If The Data Is Available, It Will Eventually Be Misused
from the a-perfect-example dept
We already covered how the US Justice Department kept going around to different district courts trying to find any judge that would approve their right to get your location info from mobile phone providers without first getting a warrant. After multiple denials (including ones where the judges had strong words of criticism for the DoJ for even attempting this), they finally found a judge who was sympathetic and gave them the go-ahead. Since there's no other party in these suits, there's no appeal either. Declan McCullough is covering this story again, but adds one interesting element that hadn't been discussed. When laws were first being put forth to require phones to have tracking data, the FBI director at the time testified that they would never use that data for tracking people. He says so unequivocally: "There is no intent whatsoever, with reference to this term, to acquire anything that could properly be called 'tracking' information." However, that's exactly what is happening now. This is to be expected, of course, and highlights one of the biggest problems with all of these data collection efforts -- both governmental and in the private sector (yes, that means the search engines, too) -- is that no matter what the intentions of those who set them up originally, sooner or later someone will abuse them and use the data for unintended purposes.
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Always the case
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Unconstitutioanl
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No Data Is Better
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Re: Always the case
that doesn't seem to be the case with POP mail, where the email, once downloaded, resides on your pc. but the emails would be available from your ISP, or whoever supplies the POP account. so is it really any more confidential?
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This is just...
This is like the law enforcement version of Godwin's Law. =-)
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Re: Unconstitutioanl
Us = Common citizen
Them = Gov't
"Them" now seem to be heavily engaged in entrenching "Them"selves in power and protecting "Them"selves from "us"...
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Someone always ignores original intent
Or the folks that instituted the personal income tax who told us it was just a temporary measure while we finished the war. Of course those members of Congress are no longer in a position to be voted out of office -- if anyone remembered their deeds and took the time to vote accordingly.
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