Author Archive

Rationality in the Information Age

A little bit ago I wondered if there was a particular change that happened, or whether once legitimate technology firms had just lost their morals.

Even between postings, the CNet reported that Microsoft had rescinded their support. Yet, Forbe’s is now saying that “Monday a spokesperson told reporters Monday that the company’s supportive position on CISPA remains ‘unchanged.’“

Maybe what’s changed in America isn’t corporations, but how we value them. With all the attention even I give to the companies that have thrown away reason and supported CISPA it would seem like their opinions are the only ones that matter. There is little support for CISPA by the individual, non-corporate Internet user, yet sill the bill has such considerable momentum.

So the evidence then suggests that it’s our values that have slipped into irrationality. Well, if we’ve fallen so far as to only listen to corporate voices — then it’s good that there’s still one beacon of reason.

Mozilla’s Privacy and Public Policy Lead recently sent Forbes a statement concerning that company’s view of CISPA.

“While we wholeheartedly support a more secure Internet, CISPA has a broad and alarming reach that goes far beyond Internet security. The bill infringes on our privacy, includes vague definitions of cybersecurity, and grants immunities to companies and government that are too broad around information misuse. We hope the Senate takes the time to fully and openly consider these issues with stakeholder input before moving forward with this legislation”

Source: Forbes.com

So there it is, a real and documented corporation taking an actual stand against this overpowered and terrifying bill. Maybe now Google can stop groping around apathetically and actually do something about this.

Unless, of course, we’re all just going to trust Facebook’s “promise” not to do anything wrong when CISPA passes.

(Not likely.)

2012
05/10
CATEGORY
Uncategorized
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CISPA, Blair, and our Economy.

With CISPA being passed in the U.S. House of Representatives last week, I thought about a 1984 graphic, but Uncle Sam gets the job done just the same.

Speaking of the book though, when I was in highchool being taught the book a student asked my instructor: “You know what’s so funny about1984, Mr. Teacher?”  Without any pause my teacher responded: “You mean, other than that it’s nearly all came true?”

Maybe I was just young and hopeful, but at the time I didn’t buy my teacher’s cynicism. Now though, with this paranoid bill’s passing, I’d be hard pressed to find evidence against it.

I’m trying to keep my head up, though. Certainly, Obama’s promise to veto the bill if it passes the Senate gives me some hope. Yet I’m still faced with the oppressive notion that there are still telecoms who support the bill (though they opposed PIPA/SOPA).

The question that dogs me is thus: if Facebook (or any of the companies that support CISPA) wants to pass a bill that gives them free reign over more of our private information, then how can we trust them with the information they currently possess?

The simple answer I’ve come to is that we cannot.

CISPA is a pure powerplay by these corporations and is certainly one we cannot allow to continue.

2012
05/02
CATEGORY
Attacks on Teh Interweb
The change of the tides
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Commonalities of the New York Times and The Pirate Bay

Ever wondered those two websites have in common?

Well, with CISPA wonder no more! The answer is simple, if this bill is passed they could both be down the tubes for any number of pages they’ve already published.

As I’ve already stated, CISPA is an extensive bill being pushed under the guise of cyber security. With PIPA and SOPA we realized that their issues of intellectual property weren’t enough to curb our freedoms. Now Congress has reloaded with the notion of security, and they’re aiming for our heads.

The bill would allow communications companies to go around existing regulatory laws as long as they acted in ‘good faith’.

Since this overbearing law targets both the “theft or misappropriation of private or government information” and has some Intellectual Propertie aspects from PIPA & SOPA, both the New York Times and The Pirate Bay could be targeted and shut down.

I have a Pirate Bay tee-shirt. If this bill is passed could it be long before I’m not allowed to wear it just as I’m not allowed to go to the site?

As Rainey Reitman and Lee Tien said on their excellent Electronic Frontiers Foundation post: “Internet security is a serious problem that needs to be addressed. But we don’t need to sacrifice our civil liberties to do so”

Head over to this link and help the EFF tell Congress that this bill is no good.

