1. Ebon - June 10, 2013

   I’ve actually taken to including a greeting to the bored boys and girls at Quantico whenever I use certain words in email.

2. Grant in Texas - June 10, 2013

   I guess as a child of the 1930’s growing up in WWII, often hearing
   “loose lips sink ships”, I am less concerned about government security
   methods than say Libertarians like Rand Paul (no surprise that Ted Cruz
   just jumped into the fray, too, attacking Obama) have to say.  Likewise,
   Paul has sympathizers on the “professional left” (will see what Rachel
   and other Young Turks on MSNBC). Thankfully, because secrets were kept
   in my youth (biggest was Manhattan Project at Oak Ridge/Los Alamos), I
   am not speaking German or Japanese today.  Some are saying we should
   notify in advance people that we are keeping their communications
   records.  That makes as much sense as local police calling a suspect in
   to testify before a judge before a search warrant can be issued, thus
   giving the suspected perp a chance to sanitize his/her property!  If we
   had had better intelligence from the Russians, such a program monitoring
   the Tsarnaev brothers might have prevented the Boston Marathon
   bombings.  The program has already worked in the past like preventing a
   bombing of the NYC subway system in 2009.  Our NSA has had the
   scrutiny of Congress, our federal judicial system, and the White House
   so information has not been collected in a vacuum.  In fact over the
   past decade such methods have been approved by both Democratic and
   Republican majority Congresses.  I’ve long just accepted that what I say
   on the phone or type into my computer is being read by others and act
   accordingly.  After all, if I am searching for a product, I start
   getting emails, ads attached to sites I visit featuring that same
   researched product offered at several different companies.  As
   far as Greenwald and Snowden, I see a book/movie deal in their future as
   why would high-school drop-out Snowden quit a $200,000 a year job (has
   only held for 3 months) to assuage his “conscience”. Was Snowden set up
   to dig into records?  I know that not all of 535 politicians on Capitol
   Hill are privy to everything our government does, only those on select
   committees (bad enough that Michelle Bachman is on the “intelligence”
   committee!). IMO, too many have security clearance or are not
   investigated thoroughly enough before getting such.  I’ve only had
   security clearance once in my life, to work on IDF military base
   construction in Israel for an American contractor.  I had to fill out a
   very detailed 10 page questionnaire for MOSSAD and wait nearly 2 months
   for approval for only mid-level security status. 

3. Loretta Q. Cline - June 19, 2013

   The document points the finger at CCTV and other security measures as privacy-invasive technologies (PITs): “Many technology applications gather data, collate data, apply data, or otherwise assist in the surveillance of people and their behaviour (the “PITs”). Among the host of examples are surveillance technologies (such as CCTV), data-trail generation (such as keystroke monitoring) and identification through the denial of anonymity (e.g., telephone caller ID, loyalty cards and intelligent transport systems), data warehousing and data mining, and the use of biometric information. In an internet context, there is considerable concern about the various types of malware, including viruses, worms, trojans, keystroke-loggers, ‘spyware’ and ‘phishing’.” Here the handbook suggests privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) such as computer firewalls, and advice against malware.

4. Oliver Z. Dunn - July 9, 2013

   We’ll talk about privacy and liberty in the age of the Internet and big surveillance with big web thinker Jaron Lanier.

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