Firstly, people who argue that ISIS poses a threat to our democracies are out to lunch. ISIS is an ugly phenomenon, but its largely the consequence of one blunder after another by the US and its allies in the region, who shouldnt have been meddling there in the first place. If ISIS poses a threat to anyone, it is to countries in the region, and they are the appropriate parties to address it. If the US and its allies want to reduce terror in the region - as Noam Chomsky says - they need to stop participating in it. The US and the UK, etc, have no business in the region, so the idea that they need to gather intelligence there is wrong, never mind the idea that they need to do it through mass surveillance, as opposed to targeted surveillance. Remember, mass surveillance means targeting everyone, not just the people who are identified as a threat. Mass surveillance provides little advantage against something like ISIS. They can be surveilled through normal targeted surveillence methods, without the need to scoop up every innocent persons communications with it. And ISIS likely has accomplished opsec and infosec, so, again, mass surveillance disproportionately affects innocents, and provides little advantage. In the meantime, a real threat to democracies is the erosion of civil liberties that is brought about by mass surveillance. -Julian Assange, Reddit AMA
Posted on: Tue, 16 Sep 2014 00:52:24 +0000