2012
04/27
CATEGORY
Attacks on Teh Interweb
The change of the tides
1 comment

Is Whistleblowing an Arachic Vestige of America’s Past?

With all of the cyber security bills being debated in Congress this year it certainly seems that as a society we’re changing in response to the Internet age.

One of the largest problems with CISPA, the far reaching and totalitarian bill being proposed, is that it could be used to stifle Whistleblowing.

As it stands when the bill broadly states that “theft or misappropriation of private or government information” is a component of cyber security.

This runs in straight conflict with the common journalistic practice of whistleblowing. If the government and corporations are allowed to censor the web based on sensitive information they have effectively crippled the people’s ability to be informed. Private citizens must have the right to come out about the injustices they observe.

There is simply no way this bill can be passed. If it is, even visiting a website such as Wikileaks and reposting the information on Facebook could be constituted as a national security threat

Not everyone is as sympathetic to Wikileak’s cause as I am. But under CISPA even websites such as the NewYorkTimes.com could be targeted. Does this mean that whistleblowing, what is considered by many to be a prime Democratic tool, is rusting in our times?

If the internet belongs to us, and this Representative Democracy is ours, then how can we afford to lose the ability to “misappropriate” sensitive government and corporate information? We simply cannot.

It’s time to fight for our Internet folks.

2012
04/16
CATEGORY
Attacks on Teh Interweb
2 comments

Corporations just aren’t what they used to be.

Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t incredibly hopeful when the big Web Players such as Microsoft or IBM opposed SOPA and PIPA. At the same time, when I heard that these asses actually support CISPA I nearly shat a 10 ton brick.

I’m sorry, maybe I’ve gotten ahead of myself. Let’s start this over again.

Remember PIPA? What about SOPA? Those disgusting bills were meant to infringe upon not only our Internet but our civil rights. Well, it seems Congress wants to take another swing at the web.

Mr. Rogers of Michigan, being so well endowed with internet savvy (or big corporations money, who’s to say), has created a bill dubbed the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act.

CISPA’s fault is similar to SOPA and PIPA’s. It’s too broad to be anything but bad news.

As with many of the attacks our Internet has been under lately, the bill isn’t dangerous for what it says, more for what it doesn’t.

As Reporters Without Borders reported on the subject: “the bill would allow companies protecting themselves ‘to use cyber security systems to identify and obtain cyber threat information’. Such vaguely defined systems could also mean monitoring, blocking or filtering systems.”

The bill is horrifyingly broad in its focus as well.

It targets: “efforts to degrade, disrupt, or destroy” a system or network, the “theft or misappropriation of private or government information, intellectual property, or personally identifiable information”. (Reporters Without Borders)

As it stands the act would promote the sharing of information between the government and corporations in a sort of paranoid neighborhood watch. Unfortunately, these private corporations would be able to circumvent existing monitoring laws if this bill passed.

At the end of the day, CISPA is SOPA 2.0, but instead of it being backed by the RIAA ect, it’s donned the clock of National Security. What’s worse is that it would allow the very same kind of abuses in a broader spectrum.

This issue can’t be swept under the rug because people think Congress’ll back down after PIPA & SOPA. Start what you can  now by Taking Action.

2012
04/10
CATEGORY
Attacks on Teh Interweb
1 comment

Paranoid Delusions?

I’ve been told I’m worry some. This much I can usually concede to most people, but everyday it seems there’s more evidence to feed into my delusions. But again, maybe I’m just being paranoid. I know Law Enforcement has never been perfect in America. Every American generation has had its own particular troubles and growing pains with that institution. Some of these struggles have been won, some lost, by that generation.

It’s unfortunate then that my generation seems so wrapped up in the multitude of issues, to just chose one and fight it.

Slashdot’s conversation about the ALCU’s investigation into which Law Enforcement agencies across America track cell phones without warrants reminded me of a simple fact about our Representative Democracy: Warrants are to be used when Law Enforcement is to do an act that the common person cannot.

This is why the police don’t need a warrant for tailing your car, anyone can do it.

