Senate Wants Database Dragnet 249
Doc Ruby writes "Wired reports that the "Senate could pass a bill as early as Wednesday evening that would let government counter-terrorist investigators instantly query a massive system of interconnected commercial and government databases that hold billions of records on Americans".
This is different? (Score:2)
Re:This is different? (Score:2)
It has a different name. That means it's for freedom! Won't somebody think of reducing the burden on middle-class children?
Easy. (Score:2, Insightful)
Other than that nothing much else is different.
Re:This is different? (Score:2, Funny)
Total information awareness? (Score:4, Insightful)
I've resisted wearing my tinfoil hat, now I'm wearing one, and putting one around all my personal information as well.
Re:Total information awareness? (Score:2)
We've got two choices, freedom or security (Score:2, Insightful)
Let's decide if this is a good thing.
Q:Whom is this database going to be accessible by?
A: Government counter-terrorist investigators.
Q: Who are these government counter-terrorist investigators exactly? Can there simply be someone who works for the government, or do they have to have some kind of clearance?
Q: What kind of information will they have access to? Will they be able to pull up my vot
Re:We've got two choices, freedom or security (Score:2)
And wasn't it JFK who said the only thing we have to fear is fear itself?
No. it was FDR in 1933.
Re:We've got two choices, freedom or security (Score:2)
Re:FDR (Score:3, Interesting)
This is a good quote to hear from time to time as it helps to remind you, as you say, that there is no point in fearing t
Re:We've got two choices, freedom or security (Score:2)
Total freedom is anarchy. I'll sacrifice a little freedom for an orderly secure society with laws and police officers that enforce those laws.
Re:We've got two choices, freedom or security (Score:2)
Re:Total information awareness? (Score:2)
Re:Total information awareness? (Score:2)
Re:Total information awareness? (Score:3, Insightful)
billions of records? (Score:5, Funny)
would let government counter-terrorist investigators instantly query a massive system of interconnected commercial and government databases that hold billions of records on Americans
OMG! They gave the government access to google!
As I said before... (Score:4, Informative)
As I said before, don't trust any of the major parties to safeguard your privacy. This may, however, close the lack of information sharing between the agencies leading up to 9/11 that people bitched about.
Re:As I said before... (Score:2)
But would that be good?
You ever notice... (Score:3, Insightful)
I never understand why Lieberman has people cut off the bottom part of the R when they show his political affiliation.
Re:As I said before... (Score:2)
As I said before, don't trust any of the major parties to safeguard your privacy.
You qualify this statement in regards to privacy? How strange... ;-)
Re:As I said before... (Score:2)
Re:As I said before... (Score:2)
Wednesday evening? (Score:5, Funny)
Riiight (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Riiight (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, having the government inacurately querying these databases is what scares me. The last thing I want is to be scooped up in some anti-terrorist sweep because some doufus doesn't know his joins.
Of course, they'll be just as certain I'm a terrorist as they were that Saddam Hussien had vast stocks of WMD when we invaded Iraq.
Re:Riiight (Score:3, Interesting)
Simple solution (a constitutional one) (Score:3, Insightful)
Dum-Da-Dum-Dum! (Score:2, Funny)
"Cor! What about a citizen's right to privacy, flatfoot!"
"Congress and the Justice Department have given us our mandate. Your with us or your against us, ma'am."
Sounds Complicated (Score:5, Funny)
Why the urgency?! (Score:4, Funny)
Now it makes sense.
Re:Why the urgency?! (Score:2)
Re:Why the urgency?! (Score:2)
All he has to do is pick up a fucking newspaper.
Good enough? (Score:4, Interesting)
As good as it's going to get is exactly how good again?
Re:Good enough? (Score:2)
What about foreigners ? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What about foreigners ? (Score:5, Informative)
With the new SEVIS [uscis.gov] system in place, whatever little privacy you had is gone. It's mandatory for you to provide information on your current whereabouts to the authorities.
I interned at a national lab this summer, and it was mandatory for me to notify my mentor of my whereabouts - if I was leaving town, even on weekends, I had to inform him. He would call me up every three hours to find out where I was. During weekdays, I had to call him up and get his permission before leaving for lunch.
Rights? You do not have those.
United States of America ceased to be the land of the free a long long time ago.
You do not have any liberty here. Get over it. You're not wanted if you are foreign national. Your color and your race will be used against you, no matter what. I get pulled over at airports all time time because of that.
I do not blame the people, because the people are nice. But the administration and the people running the country are not.
They do not care about the principles that this country was built on. Sad.
Re:What about foreigners ? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:What about foreigners ? (Score:2)
In addition to being beyond their reach, this hurts their economy which MIGHT make some people in their government think twice about these types of initiatives.
the article mentions "protections" and other crap (Score:4, Insightful)
Who is going to audit the auditing software? Who gets to assign permissions? How can this be anonymized? Why are these just recommendations?
"The proposed network would not look for patterns in data warehouses to attempt to detect terrorist activities, Dempsey said. Instead, an investigator would start with a name and the system would try to see what information is known about that person."
