US Government reads emails… still!

27 May, 2004 at 6:33pm ET Article published in Tech

Nearly a year after Congress shut down a programme that would have allowed the Pentagon to data mine to read emails, it is reported that other spy schemes that do the same thing are still alive and well and sniffing.

According to the report, at least one unnamed agency is mining intelligence reports and Internet searches “to identify foreign terrorists or U.S. citizens connected to foreign terrorism activities”.

Source: TheInquirer

Comments

27 May 2004 ~ 7:26pm BlackHawk NSA (National Security Agency)?
27 May 2004 ~ 8:03pm tefleming is anyone actually surprised by this?
27 May 2004 ~ 8:21pm Spinner

tefleming wrote:

is anyone actually surprised by this?

Nope. Not really.
27 May 2004 ~ 8:58pm Jengo hey, its not a problem with me! as long as those talibans dont crash into another WTC im happy!

stupid idiot terrorists. cant they just go terrorize some OTHER free country? why only USA?....
27 May 2004 ~ 9:13pm qparadox In case you didn't notice, they have been. The phillipines, spain, russia, etc etc etc.
27 May 2004 ~ 10:12pm Jengo yeah, i know, but almost feels like they are solely after us.... damn talibans. al quaidas.... why cant they just get wiped off of the face of this earth...
28 May 2004 ~ 12:20am Spinner ...Turkey, Iraq etc etc...

But we're not here to discuss the Taliban.

We're here to discuss why the U.S feels it necessary to be shady with regard to what they get up to.

There's a big difference between - monitoring e-mail traffic and content, or not, and monitoring e-mail traffic and content, or not, without telling people which of the two they're doing.

Honesty is a big problem with the U.S at the moment, for all the wrong reasons. Obviously they can't tell the public everything, but with things like basic privacy laws they can't go all vague on the American public, especially if they might be breaching them.
28 May 2004 ~ 12:23am Jengo Yeah, i guess it is an invasion of Privacy without them telling us.
28 May 2004 ~ 12:29am Spinner

Jengo wrote:

Yeah, i guess it is an invasion of Privacy without them telling us.

Well it depends on your laws. Because they and only they will define what an invasion of privacy is in your country.
28 May 2004 ~ 12:47am Thrax I see it this way:

It's not some smacktard behind a monitor reading all our email.

I'm under the belief that it's simply a program that monitors for key words that indicate potential danger. Just like corporate email proxies do.

I dunno. I don't really raise much of a finger in protest against it. Then again, I <b>am</b> a Republican! Civil rights be damned!
28 May 2004 ~ 1:00am Spinner

Thrax wrote:

I see it this way:

It's not some smacktard behind a monitor reading all our email.

I'm under the belief that it's simply a program that monitors for key words that indicate potential danger. Just like corporate email proxies do.

Yes that's right. Of course, I mean that's a given. But shouldn't you be able to send an email with the word 'bomb' in it without it being singled out, and then.. perhaps as a result, read individually.

I honestly don't know what I think about it all, because in this day and age, security is more of a concern. But whether governments, or government funded agencies use that as an excuse to play Big Brother, who knows? The point is though, the American public should know where they stand. It would seem... they don't.