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Computer 101
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Who's
listening to you online? The
FBI, (Federal Bureau of Investigation) has asked that the laws regarding
internet snooping be revised. The old laws were written back in 1994 when
internet communication was still basically in its infancy. The old laws
forced ISPs, (Internet Service Providers) to make it easy for the FBI to snoop
on people's online activities, but since then, a lot of the way we communicate
online has changed.
Now there are all kinds of "social networking" sites like "FaceBook", "Twitter", "Tumblr", instant messengers of all sorts, etc. Email is in fact, beginning to lose ground. That kind of stuff was easy to track. "Social networking" is more difficult. Not impossible, just more difficult.
The new laws that the FBI is pushing for would force "social networking" sites like "FaceBook" and "Twitter", to develop new programming that would make it a breeze for the FBI to snoop on us. Of course, any snooping would require a court order. That's their story and they're sticking to it.
Critics of course, state the obvious. It's just one more way for "Big Brother" to spy on us. It's also quite a responsibility to put on "social networking" sites to develop a program that pretty much guarantees that no one but the FBI can exploit. It can also be argued that the FBI already has the capability...it just isn't as easy as it could be. Critics also claim that the capability could also be used to build a file on our personal likes, dislikes, beliefs, fears, etc.
The FBI claims that the new way of communicating online has them "going dark", unable to see too much of what's going on. Critics also claim that if the FBI isn't as capable of snooping as effectively as they used to, they'll have to prove it.
I remember reading what Harry Truman once said. "There will always be someone in government using some new crisis as an excuse for curtailing our civil liberties." With the current "war on Al Quaeda", the temptation is indeed, very strong to make "Big Brother's" ears even bigger. I think that if we give up our freedoms and change who we really are, Al Quaeda wins by default.
Whether or not you believe that government should have expanded snooping capabilities, you should bear in mind a truism that I've always expounded. There is no such thing as privacy on the internet. Whatever you put online is out there forever. Hackers all over the place, if they're really inclined to bother, could pretty much find out all about anything we've ever said or done on the internet. I don't imagine it's all that much harder for the FBI. John
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