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> by default you give people the benefit of the doubt I actually tend to assume websites like HN are the NSA or at least the NSA have read access to their data
by zer0tonin 7y ago
> by default you give people the benefit of the doubt
I actually tend to assume websites like HN are the NSA or at least the NSA have read access to their databases. Maybe it's my tinfoil hat tendencies but instead of giving them the benefit of the doubt I would rather not give them any data I don't mind the NSA having.
- ktm5j 7y agoEveryone has read access to HN.. there are no private messages that I'm aware of, anyone can search this site using google
- cryptoz 7y agoHN contains a lot of information that isn't visible on the public web. Ban lists, point counts, user access history, etc. > Everyone has read access to HN No, not to their databases as OP is discussing. It would be definitely a crime if any of us had that info as it would imply we broke in and stole it - but OP is suggesting that they assume NSA already has it (a potentially paranoid but also reasonably fair thing to do, IMO). From a personnel standpoint, isn't Thiel on the board of HN/YC and doesn't Thiel have basically uncountable NSA/CIA/etc connections? I'm not saying Thiel has anything to do with HN's security - but clearly, saying HN's databases might be accessed by someone like CIA (while a board member of YC is active in sales & partnerships to CIA etc) isn't that crazy.
- dang 7y ago> isn't Thiel on the board of HN/YC He is not.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- andai 7y agoI think the HN database is available publicly for download.
- cryptoz 7y agoIt's not. None of us know how many points your comment has, or if you have an email address on file, or how many times you visited HN today, or what IP you're using, etc. But all of those things are in the HN database(s) I'm sure!
- _jal 7y agoI'm normally the tinfoil-hat guy in any given discussion. I'll go out on a limb and predict that my HN internet points score is not a signal of interest to NSA selection criteria.
- cryptoz 7y agoWait, why not? Knowing who votes for what content, when, and in coordination with whom else seems like it would be extremely useful indeed! Aren't techniques like this already used by FBI etc on Twitter when investigating illegal content and coordination of its' dissemination? Bot networks are taken down on Twitter and other sites all the time using voting data. Social voting data is a rather sizable and useful dataset for surveillance agencies. HN has a high concentration of current-high-impact and future-high-impact individuals and is therefore a reasonably interesting trove of information. I realize all this is indeed tinfoil-hat-ish stuff. But I'd be shocked in NSA/CIA/FBI etc was disinterested in online social voting habits of users. Also, you latched on to a single example I gave. HN may have your email address privately (if you gave it to them) and they also have your IP/access logs. This is all stuff that they save but is not publicly available information. I'm sure there's more as well. It's not just "internet points" and reducing the discussion down to simply dismissing a single one of my thoughts isn't going to get us anywhere.
- Izkata 7y agoGP said "score", so my guess is they weren't even thinking in that direction, just their posts that others voted on.
- 7y ago
- lifeisstillgood 7y agoErr, all the NSA needs to do to get access to our HN posts is scrape the site. National Security Letters are probably more effort to arrange than a copy of BeautifulSoup. I hope ...
- zer0tonin 7y agoNot really, there's a lot of content that isn't public, like upvoted submissions, but can give a lot of information about a person political opinions and interests.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]