it's too late America - the frog is cooked. thanks for being so engaged.
NSA admits listening to U.S. phone calls without warrants
311–320 of 407 posts
Re: NSA admits listening to U.S. phone calls without warrants
#312A friend of mine recently suggested that thousands of people around the world get on the phones once every week and just say words like "bomb" and "president" and "terrorist". If the US really is vacuuming up the actual audio (perhaps based on live keyword/phrase analysis) it would either send their systems into overdrive or at least make it harder for these analysts to get the real information they'd be looking for.
Suddenly doesn't seem like such a crazy idea.
Re: NSA admits listening to U.S. phone calls without warrants
#313Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's really unfortunate that most people read 1984 as teenagers (I did). I went back to it as an adult, somewhat expecting it to be a let down. What I found was quite the opposite, there's a lot more nuance in that book than would really be absorbed by high school students being forced to read it. "The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you beg…
Do not stereotype teenagers. I am merely fifteen years old, and if you take a look through my comment thread you may find more insight than you expected. Yes, most in my generation are shallow and passive; but that doesn't mean all are. There are some intellectuals on the fringes.
You will get more insight reading it in another 5, 10, 50 years, true, everyone does, so imagine how much more you will comprehend in the future given your starting point today.
When I was 15, I let 'mature' people stop me from believing I knew anything, and then I was introduced to 'the more you know the more you know you don't know' - its good advice for anyone who thinks they know everything. But don't ever let it stop you from doing anything, believing anything or especially exploring anything.
If you are gifted, and if you believe you are gifted, look at the future for how much more awesome you will be, but don't forget how awesome you are now.
Re: NSA admits listening to U.S. phone calls without warrants
#314Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't understand the (1) and (2) thing. What does it matter whether the requests are "personalized"? In fact, I think they probably rarely are; you can look at Facebook's numbers to see the aggregates suggesting that most requests are for sizable numbers of accounts, not just one. My point isn't that NSA's FISA directives are surgical; like you, I doubt that they are. My point is that upon receiving them, a lawyer…
> If you read all my comments on this whole annoying story Your comments have repeatedly attacked the credibility of whistleblowers, derided their claims as factually and technically impossible, and asserted that NSA statements about NSA capabilities are wrong. > My point is that upon receiving them, a lawyer at Google approves or rejects them, not a SQL query. I don't think Google has much say in this, but what do I…
> Your comments have repeatedly attacked the credibility of whistleblowers, derided their claims as factually and technically impossible, and asserted that NSA statements about NSA capabilities are wrong.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who's noticed tptacek's tendency to defend "The Establishment" at every turn, whatever naughtiness comes up. There he goes again. I wouldn't be surprised if he had some ties to the government.
Re: NSA admits listening to U.S. phone calls without warrants
#315Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not interested in the semantic argument. Emily Bazelon called The Guardian out this week on the Slate political podcast, as have many others; this is now a mainstream criticism of how The Guardian reported the story. Either way: the original notion that NSA had direct access to the servers that actually operate Google Mail has been found to be unsupported by the evidence published thus far. I call this out contin…
You may not be interested in a semantic argument, but it's a semantic point you're arguing. The title of the article in question[1] is: "NSA Prism program taps in to user data of Apple, Google and others • Top-secret Prism program claims direct access to servers of firms including Google, Apple and Facebook • Companies deny any knowledge of program in operation since 2007" The first sentence states: "The National Sec…
> The slides say the NSA can "collect data directly from the servers" of these companies. Guardian states the the slides state that the NSA can collect data directly from the servers of these companies.
The slides do say the NSA can "collect data directly from the servers" of these companies. (Well, they say that the NSA uses "collection directly from the servers" of these companies, to get the quotation exactly right.) But the Guardian stated the the slides state that the NSA has root access (or similar) on the servers of these companies. It was wrong about this.
The Grauniad didn't publish a story saying "the NSA has a PowerPoint presentation in which the phrase 'collection directly from the servers' appears, but we do not pretend to offer any interpretation of what may have been meant by this". What it published was a story which said (in paraphrase) "the NSA has a PowerPoint presentation in which the phrase 'collection directly from the servers' appears. What the NSA means by this is that it has root access on Google, Facebook and friends." The NSA writer was correct; the Guardian's reporting of what he said was wrong, both in the sense that it misreported what the NSA writer was claiming, and the claim it misreported him/her as making was (unsuprisingly) untrue.
