7 ms·

Thinly veiled propaganda. Until our government actually starts being transparent these hacks are the only insight into the actual thoughts and motivations of o

by gjolund 10y ago

Thinly veiled propaganda. Until our government actually starts being transparent these hacks are the only insight into the actual thoughts and motivations of our world leaders.

trendia 10y ago
The government reads Americans emails: "Deal with it." Americans read the government's emails: "This is an outrage!"
- mtgx 10y ago
  This is really the only thing you need to say to people having the same views as the author. It's the government that should be the more transparent one - not the citizens, who are supposed to "own" the government. Yet things are very much the other way around right now - by a long shot. Government secrecy has only expanded under Obama, even after promising more transparency compared to Bush's own secrecy. Almost every remotely sensitive government document gets "classified" these days. This nonsense needs to stop. It's even worse when the media colludes with the government to tell citizens that it's "illegal" to read these emails. https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20161019/07004935835/cnn-tells-viewers-illegal-them-to-read-wikileaks-document-dumps-cnn-is-wrong.shtml https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20161019/07004935835/cnn-t...
- refurb 10y ago
  You do realize that gov't emails are supposed to be public, right? That's the law.
  - trendia 10y ago
    Of course -- through FOIA and recent subpoenas -- which is why the outrage over the release of these emails is even more hypocritical
- schoen 10y ago
  I'm sure that Zittrain doesn't think that the government reading the public's e-mails is OK. While this asymmetry is certainly a charge that could be raised against many people, I don't think it works against this particular author. I'm pretty confident Zittrain would like to see greatly reduced government secrecy and greatly increased privacy protections and doesn't mean to defend the status quo around either of those things.
- jahewson 10y ago
  The DNC is not the government.
  - Senji 10y ago
    Frankly it doesn't matter that it and the GOPe aren't.
GVIrish 10y ago
The problem being pointed to here is that it's not just official government accounts being hacked here. Private accounts of private citizens are being hacked for political gain. Should everyone who ever worked for the government have all of their private email and correspondence exposed? Should anyone who is connected to any political party in any way be subject to having their private digital lives splayed open for everyone to see? I could see if someone was exposing some specific correspondence that is relevant to government wrongdoing. But what purpose does it serve to dump everything from someone's account(s) indiscriminately? Does the guy that does the trip-planning for the Secretary of State deserve that? Going down this road, one can see how these hacks can be used to silence dissent, punish political dissidents, influence elections, and who knows what else. Maybe it is inevitable given that there are many state actors who will do whatever they want to further their goals. But who knows, maybe stuff like this will convince the powers that be that trying to weaken or ban encrypted communications is a REALLY bad idea.
- gjolund 10y ago
  They are just going to regulate encryption to ensure the masses can still be spied on while protecting their own communication. Anyone who doesn't see how we are on the path to totalitarianism is deluding themselves.
- rfrank 10y ago
  Private accounts of private citizens are viewed by the government on a daily basis. Why should I care about anyone who works for the government's privacy? This is a board that argues extremely frequently that privacy is dead and/or completely impractical in the modern age - a statement that's apparently fine to make about social media or adtech companies and their products, but upsetting when it comes to the government? We've been marching down this road for a long time now.
  - tedunangst 10y ago
    Is the secretary of state's trip planner reading your email?
bakhy 10y ago
> into the actual thoughts and motivations why do you think you should have the right to this? it is quite extreme. anyone's "actual" thoughts are their own business. judge them by their actions. godknows, there's proof enough out there about how shitty the US government is.

by gjolund 10y ago

Thinly veiled propaganda. Until our government actually starts being transparent these hacks are the only insight into the actual thoughts and motivations of our world leaders.

trendia 10y ago

The government reads Americans emails: "Deal with it." Americans read the government's emails: "This is an outrage!"

mtgx 10y ago
This is really the only thing you need to say to people having the same views as the author. It's the government that should be the more transparent one - not the citizens, who are supposed to "own" the government. Yet things are very much the other way around right now - by a long shot. Government secrecy has only expanded under Obama, even after promising more transparency compared to Bush's own secrecy. Almost every remotely sensitive government document gets "classified" these days. This nonsense needs to stop. It's even worse when the media colludes with the government to tell citizens that it's "illegal" to read these emails. https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20161019/07004935835/cnn-tells-viewers-illegal-them-to-read-wikileaks-document-dumps-cnn-is-wrong.shtml https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20161019/07004935835/cnn-t...
refurb 10y ago
You do realize that gov't emails are supposed to be public, right? That's the law.
- trendia 10y ago
  Of course -- through FOIA and recent subpoenas -- which is why the outrage over the release of these emails is even more hypocritical
schoen 10y ago
I'm sure that Zittrain doesn't think that the government reading the public's e-mails is OK. While this asymmetry is certainly a charge that could be raised against many people, I don't think it works against this particular author. I'm pretty confident Zittrain would like to see greatly reduced government secrecy and greatly increased privacy protections and doesn't mean to defend the status quo around either of those things.
jahewson 10y ago
The DNC is not the government.
- Senji 10y ago
  Frankly it doesn't matter that it and the GOPe aren't.

GVIrish 10y ago

The problem being pointed to here is that it's not just official government accounts being hacked here. Private accounts of private citizens are being hacked for political gain. Should everyone who ever worked for the government have all of their private email and correspondence exposed? Should anyone who is connected to any political party in any way be subject to having their private digital lives splayed open for everyone to see? I could see if someone was exposing some specific correspondence that is relevant to government wrongdoing. But what purpose does it serve to dump everything from someone's account(s) indiscriminately? Does the guy that does the trip-planning for the Secretary of State deserve that? Going down this road, one can see how these hacks can be used to silence dissent, punish political dissidents, influence elections, and who knows what else. Maybe it is inevitable given that there are many state actors who will do whatever they want to further their goals. But who knows, maybe stuff like this will convince the powers that be that trying to weaken or ban encrypted communications is a REALLY bad idea.

gjolund 10y ago
They are just going to regulate encryption to ensure the masses can still be spied on while protecting their own communication. Anyone who doesn't see how we are on the path to totalitarianism is deluding themselves.
rfrank 10y ago
Private accounts of private citizens are viewed by the government on a daily basis. Why should I care about anyone who works for the government's privacy? This is a board that argues extremely frequently that privacy is dead and/or completely impractical in the modern age - a statement that's apparently fine to make about social media or adtech companies and their products, but upsetting when it comes to the government? We've been marching down this road for a long time now.
- tedunangst 10y ago
  Is the secretary of state's trip planner reading your email?

bakhy 10y ago

> into the actual thoughts and motivations why do you think you should have the right to this? it is quite extreme. anyone's "actual" thoughts are their own business. judge them by their actions. godknows, there's proof enough out there about how shitty the US government is.