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Tech firms seek to frustrate internet history log law

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Tech firms seek to frustrate internet history log law

#5

The scariest line was this: "Terrorists and serious criminals will always seek to avoid detection." The fact that in the public eye they're going to be claiming they are doing this under terrorism, will give a lot of weight with non-technical people.

Right. It makes no sense.

"Let's bring in a law that logs everyone not seeking to avoid detection."

Any serious criminal/terrorist will use a VPN, disposable phones with end to end encrypted messaging, or pen and paper.

Any criminal/terrorist that doesn't take these measures shouldn't be a problem to prevent in the firstplace.

Re: Tech firms seek to frustrate internet history log law

#6
post #5

The scariest line was this: "Terrorists and serious criminals will always seek to avoid detection." The fact that in the public eye they're going to be claiming they are doing this under terrorism, will give a lot of weight with non-technical people.

Right. It makes no sense. "Let's bring in a law that logs everyone not seeking to avoid detection." Any serious criminal/terrorist will use a VPN, disposable phones with end to end encrypted messaging, or pen and paper. Any criminal/terrorist that doesn't take these measures shouldn't be a problem to prevent in the firstplace.

So where is the conversation about that?

If this measure will not catch the very people it is intending to catch, what is its purpose?

Re: Tech firms seek to frustrate internet history log law

#7
post #4

One option is to hide your internet history, the other is to automate it (including signing up for and logging in to sites you don't necessarily visit) so that your machine is logging 24/7 and your small portion gets lost in the haystack

Your "fake" traffic would have to very closely match your non-fake traffic otherwise it could be easily filtered out. And I'm not just talking about User-Agent headers.

Re: Tech firms seek to frustrate internet history log law

#8
post #4

One option is to hide your internet history, the other is to automate it (including signing up for and logging in to sites you don't necessarily visit) so that your machine is logging 24/7 and your small portion gets lost in the haystack

Logging discovers who visited a specific "bad website" - the fact there might be 10,000 "good websites" in your history is essentially irrelevant. If you visited the bad one then you'll get flagged as a user of the "bad website".

Re: Tech firms seek to frustrate internet history log law

#9
post #6
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right. It makes no sense. "Let's bring in a law that logs everyone not seeking to avoid detection." Any serious criminal/terrorist will use a VPN, disposable phones with end to end encrypted messaging, or pen and paper. Any criminal/terrorist that doesn't take these measures shouldn't be a problem to prevent in the firstplace.

So where is the conversation about that ? If this measure will not catch the very people it is intending to catch, what is its purpose?

I can't work out the purpose. It feels scary and Orwellian but I don't know why they want to collect all this data. Who benefits?

In a totalitarian regime it makes sense because you can use it to prevent political opposition. But in this case, it's a democratic government that can easily be voted out. It doesn't help anyone cling to power.

Maybe I'm over-thinking, but I can't work out the point.

Re: Tech firms seek to frustrate internet history log law

#10
post #5

The scariest line was this: "Terrorists and serious criminals will always seek to avoid detection." The fact that in the public eye they're going to be claiming they are doing this under terrorism, will give a lot of weight with non-technical people.

Right. It makes no sense. "Let's bring in a law that logs everyone not seeking to avoid detection." Any serious criminal/terrorist will use a VPN, disposable phones with end to end encrypted messaging, or pen and paper. Any criminal/terrorist that doesn't take these measures shouldn't be a problem to prevent in the firstplace.

something about this reminds me of "common-sense firearm safety laws"
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