 |
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
Trancer-X
mutatis mutandis

Registered: Jul 2001
Location: Shambhala
|
|
|
| quote: | Originally posted by eROs.au
If you're not doing anything wrong, then you have nothing to worry about! |
I thought that they already came up with another Godwin type of law regarding that naively uttered, hackneyed phrase but I guess I was wrong.
I'm happy that I found this, though:
| quote: | If You're Not Doing Something Wrong, You Still Have Something To Worry About
from the good-answer dept
We're still waiting for a good answer to the question we asked a few months ago for a [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law]Godwin's Law[/url]-like name for the assertion that in any discussion about expansions of government surveillance, the longer the discussion goes, the more likely it is that someone will say "if you're not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about." While the concept still doesn't have a name, Bruce Schneier has written up a scathing rebuttal to anyone who utters the phrase, noting that privacy is not about hiding a "wrong," but about the basic human concept of liberty. In a world where your every movement is watched, it's always easy for the watchers to abuse that info, either by defining what's wrong (which can change rapidly), or simply by using that info to embarrass or blackmail a person -- even if the actions are perfectly legitimate. With that in mind, people act very differently under constant surveillance. They are not free to be themselves -- even if they're not doing anything "wrong." So, the answer to the question of what are you worried about is simple. It's the loss of basic human freedom and liberty.
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20060518/1129253.shtml |
| quote: | Security Matters
Politics : Security
The Eternal Value of Privacy
Bruce Schneier 05.18.06 | 2:00 AM
The most common retort against privacy advocates -- by those in favor of ID checks, cameras, databases, data mining and other wholesale surveillance measures -- is this line: "If you aren't doing anything wrong, what do you have to hide?"
Some clever answers: "If I'm not doing anything wrong, then you have no cause to watch me." "Because the government gets to define what's wrong, and they keep changing the definition." "Because you might do something wrong with my information." My problem with quips like these -- as right as they are -- is that they accept the premise that privacy is about hiding a wrong. It's not. Privacy is an inherent human right, and a requirement for maintaining the human condition with dignity and respect.
Two proverbs say it best: Quis custodiet custodes ipsos? ("Who watches the watchers?") and "Absolute power corrupts absolutely."
Cardinal Richelieu understood the value of surveillance when he famously said, "If one would give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest man, I would find something in them to have him hanged." Watch someone long enough, and you'll find something to arrest -- or just blackmail -- with. Privacy is important because without it, surveillance information will be abused: to peep, to sell to marketers and to spy on political enemies -- whoever they happen to be at the time.
Privacy protects us from abuses by those in power, even if we're doing nothing wrong at the time of surveillance.
We do nothing wrong when we make love or go to the bathroom. We are not deliberately hiding anything when we seek out private places for reflection or conversation. We keep private journals, sing in the privacy of the shower, and write letters to secret lovers and then burn them. Privacy is a basic human need.
A future in which privacy would face constant assault was so alien to the framers of the Constitution that it never occurred to them to call out privacy as an explicit right. Privacy was inherent to the nobility of their being and their cause. Of course being watched in your own home was unreasonable. Watching at all was an act so unseemly as to be inconceivable among gentlemen in their day. You watched convicted criminals, not free citizens. You ruled your own home. It's intrinsic to the concept of liberty.
For if we are observed in all matters, we are constantly under threat of correction, judgment, criticism, even plagiarism of our own uniqueness. We become children, fettered under watchful eyes, constantly fearful that -- either now or in the uncertain future -- patterns we leave behind will be brought back to implicate us, by whatever authority has now become focused upon our once-private and innocent acts. We lose our individuality, because everything we do is observable and recordable.
How many of us have paused during conversation in the past four-and-a-half years, suddenly aware that we might be eavesdropped on? Probably it was a phone conversation, although maybe it was an e-mail or instant-message exchange or a conversation in a public place. Maybe the topic was terrorism, or politics, or Islam. We stop suddenly, momentarily afraid that our words might be taken out of context, then we laugh at our paranoia and go on. But our demeanor has changed, and our words are subtly altered.
This is the loss of freedom we face when our privacy is taken from us. This is life in former East Germany, or life in Saddam Hussein's Iraq. And it's our future as we allow an ever-intrusive eye into our personal, private lives.
