[Corpora-List] Call for Papers: Mining User-GeneratedContent for Security - MINUCS 2009

[Linas Vepstas]

2009/8/13 Bryar Family <bryar at vermontel.net>:
>
> I’m all for being outraged by outrages but I’m having some difficulty seeing
> a basis for anyone’s distress here.

I think you missed the point. To quote:

" Submissions that focus on legal questions stemming from
snooping, spying, privacy infringement or violation, etc., will not
be considered relevant to the Theme of the Workshop, and the
Committee will not be able to review them."

That is the outrageous statement that lead to the distress.  It is
a matter of fact that the technologies being reviewed here are
being used for "snooping, spying, privacy infringement or violation,
etc." In case you haven't been reading the newspapers, there
was a recent election in Iran, wherein an earlier version of this
kind of technology was used to suppress news and to find and
jail dissidents, some of whom were apparently beaten to death.

These technologies can be, and are being used in anti-democratic,
anti-persona-freedom kinds of ways. Researchers such as you,
who seem to be unaware of this, should become aware.

There's more: there is a small but growing group of people who
believe  that this kind of technology could lead to an explosively
dangerous situation which would threaten the survival of
humankind.  The  fact that you personally seem to be unaware of
all of this just tells me that, perhaps conferences like this have
been suppressing papers on ethics for far too long -- they
should be promoting awareness on the part of the researchers
in the field so that they at least know what the fruits of their
labor are used for.

-- Linas Vepstas

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