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Why the Latest FISA Release By Google Et Al. Means Squat
Nerval's Lobster writes "Google, Yahoo, and other tech firms are offering some updated statistics about government requests for data. There's just one problem: under revised guidelines issued by the federal government, those companies can still only report a range, rather than a definitive number, for those requests. If that wasn't fuzzy enough, the range can only be reported after a six-month lag. Between January and June 2013, Google received between 0-999 FISA
'non-content' requests on 0-999 user accounts; it also fielded between 0-999 'content' requests for between 9000 and 9999 user accounts.Yahoo actually received a larger number of FISA queries than Google: for the first six months of 2013, the federal government made between 0-999 requests on between 30,000 and 30,999 user accounts hosted by the company. ... These companies have little choice but to advocate this new information release as a huge step forward for transparency. Unfortunately, restricting government data requests to a broad range isn't very helpful: for example, a range (rather than a single numerical value) makes it difficult to determine trends, such as whether government requests are gradually increasing over the long term."
This is off topic, but I'm getting a warning at the top of Slashdot that classic is going to be going away soon (looks like in 4 months).
How many people will leave if they cut it off completely...?
Re: the new one - do not want.
Well, a sudden, obvious surge in requests could alert terrorist planners somebody was on to them. That's probably behind both the large ranges and six month delays.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
It gives an idea of the scale. If they are getting court orders for less than 1000, we can believe they have reason to look at that data. If they are getting orders for 100,000 we KNOW that they are not seriously engaging with the information that they are getting. It's not a great gain, but it's not squat. OTOH if it's all we ever get, then it's probably not worth anything. If nothing else, it gives us hope that we can get more control in the future...
If this is "fine", I don't even want to know what you considered "half-baked". Stories and commenting are literally the only functions available. I can't access my profile, log in/out, look at messages, or see the poll. Hell, it doesn't even show users' sigs.
Everything is better with chainsaws.
Well threading is broken, try following a large thread. you can never figure out where it ends.
Post limits are gone..( browse at zero unless I am mod. to see AC's but not just trolls)
It uses about 10% of screen real estate. I mean come one there is so much white space you can use your monitor as a light source.
Poll's are on every page, because well everyone wants to read the current poll all the time right? and on really long threads that poll section goes all the way to the bottom.
The only thing I really like. is the new moderate button. that works and looks good.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
just assume the highest number of it. Case closed.
mod up... this is the best way to handle the numbers. When looking for trends, you'll know it's trending when the range jumps. But considering the numbers should be in the 0-xxx range, and often aren't, trend analysis is kind of useless; there should already be concern just based on the static range numbers.
These companies have little choice but to advocate this new information release as a huge step forward for transparency.
Ah, bullshit - they very much could release the full details, but are afraid of government retaliation. That's not the same thing as "having little choice" but to engage an alternative.
You know why Paul Revere was awesome? Not because he rode a horse yelling some stuff, but because he risked his life and livelihood as a silversmith in the name of Liberty.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
I'm growing more of the opinion that UI design isn't really about any kind of improvement in usability.
I think it serves two purposes. The first is simply fashion-oriented -- showing that they "look" up to date and modern.
The second is really to disorient people enough that users no longer drive their own interest or usage out of the site but instead but instead through obfuscation, feature changes, etc, the people who control the site basically manipulate you into using the site they want, which basically means seeing more ads in most cases.
As for a Slashdot redesign? In a full web browser its not bad, but I've never understood why a tech site could be so awful for so long on mobile. On a tablet its manageable, on a phone it's not and I just don't get that, unless it's one of those political things, like the people who make code decisions are just angry FOSS users who refuse to accommodate anything that doesn't pass some litmus test.
The real answer may just be a horrific tangle of Perl dating from the 1990s that just can't accommodate mobile.
The only reason they need the FISA requests, is for when they want warrants to pursue people. Having hacked into the main internet backbones the NSA doesn't need warrants to listen or collect. They listen and collect all.
The issue is that when they want to pursue some legal aspect, pass info to the DEA, etc. Then they have to use proper channels. So they solicity a FISA request and reverse engineer the evidence.
What's the alternative to awful new slashdot? To where will you be migrating?
logged in to comment. am i the only one that goes blind trying to read the text on my monitor? i like the layout for my tablet, but not for my computer. i will be leaving once classic slashdot is terminated
Unfortunately, restricting government data requests to a broad range isn't very helpful
Of course it's not very helpful. It was never meant to be, nobody really expected it to be, and I'm sure they went to significant effort to ensure that no utility crept in by accident. As soon as the government allows or does anything, it is foregone that it won't be helpful or useful in any way. It is a tautology.