Too many wrongly characterize the debate as "security versus privacy." The real choice is liberty versus control. Tyranny, whether it arises under threat of foreign physical attack or under constant domestic authoritative scrutiny, is still tyranny. Liberty requires security without intrusion, security plus privacy. Widespread police surveillance is the very definition of a police state. And that's why we should champion privacy even when we have nothing to hide.
- - -
Bruce Schneier is the CTO of Counterpane Internet Security and the author of Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly About Security in an Uncertain World. You can contact him through his website
http://www.wired.com/politics/secur...s/2006/05/70886 |
Last edited by Trancer-X on Oct-14-2007 at 01:54
|
|
Oct-14-2007 01:48
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
MisterOpus1
Grumpy Old Fart

Registered: Dec 2001
Location: Kansas City
|
|
|
| quote: | Originally posted by LatinLover
I have been posing this question for sometime. The 9/11 hijackers communicated with fellow al qaeda members, especially in Germany before they arrived to the US, via telephone, internet or any other high tech communication system to plot the 9/11 attacks and to obtain info.
Now, its illegal in this country to trace these terrorist and disrupt their communication system because is a privacy concern  |
Actually that's not illegal at all, nor has it ever been illegal to trace calls of suspected terrorists making calls overseas, INCLUDING non-citizens like the ones you describe.
| quote: | I mean if you are not calling a jihadist group you shouldnt be worried |
The principles of our country's Constitution and the framing of our forefathers would tend to highly disagree with you, specifically regarding the 4th Amendment. You might try and read up on it every now and then.
| quote: | | I'm sure MisterOpus1, every time makes a call is worried that the FBI or CIA is hearing his conversation over how many men he had the previous night. |
Is this supposed to be an insult to homosexuality? Or is it that darn superior intellect on full display?
I wonder why you think it's appropriate to insult homosexuality? Is that supposed to show how much of a REAL man you are? Pretty unfortunate to see your insecurities out like that. You know what the statistics are of individuals like yourself who try to bash gays are actually tend to have homosexual tendencies of their own, don't you?
In any case, I doubt too many individuals here would consider your deliberate slander of gays to really support your quick return to this board.
| quote: | | This congress must get work on real issues and let the agencies use these tools to trace down terrorist. |
The agencies (NSA) and the Administration never had a problem with FISA up until they got caught circumventing it.
| quote: | | How can we possibly protect America if we dont have the tools to obtain crucial information? Someone please answer that one |
Sure thing, champ. Here's an example of just how much you're talking right out of your asscrack. In June, 2002, Republican Senator Mike DeWine of Ohio introduced a bill (S.2659) that would have eliminated a barrier of "probable cause" within the current FISA laws to a "reasonable suspicion":
| quote: | to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 to modify the standard of proof for issuance of orders regarding non-United States persons from probable cause to reasonable suspicion. . . .
http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2002_cr/s2659.html |
This is a pretty substantial change because it would have moved the rationale to wiretap to a mere suspicion of a terrorist over the phone. And yet when given this gift by a REPUBLICAN lawmaker, what did Bush's Dept. of Justice lawyer say about the current laws back then in 2002?:
| quote: | The reforms in those measures (the PATRIOT Act) have affected every single application made by the Department for electronic surveillance or physical search of suspected terrorists and have enabled the government to become quicker, more flexible, and more focused in going "up" on those suspected terrorists in the United States.
One simple but important change that Congress made was to lengthen the time period for us to bring to court applications in support of Attorney General-authorized emergency FISAs. This modification has allowed us to make full and effective use of FISA's pre-existing emergency provisions to ensure that the government acts swiftly to respond to terrorist threats. Again, we are grateful for the tools Congress provided us last fall for the fight against terrorism. Thank you. |
And how about what he said SPECIFICALLY in regards to the gift that DeWine was going to give this Administration?:
| quote: | | The Department of Justice has been studying Sen. DeWine's proposed legislation. Because the proposed change raises both significant legal and practical issues, the Administration at this time is not prepared to support it. |
Well how about that, gay-basher? The Administration really kinda liked the FISA laws as they were, huh? Strange that.
