a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment
user-inactivated  ·  3508 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: I’m a cop. If you don’t want to get hurt, don’t challenge me.

I actually think this could be a good thing. I believe we can academically gather intelligence in a transparent and accountable way.

Think about cryptography and ciphers. In the old days, the way we hid things from each other was by just hiding how we did things. Now we have ways to make algorithms publishable and have things peer reviewed before we accept them as secure, then hide private keys. The fact that others know how you encrypt actually does not undermine the security of the algorithm.

Now we have issues where it seems that no matter what, we cite national security at supposedly fair trials to prevent the public knowing methods of discovering information. I don't know how it would work, but I think we can change the way intelligence is gathered so that everyone knows exactly how it is gathered without impacting the quality of the data gathered. I'm not talking about wiretapping trunk lines like the NSA is doing, I'm talking about something just as effective but entirely morally acceptable and transparent. People would be accountable for their actions when performing the intelligence gathering and could easily be prosecuted if they stray from the legal standards.

How would we achieve such a thing? Academic research into "homeland security" or something similar.