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  Mike (profile), 12 Jul 2000 @ 9:36am

  
  

  Are you crazy?

  Have you no concern for personal privacy? I'm assuming you're just trying to stir up some controversy, but come on, this is ridiculous.

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  • 

    Dan Miller, 12 Jul 2000 @ 9:51am

    
    

    Re: Are you crazy?

    I have the utmost respect for personal privacy. But I also trust that if the FBI feels the need to monitor millions of email there is probably a damn good reason.

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    • 

      Mark Baker, 12 Jul 2000 @ 10:18am

      
      

      Re: Are you crazy?

      Flame bait!

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      • 

        Mike (profile), 12 Jul 2000 @ 10:21am

        
        

        Re: Are you crazy?

        Heh. :) Of course it is. Techdirt needs more controversy. That's why we let Dan post. Now, you've killed it all by pointing out the obvious. :)

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        • 

          Dan Miller, 12 Jul 2000 @ 10:33am

          
          

          Re: Are you crazy?

          One more thing...
          
          I have a lot more trust that the FBI won't take my email address and SPAM the hell out of me. I don't have that same level of trust in the organizations out there that monitor email streams and the like and aggregate email addresses in the same way the FBI will be doing it.
          
          Folks, they already have the right to tap your phone line with just cause. This is the same thing. Get over it.

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    • 

      Col. Klink (profile), 13 Jul 2000 @ 9:44am

      
      

      Re: Are you crazy?

      "King, there is only one thing left for you to do. You know what it is. . . . You are done. There is but one way out for you. You better take it before your filthy, fraudulent self is bared to the nation." - from an anonymous letter written by the FBI to Martin Luther King, Jr., urging him to commit suicide
      
      source: http://www.wwnorton.com/catalog/spring99/fbimlk.htm
      
      It is true that King had something to hide. Should the government be allowed to blackmail a political opponent?
      
      Of course, the FBI did have a damned good reason to bug King. After all, he was challenging the government's right to keep his people down.
      
      And don't think it can't happen again. For all the crimes J. Edgar Hoover committed, he was memorialized with the naming of the FBI building.

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• 

  bob, 12 Jul 2000 @ 11:12am

  
  

  Some amendment or another ...

  I know it's a troll but I cant help replying ... Isnt' there some amendment or another about unlawful searches ... This makes me think of the cops setting up checkpoints to make sure nobody has anything illegal ... after all, if you don't have anything to hide why should the need a warrant to search your house?

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• 

  Spaz, 12 Jul 2000 @ 2:13pm

  
  

  Strange.......

  Dan,
  
  I totally agree...let them spy, not like we can stop them. I dont like people going thru my stuffs, but what can I do to stop it? That is why PGP exists.
  As for telephones, they can listen...I have nothing to hide....but just the fact they go thru...I dont like, but I rather the FBI do it then a private company and have them sell my addys.
  
  
  SpaZ

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  • 

    Mr E Man, 12 Jul 2000 @ 3:59pm

    
    

    Re: Strange.......

    The point is much more subtle than all this. Just because *you* think you have nothing to hide at the moment does not mean that in the future someone may not decide that the fact you happen to have expressed a belief ("I'm Jewish BTW") makes you guilty of something.
    
    The FBI routinely collect as much information they can as it "may prove useful later". What evidence have I for this? Well, you know that the FBI used to do exhibitions of fingerprinting at shows, and that they recorded everything they got. These guys would love to have everyone's fingerprints on file.
    
    Bottom line: witch hunts spring out of nothing. Don't give them ammunition. The real bad guys have been using secure comms for years - only stupid people use open channels to send secret stuff around! Easiest way to communicate? I buy 2 pay as you go mobiles. I mail one to you. I send you a single (coded) SMS message and we ditch the phones. Tapping ISPs
    doesn't begin to touch this.
    
    Sub-basement line: these guys don;t believe in free speech and never have.

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• 

  Jack Li, 12 Jul 2000 @ 4:42pm

  
  

  misuse

  For the time being, the FBI might or might not use such technologies for good reasons. But the problem is the possibility of misuse that this kind of systems offer.

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  ashau, 12 Jul 2000 @ 5:38pm

  
  

  No Subject Given

  does the FBI randomly check our snail mail? i suppose they do if its a package that is "oddly shaped" or ticking, but in all honesty, how do you feel about them randomly spot checking letters that go through the postal system?

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  • 

    Ryan, 13 Jul 2000 @ 7:41am

    
    

    Not much

    Unless they catch my death threats, laundered money or drugs! However, I'm of the opinion that if you really want to keep something secret you can! Therefore the FBI checking through my email occasionally doesn't really bother me except if they start using it for minor things such as illegal MP3's and etc (but then we have protection through numbers).

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