The NSA Is Commandeering the Internet
theatlantic.com
The NSA Is Commandeering the Internet
1–10 of 208 posts
Re: The NSA Is Commandeering the Internet
#2It makes me happy to see Schneier get more mainstream press these days. As someone who has followed his blog for years it's about freaking time he got more attention.
Re: The NSA Is Commandeering the Internet
#3Commandeering implies control, and the NSA does not have control. No one has "control" over the Internet.
I also don't like this, "us vs. them" rhetoric that this story has turned some people towards, where the NSA are the unequivocal bad guys and we, the "little people", are the unequivocal good guys. That's a great way to get absolutely nothing done. The NSA is, despite everything we're being told by some people (Bruce), on our side. It's paranoid delusion to think the NSA is actively out to get us - at least ostensibly, the NSA is trying to help the citizens of the US.
What we should be doing is asking for changes and modifications to how things are done. There are some not-so-big tweaks to the currently running programs which can feasibly be made without compromising these program's efficacy while also providing more insight into what's going on. We can have our cake (terrorist monitoring) and eat it too (maintain individual privacy) - it's possible.
That's what we should be figuring out, not this chicken little/us vs. them bullshit.
Re: The NSA Is Commandeering the Internet
#4Commandeering implies control, and the NSA does not have control. No one has "control" over the Internet. I also don't like this, "us vs. them" rhetoric that this story has turned some people towards, where the NSA are the unequivocal bad guys and we, the "little people", are the unequivocal good guys. That's a great way to get absolutely nothing done. The NSA is, despite everything we're being told by some people (B…
the NSA does not have control.
How do you know? The Internet backbone was developed using US government funding. How do you know that the US government did not put backdoors there? It did in the case of the long-distance telephone network.
We can have our cake (terrorist monitoring) and eat it too (maintain individual privacy)
I agree that this could be done in theory; I'm not sure it can be done in practice.
Re: The NSA Is Commandeering the Internet
#5Commandeering implies control, and the NSA does not have control. No one has "control" over the Internet. I also don't like this, "us vs. them" rhetoric that this story has turned some people towards, where the NSA are the unequivocal bad guys and we, the "little people", are the unequivocal good guys. That's a great way to get absolutely nothing done. The NSA is, despite everything we're being told by some people (B…
Maybe the adversarial approach is needed to make the point. His post is a communication to an audience that, I suspect, will be more likely to respond if words are chosen with that audience in mind.
Re: The NSA Is Commandeering the Internet
#6This line of argument is kinda weak. Personally I agree with the end goals, but the argument isn't compelling. Realistically these companies don't have much choice, and these businesses end users for the most part (the 99.99% that aren't technophiles) don't really care that the NSA is snooping.
I think we need to step back from hoping that business will protect the people. The people will protect the people, and if the people dont, a for profit entity wont (and shouldn't) step in as guardian.
Re: The NSA Is Commandeering the Internet
#7It should read The NSA "HAS" Commandeered the Internet.
As more and more information is gets thrown into the light, I find it disturbing that the NSA's capability has grown under the Obama Administration. I would think they would have less powers compared to Bush Admin post 9/11.
Wait till they attach listening instruments onto drones and send them to scan the sky's across America under a directive from the FISA court.
Re: The NSA Is Commandeering the Internet
#8Commandeering implies control, and the NSA does not have control. No one has "control" over the Internet. I also don't like this, "us vs. them" rhetoric that this story has turned some people towards, where the NSA are the unequivocal bad guys and we, the "little people", are the unequivocal good guys. That's a great way to get absolutely nothing done. The NSA is, despite everything we're being told by some people (B…
> The NSA is, despite everything we're being told by some people (Bruce), on our side.
Define 'our side' please. I'm not convinced of that. And if you take the temporal element into account you might very well find that the NSA is even against 'your side' in the longer term. Information gathered indiscriminately has a tendency to concentrate on the bad parts. If I vacuum up all your communications over the last 20 years or so and pick out the bad bits while deleting the good bits you'll look like a pretty bad person no matter how saintly you are in real life.
A disputed quote (but generally attributed to Richelieu and quite applicable):
"If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him."
The potential of abuse of this data is simply too large, no matter what the potential benefits and whether or not the NSA is on 'our side'.
Re: The NSA Is Commandeering the Internet
#9Commandeering implies control, and the NSA does not have control. No one has "control" over the Internet. I also don't like this, "us vs. them" rhetoric that this story has turned some people towards, where the NSA are the unequivocal bad guys and we, the "little people", are the unequivocal good guys. That's a great way to get absolutely nothing done. The NSA is, despite everything we're being told by some people (B…
>> We can have our cake (terrorist monitoring) and eat it too (maintain individual privacy)
Until the definition of a "terrorist" grows to include people who engage in activities previously considered harmless and private.
Re: The NSA Is Commandeering the Internet
#10I have to wonder what it's like for Zuckerberg, or Brin, or any of the other big internet moguls today.
Here they are creating internet experiences made as addictive as possible, meanwhile gathering every damned little piece of miniscule information possible about each of their users: where they are, who their friends are, what they like, what they hate, their favorite colors, their favorite brands, and so on.
Hell, people are happy giving away this stuff! And all of if can be plugged directly into a big honking machine to sell stuff!
Then the government comes along and wants in on the action too. They start vacuuming up data gigabytes at a time.
It must seem like the only people not getting in on this action is the common folks, the patsies.
I have no idea and could care less what their official statements are. It's obvious they have no problem with gathering the information as long as they were the ones doing it. But in private, what kind of opinion must they have about all of this?