"OMG; They're reading my e-mai!": How the media inflames privacy panic

"OMG; They're reading my emai!: How the media inflames privacy panic"

gigaom.com

"An alarming story about a Senate plan to let federal agencies read your email turns out to have been a false alarm. Unfortunately, fears over online privacy mean such stories travel quickly — and that we’re likely to see the media crying wolf in the future."

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
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www.wired.com
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Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
Bill to increase privacy quietly rewritten to destroy privacy

This article, crafted by one Jeff John Roberts, tells us how there is no need to be frightened about the draft being circulated around congress.... you know the one...

Bill to increase privacy quietly rewritten to destroy privacy (Thanks "thisguyrighthere")

Our article author, a Manhattan lawyer who reports on how copyright, patents, anti-trust and other legal issues shape the digital economy, and also reports on the business and strategies of news companies; previously worked for Reuters in New York and Paris, and practiced intellectual property and media law.

He is advising his audience a bit 'differently'....

... According to CNET, the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Patrick Leahy (D Vt), quietly rewrote a proposed law to give vast new investigative powers to 22 agencies like the Federal Reserve and the FCC. CNET pointed to excerpts from a draft bill to suggests agency gnomes would no longer even need a warrant to read your emails, Facebook musings or Google documents....

Jeff tells us that he was relieved to see a colleague Kashmir Hill, a veteran privacy reporter at Forbes, put it bluntly on Twitter when she wrote... "The CNet report on a bill that would make warrantles[s]searches of your email A-okay is bunk. Some flawed reporting there."

He points to Hill's later comments:

the bill it cited was just one of many versions circulating in the Senate and was not one being taken seriously. She also pointed out that such a law would come at a disturbing time given the recent flap over General Petraeus’ email. Finally, Hill quoted a Leahy spokesman who said the article was “wrong.”

Other news outlets soon published additional denials from Leahy’s office.

Are we reassured? ... I for one am not!

1. When the CFR (Forbes) start "reassuring" me that my privacy is "safe" I know it's time to look more closely.
   
2. When people are expected to sigh in relief over the notion that "many versions [are] circulating in the Senate," and ... "not ... being taken seriously" ... I know we have a serious problem in the Senate too.
   
3. When a Senator willfully sponsors any legislation to empower a private entity such as the Federal Reserve, or committees full of political appointees like the FCC with "legal investigative authority" our judicial system must be formally declared DEAD
   

The object of these 'virtual' talking heads is to get you to think that we should expect outrageous human rights-demolishing legislation to be circulating around the halls of power... but not to worry, they are probably not serious about it.... to which the rational person should say "Seriously? That's what they do... create BS legislation just for fun? ... I don't think so."

Someone wants to further increase the reach and power of the economic masters and gatekeepers of information exchange .... but according to these 'elite' experts... not to worry....

... this non-scandal over email privacy reveals how these stories exist in a media sweet spot that taps public fears of technology, the government and big companies. News stories that confirm suspicions about an online Big Brother will always attract an audience, especially as they appeal to both liberals and right-wing libertarians.

Well... thank goodness for that... it's only those crazy folks who believe this stuff....

I wonder what other egregious and rights-eliminating 'no one is taking it seriously' legislation is out there for us to ignore according to this author and his friend at Forbes? Maybe we should ask.

gigaom.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Doood...

They've been reading it so long the algorithms know what your going to write even before you do.

Originally posted by Maxmars
Are we reassured? ... I for one am not!

1. When the CFR (Forbes) start "reassuring" me that my privacy is "safe" I know it's time to look more closely.
   
2. When people are expected to sigh in relief over the notion that "many versions [are] circulating in the Senate," and ... "not ... being taken seriously" ... I know we have a serious problem in the Senate too.
   
3. When a Senator willfully sponsors any legislation to empower a private entity such as the Federal Reserve, or committees full of political appointees like the FCC with "legal investigative authority" our judicial system must be formally declared DEAD
   

The object of these 'virtual' talking heads is to get you to think that we should expect outrageous human rights-demolishing legislation to be circulating around the halls of power... but not to worry, they are probably not serious about it.... to which the rational person should say "Seriously? That's what they do... create BS legislation just for fun? ... I don't think so."

