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> If you can convict of high treason anybody who speaks publicly about what the NSA does, why would anyone at Google, Microsoft or other companies working with
by linkregister 9y ago
> If you can convict of high treason anybody who speaks publicly about what the NSA does, why would anyone at Google, Microsoft or other companies working with the NSA have any incentive to say anything?
This is where your rhetoric is getting ahead of the facts. The Snowden leaks were published in American newspapers. Company officers from each of those businesses publicly berated the NSA. FBI national security letters did force companies to disclose information about foreign intelligence targets, but this is not because of secret NSA powers, it's from a law passed by Congress.
> When you work for the government (and furthermore of the military establishment), as I said earlier, you can bring down a whole new level of pressure that money itself cannot buy.
What does the military have to do with Software-as-a-Service providers? Can you name an instance when the modern military provided a chilling effect or seriously impacted these services?
- cyphar 9y ago> This is where your rhetoric is getting ahead of the facts. The Snowden leaks were published in American newspapers. Snowden is being prosecuted under the Espionage Act, the reporters were threatened repeatedly by the authorities, The Guardian was forced to destroy their copies of the Snowden Archives, etc etc. Also, just because the "secret NSA power" of National Security Letters are a tool made legal by Congress doesn't change the ethics concerns relating to their use.