Live data from Hacker News

The FBI’s most controversial surveillance tool is under threat

wired.com

21–30 of 129 posts

Re: The FBI’s most controversial surveillance tool is under threat

#21
It's good to see here that one part of the government is calling another part to account. But I have to think that's unusual, and I'd love to see a better balance of responsibilities here.

In Greg Bear's novel "Queen of Angels", set in 2047, their solution to the conflicting needs of privacy and crime prevention was a separate organization called "Citizen Oversight". All the digital-trail data (cameras, financial records, etc) flowed into Citizen Oversight. If law enforcement wanted data, they had to ask for it and demonstrate need on a case-by-case basis. In that world it wasn't a perfect solution; if I recall rightly, part of the novel is driven by Citizen Oversight's swing from a too-loose era to a very stingy one. But I liked the idea of there being specific, named people responsible for protecting privacy.

Re: The FBI’s most controversial surveillance tool is under threat

#22
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't have any experience in this area, but how would one know that the FISA courts are a rubber stamp, as opposed to the requests being brought to the court being only the most reasonable and well-defined ones? It seems like from the outside the observable effect would be the same (high warrant-granting rate), but the reality between the two is very different.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/05/foriegn-intelligence-s...

The issue with this editorial is that it quotes the Chief Justice. The next sentence should be: the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court unilaterally appoints all FISA judges himself.

Re: The FBI’s most controversial surveillance tool is under threat

#23
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

supposedly this SHOULD be accomplished through impeachment but it rarely is

Did you mean to reply to another comment?

I don't think so? Is impeachment not the constitution's solution to politicians who do unlawful things in office?

Re: The FBI’s most controversial surveillance tool is under threat

#24
Of course here come the articles undermining the intelligence community, right in the wake of the Chinese balloon incursions and continued Chinese/Russian foreign intelligence efforts, and at its core are republicans. As usual these articles pertaining to the IC massively misunderstand, misrepresent, and downright act against the interests of the United States by so feverently spurring on the de-fanging of intelligence capabilities.

Re: The FBI’s most controversial surveillance tool is under threat

#25

Of course here come the articles undermining the intelligence community, right in the wake of the Chinese balloon incursions and continued Chinese/Russian foreign intelligence efforts, and at its core are republicans. As usual these articles pertaining to the IC massively misunderstand, misrepresent, and downright act against the interests of the United States by so feverently spurring on the de-fanging of intelligen…

Hello CIA!

Re: The FBI’s most controversial surveillance tool is under threat

#26
post #7

Why aren’t these people in prison? They broke the law and committed crimes. Is it connections or is it that they have some sort of immunity?

Blue-collar actions are found to be criminal. White-collar actions are found to be unlawful and stopped. Government or politician actions are found to be unlawful and continue.

It's so weird to me that everyone assumes the NSA simply stopped recording all American phone calls because they were caught doing it and it was actually illegal.

Re: The FBI’s most controversial surveillance tool is under threat

#27
post #21

It's good to see here that one part of the government is calling another part to account. But I have to think that's unusual, and I'd love to see a better balance of responsibilities here. In Greg Bear's novel "Queen of Angels", set in 2047, their solution to the conflicting needs of privacy and crime prevention was a separate organization called "Citizen Oversight". All the digital-trail data (cameras, financial rec…

Using civilian oversight of police as a metaphor, the high-profile civilian killings lately have come from police departments with civilian oversight. Less than 1% have it, which means an even smaller fraction have civilian discipline.

Re: The FBI’s most controversial surveillance tool is under threat

#28

Of course here come the articles undermining the intelligence community, right in the wake of the Chinese balloon incursions and continued Chinese/Russian foreign intelligence efforts, and at its core are republicans. As usual these articles pertaining to the IC massively misunderstand, misrepresent, and downright act against the interests of the United States by so feverently spurring on the de-fanging of intelligen…

[dead]

Re: The FBI’s most controversial surveillance tool is under threat

#29
post #25

Of course here come the articles undermining the intelligence community, right in the wake of the Chinese balloon incursions and continued Chinese/Russian foreign intelligence efforts, and at its core are republicans. As usual these articles pertaining to the IC massively misunderstand, misrepresent, and downright act against the interests of the United States by so feverently spurring on the de-fanging of intelligen…

Hello CIA!

[dead]

Re: The FBI’s most controversial surveillance tool is under threat

#30

Of course here come the articles undermining the intelligence community, right in the wake of the Chinese balloon incursions and continued Chinese/Russian foreign intelligence efforts, and at its core are republicans. As usual these articles pertaining to the IC massively misunderstand, misrepresent, and downright act against the interests of the United States by so feverently spurring on the de-fanging of intelligen…

[dead]
Post reply on HN