71–80 of 84 posts
If the U.S. decided to take down every one of those companies or indite their CEOs/Boards the would have an uproar from the populous that would likely be comparable to the 60's (or worse).
Essentially, the populous would be more loyal to a company who's honest than a government which is dishonest.
There was a time when the trade-off was: 1. The government lied and pretends not to engage in domestic espionage. 2. To support that lie, the government didn't do much bad stuff with the results of its domestic spying. 3. Thus, the domestic spying wasn't a big deal. I think we're past that point now.
What bad stuff has the government done with the current batch of domestic spying?
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Is there evidence that the securities fraud charges were actually caused by their refusal? Or were they caused by the fact that the guy said Qwest was doing well and sold ahead of a huge downturn in prices? As far as I can tell from Wikipedia, the charges would have stuck irrespective of the NSA stuff.
The downturn in the stock came after the government dismissed the contract. "Induced" insider trading by the government manipulating the stock to tank, then prosecuting in some people's opinions.
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It has been reported that the NSA shares data, including raw data on Americans, with Israel. Unfortunately, what you are concerned about has already occurred. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/11/nsa-americans-p...
sharing information, i think is small potatoes. showing them how to get the information on their own is what i fear. "Hey, check out this backdoor we found. Enjoy"
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You asked me if I would let myself off the hook for blowing the whistle because I told my employer in advance that I would do so. I wouldn't characterize it as letting myself off the hook, because there shouldn't be a "hook" in my clavicle mandating unethical behaviour in the first place. I'd characterize it as doing the right thing if for no other reason than being ethically obligated to do so. Blowing the whistle s…
> Why on earth would asserting that I would behave ethically Let me construct a parallel scenario that might make it obvious to you. Let's suppose you're hiring a nanny to care for your children while you are away at work (not that you or I could necessarily afford such a thing). You tell the candidates your requirements for how the children should be treated while you are away, including what food they may eat, what…
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This comment feels really cheap to me. Two big issues: 1. Most people probably are not huge fans of this, but don't consider it a big enough deal to go to jail over it. I'm in that category (double disclaimer: not speaking in any official capacity for my company). 2. Even if someone DID think it a big enough deal, it's not easy to be a martyr. If it were, then presumably you would have already found yourself a job at…
I'm not languishing in prison (yet). I certainly don't find such prospects appealing in the least. But my values are not hobbies. If push came to shove, prison is where I'd go. Granted, having a publicly stated policy of whistleblowing will likely put me on the bottom of a very long list of candidates for employment at these companies. (Well, it seems not to be the case with Google yet. I get prodded by one of their…
You can't fight things like that in court, it's as hopeless as Khodorkovsky's attempts to defend himself. Only things that work for businesses is moving out, for people - using strong encryption on personal level.
I don't say that legal way should not be taken, it is still good but just to show how far the government is willing to go to defend it's violations of human rights - which should make things clear to those who are still in doubt.
There was a time when the trade-off was: 1. The government lied and pretends not to engage in domestic espionage. 2. To support that lie, the government didn't do much bad stuff with the results of its domestic spying. 3. Thus, the domestic spying wasn't a big deal. I think we're past that point now.
What bad stuff has the government done with the current batch of domestic spying?
As for the rest -- it's hard to prove what secret sources the government used to motivate which actions. But as one example:
Being on the No-Fly List is pretty bad, and a lot of people are on it.
Probably naive, but what would happen if Google, Facebook, MS just started disclosing everything? What are they going to do shut them down? Seems silly to me that these huge companies can't just give them the middle finger and show them that they're not going to be bullied any longer.