Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Whistleblower Binney says the NSA has dossiers on nearly every US citizen

networkworld.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 228 posts

Re: Whistleblower Binney says the NSA has dossiers on nearly every US citizen

#101

Post by Freestyler_3 »

Just lifting the curtain will hopefully be enough, if you really need to say anything after doing that...

We are sitting in the theater and the curtains are closed, we are reading the program. The program says "It's okay, nothing is happening behind the curtain." After everyone read their program 99% of the crowd leaves because they think they know enough. Then that 1% is eagerly waiting to see the show. And there are a few people trying to sabotage the place and open the curtains so that the people can see the show. Those curtains are not going to open themselves.

Re: Whistleblower Binney says the NSA has dossiers on nearly every US citizen

#102

Post by sigzero »

euroclydon wrote: post #90
kamaal wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Muslim here. I never understood both sides and their actions. I mean I find both Islamic fundamentalism and American actions all round globe both equally dumb. I don't think OBL ever had it as an explicit aim to pull down US militarily or culturally transform US into a Islamic state. That is impossible, and I assume somebody like him already understood that. I guess his aim was to drag US into a war and then reduce t…

Its actually surprising that US fell for it. Yep. Bush would have been a hero if he hadn't fallen for it. Compassionate conservatism, expressed in Medicare Part C. Tax cuts combined with modest military expansion would have held the deficit in check. But remember the pundits saying, "this one calles for boots on the ground"? Even Jon Stewart showed a clip of Bush or someone making a compassionate statement, and comme…

Clinton would have done the same. 9/11 was much different than the attacks in the 90s.

Re: Whistleblower Binney says the NSA has dossiers on nearly every US citizen

#103

Post by gsai »

tlrobinson wrote: post #19
WestCoastJustin wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a question about this -- maybe I'm ignorant. But using https without self-signed keys actually allows the government to peer into your communications, doesn't it? We are worried about third parties stealing your data between you and your bank for example. A bank might be a bad example as they probably already have access to their databases for compliance reasons. Can't the US government ask for the keys of the…

They don't even need to ask for the keys. Pretty much every OS/browser comes with root CAs belonging to the U.S. government (on OS X I see "DoD Root CA 2" and "DoD CLASS 3 Root CA", see also http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4415 ). As I understand it, if they wanted to, they could MITM any HTTPS connection by forging a certificate using their root CAs. This is why people were upset when a root CA for some Chinese govern…

Why would the DoD want to do a MITM on Facebook when Facebook just hands it over when told to do so?

Re: Whistleblower Binney says the NSA has dossiers on nearly every US citizen

#104

Post by kennon »

mtgx wrote: post #96
kitsune_ wrote: post #79

Switzerland had a huge surveillance scandal during the 80's. It was named "Fichenskandal" or in English, "Secret files scandal". More than 700'000 people or organizations were targeted, usually people on the left: unions, feminists, environmentalists etc. A friend of my father runs an independent book store and he requested his files after the scandal was made public. He received a stack of paper over 10 inches high.…

Is there a good reason for any country to have spies at all, especially for internal matters? I feel that spying on other countries (let alone on own citizens) shouldn't exist at all, but it has become accepted by societies as something that the Governments just have to do, to "make their job easier", just like even FBI said recently that they'd prefer if they didn't need to get warrants, because it would make their…

I'm curious why you think international spying is unnecessary. Until countries cease to compete for limited resources, it seems to me like an inevitability.

Re: Whistleblower Binney says the NSA has dossiers on nearly every US citizen

#105

Post by saryant »

mjwalshe wrote: post #75
saryant wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Registering your political party is a state thing, not federal. Nor does every state require it. My state, Texas, does not. You can see all the information asked for when registering to vote here: https://webservices.sos.state.tx.us/vrapp/index.asp

So I am registering with "local" govenment FFS that is even worse at least at the national level there is some oversight and Journalists holding teh executive to account.

I have a pretty dim outlook on the state of civil rights in this country but I think you're going too far. States which ask for this information do so in order to give you your party's ballot during primary elections.

