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Former NSA chief Keith Alexander has joined Amazon’s board of directors

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Re: Former NSA chief Keith Alexander has joined Amazon’s board of directors

#11
post #8

> For those keeping score, not only does Amazon own the The Washington Post and oversees the CIA’s Commercial Cloud Enterprise, it now has on its powerful board of directors the most visible figure from the NSA who illegally spied on Americans for the better part of a decade. This sounds tinfoil hat crazy, but here we are. Not so crazy now. Man in a position to have reams of compromising intel on the current presiden…

If he had that "intel" we'd know it by now.

Re: Former NSA chief Keith Alexander has joined Amazon’s board of directors

#12
post #11
post #8

> For those keeping score, not only does Amazon own the The Washington Post and oversees the CIA’s Commercial Cloud Enterprise, it now has on its powerful board of directors the most visible figure from the NSA who illegally spied on Americans for the better part of a decade. This sounds tinfoil hat crazy, but here we are. Not so crazy now. Man in a position to have reams of compromising intel on the current presiden…

If he had that "intel" we'd know it by now.

That is an assertion with no evidence.

Either is possible.

Re: Former NSA chief Keith Alexander has joined Amazon’s board of directors

#13
post #5

Amazon does have devices listening in every home. Is the concern here that hiring Keith Alexander would make it easier for government to get people's conversation data?

> Amazon does have devices listening in every home. No, they don’t. It’s a choice people make, and most aren’t buying Kindle, Echo or other near useless spying device like that.

Not true, a simple Google search reveals [1 in 4 US adults have a smart speaker](https://marketingland.com/roughly-1-in-4-u-s-adults-now-owns...). It _is_ a choice people make, and most don't care about privacy.

Not that it matters though - phones are [already a vector](https://www.wired.com/2014/06/nsa-bug-iphone/) for the government to listen to you. I'm not sure this news really changes anything - the government already works with large US companies to spy on people, and then makes sure they're not allowed to disclose it to the public.

Also, I think Kindle is a great product, and wouldn't consider it a useless spying device. Each to their own though.

Re: Former NSA chief Keith Alexander has joined Amazon’s board of directors

#14
post #8

> For those keeping score, not only does Amazon own the The Washington Post and oversees the CIA’s Commercial Cloud Enterprise, it now has on its powerful board of directors the most visible figure from the NSA who illegally spied on Americans for the better part of a decade. This sounds tinfoil hat crazy, but here we are. Not so crazy now. Man in a position to have reams of compromising intel on the current presiden…

I think he got hired because AWS likes government and military contracts, and he has personal phone numbers of people who make that sort of decisions. And he doesn't have them through NSA data gathering, but because he can call these people and ask if they'd like to have a steak dinner and talk about why they should choose AWS...

Maybe. And even if he doesn't have the dirt on various people with power, including a bit lower down the food-chain. The idea that he might gives him an edge in those steak dinners.

It stinks no matter how you look at it. Actual criminal getting rich post crimes while Snowden who let us all know what a crook he is, is stuck in exile.

The rule of law and equality before it needs to be established.

"Bezos Taps Criminal To Strengthen Bid For Government Work"

Is about the kindest possible spin you can put on a headline for this story, right?

Re: Former NSA chief Keith Alexander has joined Amazon’s board of directors

#15
post #13
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Amazon does have devices listening in every home. No, they don’t. It’s a choice people make, and most aren’t buying Kindle, Echo or other near useless spying device like that.

Not true, a simple Google search reveals [1 in 4 US adults have a smart speaker]( https://marketingland.com/roughly-1-in-4-u-s-adults-now-owns... ). It _is_ a choice people make, and most don't care about privacy. Not that it matters though - phones are [already a vector]( https://www.wired.com/2014/06/nsa-bug-iphone/ ) for the government to listen to you. I'm not sure this news really changes anything - the governme…

Well, the majority still aren't buying. The initial assertion was "in every home", which is false in the majority of homes.

