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NSA secretly conducted illegal searches on Americans for years

circa.com

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Re: NSA secretly conducted illegal searches on Americans for years

#61

Post by Shivetya »

endymi0n wrote: post #11

I 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…

I disagree, the real danger is people don't care as long as it happens to those who hold different political beliefs. Worse some openly celebrate it.

This is partly being prodded along by politicians under the guise "well they may/might/did break the law" so its okay to spy.

Re: NSA secretly conducted illegal searches on Americans for years

#62

Post by [deleted] »

endymi0n wrote: post #11

I 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…

[deleted]

Re: NSA secretly conducted illegal searches on Americans for years

#63

Post by roywiggins »

indolering wrote: post #17

Wikipedia states that circa.com is a recently acquired property of the Sinclair Broadcast Group, who is known for mandating stations to carry canned editorials as news [0]. Google also shows this report as surfacing ~month ago [1]. I agree that what the government did is insane, but this is a pretty poor source. [0]: http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/05/08/527462015/... [1]: https://encrypted.google.com/sea…

I think the article is wrong on the definition of "about data." The definition I read was, "about data" is information that mentions a foreign intelligence target, even if it's sent between two Americans domestically.

This was, apparently, perfectly legal to query as long as you were querying a foreign target. The NSA overstepped pretty egregiously and had to shut those queries down.

The article say it's data "about" Americans, which is true but confusing.

Re: NSA secretly conducted illegal searches on Americans for years

#64

Post by funnyfacts365 »

mirimir wrote: post #60
spaceribs wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yes. And privacy does give you more options. But be careful not to be too obvious about it, because that makes you a target.

When everybody is a target, nobody is a target...

Re: NSA secretly conducted illegal searches on Americans for years

#65

Post by spoiledtechie »

lmm wrote: post #30
endymi0n wrote: post #11

I 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…

There is something to be said about forming your own group with like minded people.

Then discuss and work towards some action. Protests, fight corruption. Don't sit behind your computer, meet, mingle and execute on something.

Re: NSA secretly conducted illegal searches on Americans for years

#66

Post by roywiggins »

awqrre wrote: post #55

I 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.

When has accelerationism ever worked before?

Re: NSA secretly conducted illegal searches on Americans for years

#67

Post by ld57 »

coldtea wrote: post #29
endymi0n wrote: post #11

I 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.

They don't care anymore because they believe it's also done for their own security.

Re: NSA secretly conducted illegal searches on Americans for years

#68

Post by aithoughts »

Sven-z wrote: post #52
endymi0n wrote: post #11

I 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 you mean nobody cares anymore? This is a very strange notion I see propping up more and more in people's minds, as they get overloaded with information they don't know what to do with. 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 resolutio…

> 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.

Ironically, these are the same systems that are causing the problem in the first place. You would put the last nail in the coffin of civic engagement?

At which paygrade am I allowed to cast my ballot? Voice my concerns? Is my own privacy "above my paygrade"?

Re: NSA secretly conducted illegal searches on Americans for years

#69

Post by afarrell »

lmm wrote: post #30
endymi0n wrote: post #11

I 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…

Put money toward an organization that will hire full-time UX designers and engineers who can make open-source encryption usable by the masses.

Why Johnny Why Johnny Still, Still can't encypt [2015] https://arxiv.org/abs/1510.08555

Re: NSA secretly conducted illegal searches on Americans for years

#70

Post by endymi0n »

spaceribs wrote: post #57
lmm wrote: post #30

Earlier 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.

I'm sorry to be the party pooper here, but...

Signal was intercepted:

http://heavy.com/tech/2017/03/wikileaks-vault-7-cia-bypasses...

My favorite most depressing take on this by Peter Gutmann - "Crypto won't save you either"

http://regmedia.co.uk/2014/05/16/0955_peter_gutmann.pdf

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