05-18-2006, 07:48 PM
Between the NSA tracking phone data and now this, I wonder if the next logical step is to start installing cameras in everyone's home to make sure us citizens aren't up to no good, once they have the phone and internet locked down. The thing the rubs me the wrong way the most about the NSA data mining phone calls in this post-9/11 world is that if the concrete wall between the FBI and CIA was dropped (and some high-ups had pulled the trigger with the data they did have), then 9/11 could very well have been avoided. But their solution? Instead of fixing the inherent problems to the system, we're just going to start spying on our citizens all the time! Yay! ...?
Here's an interesting counter-viewpoint:
http://www.theothersideofkim.com/index.p...ngle/9332/
I have three problems with his assessment however:
1) The grocery store purchase tracking services are completely voluntary. The NSA tracking your phone calls and snooping on you is not.
2) He made the rather bold assumption that nothing unethical would ever be done with your data. Just because *he* never did anything unethical in his career, does not mean that same ethical behavior can then be directly applied to the people in our government. Especially lately, we've seen just how "ethical" our government can be.
3) Once the NSA is given free range to data mine our phone calls and spy on us, the government has a toe hold. Where do we draw the line? I choose to draw it here, to make sure the government knows I don't think that it's okay for a government to spy on law-abiding citizens.
I realize that the NSA wasn't the main point of the article, but I saw that paragraph and just needed to rant and rave :) Forcing our ISPs to spy on us for child pornography, while a noble goal (perhaps, perhaps not due to the proximity to election time), is just another way for the government to squirm it's way into our lives. I somehow doubt that given the wealth of information the ISP will be collecting that our government will be able to confine itself to just this one subject, however. That's like laying a 10-course meal in front of a starving man and saying, "I'll be back in a couple hours, but please only eat the peas."
The whole situation just reeks of Mussolini's Blackshirts - "If you've got nothing to hide, then you'll let us search through your house." Bleh.
Here's an interesting counter-viewpoint:
http://www.theothersideofkim.com/index.p...ngle/9332/
I have three problems with his assessment however:
1) The grocery store purchase tracking services are completely voluntary. The NSA tracking your phone calls and snooping on you is not.
2) He made the rather bold assumption that nothing unethical would ever be done with your data. Just because *he* never did anything unethical in his career, does not mean that same ethical behavior can then be directly applied to the people in our government. Especially lately, we've seen just how "ethical" our government can be.
3) Once the NSA is given free range to data mine our phone calls and spy on us, the government has a toe hold. Where do we draw the line? I choose to draw it here, to make sure the government knows I don't think that it's okay for a government to spy on law-abiding citizens.
I realize that the NSA wasn't the main point of the article, but I saw that paragraph and just needed to rant and rave :) Forcing our ISPs to spy on us for child pornography, while a noble goal (perhaps, perhaps not due to the proximity to election time), is just another way for the government to squirm it's way into our lives. I somehow doubt that given the wealth of information the ISP will be collecting that our government will be able to confine itself to just this one subject, however. That's like laying a 10-course meal in front of a starving man and saying, "I'll be back in a couple hours, but please only eat the peas."
The whole situation just reeks of Mussolini's Blackshirts - "If you've got nothing to hide, then you'll let us search through your house." Bleh.
--Mith
I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.
Jack London
I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.
Jack London