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In principal it's quite wrong and scary, but in reality I have to believe the government is too incompetent to actually do anything with their mountains of AT&T

by holdenc 16y ago

In principal it's quite wrong and scary, but in reality I have to believe the government is too incompetent to actually do anything with their mountains of AT&T collected data.

jedsmith 16y ago
According to paperwork leaked by Mark Klein, they have/had a "Narus STA 6400" in the room. It's described as a supercomputer that sounds, to my ears, similar to Carnivore. I doubt that they even try to collect (too much data), and instead specifically look for things to grab from the firehose. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narus http://narus.com/index.php/solutions/intercept http://narus.com/index.php/solutions/intercept
- davidandgoliath 16y ago
  Or, according to TIA, compile giant banks of information on every user based on their traffic & purchasing habits. Combine this with your other online data & there's quite a bit on every person.
lancefisher 16y ago
I wouldn't underestimate the competency of the NSA. This wiretapping is frightening, especially if it falls into the wrong hands.
intended 16y ago
Yet. But WE will create the tools that help the government go through reams of data, collate different pieces of information. I think its actually inevitable that the government reaches that stage. An even scarier thought is that what if they get access to data 30 years down the line, with vastly more computing power? (Heck, what happens if someone gets a hold of old tossed out ISP hard drives with logs on them?)
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
route66 16y ago
As the problem lies often not in the data leaking out but in the conclusions someone else draws from it, I'm convinced that incompetence and stupidity only can make matter worse. As for the mountains of data: how many HN'ers for instance would love to climb them for no other reason than to use some BigData tools on them without questioning that cause?
neilk 16y ago
Government incompetence should not comfort you. Go rent the movie Brazil. It's a movie about what would happen in a society with strongly defined elites and suffocating bureaucracy, dominated by a fear of terrorism, practicing torture in secret. The information professional class is relatively privileged, although oppressed at the workplace like everyone else. For fun some can snoop on citizens at will. Yeah I know, it's science fiction, but it could happen some day. The entire plot is set in motion when a fly falls into a mechanical typewriter and causes the government agents to break into the house of Archibald Buttle (instead of Tuttle).

by holdenc 16y ago

In principal it's quite wrong and scary, but in reality I have to believe the government is too incompetent to actually do anything with their mountains of AT&T collected data.

jedsmith 16y ago

According to paperwork leaked by Mark Klein, they have/had a "Narus STA 6400" in the room. It's described as a supercomputer that sounds, to my ears, similar to Carnivore. I doubt that they even try to collect (too much data), and instead specifically look for things to grab from the firehose. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narus http://narus.com/index.php/solutions/intercept http://narus.com/index.php/solutions/intercept

davidandgoliath 16y ago
Or, according to TIA, compile giant banks of information on every user based on their traffic & purchasing habits. Combine this with your other online data & there's quite a bit on every person.

lancefisher 16y ago

I wouldn't underestimate the competency of the NSA. This wiretapping is frightening, especially if it falls into the wrong hands.

intended 16y ago

Yet. But WE will create the tools that help the government go through reams of data, collate different pieces of information. I think its actually inevitable that the government reaches that stage. An even scarier thought is that what if they get access to data 30 years down the line, with vastly more computing power? (Heck, what happens if someone gets a hold of old tossed out ISP hard drives with logs on them?)

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

route66 16y ago

As the problem lies often not in the data leaking out but in the conclusions someone else draws from it, I'm convinced that incompetence and stupidity only can make matter worse. As for the mountains of data: how many HN'ers for instance would love to climb them for no other reason than to use some BigData tools on them without questioning that cause?

neilk 16y ago

Government incompetence should not comfort you. Go rent the movie Brazil. It's a movie about what would happen in a society with strongly defined elites and suffocating bureaucracy, dominated by a fear of terrorism, practicing torture in secret. The information professional class is relatively privileged, although oppressed at the workplace like everyone else. For fun some can snoop on citizens at will. Yeah I know, it's science fiction, but it could happen some day. The entire plot is set in motion when a fly falls into a mechanical typewriter and causes the government agents to break into the house of Archibald Buttle (instead of Tuttle).