And you thought the Patriot Act and warrantless wiretapping was a big deal. Hah — look at what Uncle Peeping Sam wants from you now.
National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell is drawing up plans for cyberspace spying that would make the current debate on warrantless wiretaps look like a “walk in the park,” according to an interview published in the New Yorker’s print edition today.And if that isn’t enough, look at the Golden State’s plan to control the climate in your home:Debate on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act “will be a walk in the park compared to this,” McConnell said. “this is going to be a goat rope on the Hill. My prediction is that we’re going to screw around with this until something horrendous happens.”
The article, which profiles the 65-year-old former admiral appointed by President George W. Bush in January 2007 to oversee all of America’s intelligence agencies, was not published on the New Yorker’s Web site. (It can be read here in pdf).
.McConnell is developing a Cyber-Security Policy, still in the draft stage, which will closely police Internet activity.
“Ed Giorgio, who is working with McConnell on the plan, said that would mean giving the government the authority to examine the content of any e-mail, file transfer or Web search,” author Lawrence Wright pens.
A Blender shot me this link: California Seeks Thermostat Control.
The proposed rules are contained in a document circulated by the California Energy Commission, which for more than three decades has set state energy efficiency standards for home appliances, like water heaters, air conditioners and refrigerators. The changes would allow utilities to adjust customers’ preset temperatures when the price of electricity is soaring. Customers could override the utilities’ suggested temperatures. But in emergencies, the utilities could override customers’ wishes.OK. So it’s to control blackouts and such. I certainly understand the impulse to keep full-on power failures in the state when everyone turns on the A/C in 100 degree heat.
But think about it — it’s easy to imagine select manipulation of energy usage, such as keeping the surgically enhanced set in Hollywood studios cool, for instance, while poor areas of L.A roast. You can’t tell me politics and power wouldn’t factor into who goes into brownout if controls can be controlled by bigoted state government officials — or those willing to be paid off.
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First one to say, “If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to worry about” gets a one-way ticket to Guantanamo.
And if that isn’t enough, look at the Golden State’s plan to control the climate in your home.
How the hell is that supposed to work? They keep talking about radio-controlled thermostats, but realistically, how many people have them? What about rental properties — are the owners going to be required to have those kinds of thermostats installed? Will the renters be responsible because they pay the electric bill?
I honestly don’t see how the plan is feasible in the least. But given how power companies have already acted in crises, I’m not surprised they’re looking for even more control. Late on your bill? Oh, sorry, your power just happened to go out.
I would bet that within the next decade we will find out the NSA (or some other secret agency) has already been monitoring the “content of any e-mail, file transfer or Web search” since Bush took office. This revelation is probably just the first step in mainstreaming the concept so Americans will just roll over and mindlessly accept it.
Given how well their efforts to mainstream torture have worked, and the minimal reaction to revelations of mass phone tapping, the odds are good this will also make few ripples. After all, if you object, that’s proof you want the “terrists” to win, right?
I’ve already said my piece about the evils of domestic spying many times before on this blog (which I’m sure they have saved and ready to reveal at my treason trial if necessary), so I won’t repeat it again here.
Suffice it to say that Thomas Jefferson is spinning in his grave…
“First one to say, “If you have nothing to hide…”"
Cue Dana…
“I honestly don’t see how the plan is feasible in the least.”
I’m kind of interested in how they plan to handle the wrongful death suits when the turn off the a/c on a severely ill or incapacitated person and give them fatal heat stroke.
“How the hell is that supposed to work? They keep talking about radio-controlled thermostats, but realistically, how many people have them?”
I don’t know about this particular proposal, despite living in CA, so I’m just talking out of my ass…but…
I know there was work put into using power lines for transmission of data, as well as electricity. It might be possible to have (new) thermostats that would receive such signals, without requiring drastic rewiring, expensive wireless access, etc.
OTOH, talk about another step toward a police state! I can’t choose how warm or cold my own house/business is? WTF?…
“I’m kind of interested in how they plan to handle the wrongful death suits when the turn off the a/c on a severely ill or incapacitated person and give them fatal heat stroke.”
