Here’s a story from Investor’s Business Daily that talks about the possibility that US intelligence is gathering information from and monitoring blogs.
Intelligence gathering, according to Jock Gill, former Clinton Internet adviser “is about listening with a critical ear, and blogs are just another conversation to listen to and evaluate. They also are closer to (some situations) and may serve as early alerts.” Gill spoke at an Intelligence conference in D.C. in mid-April.
I would hope they would be
I hope the intelligence community monitors every legally permissible ‘conversation’ be it online or something out of The Russia House (for you spy movie fans).
We pay good money for the government to spy on people I hope they put our money to good and legal use.
If you put your thoughts online on a blog you really can’t expect it to be private.
Related story about hate websites
Following the conviction of white supremacist Matt Hale for solicitation of murder of a federal judge, this story reports on FBI efforts to step up the monitoring of hate group websites. Hale is the former Pontifex Maximus of the white supremacy group, World Church of the Creator, which is now known as the Creativity Movement. Hale also made regular visits to libraries to promote his group’s agenda.
Re:I would hope they would be
Wow, am I dense or sleepy this morning? I can’t tell if you are kidding or not!?
Re:I would hope they would be
Why would I be kidding? I don’t expect the CIA or FBI to hire people to read each one, but if google can index pages we can certainly look for blogs from nutjobs out to harm us. Sometimes the aren’t the sharpest tools in the shed and will tell others what they are going to do. Who knows they may start blogging bombing plots.
Re:I would hope they would be
Okay, so you are not kidding, and you want them to do this!? Wow, I just disagree I guess.
Re:I would hope they would be
There is nothing wrong with disagreeing. I actually encourage it. The only way I could ever change my mind is by hearing well reasoned argument why my view should be changed.
However I fail to see why the government should not be reviewing anything ( or everything) posted on the Internet. Even if it is done simply simply to develop new software or hardware for other uses.
Re:I would hope they would be
Good and legal use.
The right for the FBI, at least, to monitor websites, mosques and other public places (including libraries) is legal as of May 30, 2002.
My initial reaction was, duh, of course they will be monitoring websites. But then you read about COINTELPRO and realize the restrictions on these things is good.
In any case, arguing either side of this issue is more complicated than it initially seems.
Re:I would hope they would be
I don’t really understand what you have so against it – I mean, why would you expect any information you post on the web to be private from anyone? There’s a very big difference between the FBI snooping into files or papers that people are trying to keep private and them just reading blogs that are posted with the intent of being available to all. The first can be an invasion of privacy if there’s no reason to suspect the investigated; the second is using information made freely available to anyone.