FBI Target Puts His Life Online 324
After the FBI mistakenly targeted him as a terror suspect five years ago, art professor Hasan Elahi began recording his entire life online for the perusal of government agents or anyone else who wants to look in. "I've discovered that the best way to protect your privacy is to give it away," he says, grinning. "It's economics. I flood the market."
Come on... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Come on... (Score:5, Funny)
Momus already said this ... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Come on... (Score:5, Insightful)
Whatever happened to "Innocent until proven guilty."
Oh yeah, that was 9/11 when the American people got raped by overzealous politicians and a dictator wanna-be.
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Most effective empire builders have based their empires on economic control and diplomacy (it's worth your while to submit to us, trade in safety and be protected). England, the romans for example, there are more, but I can't think of them right now. Admitedly this is usually after land acquisition through wars, but ecomomic methods are usually far more effective.
India was an instance of economic control, they actually
Re:Come on... (Score:4, Insightful)
We were already in Afghanistan, where the actual problem was. There were a number of reasons for going in to Iraq, and they were complex. However, "fighting them over there" is not one of those reasons.
That reason for this war is even more invalid than when it was applied in the Vietnam war. The war where it was a valid reason was WWII.
Re:Come on... (Score:5, Insightful)
The reason you heard phrases such as "fighting them over there" in the media is because it worked well in WWII to motivate the nation to be for the war and it was justified. The media and politicians are still pulling this line because it worked then but is completely and totally false now.
Think about it, how likely is it Iraqi's are going to come to the United States and fight us here? One, they had no motivation to do so and two they had no means to do so.
I was fine with the United States getting Saddam but the war stopped there. After that it was no longer a war it was an occupation. They should have handed the governance and rebuilding efforts at that point over to a conglomeration of willing Islamic coutries. Indonesia, Jordan and Egypt would have been good choices and then the United States along with other coalition partners should have helped fund the efforts of those countries.
Re:Come on... (Score:5, Insightful)
In the '80s, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan; I don't recall why. That was during the hey-days of the Cold War, so naturally the U.S. starting supporting the Mujahideen who were fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan. Finally, the Soviets decided they had sunk enough money and manpower into a lost cause and pulled out of Afghanistan. When the Soviets withdrew, so did we, abandoning our former allies. In the vacuum that was left, the Mujahideen were now at war with the other political factions for control of a country that no longer had any kind of stable government. Needless to say, a lot of people died in the ensuing chaos, and the former Mujahideen blamed us for a lot of that...and they were right, to some extent. Our battle was over -- the Soviets had withdrawn -- but theirs wasn't, and from the bitterness and hatred that resulted from our abrupt withdrawal, the seeds of the Taliban and Al Qaeda were born.
Twenty years later, Bush gets the bright idea to invade Iraq and depose Saddam Hussein, not remembering the lessons of Afghanistan. Unlike you, I have reservations about deposing Saddam. Yes, he was a (tm)Bad Dude, and yes, the world is a better place without him, but the reasons for the invasion were trumped up, and that bothers a great deal.
Furthermore, I'm not so sure that a conglomeration of willing Islamic countries with the U.S. providing funding and material support would have made much difference in the occupation of Iraq. In either case, it's still a foreign army occupying the country, and that rarely sits well with the natie population. Furthermore, the problems shaking Iraq right now are largely due to the fact that Muslim != Muslim for all instances. The Sunni and the Shiite Muslims don't like each other. Think Ireland during the '80s and '90s -- the Protestants and Catholics did not play well together. Which flavor of Islam is practiced in Indonesia, Jordan or Egypt? How do you unite the different sects in Iraq? These are real problems, and I don't think they are going to be solved by our current Presidency. The mid-east has been a volatile part of the world for many, many thousand years; the odds of it being calmed any time soon aren't good.
Re:Come on... (Score:4, Insightful)
You're right about "fighting them over there" being bunk, but the rest of your post is full of wishful and revisionist thinking.
Remember how Bush had to cobble together a "coalition of the willing" formed of our longstanding allies Britain and Australia, plus whoever small island nations we could bribe with aid? And how there weren't any Muslim countries in said coalition?
