Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm fairly sure that if the NSA want your data they will get it, if necessary using rubber hose cryptanalysis. Regardless of legality.
I'm very sure that you're wrong. Do you have any evidence that the NSA kidnaps and tortures people?
Former NSA chief Keith Alexander has joined Amazon’s board of directors
391–400 of 465 posts
Re: Former NSA chief Keith Alexander has joined Amazon’s board of directors
#392> For those keeping score, not only does Amazon own the The Washington Post and oversees the CIA’s Commercial Cloud Enterprise, it now has on its powerful board of directors the most visible figure from the NSA who illegally spied on Americans for the better part of a decade. This sounds tinfoil hat crazy, but here we are. Not so crazy now. Man in a position to have reams of compromising intel on the current presiden…
> Man in a position to have reams of compromising intel on the current president hired by a man in an ongoing battle with the president. I want the NSA to know everything a US President does while in office. I want the NSA to know everything a candidate for US President does while they are running for office. The President of the US is not a regular citizen. The cost of being handed almost unlimited power is that you…
> I want the NSA to know everything a US President does while in office. I want the NSA to know everything a candidate for US President does while they are running for office.
Neglecting the fact that, according to Snowden, they already have that power, are you aware what power this gives the intelligence community and, by implication, the sitting president over elections and up-and-coming presidential candidates? Yes, Donald Trump is dangerous. But this doesn't mean we should employ even more dangerous tactics to control him.
Re: Former NSA chief Keith Alexander has joined Amazon’s board of directors
#393> For those keeping score, not only does Amazon own the The Washington Post and oversees the CIA’s Commercial Cloud Enterprise, it now has on its powerful board of directors the most visible figure from the NSA who illegally spied on Americans for the better part of a decade. This sounds tinfoil hat crazy, but here we are. Not so crazy now. Man in a position to have reams of compromising intel on the current presiden…
Except that The Washington Post operates independently, and has strong editorial standards, something that a lot of "news" sites on the Internet today don't even pretend to have. The Post continues to publish articles about surveillance, as well as articles critical of Amazon. For example, here's reporting on an interview with Martin Baron, the paper’s executive editor: Mr. Bezos holds conference calls with The Post’…
> Except that The Washington Post operates independently, and has strong editorial standards, something that a lot of "news" sites on the Internet today don't even pretend to have.
Right, your news company is the only one that doesn't smell. Maybe you should adopt the motto "fair and balanced" to reflect how editorially independent and objective you are.
> Martin Baron, the paper’s executive editor:
The newspaper's editor says that he is objective? Zuckerburg also says facebook is all about user privacy. So it must be true.
Re: Former NSA chief Keith Alexander has joined Amazon’s board of directors
#394Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Man in a position to have reams of compromising intel on the current president hired by a man in an ongoing battle with the president. I want the NSA to know everything a US President does while in office. I want the NSA to know everything a candidate for US President does while they are running for office. The President of the US is not a regular citizen. The cost of being handed almost unlimited power is that you…
> I want the NSA to know everything a US President does while in office. I want the NSA to know everything a candidate for US President does while they are running for office. Neglecting the fact that, according to Snowden, they already have that power, are you aware what power this gives the intelligence community and, by implication, the sitting president over elections and up-and-coming presidential candidates? Ye…
> according to Snowden, they already have that power
That's an explosive claim. If Snowden knows that they have that power, why didn't he leak documents that show they do?
Re: Former NSA chief Keith Alexander has joined Amazon’s board of directors
#395> For those keeping score, not only does Amazon own the The Washington Post and oversees the CIA’s Commercial Cloud Enterprise, it now has on its powerful board of directors the most visible figure from the NSA who illegally spied on Americans for the better part of a decade. This sounds tinfoil hat crazy, but here we are. Not so crazy now. Man in a position to have reams of compromising intel on the current presiden…
> who illegally spied on Americans And this guy lied to Congress about it. And unlike plain folks who would have been prosecuted and jailed for this, he wasn't even indicted.
> And this guy lied to Congress about it.
When? James Clapper is not one of Keith Alexander's aliases.
Re: Former NSA chief Keith Alexander has joined Amazon’s board of directors
#396Earlier quoted context omitted.
