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> The risk, he [Barr] said, was acceptable because “we are talking about consumer products and services such as messaging, smart phones, e-mail, and voice and d
by apo 7y ago
> The risk, he [Barr] said, was acceptable because “we are talking about consumer products and services such as messaging, smart phones, e-mail, and voice and data applications,” and “not talking about protecting the nation’s nuclear launch codes.”
Two things about this odd quote, which dances on the edge of the Orwellian "nothing to hide" argument:
1. I'd put the odds that current president has in fact stored the nuclear launch codes on a "consumer product" at 50:50. He's shown a shocking disregard and disdain for protocol. The way in which diplomacy is carried out through Twitter suggests he's not capable of evaluating the threats posed his uses of consumer-grade technology.
2. Barr assumes a threat model involving petty criminals. The real threat is the US federal government, which has demonstrated repeated disregard, under multiple administrations, for search and seizure boundaries set by the Constitution.
- vermilingua 7y agoI highly doubt that any president has any authority over the storage medium of nuclear launch codes.
- ben_w 7y agoWhat was the phrase before the election? “But her emails”? I’m not American, but that phrase seems to have shown up a lot and been about inappropriate storage of classified material. One can store material inappropriately even without authorisation.
- mulmen 7y agoI'm really struggling to understand how you can think that. The launch codes are used by the president. If a party has access to data then that data can be replicated and stored anywhere else that party can access. The president is the authority that decides how the codes are stored, they exist primarily for his use.
- packet_nerd 7y agoIt's not hard to imagine him snapping a picture with his phone.. you know, just in case.
- dx034 7y agoAren't they sealed? As soon as the Secret service would detect codes to be unsealed, they'd probably have to be replaced immediately.