What does this say about the changing of our society and our times? Has something changed legally that’s allowed for law agencies to do this, or have we as a people given them this ability by not speaking out against it?

I think it’s time we start talking loudly and picking our battles, so that this generation can being deciding our own ways of handling law enforcement.

 

2012
04/02
CATEGORY
Generational woes
They're watching me
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Mr. Blair’s Proposal

There is a scene within George Orwell’s 1984 which describes how if one asked an old timer how life was before the advent of Big Brother, that old timer would immediately begin gushing on about how great the civil liberties, the privacy, and the freedom that they enjoyed were.

I first read 1984 when I was in Middle School in suburban America. It is entierly safe to say that I did not fully understand it then, and that I don’t fully understand it now.

Still though, the ideas presented to me within the book helped lay the groundwork for my beliefs and criticisms now. Looking back, maybe I can again borrow some of the intelligence of that book to demonstrate the drastic changes occuring in the U.S. today.

I’ve used my father’s example, but he hailed from a time where freedom meant being able to hitchhike across the country whenever he pleased.  He however, lived during the McCarthy era, and was well accustomed to the rhetoric of the times.

If asked, would our old timers say that we’ve had a net loss of privacy and civil libertites? Maybe we’re just in a rut, like the McCarthy era, and the neocons and powerhungry of this generation will too die in an alcoholic lonliness. I don’t know, but I aim to find out.

Ask around, see what you think. Once again, are the lines we’ve been fed about America just that? The cynicism of my generation is brought pretty frequently, but unless there’s true freedom  somewhere in the past, we’re not cynical, just realists.

2012
03/14
CATEGORY
The change of the tides
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Welcome to our America

A few months ago the Pew Research Center released data that nearly turned me hopeful. The report stated that the number of Americans who say that it’s “necessary to give up civil liberties in order to curb terrorism” had decreased significantly over the decade since the attacks of 9/11.

Even though 40% of people polled still believe that giving away power leads to safety,I,at least feel safer knowing that rationality is in the majority.

While it may be in the majority, rationality certainly isn’t in power.

In Feburary 2011  the Department of Homeland Security announced that it was forming a program to monitor media content, including online social media.  This plan would find data from “online forums, blogs, public websites, and messages boards”. At the time, it was unknown what specifically the program was looking for.

After this was released the Electronic Privacy Information Center sued the DHS in a Freedom of Information lawsuit in order to force the DHS to release exactly how they were gathering the information and what they were looking for.

EPIC recently won the lawsuit, and recieved the information. Aside from monitoring some of the most traveled news sites on internet, the report and subsiquent Congress hearing, said that the DHS told General Dynamics (a private company) to monitor media reports that “reflect adversely” on the agency or the federal government.

Well shit, I am absolutely screwed then. Nearly everything I say, write, or think, reflects adversly upon the government or the DHS.

The Huffington Post reported about Congress slamming the DHS over the program. You better bet that those chaps brought up the fact that this program dumps on the First Amendment, which conveniently brings me back to my original point. (Thanks for staying with me until now)

If, Americans are returning to rationality, as the Pew Center suggests, then why does the DHS and other agencies feel the need to continue reaping our rights?  Clearly, many of us realize that it is not the route to safety, or prosperity.

The DHS really screwed the pooch on this one.

They spend 11 million to create a program to monitor subversive comments about the Federal Government and DHS, and through creating that program, they piss a lot of people off, causing them to go on the internet, and write subersive  comments about the DHS.

Really, guys?

Aside from the rampant invasion of privacy, the overwhelming paranoia present of the program, and the creepy Big Borther-esque way they refused to release information, it’s just silly because it fosters the kind of thing they’re trying to root out. The idea that the US government should give a department like Homeland Security enough funds to actually and effectivly monitor every commentor who dislikes the DHS after this stunt is an idiotic one.

Unless I’m black-bagged by the DHS, expect to hear from me on this again. Stay safe, stay free.

2012
02/29
CATEGORY
They're watching me
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Our Post 9/11 Fear

Terrorism:
The systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion.

