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Mark Zuckerberg addresses PRISM

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Re: Mark Zuckerberg addresses PRISM

#121

Post by quackerhacker »

leoc wrote: post #102
pitchups wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>..another possibility is that they want people to notice the similarities and become more upset about PRISM. Ah, that makes sense, if they are under a gag order, but yet want to subtly convey that they are under a gag order! It would be a brilliant way of circumventing it.

That doesn't seem likely to me. If you want to let the truth be known, but you feel so much under the gun that you issue not just a minimum-compliance false statement but a fulsome one under your own name, would you really feel safe contacting a bunch of other Silicon Valley CEOs to co-ordinate such a subtle but intentional secret message?

Agreed...unlikely. But I will say this jokingly...if they were coordinating, they might not be using Verizon to do so. ;)

Re: Mark Zuckerberg addresses PRISM

#122

Post by jlgreco »

UnoriginalGuy wrote: post #111
adamjernst wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the NSA was MITMing SSL communications on a wide scale, presumably the companies would notice that the cert fingerprints were not what the companies expected.

I didn't say MITM. I said redirecting/copying traffic to spy on it.

Without the key, they couldn't read it. Getting a CA on board doesn't give them that (that would only allow them to create an alternative key that software without pinning would accept), they would need to either be given the key by anyone that had it or factor it themselves.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg addresses PRISM

#123

Post by slg »

dkulchenko wrote: post #23

Look at the two writeups (Zuckerberg's and Page's) side by side. Each has 4 paragraphs. Each of the pairs of paragraphs addresses the same thing. 1st paragraph: we wanted to respond to these claims. 2nd paragraph: never heard of PRISM, don't give direct access. 3rd paragraph: each request goes through legal channels. 4th paragraph: encourage governments to be more transparent. Terrifying. EDIT: It gets worse. Here's…

The implication that there is some central figure behind this giving these companies scripts to read meets the most common flaw of governmental conspiracy theories. It requires the government to be simultaneously incredibly competent and incompetent. If the NSA was able to keep this project under wraps for so long with the number of people involved, I think they would be smart enough to at least slightly alter the words of their puppets, after all this is supposed to be the area of their expertise.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg addresses PRISM

#125

Post by electic »

slg wrote: post #123
dkulchenko wrote: post #23

Look at the two writeups (Zuckerberg's and Page's) side by side. Each has 4 paragraphs. Each of the pairs of paragraphs addresses the same thing. 1st paragraph: we wanted to respond to these claims. 2nd paragraph: never heard of PRISM, don't give direct access. 3rd paragraph: each request goes through legal channels. 4th paragraph: encourage governments to be more transparent. Terrifying. EDIT: It gets worse. Here's…

The implication that there is some central figure behind this giving these companies scripts to read meets the most common flaw of governmental conspiracy theories. It requires the government to be simultaneously incredibly competent and incompetent. If the NSA was able to keep this project under wraps for so long with the number of people involved, I think they would be smart enough to at least slightly alter the wo…

Things done in haste tend to look like this. It is almost absurd to think that every company mentioned somehow came up with the same statement by chance.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg addresses PRISM

#126

Post by samstave »

slg wrote: post #123
dkulchenko wrote: post #23

Look at the two writeups (Zuckerberg's and Page's) side by side. Each has 4 paragraphs. Each of the pairs of paragraphs addresses the same thing. 1st paragraph: we wanted to respond to these claims. 2nd paragraph: never heard of PRISM, don't give direct access. 3rd paragraph: each request goes through legal channels. 4th paragraph: encourage governments to be more transparent. Terrifying. EDIT: It gets worse. Here's…

The implication that there is some central figure behind this giving these companies scripts to read meets the most common flaw of governmental conspiracy theories. It requires the government to be simultaneously incredibly competent and incompetent. If the NSA was able to keep this project under wraps for so long with the number of people involved, I think they would be smart enough to at least slightly alter the wo…

We see Eglin's sockpuppets all the time on reddit, they are actually pretty easy to spot.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg addresses PRISM

#127

Post by paulrademacher »

dkulchenko wrote: post #23

Look at the two writeups (Zuckerberg's and Page's) side by side. Each has 4 paragraphs. Each of the pairs of paragraphs addresses the same thing. 1st paragraph: we wanted to respond to these claims. 2nd paragraph: never heard of PRISM, don't give direct access. 3rd paragraph: each request goes through legal channels. 4th paragraph: encourage governments to be more transparent. Terrifying. EDIT: It gets worse. Here's…

You seem to be suggesting one of two things. Either:

1) The heads of these companies had a conference call this morning and agreed on a 4-paragraph format, with specific points for each paragraph.

Or 2) The federal government instructed each company to respond today, with a 4-paragraph point-by-point, and then Larry and Mark obediently complied.

Ludicrous.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg addresses PRISM

#128

Post by dorkrawk »

dkulchenko wrote: post #23

Look at the two writeups (Zuckerberg's and Page's) side by side. Each has 4 paragraphs. Each of the pairs of paragraphs addresses the same thing. 1st paragraph: we wanted to respond to these claims. 2nd paragraph: never heard of PRISM, don't give direct access. 3rd paragraph: each request goes through legal channels. 4th paragraph: encourage governments to be more transparent. Terrifying. EDIT: It gets worse. Here's…

Maybe the official responses by these major companies were about the same event were all reviewed by corporate lawyers who all hone in on very similar language and addressable points because it's a tricky statement to make and there are few ways to make it correctly?

Re: Mark Zuckerberg addresses PRISM

#129

Post by leoc »

Hm. At this point I think I'd set better than 50% odds that the PRISM Powerpoint is a fake. Which is not to say that there's nothing to it - there could be all sorts of things behind it (the phrase 'modified limited hangout' is one that springs to mind).

Re: Mark Zuckerberg addresses PRISM

#130

Post by adventured »

slg wrote: post #123
dkulchenko wrote: post #23

Look at the two writeups (Zuckerberg's and Page's) side by side. Each has 4 paragraphs. Each of the pairs of paragraphs addresses the same thing. 1st paragraph: we wanted to respond to these claims. 2nd paragraph: never heard of PRISM, don't give direct access. 3rd paragraph: each request goes through legal channels. 4th paragraph: encourage governments to be more transparent. Terrifying. EDIT: It gets worse. Here's…

The implication that there is some central figure behind this giving these companies scripts to read meets the most common flaw of governmental conspiracy theories. It requires the government to be simultaneously incredibly competent and incompetent. If the NSA was able to keep this project under wraps for so long with the number of people involved, I think they would be smart enough to at least slightly alter the wo…

You're wrong, it does not require that they be incredibly competent, not in the least.

It requires that they coordinated with the companies PR departments in the process of setting up the program. The companies asked: what if the shit hits the fan, or this comes out in the public, what do we say? And the government had a simple, boilerplate answer for it.

You wouldn't even have to work with the PR dept, just one single person. Either a special rep in PR for government matters, or just the CEO himself. It would take 5 minutes to put together a generalized script for the CEO to follow in the event this hit the public news.

This (the PR response) would be extraordinarily easy to coordinate, and it would take just one conversation at the point the program was signed on to by the companies.

And when this all became public, the company could also easily then call up the US Government and ask them what to do (and more than likely, the NSA could call them and tell them what to do).

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