Homeland Security now has unlimited surveillance millions AOL members

[IndyOp]

DHS and AOL: An Unholy Alliance

October 3, 2005
by Martin McKinney
The Financial Reporter (U.K.)

Washington- The American-based internet giant, AOL, wholly-owned by Time-Warner, has formed a working partnership with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to permit unlimited surveillance of the millions of AOL online members, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Commerce.

“AOL works ‘closely with the DHS’ to supply information on any AOL customer and allows agents from these entities ‘free and unfettered’ access to AOL Hq at Dulles, VA for the purpose of ‘watching over and keeping surveillance ’ on the millions of AOL customers,’ according to the report.

The legal basis for this is the recently Congress-approved Patriot Act which permits warrantless searches of persons and property. While information gleaned from delving into personal computer messages is supposed to be kept confidential, it appears that the DHS has exceeded their brief and obtained what appears to be strictly personal information which is then circulated to entities outside the DHS.

The Department of Commerce report also states that news of this surveillance has leaked out and is causing serious concern in the American, and European, business communities who are fearful that trade secrets may be given to other business entities, considered as “friendly” to the Bush Administration.

[villager]

1. "Free market" solution: Cancel your AOL *now*!

n/t

[Poppyseedman]

13. All major IP have been "sniffed" by NSA for years

Google "Carnivore"

Cancel your AOL account because they suck. Whoever you go with has allowed the government to "sniff" your emails.

[converted_democrat]

15. I have AOL and I plan on canceling ASAP..........I don't do anything

"bad," I just don't like the idea of someone snooping through my stuff. Who would you suggest as an alternate provider?? I'm going to cancel Monday morning, but I want to have another provider in place. Any ideas???

[bluestateguy]

2. I have AOL, but I don't use it for the web

Only for AOL radio.

I really miss the days when the internet was the Wild West, with no government supervision.

[NJCher]

3. no decent terrorist would touch AOL with a 10-foot pole

Sheesh. What a bunch of morans at "homeland security."




Cher

[Mind_your_head]

5. True@'no decent terrorist' would use aol.....

...guess that means that 'they wanna keep an eye on the "average joe's" of this world' then ..... but there sure are a 'whole h*ll of a lot of us'..... :-)

[mestup]

6. AOL not exactly a breeding ground for radical leftists. Geez.

My Fav TV shows
My Shopping Channels
My super secret spy stuff.

Don't think so.

[dkofos]

16. Maybe it is not terra-ist info they are looking for.

Maybe it is personal info.
And ao-hell keeps lots of personal info on it's customers.

[madeline_con]

4. Who's going to monitor all this "activity"?

They'll need to hire more morans.

BTW, I thought it was established years ago that AOL sux...

[LibertyorDeath]

7. Welcome to 1984

[gatorboy]

8. I wonder if that also goes for the people that use the AOL freebie CD's

You have no idea how hard it is to get that AOL "Try Us for Free" software off your machine. They've always sucked and now they suck just that much more...

[greygandalf]

9. If you have AOL right now, unless forced. Your not smart. n/t

[mestup]

11. I have AOL, but I don't inhale.

It's a pure kool-aid factory for sure, but they do have great spam filters. Give 'em that.

[McKenzie]

10. The RIP Act in the UK is just as bad

"RIP" is an acronym for "Regulation of Investigatory Powers". I suspect whoever named the act was taking the piss.

Ironically, an article in The Guardian, on October 24 2000, stated that similar legislation would never be acceptable in the US:

<snip>

There is no comparable legislation in the US. Tim Berners-Lee, the British inventor of the world wide web, has said that RIP would have been thrown out of the US "in a second". Ireland recently sought to encourage e-commerce by passing a law making it illegal for government to access commercial encryption keys. France has relaxed controls on domestic encryption, while Germany is opposed to restrictions on citizens' use of encryption. Russia, Singapore and Malaysia have passed laws similar to RIP.

</snip>

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theissues/article/0,6512,334007,00.html

[datadiva]

12. I haven't used AOL

for a couple of years. I use SBC Yahoo now and am locked in for another year. When thats up I'm going to find me a blue company and go with it.

[converted_democrat]

14. Damn...n/t