Someone wants to further increase the reach and power of the economic masters and gatekeepers of information exchange .... but according to these 'elite' experts... not to worry....

... this non-scandal over email privacy reveals how these stories exist in a media sweet spot that taps public fears of technology, the government and big companies. News stories that confirm suspicions about an online Big Brother will always attract an audience, especially as they appeal to both liberals and right-wing libertarians.

This is along the lines of what I was thinking:

Originally posted by ConspiracyBuff
Doood...

They've been reading it so long the algorithms know what your going to write even before you do.

To make it even more simple; it's like limitless. One word, infinite.

What meant was that we need not fear any further invasion of our privacy.
What he doesn't tell you is that if they were any further up in you they would be competing with tapeworms for food.
(true story btw - I'm not a doctor but I play one on the internet)

Meh. They're already scanning your emails and posts on Facebook searching for key words or illegal activity. There are already cops in chat rooms posing as regular folks like us, joining in conversations when they are really scoping out criminal activity. I wouldn't be surprised if the government isn't already doing random scans of emails and computers.

It's like emails and texts that aren't received by the intended recipient. Where exactly do all those emails go?? I'd like to know because I've sent a few steamy ones to my partner. That said, there's probably some stuffy government employee sitting in his cubicle with a red face reading what I wrote....

I miss the days before the Internet where people would actually pick up a phone and call you. Or send you a real letter. Does anyone send those anymore?

My email has been taken by rouges. I can't even get it back the security questions and answers have been changed. I noticed AVG antivirus kept running a AVG secure search. I did a dump of the info they had in it and it included emails I had sent in plain text not even encrypted. So I got rid of it. It showed back up over and over and now it is gone for good. I also noticed my video card has now put a hidden user on my computer. Updatus user. Thing about video cards having a user they can grab all data sent to the monitor meaning anything encrypted you look at they grab after you decrypted it. The analog loophole. Updatus user is a locked user the owner of the computer can't even alter. So I would say it is a lost cause to try and be secure any more. Kerspersky Labs is supposed to be coming up with a completely secure browser in the near future. I wonder what kind of promise it will show against the new STUXnet,Gause,Star,DUQU, and the list goes on. The RATS software are in every thing watching what you do. There is a different version for just about every country any more. Some body has a lot of worldwide monitoring going on. Hard to believe they can keep track of it all.

Strange list of files under Updatus User a video card update link. Includes contacts,pictures,videos,searches,downloads,games,favorites,documents even desktop.

reply to post by JBA2848


Are you sure that's just not a virus like a Trojan or spyware? If AVG is trying to pick it up, that's what it sounds like to me. Install a different virus program and see if it picks it up.

reply to post by Charmeine


One way to be anonymous is use hotmail only and only access it from public computers like at random internet cafes. That is, if someone had something to hide. You'd have to change your email address often which would be a huge pain in the ass to do. I have nothing to hide on my email except for the few aforementioned steamy and questionable emails to my partner

reply to post by Charmeine


double post - pls delete!!!

reply to post by Charmeine


Freaking laptop, double post

reply to post by Charmeine


AVG secure search is a AVG program. I looked it up to make sure. And the only reason I did a dump of what info they had was because I wanted to see what exactly it was doing. I did it a few times and found the same kind of results. You can't trust any software any more.

Originally posted by Maxmars

"OMG; They're reading my emai!: How the media inflames privacy panic"

gigaom.com

"An alarming story about a Senate plan to let federal agencies read your email turns out to have been a false alarm. Unfortunately, fears over online privacy mean such stories travel quickly — and that we’re likely to see the media crying wolf in the future."

(visit the link for the full news article)

I have read all the links and they do Not agree with each other. they all have spin. One says he reversed his decision and another says he never intended that amended bill to go forth. So much spin what do you believe?

One thing is certain. Now that servers are keeping our emails over 180 days and the agencies can acquire them without a warrant. To me, that's still invasion of privacy.

What should be done is a law passed saying servers have to delete all our e-mail copies as soon as they are delivered to our home computers. Online email servers must delete this email within 180 days if we fail to retrieve the mail. Surely 180 days is enough time to see we are not serious about getting this mail.

