Re:U.S. surveillance laws have proven ineffective at counter...
by kerkeslager on Wednesday January 22, 2020 @03:46PM
(#22121827)
For the most part, surveillance is irrelevant to catching terrorists or other bad actors. The track record of catching terrorists using surveillance is pitiful.
The reason is simple: terrorists and bad actors assume they're being surveiled, and take countermeasures, and those countermeasures are far more effective than the surveillance. Anyone with moderate technical knowledge can use GPG and Tor. It's not rocket surgery.
The people caught by surveillance are for the most part uneducated young men of color who are driven into low-level drug dealing by poverty, and anyone who thinks that putting these people in jail is an effective measure against drug addiction is willfully ignoring the evidence.
The reason is simple: terrorists and bad actors assume they're being surveiled, and take countermeasures, and those countermeasures are far more effective than the surveillance. Anyone with moderate technical knowledge can use GPG and Tor. It's not rocket surgery.
The people caught by surveillance are for the most part uneducated young men of color who are driven into low-level drug dealing by poverty, and anyone who thinks that putting these people in jail is an effective measure against drug addiction is willfully ignoring the evidence.