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Former NSA chief Keith Alexander has joined Amazon’s board of directors

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Re: Former NSA chief Keith Alexander has joined Amazon’s board of directors

#71
Counterpoint to a number of posts already on here regarding the bad for privacy angle. Maybe not a terrible idea to have a board member with significant experience understanding the threat nation states and other larger private hacking concerns pose to one of the United States’ largest cloud providers?

I understand this is all too incestuous, but I also can’t really say it’s a bad move.

Re: Former NSA chief Keith Alexander has joined Amazon’s board of directors

#72
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This: This sounds tinfoil hat crazy, but here we are. Not so crazy now At some point we need to just say it some of the largest tech companies are basically NSA+CIA partners and we're well on our way to having Big Tech completely integrated into NSA and CIA and DoD

All these 3-letter acronyms exists to further American interests - for a long time that was primarily the military/industrial complex followed by oil/gas. We're now just seeing the focus switch to supporting big tech as a priority.

[deleted]

Re: Former NSA chief Keith Alexander has joined Amazon’s board of directors

#73
post #8

> For those keeping score, not only does Amazon own the The Washington Post and oversees the CIA’s Commercial Cloud Enterprise, it now has on its powerful board of directors the most visible figure from the NSA who illegally spied on Americans for the better part of a decade. This sounds tinfoil hat crazy, but here we are. Not so crazy now. Man in a position to have reams of compromising intel on the current presiden…

This: This sounds tinfoil hat crazy, but here we are. Not so crazy now At some point we need to just say it some of the largest tech companies are basically NSA+CIA partners and we're well on our way to having Big Tech completely integrated into NSA and CIA and DoD

The government created Silicon Valley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTC_RxWN_xo

I have no evidence other than the sheer obviousness of it, but the ties still continue to this day. I have no doubt it is kept hidden from most employees due to the general political leanings of most Valley engineers. For instance, my work does a ton of work for the DoE and you hear them mentioned all the time. The DoD is also a customer and you never hear their name.

Re: Former NSA chief Keith Alexander has joined Amazon’s board of directors

#74
post #8

> For those keeping score, not only does Amazon own the The Washington Post and oversees the CIA’s Commercial Cloud Enterprise, it now has on its powerful board of directors the most visible figure from the NSA who illegally spied on Americans for the better part of a decade. This sounds tinfoil hat crazy, but here we are. Not so crazy now. Man in a position to have reams of compromising intel on the current presiden…

This: This sounds tinfoil hat crazy, but here we are. Not so crazy now At some point we need to just say it some of the largest tech companies are basically NSA+CIA partners and we're well on our way to having Big Tech completely integrated into NSA and CIA and DoD

Well on our way? lol... I wish we were only still in that stage...

Re: Former NSA chief Keith Alexander has joined Amazon’s board of directors

#75
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This: This sounds tinfoil hat crazy, but here we are. Not so crazy now At some point we need to just say it some of the largest tech companies are basically NSA+CIA partners and we're well on our way to having Big Tech completely integrated into NSA and CIA and DoD

The government has used Big Tech forever. Oracle, Microsoft, Apple products have been used by NSA+CIA for about as long as those companies have had products. Yes, those companies sell to the government. They want to make money and the government has money.

Obligatory link to Steve Blank's recounting of SV's early days (1950-1980).

https://steveblank.com/2009/04/20/the-secret-history-of-sili...

https://steveblank.com/2009/04/06/story-behind-%E2%80%9Cthe-...

https://steveblank.com/secret-history/

Re: Former NSA chief Keith Alexander has joined Amazon’s board of directors

#76
post #8

> For those keeping score, not only does Amazon own the The Washington Post and oversees the CIA’s Commercial Cloud Enterprise, it now has on its powerful board of directors the most visible figure from the NSA who illegally spied on Americans for the better part of a decade. This sounds tinfoil hat crazy, but here we are. Not so crazy now. Man in a position to have reams of compromising intel on the current presiden…

Hey, want to hear something else a little tinfoil hat crazy and also 100% true? - Checking out on Amazon was always encrypted. - Browsing on Amazon was not encrypted until quite recently. Add To Cart wasn't encrypted. - High end network equipment includes support for monitoring your browsing on the guest wifi to send URLs from you browsing Amazon to price-compare or buy. See, for instance, Cisco Analytics for Retail.

> Browsing on Amazon was not encrypted until quite recently. Add To Cart wasn't encrypted.

What do you mean by this? HTTPS has always been supported for browsing and adding to cart.

Re: Former NSA chief Keith Alexander has joined Amazon’s board of directors

#77
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The implication here requires a few things to be true. 1. The CIA illegally collected intelligence on Donald Trump prior to his election to the Presidency 2. This intelligence was specifically of a compromising nature to President Trump 3. This intelligence was retained and can be retrieved at a moments notice 4. The retired DCI, who is no longer a government employee, somehow retains his read ins, Need to Know or ac…

Plus we've already had an impeachment trial. If there were damning, conclusive evidence that the CIA possessed on Trump, that would have been the time to present it.

There was never any presentation of evidence.

Re: Former NSA chief Keith Alexander has joined Amazon’s board of directors

#78

Amazon does have devices listening in every home. Is the concern here that hiring Keith Alexander would make it easier for government to get people's conversation data?

"in every home." - only morons homes.

Re: Former NSA chief Keith Alexander has joined Amazon’s board of directors

#79
post #57
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plus we've already had an impeachment trial. If there were damning, conclusive evidence that the CIA possessed on Trump, that would have been the time to present it.

Collecting on a US person without a warrant likely would have been illegal and not viable evidence.

The impeachment trial is not a trial.

Re: Former NSA chief Keith Alexander has joined Amazon’s board of directors

#80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This: This sounds tinfoil hat crazy, but here we are. Not so crazy now At some point we need to just say it some of the largest tech companies are basically NSA+CIA partners and we're well on our way to having Big Tech completely integrated into NSA and CIA and DoD

The government created Silicon Valley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTC_RxWN_xo I have no evidence other than the sheer obviousness of it, but the ties still continue to this day. I have no doubt it is kept hidden from most employees due to the general political leanings of most Valley engineers. For instance, my work does a ton of work for the DoE and you hear them mentioned all the time. The DoD is also a custom…

Google bought Keyhole (now Google Maps) from In-Q-Tel, the CIA's VC firm [1] -- this was when Eric Schmidt was CEO.

Maps was caught wardriving [2] with Google Streetview, linking Wifi access point names to physical locations early on. After getting caught, they settled for $13 Million last year.

Now Google Maps and even location services on all Android devices uses wifi scanning and bluetooth scanning as part of location triangulation. This is a constantly updating map of every SSID in existance, including unique radio devices in a given location.

Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, now heads up the DoD's advisory board on new technology [3]

[1] https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/how-the-cia-made-goo...

[2] https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/22/tech/google-street-view-priva...

[3] https://www.defensenews.com/industry/techwatch/2016/03/02/go... ||| https://innovation.defense.gov/Media/Biographies/Bio-Display...

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