Government won't save you


My reaction to the new wiretap law
One thing that has been making the libertarian rounds this week has been the new wiretapping law. As you know, Congress and President Bush expanded the powers to wiretap communications that go outside the country.

Incidentally, look for some very interesting implications as cell phone service migrates from towers to satellites in the next few years.

People were expecting the Democrats in Congress to put a stop to the plans. The thing is, career Democrat politicos don't object to expanded government powers, they just object to Republicans in the driver's seat.

It's a mistake to expect government to protect us from the excesses of government. We're rapidly running out of issues where the two major parties can be played against each other to prevent any government action.

No, we need to look elsewhere.

Like cellphones and computers with built in cryptographic scrambling.

I imagine there will be quite a demand for such products. They will work best if there are many people using them, otherwise the encrypted communication will just attract attention.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that there are problems with a massive surveillance. Even the best computers and pattern recognition software lack human judgement. If everyone except the terrorists are talking about terror while the terrorists are talking about a soccer match, how are the computers going to locate the terrorists?

Even if the "soccer match" is a bunch of code phrases for terror incidents.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Tue - August 7, 2007 at 01:09 PM  Tag


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