PRISM: NSA/FBI Internet data mining project

Rob McEwen rob at invaluement.com
Fri Jun 7 15:11:12 UTC 2013


On 6/7/2013 9:50 AM, Dan White wrote:
> OpenPGP and other end-to-end protocols protect against all nefarious
> actors, including state entities. I'll admit my first reaction yesterday
> after hearing this news was - so what? Network security by its nature
> presumes that an insecure channel is going to be attacked and
> compromised.
> The 4th Amendment is a layer-8 solution to a problem that is better
> solved
> lower in the stack.

That is JUST like saying...

|| now that the police can freely bust your door down and raid your
house in a "fishing expedition", without a search warrant, without court
order, and  without "probable cause"... the solution is for you to get a
stronger metal door and hide all your stuff better.||

You're basically saying that it is OK for governments to defy their
constitutions and trample over EVERYONE's rights, and that is OK since a
TINY PERCENTAGE of experts will have exotic means to evade such
trampling. But to hell with everyone else. They'll just have to become
good little subjects to the State.  If grandma can't do PGP, then she
deserves it, right?

Yet... many people DIED to initiate/preserve/codify such human rights...
but I guess others just give them away freely. What a shame. Ironically,
many who think this is no big deal have themselves benefited immensely
from centuries of freedom and prosperity that resulted from "rule of
law" and the U.S. Constitution/Bill of Rights.

> I assume these taps were put in place under the auspices of (by order of)
> homeland security or some such. If there were some financial incentive
> involved, I'd be surprise.

Some of the authors of the laws that were used to justify these are
already starting to come forward saying, "it wasn't suppose to go that
far". And to the extent that some laws were followed correctly, any such
laws that do not conform to the 4th Amendment are suppose to be invalid,
and eventually, officially invalidated. I think what has happened here
is that stuff like this was nudging the 4th amendment aside... and
little-by-little, kept getting worse... just like the Frog in the slowly
heating water who doesn't know that he is now boiling to death. Does ANY
REASONABLE person on this list REALLY think that the government snooping
through your e-mail without warrant or court order is DIFFERENT in
nature than the government sneaking into your home and snooping through
your desk? Yes, it is easier. Yes, we ought to know that mail is less
secure (from the BAD guys!!!). Otherwise, there really isn't any
difference. This is a flagrant violation of the 4th amendment.

-- 
Rob McEwen
http://dnsbl.invaluement.com/
rob at invaluement.com
+1 (478) 475-9032





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