I think it's naive to ever have thought that all network and mail were not being monitored. America has been a police state since the "threat" of communism, and it's only now that we're seeing proof.
U.S. Postal Service Logging All Mail for Law Enforcement
151–160 of 242 posts
Re: U.S. Postal Service Logging All Mail for Law Enforcement
#152Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well there's ways to pull the paper out without disturbing the envelope if they really wanted to go that far. As it stands what you're suggesting is at least already illegal, FWIW.
> As it stands what you're suggesting is at least already illegal, FWIW. Unless a secret presidential order established a secret law (declared legal by a secret court) that made it legal (but illegal to disclose to the public), that is.
The "secret order" you refer to is in accordance with the public law, otherwise the "secret court" you refer to wouldn't have said that it's legal.
Invading the mail, on the other hand, is quite explicitly illegal.
Re: U.S. Postal Service Logging All Mail for Law Enforcement
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
this was a Linux system, I remember reading the articles taking about it (but it's been a while)...
That one was for machine-printed addresses. I had the luck to hire the lead on that project in 1997 or 1998. The interview consisted of "teach me how that works." Edit: Ah, after we worked together it looks as if he went back to pick up the hand-written addresses as well: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/2985
Oh man, I remember when those dual Pentium Pro 200's came out. So much awesome...
Re: U.S. Postal Service Logging All Mail for Law Enforcement
#154Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think we're seeing the demise of personal privacy. For most of American history, "privacy" meant that what happened in the walls of your home or in the confines of some other private place remained private. You could expect privacy in your house and your coat pocket and in conversations you had with people in a private setting. And by and large, that's still the case. If you live on a farm like most people di…
"For most of American history, "privacy" meant that what happened in the walls of your home or in the confines of some other private place remained private" The problem is that today there are very few private places, and it is very hard to get to a private place unnoticed. Private, secluded places are becoming rare as security cameras are installed. Even if you can find such a place, your trip to it might be recorde…
I don't disagree that many people aren't making an informed decision about this, especially all the kids and young teenagers who use Facebook and Google, etc. But my point is about the technology, not the people. The technology isn't designed to keep information private. SMTP sends plain-text e-mails through intermediate servers. Anybody can inspect the packets flying by on their network, which mostly have plain-text contents. Apparently at Google (from what we've learned from the David Barksdale stalking story: http://gawker.com/5637234/gcreep-google-engineer-stalked-tee...) lots of people have extensive access to customer data. I don't imagine the situation is much better at Facebook.
The technology didn't have to be designed that way. Google could, e.g. encrypt your gdrive contents client-side, and I bet there would be a way to store e-mail accounts encrypted so only the inbox/outbox would be stored in plain text on Google's servers. Facebook might be harder but it would be an interesting technical challenge to see what extent to which Facebook accounts could be stored encrypted on Facebook's servers. But by and large the internet is not designed that way. It is designed to leak your data all over the place, to every sysadmin at every intermediary, which makes privacy very hard to achieve, whether from the government or from companies.
Re: U.S. Postal Service Logging All Mail for Law Enforcement
#155Earlier quoted context omitted.
Perhaps I've always found it obvious that creating these things, working for companies with close ties to military and surveillance (Lockheed, etc.) is quite near evil and that professionals with integrity would not do that. I think that is a minority view in our profession, so you are probably right.
If you think working for Lockheed is evil, what do you think of working for a company like Facebook, that profits from selling the personal data of teenagers to companies who take advantage of their adolescence to peddle overpriced products to them that they don't need and that their parents can't really afford? I'm not saying Facebook is evil, but let's face it the world is a lot more morally complex than the self-r…
> I'm not saying Facebook is evil
Why not? I say it is. Just as you said the other day -- advertising is preying on people's cognitive biases. Sure, the world is very morally complex, but that has no bearing on the morality of advertising and whether how Facebook in particular does it is evil or not.
It is evil for a panoply of reasons. Just say it, don't just hint at it. Facebook does more lasting harm to society than good.
