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FCC Demands Universities Comply With Wiretap Law
tabdelgawad writes "The New York Times reports that the FCC is requiring universities to upgrade their online systems to comply with the 1994 wiretap law, which would make it easier for law enforcement to monitor communications online. The universities are not objecting on civil rights grounds (the law requires a court order before monitoring), but on cost grounds (upgrades may cost $7 billion). But with the technology infrastructure in place, what happens if congress decides to relax court order requirements in the future 'in their fight against criminals, terrorists and spies?'"
But with the technology infrastructure in place, what happens if congress decides to relax court order requirements in the future 'in their fight against criminals, terrorists and spies?'
Every time a stroy likes this gets posted we don't complain about the facts we get cought up in "what if's"
500 dollar reward for tip(s) leading to the arrest of the person(s) who stole my sig.
The federal government wants to make it more difficult for "criminals, terrorists and spies" by opening more backdoors in the system? Isn't that exactly the sort of thing that would make it easier for criminals, terrorists, and spies to get the info they need?
The ______ Agenda
Wiretap orders are ex-parte. That is, only one party is present, and the judge, normally neutral, is expected to suddenly become a more active participant in the search for justice (like judges in civil/Napoleonic code type jurisdictions are), asking hard questions in place of the absent other party. Needless to say, a judge who normally acts in one paradigm (and indeed has no training in the other) isn't likely to suddenly change his stripes. Further, the police know full well which judges are likely to ask a question or two and which are likely to issue an order without question, so judge shopping inevitably occurs.
What percentage of search warrants and wiretap requests are denied? I challenge you to even find statistics about such things.
Parte on, dudes.
Everybody's a libertarian 'till their neighbour's becomes a crack house.
I already know that my university network isn't secure from fellow students, so basically what this does is allow law enforcement to sit on their asses from work and see what us kiddos are doing...when all they needed to do was walk their laptop over here and plug into the wall and they can do the same.
The solution is simple, and I do it myself. I SSH Tunnel all of my traffic out of my university to my off-site server so that I don't have to worry about an insecure network. I don't have any control over their policies and sniffing is very simple, even on a switched network.
When your ISP (the university) doesn't have your security in mind, then why should I trust them? And I have even more reason to now.
And I am not forgetting that the off-site server will soon have a similar back door made by my ISP. And when that happens, I might as well look for a server in NL.
_ _ _ _ _ _
Got Teeth?
http://www.doctorgallagher.com/
I'm on your side in this one, but honestly, how could you possibly think that "Well, they might decide to fuck us later" is a valid argument?
If it were, you wouldn't be allowed to do anything. Well, if I pay you for my groceries, you might just take the money and run, so I don't have to pay. But officer, if you arrest me, you might beat a confession out of me, so you're not allowed to arrest me.
No, congress isn't supposed to be allowed to fuck me over things I 'might' do, and the inverse applies too.
Let's face it, an inefficient law-enforcement apparatus is the only reason we still have certain freedoms at all. The closer the government can get to truly universal surveillance (total tapping capability, cameras everywhere, biometrics and data-mining methods to handle the firehose of data), the closer we come to a police state that cannot be resisted. That's why the feds are leaning on Skype and other VOIP providers; currently, Skype can't be tapped.
The most dangerous weapon a criminal can carry is a badge.
>>At least I live in Britain, which hasn't got all these civil rights reducing measures...quite yet. ...You're joking, right? Maybe you don't have this specific rights-reduction, but I'd say surveillance cameras all over the place and a handgun ban are pretty bad.
I know it's not fair to editorialize in a story submission, though I'd probably do it again in this case.
The problem with your analogies is that Congress has a history of ignoring privacy rights when it suits them. Consider how fast the Patriot Act passed Congress. And consider the 'turbo' subpoenas of the DMCA.
I think it's good to have both technological and legal barriers to invasions of privacy. I don't want to live in a world where the government has the technological capability, if not the legal right, to monitor everyone's life at will.
Imposing Libertarian views on everyone online since 1992.
