Re:Rescue Forensics (YC W15) Helps Law Enforcement Find Vict...
by andrewfong on Friday February 20, 2015 @09:03PM
(#9084360)
> I think it's a bit disingenuous to call this "a new kind of spying" all of the data they're using is publicly available.
Actual spies devote substantial resources to analyzing publicly available information.[1] I'm not really sure how I feel about all of this as a moral or political issue, but I do think it's fair say that it's "a new kind of spying".
Put another way -- the FBI has long had the ability to follow you around as you drove around town on publicly accessible roads. But the ability to track millions of people on public roads via cell phone triangulation is unprecedented.
Re:Rescue Forensics (YC W15) Helps Law Enforcement Find Vict...
by jdietrich on Friday February 20, 2015 @11:56PM
(#9084751)
What, fundamentally, is the difference between a spy staking out your house and an algorithm analysing your social media data? A spy doesn't have to break into your house or break into your online accounts to spy on you.
Just because something is possible and legal doesn't make it moral. The situation you describe as "unsustainable" is what many would call a reasonable expectation of privacy.
Re:Rescue Forensics (YC W15) Helps Law Enforcement Find Vict...
by noonespecial on Saturday February 21, 2015 @01:03AM
(#9084860)
They used to be able to follow anyone they wanted to. Now they can follow everyone. That is different indeed.
I think it's a bit disingenuous to call this "a new kind of spying" all of the data they're using is publicly available. I don't think it's a realistic view for the future that we'll be able to put things we don't want people to know about on public forums and trust that no one's going to build the tools to piece it together. That sounds like a really unsustainable security through obscurity situation to me.