10-16-2004, 06:12 PM
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Confirmed User
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Europe
Posts: 1,036
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Quote:
Originally posted by RuthXtremePay
And so they have a team of just how many to monitor all those occasions where someone uses a keyword such as 'bomb' or 'drugs' or something like that?
And if they're tracking email, IM, and forums, then do we notice this tracking through bandwidth? or are they like ghosts or something.. ?
I'm a very paranoid person but I'm also intelligent enough to understand the capability of the government to monitor the ENTIRE INTERNET. Yes, perhaps there are supercomputers, but those supercomputers have to spit out the information to somewhere right? And eventually that info has to go to a human being and then be determined that it's something that needs follow-up... and THEN acted upon! (and who knows the legality of this info gathering anyways)
Just think of the numbers.. I mean, I know they have budget, and I'm sure they have hidden budgets all over the place.. but the likelihood is probably over 50% in your favour that if you're discussing something 'illegal' or 'treasonous' or 'terrorist-oriented' that you're NOT going to have the government come knocking on your door anytime soon.
Have you heard the complaints from the US government agencies that they don't have enough funding? Think about it.. think about how many spammers there are, and how many have been brought to the courts, police, etc etc. How many illegal things do you see on the net each day? How long do some of those sites that should be banned TAKE to be banned?
In an ideal world - those who perform or are planning to perform illegal or hate or anything like that activities would be captured at first thought.. but unfortunately, we don't live in an ideal world.
It's smart to be safe and there are plenty of encryption programs out there for your email and IM convos, but in the final analysis, the government (any government) just doesn't have the ability to monitor every single person and every single conversation, every post, every email..
Well, that's my opinion anyways.. 
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