Crashing the Wiretapper's Ball

An anonymous reader writes "Wired is running an article with some great investigative journalism. Writer Thomas Green snuck into the ISS World Conference, a trade show featuring communications-tapping equipment and normally a press-free event. There, he got some very interesting quotes from the attendees." From the article: "You really need to educate yourself ... Do you think this stuff doesn't happen in the West? Let me tell you something. I sell this equipment all over the world, especially in the Middle East. I deal with buyers from Qatar, and I get more concern about proper legal procedure from them than I get in the USA."

Comments

Nice to see journalism isn't dead ...

[Sonic McTails]

When was the last time a major newspaper did real investingation? I mean, I always read about the world they want us to hear about and they never go into details on how our civil liberaties and the constution are essentially being used a toliet house by the people in Washington. It's shocking and disturbing to see how far our nation has fallen in the last couple of years.

Re:Justice is Swift

[Amouth]

personaly i feel that we need a new law here in the US .. if you pass a law that is found to violate the bill of rights and/or the constitution - you should be found guilty of treason (and that would go for anyone that put there name on the bill) - that would make them thing twice.. well atleast mabey thing once ?

Of Course

[The_Isle_of_Mark]

In a lot of states, only one side of a phone conversation needs to agree to a recording for it to be legal. If you call me and I agree that I can record our conversation, it is legal.

Before anyone jumps in and stirs the political pot, remember it is not only governmental use of "wiretapping" that you are subject to. Companies do too, and some of them are nice enough to tell you "This call may be recorded for training and quality assurance purposes"

Big bad big brother is watching, but not always from D.C.

And who's going to gatecrash Bilderberg

[Stavr0]

This sounds more like the Secret Squirrel's convention. "Hush talk, looking over their shoulder". Geez why don't they wear trenchcoat and sunglasses indoors, walk tippy toed while going "dunt-dunt-dunt-dunt" .

That's the decoy conference.

Bilderberg think-tank conference in Ottawa this June is where the real stuff happens.

I have no idea who is attending and what goes on in there... which is precisely why it worries me.

Privacy and Secrecy is a 2way street

[Phoenix666]

If the government is permitted to know our every thought, word, phone call, and whereabouts then we should be able to do the same to them. After all, we are the employers and they are the employees. In fact, it's more critical for us to know their every action and movement because they are such lazy, rotten, unscrupulous, and sometimes just plain evil buggers. If we can't and don't keep an exact eye on them, they'll certainly get up to no good.

How refreshing it would be to clean house and build a political culture like that expressed by the Dutch policeman in the article: transparency makes governance easier.

Re:Justice is Swift

[BrynM]

While i know i am using the word treason wrongly - i am ineffect trying to spark the thought in peoples mind. which is what needs to happen if we are ever going to fix this nation.

Please stop doing this. This type of manipulation and similar justifications are the basis for terms such as the "Patriot Act". Regardless of your intentions, it is a mis-representation. By using it, you are further de-sensitizing poeple to this type of manipulation by makiing it more common and acceptable. Tricking someone into the truth is not telling them the truth.

I don't disagree with your point, just your presentation of it and the dangers that presentation poses.