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Calling the NSA: "I accidentally deleted an e-mail, can you help me recover it?"

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Re: Calling the NSA: "I accidentally deleted an e-mail, can you help me recover it?"

#51

Post by rdl »

I was kind of surprised by the operator saying "Are you the NSA?" "uh huh" rather than something more professional like "Yes sir, this is NSA."

And then even more surprised that the operator was actually giving him helpful advice ("you should probably contact your email provider.") That was more helpful than most actual tech support employees I've interacted with, let alone PBX operators.

And, being a dick to low-level pbx operators is kind of stupid, even if you disagree with the organization. Remember the Chick-Fil-A guy? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jg-jzlWcc0E) I like gay people a lot, and am an atheist, but this guy does nothing but hurt his cause.

(The only time I've ever called NSA/CSS was to get a full set of the Rainbow Books at age 12. It was weird how they'd only answer with phone extension.)

Re: Calling the NSA: "I accidentally deleted an e-mail, can you help me recover it?"

#52

Post by cmancini »

This is of course not a joke in some countries, and has been done with success. I am very good friends with someone who grew up in one of the central asian dictatorships (stan), and their family had one of the (few) internet lines in the country. One day his family lost an important email, so they walked to the intelligence office, told them the date, and the officials were happy to retrieve it for them from the file drawer. They had been printing out and physically filing every piece of correspondence from each internet user (somewhat doable for the regime given only a small subset of the population). The point is, in this stan, there was no pretense of privacy. They were your helpful backup service.

Re: Calling the NSA: "I accidentally deleted an e-mail, can you help me recover it?"

#53

Post by httpagent »

frank_boyd wrote: post #48
downandout wrote: post #31

I'm a little bit curious why the operator wanted his contact info, and repeatedly asked for it, knowing full well that it was a ridiculous call. It makes me wonder if taxpayer dollars would have actually been spent investigating him.

He called using SKYPE which belongs to Microsoft. We know of both companies to partner with the NSA. So they have at least - all chats and most certainly - all calls converted to text at their disposal. So it looks like an intimidation attempt.

I'd like to believe that a phone operator at that level would not have clearance to see that type of information on a whim. I'm not saying its impossible, but if it were that available the Snowden revelations would have occurred much sooner.

Re: Calling the NSA: "I accidentally deleted an e-mail, can you help me recover it?"

#54

Post by dantiberian »

vidarh wrote: post #16
nisdec wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why doesn't it work from these countries? Just curious.

Probably because they've licensed the show for broadcast here/there and included online rights. It's on TV in the UK at least.

Close, they have licensed the show for broadcast on terrestrial networks and often don't allow anyone to broadcast online.

Re: Calling the NSA: "I accidentally deleted an e-mail, can you help me recover it?"

#55

Post by noloqy »

hawkharris wrote: post #12

When one of my friends in college landed a math-related internship with the NSA years ago, I was very impressed and proud of her. If a friend were to land a similar job or internship now, my gut reaction would be vert different. As illustrated by this video, the agency's prestige among the public seems to have degraded considerably. I wonder how this has affected its ability to recruit bright young people.

I think it does hurt the NSA's recruiting position indeed. The NSA naturally hires mostly technical people, and in general I think it is exactly this population that is disgusted most by what the NSA is doing. For me, the issue wouldn't be as much about prestige, but more about morality.

As for the more general public, they're just following the news. The news has devoted a lot of attention to the NSA lately, but will move on to different topics sooner or later, and the general public will forget.

Re: Calling the NSA: "I accidentally deleted an e-mail, can you help me recover it?"

#56

Post by leokun »

rdl wrote: post #51

I was kind of surprised by the operator saying "Are you the NSA?" "uh huh" rather than something more professional like "Yes sir, this is NSA." And then even more surprised that the operator was actually giving him helpful advice ("you should probably contact your email provider.") That was more helpful than most actual tech support employees I've interacted with, let alone PBX operators. And, being a dick to low-lev…

> "I like gay people a lot"

A little off topic from your post, but this is one of those gross generalizations that just actually portrays you as not getting the gist of the problem with bigotry. "gay people" are not a homogeneous group of like-minded people. Discrimination against sexual orientation or being transgendered is a sad and unfortunate injustice, but these are simply traits shared by a diverse set of people. In this world there is a wide range of many wonderful people and horrible people and everyone in between. The distribution of sexual preference has nothing to do with where they end up in that range. Each person is an individual actor, and not a representative for others who they may share a trait with, but when you say you "like gay people a lot" it is obvious you don't understand that. In fact, it seems kind of a bigoted, ignorant thing to say, even if you didn't mean to say anything mean.