Blanket immunity for all concerned. It’s the latest thing…
How ironic is that when the White House can’t even keep track of their own emails?
Seriously, why do they want to go over mine on the basis of potential wrong-doing when they won’t pony up their own???
Oops, we lost them again.
No kidding. Some of the appliances in my apartment are older than I am, and the thermostat is the original one put in when the complex was built in the ’70’s (you can totally tell by looking at the place). My landlord is a cheap bastard; he doesn’t replace anything until it’s obviously broken, and then if he can, he gets something used.
Ironic that a Republican-run california is moving closest to the tyranny of a centrally-planned economy. Obey the State. Ironically, most democratic socialist systems don’t have this problem, separating state-owned corporations from direct legislative control through local boards of trustees.
This is why I think utilities need to be democratic entities separate from government: for-profit corporations owned equally by the customers, instead of the wealthiest shareholders.
Rambling. Sorry.
The only socially responsible response to the web monitoring is to set up a massive PtP filesharing setup where we can all trade massive amounts of hardcore pornography with various GOPer faces and names creatively added.
The changes would allow utilities to adjust customers’ preset temperatures when the price of electricity is soaring. Customers could override the utilities’ suggested temperatures. But in emergencies, the utilities could override customers’ wishes.
OK. So it’s to control blackouts and such. I certainly understand the impulse to keep full-on power failures in the state when everyone turns on the A/C in 100 degree heat.
Perhaps I’m too paranoid, but being from Cali and knowing how “deregulation” worked there, I was thinking almost the opposite of what you were thinking … that they could use the control to keep the A/C on (”for your own safety, what if you are infirm … we don’t want you to die of heat stroke”) during a period of peak demand, claim that “the laws of supply and demand mean we have to charge more during periods of peak demand” and soak people without their being able to do anything about it.
Another violation of our rights by the Junta.
Another outrage against us as a people.
Another story that will never see the light of day on any mainstream outlet, and if it does, the right-wing talking heads will just say that everyone covering it is a terrorist.
Another story that most people will just gloss over for the continuing developments in pointless pseudo-celebrity lives.
Another reason why we need to come to terms on a candidate.
Interesting, the .pdf document “no longer exists”. How convenient. Now they can claim us moonbats are conspiracy theory nuts making up stories out of thin air.
BTW … y’all do know that the thermostat thingie will be used against us liberals in the political sphere:
we conservatives might want to listen in on suspicious people callin’ furriners (which good ‘murkins don’t do), but if ya wanna see a real invasion of rights, look at what those moonbat liberal[*] fascists in California are doing: they are going to turn off the A/C of poor people, whom they claim to champion, for the sake of the ‘environment’ … but of course, they just want to do that as a power grab
* as if the home of the OC is so liberal
Time to sign up with email alerts from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Time to start using GNU Privacy Guard with your email. And time to start using Tor with your web browsing.
Carnivore started under Clinton, if I remember correctly. I do not think most Democrats regard privacy as any more important than most Republicans. The ACLU is kept constantly on its toes, no matter who’s in office.
I’m with MikeEss–I’ll bet this monitoring has been going on for years, only now they’re going to retroactively try to legalize it/make it seem OK.
This is one of the reasons why I still pine for a draft of Russ Feingold for president—because I’m damn well sure he would take steps to address this sort of abuse. I have little confidence in the commitment of the others to do so.
‘We have a saying in this business: ‘Privacy and security are a zero-sum game.’”
Really? We have a saying in this country: “I know not what others might say, but as for me…. give me liberty or give me death!”
Fucking cowards are ruining us.
I use to have a button that said, “John Ashcroft reads my email”…how I miss that button!
I assume they’re reading everything already. Not that I’m not pissed, but that’s how I operate.
The thermostat thing - massive trojan horse. Serious sacrificial piece, that.
The energy commision is always going toe-to-toe with industry over “costly changes” that save electricity. I suspect this has to do with reluctance to build in better efficiency into latent charge sucking devices known as “vampires”. The CEC likes the idea of such an unworkable, unpalatable clause (which likely would NOT involve residential customers) because they can “bargain” it out for something they really want and need.
