dagblog - Comments for "Surveillance and Human Rights"

'A barbarian breach of

NCD — Wed, 03 Jul 2013 21:30:14 +0000

'A barbarian breach of honor', mail surveillance, by the bloody British in 1844.....what else would one expect from the reckless empire mad arsonists of the War of 1812?

The USPS business above has me concerned now that even a picture postcard is no longer private. Must I learn the Navajo language and talk in code, and who with, as my relatives are not Navajo?

"The world is more than a

kyle flynn — Wed, 03 Jul 2013 21:25:58 +0000

In reply to Surveillance and Human Rights

"The world is more than a collection of teams." This is ironic because it's pretty much only during The World Cups when I feel good about rooting for the USA on a world stage.

Jill Lepore wrote an

rmrd0000 — Wed, 03 Jul 2013 21:06:15 +0000

In reply to Apparently the US Postal

Jill Lepore wrote an interesting historical prospective of how technology outpaces privacy.She begins with the British government opening mail in 1844.

Apparently the US Postal

NCD — Wed, 03 Jul 2013 20:35:08 +0000

In reply to Surveillance and Human Rights

Apparently the US Postal Service has had a surveillance function for US mail addresses and deliveries for a century or so, it is considered similar legally to the NSA program on phone numbers/email addresses:

...Together, the two programs show that snail mail is subject to the same kind of scrutiny that the National Security Agency has given to telephone calls and e-mail.

The mail covers program, used to monitor Mr. Pickering, is more than a century old but is still considered a powerful tool. At the request of law enforcement officials, postal workers record information from the outside of letters and parcels before they are delivered....

What line is the NRA

NCD — Wed, 03 Jul 2013 20:31:06 +0000

In reply to It wasn't clear to me how you

What line is the NRA 'holding'?

The line at the mortuary from accidental shootings?

Or the gun manufacturers bottom line?

U.N. Sec. Gen. Ban Ki Moon

artappraiser — Wed, 03 Jul 2013 19:44:02 +0000

In reply to Surveillance and Human Rights

U.N. Sec. Gen. Ban Ki Moon implies Snowden and presumably, others like him, is/are the problem:

"the Snowden case is something I consider to be misuse." The UN chief added that the opening up of digital communications should not be "misused in such a way as Snowden did".

He was speaking at an Icelandic parliament committee, and was challenged and answered this way:

Birgitta Jónsdóttir, a member of the committee who was present at the meeting, asked Ban to clarify his comments on whistleblowers. He replied: "Access can be for the greater good, but sometimes it creates bigger problems through misuse by individuals."

The Guardian article, by Ed Pilkington, goes on to discuss the U.N.'s own problematic past dealing with whistleblowers.

All in all, very thought provoking. We really are discussing how the whole world is going to proceed with this developing technology/database-for-everything-by-one-entity-or-another thingie, aren't we?

Just to clarify; the NRA

Richard Day — Wed, 03 Jul 2013 13:21:25 +0000

In reply to It wasn't clear to me how you

Just to clarify; the NRA maintains that only good guys with guns can protect us from bad guys with guns.

The NSA claims that it must keep track of the bad guys so that we will be safe.

Who decides who are the good guys and who are the bad guys?

Come to think about it; the entire exercise is rather sexist? hahahaha

"We have been told, time and

PeraclesPlease — Wed, 03 Jul 2013 12:45:03 +0000

In reply to Surveillance and Human Rights

"We have been told, time and again, that these extraordinary powers are used only to stop terrorists." From Senators Udall & Wyden:

Intelligence officials have noted that the bulk email records program was discussed with both Congress and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. In our judgment it is also important to note that intelligence agencies made statements to both Congress and the Court that significantly exaggerated this program’s effectiveness. This experience demonstrates to us that intelligence agencies’ assessments of the usefulness of particular collection programs – even significant ones – are not always accurate. This experience has also led us to be skeptical of claims about the value of the bulk phone records collection program in particular.

We should remember that the

rmrd0000 — Wed, 03 Jul 2013 12:34:53 +0000

In reply to Amnesty International filed a

We should remember that the corporations that are people too can legally store our personal information.

Amnesty International filed a

rmrd0000 — Wed, 03 Jul 2013 12:29:43 +0000

In reply to I was attempting to just get

Amnesty International filed a lawsuit challenging NSA phone surveillance. The lawsuit was dismissed because the organization could not prove that it had been spied upon. The ACLU filed a lawsuit challenging phone surveillance in the wake of the Snowden leaks. Verizon admitted that they gave data to the NSA, The ACLU is a Verizon customer and thus may have standing to file suit. As you note, Congress is not capable of dealing with serious issues.