Okay, just a quick question- what do you guys think about invasion of privacy and surveillance?
Take for instance, your internet usage. Do you think your government should be able to monitor and record all the data entering and exiting your computer?
If you have nothing to hide, what is there to fear?
I'm really not sure. On the one hand, I wouldn't personally want the government spying on everything I do- but that's ultimately because I pirate software. If I'm a criminal of course I wouldn't want to get caught.
Could someone who uses the internet entirely legally comment on this? Probably someone like Gughunter or Deadron and such. You guys would have nothing to fear from the police monitoring your connection- so would you mind?
Or is it a deeper issue, like trust? Do you think that you should be free to use the internet without being spied on because you deserve to be trusted?
Yeah, I know this is all fairly basic stuff and I've pretty much answered my own question anyway but I'd like to get your opinion on it.
As an extension of this- wouldn't it be nice to have a government/state that was closer to the people? Right now it seems so alienating. Okay sure, it's nothing like 1984 or some fascist dictatorship with secret police but it's a far cry from the general public feeling at one with their government. I expect all the sex scandals don't help, mind.
ID:27000
 Feb 7 2007, 5:49 pm
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I've got nothing to hide, but I've got a bunch of stuff I'm ashamed of.
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The way I see it, just because I have nothing to hide doesn't give anybody the right to snoop through everything of mine at their whim. It's just nobody else's business what I do in private. If you think you need to see what I'm up to that badly, get a search warrant or something.
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Unless you're suspected of something, I don't think that anyone should have the right to invade your property and see what you have, legal or otherwise.
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I wouldn't like having the government knowing that I do stuff on the computer that I do. It's more of a trust issue.
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That's the thing Sarm- I was reading an article that said that when an ISP couldn't fully locate a suspect's IP (when the FBI got a warrant to monitor their activity) then they'd just monitor a whole range of IPs, scanning email and such, then try and track down the suspect by looking for key phrases etc. So they're looking at a load of people's stuff, even if they've done nothing wrong.
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Well i personally think that if it meant me throwing away some privacy so that they could catch pedophiles, stalkers, rapists and murderers alot easier over the net id willingly vote yes for it.
I have nothing to hide from anyone so im totally with the idea of being survalenced by the government and hell i bet they do anyways :P | |
Whatever, I do not care if they invade my privacy because I cannot seem them anyway. If they catch you doing things like downloading music illegaly or downloading emulators/ROMs, I think they should leave that alone. Although, if they catch someone talking about killing someone or a terrorist attack, I think they should do something about it. So, let the small things fly and take care of the big things. If that is what it will be like, then I am all for it.
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i personally do have things to hide that would screw me if i were watched and listened to, but on a more basic level even if i didn't, i'd disagree on a matter of principle. i don't know about wherever you hail from, but america was founded so people could be free, and i think privacy is one of the most strong forms of freedom
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Dark_rathen wrote:
Well i personally think that if it meant me throwing away some privacy so that they could catch pedophiles, stalkers, rapists and murderers alot easier over the net id willingly vote yes for it. The thing is that most of these systems wouldn't catch those people. At the end of the end of the day the systems for distributing things like child pornography are actually quite sophisticated. Meaning that they'll develop a way around it pretty fast. So your giving up your privacy for a system that probably wont work for anything beyond watching legitimate users. The thing you've also got to consider, and it sounds sort of heartless when you bring up stopping murders, stalkers and paedophiles, is the cost of such a system. Developing and implementing the system would cost heaps, followed by paying for the people to run and maintain it. Do we really need to be picking up the bill on yet another government agency whose job ends up being convincing the public they're useful? If it worked I'd probably still feel the same, but that's just because I don't like being put under a magnifying glass. | |
Do we really need to be picking up the bill on yet another government agency whose job ends up being convincing the public they're useful? Without wanting to go off-topic, talk about anything irrelevent and generically be cliched, I'd just like to comment that as long as there's stuff like the war on Iraq going on, any arguments about the cost of something being too great is moot. | |
PC = Personal Computer.
It should be considered just as bad as tapping phone lines. It's like the Government being able to march into your house on their own free will. They should at least need a warrent. | |
You won't get arrested if you're doing illegal crap on your pc. Since it's illegal to spy on you without proper access or w/e. Remember how much trouble George Bush got for doing that on phone tapping.
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Leave my fourth amendment rights alone!
Mcarthur wrote: You won't get arrested if you're doing illegal crap on your pc. Since it's illegal to spy on you without proper access or w/e. Remember how much trouble George Bush got for doing that on phone tapping. If the FBI monitored a range of IPs, they can't prosecute you since the warrant only covers the person they're looking for. | |
People cannot be trusted. Govornment officials and criminals especially.
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I like how you differentiate, Spade. :P
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I think that loose monitoring of computers is necessary (key words in email (gun/death/kill/murder/etc) don't bother me), as well as monitoring the flow of pirating sites (seeing who's downloading, and who's uploading), but tracking every single thing you do bothers me.