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The FBI tracking your browsing history without a warrant might be the beginning

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Re: The FBI tracking your browsing history without a warrant might be the beginning

#31

Post by duxup »

BLKNSLVR wrote: post #10

So the US, with its Constitution protecting the people from its Government, is allowing this whilst also considering Edward Snowden a traitor? It seems something has shifted 180 degrees since WW2, and the US Government has quietly won the game where the goal was to shit on the entirety of the history upon which it was built whilst, at precisely the same time, pointing to the Constitution as the reason why "America is…

>China isn't pretending to be free.

What does a sentiment like this even mean?

Take a look at China's own propaganda, they very much celebrate their idea of what freedoms their citizens have.

Re: The FBI tracking your browsing history without a warrant might be the beginning

#32

Post by duxup »

LarryDarrell wrote: post #11

I can't even imagine how muted the Civil Rights era would have been had the FBI had this power back then.

During the Civil Rights era things were pretty terrible.

I don't know how you measure the two but I think your vague implication here is pretty wrong / represents a real misunderstanding of what the government was up to in the civil rights era...

Re: The FBI tracking your browsing history without a warrant might be the beginning

#33

Post by duxup »

monadic2 wrote: post #17
ta1234567890 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't even need to imagine it, that's the reality we are living in right now.

Seriously. The FBI was watching Black Lives Matter activists for a while as “black identity extremists.” For merely saying “black lives matter” in the street.

Similar things were happening during the Civil Rights era.

Re: The FBI tracking your browsing history without a warrant might be the beginning

#34

Post by throwaway_pdp09 »

brenden2 wrote: post #8

Firefox (or OSs) should add a feature that randomly makes requests to a bunch of unrelated websites just to mess up their data collection and render it useless. This can only work if it's widely deployed.

TrackMeNot does this https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/trackmenot/

I have used it for years.

Re: The FBI tracking your browsing history without a warrant might be the beginning

#35

Post by JoeSmithson »

lern_too_spel wrote: post #23

From the article: "law enforcement agencies such as the FBI and CIA can continue to look through the browsing history of American citizens without the need for a warrant." There is no evidence that they have been doing this. The objection to Section 215 is that a FISA court could in theory say that they can, not that they are already doing this. It then links to an article about an amendment providing additional over…

Why is this downvoted? The article is so light on details it's difficult to read.

Can someone provide a substantiation of the headline in concrete technical terms?

Re: The FBI tracking your browsing history without a warrant might be the beginning

#36

Post by duxup »

I don't buy into the end times doom and gloom here, some of it downright hysterical.

I do think there are serious issues and the scale of government reach into our lives has expanded dramatically with technology.

I hope we see a sort of eventual awakening to what the scale of potential abuse is and we see more rights extended into the long neglected digital space. The law moves slow (too slow in this case) and it is time it picks up the slack.

But rather than throw a fit I would recommend folks look to join / help organizations like the EFF (https://www.eff.org/) and so forth.

Re: The FBI tracking your browsing history without a warrant might be the beginning

#37

Post by jpalmer »

programmarchy wrote: post #12

If this is true, the silver lining is that it could become an albatross around the Patriot Act; spying on browser history is not a defensible means of preventing terrorism without absurd arguments. But hold up. Has anyone read the bill? I haven't read the full text of the bill, but reading the summary [1], parts of the bill actually sound positive to me: > The Federal Bureau of Investigation may not seek certain FISA…

Here's the amendment that was rejected.

https://www.congress.gov/congressional-record/2020/05/13/sen...

> On page 7, strike lines 13 and 14 and insert the following: cell site location or global positioning system information. ``(C) An application under paragraph (1) may not seek an order authorizing or requiring the production of internet website browsing information or internet search history information.''.

Re: The FBI tracking your browsing history without a warrant might be the beginning

#38

Post by throwaway_pdp09 »

mywittyname wrote: post #21
brenden2 wrote: post #8

Firefox (or OSs) should add a feature that randomly makes requests to a bunch of unrelated websites just to mess up their data collection and render it useless. This can only work if it's widely deployed.

Authorities will either look at the source code, compel the authors to explain how it works, push their own changes for the code in question, or just empirically monitor the random behavior and build models to filter such noise.

Why do you even bother answering if we're so screwed. I guess you enjoy failure.

Don't even bother fighting back, just knuckle under. Makes for an easy life.

Re: The FBI tracking your browsing history without a warrant might be the beginning

#39

Post by Corrado »

matheusmoreira wrote: post #24
BLKNSLVR wrote: post #10

So the US, with its Constitution protecting the people from its Government, is allowing this whilst also considering Edward Snowden a traitor? It seems something has shifted 180 degrees since WW2, and the US Government has quietly won the game where the goal was to shit on the entirety of the history upon which it was built whilst, at precisely the same time, pointing to the Constitution as the reason why "America is…

The United States used to be an example to the world. As a nation it used to take its founding principles seriously. That started changing during the cold war and became most obvious post-9/11.

if that's true then the terrorists have won.

Re: The FBI tracking your browsing history without a warrant might be the beginning

#40

Post by elliekelly »

programmarchy wrote: post #12

If this is true, the silver lining is that it could become an albatross around the Patriot Act; spying on browser history is not a defensible means of preventing terrorism without absurd arguments. But hold up. Has anyone read the bill? I haven't read the full text of the bill, but reading the summary [1], parts of the bill actually sound positive to me: > The Federal Bureau of Investigation may not seek certain FISA…

This article[1] does a good job at explaining why many people were pushing for the bill to explicity clarify that browser history was not among the ambiguous "content" that could be surveilled without a warrant.

The undefined scope of “content” along with the expanded scope of power given to the Attorney General (and taken away from the already constitutionally dubious FISA court) was the source of the recent controversy surrounding the reauthorization of Section 215.

[1]https://www.thedailybeast.com/mitch-mcconnell-moves-to-expan...

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