Earlier quoted context omitted.
Whoa. Do you have insider knowledge?
Yes, I was there.
So how might you prove that?
Snowden reveals GCHQ spy programme with link to Scottish police
61–70 of 72 posts
Re: Snowden reveals GCHQ spy programme with link to Scottish police
#62Metadata includes who a surveillance target is calling, emailing, what websites they visit, and, when location data is available, a person’s movements. That an impressive definition of "metadata". To the defenders of these efforts i continue to point to the common trend among these agencies: expansion. First the definition of terrorist expanded without merit. Then the application of spy tracking data expanded similar…
What exactly do you believe people should be doing?
Re: Snowden reveals GCHQ spy programme with link to Scottish police
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
All these accusations of trolling and astroturfing are completely off topic. If anyone is trying to derail the discussion here, it's you.
it seems like a lot of people here are in a feedback loop, only upvoting / listening to what they think fits. Everyone's quick to believe they know it all, when in fact that is the very issue the arguments are about. I get why you used a throw away. I'm not against civil discussions, I just hate when people don't use logic and take all evidence with a grain of salt. I don't for a second doubt parts of the govt. are h…
There's nothing wrong with throwaway accounts or opposing views; both are perfectly welcome.
What's problematic is when there's two throwaway accounts created at the same time, replying to one another in agreement, using the same writing style, and advancing same the narrative that's worded as if it's straight out of a public relations office.
HN has seen at least one NSA employee and one American intelligence community member posting in the wake of Snowden, and both were overwhelmingly treated with respect by the community despite their views. I myself often express views here that are staunchly anti-Snowden in nature.
The throwaway accounts you're defending received such hostility because they were perceived as being insincere due to their suspicious posting behavior. It was not due to their views or opinions.
Re: Snowden reveals GCHQ spy programme with link to Scottish police
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
Only there will you find real answers .. which it's illegal to tell anyone else. And if you find evidence of abuse the only way you can do anything about it is to flee to a country from which you can't be extradited. This is why we can't have a discussion about this and as much as possible needs to be moved from "intelligence" (secret, unaccountable) to "evidence" in courts. The only sensible answer to "how many terr…
> And if you find evidence of abuse the only way you can do anything about it is to flee to a country from which you can't be extradited. Not true. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Binney_(U.S._intelli...
Yeah as long as you're willing to lose your job, shutter your business and have the FBI confiscate all your computer equipment in a pre-dawn, guns drawn raid of your home.
Sounds so easy.
Re: Snowden reveals GCHQ spy programme with link to Scottish police
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
Enemy nations can then go rampant. Let them. I've never been to I dunno, North Korea, I have no plans to go there, let them know whatever they like about me. It's a problem however when a government that DOES have some say over my life does it.
That weaponizes–as if it hasn't been already–personal data collection. Collect data on a foreign nation's citizens, preferably the only global hegemon, which also happens to have internal constraints on what it can collect on its own citizens. Then play Let's Make a Deal. Trade personal data for foreign aid, arms deals, oppression of rivals, etc. Anyone on the planet should be concerned about personal data collection…
Then the mission of GCHQ, NSA et al should be on hardening our own networks, commercial and governmental, rather than exploiting the same holes that allow foreign threats in. In the current scenario, our own governments are incentivised to leave us vulnerable so they can exploit us themselves!
Re: Snowden reveals GCHQ spy programme with link to Scottish police
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
Great comment. Can you recommend any further reading?
"The Defence of the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5" and "Spycatcher" (the very unauthorised book, which again had to be written overseas).
A curious footnote on "Spycatcher" is that the lawyer who defended the author against a gag order in Australian courts, Malcolm Turnbull, is now the PM.
Re: Snowden reveals GCHQ spy programme with link to Scottish police
#67https://theintercept.com/2015/03/16/howthefbicreatedaterrori... Until people stop supporting hierarchical power structures, ie voting for presidents, working for a company where there's a single boss at the top and so on, using only a limited number of sources to obtain your data (ie media) which fuels your bias making your knees jerk and the current implementation of the financial system, people will always distrust…
We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11888940 and marked it off-topic.
Re: Snowden reveals GCHQ spy programme with link to Scottish police
#68> ... and more serious organised crime, were our security services not using the bulk surveillance data ... In the unlikely case these aren't pranks, they would almost certainly be GCHQ astroturfing accounts. Of course, the astroturfing itself is of so poor quality that they probably outsourced the job to either some apathetic social media/perception management firm, or clueless interns. I could easily see a social e…
We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11889046 and marked it off-topic.
Re: Snowden reveals GCHQ spy programme with link to Scottish police
#69Metadata includes who a surveillance target is calling, emailing, what websites they visit, and, when location data is available, a person’s movements. That an impressive definition of "metadata". To the defenders of these efforts i continue to point to the common trend among these agencies: expansion. First the definition of terrorist expanded without merit. Then the application of spy tracking data expanded similar…
What exactly do you believe people should be doing?
The quick and easy (-ish) solution is end-to-end encryption and anonymization networks (Tor, I2P). Not complete, but better than nothing.
Re: Snowden reveals GCHQ spy programme with link to Scottish police
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
What exactly do you believe people should be doing?
The quick and easy (-ish) solution is end-to-end encryption and anonymization networks (Tor, I2P). Not complete, but better than nothing.
In my opinion - most E2E, Tor, etc are useless counter measures against state-sponsored attackers; topic of the article.