I could tell you more, but I really shouldn’t.
OK. So it’s to control blackouts and such. I certainly understand the impulse to keep full-on power failures in the state when everyone turns on the A/C in 100 degree heat. But think about it — it’s easy to imagine select manipulation of energy usage, such as keeping the surgically enhanced set in Hollywood studios cool, for instance, while poor areas of L.A roast
And, of course, imagine the opposite– imagine the power company failing to observe exceptions and randomly selecting to turn down the thermostat somewhere where strict temperature control is a legitimate and absolute necessity, like a biology lab, or a fish store. And destroying $N thousand of something valuable but temperature sensitive.
And now imagine both of these nightmare scenarios at once. Imagine that it suddenly costs more to operate a fish store, or a biology lab, because they’re having to buy the “premium” service priced for customers who are purchasing the no-messing-with-your-thermostat status as a luxury. And imagine that even with exceptions in place, at some point the system messes up and picks the wrong building and $N thousand of tropical fish die anyway.
‘We have a saying in this business: ‘Privacy and security are a zero-sum game.’”
The really fascinating thing about this quote to me is that I’m more used to the business of software– you know, the side of things where the e-mails are created and transmitted and all that– and on this side “privacy” and “security” are generally taken as synonyms.
Dad’s worked for one of the power utilities in CA for 35+ years. First, they’re not state-owned or operated; they’re independent corporations. Second, if you didn’t already know, they have areas that are zoned to not be affected by deliberate outages (trees and earthquakes don’t care what zone you’re in). They put hospital blocks on these grids, but some residences are there, too. In my city, it WASN’T the big ol’ mansions. Promise.
mcc- I am imagining the lawsuits to follow that situation, and am so overcome with excited greed I need to lie down. (me = future scum-sucking lawyer)
DAS has it. I can’t believe that this would be to “save power”, any more than deregulation was to “give customers a choice”. We keep the thermostat low and heat with kerosene only when we are actually in the house, in order to avoid $500-$600 monthly gas bills all winter- don’t tell me that this isn’t a way to force alternative energy users to get back in line and pay through the nose- 70 degrees at all times, it’s the law! Cough it up, cheapskate!
Don’t forget, we have Enron Arnie in charge, who was put in place to stop Gray Davis’ lawsuit against the power companies for overcharging and then pleading bankrupcty. Given how Pacific Gas & Electric acted during deregulation (like transferring all of their cash to their parent company and then declaring that re-regulation would cause them to go bankrupt), I think you’re right. This is a massive giveaway to the power companies.
The only socially responsible response to the web monitoring is to set up a massive PtP filesharing setup where we can all trade massive amounts of hardcore pornography with various GOPer faces and names creatively added.
I’m for pictures of underage cheerleaders engaging in water sports with donkeys as much as the next person - but photoshopping Republican faces on them is just sick.
Ugly in Pink: Well, to be fair I guess we don’t see those kinds of lawsuits with normal or rolling blackouts, so it couldn’t possibly be that much of a problem. On the other hand it seems like the remote-control-thermostat plan might turn out slightly different from a normal blackout in practice. With a normal blackout, the power goes out, the heater goes off, the power comes back, the heater goes back on. With this, the power runs low, the power company turns down everyone’s thermostats, the power emergency passes, the power company… what? Do they turn everyone’s thermostats automatically back up? Do the thermostats just stay at the low-water mark?
They already look through mine and everyone that I email or who emails me. . . why? because I have friends in Pakistan, and that montessori school I support, and I call them. And according to them that gives them the right.
and my snail mail has been cut open too. . . welcome to America 2008
That’s right: during the rolling blackouts a couple of years ago, there was at least one death in an auto accident at an intersection where the signals were off. I never heard of the victims’ families getting zillions (like they should) from Edison…
mcc, here is how it would likely work:
Large industrial or commercial customers install thermostats that respond to demand price signals sent by the utility. Customers benefit because they pay less by turning down cooling units or heaters when the peak demand prices hit.
