Weaseling about surveillance, Australian Attorney General attains bullshit Singularity

boing
21

He obviously doesn’t have the technical terminology down, but what he’s trying to say does make a little sense. If I understand correctly, he’s trying to say that they do collect the IP address (e.g. 208.80.152.201, which is wikipedia), but that they don’t collect urls (e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invisible_pink_unicorn). Therefore they don’t record exactly what you’re reading, just where you’re getting it from.

(Of course, thinking persons realize that capturing the IP addresses is egregiously invasive, but I can see how it’s slightly less egregiously invasive than collecting URLs).

22

if ($website->{‘url’} =~ /boingboing/i) {
wget $url;
}

Easy peasy, they weren’t spying on you, just fetching the page after you visited it. The distinction that is trying to be made is a farce.

23

sigh but that is even more inane–given the amount of shared hosting, CDNs, and virtual hosts (not to mention all the other shenanigans actual criminals get up to) then just collecting the IP is worthless.

24

Well the distinction is mainly about saving them server space, rather than being less intrusive.

25

heh, i don’t know what irritates me more: bad ideas, or bad ideas done badly :slight_smile:

26

Allan McFee, I think. Most of Ted’s work in Canada was with CTV, not the CBC, if I recall correctly. (Johnny Jellybean, anyone?)

27

You’re likely right. It’d be something Alan McFee would do. And on purpose.

28

Definitely on purpose - the Mother Corp’s resident Trickster God he was, somewhere between Coyote and Loki on the spectrum of Trickster Gods…

1 Like
29

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