Yeah, that was because the US didn't have how UN or even NATO approval to invade. Without that, plus a lot more bribery, no Muslim nation was going to let their soldiers get blown up in Iraq. Hell, most of our ostensible allies in the Middle East even denied us the right to fly over their country to attack Iraq.
In the words of Colin Powell, "You break it, you bought it."
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I don't hate you for your opinions regarding WMDs. Luckily, we all know the information that was available to the administration in the spring of 2003 (and earlier). In my view, there are practical security measures, and then there is security theater, as in the case of liquid restrictions on planes. There's no way anyone can change your belief as to why Bush invaded Iraq, even knowing what they knew at the time, but that doesn't mean it wasn't damagi
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I'm going to have to disagree. This tactic is not what got us into Iraq - it is part of what is keeping us there. That and the oil.
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Actually, no.
New religion (Score:5, Interesting)
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God forbid.
Re:New religion (Score:5, Funny)
Re:New religion (Score:5, Insightful)
I agree. But that doesn't mean we are less worthy for the trying. Sometimes, the attempt is the worthier part. And, just like attempts to attain the attention and favor of deities may make us observe closer whehther and how we could be made to deserve such an attention, perhaps the jealous guarding of one's own life's contents might provoke at least the possibility of introspection, and lead us to discover just what it is about our lives that makes their sanctity worth guarding.
And, meanwhile, I don't want you to know my taste in porn. That's just none of your damn business!
Re:New religion (Score:5, Interesting)
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I agree as well. And like religions, how about some basic respect towards those that want to believe in what they believe. I'm not saying that one's privacy or religion is right or wrong, but both of these things are private matters.
If the constitution meant anything today, it would probably be worthwhile adding an explicit privacy amendment. I guess that information and technology was so slow a
Re:New religion (Score:5, Insightful)
You illustrate the real problem with how the constitution is interpreted today. It was never intended to give people rights, it was intended to give the government rights. There is nothing in the constitution which gives the government the right to take away our privacy except under the most extreme of circumstances which we are not under by any stretch. The issue is muddied by congress and the war powers bill that was passed but regardless the government was never explicitly granted the right to spy on its own people. That means it's unconstitutional and it's plain and simple.
As long as my freedom doesn't restrict the freedom of someone else then I should be allowed to do what I want. That is the principle the country was found upon and in my opinion at least is a principle worth sticking to.
Re:New religion (Score:4, Informative)
It was; it's just that they didn't have audio/video recorders in those days...
Amendment 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.
Let me tell you a story (Score:5, Insightful)
Short story: lack of privacy. And literally FUD. Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt over what they'll do about your words and deeds.
The side of the story everyone knows is the KGB and GULAG part. Those are true, and were especially true in Stalin's times. But then it evolved into something that worked cheaper and better: thinking that Big Brother knows everything you do. So people started to avoid doing or saying anything that could bite them in the ass.
The illusion was that the secret police has dossiers (the dead tree kind) on anyone and everyone, and that it _will_ come back to bite you in the ass sooner or later.
Even if you realized that in such a low tech setting they can't know _everything_, you didn't know exactly _what_ they know, and exactly _what_ and _when_ they'll use it against you. Maybe they'll do nothing. Maybe they'll send you to Siberia. Maybe you just won't be allowed to travel abroad any more. Maybe your kid won't ever get a high paying job because his dumbass father got drunk once and complained about the party.
Worse yet, this naturally killed support for any dissidents. If comrade Piotr speaks against the party, egads, you don't want it on your dossier that you sat, listened and nodded. Do you really know if Piotr isn't an agent provocateur? Or if he's just a dumbass, who else in your circle of friends will run to tell the authorities about that talk? Better avoid Piotr entirely from now on. Better safe than sorry.
_That_ is what privacy is supposed to help against.
