US Government Pushing Pro And Anti-Privacy Internet Rules At The Same Time
from the figure-this-one-out dept
Ah, the hypocrisy of politicians. We've pointed out in the past how often politicians seem to push for data retention laws and privacy laws at the same time, without realizing the two are in fundamental conflict. It looks like the Obama administration is going through a bit of that as well. The FTC has been threatening to force browser makers to include a do not track feature, that would let people surf without having their data retained. And yet... at the same time, the Justice Department is pushing for extensive data retention laws, with the help of the supposed "small government" Congressional reps who don't even seem to realize what they're supporting. Even worse, Congress seems so eager to push for a data retention law that some Congressional Reps are apparently annoyed that the Justice Department hasn't just handed them a bill to approve.The problem, of course, is that these politicians don't actually fully understand what the issues are involved here. They're viewing the issues on a very narrow basis. On the "do not track" issue, they think "privacy is important, of course we support privacy -- do not track is important." On the "data retention" issue, they think "well, law enforcement needs to have access to data to solve crimes, and without requiring internet companies to retain data, then it'll make law enforcement harder, so of course we need to have data retention." What they don't recognize is that these two things are in fundamental conflict with each other. Requiring data retention means less privacy. Period. But these politicians never actually think that far.
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Filed Under: data retention, do not track, privacy
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Finally
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Hilarious!
The answer you'll get is a "yes" or a "no."
Idiots. I'd like to see a new reality show where Senators and Congresspeople have to go work a job that *requires* critical thinking for a week, and watch the hilarity ensure.
Or send them to work at Radio Shack for a week, that might be worth a laugh or two...
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doh!
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Re:
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Everyone makes the wild (and stupid) assumption that the President and his immediate staff are aware of and control everything. It couldn't be further from the truth.
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How many czars in the past two years? How in the hell did he get funding for them?
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A former auto czar was accused of bribery (or something like that...)
Espinel is going after regular people with domain names for Hollywood
Drug Czar – Gil Kerlikowske
Still won't work to make drugs legal so they can be regulated...
Economic Czar – Paul Volcker
HAHAHAHAH!!!
Energy and Environment Czar – Carol Browner
He even has a Climate Czar...
Full list here But the disclaimer:
I DO NOT AGREE WITH ANYTHING THAT GLENN BECK SAYS! THIS IS NOT MY POLITICAL VIEW IN ANY WAY WHATSOVER! THIS IS NOT MEANT TO TURN THE THREAD INTO A POLITICAL THREAD IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM. THESE ARE JUST THE FACTS THAT OBAMA HAS APPOINTED 32 CZARS DURING HIS TWO YEARS IN OFFICE!
As for funding? Remember, he's the President. We bend over backwards to make money appear out of thin air and keep our false economy going strong.
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Then do a count and see who voted for both.
Vote for both and out the door they go.
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Hackers can find dirt on any one at any time, with enough skill and creativity no ones data is safe online. Sounds to me like law enforcement is just being lazy, they don't just want data retention, they want it sorted and alphabetized. So with the click of a button (forget those silly warrants!) they can see all your online activity.
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The politicians know exactly what they're doing
It'll go through because senators are "paid" to rubber stamp it though. To most people this is unbelievable.
Sorry to burst your bubble.
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Re: The politicians know exactly what they're doing
That is why we just haven't legalized the drug trade, pedosexuality, etc..... society needs it's 'boogie men' to allow the LEO's to justify their existence.
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AFAIK, most browsers already have this. So the government is trying to look useful by making mandatory something that's practically already been made mandatory by the free market, essentially changing nothing. More political grandstanding and more evidence of the uselessness of our government.
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Re: do not track feature
Wait, let's limit your comment to modern browsers (I'll be generous). Private browsing wasn't added to Explorer until IE8, wasn't in Firefox until 3.5, wasn't in Chrome until version 4. I don't want to go into how many people are using mobile browsers (God knows what's being passed over those connections), or how many people continue to use Opera on their Wii because they have no choice.
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Re: Re: do not track feature
So 'most' of the browsers (greater than 85% by usage) DO support private browsing AS OF TODAY.
No point legislating for things in the past. Waste of taxpayers dollars.
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By most, I should have specified, most by user, or, rather, most users use browsers that support private browsing. A poor choice of wording on my part, my mistake.
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Of course, you can't truthfully say yes to everyone. Voters, and particularly the special interests groups who will be paying for your campaigns, have this annoying way of having conflicting interests.
Far too often the plan is: "Tell both of 'em YES" ...then let either the courts or the regulators in the executive branch sort out the mess later.
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Privacy
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Re: Privacy
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