Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

US intelligence mining data from 9 US Internet companies in broad secret program

washingtonpost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

241–250 of 420 posts

Re: US intelligence mining data from 9 US Internet companies in broad secret program

#241

Post by cinquemb »

ihsw wrote: post #232
samstave wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At a very minimum - this guy needs to be tried for perjury and removed from his post. And millions of americans should sign a petition to have this happen.

If you're referring to online petitions then you needn't waste your time, there are already petitions to make sure this never happens. It's called US Senate elections[1]. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_elections,... That bullshit called the Presidential elections? It's a dog and pony show.

There's a famous quote somewhere about where political power really comes from… I look to history (and present day actions) and it seems like a fitting solution to meaningful representation. Then again, years later we could be right back where we started…

Hint: The last bit I left out rhymes with "carol of the sun" ;)

Re: US intelligence mining data from 9 US Internet companies in broad secret program

#242

Post by eeeeeeeeeeeee »

frisco wrote: post #130

I think it's interesting to ask why these programs are so widely hated. These are national security assets: evidence gathered here will never be used in a drug case, or a tax evasion case. Why not? These tools exist for the bigger fish: the dozens of Soviet-era nuclear weapons believed to be missing, or the small amounts of dangerous pathogens that periodically vanish from research labs. These are what the government…

I respect Warren Buffet, but since when is he an expert on predicting nuclear attacks in America?

Re: US intelligence mining data from 9 US Internet companies in broad secret program

#243

Post by olympus »

ISL wrote: post #55
olympus wrote: post #11

Edit: Just saw the portion markings (the stuff on the slides that says their classification level), and I'm going to change my judgement to "this was pretty classified." And whoever released these slides to the public is going to jail for violating the NDA they signed. Jail for quite a few years for knowingly revealing TS information. I'll leave my previous comment below so you won't think I erased anything. My probl…

Perhaps whomever leaked it regarded it as essential to upholding an oath of office. 'preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.... '

That could certainly be the case. The only two plausible reasons for leaking classified information are moral convictions or personal gain (selling it to the news or a foreign country). Edit: Maybe three reasons. Blackmail/extortion is a possibility that doesn't quite fall into the personal gain category.

However noble the intention, it doesn't change the fact that everyone who has access to that information has signed an NDA and been through a security indoctrination (indoc used without the negative connotation in this case). They knew exactly what the punishment is for what they did. The jury that would nullify that would be a rare find in the US. It's basically zero probability if it was a military member subject to the UCMJ.

Re: US intelligence mining data from 9 US Internet companies in broad secret program

#244

Post by nitrogen »

EvanKelly wrote: post #175
nitrogen wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are national security assets: evidence gathered here will never be used in a drug case, or a tax evasion case. Information from intelligence programs has already been used in non-terrorism cases, like those of Petraeus and Spitzer.

I don't know about Spitzer (though he was Governor of New York), but someone holding blackmail leverage over Petraeus is certainly a matter of national security concern.

...that is still outside the scope of the program that revealed the information.

Re: US intelligence mining data from 9 US Internet companies in broad secret program

#245

Post by PavlovsCat »

ISL wrote: post #148
nostromo wrote: post #41

I'm saddened to see Dropbox on the list. Did they choose to participate or is it mandatory? In any case, we've moved several projects to BTSync recently from Dropbox (for no other reason than to free up space on Dropbox for our personal files) and have been enjoying the service. As a p2p encrypted protocol, I imagine it's much more difficult to eavesdrop on your files and would actually require a warrant to obtain. I…

Don't forget https://spideroak.com/ too.

Here's hoping! https://spideroak.com/faq/questions/35/why_isnt_spideroak_op...

Re: US intelligence mining data from 9 US Internet companies in broad secret program

#247

Post by danbruc »

It would be so dead simple to do it right - just ask the people if they are willing to accept a certain amount of surveillance for more safety or if they are willing to take the additional risk but keep their privacy. And everybody could live happily.

Re: US intelligence mining data from 9 US Internet companies in broad secret program

#248

Post by MPSimmons »

frisco wrote: post #130

I think it's interesting to ask why these programs are so widely hated. These are national security assets: evidence gathered here will never be used in a drug case, or a tax evasion case. Why not? These tools exist for the bigger fish: the dozens of Soviet-era nuclear weapons believed to be missing, or the small amounts of dangerous pathogens that periodically vanish from research labs. These are what the government…

> If you -- Hacker News reader -- decided to run for congress tomorrow, you might not win, but you won't be killed, sabotaged, or secretly blocked.

Yes, because those things are all entirely unknown in the history of Senate races in the US.

Re: US intelligence mining data from 9 US Internet companies in broad secret program

#249

Post by samstave »

ihsw wrote: post #232
samstave wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At a very minimum - this guy needs to be tried for perjury and removed from his post. And millions of americans should sign a petition to have this happen.

If you're referring to online petitions then you needn't waste your time, there are already petitions to make sure this never happens. It's called US Senate elections[1]. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_elections,... That bullshit called the Presidential elections? It's a dog and pony show.

I totally understand that regarding the petitions and everything else - but John Q Public may not and seeing millions sign a petition that is ignored will hopefully cause a further awakening in people.

Re: US intelligence mining data from 9 US Internet companies in broad secret program

#250

Post by PavlovsCat »

cinquemb wrote: post #241
ihsw wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're referring to online petitions then you needn't waste your time, there are already petitions to make sure this never happens. It's called US Senate elections[1]. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_elections,... That bullshit called the Presidential elections? It's a dog and pony show.

There's a famous quote somewhere about where political power really comes from… I look to history (and present day actions) and it seems like a fitting solution to meaningful representation. Then again, years later we could be right back where we started… Hint: The last bit I left out rhymes with "carol of the sun" ;)

I don't know what quote you are referring to, but here is my favourite one.

"You don’t know what order with freedom means! You only know what revolt against oppression is! You don’t know that the rod, discipline, violence, the state and government can only be sustained because of you and because of your lack of socially creative powers that develop order within liberty!" --- Gustav Landauer

It humbles me every time I read it, because to resist or to rebel against existing things is easy, at least for me.. but to actually put thought and effort into things "building a better world" in a sustainable and organized way, to be creative in co-operation and compromising with others, to get out of all these comfort zones, etc. It's a lifetime effort, and none of us will see all the fruits of it, or ever be sure the fruit won't be snatched up, so the default is to not even try, except a little bit here and there. It's like living hand to mouth, but in a political sense. It's all just reaction, and that sucks.

Post reply on HN