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Privacy The Internet United States

eBay's Lobbying Efforts May Include the CIA 38

Posted by Zonk from the you-wouldn't-believe-the-deals dept.
samuraiknight writes "The Washington Post reports that eBay was among eight entities that lobbied the CIA during the first six months of 2007, according to disclosure forms maintained by the Senate public records office. An eBay spokesman claims its listing was an error, but also notes that the company met with CIA officials in the second half of 2006 to discuss the amendments to the 1994 Communications and Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), which include a requirement that VoIP companies submit to government wiretaps. The article suggests that eBay and the CIA discussed the law's potential effects on Skype (owned by eBay), but does not elaborate further."
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eBay's Lobbying Efforts May Include the CIA More

eBay's Lobbying Efforts May Include the CIA

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  • GREAT TRANSACTION (Score:5, Funny)

    by User 956 ( 568564 ) on Friday October 26, 2007 @02:56PM (#21132569) Homepage
    The Washington Post reports that eBay was among eight entities that lobbied the CIA during the first six months of 2007

    A+++++++++ WOULD DEFINITELY COLLUDE WITH AGAIN

    • " eBay and the CIA discussed the law's potential effects on Skype (owned by eBay), which was quickly resolved after the CIA informed e-bay they already have access to the Skype private encryption 'backdoor', noting the whole reason for the 'supernodes' thing and why they're all CIA assets. "
      There, I fixed that for you.

      *thinks to self: now where is my shiney hat?*

  • I was lobbying the CIA too (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Then fucking ebay snipped me at the last second.
  • To bugs.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by jo42 ( 227475 )
      To "Fight The Facist Future".
      • Oh don't fight! Be like us -- Embrace!!! We're far too fat, indebted, drunk and lazy to fight.

        Over here in the People's Democratic Republic of (formerly Great) Britain -- you Americans may also know it as Airstrip One -- our very beloved (or else) Premier Brown recently announced that the 30 year period for keeping sensitive Government documents secret may be extended, and may also include documents from Businesses too.

        Perhaps eBay should consider moving here, I sure our Government would be most help
    • eBay has always had bugs -- oh, you meant the other kind?

  • What else do you want to know? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by no-body ( 127863 ) on Friday October 26, 2007 @03:19PM (#21132849)
    International calls from inside US are monitored
    International calls to inside US are monitored

    And with this, anyone thinking (even in dreams) something not "appropriate" can be treated as a terrorist and monitored as well.

    > The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed HR 1955 titled the
    > Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of
    > 2007. This bill is one of the most blatant attacks against the
    > Constitution yet and actually defines thought crimes as homegrown
    > terrorism. If passed into law, it will also establish a commission
    > and a Center of Excellence to study and defeat so called thought
    > criminals. Unlike previous anti-terror legislation, this bill
    > specifically targets the civilian population of the United States and
    > uses vague language to define homegrown terrorism. Amazingly, 404 of
    > our elected representatives from both the Democrat and Republican
    > parties voted in favor of this bill. There is little doubt that this
    > bill is specifically targeting the growing patriot community that is
    > demanding the restoration of the Constitution.

    Laws are actually not needed any more - it happens anyway and the president pardons everyone at the end or anything "sensitive" is declared as damaging to national security when dragged courts.


    Sieg Heil America!


    • Re: (Score:1)

      by sm62704 ( 957197 )
      International calls from inside US are monitored
      International calls to inside US are monitored

      Well, I'm safe, thank God! All my friends are either hookers, dope dealers, bookies, gun deaaskskJHKJH&(*^([no carrier]

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by FleaPlus ( 6935 )
      Could you cite the relevant portion of the bill [govtrack.us] regarding thought crime? I can't seem to find it.
      • "(5) IDEOLOGICALLY BASED THOUGHT- The term `ideologically based thought' means the use, planned use, or threatened use of contemplation or conceptualization by a group or individual to promote the group or individual's political, religious, or social beliefs."
        • Yes, but the bill doesn't outlaw thought, it sets up university centers to study how terrorists think.

