Imagine the financial power in the data the government has and doesn't want to reveal. Like who is buying and selling what stocks. That information is gold for data mining.
And remember, insider trading basically doesn't apply to Congress...
Official statement from WikiLeaks regarding Edward Snowden's exit from Hong Kong
111–120 of 139 posts
Re: Official statement from WikiLeaks regarding Edward Snowden's exit from Hong Kong
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
If a global system to capture the digital communications of everyone on the planet does not merit the term 'totalitarian', then that term has lost all meaning. I didn't call you a Nazi. I said the Nazis would have loved people who were ok with that kind of thing. Isn't that fairly obvious? Do you think they would have preferred a guy like Snowden?
Snowden has not, in fact, revealed the existence of a global system to capture the digital communications of everyone on the planet. Try again. Also, I'd still like to hear the explanation of how Snowden exposed his NSA co-workers torturing people. I had not heard that one.
Do you care to reply to the others who have replied to you regarding the Verizon calls or have you lost your voice there?
Re: Official statement from WikiLeaks regarding Edward Snowden's exit from Hong Kong
#113Suddenly the front page is Snowden Snowden Snowden. Hacker News is even worse than Reddit at latching to news-of-the-minute.
This whole situation is of extreme importance though, especially to the long term future of pretty much all technology companies.
I am actually extraordinarily happy that this has been all over HN and especially that there has been some amazing dialogue from HNers on this.
Re: Official statement from WikiLeaks regarding Edward Snowden's exit from Hong Kong
#114I find it (a bit) ironic that the WikiLeaks lawyer that is giving legal advice to Snowden is Baltasar Garzon, who was suspended for improper eavesdropping.
*As a clarification, this suspension was mostly political, being Spain one of the most corrupt countries in Europe and with a dark and terrible past due the dictatorship that ended 37 years ago. Garzon tried to investigate the crimes committed by Franco (related to the right wind in Spain) and a few years later he was judging a corruption case (called Gürtel), which lead to his suspension.
Re: Official statement from WikiLeaks regarding Edward Snowden's exit from Hong Kong
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed. Ever since this thing broke, I've been pretty skeptical about how this is unfolding. One thing about spy movies and the CIA, they're truly masters of misdirection. While you're watching the world fawn over Snowden and what he's done and the fallout, you can bet these people are still 4 steps ahead, planning and plotting their next move.
>>you can bet these people are still 4 steps ahead, planning and plotting their next move. Who? The government? That is like believing that super advanced weapons have been developed by the government that no other scientist/engineers could hope to replicate because the Science and technology are so ahead of their time (i.e. 50 or 100 years).
Clearly you are a sock puppet account.
Re: Official statement from WikiLeaks regarding Edward Snowden's exit from Hong Kong
#116"What is being done to Mr Snowden and to Mr Julian Assange - for making or facilitating disclosures in the public interest - is an assault against the people." What exactly is being "done" to Julian Assange? The only reason he's stuck in the embassy is because of rape accusations.
> What exactly is being "done" to Julian Assange? The only reason he's stuck in the embassy is because of rape accusations.
Conveniently-timed rape accusations.
Re: Official statement from WikiLeaks regarding Edward Snowden's exit from Hong Kong
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm still waiting on Snowden to provide evidence of the NSA breaking the 4th amendment and illegally spying on the American people. For all the panic and the republication of old stories about the NSA, it is Snowden who has provided absolutely zero evidence. What we do have is that Snowden copied a large cache of thousands of sensitive documents and gave them to who-knows-who. Suddenly countries that position themsel…
> I'm still waiting on Snowden to provide evidence of the NSA breaking the 4th amendment and illegally spying on the American people. Recording meta-data of phone calls and certainly the phone calls themselves, is a gross violation of the 4th amendment and the people's right "to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures". And that is true regardless of what a…
Yes, it's important to remind to other people (they seem to forget) that according to the US constitution, these rights are not given to humans (not citizens) by the government, they are recognized, since they are innate.
Re: Official statement from WikiLeaks regarding Edward Snowden's exit from Hong Kong
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm still waiting on Snowden to provide evidence of the NSA breaking the 4th amendment and illegally spying on the American people. For all the panic and the republication of old stories about the NSA, it is Snowden who has provided absolutely zero evidence. What we do have is that Snowden copied a large cache of thousands of sensitive documents and gave them to who-knows-who. Suddenly countries that position themsel…
The NSA secured an order from the FISC directing Verizon to turn over metadata on all calls made within the US, which includes data about the location of their customers' mobile phones. The Supreme Court has ruled that long-term tracking requires a warrant. The decision was unanimous, but split as to reasoning. The majority held that such tracking without a warrant violates the 4th amendment. It is quite likely that…
Ah yes, the metadata that is not protected by the 4th Amendment because Verizon's users freely gave it to Verizon and have no expectation of privacy that Verizon would not transmit it further. The relevant case is Smith v. Maryland, which incidentally was decided by a liberal court during a privacy-conscious time after the CIA and FBI scandals came to light in the 1970s. Furthermore, we have learned that the NSA has procedures for accessing the data for the specific purpose of securing public privacy. This is a good example of how one of Glenn Greenwald's stories was flat-out wrong.
The Verizon corporation has a good case that their 4th Amendment right to privacy is being violated, but the American people do not in this particular instance.
By my understanding, the Supreme Court has not yet ruled against the legality of long-term tracking through information freely given by the tracking subject. You might be thinking of US v. Jones where the police installed a GPS monitor on someone's car.
Re: Official statement from WikiLeaks regarding Edward Snowden's exit from Hong Kong
#119Fun fact about Aeroflot: The slogan for Aeroflot back in the days of the USSR was "You Have Made The Right Choice", which is ironic since Aeroflot was the only airline in the Soviet Union.
Re: Official statement from WikiLeaks regarding Edward Snowden's exit from Hong Kong
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nope: diplomatic immunity extends only to diplomats and their immediate families. As Snowden is neither, and cannot be nominated as one without the host country's approval, there's nothing stopping Russia or Cuba from detaining Snowden if they wanted to, no matter how many Elbonian diplomats he's travelling with. (Source: I used to have diplomatic immunity.)
In your opinion what were some of the best benefits of having diplomatic immunity?
I used to have diplomatic immunity as well. Getting to ignore parking tickets and other fines, police officers treating you like royalty, no security checkpoints or lines at the airport (and a very comfy ambassador's lounge), complimentary upgrades to first class and not having to pay taxes (sales or otherwise) at the host country are the first that come to mind.