And that is what "privacy is just a religion" and "if you're not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to fear" lemmings just don't get. Sometime, at some point, it may become _necessary_ to do something "wrong" to just freakin' keep your _other_ liberties. If you gave up privacy, then you might as well give up everything else, because you won't have any means left to defend them. If it ever becomes necessary to resist the government, lack of privacy means you'll never get more than 1-2 disidents which are quickly removed or isolated. As soon as someone does speak out, everyone else just makes themselves scarce, if they think the government will know where they are.
If everyone's life was public, the USA still would be a British colony, because everyone would be affraid to even be seen anywhere around those Jefferson and Hancock guys. India would still be a British colony too, because people would be affraid to be seen anywhere near that Gandhi guy. Etc.
Re:Let me tell you a story (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Let me tell you a story (Score:5, Insightful)
Any government today has the means to get quite uncomfortable if they want to, even with "legal" means. Not even breaking any of your liberties. You just "happen" to be the lucky winner of some governmental hassles.
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Re:Let me tell you a story (Score:5, Insightful)
Spoken like someone who has never been stalked by a girlfriend's psycho ex-husband. Do they have junk mail, spam, or telemarketing in your country? Would you feel comfortable if the were able to cast a critical eye on your every activity? Is it fine if the prude at your local bank notices a lot of credit card charges to hotdonkeyporn.com and decides your wife needs to know?
Sure none of these are exciting government-changing revolutionary scenarios, but they're all very real privacy issues. The only thing worse than denying that privacy is real is accepting that it's real but denying that it has any importance.
Re:Let me tell you a story (Score:5, Insightful)
Legitimate fear of their government? It's always legitimate. Don't think for one second that any government is immune to corruption. It's human nature... people who enjoy exerting some sort of control or authority over others are drawn to government and law enforcement jobs, so government has an inordinate number of people with that sort of mentality. Governments, as anything else, will tend to act in their own best interest.
Even the best system, with the best of intentions, can gradually erode.
Whether you liked him or not, Ronald Reagan had a great quote that comes to mind: "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free."
While spoken about the US in particular, this applies to any free state.
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As a pot smoker, I believe I have a legitimate fear of my government. My chances of being assaulted (arrested), kidnapped (imprisoned), and robbed (fines, asset forfeiture) at the hands of the government are much more likely than being the victim of any other crime. This is why privacy is so important, they're always persecuting someone.
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I understand what you're saying, but who gets to decide what the bad laws are?
Well, if you have to tell people that a substance will make the blacks go crazy and rape white women to get people to vote for it, then it's probably a bad law.
Re:Let me tell you a story (Score:5, Insightful)
The laws should really be changed, any time that anyone access your records or the records of your family, that are held by state or federal government, or even any major private institution, for any reason, should you not be notified of who did it and why. Also if any changes are made to your records should you not be notified of that change, who made it and why they made it.
With the power of computers and the Internet this could be easily done and would be a major step forward in not only protecting your privacy, but also maintaining the accuracy of your private data, as well as providing you the opportunity to challenge that data and force corrections when it is inaccurate.
The weirdest thing at the moment is that the current republican administration deems it important to restrict you from accessing records about yourself and specifically legislates to keep secrets about you hidden from you, a sick way of ensuring they can protect the lies they about create you in order to control you.
Re:Let me tell you a story (Score:5, Insightful)
It's interesting that you mention Gandhi, because he had some interesting views on privacy (sorry I can't reference them online, I read them in a book on Gandhi)
Gandhi primary philosophy was discovering truth, which he believed to be like God. Quote: "Truth is God". In accordance to this he lead a very open life, and was not afraid to voice his views. As a result he spent quite a bit of time in prison. Neither did he hide his life from the world. He believed in full openness (It is common knowledge that he gave in to his carnal urges and was having sex while his father died - who shares those sorts of details?!?!?)
I think his idea worked the opposite way to Communist Russia, and more similarly to free speech. If everyone says what they think, how can the government prosecute all of them? The more we keep private, the more isolated it is for those who want to speak out to speak out. If everyone kept every private, how would the first revolutionary start talking to the second one?