          Understanding terrorism is a good thing. The current US approach of smashing hornet nests isn't working very well.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by FleaPlus ( 6935 )
          Not sure if you modifying the original text is a joke, but for the curious, here's what it actually says (in the definitions section):

          `(4) IDEOLOGICALLY BASED VIOLENCE- The term `ideologically based violence' means the use, planned use, or threatened use of force or violence by a group or individual to promote the group or individual's political, religious, or social beliefs.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by flaming error ( 1041742 )
      Who are you quoting? I just read the bill [govtrack.us], and the writeup you cite looks like a load of crap.

      This is just academic research.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by no-body ( 127863 )
        Yes, crap it is!

        It depends on how "violent" is defined.

        http://www.dictionary.net/violent [dictionary.net]
        1. Moving or acting ... excited by strong feeling or passion;...
        So, you feel strong about something, plan to make signs and go out and demonstrate, you can be classified as a terrorist, disappear one night and find yourself left alone in Guantanamo Bay everyone else wondering what happened to you.

        Actually, thinking about it - violence nowadays can be anything. Bombing some nation into oblivion on the other side

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Kazrael ( 918535 )
      I so vehemently wish to disagree with you, but after watching the news steadily deteriorate with foul news of our corrupt government, I just don't have the will anymore. Truth hurts.
    • Amen. For anyone that doesn't know, to get the truth about the US government, read anything by Noam Chomsky. Brilliantly honest and direct political commentator.

      Dave
  • eBay pays taxes and its shareholders pay taxes. The government was making a law that would cost them money at some level. Don't they have a fiduciary responsibility to do what's best for the bottom line and minimize those expenses?
    • Actually, your thinking is misguided. CALEA requirements are very clearly laid out, and have been available for years. The ONLY reason that they would need to talk with the CIA is to help the CIA help themselves to YOUR conversations.

      CALEA rules are enforced for every telecomms carrier. It is NOT new, it is not undefined. To need more clarification is not only suspicious, it smacks of cooperation. The kind of cooperation that Hitler would have been proud of...

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by pavon ( 30274 )
        Umm, they were meeting to discuss an amendment which had just been voted on. So no, the requirements for VoIP operators weren't clearly laid out at that time, and in particular it was unknown whether the rules would apply only to calls which connect to the phone network or also IP-only calls.
  • I don't understand, so what if eBay lobbied the CIA. Maybe they were just recruiting new chefs to cook for their employees - I hear that's one of the bennies, just like at Google.

    Oh, wait.. that CIA. Yeah that's bad then.

  • Come on its a perfect match. The future of all commerce is on the internet.

    What other service should the CIA use to sell surplus weapons/aircraft/ships, information, and drugs to extremist/rebel/etc factions around the world? I mean they certainly can't be seen selling them directly. And who would ever suspect that eddieguns4056 sale of 200,000 AK-47s could possibly have anything to do with the CIA.

    And anyway using Nick Cage [imdb.com] to do it is sooooo 1990's
    • What other service should the CIA use to sell surplus weapons/aircraft/ships, information, and drugs to extremist/rebel/etc factions around the world? I mean they certainly can't be seen selling them directly. And who would ever suspect that eddieguns4056 sale of 200,000 AK-47s could possibly have anything to do with the CIA.

      Why not? The NTSA [ebay.com] does it.
  • Since when is the CIA concerned with wiretapping and listening to phone calls? Isn't that what the NSA is for?
  • Skype is just another peer-to-peer app - I'm not exactly sure how eBay could cut the CIA into it. My guess would be if the CIA had access to most/all of the core Internet routers and could listen in on the traffic, then eBay could find a way of getting them a user's private key. Skype uses 1024-bit RSA Public keys to set up AES-256 encryption, so it's unlikely the government would be able to reliably break it on their own.
  • Somebody should sell the CIA on eBay :)

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