disturbing /. article about Ontario IP addresses

[Peter]

> Is one prep-work for the other?

The powers that be have always had the power to obtain addresses and more by
phone number (or ip location), using suitable channels. What has not been
possible and is being made possible now is the wide scale random use of such
information by low level law 'enforcement' to opportunistically 'search' for
evidence on an unprecedented level. That is the same kind of search that an
officer would conduct on a car stopped for having a nonworking right side brake
light, which would lead to the 'discovery' of an opened alcohol bottle or can in
the car leading to a fine or an arrest or similar, or that of an officer
entering an apparently abandoned house (he would always claim it to be so
subsequently) without a warrant to 'search for illegal activity or squatting'.
Except now with ip number tracing it would mean that all the computers on the
net would be potentially 'suspect abodes', open to search on demand. 

The powers have always used precedents (successfully solved cases) to mandate an
increase in funding and powers. They have also used their failures for that.
What is surprising ?!

Peter


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