I agree it is unlikely to detect planning of terrorist acts. I think it is designed to: (1) chill free speech by making people worry that the government will read their dissent; (2) facilitate propaganda/psy op by enabling military to automatically track blog articles they want to respond to. It could also be used for commercial reasons -- developing psychological profiles of consumers, etc. Or maybe for insider trading. Etc. The potential for abuse is there, especially if private communications are tapped, but as someone says below, the information is public. I actually want government people to read what I post on blogs or mailing lists about government wrongdoing -- they might learn something. But I don't want me and others to be systematically tracked for purposes of political repression.
Slashdot Mirror
I agree it is unlikely to detect planning of terrorist acts. I think it is designed to: (1) chill free speech by making people worry that the government will read their dissent; (2) facilitate propaganda/psy op by enabling military to automatically track blog articles they want to respond to. It could also be used for commercial reasons -- developing psychological profiles of consumers, etc. Or maybe for insider trading. Etc. The potential for abuse is there, especially if private communications are tapped, but as someone says below, the information is public. I actually want government people to read what I post on blogs or mailing lists about government wrongdoing -- they might learn something. But I don't want me and others to be systematically tracked for purposes of political repression.