Has our security really improved?
When I am talking security I am talking in
terms of past versus present and the innovations and how they have affected our
life in terms of invasion of privacy. I was talking with mom the other day and
we were discussing how the NSA is eavesdropping on peoples private
conversations , and I asked her if it was really any different than it was
years ago when they had party lines and operators who were able to listen in on
anyone’s conversation at any time .
She told me that years ago that our Uncle
Clem had a party line and no tv, so they would pick up the phone and could tell
by the voice on the line who was on there and they would listen for something
to do . being real quiet or covering the mouthpiece so no one would realize they
were being listened to. At times there
may be a person from every house on the party line as well as the operator ,
and all would be engaged in conversation. There was no TV and telephone was in
its infancy as far as technology was concerned . you would know if it was your
call by the number of rings in succession and then you would answer it. if you
were from a small town and you didn’t answer then the operator would call you
back later , tell you that you missed a call and place the call. Or a nosy
neighbor would pick up the phone and call you later to tell you who had called.
There was no privacy and the only way you
could have a phone in those times was to accept the party line principle. Still
even when you had private lines there was still an operator who actually had
the ability to listen in on your conversation at any time she or he wanted to. There
was no court orders or warrants, and admissibility of evidence was usually
allowed in courts , especially if you overheard something on a party line.
Not sure exactly when privacy was so cherished
in telephone conversations , but I do remember the first radio telephones, a
forerunner of the cell phone as we had these in 1974 when I was going to
college soon after high school . these too were operator answered and monitored
by an operator , by which you could be chastised by the operator for swearing
over the phone and receive a FCC violation for using profanity in public. So much
for thinking you had any privacy on those early models as they were based on
shortwave principle.
Back then most of the monitoring was done
on a local basis and usually without anyone's consent as it was part of the operators
job to monitor calls and provide service when needed. The digital age brought
about transferring our talk into digital signals and our messages would exchange into undecipherable
code that when transmitted through the telephone lines would result in gibberish
if one was to intercept the signal . As well the radio telephones of old went
digital also and there signal was also changed, making it harder to listen in
on conversations.
This digitization of the telephone
network eliminated the need for operators as switching equipment and computers
readily transferred large amounts of data quite easily without any help from
the operators who manually switched the calls years ago. Operators soon handled
special requests for information and were used to report technical failures. These
operator positions were then further eliminated again by computers that
monitored and recorded line activity and performed random checks on line
activity, and even reported downed lines or would record that information from
the caller without the use of a human body.
Of course
most of the changes happened in my lifetime so far and one would think we
should be safer or at least our conversations should have a veil of privacy unsurpassed
by the days of old. But this is not the case . Cell phones and telephones with
their advanced technology can still be hacked today . Anything basically that
has computer programming to protect your identity is constantly being challenged
by hackers. It may not be your phone instead it may be someone else's phone who
shares the same technology. But once they get in one phone or system then it is
possible to crack the rest of the systems similar to it.
Now the government is stepping into the
espionage business in a large way since 9-11 and is contributing again to our
eventual loss of personal privacy as agencies like homeland security and the
NSA and FBI are using supposedly counter terrorism techniques to monitor our telephone
conversations in the name of providing us with a safe free place to live. Key words
in everyone's conversations from cell phone to home phones and emails as well as
records of sites visited on the internet results in a compilation of possible terrorist activity due to guilt by
association that may result in your arrest and conviction on a terrorist
charge. This may happen by that same computer that initially helped you place a
call, whether it be in a cell phone or in the switching rooms of our major
telephone companies. Wholesale widespread information is now being shared with
the government from a variety of sources.
Back in the days of the party line if you
overheard someone saying you were going to kill a person, and it so happened
that person ended up dead and you reported it, would it be any different than
today when the NSA collects information
on would be terrorists that want to blow up a school for instance. There is no
difference.
If a major federal authority want to
eavesdrop on you I am sure they have a judge somewhere that will sign a court
order giving them authority to do so. The have done it for years, and will
continue to do it. With the loss of our personal freedoms under the terrorist
acts legislation , it is actually easier for them to do it now legally.
My advice is that if you have something
to share with someone on a personal
basis that you really don’t want anyone to know about . Go visit them and share
it in person. Including death threats etc, what ever, if you are so worried
about your privacy. This is something that you are not going to change, as big
brother is watching you no matter what you do.
Only it is easier now for them to pry their way into your personal life
than ever before. Writing this blog may be cause to put me on some kind of a
watch list.
I have nothing to hide and will freely
express my opinion and would hope that I never will be called up on speaking
what I feel. But who knows? My understanding is that it isn't as if they are
listening to every word of every conversation and recording it . Instead it is
that it takes a combination of factors to elevate you to a watch list. Certain words
, possibly foreign language used, or code words, as well as a history of over
seas calls,or links to suspected terrorists . For the most part they are not
worried about the ingredients to Aunt Minny’s favorite apple pie , and for the
most part if you do nothing wrong then I doubt you will ever have a g-man at
your door.
If so invite him in and sit him down ,
offer him a a cup of tea and share a doob with him. it might throw him off his
game, or at least humble him into sharing some of his stash with you.
No comments:
Post a Comment