The push continues for US firms to be able to release stats about what the US Government asks of them. I support this. I’m in favor of the NSA doing its job but oversight is important, too.
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I skipped Tech at Night on Friday because I was preparing for the Extra Life event. Saturday NSA listening in on foreigners using Google is part of their job, folks. So if the Germans or anyone else don’t like it, even if they get the traitor Edward Snowden to help them censor and regulate their own Internet, my answer to those nations who don’t like the NSA is still: “Come and take it.”
Though it’s still apparent that the ‘leaks’ coming out such as this about Pope Francis are being crafted (not chosen, crafted) to sound plausible, attempting to push our buttons and play to our prejudices. Snowden’s accusations and ‘documents’ surely include the best fabrications Snowden’s Russian paymasters’ money can buy.
Don’t forget, though: metadata is harmless to collect, as it involves collecting only that data which is already public.
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How busy and important is FCC? They have time to worry about fluorescent lights in every small business in America, it seems.
More proof kids don’t belong on the Internet: the anarchoterrorists of Anonymous are now recruiting 12 year old elementary school students to commit crimes for them. Please take note, everyone. The Internet is a dangerous place that is not safe for kids.
That said, beware ideas for government-directed national cybersecurity plans or regulations, such as those proposed often by Democrats. They can’t even secure the Obamacare website, let alone tell you how to secure yours. Share information only. Pass CISPA, not new mandates.
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Crime in Bitcoin is big money. $28.5 million more worth if Bitcoins have been taken from the Silk Road racket. Other things are big money in Bitcoin too, such as those on Reddit who are paying young women to take their clothes off and put the video on the Internet, a great personal risk to themselves.
It’s no wonder Bitcoin people are trying to run offshore to countries like China hostile to liberty and the rule of law, even as they try to hide their tracks accessing US markets with conspiracies like Tor.
It’s also no wonder the anarchists have seized upon recent events to try to demonize the NSA.
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Here we go again, a group of organized criminals seeks to attack innocents. “First sentence, then trial.” I’m looking forward to when prison sentences are given out to these people of Anonymous. Hacktivist is apparently a code word for ‘anarchist terror cell.’
I mean, just like Tor users (who are getting traced as well as they’re getting arrested), we just keep on arresting Anonymous cells.
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I know, it’s two weeks in a row the Friday tech got pushed the the weekend. Sorry.
The war on Tor crime continues as the Silk Road arrests go on and on and on. Next up, find the killers for hire?
Oh look, Edward Snowden and the Glenns Greenwald are in cahoots again. Even as the new push is on to claim he gave no data to the Chinese and Russians. I guess he needs that cover to try to get asylum?
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Again, I’m sympathetic to the idea behind the new California ban in ‘revenge porn’, but ultimately this isn’t going to work, and it’s just going to give a false sense of security to the recklessly promiscuous. Just like the ‘eraser button’ for minors California passed, it’s a dangerously ineffective idea.
Big news: even as some people try to build a new distributed secure chat network, the old distributed secure communications network is continuing to fall apart. Tor has not protected Silk Road, whose creator is going to jail. It will be interesting to see if Bitcoin’s price falls as a result of the end of a major Bitcoin hub of illegal activity.
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I have to say, my initial reaction to accusing Google of wiretapping is absurd. Think about it: the whole concept of wiretapping is that you’re intercepting communications from person A to person B. If Google ads are wiretapping, them spam filtering would be wiretapping, since you’re also scanning an email to do that.
We’ve discussed in the past how Pandora was trying to get government to change the rules in its favor against copyright holders, because the government had previously tilted the scales in favor of broadcast radio against copyright holders, in the form of a proposed law known as IRFA. Pandora’s clearly wrong about that, as we should have a level playing field and not be picking winners and losers at all. But one good consequence could be a bill that would go the other way, an anti-IRFA: repealing the laws that favor broadcast radio to begin with. Just ditch the whole compulsory licensing system.
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More Net Neutrality! With the oral arguments having happened, people are chewing on what happened. Some are confident the FCC will lose, which is unsurprising since they’ve lost on this before. Hence this title, Net Neutrality Returns – As Farce.
We need an FCC that will stop just trying to take power and instead will adapt to rapidly-changing technology in a smart and humble way. From what I’m hearing, Michael O’Rielly is a good choice for that, though of course I have no high hopes for Tom Wheeler.
Though apparently it’s not just FCC that’s terrible about this stuff. SEC writes regulations it can’t even follow itself, Darrell Issa points out.
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Net Neutrality! Verizon has taken the FCC to court over the FCC’s illegal Open Internet order of course. Oral arguments were today at the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. The court should reject the rule of course, as the court already rejected Net Neutrality previously in the Comcast case. The ALA, like a lot of reflexive leftist organizations, is wrong.
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