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An alternate take on this from the title: like any industry, homeland security (for example) is likely to be a tightly knit cluster of people -- you generally n
by yid 11y ago
An alternate take on this from the title: like any industry, homeland security (for example) is likely to be a tightly knit cluster of people -- you generally network on LinkedIn (and in life) with people in your own industry.
Now at even two degrees away, a single tenuous connection from the author to this cluster would instantly put the bulk of that cluster into the author's "extended network", and lead to the scary visualization shown. This connection could literally be a recruiter connecting to two essentially random people. At higher degrees of separation, the probability of finding such a path increases dramatically, to the point of almost certainty.
In other words, don't use these so-called "extended networks" for any serious analysis, and don't always trust tree visualizations of social networks.
- aunty_helen 11y agoI feel like your comment goes so far and then stops short of the key takeaway from this. From below >>The NSA reported using 3 hops for data dumps from their bulk surveillance store.
- yid 11y ago> >The NSA reported using 3 hops for data dumps from their bulk surveillance store. I'm not sure what this means, and you appear to be referencing a comment in this HN thread. I'd imagine that if an entity uses a hardware splitter to intercept all traffic, the number of alleged hops used in a network traversal isn't as important.
- aunty_helen 11y agoOk no worries, it was quite a while ago that the article came out (I think around some of the early Snowden leaks). It that claimed that the NSA used a 3 hop rule to establish a 'targets' network. They claimed to only use 3 hops to protect the privacy and constitutional rights of US citizens ie 'this is not mass surveillance guys, we promise'. (paraphrasing from memory of course) To the authors point, 2 hops could just about be anyone. To your point, 2 hops could be a very tenuous link. If you put both points together you get effectively mass surveillance of just about anyone whilst still claiming to be on the right side of the law.
- yid 11y agoThank you, that makes sense.