What else did they have to say about it?
| quote: | The practical concern involves an assessment of whether the current "probable cause" standard has hamstrung our ability to use FISA surveillance to protect our nation. We have been aggressive in seeking FISA warrants and, thanks to Congress's passage of the USA PATRIOT Act, we have been able to use our expanded FISA tools more effectively to combat terrorist activities. It may not be the case that the probable cause standard has caused any difficulties in our ability to seek the FISA warrants we require, and we will need to engage in a significant review to determine the effect a change in the standard would have on our ongoing operations. If the current standard has not posed an obstacle, then there may be little to gain from the lower standard and, as I previously stated, perhaps much to lose.
http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/200...73102baker.html |
What was that?:
| quote: | | It may not be the case that the probable cause standard has caused any difficulties in our ability to seek the FISA warrants we require, |
Oh.
So, wait, you mean to tell me that this Administration claimed that they actually DID have the tools they needed to fight terrorists and didn't need to amend the FISA laws when they had the chance?
Well how 'bout that?
Not only that, but the Republican-led Congress refused to pass that legislation of DeWine's amendment as well.
How 'bout that also?
And just in case you don't know (it's a pretty good guess you don't), we actually DID amend FISA after 9/11 via the Patriot Act in Section 218 which made it easier to introduce evidence obtained through a FISA warrant. More can be read here:
http://www.patriotdebates.com/act-section-218/
and here:
http://www.slate.com/id/2088106/
So to summarize:
1. We made it easier for Bush to obtain warrants through FISA courts via the Patriot Act, and he STILL circumvented the FISA courts
2. DeWine a Republican Senator tried to make it easier still for Bush, but Bush's Dept. of Justice turned that down as did DeWine's Republican-led Congress
FISA laws are made heavily in favor for an Administration to obtain their warrants. Historically few warrants have been denied because of this reason. Furthermore, a 72-hr retroactive time period is given to the Administration so they can start the tap and have up to 3-days to later justify why they're tapping.
Yet with all this, Bush decided to circumvent.
Your argument falls flat on your face. Here's your opportunity to show us all your incredible debating skills you've talked about for so long. Address these counterarguments made to your bullshit, Latin. And try to do so without insulting those individuals who have a same-sex sexual orientation between two consenting adults.
___________________
Whence September dusk grows crisper still,
with leaves all crimson conquered,
I yearn to shout,
and dance about,
and stick pickles in my honker...
|
|
Oct-14-2007 05:39
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
MisterOpus1
Grumpy Old Fart

Registered: Dec 2001
Location: Kansas City
|
|
|
| quote: | Originally posted by eROs.au
If you're not doing anything wrong, then you have nothing to worry about! |
So, you're assuming that we should take the government at it's word, then? If we take your argument further, then why have the Bill of Rights at all? We need nothing written down in stated laws - rather, we just need to trust that all of our rights are protected.
Here, try reading one of our forefathers in Federalist #48:
| quote: | "power is of an encroaching nature, and ... it ought to be effectually restrained from passing the limits assigned to it."
.....[A] mere demarcation on parchment of the constitutional limits of the several departments, is not a sufficient guard against those encroachments which lead to a tyrannical concentration of all the powers of government in the same hands,"
http://elsinore.cis.yale.edu/lawweb...deral/fed48.htm |
I'm sorry, but I tend to want evidence that the government is NOT infringing on our civil liberties before I starting trusting them with it, ESPECIALLY when their asses just got caught fucking with them.
And when has it ever been okay for you to have a government break laws? Funny, I could have sworn that our President put his hand on the Bible and swore an oath to uphold the Constitution?
Out of curiousity, would you ever want someone like Hillary wiretapping your phones? If not, why not?
Added in Edit: Just caught your prior post about your sarcasm. My apologies for not catching that. I'll leave this post not so much to address you personally, but to address the common sentiment from Bush supporters.
___________________
Whence September dusk grows crisper still,
with leaves all crimson conquered,
I yearn to shout,
and dance about,
and stick pickles in my honker...
|
|
Oct-14-2007 05:51
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
 |
All times are GMT. The time now is 17:35.
Forum Rules:
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not edit your posts
|
HTML code is ON
vB code is ON
[IMG] code is ON
|
|
|
|
|
|
Contact Us - return to tranceaddict
Powered by: Trance Music & vBulletin Forums
Copyright ©2000-2026, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Privacy Statement / DMCA
|