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Senate Bill Rewrite Lets Feds Read Your E-mail Without Warrants
concealment writes "A Senate proposal touted as protecting Americans' e-mail privacy has been quietly rewritten, giving government agencies more surveillance power than they possess under current law. [Sen. Patrick] Leahy's rewritten bill would allow more than 22 agencies — including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Communications Commission — to access Americans' e-mail, Google Docs files, Facebook wall posts, and Twitter direct messages without a search warrant. It also would give the FBI and Homeland Security more authority, in some circumstances, to gain full access to Internet accounts without notifying either the owner or a judge."
Guardians of our Liberties and Privacy!
Good thing those nasty old Republicans aren't running the show. They might force the Feds to get a search warrant or something.
I saw the summary and immediately thought "oh, surely this is Yet Another example of the submitter tarting up a story and the editor not bothering to read the story first to verify the truth of it".
The story seems to be true (except that it's just in the bill stage, so the headline should read "will let", but let's not let facts get in the way, Slashdot), but that's immaterial to my post here.
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
Whenever anyone starts freaking out about email snooping, I find it is a good time to point out that an email message that is not encrypted is roughly as secure in transit as a postcard.
Be careful what you say negative about the government. They are watching you..
I'm an ex-pat who's lived outside the U.S. for twenty years (this year). It's been fascinating to watch the transformation of America from a distance over the past decade.
It's fascinating, like watching a car crash in slow motion is fascinating.
That generation (generalizing Big time) - both Dems and Reps - have a completely different view of America. They were the kids who were alive during WWII and saw everyone working together to defeat evil. The government was Good. The government fought for freedom.
To them, we are the source of Good, Truth, Justice, and that we can do no wrong. They lived during the US' best economic times, they saw the US become a World power and pretty much lead the World.
My 20 something daughter and her grandparents talk as if they come from two different countries. It's really entertaining. I look forward to Thanksgiving.
Stop whining on Slashdot for a few minutes and write your Senator and Congressman.
The first step was the destruction of history classes. Anyone under 30 doesn't understand why losing little freedoms is so dangerous.
Seriously, what does the 4th Amendment in particular, or the Constitution in general, even apply to anymore? The government can subvert every single protection afforded in the Constitution simply by saying "It's a national security matter" (or even "It's a law enforcement matter") and every court in the country will simply turn its head and ignore it.
What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
Let's call this what it is, high treason. The president, members of congress, and judges all swear an oath of office to defend the Constitution, not render it asunder.
"I, (name), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. ..."
Since I live in Vermont I figured I'd call his office - and was passed along to the Judiciary Committee - where I got the [what sounded like every other] usual dissembling response. ("The Senator is very concerned about privacy..."). I'm afraid unless EFF and others get involved very publicly this is a fait accompli.
When SOPA was floating around I called and was told by a (what sounded like a 20-something year-old) staffer "You don't know what you're talking about at all" - exact words - so I'm not holding out much hope!
where is a petition against this that I can sign?
Assume everyone can read your email if it's not encrypted.
Maybe we can catch more government scandals.
That was a secret thing because it was illegal. If your snooping powers are illegal, you'll do it anyway when it's really really important. There's always the risk of getting caught or bad PR or losing your job etc. But once you enshrine the snooping in law and sidestep constitutional protections, it become ripe for abuse. So yes, it has always been going on but they're now trying to take it to another level.
No it won't. The Constitution is just about meaningless these days.
- you can be stopped, searched, and seized with no suspicion or warrant
- try using your right to bear arms in NYC
- granted, they're not quartering troops in our homes....but there is no need to.
- guess, we still have the right to gripe...for now
You can find the petition here...
http://cheaperthandirt.com/
Access to my tweets without a warrant is not a fight I need to have. I spew these out to my supposedly private followers, and it would be trivial for the government to sneak into my list with a handle as unimaginiative as bigbrother or watchingyou or even mintruth. Privacy on Twitter is not an illusion, it is nonexistent.
Access to my Facebook wall, if I designate it as for friends only, I think is improper. No, this I need to fight.
Reading my email without a warrant? Time to consider that email is replacing snail mail so well that the USPS is going under, just slower than Hostess. If the government needs a warrant to open an envelope and read my paper mail, they should need a warrant to do the same to my email.
