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EU Funding "Orwellian" Artificial Intelligence Snooping System

Posted by timothy on from the why-does-this-bother-you? dept.

leonbenjamin writes "Britain's Telegraph reports on a five-year research programme, called Project Indect, which aims to develop computer programmes which act as 'agents' to monitor and process information from web sites, discussion forums, file servers, peer-to-peer networks and even individual computers. Its main objectives include the 'automatic detection of threats and abnormal behaviour or violence.' Shami Chakrabarti, head of the UK's Liberty human-rights NGO, said: 'Profiling whole populations instead of monitoring individual suspects is a sinister step in any society. ... It's dangerous enough at national level, but on a Europe-wide scale the idea becomes positively chilling.'"

4 of 181 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Abnormal behavior by Jurily · · Score: 5, Interesting

    "Abnormal behavior"... You know, like disagreeing with the government about what the definition of that may be.

    Not to mention this is the EU we're talking about: a place with 23 different official languages. With this kind of diversity, there's probably nothing that can be classified as "abnormal".

    Non-EU example: In the Netherlands, the Gay Pride is a cultural event. In Serbia, protesters beat the shit out of them. In Moscow, the police did. Which one of these is normal, and to whom?

  2. It won't take that long to embarrass somebody by Proteus · · Score: 3, Interesting

    At some point, some government official will either be exposed to be pervert or some such, or will be wrongfully and horribly flagged as some sort of terrorist.

    In fact, I'm willing to bet the European hacker community will take steps to ensure that such a thing happens. As soon as it does, there will be all sorts of running about to cripple the system to the point that it's inert, but oddly still very expensive.

    --
    We may not imagine how our lives could be more frustrating and complex—but Congress can. – Cullen Hightower
    1. Re:It won't take that long to embarrass somebody by R2.0 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      At some point, some government official will either be exposed to be pervert or some such, or will be wrongfully and horribly flagged as some sort of terrorist.

      In fact, I'm willing to bet the European hacker community will take steps to ensure that such a thing happens. As soon as it does, there will be all sorts of running about to cripple the system to the point that it's inert, but oddly still very expensive.

      You mean like when Teddy Kennedy, a US Senator, was put on the no-fly list in the US? The only thing that changed was the addition of a note under the entry that says "The fat drunk claiming to be a US Senator is good to go."

      When politicians and "important" people run afoul of the law, they don't change the law - they just make sure that it doesn't apply to THEM.

      --
      "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
  3. Re:Absurd Reasoning by Jurily · · Score: 3, Interesting

    And are you serious? People don't get that upset about traffic problems!

    You clearly never lived in Budapest.

    And who is forcing them to watch it? Your claims are absurd! I don't want to see gay people dance, and I haven't because I DON'T go to the parade in Oslo!

    You're still judging out of context. For you, it's gay people dancing, and if you don't go, you don't really need to acknowledge their existence. Here, it instantly became a political event, with pressure from the liberals to push it through and threats from the far-right. It was all over the news for four days straight. You went to work and people talked about it. You went to the pub and people talked about it. There was literally no way you could avoid the topic without retreating from society until the hype is over.

    It's also a question of external cultural influence. Ever heard the phrase "Hungarians celebrate crying"? There are no Hungarian holidays where we dance around on the street. We have no reason for it: from 1526 to 1989 our country has been either torn apart or under occupation. Our national holidays are about failed revolutions, failed fights for our freedom, and the execution of our leaders. Any public celebration that involves dancing around is basically a slap in the face to those of us who value our cultural identity.

    I don't expect you to understand it, but please, try to look at the context before jumping to conclusions.