[bestbits] Reform surveillance

[Mishi Choudhary]

I agree with Mike that its crucial to reduce the "demand-side" by
regulating government access but I think the suppliers of data are not
as informed as they should and could be and the companies have more to
do at their end.


On 12/09/2013 07:10 PM, Mike Godwin (mgodwin at INTERNEWS.ORG) wrote:
> Mishi quotes the Times:
>
>
>> "While the Internet companies fight to maintain authority over their
>> customers¹ data, their business models depend on collecting the same
>> information that the spy agencies want, and they have long cooperated
>> with the government to some extent by handing over data in response to
>> legal requests.
> This statement strikes me as disingenuously oversimplistic on the Times¹s
> part ‹ specifically, in saying that the Internet companies are collecting
> ³the same information that the spy agencies want.²  Yes, the agencies want
> the data the companies have, but the companies are gathering data about
> consumption and viewing patterns, primarily. What the agencies want is
> traffic and association analysis, and they know they can draw inferences
> if they have large datasets.
>
> This may seem like a subtle distinction, but really it¹s not. It¹s like
> saying ³I listen to changes in the tone of your voice when you speak to
> me, and so does the snooping spy who wiretaps your phone, and therefore,
> implicitly, the spy and I are both culpable somehow.²
>
> What I perceive in all this is an attempt to muddy the issue and
> delegitimize the internet companies¹ sincere efforts to build and/or
> restore consumer trust. I¹m critical of the companies from time to time
> (and there are times when I¹m mostly critical of what all the companies
> are doing), but to me the real analysis here is that governments have
> opportunistically taken advantage of what the companies have been
> gathering, most of the time in good faith, from users.
>
>> The new principles outlined by the companies contain little information
>> and few promises about their own practices, which privacy advocates say
>> contribute to the government¹s desire to tap into the companies¹ data
>> systems.
>>
>> ³The companies are placing their users at risk by collecting and
>> retaining so much information,² said Marc Rotenberg, president and
>> executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a
>> nonprofit research and advocacy organization. ³As long as this much
>> personal data is collected and kept by these companies, they are always
>> going to be the target of government collection efforts.²
> I take Marc at his word, as always, but the fact is that if the companies
> cut their data gathering in half ‹ or even by a factor of 10 or 100 ‹
> governments will want to engage in bulk collection and interception. The
> key approach, in my view, is to try to reduce the demand-side (by
> regulating what governments can do) rather conflate it with the supply
> side (the fact that commercial enterprises gather data from actual and
> potential customers (or for them).
>
>
> ‹Mike, speaking only for myself
>
>
>
>
>
>


-- 
Warm Regards
Mishi Choudhary, Esq.
Legal Director
Software Freedom Law Center
1995 Broadway Floor 17
New York, NY-10023
(tel) 212-461-1912
(fax) 212-580-0898
www.softwarefreedom.org


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