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... my comments are US-centric despite this being a UK-oriented article... > We demand a perfect security which is getting ever harder to achieve. In the US w
by logn 12y ago
... my comments are US-centric despite this being a UK-oriented article...
> We demand a perfect security which is getting ever harder to achieve.
In the US we claim to be "land of the free; home of the brave". I don't think the public lives up to the bravery aspect. That involves accepting some level of risk, in exchange for freedom. Humans have free will and theoretically that's the root of evil. So unless we're going to lose our humanity we need to stop worrying about irrational or rare possibilities.
The other things the author mentions I guess I agree with but I think it's naive. Yes, better crypto and some help from the vendors and cloud providers will improve things.
But ultimately any device can be bugged, any chip can be backdoored, and I think we're a ways from securely printing our own computers. Satellites can zoom in anywhere. Microphones like ShotSpotter can listen. To some extent the people need to be brave about this surveillance too and not go paranoid.
But we also need to lay down some justice for those who broke the Constitution. The leaders of these bureaucracies should be tried in capital cases for treason, war crimes, or espionage. That would clearly establish right and wrong in society for some years to come. And for all the lower level LEOs knowingly sharing in NSA data or doing parallel reconstruction, they should be tried for their crimes too. We need to clean house.
The states also need an new Constitutional mandate for provide oversight to Congress. For some reason the checks and balances have completely broken down and D.C. needs the power inverted on them.
After all that's done, then tell me about better encryption. But until then, none of the tech matters except for making the intel agencies' lives slightly harder. But in reality all we've done is give the 5-eyes an edge on the rest of the world's intel by raising the difficulty mode to expert.
- tomp 12y ago> To some extent the people need to be brave about this surveillance too and not go paranoid. I don't think that surveillance is a problem per se. The problem is the law enforcement agencies that use surveillance to actually jail people. As long as they keep charging pregnant women that trip and fall, arresting to people based on tweets [1], or treating kids as sex offenders [2], they shouldn't be trusted with wielding so much power. [1] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2093796/Emily-Bunting-Leigh-Van-Bryan-UK-tourists-arrested-destroy-America-Twitter-jokes.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2093796/Emily-Buntin... [2] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2093796/Emily-Bunting-Leigh-Van-Bryan-UK-tourists-arrested-destroy-America-Twitter-jokes.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2093796/Emily-Buntin...
- uxp 12y agoBoth your links point to the same resource, when it appears you meant otherwise. Also, the Daily Mail is considered a tabloid at best. More reputable sources are generally preferred to them.
- tomp 12y agoSorry. Arrest (actually, BBC uses the word "apprehended") over tweets: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16810312 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16810312 Kids as sex offenders: http://www.bostonreview.net/blog/youth-sex-offender-registry-hrw http://www.bostonreview.net/blog/youth-sex-offender-registry...
- mhurron 12y ago> For some reason the checks and balances have completely broken down and D.C. A - What makes you think the states are any better or different. But more importantly B - They clearly haven't. Just because you have an issue with this topic, doesn't mean everyone does. Congress has something like a 95% incumbency rate. The ultimate in checks and balances, sending someone else if you don't like them, send them right back to continue doing what they're doing. People don't care about this and they want the government to protect them from terrorists.
- shit_parade 12y agoExtensive gerrymandering, equating money with free speech, and the two party system has made voting a waste of time in the US.