Pages

Jump to bottom

4 comments

1 Jayleia  Mon, Mar 10, 2014 8:02:45am

Quid custodiet ipso custodes. We watch them watching us watch them…surveilception.

It’s the best option we have to deal with mass surveillance, that does not involve magic or parallel universes. That doesn’t mean its a great option, or even all that good, but its the best option I can see.

2 StephenMeansMe  Mon, Mar 10, 2014 10:31:49am

The commenters (and more broadly, the Ars Technica / TechCrunch / Wired crowd) seem to be missing a key point of this possible future: who will be the counter-watchmen?

Why not them? They’re already naturally suspicious of top-down surveillance, enough to pay attention and point and scream at the first signs of foul play. And to the extent that they run overwatch (underwatch?) for the rest of us, they’re doing a great public service.

But no, they seem more eager to throw digital cloaks of invisibility over themselves. The more gullible ones even put their trust in closed-source private organizations like Mt. Gox or those anonymous remailers that turned out to be flawed/crooked/compromised. Huh.

3 Political Atheist  Mon, Mar 10, 2014 10:46:39am

re: #2 StephenMeansMe

I think he has that mentioned in this quote

The remedy for over-secrecy is to think in terms of coveillance, so that we make tracking and monitoring as symmetrical — and transparent — as possible. That way the monitoring can be regulated, mistakes appealed and corrected, specific boundaries set and enforced.

we watch them as transparently as they can see us. So as voters with the ability to encourage or discourage legislators to regulate, in theory that’s his idea if I understand what that part meant anyway.

4 kerFuFFler  Mon, Mar 10, 2014 12:40:14pm

I guess I sorta think think that regardless of how much “mass surveillance” is going on at the corporate and federal level we currently enjoy an unprecedented degree of privacy. In small villages everyone knew everyone’s business. People also generally lived in larger households with more generations, assorted relatives and even domestic servants. We forget how good we really have it!

As long as we maintain effective safeguards so that those gathering and analyzing data cannot use their tools to lash out at ex lovers, divorced spouses, personal enemies or business competitors I am not too upset at the idea that meta data is collected. The anonymity in cities today does make crime easier so it does make sense that law enforcement should have some tools at hand to keep organized crime and the like from taking over. I’m glad law enforcement can get warrants for wiretapping to prevent terrorism and other criminal enterprises. Sure, some will be attempt to abuse their powers, but I just don’t really buy the slippery slope arguments that as soon as government can listen to some calls they will record all of our calls and we will all become drone slaves of the state.

The concern about the state preemptively identifying criminals seems protected against by our legal system which already requires that a crime be committed before someone can be arrested.* I suppose we do already use the term “at risk youth”, but that is used to offer helpful programs, not target vulnerable people.

But maybe I am just naive….

* The one exception is the essentially punitive status of being deemed a “sex offender” but that does seem like a necessary evil since child molesters and rapists are likely to re-offend and need close monitoring. It is unfortunate that other classes of “sex offenders” are lumped in with the serial rapists, but that is an issue that can be dealt with separately.


This page has been archived.
Comments are closed.

Jump to top

Create a PageThis is the LGF Pages posting bookmarklet. To use it, drag this button to your browser's bookmark bar, and title it 'LGF Pages' (or whatever you like). Then browse to a site you want to post, select some text on the page to use for a quote, click the bookmarklet, and the Pages posting window will appear with the title, text, and any embedded video or audio files already filled in, ready to go.
Or... you can just click this button to open the Pages posting window right away.
Last updated: 2023-04-04 11:11 am PDT
LGF User's Guide RSS Feeds

Help support Little Green Footballs!

Subscribe now for ad-free access!Register and sign in to a free LGF account before subscribing, and your ad-free access will be automatically enabled.

Donate with
PayPal
Cash.app
Recent PagesClick to refresh
Detroit Local Powers First EV Charging Road in North America The road, about a mile from Local 58's hall, uses rubber-coated copper inductive-charging coils buried under the asphalt that transfer power to a receiver pad attached to a car's underbelly, much like how a phone can be charged wirelessly. ...
Backwoods Sleuth
3 days ago
Views: 191 • Comments: 1 • Rating: 4