25 Years of Mass Surveillance Is Enough [Auth: Cindy Cohn; Bruce Schneier]
lawfaremedia.org155 points by mdp2021 a day ago
155 points by mdp2021 a day ago
Any discussion of this must center the fact that the surveillance began in Jan.-Feb. 2001, NOT after 11 September. The one telecom executive who objected was instantly framed into prison.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Nacchio
" He was convicted of 19 counts of insider trading in Qwest stock on April 19, 2007 – charges his defense team claimed were U.S. government retaliation for his refusal to give customer data to the National Security Agency in February, 2001. This defense was not admissible in court because the U.S. Department of Justice filed an in limine motion, which is often used in national security cases, to exclude information which may reveal state secrets. Information from the Classified Information Procedures Act hearings in Nacchio's case was likewise ruled inadmissible. "
Interesting case, even after reading its not clear to me if he was exemplary revenge one-shot by USG (expecting big contracts from parts of government which they promptly cancelled since he wasn't willing to hand over customer data without court order, so stocks tanked) or really did some nefarious things.
But generally, one does not fuck with / reject a government that is expected to give one lucrative contracts worth >hundreds of millions. Absolute objectivity ain't a feature of mankind generally, is it.
It's not a law if it can be selectively enforced against individuals, powers that be don't like.
Just because we've been handling privacy terribly forever so far, doesn't means we should continue to though.
Even if you trust all current actors, the tapes are forever.
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