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Total Information Awareness, For One
Jason writes "This guy has created his own TIA program for his electronic transactions around DC. He writes, 'Conceptually, I decided to create a personal TIA program to track my own electronic movements... and to document every single electronically-recorded transaction I've made.' A small vignette into what could be done with your electronic droppings."
looks like he just took quicken or MS money or some equivalent application and added addresses and posted the locations on a map. This doesn't seem to be nearly the scope of ashcroft's wet dream come true (TIA).
Where everyone knows all your secrets...
When personal data is confidential, only governments and big business will have access to it. When personal data is public, even corrupt officials will be forced to behave.
The genie is out of the bottle, and it seems that only laws to mandate total and full access to all data by anyone who wants it will protect us from those who would seek to use such power against us.
Yes, I know it'd be a nightmare if anyone could monitor my phone records, but the nightmare could become quite fun if it went both ways.
Ceci n'est pas une signature
RTFT
As in...read the f*cking title...
The ability to gather the data about you has long been there. Commercial sources have been able to do this for nearly two decades, anyone remember the late and not lamented Lotus Marketplace ?.
The real trick is to turn the raw data into meaningfull information. Its that lack of discrimination thats truly scary in letting the government assume that kind of power.
I have no wish to have storm troopers drilling holes in my ceiling because my name is one letter off from a terrorist, or because I bought a pint of humous at the supermarket. Untill there is sufficient discrimination in the system to be intelligent about who it singles out, and Unless there is further the mandatory requirement for human investigation and discretion before acting this type of technology will be nothing but a loose cannon.
As things currently stand this type of information will just be used to harrass and persecute people that have been flagged by or have annoyed some government beureuacrat. Terry pratchet in his truly insightfull manner summed up the relationship between the populace and the law, "Commander Grimes surveyed the crowd of people and amused himself by trying to figure out what each one was guilty of". Everyone is guilty of something, with the current level of litigation and legality within our society most people are guilty of many things they aren't even aware of.
If TIA raw data is available for call up on any individual, suspicious material will be found, and nominally innocent people will have their lives made a hell. If however it can be predictive and then mediated with severe limits it could actually serve a valuable purpose.
Uh ... and you're not? It is NOT paranoia when they actually are out to get you, you know.
... no significant barriers to misuse.
Besides, I thought it was interesting to see a concrete example of what everyone (paranoids as well as normal sheep) has been worrying about. It's one thing when cops, spooks and other investigators have to spend time and effort to research what their victims, I mean, subjects are doing. It's quite another when detailed historical information about every person in the U.S. can be pulled up on a graphics monitor on an instant's notice, with no more effort than a couple of mouse clicks. No, I don't like that at all
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Then the data are sent to the bank. OF COURSE they track all this info. THEY HAVE TO! THEY'RE BANKS!!! There is a money trail/information trail that is left behind any time you ever do ANYTHING with electronic banking.
If the FBI or local police get a subpoena, they have access to all this information NOW. STOP THE PRESSES!!!
What blows my fuse is that people think that this is NEW, and it is being put in place by the Dept of Homeland Security. Can you say FUD?
If the data is already out there, and its already retrieveable once they get a warrant/subpoena. What is wrong here?
Good security is based upon reality and common sense. Common sense is a function of having common knowledge.
On the other hand, by simply paying for everything with cash and using your ATM that way you are probably just fitting yourself into some profile. Hard to say what that would be, though. It might simply be "anti-government whacko" (harmless) or "drug dealer" (call Bob at the DEA) or "terrorist" (throw him into a locked room and throw away the room.) In some respects you're probably better off just trying to fit in with the rest of us and hope that the Justice lightning doesn't strike too close to home. At one time it was sensible to try and hide stuff from the government because there were things like "Rules of Evidence" and "Attorney Client Privilege" and whatnot, but since they don't seem to have to prove actual wrongdoing anymore I'm not sure its such a good idea.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Yes, but on the other hand no commercial interest has even a fraction of the resources available to it that the Federal Government has, and would cheerfully misdirect to this end. And you also don't realize that long-term archival storage of this information isn't the point. The fact that you bought a box of doughnuts ten years ago is irrelevant: the fact that you bought something yesterday that is considered relevant today is the point. What they can do is require organizations that do collect personal information (credit bureaus, banks) to look for specific information and forward it to the TIA systems. There is already precedent for that: banks are required to report cash transactions that exceed specific limits, for example.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
While interesting, I lose no sleep over TIA because it simply won't scale into any sample size big enough to actually be useful for catching terrorists. As with baggage screening, face recognition, and pretty much every other system the US Goverment has been thinking about or implementing, the false positive rate is far too high. If terrorists were 50% of the population and easy to identify, it might be useful. And what does this example prove? If you "game" the system, in other words, actively try to thwart being tracked, you will find it is easy to do. It would be easy to make the system think you are out getting groceries while you are actually off committing a murder in another state. The perfect alibi!
I'm surprised how much hell this dude is catching from you all. First, he's not coding something for a competition, it looks like a project he's done on his spare time just to put a picture to how easy it would be to compile info and track people. He's not claiming anything about its quality. Second, to the bright one who wrote "sounds like a terrorist to me," just because someone buys oriental food, doesn't mean they are from N.Korea. And in case you are still prone to unhealthy non sequitur, if someone is from N. Korea, it doesn't mean they are a terrorist. And third, to those saying he should get a life, you're the ones spending your time conversing through /. He's doing research at a think tank in DC, no doubt an advocate for stuff most slashdotters only complain about.
The point isn't that information can be garnered from it, It's that the government is trying to build a tool for the sole purpose of destroying your privacy.
Hmm, Joe sixpack over here bought 100 CDR's and hasn't bought any Music CD's in the last 10 years, I think we better investigate him for Copyright infringment. (You know the RIAA would get access to this info.)
Hmm John Smith over here bought 300 rounds of bullets. He doesn't have a membership to a gun range, we better investigate him. He's obviously not using bullets for the appropriate reasons.
Hmm College boy seems to have withdrawn 500 dollars from his account but based on average spending ammounts at local bars, he only spent 200 of that, He might be into the evils of marijuana. Better investigate.
Hmm Joe internet user browsed some anarchist websites, some anti government websites, some subversive websites, the anarchists cookbook and guns and ammo websites. (You're average slashdot user). Hmm, looks suspicious better investigate.
As i have clearly illustrated in some vaguely appropriate allusions. This information will not be used soley to hunt down terrorists, As Your government has already proven, the government will use the tools it has for whatever it sees as necessary.
These tools are multipurpose, and will be used in multiple ways, It is foolish to believe that they will only be used to target terrorists. As i Believe your DOJ has already used some "anti-terrorist" legislation against common criminals.
I didn't complain when they came for the Gays, I wasn't one. I didn't complain when they came for the jews, I wasn't one. I didn't complain when they came for the catholics, I wasn't one.
When they came for me, there was nobody left to complain.