They forgot the RIAA
In 2004, court-ordered wiretaps increased by 19%. This number doesn't even include terror-related wiretaps (which number an unheard of 1,754). It also doesn't include so-called "secret" wiretaps, allowed by Patriot.
The only groups these wiretaps hurt are the law-abiding citizens. The smart (read: dangerous) criminals have it all figured out-- Prepaid cell phones.
Pre-paid cell phones are literally disposable, one-use toys to the bad guys. You don't even need a fake ID, just cash, and not all that much at that. How can they tap your phone when you use a different phone for each call? The best they could do is tap all the pre-paid phones and listen to every conversation out there -- good luck with that! (wanna bet the NSA is big into voice recognition?)
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
with the technology infrastructure in place, what happens if congress decides to relax court order requirements in the future 'in their fight against criminals, terrorists and spies?'
Ummmm... what's to stop congress from passing a law that says all gays should be stoned to death in a public ceremony?
Answer: You! It amazes me that people are complaining about the way congress and the Bush Admin are "slowly" taking away their rights, selling out to corporations bla de bla bla...
Hey American Joe... you voted them into power!!! Twice!!! There's a reason everyone has the right to vote. Unfortunately that includes the uninformed and the easily mislead.
/Rant
using System.Awesome;
Is is simply a case of looking for one's lost keys under the streetlight across the street, where you've not been, instead of down through the sewer grate you're standing over, just 'cause the light is better over there?
If they really want to start locally, I think they'd have more success bugging the phones and routers of the Congress and Executive branch, and posting the results on the web to further the cause of transparency and honesty in government. Nothing more would be required -- no investigations, no prosecutions, because we live in a nation with a free press and the freedom to vote our feeble minds.
Yes, let's bug every nook and cranny in the Capitol -- I believe we would root out a great many "criminals, terrorists and spies". It would not greatly surprise me to find Osama bin Laden living the good life in some Georgetown penthouse apartment.
"It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress." -- Mark Twain
Then again, I don't believe in the notion that "if you've got nothing to hide, what have you to be afraid of". CCTV on private property is absolutely acceptable, provided it is managed in accordance with the Data Protection Act, but Government CCTV cameras - while acceptable in certain limited circumstances - merely serve to further the "Big Brother" notion.
At risk of taking the so-called slippery slope too far, imagine how much fun a dictator would have in the UK with all sorts of CCTV and other privacy-invading tools at his/her disposal.
Backup not found: (A)bort (R)etry (P)anic
The government could make personal encryption illegal with the excuse that it means you have something to hide. (in their eyes) And they could go even further and make all software have a back door, so even though you have a SSH tunnel, the law enforcement can use their back door and login to your application layer, or maybe even go as far as even the operating system layer. Technically, because they make the laws, they could require full access into the hardware level of the computer. If they want to see what you are sending, they can just look at the actual bits read from the hard drive, or the pixels displayed by the graphics card. There is no way around it, our rights are going down the toilet. Combined with the lawsuits from the big businesses nowadays, all they have to say is he stole from me, and then they get a tap warrant and you don't even know that they are monitoring you. Thats the worst kind of security breech out there, the kind that is totally invisible to you...until it is too late.
Sorry, there are currently no U.S. government agencies which can be trusted to give a report with any kind of "scientific" credibility. You'd get more trustworthy results by doing a survey of random people walking by your house.
You've probably spent much more time in engineering/sciences than in the humanities. Five minutes with the students and faculty in the Philosphy, Sociology, Anthropology, or History departments and you'll find out how deep the Anti-Americanism runs.
I'm not an american but I am a university student, and I'll take a solid semester of humanities brainwashing over 5 minutes of business/marketing bullcrap. I took a CS/Admin class (CS270-Information Systems Management--It's a prerequisite for CS271-COBOL) and I swear it dropped my IQ by like 2 points alone. Five minutes with the students and faculty in Marketing or Administration will make you wish you were instead surrounded by pot smoking hippie communist liberals.
GENERATION 26: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.