Quote:
Originally Posted by 3x2
I keep seeing this quoted in various stories and it's beginning to annoy me. Is this the standard by which policy is being made by senior figures in government and elsewhere? Looking at a postcard only requires opportunity and the ability to read. Viewing my net activity requires deliberate interception by skilled people using expensive network kit. If my net activity is being routinely intercepted and "looked at" who exactly is doing it and under what authority?
Why am I reminded of "Senator tubes" over in the US when I read this sort of comment from a senior figure?
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I interpret that differently. He is trying to say that if you write a postcard you know people can read it. Using the internet these days is like sending a postcard as far as privacy goes.
To look at a postcard requires being in the right place in the chain of delivery. The hotel front desk (the user terminal in a computer analagy), the postman that collects it (the host ISP), those who sort it on route (the Internet backbone providers), the postman that delivers it (recipient ISP). It does not require skill it requires being in the network.