Slashdot Mirror
Senate Wants Database Dragnet
Doc Ruby writes "Wired reports that the "Senate could pass a bill as early as Wednesday evening that would let government counter-terrorist investigators instantly query a massive system of interconnected commercial and government databases that hold billions of records on Americans".
I've resisted wearing my tinfoil hat, now I'm wearing one, and putting one around all my personal information as well.
Many have trouble accurately querying databases within the same company. If these government agencies have the brain power (internal or contracted) to pull this off then they can have my information.
Michalangelo Progr
Uh, I'm not like a Bush supporter or anything, but I have to ask "what are you smoking?" Both sides want to tell you how to live, and democrats have supported some of the most intrusive legislation we've seen (anyone remember the DMCA? Gore's "clipper chip?" Need I go on?)
If you really care about keeping the gov the hell out of your personal life there's really only one party to vote for - and it starts with neither "r" nor "d."
I'm pretty certain there are millions of records of personnal information on us foreigners in those many many databases, too. Nice to see how highly we're regarded by the current US Administration :( Especially when we have no say in how these informations can be (mis)handled.
Maybe we deserve this world ?
"To prevent abuses of the system, the Markle task force recommended anonymized technology, graduated levels of permission-based access and automated auditing software constantly hunting for abuses."
Who is going to audit the auditing software? Who gets to assign permissions? How can this be anonymized? Why are these just recommendations?
"The proposed network would not look for patterns in data warehouses to attempt to detect terrorist activities, Dempsey said. Instead, an investigator would start with a name and the system would try to see what information is known about that person."
Ok, so it's not a "dragnet," but a "dossier net" that just keeps a file on everybody synthesized from government and commercial data. I fail to see how this could possibly detect someone using a false name, who does not want to be found and probably doesn't use credit cards.
"The next Mohammed Atta is not going to be found in commercial databases," Griffin said, referring to the tactical leader of the 9/11 attacks. "We are going to stop him running a red light somewhere, and we are going to run relationships associations with this guy and we are going to say, gee, you have things in common with guys on watch lists. That's how you are going to find the guy -- not because he has bad credit.""
Riiiight. How many people would match up to these arbitrary watch lists? How many more middle eastern folks are gonna be pulled over again and again and questioned again and again just because their activities look something similar to someone's idea of a potential terrorist?
Is it worth it?
The IRS lacks staff and adequate software and hardware. The BIA has totally hosed the accounting of the trust fund money. The Justice Department says that complying with a large FOIA data request would crash their servers. The current, tiny No Fly list contained the name of a prominent Senator. I should worry about this, why?
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
Ah, so it has struck US politicians that threats to the nation may (at least in theory) come from people who are not forreign nationals. Not that I envy those of you who live there, regardless of nationality. Freedom used to be cherished, and covernment control and distrust of own citisens in the former eastern block used to be scorned. Bring that point of view back! Your fears are scores for your enemies. _ /Bjorn.
What's wrong with this picture?
When all else fails, run.
"We are going to stop him running a red light somewhere, and we are going to run relationships associations with this guy and we are going to say, gee, you have things in common with guys on watch lists. That's how you are going to find the guy -- not because he has bad credit.""
So are they going to lock him up for having things in common with guys on watch lists? Or put him under surveillance for having things in common with guys on watch lists? When all he's actually done wrong is run a red light? What happened to due process?
Please explain why the effort to blend in--which would include convincing thousands if not millions of people to conform--is not better spent just making the government honest.
You have total freedom in one hand. You've got security in the other hand. Which do you choose? I'd choose freedom.
Let's decide if this is a good thing.
Q:Whom is this database going to be accessible by?
A: Government counter-terrorist investigators.
Q: Who are these government counter-terrorist investigators exactly? Can there simply be someone who works for the government, or do they have to have some kind of clearance?
Q: What kind of information will they have access to? Will they be able to pull up my voting history? (Washingtonians, check out RCW 29A.08.720) Will they be able to go as far as to see which classes I took in a public school?
When we choose security over freedom, we're giving up our right to privacy. There is nothing simpler than that, in my opinion.
And wasn't it JFK who said the only thing we have to fear is fear itself?
sponsored by Joseph Lieberman (D-Connecticut)
I never understand why Lieberman has people cut off the bottom part of the R when they show his political affiliation.
"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once." -David Hume
Because it only takes one mistake. And everybody makes mistakes.
Suppose the guy you're looking for has a bank account under a fake name - all you know is the bank account number, and nothing at all about the holder. Suppose further that you have access to all TCP/IP headers on the planet.
Hey - look at that. The bank's logs show that our guy logged on to the bank from aa.bb.cc.dd. It was a kiosk in the middle of an airport.
And someone accessed Slashdot from IP address aa.bb.cc.dd only 30 seconds later.
And the security cameras at the airport show only one person used that kiosk for the entire hour.
So we can now look at his Slashdot user info and posting history we can learn a lot more about him than we knew previously. Maybe enough to guess his real identity.
The saying "every criminal leaves something at the crime scene, and every criminal takes something home from the crime scene" applies to more than just criminals, and to more than just crime scenes. Information may not want to be free, but it sure wants to leak.
The people running this one can arrest you, take all your stuff and deport you to a country where you can be tortured.
Other than that nothing much else is different.
Why not just use the Do-Not-Call registry? Sure...sign up for something with the government that is too good to be true.
Saying that Lieberman is a democrat is like, well, saying that Zell Miller is a democrat...
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
A search warrant should be required to perform any such search. At least give judicial oversight to the use of this information.
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP