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

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

#41

Post by revelation »

gnaritas wrote: post #34
woah wrote: 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…

Is there really actual fear today in a western country?

I think actual fear would have to come from injuries to someone you know and can feel empathy towards. Dunbars number suggests theres only very little of that based on the number of deaths due to terrorism.

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

#42

Post by monochromatic »

w1ntermute wrote: post #24
mikeash wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have a cite for the peanut butter thing? I'd love to use that figure, but would hate to be unable to back it up if asked.

Another good one is the number of people that die in car accidents in the US every year, largely due to human error - 32,367 people in 2011. If the government took one tenth of the money it spends on defense every year (which was $1.030–$1.415 trillion for 2012), or approximately $100 billion dollars, and invested it in driverless car research and the infrastructure changes necessary for it, a much bigger benefit cou…

military-industrial complex

Most of what you said is true enough, but this nonsense loses you credibility. It's like saying "it's the corporations, man."

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

#43

Post by monochromatic »

Entr0p wrote: post #27
JshWright wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an article about an amendment proposed to a law that's already on the books. The 180 days thing is already the law of the land, this amendment sought to change that. There's now nothing in this bill relating to mail privacy (i.e. the existing law isn't being changed at all). So, if that's the way you feel about it, the time to stop using free text email was 1986, when ECPA was first passed.

interesting, I'll have to read more - I was expecting that a warrant was required under current law to use intercepted emails

I think most people do expect that.

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

#44

Post by tptacek »

propercoil wrote: post #19

They always do that in holidays when no one is looking like they did with the NDAA. no suprise

The NDAA did exactly what this bill purports to do: leave intact an unfortunate status quo. Almost nothing people say about it on message boards is true; it has become a shibboleth for "I pass along public policy gossip without verifying it".

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

#45

Post by urza »

monochromatic wrote: post #42
w1ntermute wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another good one is the number of people that die in car accidents in the US every year, largely due to human error - 32,367 people in 2011. If the government took one tenth of the money it spends on defense every year (which was $1.030–$1.415 trillion for 2012), or approximately $100 billion dollars, and invested it in driverless car research and the infrastructure changes necessary for it, a much bigger benefit cou…

military-industrial complex Most of what you said is true enough, but this nonsense loses you credibility. It's like saying "it's the corporations , man."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military%E2%80%93industrial_com...

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

#46

Post by nwh »

dsplittgerber wrote: post #10
rsync wrote: post #9

If you don't host your own mail server, you are a clown-person. Joe 6 pack has an excuse, but nobody here does.

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.

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

#47

Post by tptacek »

monochromatic wrote: post #43
Entr0p wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

interesting, I'll have to read more - I was expecting that a warrant was required under current law to use intercepted emails

I think most people do expect that.

Warrants are required for mail less than 180 days old.

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

#48

Post by ScottBurson »

monochromatic wrote: post #42
w1ntermute wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another good one is the number of people that die in car accidents in the US every year, largely due to human error - 32,367 people in 2011. If the government took one tenth of the money it spends on defense every year (which was $1.030–$1.415 trillion for 2012), or approximately $100 billion dollars, and invested it in driverless car research and the infrastructure changes necessary for it, a much bigger benefit cou…

military-industrial complex Most of what you said is true enough, but this nonsense loses you credibility. It's like saying "it's the corporations , man."

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. - Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961

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

#49

Post by ihsw »

pretoriusB wrote: post #8
Entr0p wrote: post #4

whelp, that passing will end my use of free text email.

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.

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

#50

Post by tptacek »

napoleond wrote: post #22
dmix wrote: 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.

If "works anywhere on any device" means it crypto code is loaded over Javascript without browser extensions, that's a goal that cannot share a project with "make it impossible for admins to read email even with a subpoena".

The reason it's 2012 and there's still no universal solution for encrypting email is that it's a hard problem. If you care about the security of your mail, you should use GPG.

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