Chris Messina has put it into words the best I’ve seen so far.

… About how privacy is like sand between your fingers and that the more you try to hold on to it, the less you really can maintain control over. And subsequently, over time, more and more spills out into the hands of others, often those who you least expect or want to have information about you.

… a long time ago I decided that there is no privacy in anything digital (which is both a beautiful and a terrifying thing, depending on how much you know about technology). Knowing a bit myself, but not quite enough, I’ve decided to try and flood the network with as much information about myself as possible in the naive and desperate hope that by creating more positive and truthful information I can counter whatever lies may someday be advanced against what I’m really up to.

There is power in numbers. The more of us who control what the world knows about us by publishing it ourselves the harder it will be to distroy the truth. Hopefully this isn’t “naive and desperate”.

sidenote: incase your wondering how I came accross Chris’s blog, it was from a link on the BarCampRDU blog.

Oh yeah… here is my bio and ClaimID.

Here is a copy of the document – att_klien_wired.pdf. The original link for the PDF was http://blog.wired.com/27BStroke6/att_klein_wired.pdf.

Several civil rights groups and news organizations are working to release all documents in this case to the public.

We are filing a motion to intervene in the case in order to request that the court unseal the evidence, joining other news and civil rights organizations that have already done so, including the EFF, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Los Angeles Times, the San Jose Mercury News, the Associated Press and Bloomberg.

Before publishing these documents we showed them to independent security experts, who agreed they pose no danger to AT&T. For example, they do not reveal sensitive information that hackers might use to attack the company’s systems.

Looks like a lot more than just our phone calls are being spied upon folks.

Via:
Wired News, Why We Published the AT&T Docs

Wired News, Stumbling Into a Spy Scandal

Wired News, Whistle-Blower’s Evidence, Uncut

Subject: Don’t let AT&T and Verizon Spy on You

Hi,

On Thursday, May 11, 2006 USA Today reported that the National Security Agency has been collecting phone records of tens of millions of Americans. Companies like AT&T and Verizon who provide services to hundred of millions of Americans have been giving over phone records to the NSA, even though the NSA had no warrant for those records.

This is wrong so I signed on to the “Do Not Spy” list — just like the “Do Not Call” list to stop telemarketers from invading your home– except this list will tell telecoms to stay out of our private records. You can sign up for it here:

http://www.donotspylist.com

Thanks!

Context
On Thursday, May 11, 2006 USA Today reported that the National Security Agency has been collecting phone records of tens of millions of Americans. Companies like AT&T and Verizon, have turned over millions phone records to the NSA, even though the NSA had no warrant for those records.

Sources
1. “NSA has massive database of Americans’ phone calls” USA Today, May 11,
2006 [usatoday.com]

“BellSouth denies giving call data to the NSA” Reuters, May 15, 2006
[moveon.org]

2. “Questions and answers about the NSA phone record collection program”
USA Today, May 11, 2006 [moveon.org]

3. “Federal Source to ABC News: We know who you’re calling” ABC News Blog,
May 15, 2006 [blogs.abcnews.com]

4. “NSA has massive database of Americans’ phone calls” USA Today, May 11,
2006 [usatoday.com]

5. “Bush Doesn’t Confirm NSA Data Collection” Associated Press, May 11,
2005 [moveon.org]

6. “NSA has massive database of Americans’ phone calls” USA Today, May 11,
2006 [usatoday.com]

[In case you are wondering who the Liberty Coalition is…

The Liberty Coalition is both an organization and a network of partner groups. It works to help organize, support, and coordinate transpartisan public policy activities related to civil liberties and basic human rights. We work in conjunction with groups of partner organizations that are interested in preserving the Bill of Rights, personal autonomy and individual privacy.

Their website says the ACLU, Amnesty International, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation are members.]

ABC reports that they’re being spied on. Ya help them start a war and this is how they thank you.

Other sources have told us that phone calls and contacts by reporters for ABC News, along with the New York Times and the Washington Post, are being examined as part of a widespread CIA leak investigation.

Thanks for the tip ae.

“We have been unable to make any meaningful progress in our investigation because OPR [Office of Professional Responsibility] has been denied security clearances for access to information about the NSA program,” OPR counsel H. Marshall Jarrett wrote to Hinchey. Hinchey’s office shared the letter with The Associated Press.

Commentary: WTF!!!!! We live in a police state! The backlash from this will be huge. The average citizen will become more concerned with privacy and how to be anonymous online. Probably the exact opposite goal of the NSA and White house. But in the interim we will all suffer more paranoia and buy more prescription drugs. (Not me. Just kidding!)

tip of the hat to: dailywireless.org
via: CNN