The utilities, in exchange for installing the systems, get the ability to ramp down load for large customers by raising or lowering temperatures a preset amount during “gonna have a brown out” times. Thus office cubes, malls, giant over cooled grocery stores, etc. would experience an upcreep in temperature to prevent overloads and black outs.
These systems really make sense for large-demand customers. They are not feasible for residential customers since they could not possibly operate with window units, etc. that many people have. REPEAT this really isn’t workable or desirable or useful for residential customers. It also would not moderate demand like making that receptionist take off that sweater or that retail employee wear summer clothing can. Furthermore, it would keep large demand customers from using unnecessary electricity during the night, when nobody gives a shit if it is 65F in their office that they are not in!
Peak rate stuff like this is not new. My husband’s family had an electricity plan in the 70s where they paid more at peak times. There are also water plans with similar pricing structures. Commercial customers have been using demand price structures for electricity for decades - this new system simply links into high demand and high price times.
Of course this is prime for panic and paranoia unless somebody explains these things.
The california thing was going to be a mandate to install with new construction and major renovations. Seemed sensible, and in some ways more transparent than “oops, gotta do a rolling blackout in your neighborhood”. The proposal has since been withdrawn.
Meanwhile, the McConnell thing is no doubt out there so that only wiretapping a few million people and monitoring their internet traffic will be seen as a compromise position…
Hi Ms Kate,
To me it mostly depends on what exactly the plan is. From the NYT article linked above it’s not clear to me whether the remote-control thermostats would be optional or mandated, whether the “emergency override” mode once those thermostats are installed would be opt-in, opt-out or mandated, or whether in fact this is planned for high-use commercial/industrial customers or also “residential customers”.
You seem to be describing a scenario whereby the remote thermostat control is intended for large-scale power customers and not residential use, and whereby those customers join the program of their own choice because it’s good economic sense. I think it would be pretty hard for people to form any objection to a plan like that. But the plan in the NYT article sounds somewhat different from anything you’ve said. They say the remote control device will “be required in new or substantially modified houses and buildings to manage electricity shortages”, no residential vs commercial distinction mentioned, and talk about “[the] government … reserv[ing] the power to override a building owner’s wishes”. Do you have any information suggesting that this is not an accurate description of the plan?
Paul wrote:
The proposal has since been withdrawn.
Whoops! looks like you’re right and things have changed since the NYT article five days ago:
I’d still be curious to know the exact terms of the “new” plan though.
Jeff, the government isn’t looking at your email to see that youre ordering a dozen gerbils and rubber sheets!
Seriously, does anyone really think the NSA is going to look into the average joe citizen’s email? NO, this it targeted toward known terrorist operatives or associates. You people know this, and you continue to get your panties all in a bunch.
The same is true with the wire tapping. The NSA isn’t listening to Mike call around looking for bathhouses. You want the NSA to keep us safe from terrorists, then let them do their job!!
Can I have what Cookie’s having? Seriously, that has to be some prime shit.
“Seriously, does anyone really think the NSA is going to look into the average joe citizen’s email?”
…because they can SO tell that “cosmic_muffin@some.email.addr” is REALLY Osama Bin Laden.
cookie, you be a cop. Those of us working in the computer field will handle the computer-related thinking…
“NO, this it targeted toward known terrorist operatives or associates.”
Let me guess: They know the IP addresses of all “known terrorist operatives or associates” (which would also allow them to track their physical location), but they just can’t take them into custody yet, even though they are horrible, fiendish terrists who are determined to destroy America. WTF?
Are they waiting for some neighbor in Pakistan with a grudge to turn them in for the reward money? Or is it just a ploy to engage in the same old Nixon-oid domestic spying that Cheney’s had a hard-on for, well, since way back when he could actually get wood.
Or maybe they’re just waiting for Jack Bauer?
cookie, they may line me and mine up against the wall before you, but your turn will come…
BTW, I know you meant to be offensive, but that comment about rubber sheets and gerbils is HIGHLY offensive.
In my opinion, you’ve earned yourself a bunnification…
“The NSA isn’t listening to Mike call around looking for bathhouses.”
