Spy Boss Wants Wholesale Access To Your DataSearch records, e-mail exchanges, file transfers....
(
old news - 09:08AM Wednesday Jan 16 2008)
tags: legal · security · privacyTipped by MoeDumb 
Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell tells New Yorker Magazine he's drafting a plan to protect the Internet that will make the current debate over privacy seem like
"a walk in the park." McConnell says that to protect cyber-space, he believes it's necessary that Uncle Sam have complete and unfettered access to your browsing, e-mail, search and file transfer records. From the article (transcribed by
Wired):
In order for cyberspace to be policed, Internet activity will have to be closely monitored. Ed Giorgio, who is working with McConnell on the plan, said that would mean giving the government the authority to examine the content of any e-mail, file transfer, or Web search. "Google has records that could help in a cyber-investigation," he said. Giorgio warned me, "We have a saying in this business: 'Privacy and security are a zero-sum game.'"
McConnell was one of the main backers of the Clipper Chip, a failed 90's effort to put a government back door into every encryption product. He's back now using inflated statistics (computer crime is a $100 billion a year menace!) to justify this latest plan. In another piece for Wired
a former spy argues that wholesale data collection is not the answer anyway:
Intelligence does not want, need, look at or even retain the VAST majority of what passes through the ‘Net, which is something privacy mavens conveniently leave out of their angrily worded press releases. A more appropriate strategy in the long war – an intelligence war – is to put more feet on the ground in the world’s dangerous places. . . Widespread surveillance isn’t usually what catches evil doers: tip-offs from informants, investigations and other methodologies do.
