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U.S. Government Compels Google To Hand Over Wikileaks Volunteer's Gmail Data

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Re: U.S. Government Compels Google To Hand Over Wikileaks Volunteer's Gmail Data

#71

Post by tripzilch »

fleitz wrote: post #20
Abundnce10 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article states that the government had a court order but didn't have a search warrant. It seems there is a loop in the system with the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. My questions is, did Google 'have' to give over his Gmail account information? Or do they just comply to make their lives easier?

In today's society 'having to' and making your life easier is just about the same thing. Don't want to comply citizen? We do have those antitrust hearings scheduled in a few weeks, would be a shame if we found out you were running a monopoly and had to break up your company. When US citizens are assassinated by presidential order rather than being brought to trial it's probably time to 'make your life easier' rather…

Interesting point. It's not unlikely that played a role in their decision not to fight it (too much).

Re: U.S. Government Compels Google To Hand Over Wikileaks Volunteer's Gmail Data

#73

Post by RobertKohr »

tripzilch wrote: post #70
Abundnce10 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article states that the government had a court order but didn't have a search warrant. It seems there is a loop in the system with the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. My questions is, did Google 'have' to give over his Gmail account information? Or do they just comply to make their lives easier?

The ISP Sonic fought against having to hand over the data and lost. Both Sonic and Google fought over the right to inform Mr. Appelbaum of the request for his data and won (afaik). The article says it is not known whether Google fought against having to hand over the data, like the ISP Sonic did. Which makes me assume the writers asked Google, they didn't answer, neither did they issue a press report one way or the o…

Or they simply knew they were going to lose from the fact that they have already gone through this with similar cases.

The law is the law, and they must comply.

Re: U.S. Government Compels Google To Hand Over Wikileaks Volunteer's Gmail Data

#74

Post by CWuestefeld »

jbooth wrote: post #58
Cushman wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why even bother to shut down? Google could probably just go "Haha! Fuck you. Who's your closest supervisor in an elected office?" Next day, " wants Google to share your personal information with the Federal Government" magically becomes the top hit for that name. Bureaucrats and spooks are happy to play this game because they know it never comes back to them. Nobody who has to answer to voters would dare put their na…

Nobody who has to answer to voters would dare put their name on it? Remember that 99-1 vote for the Patriot Act? The one senator who voted against, Russ Feingold, lost in 2010 to a guy who's campaign slogan revolved heavily around "freedom".

There are many dimensions of freedom. I'll note that Sen. Feingold's name shares a place in "McCain-Feingold", which is a limitation on free speech (some may argue that it's a warranted limitation, but the fact that it is a limitation on freedom is objectively true)

Re: U.S. Government Compels Google To Hand Over Wikileaks Volunteer's Gmail Data

#75

Post by jbooth »

CWuestefeld wrote: post #74
jbooth wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody who has to answer to voters would dare put their name on it? Remember that 99-1 vote for the Patriot Act? The one senator who voted against, Russ Feingold, lost in 2010 to a guy who's campaign slogan revolved heavily around "freedom".

There are many dimensions of freedom. I'll note that Sen. Feingold's name shares a place in "McCain-Feingold", which is a limitation on free speech (some may argue that it's a warranted limitation, but the fact that it is a limitation on freedom is objectively true)

Yeah, I know that some people consider limiting campaign contributions to be more damaging to freedom than creating the legal framework for a modern day KGB. I think those people are ignorant.

Fascism and communism didn't kill 100 million people because of a 2300 dollar limit on campaign contributions.

Re: U.S. Government Compels Google To Hand Over Wikileaks Volunteer's Gmail Data

#77

Post by andrewcooke »

cookiecaper wrote: post #67
andrewcooke wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it doesn't make any difference. you us citizens are being tapped just the same as all us evil foreign terrorists these days. https://www.eff.org/issues/nsa-spying

I'm aware of the illegal NSA spying, but surely they're still somewhat more cautious about deploying domestic surveillance. Going overseas makes it all legal and OK, here they at least theoretically are not supposed to be doing things, and that's better than nothing, right?

so you're arguing that despite doing massive domestic surveillance, solidly supported by the government, they're not going to use the data because of their good moral standing.

or are you being sarcastic?

Re: U.S. Government Compels Google To Hand Over Wikileaks Volunteer's Gmail Data

#78

Post by yanw »

Abundnce10 wrote: post #19
yanw wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is it a gmail only problem? The government got a court order to force them, Google didn't hand it over willingly. It's the government who is at fault here and the shitty laws that enable it.

The article states that the government had a court order but didn't have a search warrant. It seems there is a loop in the system with the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. My questions is, did Google 'have' to give over his Gmail account information? Or do they just comply to make their lives easier?

The government doesn't need a search warrant to rummage through cloud data, that's the point.

Re: U.S. Government Compels Google To Hand Over Wikileaks Volunteer's Gmail Data

#79

Post by kragen »

cookiecaper wrote: post #66
kragen wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He can't prevent people from sending him unencrypted emails on Gmail, except by not using Gmail, nor can he force Google to delete them.

If he's receiving random emails they are probably not important or sensitive enough to be valuable to the government. If he's receiving non-random emails that contain sensitive data, it should all be encrypted. If you do get something important that is not encrypted, you can forward the mail to yourself as ciphertext. You're correct that Appelbaum has no control over Google's retention procedures.

The government did not request the contents of the mails in any case, but the header information: who Jake was communicating with, and when.

Re: U.S. Government Compels Google To Hand Over Wikileaks Volunteer's Gmail Data

#80

Post by CWuestefeld »

jbooth wrote: post #75
CWuestefeld wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are many dimensions of freedom. I'll note that Sen. Feingold's name shares a place in "McCain-Feingold", which is a limitation on free speech (some may argue that it's a warranted limitation, but the fact that it is a limitation on freedom is objectively true)

Yeah, I know that some people consider limiting campaign contributions to be more damaging to freedom than creating the legal framework for a modern day KGB. I think those people are ignorant. Fascism and communism didn't kill 100 million people because of a 2300 dollar limit on campaign contributions.

Perhaps they did so because of a total ban on advocacy ads within X days of the election? We wouldn't want people to hear about what a snake their Congressman is, when the election is close enough they might remember.

There's a heck of a lot more to McCain-Feingold than just a $2300 limit.

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