How did you know? They told you, didn’t they!…
NO, this it targeted toward known terrorist operatives or associates. You people know this, and you continue to get your panties all in a bunch. - cookie
If this is targeted toward known or even suspected terrorist operatives or associates, why isn’t the government using the already in-existance protocols established under FISA to obtain warrants? These warrants can be retro-active. They are secret. Etc.
The drive to undo the 1970s era FISA reforms (remember when liberals were on the offensive claiming they didn’t go far enough?) is awfully suspicious. Cookie, you might be a young-un like me, but I hear tell that FISA was passed for a good reason … that before FISA, the government was indeed looking at your e-mail to see how many gerbils and rubber sheets you’ve purchased. And that some of the people behind that, and their ideological descendents, are behind this push to change FISA.
Sorry if my “panties are in a bunch”, but the history of government surveilance wasn’t quite as peachy-keen and keeping us safe as you would claim (and why are conservatives who normally distrust “gummint” so happy to have it spy on us, er, people that gummint, whom conservatives claim not to trust, claims are “terrorists”?).
And FISA, un-ammended and un-”fixed” contains ample provisions to allow the government to do what it wants to do, providing they are going after “known terrorists”. So even if we are being over-dramatic here, what’s the need for the change? Why are so-called conservatives making a “what’s the harm in acting” case? Even if there is no harm in acting (which historical evidence suggests there would be contra your claim), there’s no harm in not acting, so the conservative, as well as the liberal (as we do tend to be civil libertarians), side should be “don’t mess with things”.
Even if we are exaggerating, something is fishy (and at least unnecessary if what you say about who’s affected is correct) about these changes … so why jump into them?
Cookie, do you know my panties are in a bunch because you are in charge of internet surveillance?
Why don’t we do a warrantless search on your internet photo cache and see how bunched panties fit into your daily affairs?
You really want the government - and those it empowers to look - to check into the bunching of panties?
“Even if we are exaggerating, something is fishy (and at least unnecessary if what you say about who’s affected is correct) about these changes … so why jump into them?”
cookie’s trying to let them know he’s down with the home team. They can count on him to do his part as a Patriotic American.
He’s been working on advanced tasing techniques hoping they’ll give him a job as
a tortureran information extraction professional…“You really want the government - and those it empowers to look - to check into the bunching of panties?”
Ms Kate, they would ONLY
look atinvestigate the bunched panties of KNOWN TERRIST OPERTIVES!!!No good American has anything to fear…(unless you look weird, have non-standard opinions, post on lefty blogs, wear the wrong clothes, live on either coast, have sex in the wrong way or with the wrong people, or in any way deviate from the norm. After all, if you deviate from the norm YOU ARE A DEVIATE, and therefore probably a closet terrorist…)
Seriously, does anyone really think the NSA is going to look into the average joe citizen’s email?
Considering they’ve already been caught doing surveillance on anti-war groups … um, duh?
Oh, I forgot, those Quakers are all Enemies of the State … and look, that guy took two cookies!
Jeff, the government isn’t looking at your email to see that youre ordering a dozen gerbils and rubber sheets!
Riiiiight.
Because, you know, police powers never start stretching.
There’s absolutely no way that, in the future, powers gained to fight terrorism will be used to, say, uncover child porn rings. And then used against drug smugglers. And then used against people who steal cars. And then used against people who grow pot. And then used against people who download MP3s illegally. And then used against people with overdue library books.
Nope, no way at all.
Grammar RWA mentioned this already, but using encryption with your email is a good idea in general. It’s worse than useless if you don’t understand how it works, but it’s worth the time and effort. Make yourself a key pair, hold some key signing parties with your friends, and raise a large middle finger to anyone thinking of eavesdropping on your delicious emails.
It’s pretty easy to set up email encryption; what you want is PGP or GNU Privacy Guard, depending on what OS you’re running. Since providers like gmail allow you to use your own mail client (via IMAP), you can sign and encrypt the mail that goes through them as well. The standards used by PGP and GPG are astonishingly clever and well thought out.
If anyone has a link to a good tutorial for nontechnical Windows users, it’d probably do well in this thread; everything I google up seems to assume that you’re a Linux user comfortable with the command line.
