Join EFF in Demanding a Digital Upgrade to 25-Year-Old Electronic Privacy Law

#1

Post by zoowar » Fri, Sep 30, 2011, 6:43 PM UTC

Join EFF in Demanding a Digital Upgrade to 25-Year-Old Electronic Privacy Law
eff.org

Re: Join EFF in Demanding a Digital Upgrade to 25-Year-Old Electronic Privacy Law

#2

Post by Natsu » Fri, Sep 30, 2011, 7:19 PM UTC

This is long overdue. The law, as it stands now, draws strange and arbitrary distinctions between certain types of communications and affords protection only to certain things. It needs an update.

Re: Join EFF in Demanding a Digital Upgrade to 25-Year-Old Electronic Privacy Law

#3

Post by larrik » Fri, Sep 30, 2011, 8:00 PM UTC

"Super Mario Bros. 2 was the hot videogame"

Actually, no. The U.S. version of Super Mario Brothers 2 came out in 1988. (At that time, Japan had a "Super Mario Brothers 2" that was completely different, but it's just not relevant to to the article).

As for the REAL issues, I wholeheartedly support it.

Re: Join EFF in Demanding a Digital Upgrade to 25-Year-Old Electronic Privacy Law

#4

Post by Bud » Fri, Sep 30, 2011, 11:15 PM UTC

What's also needed here is some direct heat applied to the Republican Party, which deliberately politicized this area of policy after 9/11 to force the Patriot Act through and has steadfastly protected it since, labeling all opposition to it as un-American, unpatriotic, and similar bullshit.

Until it is made politically dangerous to do things like this, you can bet that those folks will continue on the same path.

Re: Join EFF in Demanding a Digital Upgrade to 25-Year-Old Electronic Privacy Law

#5

Post by stealthyb » Sat, Oct 01, 2011, 4:23 AM UTC

EFF is great and I would encourage anyone to donate/join. If you get a chance to attend, they frequently speak at the DefCon conference in Las Vegas, NV (http://www.defcon.org) and field digital rights questions.

They also produce useful info for anyone concerned with digital privacy like the "Surveillance Self-Defense Project". If nothing else, it's gives some perspective on the complicated legal state of data security and communications.

https://ssd.eff.org/

Re: Join EFF in Demanding a Digital Upgrade to 25-Year-Old Electronic Privacy Law

#6

Post by Natsu » Sat, Oct 01, 2011, 5:15 AM UTC

Natsu wrote: post #2

This is long overdue. The law, as it stands now, draws strange and arbitrary distinctions between certain types of communications and affords protection only to certain things. It needs an update.

For anyone who wants more details, take a look at Wikipedia's overviews of the relevant laws:

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Stored_Commun...

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Electronic_Co...

Yes, one of the things that matters is how long the email has been stored. The law appears to think that we have less of an interest in the privacy of old emails than we do in new ones for some reason.