Re: Former NSA chief Keith Alexander has joined Amazon’s board of directors

#16
post #8

> For those keeping score, not only does Amazon own the The Washington Post and oversees the CIA’s Commercial Cloud Enterprise, it now has on its powerful board of directors the most visible figure from the NSA who illegally spied on Americans for the better part of a decade. This sounds tinfoil hat crazy, but here we are. Not so crazy now. Man in a position to have reams of compromising intel on the current presiden…

I think he got hired because AWS likes government and military contracts, and he has personal phone numbers of people who make that sort of decisions. And he doesn't have them through NSA data gathering, but because he can call these people and ask if they'd like to have a steak dinner and talk about why they should choose AWS...

While I agree in principle, it hasn't really worked out well for IronNet. Maybe they stabilized now, but all those relationships didn't really produce the amount of business they thought they would.

Re: Former NSA chief Keith Alexander has joined Amazon’s board of directors

#17
So have Amazon got an assurance from this "gentleman" that he has stopped committing crimes now?

Is his expertise for which he is being hired to help Amazon get away with committing crimes on a massive scale which he clearly has expertise?

Is it reasonable to assume that Amazon, pushing their "Amazon Microphone" are embracing criminal practise and believe criminal activity is ok?

Re: Former NSA chief Keith Alexander has joined Amazon’s board of directors

#18
post #8

> For those keeping score, not only does Amazon own the The Washington Post and oversees the CIA’s Commercial Cloud Enterprise, it now has on its powerful board of directors the most visible figure from the NSA who illegally spied on Americans for the better part of a decade. This sounds tinfoil hat crazy, but here we are. Not so crazy now. Man in a position to have reams of compromising intel on the current presiden…

Except that The Washington Post operates independently, and has strong editorial standards, something that a lot of "news" sites on the Internet today don't even pretend to have. The Post continues to publish articles about surveillance, as well as articles critical of Amazon.

For example, here's reporting on an interview with Martin Baron, the paper’s executive editor:

Mr. Bezos holds conference calls with The Post’s leadership every other week to discuss the paper’s business strategy but has no involvement in its news coverage, Mr. Baron said. During his occasional appearances at The Post’s building, Mr. Bezos sometimes stops by a news meeting “just to thank everybody,” Mr. Baron said.

“I can’t say more emphatically he’s never suggested a story to anybody here, he’s never critiqued a story, he’s never suppressed a story,” the editor said.

“Frankly, in a newsroom of 800 journalists, if that had occurred, I guarantee you, you would have heard about it,” he added. “Newsrooms tend not to like those kinds of interventions, particularly a newsroom that’s as proud as The Washington Post.

“If he had been involved in our news coverage, you can be sure that you would have heard about it by now,” Mr. Baron added. “It hasn’t happened. Period.”

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/02/business/media/to-trump-i...

(edited for formatting)

Re: Former NSA chief Keith Alexander has joined Amazon’s board of directors

#19
post #12
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If he had that "intel" we'd know it by now.

That is an assertion with no evidence. Either is possible.

Evidence is plain as a day to see: no "reams" of any kind have surfaced in 4+ years in spite of the entirety of the deep state working overtime to unearth them. While absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, the latest switch from mere misinterpretations and quoting out of context to brazen whole cloth made up hit jobs that dozens of people deny _on the record_ suggests that the DNC is out of ammo.

Re: Former NSA chief Keith Alexander has joined Amazon’s board of directors

#20
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not true, a simple Google search reveals [1 in 4 US adults have a smart speaker]( https://marketingland.com/roughly-1-in-4-u-s-adults-now-owns... ). It _is_ a choice people make, and most don't care about privacy. Not that it matters though - phones are [already a vector]( https://www.wired.com/2014/06/nsa-bug-iphone/ ) for the government to listen to you. I'm not sure this news really changes anything - the governme…

Well, the majority still aren't buying. The initial assertion was "in every home", which is false in the majority of homes.

That's correct. I just think saying "most aren't buying" gives the impression that it's not popular, when in fact it is a pretty widespread product. Not to mention Alexa being added into tons of other products such as smart thermostats, home theater speakers, etc. The number is only growing.
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