[vox-tech] Wi-fi issue

[Chris Jenks]

On Thu, 16 Apr 2015, Bob Scofield wrote:

> On 04/16/2015 08:28 AM, Chris Jenks wrote:
>>
>>   Connecting isn't controlling. Instead of being scared you could do 
>> like me and just leave your wifi wide open and not worry about it. 
>> Excessive worry about security has been draining the life from people 
>> in every area of my life.
>> _______________________________________________
>
> Here's one reason I'm in the excessive worry camp.  As a legal research 
> and writing attorney for criminal defense lawyers, I have worked on 
> several search warrants for child porn.  I even worked on one case where 
> the San Jose Police Department thought it worth their while to travel 
> through five counties to execute a warrant in Vallejo.
>
> If someone downloads child porn through your wifi connection, there's a 
> good chance that the police will search your house and seize all of your 
> computers.  And while child porn searches might not be as messy as 
> others, some search warrant executions can leave a house in shambles.
>
> Some police agencies, when preparing to obtain a child porn search 
> warrant, will stand near the suspect's house to see if the wifi is 
> secured.  In my opinion this is done so that, if the connection is 
> secure, the police can eliminate a defense at trial.  I seriously doubt 
> that the existence of an unsecure connection would prevent the police 
> from obtaining the warrant.
>
> Search warrants for computer equipment always contain a request to hold 
> the evidence for a longer period of time to give the police a chance to 
> do a full examination of the hard drives.  So dealing with a search 
> warrant can be a hassle even if you're innocent.
>
> Bob

   I'm sure this does happen and that it could happen to me, and that sure 
would be a hassle. But it seems like the right way the police should be 
doing things is to determine who is downloading the pornography through 
the wide-open wifi and THEN execute their search warrant. If I secure my 
wifi to prevent being the victim of injustice, then I'm just pushing the 
injustice off onto other people. It's not wasted time and effort in my 
book, if I have to go through hassles and trials, for our government to 
see that there is a better way to do things for everybody. This kind of 
philosophy is what got me excited about open source in the first place.