And the electronic nature of email does not change the fact that I have as much an expectation of privacy as with paper mail. Think it over. Someone can, for most of us, reach into your mailbox and take out an envelope, steam it open, Polaroid the contents, and put it back. The medium does not change the act, merely the process. We need to re-establish the Fourth and Fifth Amendments, among others. This finally gets me to open up my phone and email my representatives today. We may have to have the revolution after all.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
I think its time for US, the PUBLIC, to start CHARGING our ELECTED REPESENTATIVES with TREASON for doing this back handed, secretive bullshit. They need to go to prison and made an example of. I'm tired of these ELECTED TYRANTS trying to change the CONSTITUTION that THEY are SWORN TO UPHOLD and PROTECT !
Secure in our papers and effects. When written, this included all private communications. Simply because we use electrons instead of ink and paper doesn't mean we lose the protection of the 4th amendment.
I'm guessing you're laboring under the mistaken impression that there is any disagreement between Democrats and Republicans when it comes to civil liberties protections. There isn't: both major parties oppose civil liberties in the name of "national security".
I am officially gone from
Why are they pushing for having a law for warrantless inspections!
Come on! Since when in the USA a warrant is really really needed by feds?
They can just do it, right?
Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
I started one here. http://wh.gov/XLym
This caused me to login and post for the first time in a long while.
Just spoke to one of Senator Snowe's assistants in the DC office. The assistant was not familiar with HR 2471. I asked that the Senator oppose such legislation. Senator Collins' office in DC only gave me a voicemail...
Called Senator Sanders' office in DC, since Sanders seems to actually understand little things like the Constitution. Sanders' assistant seemed to think that warrantless access was already the norm.
Apparently I woke up in Russia this morning...
Will contact Leahy's office soon. A little less time with Batman movies, Senator Leahy, a little more time guarding the rights of the citizenry.
The difference between Western democracies and the old skool Communist regimes?
Difference #1: We call ourselves a democracy, so of course we are.
Difference #2: Instead of ONE party, we have TWO parties (note the huge quantitative difference), so everybody can freely pick the party that perfectly matches their views.
Difference #3: We wear more colorful clothing, so that means we have freedom.
Difference #4: Instead of a politburo to control lawmakers, we have gigantic corporations.
The list goes on.
(If you actually think democracy could be better then the farce we have now, then help change it peacefully from the outside using open source tools and principles.)
You would be a fool to believe that the government is not accessing your emails, tweets, cloud data, phone calls, etc.
In addition to these things they are also scanning your automobile license plate and logging it's locations, tracking your electric usage through smart meters, monitoring your credit card usage and using recognition software to track you on the streets and in public buildings.
Once the government has surveillance capabilities they use it. Now they also have powerful processing, data mining and data warehousing capabilities and they're using those to the hilt. Much of it is automated.
You are being watched. It has nothing to do with your paranoia. Assume it. Only an idiot would think otherwise.
I agree that this "two sides" perspective is idiotic, but in my experience, there are large numbers of Democrats who are simply in denial about their party and their president being just as bad as the other "team" and the previous president when it comes to civil liberties.
After four years of watching President Obama perpetuating and expanding the imperial presidency of George W. Bush and either signing or re-authorizing legislation that is every bit as damaging as the laws passed under the previous administration, I am sick and tired of listening to the Obama apologists.
...is invasion of privacy ... there ae no if's and's or buts about it.
They are violating the intents of the founders and trying to subvert any probable correction by the people of the government as the founders recognized our rioghts and duty to do when they wrote the Declaration of Independence.
There is a reason why the people have a right and duty to keep the government that is supposed to be representing the people, to be doing so.
I thought the government did this all the time anyway.
And that way back, the idea was to poison the well so badly as to make these efforts not worthwile; encrpyt everything you can and include the 'seven words' that attract the NSA to your email.
For those flag words, see pages 20 & 21 here; http://www.scribd.com/doc/82701103/Analyst-Desktop-Binder-REDACTED
I think you're misunderstanding his position. Those people in power have been removing history classes so that people under 30 (who didn't get a proper history education) won't be able to see the power grab the power brokers are making until it's too late.
As for you not being American, I am also not American, but I am working over here and started dating a local. When one of her high-school-aged nieces was having trouble in American history classes they asked me to help her out, as it seems I know more than anyone in their family about their history.
Is 1563649 a prime number?
My friend works for Verizon. He claims there is a "vault" in one of their data centers he worked in which is run by the NSA which no one - not even Verizon employees can enter. Now if that does not sound sinister I don't know what does.