Re: U.S. Postal Service Logging All Mail for Law Enforcement
#156Earlier quoted context omitted.
So does the same apply to email headers? "We didn't look at the body or subject".
The best analogy re: address info on mail is to garbage that you leave on the curb for the trash collector. You probably don't have a reasonable expectation of privacy in that garbage because you exposed it to the public by leaving it out on the curb. There is case law to back this up. Similarly, if you hand over a letter to a postal carrier, you arguably wouldn't have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the info…
In a way email is worse, due to all the third-parties who might conceivably be "shown" the email en route.
Perhaps the courts will come up with a legal construct that information which is processed and handled in a completely automated fashion does not "count" as having been seen in public. Something similar to DMCA safe harbor and "common carrier" provisions already defined in telecommunications law, except that it would apply in general and not just to 'large enough' websites or telecom companies.
Re: U.S. Postal Service Logging All Mail for Law Enforcement
#157Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you think working for Lockheed is evil, what do you think of working for a company like Facebook, that profits from selling the personal data of teenagers to companies who take advantage of their adolescence to peddle overpriced products to them that they don't need and that their parents can't really afford? I'm not saying Facebook is evil, but let's face it the world is a lot more morally complex than the self-r…
> I'm not saying Facebook is evil Why not? I say it is. Just as you said the other day -- advertising is preying on people's cognitive biases. Sure, the world is very morally complex, but that has no bearing on the morality of advertising and whether how Facebook in particular does it is evil or not. It is evil for a panoply of reasons. Just say it, don't just hint at it. Facebook does more lasting harm to society th…
I won't say it's evil because that's like saying fattening foods or sugary sweets are evil. People love getting the latest Kate Spade handbag even if its an exercise in irrational behavior. I'm no philosopher-king, I'm not going to sit here and call it evil to give people what they want.
Re: U.S. Postal Service Logging All Mail for Law Enforcement
#158Earlier quoted context omitted.
How are you going to encrypt your snail mail destination data?
You could send mail to the wrong address intentionally. Like you want to send mail to 3 Main Street, but you write "5 Main Street" instead. The person who receives it will say "Ah, this is for Joe. He lives next door!" and hand deliver it. That's mostly sarcasm. There's no getting around the tracking if you want to use regular USPS mail or Google Gmail. Just go meet in person, and leave your cell phones at home.
Make sure you walk or go by bicycle or public bus, too. Untracked personal communication and conveyance over long distances is hard in the present system.
Re: U.S. Postal Service Logging All Mail for Law Enforcement
#159Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even if someone thought such actions were unreasonable, I have no idea how you'd use the law to prevent it.
In this century, we certainly can: do not have license plates at all, use radio beacons instead, which send encrypted copies of the plate. The police would be allowed to request decryption from the DMV (e.g., "running the plates"), and a few other authorized people, but the general public could not. The secret keys would be the weak point, and would have to be held only in a limited number of DMV data centers (which…
And if you see a hit and run, good luck helping the other guy out by "grabbing his plate number"
Re: U.S. Postal Service Logging All Mail for Law Enforcement
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even if someone thought such actions were unreasonable, I have no idea how you'd use the law to prevent it.
In this century, we certainly can: do not have license plates at all, use radio beacons instead, which send encrypted copies of the plate. The police would be allowed to request decryption from the DMV (e.g., "running the plates"), and a few other authorized people, but the general public could not. The secret keys would be the weak point, and would have to be held only in a limited number of DMV data centers (which…
Sure, but then how do you tell the police that you just saw a black SUV with Massachusetts plates ending is 907 blow through a red light and almost run down an old lady with a cane at 7th and main? How would they ever find the driver or owner?
While there are many ways to abuse the fact that license plates are publicly-visible (the aforementioned abortion protester being one example), there are still very legitimate reasons they should continue to be that way (holding people responsible for their actions when they infringe on the rights of others, as in my example). This isn't to say that we should always and forever attach a stamped piece of metal to cars, but the current system does have the advantage of being compatible with the Mk. I Eyeball.