Re: NSA admits listening to U.S. phone calls without warrants
#316In the name of protecting you:
- Your government has launched a war under false premises
- Your government already ignores Habeas Corpus(read gitmo)
- Your government already reserves the right to kill you without judicial consent
- Your government can already prevent you from flying without allowing much recourse for rectifying errors
- Your government is spying on your data and phone calls
Whatever happened to "O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave"
Re: NSA admits listening to U.S. phone calls without warrants
#317Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the opposite, which is why I think the story is evolving to minimize the gmail access being done.
Perhaps it's evolving closer to what the truth actually was the whole time?
That is possible, though what we're seeing is the result of the PR response of the NSA taking effect. The NSA does not have any incentive for the truth to be revealed, only for the public to stop worrying about it.
Re: NSA admits listening to U.S. phone calls without warrants
#318Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's really unfortunate that most people read 1984 as teenagers (I did). I went back to it as an adult, somewhat expecting it to be a let down. What I found was quite the opposite, there's a lot more nuance in that book than would really be absorbed by high school students being forced to read it. "The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you beg…
Do not stereotype teenagers. I am merely fifteen years old, and if you take a look through my comment thread you may find more insight than you expected. Yes, most in my generation are shallow and passive; but that doesn't mean all are. There are some intellectuals on the fringes.
Right, there is something no one here it telling you.
Older people are bare faced liars.
Why? They operate primarily out of fear. They are scared for their job, business, mortgage, possessions, status, kids (you!!), their investments, health care, etc, etc. But more than anything, they are scared for them selves.
Why? The more you have to lose, the more fear and paranoia you acquire.
The older you get the LESS wise you get. In fact, you become more bigoted, judgemental and finger pointy.
The problems in this world are NOT created by the young. Note how the world's problems get worse as average life span increases.
Only a few actually manage to avoid this. Note how they are repeatedly referenced here and other places.
The young are free to think freely because they have less to lose.
Im 40. My life is over. I see a world that is a total mess. I want you and your your generation to fix it. Not for me, my useless generation and the useless generations before me. Forget us. Do it for your selves. You see the disaster, correct? Get your generation together and create the world you need and want. Your generation , like no other generation, has the tools to do it. So, to quote bloody Nike, JUST DO IT.
Best of luck. I'll keep a look out for you.
Re: NSA admits listening to U.S. phone calls without warrants
#319Earlier quoted context omitted.
"and the Guardian walked the claim back" No they didn't. "The Guardian has not revised any of our articles and, to my knowledge, has no intention to do so. That's because we did not claim that the NSA document alleging direct collection from the servers was true; we reported - accurately - that the NSA document claims that the program allows direct collection from the companies' servers. Before publishing, we went to…
I'm not interested in the semantic argument. Emily Bazelon called The Guardian out this week on the Slate political podcast, as have many others; this is now a mainstream criticism of how The Guardian reported the story. Either way: the original notion that NSA had direct access to the servers that actually operate Google Mail has been found to be unsupported by the evidence published thus far. I call this out contin…
"I'm not interested in the semantic argument."
Stop making one then.
Re: NSA admits listening to U.S. phone calls without warrants
#320Earlier quoted context omitted.
> If you read all my comments on this whole annoying story Your comments have repeatedly attacked the credibility of whistleblowers, derided their claims as factually and technically impossible, and asserted that NSA statements about NSA capabilities are wrong. > My point is that upon receiving them, a lawyer at Google approves or rejects them, not a SQL query. I don't think Google has much say in this, but what do I…
> Your comments have repeatedly attacked the credibility of whistleblowers, derided their claims as factually and technically impossible, and asserted that NSA statements about NSA capabilities are wrong. I'm glad I'm not the only one who's noticed tptacek's tendency to defend "The Establishment" at every turn, whatever naughtiness comes up. There he goes again. I wouldn't be surprised if he had some ties to the gove…
Not sure what you mean here by the establishment. I see him defending google, and rightfully so. I think google is one of the few companies who have been fighting for the privacy rights of users. It would be a shame if other companies saw the effort google puts into this, only to be tar and feathered for something they might not be guilty of.. Those other companies might decide its not worth sticking their neck out for users..