Another interesting article from Wired on mass surveillance and the effects/effictiveness it might have.
Wired News: Mass Spying Means Gross Errors
There are few, if any, studies demonstrating the effectiveness of mass surveillance. People with something to hide are adept at speaking in codes. Teenagers tell their parents they are “going to the movies” when they are going to drink beer. Attackers know to misspell the victim’s name, as journalist Daniel Pearl’s kidnappers and murderers did, to evade e-mail surveillance. Meanwhile, modern filtering technology can’t distinguish between breast cancer websites and pornographic ones.
Any search algorithm, whether public or not, is unlikely to be able to distinguish between innocent and criminal communications.
I received an article from a friend in Colorado. The article was from the Colorado Daily. The article troubled me a great deal. There was a 2004 quote from President Bush concerning the administration’s approach to wire tapping. Here’s the quote — Quote from Bush in 2004 — “A wiretap requires a court order,” President Bush declared in a statement in 2004. He added, “When we’re talking about chasing down terrorists, we’re talking about getting a court order when we do so. It’s important for our fellow citizens to understand [that] constitutional guarantees are in place… because we value the Constitution.” To me this is such a big deal and the President is the one that evidently said this. I’d like to know what you think about this issue and if your aware of the quote.
Hi John;
The quote that you mention has been widely circulated in the US media and various blogs.
Watching from afar (I am in Canada), the erosion of basic human rights in the name of security is very much a concern.
We do have some similar issues in Canada, but on a much smaller scale.