Live data from Hacker News

NSA tracking cellphone locations worldwide, Snowden documents show (2013)

washingtonpost.com

51–60 of 196 posts

Re: NSA tracking cellphone locations worldwide, Snowden documents show (2013)

#51

The thing that bothers me most about this as a European is; I have zero say in this, in the US you can strike out against surveillance, you can write to senators, protest against terrible legislation. Actually have a voice, however faint it is. Whereas I don't get a say but the exact same treatment from your country. The Five Eyes have made me paranoid and the only escape seems to be downgrading your phone to a brick…

Actually Congress already made laws bounding NSA behavior and mission but they are operating outside the law. They are a self serving criminal enterprise at this point.

Re: NSA tracking cellphone locations worldwide, Snowden documents show (2013)

#52
post #39
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "Brexit" stats have clearly shown that UK would have remained in the EU if the "millenials" had really made use of their right to vote. The "old" generation (voting to leave the EU) clearly understands the value of their vote(s).

To me, the vote was actually non-binary. There were the Remain votes, the Leave votes, but then there the Protest votes -- which from my perspective were votes that said "I want to Remain, but dammit I don't like how things are going right now".

And a fourth one: integrate with the EU entirely (adopt the euro, etc.)

Re: NSA tracking cellphone locations worldwide, Snowden documents show (2013)

#53

The thing that bothers me most about this as a European is; I have zero say in this, in the US you can strike out against surveillance, you can write to senators, protest against terrible legislation. Actually have a voice, however faint it is. Whereas I don't get a say but the exact same treatment from your country. The Five Eyes have made me paranoid and the only escape seems to be downgrading your phone to a brick…

[deleted]

Re: NSA tracking cellphone locations worldwide, Snowden documents show (2013)

#54
> The NSA cannot know in advance which tiny fraction of 1 percent of the records it may need, so it collects and keeps as many as it can — 27 terabytes [...] The location programs have brought in such volumes of information, according to a May 2012 internal NSA briefing, that they are “outpacing our ability to ingest, process and store” data

27TB doesn't sound much, even by 2012 standards. The article doesn't specify if this is the total size, just the delta over some period of time, or something entirely different? Certainly not something NSA would "struggle to ingest"?

Re: NSA tracking cellphone locations worldwide, Snowden documents show (2013)

#55
post #33
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Voter turnout was at record levels. It's not obvious that greater turnout of "millennials" specifically was likely to happen. Typically it's difficult to ensure that one kind of voter turns out without also increasing the rate of turnout for other kinds of voters as well.

But voter turnout for younger people (18 to 24) was less than 40%. If they'd had 75% turnout they may have swung the election. In mid 2013 there were about 5.8m people between 18 and 24.

This was the biggest problem with the referendum: apathy from the younger voters.

Re: NSA tracking cellphone locations worldwide, Snowden documents show (2013)

#56
post #47

Not long ago you could buy SIM cards from kioskos, corner stores, etc. This is becoming increasingly rare, even in places with otherwise poor infrastructure. The shift was rapid but noticeable.

As soon as you start using them, that's when you become an interesting subject.

Re: NSA tracking cellphone locations worldwide, Snowden documents show (2013)

#58

The thing that bothers me most about this as a European is; I have zero say in this, in the US you can strike out against surveillance, you can write to senators, protest against terrible legislation. Actually have a voice, however faint it is. Whereas I don't get a say but the exact same treatment from your country. The Five Eyes have made me paranoid and the only escape seems to be downgrading your phone to a brick…

I was happy to see the disgust people had for the CIA black sites operated in other countries when that came to light during the Bush presidency. Not because of the torture, but because people here expected alleged terrorists to have the same rights as detained American citizens. I feel this is important to note, because we have a large population of young voters who I feel have concern for everyone - not just the US…

Remember that outrage over the Patriot act abuses? Obama 2008 platform promised to restore the Constitution:

> We reject the use of national security letters to spy on citizens who are not suspected of a crime. We reject the tracking of citizens who do nothing more than protest a misguided war. We reject torture. We reject sweeping claims of "inherent" presidential power. We will revisit the Patriot Act and overturn unconstitutional executive decisions issued during the past eight years. We will not use signing statements to nullify or undermine duly enacted law. And we will ensure that law-abiding Americans of any origin, including Arab-Americans and Muslim-Americans, do not become the scapegoats of national security fears.

but as we have seen, every word of this has been reversed. I don't trust either party at this point. Both are scalp deep in this.

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=78283

Re: NSA tracking cellphone locations worldwide, Snowden documents show (2013)

#59

The thing that bothers me most about this as a European is; I have zero say in this, in the US you can strike out against surveillance, you can write to senators, protest against terrible legislation. Actually have a voice, however faint it is. Whereas I don't get a say but the exact same treatment from your country. The Five Eyes have made me paranoid and the only escape seems to be downgrading your phone to a brick…

Your government is free to negotiate whatever treaties are acceptable under its laws and the U.S. Constitution; you have whatever voice in your own government that your laws give you.

It makes literally no sense to me that a government would have any more concern for another government's citizen than that other government has incentivised it to.

Re: NSA tracking cellphone locations worldwide, Snowden documents show (2013)

#60
post #38
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But voter turnout for younger people (18 to 24) was less than 40%. If they'd had 75% turnout they may have swung the election. In mid 2013 there were about 5.8m people between 18 and 24.

>> "In mid 2013 there were about 5.8m people between 18 and 24." Which is what percentage of the voting population?

Total votes on either side were roughly 16 vs 17.5 million.
Post reply on HN