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Confirmed: The NSA is Spying on Millions of Americans

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Re: Confirmed: The NSA is Spying on Millions of Americans

#111

Post by dirktheman »

dekz wrote: post #105
digitalengineer wrote: post #82

Dutch person here with a little insight what's to come for you guys. Some information about our tiny little country (in Wester Europe, very pro-US) with just 17 million people. Our government listens in on more calls every year than in the whole of the US combined. All our telecommunications providers are forced to have the capability to intercept all traffic (phone and internet). Encrypted data must be stored for an…

> You can purchase one without your name and address but you can only add money to it using your bank-account. The system tracks all travelers' movements (departure and end points for each leg of every journey), in most cases combined with the traveler's identity. It retains the data for seven years Not to discredit your whole post but is this really the case. You can buy those 1 hour/24 hour/48 hour passes for cash.…

You're right, you can buy the one-time cards and they won't be able to track you. But for regular travellers like myself those one-time cards are much more expensive than the ones linked to your bank account. Not to mention the hassle of having to buy a new card every day...

Re: Confirmed: The NSA is Spying on Millions of Americans

#112

Post by Trufa »

ne0codex wrote: post #103
Trufa wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand, if you boycott Verizon to the point when (for an example's sake) they are broke, the next business the NSA comes knocking at the door will definitely be more reluctant. If you can get into the businessman's head that the NSA is bad for business, they'll have a bad time pulling this kind of thing off.

The trouble is, that's easier said than done. However, if there were any action feasible enough to do that would make it possible to: "get into the businessman's head that the NSA is bad for business." Then that will definitely be the way to go.

I don't think there is one action that will accomplish that, it has to be prolonged, consistent and proactive action.

Re: Confirmed: The NSA is Spying on Millions of Americans

#113

Post by odiroot »

digitalengineer wrote: post #82

Dutch person here with a little insight what's to come for you guys. Some information about our tiny little country (in Wester Europe, very pro-US) with just 17 million people. Our government listens in on more calls every year than in the whole of the US combined. All our telecommunications providers are forced to have the capability to intercept all traffic (phone and internet). Encrypted data must be stored for an…

Well, about the OVkart. I assume you were writing about this one. I visited Amsterdam and bought one with cash. Then I loaded it at Zuid also paying with cash. No paper trail. And I only did that because it was nearly impossible to pay with my Visa Electron. But that's another issue.

Re: Confirmed: The NSA is Spying on Millions of Americans

#114

Post by gohrt »

People are saying that no one can stop Congress or big companies, yadda yadda.

Maybe the solution is to find people who are doing the actual "dirty work" (govt employees, or telco employees), and apply pressure there, making it an undesirable life choice to choose treason as a career. Many people in the USA go to work every day with an explicit task of harming Americans. Make them prefer to get a new job or file for unemplyment insurance.

Re: Confirmed: The NSA is Spying on Millions of Americans

#115

Post by tigerente »

fmavituna wrote: post #108
digitalengineer wrote: post #82

Dutch person here with a little insight what's to come for you guys. Some information about our tiny little country (in Wester Europe, very pro-US) with just 17 million people. Our government listens in on more calls every year than in the whole of the US combined. All our telecommunications providers are forced to have the capability to intercept all traffic (phone and internet). Encrypted data must be stored for an…

"You can purchase one without your name and address but you can only add money to it using your bank-account" I used to live in Amsterdam and I clearly remember that it was possible to top up with cash, has this changed? (only some machines in some stations got this cash option though, maybe all gone now)

That's still possible, maybe not everywhere. At least this past Tuesday it still worked :-)

Re: Confirmed: The NSA is Spying on Millions of Americans

#116

Post by creade »

staccatomeasure wrote: post #33
javert wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see any way to fight it now. What are your suggestions? If we were to have a revolution here, even in a decade or two, we'd probably end up with something much worse than what we have now.

Have Congress pass laws to make such surveillance illegal. Stop using Verizon or any other carrier that complies (economic protest). Only use technologies that don't permit such spying. Pass state legislation that is counter to the federal mandate and create an uproar that way. The list goes on. We're stil a democracy and when it comes down to it we're still a democracy that gives a lot of power to any one senator. I…

Aaron Swartz designed Victory Kit ( https://github.com/victorykit/victorykit ) with the beginnings of this exact use case in mind. What would you do if you passionately cared about an issue but lacked the massive funds required to mount a lobbying campaign? Start building grass roots social pressure by A/B testing your entire movement start to finish.

Re: Confirmed: The NSA is Spying on Millions of Americans

#118

Post by dekz »

dirktheman wrote: post #111
dekz wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can purchase one without your name and address but you can only add money to it using your bank-account. The system tracks all travelers' movements (departure and end points for each leg of every journey), in most cases combined with the traveler's identity. It retains the data for seven years Not to discredit your whole post but is this really the case. You can buy those 1 hour/24 hour/48 hour passes for cash.…

You're right, you can buy the one-time cards and they won't be able to track you. But for regular travellers like myself those one-time cards are much more expensive than the ones linked to your bank account. Not to mention the hassle of having to buy a new card every day...

Oh I agree, but privacy isn't always convenient. I'm currently sitting in your country (weather is nice), but these comments do scare me a little.

I'm travelling through many countries and really haven't taken into account the local customs when it comes to online activity.

There are VPS' available from resellers like Digital Ocean, are they required to also comply to the above?

Re: Confirmed: The NSA is Spying on Millions of Americans

#119

Post by digitalengineer »

odiroot wrote: post #113
digitalengineer wrote: post #82

Dutch person here with a little insight what's to come for you guys. Some information about our tiny little country (in Wester Europe, very pro-US) with just 17 million people. Our government listens in on more calls every year than in the whole of the US combined. All our telecommunications providers are forced to have the capability to intercept all traffic (phone and internet). Encrypted data must be stored for an…

Well, about the OVkart. I assume you were writing about this one. I visited Amsterdam and bought one with cash. Then I loaded it at Zuid also paying with cash. No paper trail. And I only did that because it was nearly impossible to pay with my Visa Electron. But that's another issue.

There are some. Most machines only accept a bank-card, not cash. There has even been a debate about it in parliament because psychiatric patients and refugees don't have a bank account. See: http://www.omroepwest.nl/nieuws/17-03-2013/ov-chipkaart-opla...

Re: Confirmed: The NSA is Spying on Millions of Americans

#120

Post by dutchbrit »

dirktheman wrote: post #90
digitalengineer wrote: post #82

Dutch person here with a little insight what's to come for you guys. Some information about our tiny little country (in Wester Europe, very pro-US) with just 17 million people. Our government listens in on more calls every year than in the whole of the US combined. All our telecommunications providers are forced to have the capability to intercept all traffic (phone and internet). Encrypted data must be stored for an…

Fellow Dutchman here, and I couldn't agree more. I actually helped building the electronic patient file in two major hospitals, and I can't tell you enough about the massive clusterfuck that is. The government requires you to finish it before a certain date, only they provide you with the exact requirements after that date. Basic security measures like encrypting data? No way! To me, America is still the land of the…

Another "Dutchie" here! :)
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