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You were told a lie. USA has been doing it as long as the second war started and never stopped. And they consider strong encryption a weapon. Are you familia

You were told a lie. USA has been doing it as long as the second war started and never stopped. And they consider strong encryption a weapon. Are you familiar with the Zimmermann case?

GekkePrutser 6y ago
It's also big in the Netherlands.. In the 90s they had the biggest number of phone taps in the world, and this is not per capita, but the absolute number! With a population a mere fraction of the US's. However the Netherlands is a fairly honest country when it comes to statistics, so I wouldn't be surprised that the US still came out on top, but they just didn't report most of their taps for 'national security' reasons. But something has really changed in the past 20-30 years. Before this there was no way to literally monitor everyone. It was too labour/storage intensive. You really had to be a 'person of interest' for some kind of (usually legitimate) reason. Whereas now in this digital age (and with everyone carrying a portable listening device in their pocket) this is totally feasible and thanks to Snowden we know it's actually being done too.
- romanoderoma 6y ago
  > Before this there was no way to literally monitor everyone The DDR did it Another important factor is that until 20-30 years ago people communicated a lot less They mostly talked face to face The challenge today is not easier: to literally monitor everyone is not possible, the signal to noise ratio is too high They could listen to everyone, it's doubtful it is possible to extract any meaningful information on random communications between random people that are not being monitored because they are already of interest As someone else said metadata is more important because it allows to create connections between actors from thin air. When you have narrowed the scope, listening becomes a lot more effective.
hughw 6y ago
The Zimmerman telegram was from WWI and was intercepted by the British, not the Americans.
- quesera 6y ago
  Wrong Zimmermann. :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Zimmermann#Arms_Export_Control_Act_investigation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Zimmermann#Arms_Export_Co...

You were told a lie. USA has been doing it as long as the second war started and never stopped. And they consider strong encryption a weapon. Are you familiar with the Zimmermann case?

GekkePrutser 6y ago

It's also big in the Netherlands.. In the 90s they had the biggest number of phone taps in the world, and this is not per capita, but the absolute number! With a population a mere fraction of the US's. However the Netherlands is a fairly honest country when it comes to statistics, so I wouldn't be surprised that the US still came out on top, but they just didn't report most of their taps for 'national security' reasons. But something has really changed in the past 20-30 years. Before this there was no way to literally monitor everyone. It was too labour/storage intensive. You really had to be a 'person of interest' for some kind of (usually legitimate) reason. Whereas now in this digital age (and with everyone carrying a portable listening device in their pocket) this is totally feasible and thanks to Snowden we know it's actually being done too.

romanoderoma 6y ago
> Before this there was no way to literally monitor everyone The DDR did it Another important factor is that until 20-30 years ago people communicated a lot less They mostly talked face to face The challenge today is not easier: to literally monitor everyone is not possible, the signal to noise ratio is too high They could listen to everyone, it's doubtful it is possible to extract any meaningful information on random communications between random people that are not being monitored because they are already of interest As someone else said metadata is more important because it allows to create connections between actors from thin air. When you have narrowed the scope, listening becomes a lot more effective.

hughw 6y ago

The Zimmerman telegram was from WWI and was intercepted by the British, not the Americans.

quesera 6y ago
Wrong Zimmermann. :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Zimmermann#Arms_Export_Control_Act_investigation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Zimmermann#Arms_Export_Co...