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Congress, at Last Minute, Drops Requirement to Obtain Warrant to Monitor Email

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121–130 of 199 posts

Re: Congress, at Last Minute, Drops Requirement to Obtain Warrant to Monitor Email

#121
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmmm... I kinda wonder sometimes. This is a ludicrous idea, but have you ever thought about the recent HSBC scandal, where they were laundering billions and billions of dollars for terrorist organizations and organized crime? The same terrorist organizations and organized crime that is the primary justification for domestic spying, paramilitary police, huge prison populations, secret rendition and indefinite detentio…

The more links (or phrases to search for) you could provide for this, the more grateful I'd be.

Regarding the HSBC settlement : http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/outrageo...

(Follow the links for a bunch of other relevant articles)

Re: Congress, at Last Minute, Drops Requirement to Obtain Warrant to Monitor Email

#122
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is nothing about monitoring our email that is necessary for security. The war on terror is a giant hoax, more people are killed every year choking on peanut butter. Members of the government are always reaching for more and more control over our lives and power to watch us.

Not that I disagree entirely, but looking at deaths prevented isn't really relevant. Terrorism isn't about death, it's about terror, putting people in a state of fear. The war on terror isn't about preventing death, it's about preventing fear. People aren't afraid of choking on peanut butter or car accidents because they feel they have some control over those situations. Terrorism creates fear by removing that sense…

I'm more afraid of my government than I am of al Qaeda.

Re: Congress, at Last Minute, Drops Requirement to Obtain Warrant to Monitor Email

#123
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can I, as a somewhat proficient non-techie, accomplish that without having to dedicate a 24/7 *nix box from home? Please, if anyone knows a simple, yet elegant solution, I'm all ears.

I've been researching doing this for a while, but there's one big caveat that I can't get past- there's no decent server solutions for push mail. For desktop computers there's IMAP IDLE, but all the push solutions Apple's software uses are based on Microsoft Exchange (expensive). I'm all ears too.

Zarafa works wonderfully and is a snap to setup.

Edit:

Here are the docs for the latest 7.1 branch: http://doc.zarafa.com/7.1/

And here is the link to the community (open source) section of their site: http://community.zarafa.com/

Re: Congress, at Last Minute, Drops Requirement to Obtain Warrant to Monitor Email

#124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not that I disagree entirely, but looking at deaths prevented isn't really relevant. Terrorism isn't about death, it's about terror, putting people in a state of fear. The war on terror isn't about preventing death, it's about preventing fear. People aren't afraid of choking on peanut butter or car accidents because they feel they have some control over those situations. Terrorism creates fear by removing that sense…

The war on terror positively thrives on fear. Terrified people make stupid mistakes, sign away their rights with reckless abandon in the hope that it will allay their fears. No electorate is so easy to manipulate as one that is afraid.

This should be mentioned when we have people saying, in response to gun control, "Demand a plan! It's already too late; we need to do /something/".

Doing "something", something which the security state crowd had ready in '96, is what got us the PATRIOT act and the TSA.

The strong anti-gun crowd is trying to wage a slow war against gun ownership that would result in an Australia-like confiscation of weapons and the repeal of the 2nd amendment. Don't let the "do somethings" win again.

/rare political post on HN

Re: Congress, at Last Minute, Drops Requirement to Obtain Warrant to Monitor Email

#125
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is nothing about monitoring our email that is necessary for security. The war on terror is a giant hoax, more people are killed every year choking on peanut butter. Members of the government are always reaching for more and more control over our lives and power to watch us.

Not that I disagree entirely, but looking at deaths prevented isn't really relevant. Terrorism isn't about death, it's about terror, putting people in a state of fear. The war on terror isn't about preventing death, it's about preventing fear. People aren't afraid of choking on peanut butter or car accidents because they feel they have some control over those situations. Terrorism creates fear by removing that sense…

"The war on terror isn't about preventing death, it's about preventing fear."