Re: Calling the NSA: "I accidentally deleted an e-mail, can you help me recover it?"

#57

Post by [deleted] »

leokun wrote: post #56
rdl wrote: post #51

I was kind of surprised by the operator saying "Are you the NSA?" "uh huh" rather than something more professional like "Yes sir, this is NSA." And then even more surprised that the operator was actually giving him helpful advice ("you should probably contact your email provider.") That was more helpful than most actual tech support employees I've interacted with, let alone PBX operators. And, being a dick to low-lev…

> "I like gay people a lot" A little off topic from your post, but this is one of those gross generalizations that just actually portrays you as not getting the gist of the problem with bigotry. "gay people" are not a homogeneous group of like-minded people. Discrimination against sexual orientation or being transgendered is a sad and unfortunate injustice, but these are simply traits shared by a diverse set of peopl…

[deleted]

Re: Calling the NSA: "I accidentally deleted an e-mail, can you help me recover it?"

#58

Post by smtddr »

rdl wrote: post #51

I was kind of surprised by the operator saying "Are you the NSA?" "uh huh" rather than something more professional like "Yes sir, this is NSA." And then even more surprised that the operator was actually giving him helpful advice ("you should probably contact your email provider.") That was more helpful than most actual tech support employees I've interacted with, let alone PBX operators. And, being a dick to low-lev…

>rdl said:

>I like gay people a lot

Sure you do, just like how Donald Trump said "I have a great relationship with the blacks"[1]

1. http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/04/14/trump-says-h...

Re: Calling the NSA: "I accidentally deleted an e-mail, can you help me recover it?"

#59

Post by rdl »

smtddr wrote: post #58
rdl wrote: post #51

I was kind of surprised by the operator saying "Are you the NSA?" "uh huh" rather than something more professional like "Yes sir, this is NSA." And then even more surprised that the operator was actually giving him helpful advice ("you should probably contact your email provider.") That was more helpful than most actual tech support employees I've interacted with, let alone PBX operators. And, being a dick to low-lev…

>rdl said: >I like gay people a lot Sure you do, just like how Donald Trump said "I have a great relationship with the blacks"[1] 1. http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/04/14/trump-says-h...

It was specifically in the context of criticizing someone who would be widely perceived as pro-gay. As in "I mostly support the same issues as this guy, but he's hurting his cause."

I'd be just as likely to say "I like black people, but hurts the public image of black people and the cause of civil rights", sure.

I'm fine with Trump comparisons except please the 1980s Trump, not the current one.

Re: Calling the NSA: "I accidentally deleted an e-mail, can you help me recover it?"

#60

Post by Tloewald »

leokun wrote: post #56
rdl wrote: post #51

I was kind of surprised by the operator saying "Are you the NSA?" "uh huh" rather than something more professional like "Yes sir, this is NSA." And then even more surprised that the operator was actually giving him helpful advice ("you should probably contact your email provider.") That was more helpful than most actual tech support employees I've interacted with, let alone PBX operators. And, being a dick to low-lev…

> "I like gay people a lot" A little off topic from your post, but this is one of those gross generalizations that just actually portrays you as not getting the gist of the problem with bigotry. "gay people" are not a homogeneous group of like-minded people. Discrimination against sexual orientation or being transgendered is a sad and unfortunate injustice, but these are simply traits shared by a diverse set of peopl…

Clumsily said but the point - don't be a dick — is valid. I take it to mean "I have nothing against gay people although I don't really know any". It's funny because the opposite clumsy-ism is "some of my best friends are..." With the idea you can be a total douche towards some group but it's Ok because you're nice to the ones you actually know.
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