Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The real danger is nobody cares anymore, as this enables all further constitution violations and hollowing of citizen protection worldwide. The upside is that a society that doesn't care, eventually gets what it deserves.
That's an upside?
NSA secretly conducted illegal searches on Americans for years
51–60 of 225 posts
Re: NSA secretly conducted illegal searches on Americans for years
#52I think the most dangerous thing is that what Snowden predicted actually happened by now. After all the revelations, nobody is interested anymore. There's this general fatigue and powerlessness that leads to a feeling of "well, yeah, everbody knows by now... what's the news here?" - even for me as a security expert and privacy proponent. The real danger is nobody cares anymore, as this enables all further constitutio…
There are lots of very experienced people and resources allocated to this problem across the world working on it round the clock. But this is a hard problem. It's going to take multiple generations to achieve a mature resolution. Some problems don't fix themselves in the timeframes it takes John Oliver or Alex Jones to write a skit.
I find the press and their stand up comic proxies in their quest to "inform and educate" the public are creating a whole lot of unnecessary anxiety and panic.
It's a great way to hold everyone's attention without serving any purpose other than producing media figures. And in the attention economy constructed by Youtube/Twitter/Facebook no question this benefits them to a great deal.
Just because systems exist today that are bringing to your attention every single problem known to man doesn't mean you need to be involved in the solutions that are above your paygrade. Especially if your career and life experience don't involve the skills to do something about this. I am sure there are problems out there you can apply your skills and experience too.
This sort of defeatist attitude is very infectious and especially effects the psyche of people with the skills who could actually play a role down the road.
Re: NSA secretly conducted illegal searches on Americans for years
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
If people care enough, they can bring down governments... And in much worse conditions...
It's hard enough getting people to use VPNs and Tor.
Which, to a good first approximation, is true. But those of us with a sense of history mistrust any such gigantic agglomeration of unaccountable power, because we know how deeply susceptible such apparatuses are to employment toward unsavory ends.
The trouble is that there's no good, quick, simple way to bring this home to people. You end up sounding like Chicken Little, or so underplaying the significance of the issue that even a sympathetic interlocutor fails to recognize its gravity.
I don't really know a third way; I don't even know that there can be one, other than waiting for some suitable example in point, one that can't be explained away as an artifact of specific circumstance, and building the discussion around that. But even that strategy is fraught at best, and the easiest way to lose any argument is always to yield the initiative. So I don't really have a good, generally workable option here, as regards persuasive discourse on the issue, and if anyone else does, I'd sure like to hear about it!
Re: NSA secretly conducted illegal searches on Americans for years
#54I think the most dangerous thing is that what Snowden predicted actually happened by now. After all the revelations, nobody is interested anymore. There's this general fatigue and powerlessness that leads to a feeling of "well, yeah, everbody knows by now... what's the news here?" - even for me as a security expert and privacy proponent. The real danger is nobody cares anymore, as this enables all further constitutio…
> The real danger is nobody cares anymore, as this enables all further constitution violations and hollowing of citizen protection worldwide. The upside is that a society that doesn't care, eventually gets what it deserves.
Re: NSA secretly conducted illegal searches on Americans for years
#55Re: NSA secretly conducted illegal searches on Americans for years
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not news to me. But it does seem like most people don't care. Or don't care enough. However, what could they do, even if they cared enough?
If people care enough, they can bring down governments... And in much worse conditions...
Re: NSA secretly conducted illegal searches on Americans for years
#57I think the most dangerous thing is that what Snowden predicted actually happened by now. After all the revelations, nobody is interested anymore. There's this general fatigue and powerlessness that leads to a feeling of "well, yeah, everbody knows by now... what's the news here?" - even for me as a security expert and privacy proponent. The real danger is nobody cares anymore, as this enables all further constitutio…
What do I do, as someone who cares? No, seriously. Should I throw a bit more money at the EFF? Start my own political party, or enter an existing one and try to steer it in my direction? Try to get employed by one of these organizations and then promote a better understanding of their mission internally? Move to another country where people care more (which?) Identifying the problem is a good first step, but what can…
Re: NSA secretly conducted illegal searches on Americans for years
#58I think the most dangerous thing is that what Snowden predicted actually happened by now. After all the revelations, nobody is interested anymore. There's this general fatigue and powerlessness that leads to a feeling of "well, yeah, everbody knows by now... what's the news here?" - even for me as a security expert and privacy proponent. The real danger is nobody cares anymore, as this enables all further constitutio…
What do I do, as someone who cares? No, seriously. Should I throw a bit more money at the EFF? Start my own political party, or enter an existing one and try to steer it in my direction? Try to get employed by one of these organizations and then promote a better understanding of their mission internally? Move to another country where people care more (which?) Identifying the problem is a good first step, but what can…
Re: NSA secretly conducted illegal searches on Americans for years
#59I think that the privacy issue will get worst quicker under Trump, which is why I voted for him. I think that it is required, for it to get better, because people don't care enough yet.
"If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever." - George Orwell
Something big needs to happen to prevent this.
Re: NSA secretly conducted illegal searches on Americans for years
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
What do I do, as someone who cares? No, seriously. Should I throw a bit more money at the EFF? Start my own political party, or enter an existing one and try to steer it in my direction? Try to get employed by one of these organizations and then promote a better understanding of their mission internally? Move to another country where people care more (which?) Identifying the problem is a good first step, but what can…
Encrypt everything. I wouldn't trust the political process to work itself out in the near future, so a technical approach may be the answer in the meantime. I've moved all my friends to Signal not because we're having sensitive conversations, but because we're voting with our actions.