Leahy’s initial package, if approved as proposed, would nullify the provision of ECPA that allows the government to acquire a suspect’s e-mail or other stored content from an internet service provider without showing probable cause that a crime was committed, as long as the content has been stored on a third-party server for 180 days or more. Currently, to acquire such data, the government only needs to show, often via an administrative subpoena, that it has “reasonable grounds to believe” the information would be useful in an investigation.

When enacted two decades ago, ECPA provided much more privacy than it does today. The act was adopted at a time when e-mail wasn’t stored on servers for a long time, but instead was held there briefly on its way to a recipient’s inbox. E-mail more than 6 months old was assumed abandoned.

As technology advanced, more and more people began storing e-mail on cloud servers indefinitely. And Congress has so far been unwilling to change course, despite the Fourth Amendment implications as data storage in the cloud has grown.

www.wired.com...

I suggest no one uses online email web sites but use client side software such as Thunderbird. I use such a services called Inbox.com but they send the mail along to my home computer and Thunderbird and I have instructed the service to delete the mail as soon as it send it to me.

This Link tell you the three things you need to make secure and encrypt so people cant view your emails: www.pcworld.com...

It lists 3 areas you need to protect: which is;

the connection from your email provider; your actual email messages; and your stored, cached, or archived email messages.

I don't care how old it is, or IF I am a Terrorist OR Not. If I post publicly like on ATS, they are free to read away. if I post something to someone else privately through any email or Facebook service, the Government has No Right to read my messages.

I propose direct from e-mail client to e-mail client encryption with no servers in between keeping my data. If you let Big Government take an inch, they will take a mile and all your freedoms will go Poof.

BTW, I am pretty sure the original thread was Here: www.abovetopsecret.com... and you just put a spin on the issue to be able to make a new post about the same topic.

Interesting thing is in 6 days there were no replies to that topic until I made one today - shows how little people care about these issues when everyone was screaming about SOPA - it makes no sense unless people were inflamed due to media hype.

reply to post by JohnPhoenix


www.facebook.com...

# Notice: if you would like to crawl Facebook you can # contact us here: www.facebook.com... # to apply for white listing. Our general terms are available # at www.facebook.com...

You really think Facebook is protecting what you type to friends? And I have seen a DHS file on a Facebook account they had every thing ever typed on that account day to day.

reply to post by JBA2848


it's true. They scan private emails and conversations for illegal activity, certain words on facebook, twitter and other social media websites. They monitor videos and posts too.

Right now I really need to switch to using entirely my own email server. That's the optimal way of doing things if you have one. I use that but still use my grandfathered free pop3 Hotmail. At least with my own server, I have total control over it and zero spam to boot. What's funny is that I could hand out secure email addresses galore to family and friends but never do. It's mine, all mine I say!

Originally posted by elouina
Right now I really need to switch to using entirely my own email server. That's the optimal way of doing things if you have one. I use that but still use my grandfathered free pop3 Hotmail. At least with my own server, I have total control over it and zero spam to boot. What's funny is that I could hand out secure email addresses galore to family and friends but never do. It's mine, all mine I say!

edit on 26-11-2012 by elouina because: (no reason given)

That wont help at all. There are too many other systems that mail gets routed through between you and it's destination and vise versa. You cannot control Them.

Originally posted by JBA2848
reply to post by JohnPhoenix

 

www.facebook.com...

# Notice: if you would like to crawl Facebook you can # contact us here: www.facebook.com... # to apply for white listing. Our general terms are available # at www.facebook.com...

You really think Facebook is protecting what you type to friends? And I have seen a DHS file on a Facebook account they had every thing ever typed on that account day to day.

I didn't make my thoughts clear. I meant to say Facebook should offer encryption for their message system and delete the messages after you see them or after a certain reasonable amount of days.

All server owners need to make it their responsibility to ensure that all private data is deleted in a timely manner. It should be a law.

reply to post by JohnPhoenix


Yes but they would have to just outright steal the content and decrypt it. Which is criminal without probable cause and a warrant.,

The FBI has been doing this as far as know since 1996. It was at least all over yahoo's website when I saw it. It was called Carnivore.

1 source: en.wikipedia.org...

2 source: www.howstuffworks.com...

They retired it supposedly for I'm guessing a more intrusive easier software to implement nationwide. My point is that they were already doing things like this.