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If all the leaks in the past decade have shown anything it's that everyone spies on everyone. It's been like that forever too. You can take some solace in knowi

If all the leaks in the past decade have shown anything it's that everyone spies on everyone. It's been like that forever too. You can take some solace in knowing your country is almost definitely spying on the US as well. With the internet, I have never been surprised by US govt shenanigans. The internet is largely a product of the US military. It was originally designed for government communications in nuclear war. I say the same when people mention GPS. It's very civilian appearing but make no mistake it's very much connected to military.

rdxm 9y ago
+1 edit to add: I re-read this piece by Scneier every now and then.... http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/16/opinion/schneier-internet-surveillance/ http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/16/opinion/schneier-internet-surv...
- emmelaich 9y ago
  Excellent link. Somewhat similar: NSA's Dan Geer on how we are all intelligence officers now. https://www.theinternetpatrol.com/security-expert-dan-geer-we-are-all-intelligence-officers-now-full-text-here/ https://www.theinternetpatrol.com/security-expert-dan-geer-w...
terrestrial 9y ago
> If all the leaks in the past decade have shown anything it's that everyone spies on everyone. It's been like that forever too. It may have been like that for a long time, but it's not entirely true anymore. The leaks show an emergent trend of cooperation between the western intelligence agencies, i.e. the "fourteen eyes". This is the most worrying part IMO. Now you have a small elite sitting on enough power to take out anyone or control pretty much all information on the internet. We laugh at Baidu and Yandex, but if these people want something they'll have it.
bigbugbag 9y ago
This "every one is doing it argument" fails to address the difference in scale between the US and the of the world. As if I took a knife and stabbed someone with it, and say well it's not that bad, look those kids over there they fight all the time, see right here the one in shorts here kicked the other one with the baseball cap who's crying. I mean you can't be seriously suggesting that Namibia can engage in spying as the US does, and this is true for the large majority of the countries around the globe.

rdxm 9y ago

+1 edit to add: I re-read this piece by Scneier every now and then.... http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/16/opinion/schneier-internet-surveillance/ http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/16/opinion/schneier-internet-surv...

emmelaich 9y ago
Excellent link. Somewhat similar: NSA's Dan Geer on how we are all intelligence officers now. https://www.theinternetpatrol.com/security-expert-dan-geer-we-are-all-intelligence-officers-now-full-text-here/ https://www.theinternetpatrol.com/security-expert-dan-geer-w...

terrestrial 9y ago

> If all the leaks in the past decade have shown anything it's that everyone spies on everyone. It's been like that forever too. It may have been like that for a long time, but it's not entirely true anymore. The leaks show an emergent trend of cooperation between the western intelligence agencies, i.e. the "fourteen eyes". This is the most worrying part IMO. Now you have a small elite sitting on enough power to take out anyone or control pretty much all information on the internet. We laugh at Baidu and Yandex, but if these people want something they'll have it.

bigbugbag 9y ago

This "every one is doing it argument" fails to address the difference in scale between the US and the of the world. As if I took a knife and stabbed someone with it, and say well it's not that bad, look those kids over there they fight all the time, see right here the one in shorts here kicked the other one with the baseball cap who's crying. I mean you can't be seriously suggesting that Namibia can engage in spying as the US does, and this is true for the large majority of the countries around the globe.