U.S. Intelligence Monitoring Blogs
The more I think about this, the more I realize that this isn’t something new. It’s not a secret that the government monitors web pages. I remember I had written about this subject before. Which was in reference to RaiseTheFist.com, which I believe is completely defunct now.
Amanda e-mailed me this nice article from Yahoo! (included was a lovely message, “Don’t worry, I’ll come visit you in Cuba!”). - Blog-Tracking May Gain Ground Among U.S. Intelligence Officials
Did you know that China actively tracks weblogs? Did you know they are in the process of completely blocking access to them?
This is so ridiculous. I leave you with a quote from the article:
“When you’re conducting surveillance where you have no expectation of illegal activity, there has to be some threshold to justify such surveillance,” - James Love
6 Comments, Comment or Ping
let’s move to canada. i can’t take this anymore.. wait.. isn’t the government looking at this now?
shit.
i can’t breathe.
Apr 29th, 2004
I remember my FBI friends telling me pre-911 that they were not supposed to surf people’s web pages. It was a matter of policy. Funny how things changed.
One thing to consider: blogs are publications. They are meant to be read in a public manner. There really isn’t much expectation of privacy there. So it’s kinda hard to feel squeamish about that.
The cops are very good at grabbing open-source intelligence sources (aka public knowledge). Ever notice all the video camera bubbles around federal law enforcement buildings? They ain’t all for protection. If they so happen see a crime being committed (or useful intelligence) why pass up a free lunch…
Apr 29th, 2004
I’m all for going to Canada.
My interest reaches it’s peak during Florida summer.
Apr 30th, 2004
Valid point. Blogs, home pages, whatever, they’re all published with the same concept: that people will read them.
I think it’s the fact that they make this a public announcement, it makes me wonder how long it will be before certain “ACTs” will be abused (more so) and how many people will be crying wolf as a result.
I could care less who reads this. I say if the Government wants to monitor my page, come! And come often and leave feedback!
Apr 30th, 2004
Agreed. Most of the cops I know will follow the rules absolutely to the letter. Simply because their jobs are on the line if they don’t.
Now along comes something like USA PATRIOT, which lawfully allows them to do all the scary things that the tin-foil hat wearers accused them of… And remember our Federal Cop folks are judged on prosecuting cases. Well, I can’t see how any of that is a good thing.
Apr 30th, 2004
There is nothing good about the Patriot Act. They are no longer investigating crimes, they’re looking for people who might commit crimes in the future. Excuse the redundancy, but seriously, 1984 and Minority Report twisted into one. Although, Minority Report wasn’t all that great, but the concept of arresting people before they might commit a crime and thought criminals and AHHHHH.
Must put on my tin-foil hat now…
May 4th, 2004
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