Ok, so it's not a "dragnet," but a "dossier net" that just keeps a file on everybody synthesized from government and commercial data. I fail to see how this could possibly detect someone using a false name, who does not want to be found and probably doesn't use credit cards.
"The next Mohammed Atta is not going to be found in commercial databases," Griffin said, referring to the tactical leader of the 9/11 attacks. "We are going to stop him running a red light somewhere, and we are going to run relationships associations with this guy and we are going to say, gee, you have things in common with guys on watch lists. That's how you are going to find the guy -- not because he has bad credit.""
Riiiight. How many people would match up to these arbitrary watch lists? How many more middle eastern folks are gonna be pulled over again and again and questioned again and again just because their activities look something similar to someone's idea of a potential terrorist?
Is it worth it?
Re:the article mentions "protections" and other cr (Score:2)
I hope they do a better job than IRS did with their database. I heard that when the IRS database was initally deployed, it did not have permissions set and the IRS employees where able to take a look at their neighbors' tax returns.
Re:the article mentions "protections" and other cr (Score:3, Interesting)
Anyone else reminded of the overreaction to the Columbine High School shootings, where
Re:the article mentions "protections" and other cr (Score:3, Insightful)
Because it only takes one mistake. And everybody makes mistakes.
Suppose the guy you're looking for has a bank account under a fake name - all you know is the bank account number, and nothing at all about the holder. Suppose
Riiiiiight... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Riiiiiight... (Score:2)
I have a friend in my local Linux user's group who told me this story about a database screwup. Apparently, there's a dude with the same name as him in town who's a major drug dealer, and at one point the FBI had kept him under surveilance because of a mix-up. A friend of his who was in the marines was ne
Re:Riiiiiight... (Score:2)
That must be one big database (Score:3, Funny)
Re:That must be one big database (Score:4, Funny)
domestic terrorists? (Score:5, Insightful)
I always said that... (Score:4, Interesting)
Didn't http://www.google-watch.org/ say that one of Google's top people came from the Department of Defense?
Re:I always said that... (Score:2)
Search result stops. (Score:2)
Thus there is no end condition. A simple model whould be:
while(1){
}
Imagine, though if they implemented recursive routines, with a buggy stop condition. It's be years till the mistake reared itself.
Tips and Tricks? (Score:5, Interesting)
Of course we also need to figure out how to fill the database with so many fake "flags" that it becomes useless.
now where is that silver hat i usually wear?
Why? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Why? (Score:2)
The former is something that's within your actual power?
Re:Why? (Score:2)
A small person with sufficient budget can keep the governmet honest--see Ralph Nader for a great example. That same small person with the same small budget can not change everyone's mind--see Ralph Nader for a great example.
Re:Tips and Tricks? (Score:3, Funny)
Will someone please think of the karma!!!
Easy: (Score:2)
2) Pay cash for as much as possible, and don't use any "loyalty card"
3) Don't speed.
Le voila, The only info on you is your tax return, voter registration, mortgage, and utility bills, which look just like everyone else's.
Re:Easy: (Score:2)
And, they use loyalty cards... and credit cards.
You stand out like a sore thumb, because you *don't* do these things... almost like you don't want to be noticed.
So, what are you trying to hide?
Comrade.
Re:Easy: (Score:2)
Re:Tips and Tricks? (Score:2)
If you're not travelling on either business or a vacation then are you doing?? Practically everything except going to a funeral fits into one or the other!
Re:Tips and Tricks? (Score:2)
Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie - The Privacy Song
Just who is the enemy? (Score:5, Insightful)
What's wrong with this picture?
Re:Just who is the enemy? (Score:2)
Sshh! Who would keep the duct tape industry thriving if US citizens weren't beside themselves with the ol' "reds under the beds" paranoia.
Re:Just who is the enemy? (Score:5, Insightful)
It's all about control, in two senses: they're desparate to control everyone, and they can only tighten the screws on those of us they already have some control over. So, today they turn the U.S. into a police state, tomorrow the world.
Re:Just who is the enemy? (Score:3, Interesting)
I am in fact in the process of cancelling both my credit cards, because they are either paritally run by american companies, or from sub
Re:Just who is the enemy? (Score:2)
It would be OK if we could control our government (Score:2)
Again, our legal system is set up to control us proles, but we need an legal system to control the governmental leaders, managers, etc.
After we set up controls for them, then we can let them have access to this information. And they will act ethically if they know they could face life in prison or even the death penalty if they do things wrong.
last thing i heard.... (Score:4, Interesting)
are they actually admitting that america too has carried out acts of terrorism?
Try the Fletch approach... (Score:3, Informative)
Ted Nugent
Harry S Truman
John Cocktosen
If a company isinists on an SSN give them this... #078-05-1120
It's a specimen number from the Eisenhower era. Works most of the time. Happy evasions!
Re:Try the Fletch approach... (Score:2, Informative)
The first time you use your credit/debit card with your real name on it, they will modify the database to reflect your real information.
The only way to be safe is to use cash-only 100% of the time (which is a good principle to live by anyway).
Re:Try the Fletch approach... (Score:2)
Give them the finger! Unless they're going to be filing tax documents about you, they don't need it.
