White House "Privacy Tour" a Flop On Its First Leg At MIT 83
v3rgEz writes "After the Snowden revelations, President Obama promised greater transparency on how the federal government collects and uses data on its citizens, including a three-leg 'privacy tour' to discuss the balance between security and privacy. Well, the first leg of the tour is up and — surprise, surprise — it's not much of a conversation, with official dodging questions or, in one case, simply walking out of the conference."
There's a video of the workshop at MIT, and the article says not all of it was spent watching politicians be politicians: "The review, led by White House counselor John Podesta ... is not confined to intelligence gathering but is meant also to examine how private entities collect and use mass quantities of personal information, such as health records and Internet browsing habits. On the latter subject, the conversation was robust. Experts from places like MIT, Harvard, Nielsen, and Koa Labs traded pros and cons, and proposed high-tech compromises that could allow people to contribute personal information to big data pools anonymously. "
An Anonymous reader also wrote in that "Outgoing National Security Agency boss General Keith Alexander says reporters lack the ability to properly analyze the NSA's broad surveillance powers and that forthcoming responses to the spying revelations may include 'media leaks legislation.' 'I think we are going to make headway over the next few weeks on media leaks. I am an optimist. I think if we make the right steps on the media leaks legislation, then cyber legislation will be a lot easier,' Alexander said."
An Anonymous reader also wrote in that "Outgoing National Security Agency boss General Keith Alexander says reporters lack the ability to properly analyze the NSA's broad surveillance powers and that forthcoming responses to the spying revelations may include 'media leaks legislation.' 'I think we are going to make headway over the next few weeks on media leaks. I am an optimist. I think if we make the right steps on the media leaks legislation, then cyber legislation will be a lot easier,' Alexander said."
Media leaks legislation (Score:1)
Media leaks legislation?
When did the US Government become an enemy of freedom?
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Media leaks legislation?
When did the US Government become an enemy of freedom?
I guess the answer depends on what side of the Mason Dixon line you live on.
Re:Media leaks legislation (Score:4, Insightful)
Media leaks legislation?
When did the US Government become an enemy of freedom?
I guess the answer depends on what side of the Mason Dixon line you live on.
And, for those on the South side of the line, the color of your skin.
Re:Media leaks legislation (Score:4, Informative)
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The war was about secession, but secession was about slavery. If the South had not feared the abolition of slavery, it would not have seceded. After the war started, slavery was mostly a political and diplomatic issue, quite successfully used as most Englishmen did not want to support slavery (unlike the North, which had quite a few people with no problems with it).
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Re:Media leaks legislation (Score:5, Interesting)
Media leaks legislation?
When did the US Government become an enemy of freedom?
The moment the political class concerned itself more with the accumulation of,power and money for a few, rather than say running the country in a balanced manner for the greater good of all its citizens. Media leaks mean Informed Citizens, which may threaten corrupt power slightly more than if the citizens were left in the dark.
Re:Media leaks legislation (Score:5, Insightful)
Bullshit Politician-speak: "We're making real constructive advances in improving national security and our ability to fight terrorism, through planned media leaks legislation."
Non-bullshit Translation: "We're going to start throwing reporters in prison if they tell the public about any of the evil, unconstitutional shit we're doing in secret."
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Bullshit Politician-speak: "reporters lack the ability to properly analyze"
Bullshit Politician-speak: "We have to protect our phoney baloney jobs here, gentlemen!"
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THe Bullshit is how the Media already pushes government propaganda. And flat out careless if they report anything remotely truthful.
Yes, but this threat wasn't aimed at the mainstream reporters who already toe the government line and report the official propaganda. It's aimed at outliers like Glenn Greenwald who actually tell the truth to power.
Re:Media leaks legislation (Score:5, Insightful)
The white house press corp pretty clearly works for the white house. They take the propaganda verbatim and publish it.
I think that mindset explains why the government thinks media leak legislation is appropriate. They see their employees as misbehaving. For that matter, the media masters are probably accepting it in exchange for goodies. "Tell you what, Obama, we'll accept more muzzling of our reporters. That will go for these online news source up and comers double, right? And you won't have a problem with Rupert Murdoch/whoever taking a complete monopoly over all news, right? He's promised us new mansions."