That's a good one.

Re: Congress, at Last Minute, Drops Requirement to Obtain Warrant to Monitor Email

#126
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't matter. Your friends, family and colleagues will continue to do so, and thus this affects everybody, even if he's not using free text email.

Government hawks are well aware of this and they will use every chance they get to take the advantage. Maybe it's time we took a stand -- no communication unless it's encrypted or face-to-face.

That only makes you MORE of a suspect and thus a target. Even for eavesdropping devices in your house perhaps...

A government that does those sort of things is bad in other ways too -- and can get your ass to wherever it wants at any time.

So, if you cannot trust the government not to do these things, then I suggest you try to change the government and the way things are done, instead of trying to hide from them with encryption or whatever.

Re: Congress, at Last Minute, Drops Requirement to Obtain Warrant to Monitor Email

#127
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The war on terror is... about preventing fear. Many people would argue exactly the opposite

You can argue the opposite of anything, and many do; doesn't mean anything. 911 for example, caused the fear, which then was used to pass draconian laws, but those laws were meant to both seize power and alleviate the fear, to the point of implementing things like the TSA, which aren't real protection, but make people feel less fear.

When considering the war on terror, and the threat to america/'the west', i think of how damn easy it would be for any one of us to cause at least double digit deaths, if we were determined[1]. And yet, there are extremely few of these events related to islamic extremism. I think of how basic the attacks that have happened have been. The US does not share it's intelligence with us, but these facts suggest that the real threat is.. minimal.

1. Look at Breivik for example. Or the latest nutter shooting up a school.

Re: Congress, at Last Minute, Drops Requirement to Obtain Warrant to Monitor Email

#128
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been researching doing this for a while, but there's one big caveat that I can't get past- there's no decent server solutions for push mail. For desktop computers there's IMAP IDLE, but all the push solutions Apple's software uses are based on Microsoft Exchange (expensive). I'm all ears too.

Zarafa works wonderfully and is a snap to setup. Edit: Here are the docs for the latest 7.1 branch: http://doc.zarafa.com/7.1/ And here is the link to the community (open source) section of their site: http://community.zarafa.com/

I keep hearing the name. I'm going to chuck it onto a VM and try it out.

Re: Congress, at Last Minute, Drops Requirement to Obtain Warrant to Monitor Email

#129
post #16

Another reason we need better encryption solutions for email. Are there any useful options that encrypt email?

My company is working on this: http://parley.co EDIT: As mentioned a few times elsewhere on this thread, the biggest barrier to encrypted email adoption is the network effect, ie. both ends need to be using it. That is the core problem we're trying to solve--making an email system that would be better than the rest even if it weren't encrypted, but that's the icing on the cake.

Very interesting project. Since I watched the "what happened to the cryptodream" video, I have finally begun to understand that we need more tools like yours or say Wickr (closest to secure IM on ios...), tools which my mother who know shit about aes but know her history and what an enigma machine was, can use.

The fact that your code will (?) be opensourced, is a big +1 The fact that it's secure by design is a big +1

Count me in, and go defeat gmail, icloud, and all those monstrosities,... one user at a time !

Re: Congress, at Last Minute, Drops Requirement to Obtain Warrant to Monitor Email

#130
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Relevant: http://www.theamericanconservative.com/open-minded-conservat... Supposedly based on an actual study - I'll let you vet the sources ;)

Not relevant, I live in Arizona and lack of contact with conservatives is not an issue ; hell, I wish it were.

Not a rant, just an observation: Republicans aren't conservative. They are military-industrial socialists. That's why things like Fox get annoying: they go around pointing fingers at the others, yet push out their own stimulus packages (via military spending increases) and their own flavor of socialism.

A lot of "true" conservatives have left the party.

FTR, I don't classify myself as either liberal or conservative; I've been a member of the Democratic party and the Republican party, and left them both. I can't stand either of them. And I really can't stand hypocrisy.

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