Just don't use "loyalty cards".
Re:Try the Fletch approach... (Score:2)
Absolute wisdom there!
Re:Try the Fletch approach... (Score:2)
I've got about 10 of them now (I don't shop at Kroger that often).
Great! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Great! (Score:2)
I almost wrecked my car, I was laughing so hard.
Wow. (Score:4, Informative)
"Article [IV.]
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. "
don't they understand? You already can, with a warrant. The only reason a government would want these powers with this little cause is to spy on its citizens. They've already got sneak-and-peek warrants!
What records, how? (Score:2)
I'd expect that if such a database were made, it would include who you make contact with, financial records etc etc.
How are they going to keep the information on just US citizens, no doubt they'll be interacting with Canadian persons/companies at various times.
Mother (Score:2)
Fewer Boots on the Street (Score:2)
The government must establish justice and provide for the common defense. It can do this by having more people in law enforcement and/or by having better infor
You Fell Into Their Trap (Score:2, Insightful)
Instantly? Sure about that? (Score:2)
What Db software are they using on what hardware platform to get instant results on billions of records?
I can't imagine even BEGINNING to normalize "a massive system of interconnected
Re:Instantly? Sure about that? (Score:2)
The database will be housed in the warehouse from the end of the "Raiders of the Lost Ark" next to the ark of the covenent.
In other news.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:In other news.... (Score:2)
Source code (Score:2)
--TIA script v0.9 by john f.
--Notes: Runs a little slow, maybe some additional indexes on DBs?
SELECT ss.lastname,ss.firstname,*
FROM SocialSecurity SS
INNER JOIN FBIFiles FF ON SS.CurrentSSN = FF.SSN and SS.DateOfBirth = FF.DOB
INNER JOIN Langleyprime..CIASuspects CS ON CS.Aliases = FF.names
INNER JOIN NSA_security_Risks NSA ON NSA.First = SS.FirstName and NSA.last = SS.LastName and NSA.middle like ss.middleormaiden
Re:Source code (Score:2)
Just Not Possible (Score:2)
I think we're okay for this Congressional Session... but next year its a whole new bag. And with Democrats trying to show they are as patriotic as the next guy, I don't know who privacy rights people can turn to anymore.
-Niles
What is the problem here? (Score:2)
We, as Americans want business as usual. This is the land of the free and the home of the brave. I'm NOT about to be held hostage by my own government for some supposed "safety." If you want to be wary of foreign nationa
remember everyone (Score:5, Interesting)
box cutters people
no amount of technological edge can defeat a few determined a**holes and a simple idea
we can spend 10 trillion on all sorts of technological doodads to fight terror
i just wonder what the next simple box cutters-level work around exploit will be
The (Score:3, Interesting)
Do we need a database to figure this stuff out? I think the Four horsemen of the apocalypse [about.com] just want a database so it can be abused. Just wait until the IRS gets it's hooks into it or vice versa. Just wait until it gets hacked and information gets leaked. We all know how good Congress is at securing (sic) their top secret campaign strategies.
This is a waste of money that will lead to massive abuse, false positives, and turn the government (literally) into Big Brother. It's 1984 about 20 years late.
To extend the system to its logical conclusion: cameras and RFID sensors will be installed everywhere then everyone will be injected with RFID tags. This will allow anyone to be found instantly (or at least the last known location) for their own safety of course. This would be a great plot line for those whacko's that made the "Left Behind" series. I wonder if they could get Mr. T to say, "Don't even think of implanting that thing in me fool!"
Actually, I am not too worried since this project will be farmed out to a loser company packed with overpaid consultants that can never pull all the data together. After investing 20 trillion dollars the project will be scrapped only after hundreds of innocent 80 year old ladies have had their doors kicked in by the Department of Homeland security and been hauled off to secret FBI detention centers (accidentally of course). Oh the fun that awaits the American citizen after this system gets funding approved.
Those who are willing to sacrifice sound quality for harddrive space deserve neither.
How is this a surprise? (Score:3, Interesting)
You don't value your privacy, then you lose it. Half of America voted for the pinheads making this a reality, you have no one to blame but yourselves.
um. Remember Ad.Doubleclick.net? (Score:2, Informative)
So now you're telling me that some members of Congress want to commendeer that data, rather than having it destroye
Re:um. Remember Ad.Doubleclick.net? (Score:2, Interesting)
On an interesting note, the government is anticipating a 9/11ish terrorist attack to take place just
Re:Hmm (Score:2, Interesting)
Is Kerry opposed to this? Remember that Bush was the one who was opposed to a separate office of Homeland Security. Kerry was for it prior to Bush.
Re:Hmm (Score:2)
Re:Hmm (Score:2, Informative)
If you RTFA, you would've noticed that Joseph Lieberman (D-Connecticut) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) are sponsors of this bill.
Re:Hmm (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Hmm (Score:2)
If he sends himself to jail, he can at least say he did something useful in Senate.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Hmm (Score:2)
Oooooo, ooo, ooo! Wait! Let me guess- I love these kind of games. I think I can pick the letter... How about "t"? That's my first guess, and my second guess is "m!"