As we all know, times are changing. It's not surprising today to read about how some of our rights are being taken away due to terrorism concerns. Whatever you want to do, think first. Want to carry a backpack$%: No, can't do that here. Want to light a cigarette in public$%: Can't do that. So it should be no surprise, or maybe a surprise to some, when evidence came out that good ole AT:%$amp;T was helping our government spy on our internet messages.
First, some background. For years, the US has had more freedom than most all countries. We still have many freedoms that others could only hope for. Religious freedom, freedom of speech, you name it. Keep in mind people go to jail for life just for practicing a religion. Not here in the USA.
With freedom of speech, there is an irony in that certain communications the government has the freedom to monitor. For instance, telephone calls from the US to other countries has been available to people who work for the government. Telephone intercepts is not new. Think about it, what is the biggest overseas telephone company, it is At:%$amp;T. It is widely believed that all telephone calls to other countries are recorded and have been since the 1960's and before. And recently, it is understood that there are computers that can search those conversations for keywords. Say the sentence "My kid really bombed out on the game last night" and you get your whole life put into super recording mode.
Now browse to the internet age. It is December 31, 2004 and a technician for AT:%$amp;T decides to start the new year with a bang. He decides to talk about his "classified" work with his employer and the government. When the New York times reported on the vast collection program going on, many people knew this was happening, but this technician opened up a can of worms.
The technician talked to lawyers and the press. This is what he said. He talked about a Room 641A at 611 Folsom Street, in San Francisco. There At:%$amp;T has a large communication hub, actually part of the many backbones of the internet. The technician described how the company worked with the NSA to listen in to every bit of data going through that part of the internet. Since he was now retired he figured "who cares if I can't get a job with the spy bosses now$%:" He thought the public should know what was going on.
Basically what is understood is they tap into fiber lines and use special analyzers to capture certain data streams, depending on what keywords are used or if something meets the criteria for interest to the agency. People in the field call this "data mining".
Why does this matter to law enforcement or emergency operations$%: What will be the effects if the public knows that all communications, including internet, is regularly monitored$%: I don't know the answer to these questions. Obviously many intelligent criminals or terrorists understand secure communications. It is understood that some of the 9/11 hijackers used stenography's to encode communications in pictures. Stenography's is a science of taking a message and encoding it into a picture, graphic, video, or sound file. It is actually making something that looks like something else, so that you never know to look at that as a communications device.
So we know that some criminals use advanced tools to communicate. Many of those tools will cause problems in solving crimes. The questions is, does the AT:%$amp;T relationship with the government help solve crime$%: Or does it stop spies$%:
People could argue that such spy systems definitely could help our national defense and such. Others could argue that it is a slippery slope, leading to an age where the government can instantly bring up every single record of communications you have ever done over a telephone or internet. Big brother on the horizon. Some people say what's wrong with that$%: I suppose it all has to be put into perspective. What freedoms will we give up for some security$%: What freedom will we give our government in spending our tax dollars on questionable secret programs, when children go to bed hungry and our prisons are full of inmates$%: What questions can be answered with torture, and will we let our government not only spy on people but torture them$%: The questions are not easy. Our civilization is a complicated organism with many vulnerabilities to terrorists. We have to keep in mind our security as we continue to grow as a society.
What cost are we willing to bear, what will we give up so that we can sleep safe at night$%:
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