Is monitoring everything everyone types and receives over the internet truly akin to "Thought Crime"? Scenario 1: In the past, if one called the Student Help Line and talked about contemplating suicide, the councillor would have to report it and the person would find someone dispatched to their door without notice. Now, if someone googles suicide then the cops could be dispatched directly and arrest them as it is illegal to do this. Scenario 2: Someone realizes that this big complex is nearly done and no matter what happens with the laws, it's not going to be allowed to sit around doing nothing. So the governments will force things through. If the Canadian Government is feeling public pressure, they could just sell off their Telecom industry to the big US Telecom's and route all Canadian Internet traffic to this new wonder-facility right? Oh, I think they just did that.... OK, I give. Thought Crime's here.
In this specific case, it sounds like NSA is running the show. This doesn't bother me as these folks know how to keep a secret and really don't care about minor transgressions. The problem comes when we let the rank and file local police and summer-student level administrators have access to this information (like the Canadian Bills were pushing for). There is a much bigger chance that a few bad apples will show up at this level and abuse the public trust I suspect.
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Is monitoring everything everyone types and receives over the internet truly akin to "Thought Crime"? Scenario 1: In the past, if one called the Student Help Line and talked about contemplating suicide, the councillor would have to report it and the person would find someone dispatched to their door without notice. Now, if someone googles suicide then the cops could be dispatched directly and arrest them as it is illegal to do this. Scenario 2: Someone realizes that this big complex is nearly done and no matter what happens with the laws, it's not going to be allowed to sit around doing nothing. So the governments will force things through. If the Canadian Government is feeling public pressure, they could just sell off their Telecom industry to the big US Telecom's and route all Canadian Internet traffic to this new wonder-facility right? Oh, I think they just did that.... OK, I give. Thought Crime's here. In this specific case, it sounds like NSA is running the show. This doesn't bother me as these folks know how to keep a secret and really don't care about minor transgressions. The problem comes when we let the rank and file local police and summer-student level administrators have access to this information (like the Canadian Bills were pushing for). There is a much bigger chance that a few bad apples will show up at this level and abuse the public trust I suspect.