Using this definition, it is impossible to describe the events of 9/11 as anything other than a terrorist attack. In our “post-9/11” world, there is a clear consensus that those men committed those acts to coerce the West into a certain course of action, to terrorize us into paralysis.

And every day it seems more and more like they’re succeeding. The worst part? The terrorists aren’t winning because they did something, they’re winning because we’re not doing anything.

Our society and government have changed dramatically in the decade plus since 9/11. The shock and horror of the day helped foster an emotion of unity. Commercials aired all across the nation boldly stating that though we had been attacked, “United we stood”.

We could have easily allowed ourselves to be paralyzed, but instead the voices of reason called out, informing us that al-Qaeda wanted  us to react with terror.

So instead, we unified, or attempted to as much as possible, and consoled ourselves.

I believe that this was when America was actually safe. For we understood that terror could buy nothing, especially not security. It may have only lasted a month, but it was a true security, the kind that only an event that shakes the absolute foundation of a society can rouse.

Eleven years, and we are no longer as secure. As opposed to the unified nation that recovered from a grievous wound and is stronger because of it, we are an insecure adolescent male, shouting and puffing his chest at every opportunity.

The difference manifests itself at every mass transit center when we’re told that if we see something suspicious to immediately inform the nearest authorities. When we ask what suspicious is they reply: “Whatever seems out of place for you”.  It has become all to easy to become terrified around every corner.

It seems as if we’ve gotten confused. Elven years ago, we agreed that unity lead to security.. Today we are just concerned with safety, and never the means by which it is achieved.

So, as we bunker down, scared of our neighbor because the food she cooks smells weird, we allow fear to paralyze us. The more we continue this trend the more it proves to those like the 19 hijackers that we can be coerced through fear, and that they can win through terror.

The real twist? Though it was the terrorists who originally planned, attacked, and killed those near 3 thousand people, there are those living here who have gained much more than those who flew the planes.

More on this another time, stay safe, stay free.

2012
02/21
CATEGORY
The change of the tides
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Can’t see what your neighbor’s doing on Facebook? They’re probably a terrorist.

Privacy and justice: two mores that have been paramount to our culture since the first days of the revolution. These ideals were present when the sculptors of our society decided not to allow soldiers to house in any estate they pleased, or to make use of the phrase “innocent until proven guilty”.

The examples don’t even stop there. Any American History, or government book is filled to the brim with dead white guys telling us in the here and now how much they loved the privacy that America grants and the justice we employ. Seriously, they loved these ideas,  which is why Ben Franklin, George Washington, and Ronald Regan all spoke about the subjects.

Of course, with ubiquitous cameras being used in every manner possible, signs in Public Areas telling us to be suspicious of everyone, everywhere, and the FBI and DOJ telling Internet cafe owners to watch out for any suspicious activity, you can see how these mores may be degrading.

At the top of the recently produced and circulated flyer it asks: “Who should I consider suspicious?” The FBI and DOJ’s answer follows:

  • Are overly concerned with privacy, attempts to shield screen from view of others
  • Always pay cash, or use credit cards in different names
  • Apparently use tradecraft, lookout, blocker, someone to distract employees
  • Act nervous or behavior inconsistent with activities
  • Are observed switching SIM cards in a cell phone or use multiple cell phones
  • Travel illogical distance to use internet cafe

The list continues to state that use of programs or activities that show a concern for privacy are considered suspicious. As you may have guessed:  the continued list is just as vague, condemning and as straight out of 1984 as the first section is.

So here we are, 2012, and we’ve got the FBI telling us to be afraid of one another, sipmly because that person may enjoy an ideal that we actually hold to be fairly important.

At the same time, this flyer shows that our idea of justice is changing as well, if we’re to be automatically suspicious of one another, then we’re not assuming innocence. I think it’s fairly safe to say that once we’re calling the Department of Homeland Security on our 85 year old neighbor that it’s become “guilty until proven innocent”.

This topic’s too relevant to do anything other than continue the commentary.  For more than just commentary and opinion head to Public Intelligence, or Slashdot.

2012
02/08
CATEGORY
The change of the tides
They're watching me
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