This: This sounds tinfoil hat crazy, but here we are. Not so crazy now At some point we need to just say it some of the largest tech companies are basically NSA+CIA partners and we're well on our way to having Big Tech completely integrated into NSA and CIA and DoD
The government created Silicon Valley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTC_RxWN_xo I have no evidence other than the sheer obviousness of it, but the ties still continue to this day. I have no doubt it is kept hidden from most employees due to the general political leanings of most Valley engineers. For instance, my work does a ton of work for the DoE and you hear them mentioned all the time. The DoD is also a custom…
I have evidence: I used to date a couple of CEO secretaries, and they always told me when the spooks came to town. Often. And a lot of companies where you think to yourself "gee, that's pretty weird, why would they be interested there."
Re: Former NSA chief Keith Alexander has joined Amazon’s board of directors
#397There will come a time when, as a society, we will have to ditch Amazon, and come up with alternatives to regular online retail. I just hope technology and IT evolves so that online retail is decentralized.
I've moved most of my online shopping over to Walmart so I can support the little guy
For a brief moment a thought this was a joke, but at only ~$392 Billion market cap Walmart really is the little guy compared to amazon (1.64 Trillion)
Re: Former NSA chief Keith Alexander has joined Amazon’s board of directors
#398Whoever is running Amazon's PR is either really good and has determined this won't matter, or is really really incompetent. Based on how the PR for HQ2 in NYC went, I'm suspecting the latter.
[deleted]
Re: Former NSA chief Keith Alexander has joined Amazon’s board of directors
#399Earlier quoted context omitted.
While either is possible, your response reminds me of Russell's teapot because it's just as possible that Bezos eats dirt. Without being able to falsify the claim, and by deferring to a claim that isn't the simplest possible explanation (he's got nothing), it makes me wonder whether other HN commentators will come to defend my "Bezos is a dirtmonger" conspiracy theory as well.
So, Mr. Bezos, have you stopped eating dirt?
"I did not inhale"
Re: Former NSA chief Keith Alexander has joined Amazon’s board of directors
#400Earlier quoted context omitted.
Oh, come on. This kind of naïveté is contagious. I'm pretty sure you can think of stronger business cases against Amazon/US-Milspec involvement in a non-American business. Amazon, in the hands of Americas spooks, can do a lot of damage to the world of non-Americans; i.e. anyone the spooks decide to hate/target for usurpation. You think Germany is inured from such attention?
I think your being overly paranoid. The effort required to covertly break into an AWS instance and not have anyone in the sysadmin teams know is simply not worth it for 99.9% of businesses. I run a simply mid-level business. Amazon doesn't give a crap about my data - that, above all, is what keeps it safe. I'm just not important enough to bother.
>I run a simply mid-level business.
Well, you should understand this a little better, then.
Okay try this scenario: lets say I work for a German company that is kicking ass in a market that a spook-at-Amazon has heavily invested in - lets just say "personal transportation system X".
Because its Germany, the tech is amazing and consequently I'm going to sell this tech to Africa, because I like doing that, and not in America - because fuck America, that's why. Also, maybe China, maybe Kazakhstan. My tech, my choice.
Should I succeed in this endeavour, I'm immediately under threat of being NSA'ed by the provider of service I'd rely on, ordinarily, to render my research.
This isn't paranoia, it is due diligence.
Yeah, no thanks, Amazon. This heralds a watershed moment: a return to local services.
Just better to avoid the American spook-o'-sphere entirely, and play a local hand. Maybe even take the data centre guys out for grünkohl and senf some time, whatever.
Look - to understand why the hate for all the spook/control paranoia, Americans/Brits/5-eyes/et al., all you have to do is try to see it from the other side of the national identity for a second.
Germans are very, very rightly on the side of data protection.
The holes in the ground that used to be Gestapo buildings are not all parking lots! Some of them are memorials.
Also not paranoia: diligence.
(^WThis comment brought to you by the ACME-HNnnn-comment-slowdown-negotiator-system™ .. time wasted, is creativity! Disclaimer: Not German, am applying hypotheticals. Still not paranoia!)