ISP CALEA compliance

Thu May 10 22:08:04 UTC 2007

> You work so hard to defend people that exploit children? Interesting. We are 
> talking LEA here and not the latest in piracy law suits. The #1 request from 
> a LEA in my experience concerns child exploitation.
?? ???

Working hard to defend privacy does not automatically equal protecting 
people who exploit children- and I'm getting sick and tired of people 
screaming "Think of the children!" It's a stupid, fear mongering tactic- 
and hopefully one day people will think of it in the same way as crying 
wolf.

If law enforcement could be trusted to be competent you might have an 
argument- but considering the avalanche of cases where cops a) get their 
information wrong and go after the wrong person b) go out of their way to 
ignore evidence exhonerating people because it might screw up their 
records c) simply don't have a clue or d) plant evidence (on a 90 year 
old woman for gods sake)- then it's nice to know that there are people out 
there forcing LE to play by the rules, get actual warrants, etc.

Then again perhaps I am biased- The USSS use to hold meetings at 7 World 
Trade Center to facilitate interaction between computer security firms and 
LE. In those meetings after I realized that LE is split about 50/50- 
those who get it (ie those I would help)- and those who are so clueless 
wrt computers that is makes me cringe (ie those I wouldn't talk to, let 
along try to help). Unfortunately it seems to have gotten worse- The 
agents who use to deal with this stuff were those who actually wanted to- 
now every agent likes to play with computers.

> Hmmm, you must have been one of those types the agents I talked to were 
> referring to. They said that those who give them the most flack usually get 
> the least amount of slack. Play hardball with the government, and it will 
> play hardball back at you. I'd definitely make sure you stick to #4 if 
> following #1-3.
Great- so a bunch of people who want the laws bent for them go on a power 
trip because you expect them to OBEY THE LAW and you end up with no 
recourse against them. Yeah- this is the America I want to live in. You're 
absolutely right- it's a crying shame we aren't all buddies with the 
fed's- after all- they only want what's best for us! I'm looking forward 
to the day when the government tells me what to think- thinking is hard 
after all.

If you don't have anything to hide- then why should you care right?

On the other hand- these sorts of laws may just be enough to push everyone 
to use encryption- and then what will LE do?

Sigh- I give up.

-Don