Newsflash: Clicking honeypot link probable cause for FBI search and seizure
Posted on March 21st, 2008 | by admin |Just when I thought our government couldn’t be any more over-reaching. A story at news.com explains an undercover FBI operation which advertised links as child pornography, recorded IP addresses and raided the homes of the visitors.
Before I go any further let me make it perfectly clear I’m against child pornography. Big no-duh there folks! That shit is seriously sick and anyone who gets off on that should be removed from society and helped with their disease.
What infuriates me is the idea that clicking a link constitutes probable cause leading to a search warrant and a seizure of computers, financial records, and video and photography equipment.
While I encourage the feds to go after perverts with the extent of their abilities this kind of abuse of the law has dire consequences. It starts with links to supposed child pornography and leads to illegal Canadian drug spam honeypots, or worse copyright infringement suits backed by the RIAA and MPAA.
Imagine receiving spam with a link like this. One accidental click and there goes your life as you know it. What happens when forum trolls get a hold of these honeypot URLs? And you thought getting rickrolled was bad. Hell lets imagine one on the front page of Digg, in your facebook feed, twitter, stumble upon, etc. Does the FBI raid the Googleplex when a spider indexes the link? How about when your browser pre-fetches links. What if you see the link and need to determine its validity before reporting it to the authorities? Why not faceplant your keyboard and click “I’m Feeling Lucky”. How about someone uses your WiFi and clicks one of these suckers? There are way too many holes in the scheme, let alone its legality.
This is a merely step from thought crime. I expect a Mollrant in the morning. I can’t make this bold enough: This is a bad idea. Sure, think of the children, but first please consult anyone in IT, or better yet the constitution. Oh thats right, this involves children. I guess that negates logic or law.