Sunday, November 11, 2007
anyone else see this?
Government seeks to redefine privacy
By PAMELA HESS, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 5 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - A top intelligence official says it is time people in the United States changed their definition of privacy.
Privacy no longer can mean anonymity, says Donald Kerr, a deputy director of national intelligence. Instead, it should mean that government and businesses properly safeguards people's private communications and financial information.
Kerr's comments come as Congress is taking a second look at the Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act.
Lawmakers hastily changed the 1978 law last summer to allow the government to eavesdrop inside the United States without court permission, so long as one end of the conversation was reasonably believed to be located outside the U.S.
The original law required a court order for any surveillance conducted on U.S. soil, to protect Americans' privacy. The White House argued that the law was obstructing intelligence gathering.
The most contentious issue in the new legislation is whether to shield telecommunications companies from civil lawsuits for allegedly giving the government access to people's private e-mails and phone calls without a court order between 2001 and 2007.
Some lawmakers, including members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, appear reluctant to grant immunity. Suits might be the only way to determine how far the government has burrowed into people's privacy without court permission.
The committee is expected to decide this week whether its version of the bill will protect telecommunications companies.
The central witness in a California lawsuit against AT&T says the government is vacuuming up billions of e-mails and phone calls as they pass through an AT&T switching station in San Francisco.
Mark Klein, a retired AT&T technician, helped connect a device in 2003 that he says diverted and copied onto a government supercomputer every call, e-mail, and Internet site access on AT&T lines.
does this make anyone else's blood run cold, or just me?
Government seeks to redefine privacy
By PAMELA HESS, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 5 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - A top intelligence official says it is time people in the United States changed their definition of privacy.
Privacy no longer can mean anonymity, says Donald Kerr, a deputy director of national intelligence. Instead, it should mean that government and businesses properly safeguards people's private communications and financial information.
Kerr's comments come as Congress is taking a second look at the Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act.
Lawmakers hastily changed the 1978 law last summer to allow the government to eavesdrop inside the United States without court permission, so long as one end of the conversation was reasonably believed to be located outside the U.S.
The original law required a court order for any surveillance conducted on U.S. soil, to protect Americans' privacy. The White House argued that the law was obstructing intelligence gathering.
The most contentious issue in the new legislation is whether to shield telecommunications companies from civil lawsuits for allegedly giving the government access to people's private e-mails and phone calls without a court order between 2001 and 2007.
Some lawmakers, including members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, appear reluctant to grant immunity. Suits might be the only way to determine how far the government has burrowed into people's privacy without court permission.
The committee is expected to decide this week whether its version of the bill will protect telecommunications companies.
The central witness in a California lawsuit against AT&T says the government is vacuuming up billions of e-mails and phone calls as they pass through an AT&T switching station in San Francisco.
Mark Klein, a retired AT&T technician, helped connect a device in 2003 that he says diverted and copied onto a government supercomputer every call, e-mail, and Internet site access on AT&T lines.
does this make anyone else's blood run cold, or just me?
# posted by antiprincess @ 5:23 AM 
Comments:
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It's making me want to convert all my correspondence to carrier pigeon.
Gaaah...gummint interference...gaaahh.
Gaaah...gummint interference...gaaahh.
Scares the fuck out of me.
Fortunately, I've lived in a state of absolute terror since... well, roughly 1984. So if anything, I don't have to take on the reprehensible responsibility of relaxing.
Fortunately, I've lived in a state of absolute terror since... well, roughly 1984. So if anything, I don't have to take on the reprehensible responsibility of relaxing.
FS201 - we keep trying to tell them - it's NOT a how-to manual! it's a cautionary tale! cautionary!
and hi evn - welcome!
and hi evn - welcome!
Maybe it's time to start using PGP.
Or something. Of course, encrypting would probably get you on the list.
Also also, all internet communication falls under that definition, since you can reasonably assume that anything you write can end up outside the US, or entering the US from outside. Grotesque abuse of power, there.
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Or something. Of course, encrypting would probably get you on the list.
Also also, all internet communication falls under that definition, since you can reasonably assume that anything you write can end up outside the US, or entering the US from outside. Grotesque abuse of power, there.
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