Those Yahoo's!
Well, it doesn't surprise me that the Bush government is trying to subpoena private internet search records (I figured it was just a matter of time). What does surprise me is that America Online, Yahoo and Microsoft turned their records over without so much as a fuss. Google, on the other hand, said "No." (Yeah, Google!)
George's buddy, Alberto Gonzales, who unfortunately for us just happens to be our relatively new Attorney General of the United States is pursuing these requests for database records.
Ari Schwartz (of the Center for Democracy and Technology) said the case is a wake-up call to all internet users that "information was being collected on them all the time and was stored indefinitely."
Ya think I should be more subtle when I do a search for photo's of King George using the search terms "Satan's Spawn" or "Tool of the Puppet Master Cheney"??
Just as an experiment I went through the entire alphabet on the Google search bar, one letter at a time, and was more than a little disturbed to see searches I had made over two years ago "pop up" in the window, just by putting in one letter of the alphabet.
Not to be paranoid, but I don't trust the bastards. Never have, never will. I'm also not happy to see the length of time those databases stay in effect.
The Bush administration seems to have no problems with chipping away at privacy a little at a time under the disguise of "patriotism" or some other "public good". Fine, until the day comes when they haul you out of your house in the middle of the night. I would laugh at that last line - except I know somewhere on this globe that very thing is taking place as we speak - and it's not always being done by "the other guys".
Anyway, Massachusetts Rep. Edward Markey is planning on introducing a bill that would prohibit long term storage of personally identifiable information from internet searches. If your so inclined, and ya tend to agree, ya might want to drop him a line in support of that proposal.
But as always...it's just my onion pi.....
P.S. Has anyone else noticed the Spellchecker on this blog site is damn near useless???
Bush-whacked Ham
posted by Hamrose @ 1:19 PM
8 Comments:
If they come knockin' on your door Hamrose, go get your dad. From what I hear-he'll take care of business. Or call "Big Lou" maybe?
I can't even imagine whose job it would be to go through each subscribers online visits, reading, posts, material..etc. Too damn long.
You do realize you can stop the search bar from remembering your inquiries right?
I'm neither a Republican or a Bushite or a right winger but I find myself inclined to waive my own personal rights on this for my safefy and that of my family. It's a difficult & tricky balance upholding our civil liberties while maintaining our security. One will always seem to infringe on another. I take issue on a lot of Rep policies but I gotta give him grace on this one as messy as it is.
Good news... and bad news. Although you can turn off the list of your searches:
From IE (Internet Explorer)
Navigate to Tools\Internet Options\Content\Auto Complete then click off all the auto-complete, and clear the forms and passwords.
And you can save less history, and delete your temporary internet files...
The bad news:
IE (at a minimum) uses a file to track just about everything you're doing with your browser. My guess is that 'they' would just take that file, and would have gobs of information on what exactly you do on the internet. Clearing your history, and deleting your temporary files will not get rid of it. There are ways to get rid of it, but not quite worth the effort; being that it would just get rebuilt. I'm not sure, but I don't think that FireFox does the same.
Skeptical ? The name of the file is INDEX.DAT
Thanks Microsoft...
- Wakanuki
Well, I suspected there must be a lot of tracking device built in to computers when I read an article about a company who tracked keystrokes on their employees to see how productive they were (the article was acting like this was a GOOD thing).
My objection is twofold
1. If the government really needs this information then go through a judge like their supposed to. Bush thinks he's all 3 branches of the government rolled into one. He needs to stop bypassing the checks and balances. F**king dictator that he thinks he is....
2. Why are databases so extensive in the first place? Do people realize how much information is being tracked and for how long? I'll bet the answer is no.
...and thanks for the tips wakanuki and FS5...
It's really platform independent. It doesn't matter what browser you use. I previewed software that not only tracks everything and I mean everything it also records the screen shots to validate the capture of keystrokes. It was pretty scary. I ran it on myself and other IT dept staff. I was shocked. I saw peoples bank account info and other private data. I immediately uninstalled. I felt too strongly this was a MAJOR invasion of privacy...no matter what the legal ramifications the software salesperson tried to manipulate me purchasing this product.
Ugh, Chuckster...that's the last thing and old hippie like me needs to hear. That is waaay too scary. If YOU could get ahold of that kind of software imagine what spy capabilities the government has!!! EEK!
Hey, I'm a long hair too...
I thought you'd enjoy watching this link. I got a laugh out of it. It's produced by the ACLU I think.
http://www.adcritic.com/interactive/view.php?id=5927
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