal.
Or the way pieces of sensitive legislation are sneaked through by tacking it to big non related bills.
Don't get me wrong, I really like many aspects of the US but when it comes to perceived security risks it's still exhibiting 'Old West' policies of 'shoot first, talk later'.
Parent
Oblig XKCD (Score:4, Funny)
Oblig XKCD [xkcd.com]
Now and then, I announce "I know you're listening" to empty rooms.
If I'm wrong, no one knows. And If I'm right, maybe I just freaked the hell out of some secret organization.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
http://xkcd.com/538/ [xkcd.com]
I think that's more appropriate.
Re: (Score:2)
That wrench probably cost at least $50
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
That's a funny strip, but it doesn't really apply to mass surveillance/filtering. It's actually a lot cheaper to build a (multi-) million-dollar supercomputer to filter/analyze day to day internet traffic than to actually send goons out with $5 wrenches to beat the information out of hundreds of millions of people (on a daily basis).
Tor, email anonymizers and encryption (Score:5, Insightful)
* Yes I know that this is not as secure as keeping your crypto keys on your own hardware, but it goes a hell of a lot further than any current methods do, and would require a lot of resources on the part of the government to break across the board (e.g. a targeted attack would work, but if they are going to the effort of targeting an individual they are going to break the crypto anyway, perhaps using the drugs+wrench method).
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
> The majority of people, however, do not care as much about thwarting efforts at surveillance as they do about convenience
That, or they just don't know or understand the issues. To most people, computers are magic.
But yeah, I agree with your basic point. We already have the ability to make this a non-issue, and we're not doing it.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Even then, convenience, as the parent mentioned, is a huge factor. How many of you set up user accounts on family member's machines, telling them "Do not surf the net or do anything else with the admin account EXCEPT install software YOU choose or other administrative functions!" only to have them use the admin account
Re:Tor, email anonymizers and encryption (Score:5, Insightful)
And that's why unauthenticated encryption should be the default, for everything (email, web, etc). That's something people can do without understanding anything, and frustrates surveillance immensely, even if it doesn't rigorously prevent it. And then, if they care and can learn, they can securely exchange keys to get authenticated encryption.
Sure, the masses would be MitM vulnerable, but right now they're even worse off, and can be effortlessly sniffed.
Shame on the FF3 team.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
If you go to that link, mouse over the comic to see the ACTUAL actual reality of the situation http://xkcd.com/538/ [xkcd.com]
Moving (Score:3, Insightful)
Argh! This country and it's lack of privacy! Big government! I've had it with america! Land of the free indeed! I'm moving to europe!
How do the United States compare to Europe in regards to surveillance and filtering?
Certainly there seems to be more momentum these days towards regulation in Europe. This is prompted by concerns over child welfare and exploitation, and also the perceived danger from radical militant groups. Europe also tends to be more of a surveillance society, particularly the UK. In the US, censorship is more difficult to implement if for no other reason than the court systems offer greater protections for freedom of speech.
Wait... we're doing something right? Yes! WOO! AMERICA NUMBER ONE! LAND OF THE FREE!
[Making fun of myself here, I've often read articles on the sad state of privacy in the US and thought "I quit, totally moving at the next available opportunity." If I'm being honest, I would have to describe myself as a fairweather fan of the US.]
"They" don't give a damn about the law (Score:5, Insightful)
In the US, censorship is more difficult to implement if for no other reason than the court systems offer greater protections for freedom of speech.
In the US, there are big telecommunication carriers who illegally spy on American citizens, and they go scot-free. The law is a weak line of defense when the government colludes against it. When the "leaders" have set their minds on something, it's going to happen. Laws will be changed, circumvented and ignored. There must be a strong factual defense line. In the case of communication that's cryptography, privacy enhancing routing protocols, redundancy and networks in the hands of the people.
Unnecessary surveillance? (Score:5, Informative)
Sit in chat rooms, forums and social networking sites trying to connect nerds and geeks in pics to real life.
The interesting part is the push for IP to home address without warrant in Canada and no court needed sneak and peek 'try before you raid' bureaucratic options.
My view is the deep fear of random flash mobs on any given topic. The more cops can just watch, the more they can build connections into protest groups.
The problem is they are still playing from the Stasi handbook.
If you have so many people willing to face jail, Iraq fresh "cops", baton charges, gassing, tasering, FIT units, Long Range Acoustic Device (L-RAD), no fly lists for life and military fusion state and federal databases, its too late
If they want control back, do a cold war USA or West Germany.
Sedate the peasants with low wage jobs, cheap cars, short cheap holidays, cheap housing, free speech for all and the dream of a better life.
If they are chasing beads and mirrors all day, no need for tanks in the streets.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes. Let us sedate the peasants by giving them what they want! We have discovered what's important to them and now we are giving it to them! Now we are in control, so long as we cater to their needs! How terribly EVIL of me! Mwhahahahaha!
Re:Unnecessary surveillance? (Score:5, Interesting)
Sit in chat rooms, forums and social networking sites trying to connect nerds and geeks in pics to real life.
There are times when I wonder if the chat room nerd has any anchorage in real life.
That is the danger: Caught in the web [theage.com.au] [Oct 1]
My view is the deep fear of random flash mobs on any given topic. The more cops can just watch, the more they can build connections into protest groups.
The geek as revolutionary is ripe for satire.
I'm not convinced he could draw a crowd if he were handing out free beer in Munich during the Oktoberfest. Free Software Foundation - Windows 7 Sins [youtube.com]
Sedate the peasants with low wage jobs, cheap cars, short cheap holidays, cheap housing, free speech for all and the dream of a better life. If they are chasing beads and mirrors all day, no need for tanks in the streets.
It's really quite easy to spot the losers in the American political game: Embittered, cynical, and with bottomless contempt for the masses.
Parent
Kudos to samzenpus for this one... (Score:4, Interesting)
Knowing What Not to Say. (Score:5, Funny)
ah, the Internet... (Score:5, Funny)
...where men are women, women are men, and little girls are FBI agents running honeypots...
South America (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't see any discussion of South America. There is almost no serious Internet censorship in any of the countries. Most have higher political and economic priorities over trying to be thought police of their citizens. I suspect that most of the monitoring going on is really related to true national security issues, not simply trying to control and manipulate the populations.
About a week ago Chile tried to introduce a law in to congress that would require ISPs to monitor and cancel accounts of users for P2P content. It was shot down with only 1 vote in favor in congress. Try that in the U.S. or European countries? Even if it was not constitutional, you would still see some right-wing "save the children" type try vote for it in mass and not even bother reading it.