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FTFA:
The specific legislation to which Alexander referred was unclear. Angela Canterbury, the policy director for the Project on Government Oversight, a watchdog group, said she was unaware of any such bill. Neither was Steve Aftergood, an intelligence policy analyst at the Federation of American Scientists.
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FTFA:
The specific legislation to which Alexander referred was unclear. Angela Canterbury, the policy director for the Project on Government Oversight, a watchdog group, said she was unaware of any such bill. Neither was Steve Aftergood, an intelligence policy analyst at the Federation of American Scientists.
Well, duh!
The laws were passed and signed into law by the secret FISA Congress and the secret FISA POTUS, naturally!
I'm sure the secret FISA SCOTUS has already reviewed these laws and found them reasonable & necessary.
The Secret FISA VISA.
It's everywhere you want to spy!!
I wonder how long it will take for attacks on the NSA's and their contractors' workers by the public to start?
Strat
Media leaks? (Score:3)
Hmm..... sounds a lot like prior restraint, doesn't it? Someone leaks some information
that the gummint doesn't want known, and so the press can't publish the leak? This is
pretty scary...
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The legislation against leakers already states they can't use their reason for leaking the information in their defense, either at trial or at sentencing. Of course this used to not be a big deal as leakers were almost never prosecuted, but something changed a little over 5 years ago and now leakers are going to jail left and right.
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Bullshit, people re-electing retards who become engrossed with their power in congress leads us to these things. Congress does two things, it either never reacts or then it overreacts. That's what happened here and because the American public has been complacent with a two party system you get idiots like Feinbitch and her bunch of retarded cronies voting for legislation that makes these things happen. The 1% don't control elections, sure they can buy air time but it's up to the voter to learn about the
Re:Media leaks? (Score:5, Insightful)
Bullshit, people re-electing retards who become engrossed with their power in congress leads us to these things.
Not necessarily; for example, in the last election my district voted in a "Tea Party" candidate, whose entire campaign was based around the concept that he was "fed up" with the status quo in DC. So, he got himself into office, handed his auctioneering company over to a friend... and proceeded to become part of the exact same status quo he campaigned against. Like, the very first fucking day.
I think the problem isn't that we're "re-electing retards;" I think the problem is that anyone who isn't already a wealthy oligarch doesn't stand a chance of so much as getting on the ballot, let alone gaining enough support to actually win an election.
Until we de-rig the election process to allow candidates from demographics other than "filthy fucking rich" to actually stand a chance, nothing will change. At least, not for the better.
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I don't know why Republicans hate Clinton so much, he pushed their policies more than any president since Reagan.
Well that's really not saying much, considering that only includes ONE president for ONE term...
Re:Media leaks? (Score:4, Insightful)
It's also hypocritical since white house administrations use strategic leaks to release information they can't publicly admit to for political reasons.
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That's why the ass said it while outgoing -- he knew he'd be fired.
"They were right to detain and hassle (journalists)". I'll side with a journalist, even yellow scumbuckets, over people deliberately building tools of tyrrany which, history shows, will inevitably be abused in the service of dictatorship.
Re:First amendment cannot be abridged (Score:4, Informative)
1st amendment has been limited for hundreds of years
no threats
no panics
no releasing classified info
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Especially when that classified information shows government wrongdoing and ignoring the Constitution.
Sorry, but malfeasance on the behalf of the government is trumped by the need of citizens to know their politicians are ignoring the law.
This is just trying to prevent this information from coming to light.
Re:First amendment cannot be abridged (Score:5, Informative)
1st amendment has been limited for hundreds of years ... no releasing classified info
You are mistaken. See The Pentagon Papers [wikipedia.org] and Daniel Ellsberg [wikipedia.org] as the iconic example case.
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1st amendment has been limited for hundreds of years
Wrong. Read it. No limitations are listed. All this means is that the government is ignoring it, and has been for a long time.
