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EU Debates Installing a Black Box On Your Computer

bs0d3 writes "EU MEP Tiziano Motti (Italy), wants everything you do online to be logged and saved, for the sake of the children. Like a black box installed on every computer. He proposes an early warning system of criminal activity, specifically whenever an image of sexually abused children is detected, an alarm, goes to the authorities to be able to see who uploaded it. Tiziano Motti was a politician who just over a year ago managed to get a majority of European Members of Parliament to support the proposal to expand the data storage directive to Google searches. The purpose was to protect children from pedophiles — the same excuse he is using now. His proposal involves a technology called Logbox. And just as with an aircraft's black box, Logbox is installed on computers, laptops, smartphones, and e-readers because yes, all that can be connected to the internet."

8 of 459 comments (clear)

  1. Mr Motti: by zero.kalvin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Fuck you!

  2. Don't Worry by HopefulIntern · · Score: 5, Informative
    Nothing will ever come of this. One crackpot idea from an idiot who knows nothing about technology does not constitute a reasonable proposal.

    FTFA:

    If it were China, North Korea or Saudi Arabia who had proposed this, what would we say then? It's scary in a democratic Europe to even hear a politician suggest such a thing. It is so absurd that I really hope we never have to discuss it seriously in Parliament.

    -MEP Lars Christian Engstrom (Sweden)

    The proposal claims to be based on users' rights and claims they are protected, that they should feel safe. He writes at the beginning that he did not want to create a new Big Brother Society. But then the whole document is about just that.

    -Former Piratbyran founder and current telecomix hactivist Marcin de Kaminski

  3. Misleading title !! by Zoxed · · Score: 5, Insightful

    OK, this is Slashdot but 1 MEP suggests something, and it becomes "EU Debates Installing a Black Box On Your Computer". No one is debating anything !! (Unless TFA says more: it is currently Slashdotted.)

  4. The title is BS by ardor · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Both this Slashdot story and TFA have a very misleading title. ONE MEP is thinking about this insane idea. It is not even in Parliament for discussion. Another MEP already vehemently spoke against it.

    Come on, ideas like these pop up and fizz out all the time. I bet there are other MEPs thinking about imprisoning gay people, reinstating a theocracy, establishing re-education centers, idolizing Hitler and Stalin, and so on and so forth. That doesn't mean any of these wacky ideas come through. There are no indications that this one will.

    Plus, it is not technically feasible, even with deep packet inspection. To connect the dots, to know who uploaded what where, is far from trivial, especially if the bad scary pedophile uses non-standard ways of transmitting this data. For example, what if he uses zip files? Also, there is encryption, which totally defeats this "logbox".

    --
    This sig does not contain any SCO code.
  5. Re:1984 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    1984 is not a manual for politicians.
    Hitler is back, in Brussels,. But don't worry. What could possibly go wrong ?

    One out of over seven hundred MEPs, one out of over seven hundred members of a body with very little real power within the EU, one man says something technologically illiterate and Slashdot runs for the hills for fear of Blackshirts and deathcamps?

    Your post is absurd, absurd, hysterical and absurd. But thank you for keeping the world safe from totalitarianism. It's the thought (well, not thought, in this case... sentiment, perhaps) that counts....

    P.S. Never, under any circumstances, watch C-SPAN. Your terror will know no bounds.

  6. Re:Opposite Effect by Yvanhoe · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Stop thinking that this has anything to do with porn. Stop thinking that the promoters of such laws care at all about pedophilia and fighting it. If they really cared, they would listen to the policemen and non-profits fighting it that censorship would be counter-productive.

    They just hate internet. It is the #2 media behind TV and is still gaining importance. They want to be able to control it. They want to be able to shut down websites. They need to tackle protests.

    The plan is simple : first, put a mechanism to fight against pedophilia. Then extend it to fight terrorism. Then, using the vague definitions of terrorism, use these tools to squash any kind of protest, because disturbing traffic is akin to terrorism.

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    The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
  7. Re:And who's gonna pay for that? by Joce640k · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Yep. Somebody needs to ask him why there aren't video cameras in politician's houses/offices so we can watch them and prevent corruption.

    Lead us by example!

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    No sig today...
  8. Re:Fuck you Italy by Chrisq · · Score: 5, Funny

    Such a contradiction in terms. Christianity is not democratic. When was the last time God ran for election?

    Is that you Lucifer?