The Obama plan to own your PC, part deux
8/5/2009 |
Well, that didn't take long. My post earlier this week ("Does Obama want to tap your computer?") generated a swarm of responses, some of them calling for my head. Whenever you take on folks like Glenn Beck and Fox News, that's pretty much what you're in for.
But I wanted to correct a few things I got wrong and clarify a few other points -- hence this "special follow-up" post.
[ Read the InfoWorld post that started this debate: "Does Obama want to tap your computer?" | Stay up to date on Robert X. Cringely's musings and observations with InfoWorld's Notes from the Underground newsletter. ]
First, as several Cringesters noted, I was wrong about the phrase "your computer is considered a Federal computer system and is the property of the United States Government" appearing on other sites for years. That language is apparently new. Mea culpa.
The other language about uses of the federal system being monitored, intercepted, recorded, audited, etc. is a standard part of many government Web sites, however, like it or not. (I don't actually like it, though I understand why it's there.)
Cringester C. B. notes the warning banner that's caused all this fuss is a requirement of the Federal Information Security Management Act. Ironically enough, the security specs for federal Web sites were approved yesterday, though drafts of it have been kicking around since at least 2005. However, nowhere in the 236-page NIST Special Publication 800-53 [PDF] does that "your computer is now our computer" language appear.
Is this language scary? Sure, if you really believe the feds seriously want to impound the computers of thousands of Americans. Otherwise, it just looks like a rather unfortunate choice of language. And in fact, that's what it seems to be.
After I posted my entry, the U.S. Department of Transportation told reporters at PolitiFact's Truth-O-Meter that...
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