Re: Wiretapping

[Kevin Wilcox <kevin () tux appstate edu>]

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Joel R. Helgeson wrote:
> If your company is a criminal enterprise, then yes.  If you fund or
> support terrorism, you stand a pretty good chance. If you are like the
> 99.999% of the companies out there that do their thing, trying to make
> an honest buck, you have nothing to fear.

Kelly - you should always ignore anyone that falls back to the "if
you've nothing to hide then you've nothing to fear" argument. It's
complete bollocks.

Yes, you should be concerned with wiretapping. The one thing that we've
seen throughout history is that once power is given, it is abused. Given
the number of abuses of the powers granted by the Patriot Act over the
last few years, I see no evidence to suggest that any American entity
(company or private individual) should not be concerned with
wiretapping. Non-US companies are always fair game so at least they have
the comfort of knowing they are probably being listened in on. Domestic
companies are supposedly "protected" but, again, the documented abuses
of the Patriot Act suggest otherwise.

There are two things to remember. What is considered legal and just
today may be considered illegal and treasonous tomorrow and once we
accept that it's ok to listen in on phone calls at the corporate level,
how long until that extends to private life? There is a reason we have
the "slippery slope" argument being made.

Besides, would you want someone listening in on your scientists and
engineers discussing trade secrets?

kmw

- --

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes


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