The standards used by PGP and GPG are astonishingly clever and well thought out. - grendelkhan
When I prove P = NP, they won’t seem so clever
Actually, it is my dream to prove P = NP in the most non-constructive way possible so that the proof will give as little insight as possible as to how to write a polynomial time algorithm to solve any given NP complete problem. I’m teh evil like that
Letting the electric company have control over your thermostat is not new, but the California plan had an added twist with the involuntary nature. My folks live in North Carolina - and right now I can’t remember if they are Rutherford Electric or Duke Power - and they have a box that sits between the power coming to the house, and the power going to the air conditioning units (external heat pumps). At peaks times, the power company can dial you down to avoid brown outs, and it only affects the a/c, not other appliances or lights. I think they get some kind of monthly discount for agreeing to it. However, this was voluntary, and it is only a limited ability of the power company to affect their service.
When I prove P = NP, they won’t seem so clever
Cf Charlie Stross’s “Antibodies” in _Toast_.
I would say GNU Privacy Guard for all operating systems. It’s trustworthy software and it runs on Windows and Mac as well as Linux.
Windows users will do fine with Gpg4win, at http://gpg4win.org/. There’s a tutorial that gets installed with it, and that tutorial is also on the website there, at the “Gpg4win for Novices” link on the left.
(windows GPG link in moderation)
Mac users, I’m not sure, might succeed with one of these links.
binky, I’m currently signed up for the same program through my small midwest town’s municipal electric service. It was voluntary, and I do receive a discount.
Ms Kate:
The technology is viable, and has been around for years. Making it mandatory is the only real change.
Of course it can only be mandatory where it’s possible, which doesn’t include window units. But it does include hot water heaters. Turning off the heating element for ten minutes during peak time is unlikely to even be noticed.
If you have central heating or air, it is easy to control through a special thermostat or compressor load management device. Electric water heaters can also be cycled out for a short period of time (like ten minutes) when the load peaks, and this is even less intrusive.
Typically the power is only off for a short period of time, and only to a portion of the customers. Then they are back on and other customers’ compressors are turned off. Then *those* customers are back on and other customers’ compressors are turned off. They go through several customer groups until the peak is finished.
The solution for rich people, of course, is to have generators, so they won’t ever lose A/C.
Grammar RWA: See, I’d have thought that the preferred method would involve Thunderbird and Enigmail. There’s an excellent introduction, by the way, to the more abstract issues involved, over here. Make sure to read the sections on “Key Encryption”, “PGP Signatures” and “Public Key Servers”.
“But think about it — it’s easy to imagine select manipulation of energy usage, such as keeping the surgically enhanced set in Hollywood studios cool, for instance, while poor areas of L.A roast. You can’t tell me politics and power wouldn’t factor into who goes into brownout if controls can be controlled by bigoted state government officials — or those willing to be paid off.
Absolutely, since such inequality happens with everything else why not that as well?
And when middle class persons have their A/C thermostatically controlled and see the privileged set enjoy the cool breeze, they’ll point to the family across the tracks and say, “Its not us, its THEM, its THOSE subsidies!”
Because you know, there will have to be subsidies to keep people from roasting in the summer and freezing to death in the winter. Fuel assistance already exists for winter heating areas and is too little often too late and always ripe for cuts.
And then will come the question of who deserves those “scarce resources” and while the country club set enjoys Martinis in the air conditioned sunroom, has an exemption for an energy hogging historic mansion and bathes in their heated pool, the middles will blame the lowers for taking everything from them.
And the lowers will turn to the preacher man and the church for salvation because their is no one left on the planet for them to shift blame to.
There will be a war in this country, most definitely, but it won’t come from “turrists”.
Yes I do and no, you’re wrong
http://www.americablog.com/2007/10/if-youve-ever-emailed-me-government-has.html
They can do their job while honoring FISA and the Constitution.
That is certainly another viable option. Anyone already using Thunderbird will probably want to look into this. I’d guess the Enigmail quick start guide should be clear enough.
I recommended Gpg4win because it includes WinPT, which does encryption in the clipboard, and so works with any and all email clients (including webmail). Seems to be a fine generic solution for almost anyone’s needs.
