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Edward Snowden: Permanent Record

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Re: Edward Snowden: Permanent Record

#321

Post by dredmorbius »

microcolonel wrote: post #24
matt_morgan wrote: post #19

Or how about from a library. https://www.worldcat.org/search?qt=worldcat_org_all&q=edward...

Given that there are like... seven copies in U.S. libraries, I think that's probably terrible advice.

As noted:

1. The book is announced, but not yet released (17 Sept).

2. Worldcat tends to lag acquisitions, and whilst extensive, is not fully comprehensive. There are nonlisted collections, and lagged reports.

3. Further acquisitions will be added.

And most importantly: Libraries are highly responsive to patron requests. Ask for the book to be added, and in all likelihood it will be, and you'll be notified when it's in and/or added to the waitlist.

Re: Edward Snowden: Permanent Record

#322

Post by Zelphyr »

irq11 wrote: post #139
hsavit1 wrote: post #87

Any links posted to amazon.com from HN should be to smile.amazon.com -> .5% of your purchase will be donated to a clarity of your choice.

Better yet, don’t buy the book, and donate the money you would have spent to charity.

Can't we do both?

Re: Edward Snowden: Permanent Record

#323

Post by dredmorbius »

microcolonel wrote: post #133
jrochkind1 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, Worldcat data quality is definitely very problematic. At it's best, it definitely doesn't represent _every_ library copy. It requires libraries to register their copies with the central database. All of these libraries are different organizations with different software, at varying stages of 'legacy', trying to interoperate with each other, usually without very well-resourced IT teams. Then WorldCat has got to fi…

Maybe the long term solution is to put together an open source library database package that serves the needs of 90% of libraries without modification, and make it convenient to make high quality data available.

Worldcat / OCLC is pretty close to this. It's not fully open source, but it's widely used and pretty open.

(The fact that the API isn't publicly accessible without registration and payment is a major annoyance.)

Re: Edward Snowden: Permanent Record

#324

Post by dredmorbius »

pdm55 wrote: post #118

Another new book just published on data privacy: Tools and Weapons: The Promise and the Peril of the Digital Age Hardcover – September 10, 2019 by Brad Smith (Author), Carol Ann Browne (Author), Bill Gates (Foreword) https://www.amazon.com/Tools-Weapons-Promise-Peril-Digital/d...

The contrast between Brad Smith's title, and Gates's The Road Ahead (1996), speaks worlds.

(Gates writes a foreward to Smith's book. I've not yet seen it.)

Re: Edward Snowden: Permanent Record

#326

Post by NilsIRL »

hsavit1 wrote: post #87

Any links posted to amazon.com from HN should be to smile.amazon.com -> .5% of your purchase will be donated to a clarity of your choice.

I wouldn't see any reason not to.

Though please keep in mind that smile.amazon.com is a marketing stunt. Firstly, it makes people less reluctant to buy increasing Amazon's revenue and secondly, Amazon is donating the money, so they get to pay less tax.

Re: Edward Snowden: Permanent Record

#327

Post by NobodyNada »

OrgNet wrote: post #280
OrgNet wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https is not safe against the government....

... because they can force CAs to give them the keys to decrypt all traffic.

That's not true, since CAs don't have "the keys to decrypt all traffic." They have the ability to sign website operators' public keys, but they do not have access to the website operators' private keys.

Of course, the CA could also issue a fake certificate with attacker-controlled keys, but if they tried to do so, they would get caught by Certificate Transparency.

Re: Edward Snowden: Permanent Record

#328

Post by jonfw »

mindslight wrote: post #308
roenxi wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Corporate surveillance is only a problem because it will sooner or later feed in to government surveillance. If I could wave a wand and stop that happening I'd be fine with corporate surveillance; I'm annoyed but not threatened by the idea that someone will study my every movement trying to sell me things I want. I'm threatened if the extremely arbitrary government decides that I'm an undesirable for some reason. > c…

Simply asserting that you're somehow impervious to corporate power is not an argument. Individuals only have the absolute power to not transact in an ideal market where there is vibrant competition for your business, and our real market is far from ideal. 1. Persistent psychological manipulation (advertising), including political manipulation, based on knowing your weaknesses better than you know yourself. 2. Punitiv…

> Punitive insurance rates based on unreasonable inferences, especially for mandatory insurances. Like say doubling your auto insurance rate for buying more than a few beers per week. Or your health insurance going up from buying a power tools.

Is it just supposed to be self-evident that those inferences are unreasonable?

I've always thought that this was an interesting argument. If there is some form of correlation with beer consumption and and car accidents, wouldn't it make sense to adjust your estimated risk based on that information?

I do find it self-evident that that would be a bad thing, but I also have a hard time putting my finger on why.

Re: Edward Snowden: Permanent Record

#329

Post by kerkeslager »

Aunche wrote: post #312
kerkeslager wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

During the Cold War, the US government did a lot of things which were extraordinarily harmful to US Citizens and contributed nothing to fighting Soviet totalitarianism. Soviet totalitarianism was certainly a threat, but US repsonses to Soviet totalitarianism were often counterproductive. There's a strong argument to be made that the US government did more harm to US citizens during the Cold War than the Soviets ever…

> contributed nothing to fighting Soviet totalitarianism I wouldn't say nothing. At the very least, they made sure that Russia wasn't planning to fire any nukes at us.

I probably could have worded that better--it's ambiguous. What I meant is that a lot of the things which the US government did were harmful to US Citizens, and a lot of those same things that the government did, contributed nothing to the fight against Soviet totalitarianism.

Many of the mkultra experiments are a good example: the US government drove a bunch of US citizens insane for projects which ultimately resulted in no useable weaponry.

My point being: simply waving your hands and saying "the cold war!" isn't a valid defense of US government organizations.

Re: Edward Snowden: Permanent Record

#330

Post by kerkeslager »

throw0101a wrote: post #294
dahdum wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's a strong argument to be made that the US government did more harm to US citizens during the Cold War than the Soviets ever did. I'd be open to hearing evidence that the NSA was an exception, but you certainly haven't presented any. What harm do you claim the NSA did to Americans in that time? Their mandate is foreign surveillance, and while citizens do get caught in their net (especially with foreign contac…

> What harm do you claim the NSA did to Americans in that time? The GP did not say "NSA", but "US government". See for example: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO

Correct, this is what I meant.
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