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Since when has the military or the immense national security titan given a fuck about respecting the Constitution? Who exactly do you think is going to stop them? The Congress that doesn't even really want to know what's going on and happily puts a rubber stamp on any legislation with "national security" written on it? The spineless Supreme Court that also rubber-stamps everything and has no means of enforcing their weak-ass rulings anyway?
What did you expect? (Score:1, Flamebait)
"Welcome, sonny"? "Make yourself at home"? "Marry my daughter"?
You've got to remember that these are just simple data farmers. These are people from the government. The common clay of the new domestic spying apparatus. You know... morons.
Also, this Keith Alexander guy: just what a cunt.
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Media Leaks? (Score:5, Insightful)
Media Leaks aren't well liked by people doing dirty, underhanded things. In the case of the Military they never like the press publishing anything that shows er well maybe their soldiers wiping out a village of innocent civilians or in this case when the Government is caught spying on everybody, leveraging secret courts for permission while not disclosing their full intent and omitting or outright lying to congressional oversight about what they did. Sure the press can be an "annoyance" to those who would continue to subvert our liberties in the name of preserving them. General Alexander has demonstrated that he's an idiot with a Star Trek fetish [youtube.com] and because his clandestine world is now mostly in the open, he's crying foul? Sorry I'm of the mind that General Alexander needs to be put in the stocks in the Washington Mall for three days and I want the rotten tomato concession.
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That's why it's just this idiot blowing smoke, threatening the people & press.
But not actually doing anything about it.
Well, other than monitoring them more closely.
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It is explicitly stated that patents are for a "limited time" for the benefit of society
As far as I know, patents last 20 years. Copyright is what lasts a truly ridiculous period of time, but it's still technically limited.
And that's the problem. While there are definitely many cases of the government violating the constitution, the constitution is poorly written and doesn't put enough limits on the government's power.
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I recently had a thought that might help - organize election-day festivals near polling places, something interesting to do to tempt the politically disillusioned and apathetic to come out and enjoy some good music and food. And since they're right next door anyway, encourage them to go vote for *any* third party candidates. Over half the country doesn't vote in most elections, if we can get them organized to "Vote Out the Sock Puppets" we could sweep the election, and maybe, just maybe, start things movi
One stop spying? (Score:1)
"and proposed high-tech compromises that could allow people to contribute personal information to big data pools anonymously." -- and why, pray tell, would I willing give all my personal data "anonymously" to some massive database run by a corporation (likely with government oversight) that almost certainly ties my data to "unique identifiers" to ensure the integrity of their database?
Or am I just supposed to nod stupidly and send them all my records....?
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Hey. Do you like FireFly? Wish it would continue? When would you watch it? When are you free to watch it?
This is the sort of information that you WANT to give the people making decisions about such things. They want to make something you want. You want them to stop fucking shit up and give you want you want. Communicating that sort of information is tricky.
First off, no, I don't think anyone in their right mind would simply hand over all their records and sign away all their privacy. That's bloody stupid. B
The only surprise is that anyone is surprised (Score:5, Informative)
I'm considered a "far leftie" in the US, in case you think this comment came from the GOP noise machine.
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No. Both groups have agendas for increasing their own power. But they aren't the same group.
I find the Guardian reporting interesting (Score:5, Insightful)
I find it interesting that I have to find out what is happening in this country, from the British newspapers. Where is the NYT or Washington Post, in reporting what is going on, and how we are losing our rights?
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So with this new "media leaks legislation", where will they go next? Brazil, Ecuador? Or maybe Russia; that would really be the epitome of irony.
media leaks legislation???? (Score:2)
Has this asshole ever read the 1st amendment???
A good review from Andy Oram (O'Reilly) (Score:2)
Guardian article in last link (Score:1)
Alexander says that the media has not the ability for judgment of surveillance programs. "... ' journalists have no standing when it comes to national security issues. They don’t know how to weigh the fact of what they’re giving out and saying, is it in the nation’s interest to divulge this,' Alexander said."
Are the spooks (which most of the secuity appartus isn't anyway) the ONLY people who know how to judge government activity? I don't think so. What this clown probably means is more li
Alexander the Prick (Score:2)
aka The Alien and Sedition Act 2.0
The Privacy Tour in my Head (Score:3)