I think Gandhi's views are interesting in the modern perspective, when technology is eroding our privacy. I do worry about what information there is about me out on the internet, and double check my blog posts for information that might bite me in the arse later down the track. However I think that I don't really have anything to worry about. Sure, there will be some photos of me drunk online somewhere, acting like an idiot. But it's not like that's unusual behavior. I've voiced some pretty opinionated views that would have got me thrown into the Gulag. But the internet is built by people voicing opinionated views, we're not all going to be thrown into the Gulag!!!
At the end of the day, I don't want to do the things which I might be embarrassed by or arrested for if they got out into the public domain. For the other things, who cares? I'd prefer to worry about making sure that I lead a good life, than worry about who knows what I'm doing.
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Give the state the powers of prison guards, and the entire country becomes the Gulag.
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If you bother me over my porn-watching habits, I'll bother you over your driving-drunk habits, or your racist tendencies, or... So neither of us bothers.
Re:Let me tell you a story (Score:5, Insightful)
If everyone's life were public, you'd know if Piotr was an agent. You'd know who in your circle of friends ran to authorities. You'd know the personal lives of those running the country. This isn't just some pedantic point, it gets at the heart of how the systme worked; the government didn't eliminate privacy, they controlled it.
A society without any privacy at all would be unimaginably different from our own; I don't think you can claim a priori that it would be worse.
Re:Let me tell you a story (Score:5, Insightful)
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Unfortunately technology and business make privacy impossible, most of your daily actions can be recorded/deduced via technology not in your presence (sattelites, microscopic cameras, etc). With the great UK experiment (CCTV cams, etc), I'm certain the invasiveness will only get better and better from here on out.
In a way it's a good thing because... the only way you n
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the only way you need privacy is if you live in a world of idiots and irrational people
Er... Have you read the news lately?
Nazi Germany (Score:4, Interesting)
Basically the Nazi system wasn't all that dissimilar in it's inner workings to the tactics employed by Senator McCarthy and his goons except it went much further. Those who got named weren't merely socially ostracized as they were in the USA, in Nazi Germany and the cooupied territories they got sent to a camp and executed. There was actually a group of people both in Germany it self and the occupied countries who made a tidy business out of regularly informing on anybody that acted even mildly suspiciously. Once the Gestapo did lock in on you they were practically guaranteed to find _something_ to hang you with. Believe it or not, purely out of fear of a Gestapo visit, people both Germans and non Germans sorted the scrap paper they used on the toilet in case it contained any leaflets or other printed material from politically unreliable elements or, god forbid, contained a picture of Adolf him self. People today may find that funny but there were actually people who did long stretches in KZ camps or even died there for the simple offence of insulting the visage or persona of the 'Führer'.
Re:Let me tell you a story (Score:4, Funny)
Wait a minute, I thought that in Soviet Russia, the story told you!
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That reminds me of a joke I read on Wikipedia's article on Russian political humour [wikipedia.org]:
A hotel. A room for four with four strangers. Three of them soon open a bottle of vodka and proceed to get acquainted, then drunk, then noisy, singing and telling political jokes. The fourth one desperately tries to get some sleep; finally, frustrated, he surreptitiously leaves the room, goes downstairs, and asks the lady concierge to bring tea to Room 67 in ten minutes. Then he returns and joins the party. Five minutes la
Not a religion at all (Score:2, Insightful)
Yes, you can survive without both, clean air and privacy. Yet, is this a life you want to have?
Go watch "Life of others". It is really depressing to live in a surveillance society.
Maybe those countries who did _not_ experience Gestapo-like distrust, arbitrariness, and the mental consequences this brings to your personal life,
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What do I need privacy for? This guy [justin.tv] is broadcasting his live 24/7, he doesn't seem unhappy at all. So what is this privacy good for?
When it comes to an oppressive state and unjust laws privacy of course helps you to hide from the state, but what if the laws are fine and there is no need to hide, why should I care about privacy? What would be the consequences?
The only
Re:New religion (Score:5, Insightful)
Unattainable? Tell you what, why don't you try and get, say, Rupert Murdoch or King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia to realise what a false and unobtainable idol they are coveting. I mean, anyone can just waltz right up to them on the street and snap a picture.
