Couple get armed police visit for googling "pressure cookers"

[Weaver]

This is actually some orwellian terror style shit here.

For your reading pleasure:

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/08/government-knocking-doors-because-google-searches/67864/

It's making me actually afraid to be online. I'm not American, but who knows? My government is probably doing it too.


EDIT:
To all of you shitting your pants that I didn't read the article, it was updated after I posted it while I was asleep.

The original article stated the man was at home googling "pressure cookers" not "pressure cooker bombs" while his wife, also at home, was googling backpacks at the same time.

 

[shootthebandit]

This is actually some orwellian terror style shit here.
For your reading pleasure:

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/08/government-knocking-doors-because-google-searches/67864/

It's making me actually afraid to be online. I'm not American, but who knows? My government is probably doing it too.

Theres nothing they can do about it

I might have some fun with this and type in something like "how to covert to islam" (not that islamic people are terrorists but i can imagine the government flagging this) and search for fertiliser on ebay. They cant do anything about it because no laws have been broken. I may just be trying to gain a better knowledge of islam and i may also have a small vegtable patch that i need fertiliser for

 

[sanquin]

Ugh...so since the PRISM scandal is already out, they just flat out stopped playing it careful and went on an all-out assault with the information they got? -.-

It's funny, in what...1960~1970? There was a small 'movement' of people that firmly believed that the government was spying on everyone and everything was a conspiracy. Well, it seems like they at least had the first part right, but for 40 years into the future. >_<

 

[Frission]

Ugh...so since the PRISM scandal is already out, they just flat out stopped playing it careful and went on an all-out assault with the information they got? -.-

It's funny, in what...1960~1970? There was a small 'movement' of people that firmly believed that the government was spying on everyone and everything was a conspiracy. Well, it seems like they at least had the first part right, but for 40 years into the future. >_<

Funny isn't it? We called them crazy, but who's laughing now?

Orwell and Huxley were right.

 

[Weaver]

Ugh...so since the PRISM scandal is already out, they just flat out stopped playing it careful and went on an all-out assault with the information they got? -.-

It's funny, in what...1960~1970? There was a small 'movement' of people that firmly believed that the government was spying on everyone and everything was a conspiracy. Well, it seems like they at least had the first part right, but for 40 years into the future. >_<

Yeah, I'm starting to think conspiracy theorists weren't that off the mark, really.
It's sort of crazy that they're not even hiding it anymore. The article states they visit about 100 people a day, that's bloody insane. That's 36,500 people a year because they wanted to cook a ham or fertilize their vegetable garden.

Well America, let me know how your own personal KGB plays out. I'm actually going to try to get the hell away from here.

I feel like bad things are going to happen very soon in the North American political climate.

 

[Sehnsucht Engel]

Can't say I'm surprised or worried. I doubt my government would be able to get away with doing anything like that, probably wouldn't bother to begin with. Sure, they spy on us too, but I don't think they are as scared of their own citizens as the US is.

 

[shrekfan246]

The comments on that linked article escalated into political name-calling really quickly.

Also, asking if you can make a bomb with a rice cooker? Disregarding that there may be some chance of figuring out how to do that because people are crazy and will find a way to do what they want with anything, how paranoid do you have to be? Shouldn't you be trying to ease the tension instead of making people feel like they're being interrogated?

 

[Vegosiux]

I've said it before, each and every one of us should make an effort to google "insect overlords" at least seven times every day. Just to mess with the man.

 

[ResonanceSD]

Never before has "Back in the US, Back in the US, Back in the USSR" been more appropriate than today. Complete fucking police state. Next time I hear a gun-nut talking about how "ARMED CIVILLIANS ARE THE ONLY WAY TO AVOID A POLICE STATE, MAAAN", I'll just point out that this is a thing that happened.

 

[ResonanceSD]

Ugh...so since the PRISM scandal is already out, they just flat out stopped playing it careful and went on an all-out assault with the information they got? -.-

It's funny, in what...1960~1970? There was a small 'movement' of people that firmly believed that the government was spying on everyone and everything was a conspiracy. Well, it seems like they at least had the first part right, but for 40 years into the future. >_<

Everything in Deus Ex was true after all. Except possibly the Greasy Green Greasels.