OMGWTF?!
One of the reasons I’m practically homebound is that my asthma gets worse when the temp is over 75 degrees. This is apparently the “kill a bunch of people” bill. At least while I’m living in the SMUD electricity district I know they will have some kind of medical exception, but I’m not exactly trusting PG & E, which I will have after I move.
Guess I’d better start writing to the legislature.
Samantha Vimes -
Do you have a battery powered nebulizer? My aunt had one for when they traveled over seas and I am getting one for the same reason.
Samantha–with PG&E I’d be more worried that about them intentionally cooling things down more than you wanted so they could charge you more. I can’t understand why the proposal to let SMUD expand didn’t pass last election.
I’ve just been reading emails of some people where I work - legitimately; my employer had reasonable suspicion of gross misconduct, and the emails are evidence of that (and I do IT security).
I hate doing this; you end up finding out all sorts of personal information that you never wanted to know.
Let me just say that no-one has nothing to hide. If you’ve ever sent a sexy email to your boy/girlfriend; if you’ve ever ordered anything from a shop; if you’ve ever given advice to a friend in confidence. Think how you’d feel if that geeky guy down in IT read through all of those things. If I were so inclined - and the Bush regime is so inclined - I have blackmail material on lots of people now.
We’ve had remote controlled load shifting (not just thermostats but all sorts fo electrical loads) in some areas of Australia for nearly 5 years now. It’s a very effective way to manage excessive peak summer demand on a constrained electrical network. However, it is an opt-in system (business or household had to actively agree to participate), and the utility has to compensate you if they switch off your load. Also it is coupled with a time–of-use tariff which allows you to see via a display in your kitchen how much youre being charged at any one time. Generally it is the tariff information that makes people switch off loads or use them at different times of day (eg, have the AC on at night to cool the house right down while the tariff is low, then you don’t have to switch on during the day). The utilities only over-ride electricity users on a very few occasions.
And yes, our utilities are state owned.
the email thing however, is vile
I’ve just been reading emails of some people where I work - legitimately; my employer had reasonable suspicion of gross misconduct, and the emails are evidence of that (and I do IT security).
I hate doing this; you end up finding out all sorts of personal information that you never wanted to know.
I know what you mean. I don’t know how many times I’ve told people at work that they legally have no right of privacy in work email or in use of the network, as it is business communications and subject to being read by the employer. No one routinely monitors anything, but the point is if the folks upstairs suspect anything detrimental to business concerns is occurring, no one is going to come ask you if they can monitor your email.
It’s amazing when you hear about dolts doing things like running pr0n FTPs from their work server and wondering why they get busted.
Richard Gadsden -
Which is pretty much the point I made in an email I sent out to my family and friends - especially my Republican family and friends, advising them that since I email them and they email me the government can now read their email. I asked them if they felt comfortable knowing that if they gave advice to a friend about their child’s drug use could now be in the hands of the government, or they sought advice due to infidelity, or that email they sent to their spouse about that sexy night they had planned.
I also pointed out for those of them that might ask “what good does that information due the government?” that since the VA Tech shootings we now know the government is keeping a database of everyone in the US who is taking anti-depressants, what good is that information to the government and why do they need it?
hello?
When you’re searching for needles in a haystack, the obvious first move is to make the haystack as big as possible!
Still, they’ve been doing this shit to the rest of the world for ages with ECHELON.
I read the New Yorker article last night. What’s really sad about this McConnell is that he’s sincerely committed to protecting the nation and has worked hard all his life to do so.
But he comes across as absolutely tone-deaf to the abusive potential of communications monitoring and “aggressive” interrogations. He’s alienated powerful Democrats in Congress by jerking them around over FISA, the surveillance act. His excuse is that he’s inexperienced in politics.
Sorry, Admiral, but that doesn’t cut it. When you’re proposing measures that have the potential to invade the privacy of ordinary citizens, and tar the good name of this country by associating it with abuse, you’d better get into “politics”—otherwise known as accountability. “Give me what I want or the terrorists will get you” is not sufficient.