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South African authorities admit to mass surveillance

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101–110 of 145 posts

Re: South African authorities admit to mass surveillance

#101
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What did you think was in the leaks? In my experience, when people say their parents or friends didn't believe what they said was in the leaks, the parents and friends were usually right.

I'm sorry but you are either implying that the leaks were fake or that 'parents and friends' are always right. In both cases I'll disagree heavily.

I think they're implying that the leaks often don't say what people think they say.

(Not agreeing, just explaining.)

Re: South African authorities admit to mass surveillance

#102
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I can’t understand how this news would surprise anyone I tried to tell my family about the Snowden leaks and the implications just a year ago. They are all university educated people. They categorically did not believe that what I was saying was real, and when I showed them all the leaks they did not believe the content was true. Billions of people simply don't believe it's true.

I know I should not post reaction-posts here. But this is Truly Horrifying in more than one way. Did they not even investigate your claim? Or did they just settle with labeling you a crackpot conspiracy theorist?

Same as climate change, no info is real... I'm not sure it is because we humans grow stupid or we grow so tired and sceptical that accept nothing what our own eyes see...

While still billions of people believe in Allah, God or whatever without any evidence. I dont know how this can happen...

Re: South African authorities admit to mass surveillance

#103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What did you think was in the leaks? In my experience, when people say their parents or friends didn't believe what they said was in the leaks, the parents and friends were usually right.

What does this comment even mean?

It means that people think the leaks say what Greenwald claimed they said instead of what they actually said, and when those people tell their parents what Greenwald said, they sound like lunatics. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20456352

Re: South African authorities admit to mass surveillance

#104
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What did you think was in the leaks? In my experience, when people say their parents or friends didn't believe what they said was in the leaks, the parents and friends were usually right.

That the NSA and GCHQ were illegally collecting phone records and internet browsing details of anyone they wanted. The fact that the UK government recently passed a law[0] to make this legal makes it pretty clear that this is real. [0] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/29/snoopers-chart...

How do you know what grecy told their parents?

Re: South African authorities admit to mass surveillance

#105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know I should not post reaction-posts here. But this is Truly Horrifying in more than one way. Did they not even investigate your claim? Or did they just settle with labeling you a crackpot conspiracy theorist?

Same as climate change, no info is real... I'm not sure it is because we humans grow stupid or we grow so tired and sceptical that accept nothing what our own eyes see... While still billions of people believe in Allah, God or whatever without any evidence. I dont know how this can happen...

>While still billions of people believe in Allah, God or whatever without any evidence. I dont know how this can happen...

Isn't it obvious? In both cases people do the smart thing (which is not necessarily the "objectively correct" thing).

Faith in Allah, God etc, is a good social glue, and is personally comforting, helping regulate emotions, etc.

Similarly, not believing the Snowden story helps them fit with their social group (e.g. republicans), relaxes their mind from a whole lot of worries and concerns, helps re-enforce their personal beliefs (e.g. in good government), etc -- and most importantly, has no real disadvantage in their day to day life and work...

Re: South African authorities admit to mass surveillance

#106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It surprises me as a South African because I didn't know our government had the technical capability or capacity to store and process so much data, let alone splice undersea cables without detection.

Fellow South African here, you'd be very surprised then with the capabilities of our spy agency. Very secretive by hugely funded. The former apartheid spies went on to consult for the current government, and they were all very highly trained. In fact one of the precursors to the mass surveillance tech made famous by Snowden, was actually developed at a firm in Stellenbosch in the late 90's to early 00's. That was the…

Not so secretive, in recent history VASTech (based in Stellenbosch's Technopark) were known to be supplying Gadaffi's Libya with telephone surveillance tech. [0]

Didn't know about the precursor tech being developed in Stellenbosch as well, do you have any sources on that? I'd be interested to see who was involved.

Agreed on the intel community generally being in a grey area as far as the law is concerned, it's a struggle enough keeping them impartial and not meddling in domestic affairs - talking about JZ being head of the ANC's intelligence in exile brings back memories of his ultimate succession of Thabo Mbeki and former spy chief Billy Masetlha's role in that.

[0] https://mg.co.za/article/2011-09-02-sa-firm-helped-gaddafi-s...

Re: South African authorities admit to mass surveillance

#107
post #101
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry but you are either implying that the leaks were fake or that 'parents and friends' are always right. In both cases I'll disagree heavily.

I think they're implying that the leaks often don't say what people think they say. (Not agreeing, just explaining.)

How often does that happen?

Re: South African authorities admit to mass surveillance

#108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if they don't have the expertise, someone else with the expertise interested in access to the data will help them.

Hasn't China been doing this all over Africa and South America?

Yup, in Africa China built and bugged (allegedly - China and the AU denied) the headquarters of the African Union in Addis Ababa: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/30/china-african-...

Re: South African authorities admit to mass surveillance

#109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does this comment even mean?

It means that people think the leaks say what Greenwald claimed they said instead of what they actually said, and when those people tell their parents what Greenwald said, they sound like lunatics. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20456352

A, the BS "there's an added hop so it's not happening/serious" defense. People still fall for this?

Re: South African authorities admit to mass surveillance

#110
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Often at exorbitant cost in our case. The SSA is an unaccountable financial black hole. Our former president send to have also used them for his political gain, this Fraser chap is responsible for many misdeeds. Now parts of our country are literally burning, yet there's no crime intelligence about the very threats to the state that SSA should be monitoring for. There was an act of terror that was nearly committed 2…

> There was an act of terror that was nearly committed 2 days ago Please can you provide a link to more info on this?

There are protests by truck drivers and some of these actions can be seen as terrorism.

https://www.iol.co.za/dailynews/news/kwazulu-natal/two-truck...

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