 

[5ilver]

At first, I felt bad for the Americans that have to live in conditions looking more and more like communism. But then I remembered the citizens are exactly the ones paying the taxes and voting so having them pay for their own hubris makes a twisted kind of sense.

 

[Terminate421]

So has ALL of the governments felt like fucking with people for the past month?

 

[evilneko]

It's making me actually to be online. I'm not American, but who knows? My government is probably doing it too.

Donno where you live, but I hear the Brits put the NSA to shame. Shame, I tell you.

 

[generals3]

This is actually some orwellian terror style shit here.

For your reading pleasure:

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/08/government-knocking-doors-because-google-searches/67864/

It's making me actually to be online. I'm not American, but who knows? My government is probably doing it too.

See now i'm tempted to make some very funny combinations of google searches. Wonder if the local CIA branch would knock on my door (Wouldn't surprise me there are CIA agents in my country).

I wonder though, would you be fined if you purposely made fishy searches to get the anti terrorism squad come over? Because i'm not sure if i could resist the temptation to ridicule the system that way.

 

[generals3]

I've said it before, each and every one of us should make an effort to google "insect overlords" at least seven times every day. Just to mess with the man.

Or we could have a convo with the NSA using google.

google search "Hi there NSA agent 154, how are you doing today?" "Any suspicious google searches going on?" "If I google how to hijack a plane and new WTC blueprints will you guys come over?"

 

[evilneko]

BTW, their workplace snitched:

Suffolk County Criminal Intelligence Detectives received a tip from a Bay Shore based computer company regarding suspicious computer searches conducted by a recently released employee. The former employee?s computer searches took place on this employee?s workplace computer. On that computer, the employee searched the terms ?pressure cooker bombs? and ?backpacks.?

After interviewing the company representatives, Suffolk County Police Detectives visited the subject?s home to ask about the suspicious internet searches. The incident was investigated by Suffolk County Police Department?s Criminal Intelligence Detectives and was determined to be non-criminal in nature.

Article was updated.


"words have power" ...that they do, captcha, that they do.

 

[EternallyBored]

It looks like the story was updated and it was the husband's place of work that reported his searches. So not nearly as bad as feared, also looks like they took him in and questioned him and released him without any incident. Overall, I've seen far worse from police and national agencies over the last 2 decades so this is hardly the Orwellian use of the PRISM program everybody feared.

Still unfortunate that the family had to go through all that just based on a report, but that is kind of the government's job in this capacity they asked some questions and left. This may have turned out to be a non-story but there are still plenty of real government and police abuses that are worth getting mad over, and PRISM is still a shitty program and policy even if this incident had nothing to do with it.

 

[McMullen]

I don't usually get angry over stuff like this, but this just too damn stupid.

Terrorism, even if attacks like 9/11 happened once a year, is NOT A MAJOR FUCKING THREAT TO LIFE IN THE US!!! Our responses to 9/11 killed more Americans--needlessly--than 9/11. Cigarettes, cars, drunk driving, and cholesterol kill more people than 9/11. Insufficient medical care due to ridiculous healthcare costs kills more people than 9/11. People with guns kill more people than 9/11. I'd bet more innocent people have been shot to death by police in this country than have been killed by terrorist attacks here in the last few years.

Why is it that people are absolutely willing to throw their freedom away for fear of terrorism, but make such a big stink about "fascism" when we try to reform our health care system, or promote gun control, or try to encourage healthier diets in our children? None of that even resembles totalitarian bullshit like our anti-terrorism measures do!

What the fuck is wrong with us?

 

[Lionsfan]

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Some of you guys need to lay off the hyperbole a little bit.

The dude's workplace ratted him out:

Suffolk County Criminal Intelligence Detectives received a tip from a Bay Shore based computer company regarding suspicious computer searches conducted by a recently released employee. The former employee's computer searches took place on this employee's workplace computer. On that computer, the employee searched the terms "pressure cooker bombs" and "backpacks".

After interviewing the company representatives, Suffolk County Police Detectives visited the subject's home to ask about the suspicious internet searches. The incident was investigated by Suffolk County Police Department's Criminal Intelligence Detectives and was determined to be non-criminal in nature.