I think you're reading too much into this one. The fact that not every state asks should also point to a lack of any grand conspiriacy here.

Re: Whistleblower Binney says the NSA has dossiers on nearly every US citizen

#106

Post by Tloewald »

euroclydon wrote: post #90
kamaal wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Muslim here. I never understood both sides and their actions. I mean I find both Islamic fundamentalism and American actions all round globe both equally dumb. I don't think OBL ever had it as an explicit aim to pull down US militarily or culturally transform US into a Islamic state. That is impossible, and I assume somebody like him already understood that. I guess his aim was to drag US into a war and then reduce t…

Its actually surprising that US fell for it. Yep. Bush would have been a hero if he hadn't fallen for it. Compassionate conservatism, expressed in Medicare Part C. Tax cuts combined with modest military expansion would have held the deficit in check. But remember the pundits saying, "this one calles for boots on the ground"? Even Jon Stewart showed a clip of Bush or someone making a compassionate statement, and comme…

I think the invasion of Afghanistan was inevitable, but not Iraq. Afghanistan was a big mistake (even Rthe USSR, with a land border, couldnt handle it) but Iraq was worse and bizarre.

Re: Whistleblower Binney says the NSA has dossiers on nearly every US citizen

#107

Post by freehunter »

keithpeter wrote: post #51

"Domestically, they're pulling together all the data about virtually every U.S. citizen in the country and assembling that information, building communities that you have relationships with, and knowledge about you; what your activities are; what you're doing." A plot for a novel: NSA operative comes across an identity with no links to any other identity, no social network history. Just an isolated node... curious, s…

Mulder, is this another X file?

Re: Whistleblower Binney says the NSA has dossiers on nearly every US citizen

#108

Post by mnutt »

tlrobinson wrote: post #19
WestCoastJustin wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a question about this -- maybe I'm ignorant. But using https without self-signed keys actually allows the government to peer into your communications, doesn't it? We are worried about third parties stealing your data between you and your bank for example. A bank might be a bad example as they probably already have access to their databases for compliance reasons. Can't the US government ask for the keys of the…

They don't even need to ask for the keys. Pretty much every OS/browser comes with root CAs belonging to the U.S. government (on OS X I see "DoD Root CA 2" and "DoD CLASS 3 Root CA", see also http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4415 ). As I understand it, if they wanted to, they could MITM any HTTPS connection by forging a certificate using their root CAs. This is why people were upset when a root CA for some Chinese govern…

Google is using certificate pinning for Chrome/Gmail, though it's targeted to fix their particular case and not a good general solution.

http://blog.chromium.org/2011/06/new-chromium-security-featu...

Re: Whistleblower Binney says the NSA has dossiers on nearly every US citizen

#109

Post by bryanlarsen »

sigzero wrote: post #102
euroclydon wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its actually surprising that US fell for it. Yep. Bush would have been a hero if he hadn't fallen for it. Compassionate conservatism, expressed in Medicare Part C. Tax cuts combined with modest military expansion would have held the deficit in check. But remember the pundits saying, "this one calles for boots on the ground"? Even Jon Stewart showed a clip of Bush or someone making a compassionate statement, and comme…

Clinton would have done the same. 9/11 was much different than the attacks in the 90s.

Clinton would have attacked Afghanistan, sure. But would he have stayed in Afghanistan and/or attacked Iraq? Those are the two items that have cost dearly.

Re: Whistleblower Binney says the NSA has dossiers on nearly every US citizen

#110

Post by DanI-S »

kennon wrote: post #104
mtgx wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a good reason for any country to have spies at all, especially for internal matters? I feel that spying on other countries (let alone on own citizens) shouldn't exist at all, but it has become accepted by societies as something that the Governments just have to do, to "make their job easier", just like even FBI said recently that they'd prefer if they didn't need to get warrants, because it would make their…

I'm curious why you think international spying is unnecessary. Until countries cease to compete for limited resources, it seems to me like an inevitability.

Why should it be considered morally acceptable by those who vote? When have we had the opportunity to vote on it?
Post reply on HN