Good Ars Tehcnica Piece on Bad Policy

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080117-us-intel-chief-wants-carte-blanche-to-peep-all-net-traffic.html

Briefly, Mike McConell, the current Director of National Intelligence, wants access to all internet traffic (without warrants, of course, and merely for the purpose monitoring and "fishing expeditions" rather than based on any specific threat). I rather liked this exchange:

Ed Giorgio, who is working with McConnell on the plan, said that would mean giving the government the authority to examine the content of any e-mail, file transfer, or Web search. "Google has records that could help in a cyber-investigation," he said. Giorgio warned me, "We have a saying in this business: 'Privacy and security are a zero-sum game.'"

Sayings like that, says security guru Bruce Schneier, "are why the police aren't in charge; security and privacy are complimentary. Privacy is part of our security against government abuse. If they were really zero-sum, we would have seen mass immigration into East Germany."