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Edward Snowden, after months of NSA revelations, says his mission’s accomplished

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Re: Edward Snowden, after months of NSA revelations, says his mission’s accomplished

#101

Post by rmrfrmrf »

hooande wrote: post #87

But what has really changed? The NSA is under pressure from the public, less so from the intelligence and defense communities. If anything Snowden has caused those areas of government to close ranks even tighter. There's nothing a leader wants more than a highly visible enemy to unite his or her people. There are orders of magnitude more people who hate General Alexander now than there were two years ago. But his own…

Well IMO it's kind of silly to care about the government snooping through my data when huge corporations are the ones who actually own the fiber and can siphon all the traffic they want -- then sell it. You're basically choosing between the US government or a combination of Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and Deutsche Telekom.

Re: Edward Snowden, after months of NSA revelations, says his mission’s accomplished

#102

Post by k-mcgrady »

rmrfrmrf wrote: post #101
hooande wrote: post #87

But what has really changed? The NSA is under pressure from the public, less so from the intelligence and defense communities. If anything Snowden has caused those areas of government to close ranks even tighter. There's nothing a leader wants more than a highly visible enemy to unite his or her people. There are orders of magnitude more people who hate General Alexander now than there were two years ago. But his own…

Well IMO it's kind of silly to care about the government snooping through my data when huge corporations are the ones who actually own the fiber and can siphon all the traffic they want -- then sell it. You're basically choosing between the US government or a combination of Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and Deutsche Telekom.

>> "You're basically choosing between the US government or a combination of Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and Deutsche Telekom."

Honestly I'd be more happy with the telecom companies doing it. They can do much less harm with any data they get.

Re: Edward Snowden, after months of NSA revelations, says his mission’s accomplished

#103

Post by saraid216 »

quesera wrote: post #5

> “If I defected at all,” Snowden said, “I defected from the government to the public.” He can't run til 2020, but I'll cast an early vote now.

And people don't understand what makes Christianity appealing.

Re: Edward Snowden, after months of NSA revelations, says his mission’s accomplished

#104

Post by justin66 »

Theodores wrote: post #94
jrockway wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only reference I see to "Special Administrative Measures" involves communication with prisoners: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_administrative_measure Even articles in publications like "Reporters' Committee for the Freedom of the Press" refer to this phrase as a thing for prisoners: http://www.rcfp.org/browse-media-law-resources/news-media-la... So it's unclear what you're talking about.

Much in the way that the NSA can bend the law to collect everything , the government can bend the law to use SAMs for whatever they want. You could say that any of the NSA revelations could affect some on-going case that has yet to be brought to court in Guantanamo, e.g. knowledge that a given prisoner's communications being intercepted could prejudice the case. The details of exactly how that might work out could be…

It's still pretty unclear what you're suggesting, but: if the federal government starts trying to bend the rules against the papers the old saying about making an enemy out of someone who buys ink by the barrelful becomes highly relevant.

Most of us concerned with civil liberties feel like those sorts of court cases and issues go underreported. Start sending federal agents to reporters in order to "collect any inappropriate documents" and kill stories and things will get messy quick.

If you're the administration and you are aware of something you don't want the papers to have, you take them to court. (which is messy enough)

Re: Edward Snowden, after months of NSA revelations, says his mission’s accomplished

#105

Post by teddyh »

k-mcgrady wrote: post #102
rmrfrmrf wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well IMO it's kind of silly to care about the government snooping through my data when huge corporations are the ones who actually own the fiber and can siphon all the traffic they want -- then sell it. You're basically choosing between the US government or a combination of Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and Deutsche Telekom.

>> "You're basically choosing between the US government or a combination of Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and Deutsche Telekom." Honestly I'd be more happy with the telecom companies doing it. They can do much less harm with any data they get.

And when the companies then give their data to the government?

The only solution is for the data never to exist at all.

Re: Edward Snowden, after months of NSA revelations, says his mission’s accomplished

#106

Post by phillmv »

k-mcgrady wrote: post #102
rmrfrmrf wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well IMO it's kind of silly to care about the government snooping through my data when huge corporations are the ones who actually own the fiber and can siphon all the traffic they want -- then sell it. You're basically choosing between the US government or a combination of Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and Deutsche Telekom.

>> "You're basically choosing between the US government or a combination of Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and Deutsche Telekom." Honestly I'd be more happy with the telecom companies doing it. They can do much less harm with any data they get.

I'd prefer it if no one did it. I can imagine a future where your credit rating is influenced by your Facebook profile and it's not a fun one.

Re: Edward Snowden, after months of NSA revelations, says his mission’s accomplished

#107

Post by w_t_payne »

Sorry, Ed, but we are nowhere near "mission accomplished".

This debate may have begun with worries about the risks posed by NSA overreach, but it does not end with them. As Bruce Schneier pointed out, the tools of today's spies are the same as the tools of tomorrow's criminals.

Whilst I am not exactly comfortable with the idea of persistent, intimate state surveillance, this discomfort fades into paltry insignificance when I consider the implications of criminal entities controlling the computing devices that I use to analyse and understand issues, make decisions and interact with the world.

I studied Artificial Intelligence as a student. I buy (somewhat) into Kurzweil's view of the future. Today, my computer may be a "bicycle for the mind", but tomorrow, we may have difficulty distinguishing between rider and vehicle.

The security of today's internet; today's computing devices, profoundly affects how securely, how effectively, and how independently I will be able to think in 20 or 30 years time.

We need to start talking more (much more) about the weaknesses and security vulnerabilities inherent in the architecture and design of our public communications and computing infrastructure. This debate has to get detailed and has to get technical. Fast.

Re: Edward Snowden, after months of NSA revelations, says his mission’s accomplished

#108

Post by SkynetSystems »

rmrfrmrf wrote: post #101
hooande wrote: post #87

But what has really changed? The NSA is under pressure from the public, less so from the intelligence and defense communities. If anything Snowden has caused those areas of government to close ranks even tighter. There's nothing a leader wants more than a highly visible enemy to unite his or her people. There are orders of magnitude more people who hate General Alexander now than there were two years ago. But his own…

Well IMO it's kind of silly to care about the government snooping through my data when huge corporations are the ones who actually own the fiber and can siphon all the traffic they want -- then sell it. You're basically choosing between the US government or a combination of Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and Deutsche Telekom.

The difference is the government can use their profiling and data snooping to take away your life or liberty, while corporations can't.

Re: Edward Snowden, after months of NSA revelations, says his mission’s accomplished

#109

Post by SkynetSystems »

eliteraspberrie wrote: post #22

The Washington Post sat on the Collateral Murder video. [1,2] The New York Times sat on the warrantless wiretapping scandal at the request of the White House. [3] CBS sat on the Abu Ghraib torture scandal at the request of the Pentagon. [4] What is the Washington Post not telling us? [1] https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/15617022129 [2] http://www.cjr.org/the_kicker/wapo_denies_allegation_it_sat.... [3] http://fai…

The Washington Post is a fucking joke. And then they wonder why people are abandoning print media in droves and turning to the internet for news.

Re: Edward Snowden, after months of NSA revelations, says his mission’s accomplished

#110

Post by TeMPOraL »

prostoalex wrote: post #62
mladenkovacevic wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's what would in most industries be considered a reasonable sized sampling. When you then look at this poll then, things start to look grim indeed: http://www.people-press.org/2013/06/10/majority-views-nsa-ph...

This is a self-selected sample. People who read the article and thought "meh, whatever" did not bother to leave a comment.

Exactly. See also "voluntary response data are worthless" by prof. Velleman (in the tokenadult comment):

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2772533

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