It's not like they have hired goons squads and political connections and secretive schedules which outright confound your ability to snoop into their lives is it? I mean, privacy is a fantasy right? There's no way the rich and powerful could have something the rest of us don't if that something simply just doesn't exist right?
Privacy is very, very real. In todays market centric humanisms, one could almost describe privacy as an obtainable asset which people are willing to pay money for, and one which, because of it's decreasing availability, is becoming ever more expensive to obtain by simple laws of supply and demand. I await an astute poster's follow up comment discussing the rise of a "privacy industry" in response to decreasing supply of this so called "intangible" notion.
Nice, clever, but still not right (Score:5, Interesting)
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Not paranoid (Score:5, Funny)
Well, it's not paranoia if they're actually after you.
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Well, it's not paranoia if they're actually after you.
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The risk is always the same. The difference is that in the US, there's plenty of evidence that it is already being abused. In Netherland it's still only the risk that it may happen. (Or is it?)
Re:Nice, clever, but still not right (Score:5, Interesting)
Well, the article gave a couple good examples of how laws are being abused.
"A homeless person showed Rick van Amserfoort his collection of 30 fines. The harvest of one month on the streets: crossing against a red light, smoking a joint in public, loitering on a bench in front of the Amsterdamse Muziektheater. Van Amersfoort works at the bureau Jansen en Janssen, which grew out of the squatting movement, and critically follows the work of the police and the intelligence service. You and I wouldn't receive a fine, but this homeless person is difficult, so the police are always on to him."
and another example:
The legitimatieplicht (=law requiring everyone to carry ID in public) is according to Brenninkmeijer a good example. Warnings that the police would misuse this law were waved off. "Now you see that police ask protesters for their ID. It has become a tool of repression."
--
Simon
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FBI Target Puts His Life *On The Line* (Score:2)
Re:Nice, clever, but still not right (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:Nice, clever, but still not right (Score:5, Insightful)
So, if someone said to you, give me a couple hundred dollars, or your wife will leave you, what happens? Maybe the hassle isn't worth the money. But now you're actually concealing something, and a missing $200 can have all sorts of connotations, from hookers, to gambling, to drunken revelry. It could also be something like a present for your wife, or you loaned it to a buddy of yours, but spin is a very big thing, and it's definitely powerful enough to turn that $200 into more.
Compare that to this guy. He's got the perfect alibi, because millions of people can confirm it. He's completely immune to any game that relies on suspicion. And how much privacy has he really lost? Most people won't care, most of the ones who do care will never meet him, and most of the ones that do care and do meet him won't put two and two together, especially if he doesn't put a picture on the site. He's really only lost vulnerability.
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Am I blackmailable? Sure, if someone wants to hard enough, but I've tried to mai
Killing time? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Killing time? (Score:4, Funny)
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Shouldn't we all stop fighting? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Shouldn't we all stop fighting? (Score:4, Informative)
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Very American, actually to have the hero go out in a "blaze of glory." Not trolling here -- this is actually a good thing IMHO; the stereotypical American hero (and American in general) perseveres despite adversity.
-b.
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I'm not saying it's a good thing as regards the message of the movie. I'm saying that it's a good thing that Americans have a strong sense of perseverance despite adversity and that they're fighters. Maybe less true today, but this spirit isn't completely gone either.
-b.
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I assumed most Slashdotters would be familiar with the quote, but I should have provided the full source George Orwell's 1984 [wikipedia.org]
As for your attitude again
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You're generalizing way to much here. First of all, most police are just average working-class people, trying to do their job and perhaps make their city or town a slightly better place. There's a contingent of power-hungry asses among them, maybe 10%, which makes the rest of them look bad. But this is true with
How to defeat the CCCP (Score:5, Funny)
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Noise = good hiding place (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Noise = good hiding place (Score:4, Informative)
Sorry, no. (Score:4, Insightful)
Nowdays, you just buy some more computers to do the datamining and cross-referencing. Dont worry, there are thousands of PHDs working at google to make 1984 a reality.
