Why Data mining Won’t Stop Terror
Bruce Schneier give a good breakdown of why he believes we are flushing our privacy down the security toilet and receiving nothing in return.
Recent Comments
Evil Functions
Support the EFF
[ EvilTyrant – The Completely Evil Blog ]
Bruce Schneier give a good breakdown of why he believes we are flushing our privacy down the security toilet and receiving nothing in return.
March 10th, 2006
With federal executive and legislative branches seemingly hostile to science and critical thought, particularly when these appear to clash with their alleged beliefs, it is no wonder that thinking such as that of Bruce Schneier is unlikely to have an impact. Even if you discount that, the real reasons for using data mining to gain access to the private lives of the citizens are unlikely to have much to do with stopping terrorism. It is more likely that other activities are the real target; those that have been shown to attract the interest of the government, such as dissenting views of government policies, adherents of currently unpopular notions such as animal rights, vegan, vegetarian, pacifist, and other movements that do not enjoy wide support. I’m sure protests and other activities by citizens who oppose current government policy such as the invasion of Iraq are also watched and perhaps harrassed by local, state, and federal authorities. This is nothing new, but the data mining certainly gives more targets and nonsensical data to use when requesting ever larger budgets by law enforcement and other agencies looking to expand turf.
In this vein, in my home county, Dekalb, Georgia, there was a case last year wherein some people were protesting some fast food restaurant for serving meat. These folks said they were vegans and morally opposed to using animals for food. Good for them. Let them enjoy their view and feel free to share it in the public square. They noticed an occupied, unmarked car observing them, taking photos of them and their car tags. They went to ask who this person was and why they were engaged in this activity. The person resisted and tried to leave. The protesters took down his tag. At this point, more unmarked vehicles showed up, roughed these folks up, and arrested them. There is a pending civil suit regarding the arrests and behavior. This made front page news when it was reported because it turned out the officer was with the local Homeland Security department, run, I assume by the county. I don’t know what data they were acting on, why they were bothering with marginal, clearly peaceful protests, and no one is saying anything about it while we wait for an outcome.
I see nothing by way of returns from this data mining effort save for more fear & uncertainty.