Archive for Privacy
Text of President Bush on Wednesday, as provided by the White House.
Director, thank you for joining me. Good morning. At this moment, somewhere in the world, terrorists are planning new attacks on our country. Their goal is to bring destruction to our shores that will make September the 11th pale by comparison. To carry out their plans, they must communicate with each other, they must recruit operatives, and they must share information.
The lives of countless Americans depend on our ability to monitor these communications. Our intelligence professionals must be able to find out who the terrorists are talking to, what they are saying, and what they’re planning.
To help our intelligence agencies do this, Congress passed the Protect America Act last year. Unfortunately, Congress set the law to expire on February 1st — and then failed to pass new legislation that would keep these tools in effect over the long run. And so at the 11th hour, Congress passed a temporary 15-day extension of the current law which will expire at midnight this Saturday. I signed that extension. I did so to give members of the House and Senate more time to work out their differences.
Well, the Senate has used this time wisely. I am pleased that last night, senators approved new legislation that will ensure our intelligence professionals have the tools they need to make us safer — and they did so by a wide, bipartisan majority. The Senate bill also provides fair and just liability protections for companies that did the right thing and assisted in defending America after the attacks of September the 11th.
In order to be able to discover enemy — the enemy’s plans, we need the cooperation of telecommunication companies. If these companies are subjected to lawsuits that could cost them billions of dollars, they won’t participate; they won’t help us; they won’t help protect America. Liability protection is critical to securing the private sector’s cooperation with our intelligence efforts. The Senate has passed a good bill, and has shown that protecting our nation is not a partisan issue. And I congratulate the senators.
Unfortunately, the House has failed to pass a good bill. And now House leaders say they want still more time to reach agreement with the Senate on a final bill. They make this claim even though it is clear that the Senate bill, the bill passed last night, has significant bipartisan support in the House.
Congress has had over six months to discuss and deliberate. The time for debate is over. I will not accept any temporary extension. House members have had plenty of time to pass a good bill. They have already been given a two-week extension beyond the deadline they set for themselves. If Republicans and Democrats in the Senate can come together on a good piece of legislation, there is no reason why Republicans and Democrats in the House cannot pass the Senate bill immediately.
The House’s failure to pass the bipartisan Senate bill would jeopardize the security of our citizens. As Director McConnell has told me, without this law, our ability to prevent new attacks will be weakened. And it will become harder for us to uncover terrorist plots. We must not allow this to happen. It is time for Congress to ensure the flow of vital intelligence is not disrupted. It is time for Congress to pass a law that provides a long-term foundation to protect our country. And they must do so immediately.
Thank you very much.
END
That’s exactly how fear propaganda works. The whole thing is all about creating a feeling of fear to make you accept something that wouldn’t be reasonable. The two main parts they want you to get in that statement are:
At this moment, somewhere in the world, terrorists are planning new attacks on our country. Their goal is to bring destruction to our shores that will make September the 11th pale by comparison. To carry out their plans, they must communicate with each other, they must recruit operatives, and they must share information.
AND
In order to be able to discover enemy — the enemy’s plans, we need the cooperation of telecommunication companies. If these companies are subjected to lawsuits that could cost them billions of dollars, they won’t participate; they won’t help us; they won’t help protect America. Liability protection is critical to securing the private sector’s cooperation with our intelligence efforts. The Senate has passed a good bill, and has shown that protecting our nation is not a partisan issue. And I congratulate the senators.
Simple isn’t it?
Privacy’s leaving the house…
The FBI wants to create a computer database containing people’s biometric information. What is biometric information? Well, your finger prints, palm prints, eye scan, tattoo mappings, etc. This would be very effective for them to “identify suspects”. The FBI should announce the project in the next couple of days which would be a $1 billion, 10 years contract to create the biometric database.
This is far from reaching general agreement: it raise major privacy concerns. I personally really don’t like it. Here’s what Kimberly Del Greco, the FBI’s Biometric Services chief has to say about the project:
[...] important to protect the borders to keep the terrorists out, protect our citizens, our neighbors, our children so they can have good jobs, and have a safe country to live in.
God, that terrorist thing is strong. Can they really do all they want only by saying it’s to protect the country from terrorists? Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, biometric database, what’s next? Every single bloody controversial project is to protect the country from terrorists and to protect freedom. Fear can make people accept anything. Do you really think that’s going to keep the terrorists out? Of course not! That technology is still opened to mistakes and who will suffer from it? Every single honest person. The more I learn about these projects the more I start to think about 9/11 really being an inside job. Most of Daily Common Sense readers know I’m a rational person usually debunking conspiracy theories, but there’s too many things happening since 2001 on the back of terrorists. Anyway, I’m not getting into that, I don’t have a clear opinion about it.
That biometric information database is just one more step to a surveillance society where your every moves are tracked.
What’s next?
Thought your cell phone number was private? Thought the advantage of having a cell phone is that you give the number to who you want and avoid unwanted calls? Well I’m glad to inform you that it’s not the case anymore. A company called Intelius has an online cell phone directory of 90 million numbers.
When did you give your consent for your phone number to be published in the cell phone directory? Oh, well you didn’t. The company gather it’s information from public sources like property records and sweepstakes list.
Where will it stop? I mean, please leave us alone! I honestly really like my privacy and hate telemarketing calls. There’s also some people I don’t give my cell phone number intentionally. You pretend you don’t have a cell phone so your boss can’t call you when you’re not home? Well, you can’t hide anymore. I think we’re going too far and we have to draw a certain line. I can’t imagine the time when I’ll receive a telemarketing call while I’m enjoying a meal at the restaurant and forgot to turn my cellphone off. It’s so easy to say to a friend you’ll call back, but getting rid of a telemarketer is not that easy.
So you want to get out of the cell phone directory? It’s not that easy unfortunately. To opt out you have to provide a whole lot of paperwork like copies of driver license and stuff. This is mainly to avoid people to opt out. Shouldn’t it be the opposite? Like you opt in if you want? Why would you have to fight to get out of something you never approved to be in?
I’m curious to know how they got all that information. Of course from public sources, but could it be illegal? It all depends if it was legal for the companies to provide your information, which is usually not the case. When you give out your details, there’s usually a privacy agreement saying they have to keep your information private. Of course, there’s alway ways of playing with the laws and that’s probably what happened.
I just think it’s nonsense. It should be on a volunteer basis. If you don’t mind having your number in the directory, then give your consent and end of the story. If you don’t want well it’s not in, simple as that! I don’t like that cell phone directory idea. It can be a really good thing but it has to be controlled and it has to be a personal decision to be in or not.
Leave us alone.
Computer engineering student, web developer and Web strategist, 
