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“We kill people based on metadata” and other metadata things

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211–220 of 276 posts

Re: “We kill people based on metadata” and other metadata things

#211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not about how much absolute money is spent per each false positive, it's about how much you can get away with wasting. If a decision maker in the CIA is not punished for each brain fart, why would they avoid mistakes ? You get the behaviour that you reinforce and tolerate.

Exactly. A false positive likely results in more money because you need to buy more equipment to replace what you just used, and even more to do it "right this time".

Welcome to what happens when NatSec gets to set their own terms on visibility.

Re: “We kill people based on metadata” and other metadata things

#212
post #164
post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many Americans died from terrorism? How many foreigners died from anti-terrorism drone strikes?

These are actually easy things to look up. 910-2,200 civilians killed by drone strikes[1]. More than that were killed on 9/11 alone [2]. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_casualties_from_U.S._... 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks

I know we're talking about drone strikes, but we should always and forever note that the civilian casualties from the US' war on terror far outweighs [0] those who died from terrorism. Not to mention the US troops who died to make Iraqi oil available to US businesses, or who continue to die by suicide and social deaths related to their experiences in the war [1].

[0] https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/figures/2021/WarDeathTol...

[1] https://www.npr.org/2021/06/24/1009846329/military-suicides-...

Re: “We kill people based on metadata” and other metadata things

#213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a false equivalence though and not what the alternative option is here. The government was killing its enemies 100 years before the word digital was invented and will continue to do so as long as government exist. They will use every technology invented in the pursuit of doing so. Blaming metadata signature based approaches is no different than blaming their use of satellites, metallurgy, hell the wheel is a b…

In 2010, an American citizen was killed in a drone strike by the US military, without a trial or any attempt to make an arrest. This was the first time in history that a US civilian was killed by the US military. Before 2010, we were doing just fine without executing citizens on suspect legal grounds. Edit: Edited to state that this was not fire of combatants in a combat zone.

Did no civilians die that time in 1864 when the Union Army burned Georgia to the ground?

Re: “We kill people based on metadata” and other metadata things

#214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there any actual evidence that he declassified all of that material while in office? Did he even tell anybody? No? Well, then, any such claims are necessarily retroactive, or else they're invalid from the get-go. Which do you prefer?

This is pure sophistry, and in addition it is factually incorrect. You should look carefully at the word 'authority' and diversify your information sources.

My information source is the former NSA counsel, among many others. What's yours?

Re: “We kill people based on metadata” and other metadata things

#216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is pure sophistry, and in addition it is factually incorrect. You should look carefully at the word 'authority' and diversify your information sources.

My information source is the former NSA counsel, among many others. What's yours?

Varied, mostly practitioners. High value on non-partisans, demonstrated by inclination to make and entertain counterargument, and an extensive history of demonstrated preference. By the way, I cannot help but notice that your “former NSA counsel” remains anonymous. Susan Hennessey, nor anyone affiliated with Lawfare or Brookings meet the minimum criteria.

Re: “We kill people based on metadata” and other metadata things

#217

To me discussions about privacy often seem like bullshit. Here is a comment I wrote yesterday about a former AdWords employee as privacy violation apologist: Hypocritically people bitch about intrusive data collection from governments and yet simultaneously give away the same data, and encourage others to do the same, and more to private companies knowing that data will be weaponized against them. As such it’s almost…

People don't have a choice about giving information to governments. There's a fourth amendment for a reason so I'm obviously anti dragnet. Private parties though may opt into providing anything legal to other private parties at their sole discretion and that's the nature of things. Despite the fact that the majority of Americans are making market choices that many of us would consider "not privacy respecting", that d…

If there were proper protections in place to protect privacy it doesn’t matter whether the violator is a government or commercial enterprise. Secondly, the courts have repeated ruled that the fourth amendment has nothing to do with privacy.

Re: “We kill people based on metadata” and other metadata things

#218
post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As an American I'm ashamed that my government has done things like this Have you voted against all of your elected representatives that authorized it? The only way things like this will change is if the people force them to change by making it clear to politicians that they will not be elected or re-elected if they support them.

How do you suggest voting against the representatives that do this when both the Democrats and Republicans do it?

Politicians currently in office of both parties do it, yes. That doesn't mean politicians of both parties who will be running for office in the future will necessarily do it. There are many ways for voters to communicate preferences prior to elections in order to influence the policy positions of candidates. Of course it won't change drastically in just one election; we didn't get to where we are now with just one election. It took many decades. But change has to start somewhere.

Re: “We kill people based on metadata” and other metadata things

#219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My information source is the former NSA counsel, among many others. What's yours?

Varied, mostly practitioners. High value on non-partisans, demonstrated by inclination to make and entertain counterargument, and an extensive history of demonstrated preference. By the way, I cannot help but notice that your “former NSA counsel” remains anonymous. Susan Hennessey, nor anyone affiliated with Lawfare or Brookings meet the minimum criteria.

The NSA counsel being Glenn Gerstell:

https://www.factcheck.org/2022/08/trumps-dubious-standing-or...

https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/18/politics/trump-claim-standing...

Ultimately it'll probably come down to Trump thanking his lucky stars that he owns a big chunk of SCOTUS.

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