[SGVLUG] more recommended stuff.. Frontline Spying on the home front

[Chris Smith]

On 7/3/07, matti <mathew_2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> I just wanted to recommend this show to everyone
> here... brings up some good questions about
> liberties/freedom vs security issues w/re to IT.
>
> watching it reminded me of Database Nation...
> (book)
>
> Spying on the Home Front.
> http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/homefront/view/
>
> executive summary - President and advisors think
> Data Mining w/o warrant is OK... (warrantless search),
> others think it is not (want judges to approve.) to
> preempt terrorist activity and attacks on US interests.

Honestly, the concern *ought* to be these private database companies
having your data in the first place, not the government accessing it
for their lame attempts at data mining. ;-)

Unlike every other entity that uses these databases, the government
can't do very much until it can assemble evidence to make a case
(okay, clearly this hasn't been true recently, and THAT is another
huge problem that needs to be fixed).

Here's the really fun part: you can have problems not just because you
are in the database, but because you *aren't* in the database. I know
this first hand as someone who arrived in the US only a tiny prior
history with a huge time gap in it.

The guys at ZKS had this right with their Freedom network. The idea
wasn't that there'd be no data on you, but rather that you'd have
multiple "nyms" (psuedonyms), each with a subset of the data on you,
thereby limiting anyone's ability to get a complete picture of who you
are. Of course, if everyone did this, it'd make it that much harder to
catch the bad guys, but at least Amazon doesn't get a complete
customer profile on you before you ever make your first order with
them.

-- 
Chris