U.S. Postal Service Logging All Mail for Law Enforcement
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Re: U.S. Postal Service Logging All Mail for Law Enforcement
#2Everything you do is subject to some kind of informational storage by the government. Some day our thoughts might be recordable too.
Re: U.S. Postal Service Logging All Mail for Law Enforcement
#3I also assume that Fedex and UPS et all are required to record your data as well?
Re: U.S. Postal Service Logging All Mail for Law Enforcement
#4Couldn't they pick a more sympathetic guy to talk about:
"Mr. Pickering said that although he was arrested two dozen times for acts of civil disobedience and convicted of a handful of misdemeanors, he was never involved in the arson attacks the Earth Liberation Front carried out."
Gee, this guy was a member of a group that conducted arson attacks and the government is keeping track of the mail he gives to the government to deliver? I'm shocked, really...
That said, this is a great article, and the second page gives a good description of what I think is the legal theory behind the NSA programs:
1) Don't need a warrant to keep track of meta-data (whatever is readable on the outside of the mail).
2) Don't need a warrant to access contents (opening the mail) in foreign intelligence cases (i.e. where the target is a non-U.S. person).
3) Need a warrant to access contents otherwise.
Re: U.S. Postal Service Logging All Mail for Law Enforcement
#5Goddamnit this is NOT OK. This is the dark side of the technological improvements to "productivity": we have enabled a level of productivity that allows the few to track the many.
It's time we technologists all sat down and though about ways to turn the tide - they are using technology to track us, how can we use technology to thwart them?
My best answer is: data flak. We should all start building system that include extra data. Browser components that load other pages in the background. Phones that text at random. Snail mail to nowhere.
You're gonna snoop on all my data? Take it ALL and choke on it.
Re: U.S. Postal Service Logging All Mail for Law Enforcement
#6I guess that the government's legal justification for this is that people have no reasonable expectation of privacy under the 4th Amendment re: the info on the outside of the mail (name, address, etc.). That is why the need a warrant to actually open the mail.
Re: U.S. Postal Service Logging All Mail for Law Enforcement
#7Couldn't they pick a more sympathetic guy to talk about: "Mr. Pickering said that although he was arrested two dozen times for acts of civil disobedience and convicted of a handful of misdemeanors, he was never involved in the arson attacks the Earth Liberation Front carried out." Gee, this guy was a member of a group that conducted arson attacks and the government is keeping track of the mail he gives to the governm…
> Couldn't they pick a more sympathetic guy to talk about
"The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all." - H.L. Mencken
Re: U.S. Postal Service Logging All Mail for Law Enforcement
#8Ah, I see I've arrived at Hacker/USA Government Abuses News. And I say that as somebody deeply interested in these stories.
Re: U.S. Postal Service Logging All Mail for Law Enforcement
#9Ah, I see I've arrived at Hacker/USA Government Abuses News. And I say that as somebody deeply interested in these stories.
Gotta get in your daily outrage.
Re: U.S. Postal Service Logging All Mail for Law Enforcement
#10Goddamnit this is NOT OK. This is the dark side of the technological improvements to "productivity": we have enabled a level of productivity that allows the few to track the many. It's time we technologists all sat down and though about ways to turn the tide - they are using technology to track us, how can we use technology to thwart them? My best answer is: data flak. We should all start building system that include…
The problem is then you're still paying for it, and they'll just make your country go bankrupt - but their spying will be the last services they take money from.