Monday, August 19, 2013

Monday Links

  • This detention of Glenn Greenwald's partner under British anti-terrorism laws, while flying from Germany to Brazil, is absolutely and completely outrageous.  This is clearly harassment of journalists for publishing stories that authorities don't like, and strikes at the heart of freedom of speech.  If you weren't already convinced that the intelligence/anti-terrorism apparatus in Western countries is out of control, I imagine this will push you a bit further in that direction.
  • Things going from bad to worse in Egypt.
  • A new tool for scanning the Internet in 45 minutes (with a gigabit uplink).

5 comments:

Unknown said...

FYI

http://www.theage.com.au/environment/climate-change/how-australias-big-wet-befuddled-scientists-20130820-2s8k5.html

Anonymous said...

Stuart,

Do you think it is at all possible to get back to a situation where civilian freedom of speech (and thought) is guaranteed, without destroying the intelligence infrastructure.

I don't see governments giving up the tools they have acquired. It would take nothing less than a public uprise, a democratic takeover of the government and new constitutional laws to prohibit to peek into individual information, let alone store it, let alone process it automatically.

Tom Bennion said...

I think the problem is that we are using pre-computing tools (oversight by trusted individuals, courts etc) to deal with masses of data. Either you have to turn it off or you have to have a system that can run a privacy test over it at high speed.

Cue a requirement for a computerised privacy system that must sit within intelligence gathering agencies, and a set of laws about what it does, who writes its software etc. Open source should be good, so everyone can see what tests and balances are being applied.



stravinsky7 said...

Solution 1: Cease all NSA covert spying. First off, massive balkanization of the internet is about to occur. There is no way around it. This will apply to incoming and outgoing packets through any sovereign "internet", and it's probably a pretty good idea.

However, once the next great hopeful dictator comes along, spying resumes, even more advanced systems spring up, as surreptitiously as this time, and there is no defense, on a citizen or business level against it. Likely opponents will be "neutralized" from sneak-attack data-grab, and massive power-grab and associated craziness ensues.

The cat is out of the bag,- Pandora's box has been opened, and it is too late to put anything back where it was before. It may already have been at the moment the ideas for the NSA's programs were conceived, and the conceivers may have realized this. (not to provide justification, but it's hard to argue against (people are self aware, after all..))

In other words, Solution 1 is not a solution without citizen and business rights guaranteed at a constitutional level. Every individual will crumple without constitutional rights in regards to what the government is legally able to demand.

It really is that simple. Would everyone please stop watching TV?

Alexander Ac said...

Is there a trend?

Mapped: Every Protest on the Planet Since 1979

Alex