(Dont believe me? Take a look what googles CEO says here : http://www.ft.com/cms/s/c3e49548-088e-11dc-b11e-0
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Re:Sorry, no. (Score:4, Funny)
AFAIK, I'm not doing anything tomorrow. Until the new Google service shows up in beta, anyone got any good suggestions?
Re: What shall I do tomorrow? (Score:2)
Just like millions... (Score:2)
Here is to hoping... (Score:2)
Re:Here is to hoping... (Score:4, Funny)
information countermeasures (Score:3, Interesting)
This principle is similar to Rivest's winnowing and chaffing [mit.edu] cryptographic system, or the military countermeasures used to confuse self guiding missiles.
(*) but not fake terrorism, that would be counterproductive in his case :)
It's Not Worth It (Score:2, Interesting)
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My private life will not be public. (Score:2, Insightful)
How can you live in a world like that? That's not 1984, that's 1984 under Stalin with Hitler and Mao as his henchmen. That's Bush, Cheney and Rice for you.
Correct headline (Score:4, Funny)
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Now he's a target for criminals instead... (Score:5, Insightful)
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(Ok, in addition they saved a pile of money by not having to install all the cardreaders and other junk).
Does freedom imply privacy? (Score:2, Interesting)
There is alot wrong with this. (Score:3, Interesting)
First off if this guy has not committed a crime, why is the FBI watching him? Where do they get the authority to do this if they have nothing on him? If they *DO* have something on him, why haven't they arrested him and charged him formally? What ever happened to Due process.
Secondary.. he has given up his privacy not willingly but under threat of imprisonment and torture in Guantanamo, where he would not get a trial to defend himself at all. This is like saying you gave the mugger your cash willingly and the gun he was pointing at you is irreverent. Like a mugger.. the government is pointing an invisible gun at this man and some of you cheer the fact that he has given up his privacy, sugesting that we all do the same?
Have you people lost your mind?
Re:Clearly, he's guilty as sin! (Score:5, Interesting)
In the case of "Hasan Elahi" that's close enough to "Hassan Elashi [google.com]" that it's probably "close enough for government work". I'd be willing to bet this is the source of his trouble.
In the early 80s Bayan [google.com], Ghassan and Hassan Elashi had a little company that made computers for the royal Suadi family. My boss was Jewish and he and I were the only white guys there; we did all the software. All the Elashi's are in jail now on what appears to me to be trumped up charges. Trivia: the Elashis paid for the only decent UUCP node in LA at the time; they held the
Let me be less subtle. We ran their computers and were nosy. If they're terrorists then I'm Stephen fucking Hawking.
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I have zero sympathy for these foreigners with complicated Islamic-terrorist-sounding names. If you don't want to be harassed by the government then change your name from Muhammed Al-Assad Il-Bin-Kumani to Michael Smith or something. African-Americans would be the first to back this up. Who is going to get harassed more by the police if you're black, Joe Jackson or Duwante Fahrakan?
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I guess the term white guys could include Jews for large values of white, but some people [aryan-nations.org] might disagree. Then, again, Arabs and Jews can both be characterised as Semites [wikipedia.org], but that might upset other folks [adl.org] and offend the sensibilities of the politically correct who really don't know WTF they're saying (if anything).
Either way, yo
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>1) Doing ANY research on an innocent individual is obviously completely illegal for the police
Wel
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The "state" has no rights -- "rights" are given to the people of the United States, not its government. And how is publishing a blog on your life "dangerously close" to "violating the rights of the state?"
-b.
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Hopefully? The goal isn't to limit the damage, the goal is to have zero damage to innocent people while understanding that mistakes happen. And like all other jobs people who mess up should be punished in order to minimize the mistakes. You can aim as low as you want, the rest of us will be happy to continue holding the government to the same high standards that the vast majority of other employees face, with or without
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You have no idea what counts as suspicious for terrorism these days. You can be a Muslim or have an Arab parent or have been to the Middle East or have attended a peace rally or even just make numerous references to the US constitution [keepandbeararms.com] to be noticed and given a database entry that will stay forever. And if you share the name or adress of someone who does, that is frequently enough.
Of c
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