Also, they're controlling our minds with the flouride they put in the water.
How and why the government is stalking you
11–20 of 42 posts
Re: How and why the government is stalking you
#12What's even sadder is that many if not most HN users are contributing to the surveillance apparatus by building web apps and infrastructure, promoting it, and not taking a stand against it. How many of you Googlers and Facebookers (and the legions of you working for Facebook/Google wannabes) have really thought hard about what you're doing? How many of you care? How many of you honestly want to do something to stop t…
It's always shocking to me how many of the people I graduated with want to go work for 'defence' contractors/intelligence agencies like the NSA. I can't tell if people don't think about the affect they're having on the world or just don't care.
I don't have a problem with cow-tipping apps, I just want people to avoid actively harming the world.
Re: How and why the government is stalking you
#13Meh. Layer on top of this what we already know about the close relationship between mobile providers and the government, and it’s a safe bet that if the government wants to know where you and what you’re up to right now, they know. IOW the headline is just linkbait; the government can stalk you more easily than ever before, but in the text of the article comes the admission that it's not necessarily bothering to do s…
Distinctly underwhelmed is right.
"The government knows a bunch of stuff about you that you choose to publicly disclose! Panic!"
Re: How and why the government is stalking you
#14What's even sadder is that many if not most HN users are contributing to the surveillance apparatus by building web apps and infrastructure, promoting it, and not taking a stand against it. How many of you Googlers and Facebookers (and the legions of you working for Facebook/Google wannabes) have really thought hard about what you're doing? How many of you care? How many of you honestly want to do something to stop t…
I think this place has lost a great deal of respect from the people that made it successful in the first place.
Re: How and why the government is stalking you
#15Meh. Layer on top of this what we already know about the close relationship between mobile providers and the government, and it’s a safe bet that if the government wants to know where you and what you’re up to right now, they know. IOW the headline is just linkbait; the government can stalk you more easily than ever before, but in the text of the article comes the admission that it's not necessarily bothering to do s…
I think the implications of your second topic are more profound than you are considering. By creating these online sock puppets and fictitious lives to back them up, the government is essentially injecting fake government agents into our lives which could go deeper than any of us would normally imagine. For instance, to be taken seriously on a message board such as ours, you might need a github page. You might also need a meetup profile. And you'd need a linkedin that's believable. To make these happen you might also need some real-world interaction, so it's possibly tied in with undercover agents in the real world, such as those infiltrating occupy wallstreet or other groups/organizations/companies we don't know about.
Re: How and why the government is stalking you
#16But how much data are they collecting that we DON'T know about?
Exactly. You read about things like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A and you just have to wonder. That's an Internet backbone, who knows what they're capable of parsing and retaining from it. And if the capabilities existed to data warehouse the entire backbone, why not (if you're the NSA)?
Re: How and why the government is stalking you
#17What's even sadder is that many if not most HN users are contributing to the surveillance apparatus by building web apps and infrastructure, promoting it, and not taking a stand against it. How many of you Googlers and Facebookers (and the legions of you working for Facebook/Google wannabes) have really thought hard about what you're doing? How many of you care? How many of you honestly want to do something to stop t…
It's always shocking to me how many of the people I graduated with want to go work for 'defence' contractors/intelligence agencies like the NSA. I can't tell if people don't think about the affect they're having on the world or just don't care. I don't have a problem with cow-tipping apps, I just want people to avoid actively harming the world.
Working for an "intelligence" agency, especially in a field like cryptography, allows you access to state-of-the-art technologies and cutting edge research, and an enormous amount of resources that you would not have access to in a civilian job. A famous example of classified cutting edge research is the RSA algorithm which was actually discovered in 1973 by Clifford Cocks.
Government agencies sometimes have reputations for employing people not smart or competent to work in the private sector. Only a handful of agencies in the U.S, such as the NSA and the CDC, have reputations for hiring highly intelligent people. The chance to work with some of the best people in your field is attractive to many people.
Not all intelligence and defense contractors are created equal, and some people want to work for these companies or agencies because they think it is "cool". Most of these people find out that the job is not as "cool" as they thought it would be, and soon find employment elsewhere.
Re: How and why the government is stalking you
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's always shocking to me how many of the people I graduated with want to go work for 'defence' contractors/intelligence agencies like the NSA. I can't tell if people don't think about the affect they're having on the world or just don't care. I don't have a problem with cow-tipping apps, I just want people to avoid actively harming the world.
Working for an "intelligence" agency, especially in a field like cryptography, allows you access to state-of-the-art technologies and cutting edge research, and an enormous amount of resources that you would not have access to in a civilian job. A famous example of classified cutting edge research is the RSA algorithm which was actually discovered in 1973 by Clifford Cocks. Government agencies sometimes have reputati…
I can't speak for the NSA, but the cybersecurity-type research groups I'm familiar with allow you to choose what you work on. You can choose not to work on things you find morally disagreeable while still having the opportunity to do work that has real national/international impact.
Re: How and why the government is stalking you
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's always shocking to me how many of the people I graduated with want to go work for 'defence' contractors/intelligence agencies like the NSA. I can't tell if people don't think about the affect they're having on the world or just don't care. I don't have a problem with cow-tipping apps, I just want people to avoid actively harming the world.
Working for an "intelligence" agency, especially in a field like cryptography, allows you access to state-of-the-art technologies and cutting edge research, and an enormous amount of resources that you would not have access to in a civilian job. A famous example of classified cutting edge research is the RSA algorithm which was actually discovered in 1973 by Clifford Cocks. Government agencies sometimes have reputati…
Most of these people find out that the job is not as "cool" as they thought it would be, and soon find employment elsewhere.
I'm one of the few people I know who did this. (I used to be a Navy officer and spent time at the NSA.) By far, the vast majority of friends I had in the Navy wanted to go into defense contracting/spy agencies after they got out. Once your in the military industrial complex, there is a huge cult atmosphere about staying. Few escape.
Re: How and why the government is stalking you
#20What's even sadder is that many if not most HN users are contributing to the surveillance apparatus by building web apps and infrastructure, promoting it, and not taking a stand against it. How many of you Googlers and Facebookers (and the legions of you working for Facebook/Google wannabes) have really thought hard about what you're doing? How many of you care? How many of you honestly want to do something to stop t…
It's always shocking to me how many of the people I graduated with want to go work for 'defence' contractors/intelligence agencies like the NSA. I can't tell if people don't think about the affect they're having on the world or just don't care. I don't have a problem with cow-tipping apps, I just want people to avoid actively harming the world.
> I can't tell if people don't think about the affect they're having on the world or just don't care.
Your case analysis is missing some cases.