7 ms·

“I'm Not Supposed to Show You This ” – Edward Snowden (2021)

78 points by rhabarba 5y ago

sysrpl 5y ago
The joke is on them. I don't have a cell phone, I don't use Facebook, and I am constantly Linux distro hopping when I work writing code while ssh'ed into private servers behind my private VPN.
- ericwooley 5y ago
  That will show em! Look at all the convenience your giving up, just so you can be red flagged.
  - sysrpl 5y ago
    Since when is Facebook a convenience? Regarding a cell phone, I don't commute and I don't have even the tiniest bit of need for one. Linux is better than Windows, and it's my opinion everyone ought to use a VPN. Finally, you have to be a real conspiracy nut case to believe not having an Facebook account or cell phone would get someone `red flagged` by a shadow overlording spying agency.
    - harperlee 5y ago
      As a counterexample of your “nut case” hypothesis, in anti money laundering, now, across the globe, a bank not having enough profiling information about you is deemed a red flag, and assigns you more risk - that may rise to the point that they close your accounts or that your assets may be frozen proactively by the bank without a judge, or the police for that matter, to opine in the freeze. Not many banks use facebook as a datapoint but mobile phone and address? Par for the course. And this is going to increase with fraud and aml converging.
    - eurasiantiger 5y ago
      > you have to be a real conspiracy nut case to believe not having an Facebook account or cell phone would get someone `red flagged` by a shadow overlording spying agency. You are living in a dream world, Neo.
  - banku_brougham 5y ago
    very skeptical of this assumption, maybe
- nix23 5y ago
  >and I am constantly Linux distro hopping when I work Oh no, not again that "security" "mitigation"....
randomopining 5y ago
Snowden is hugely hypocritical. Hurting the US, which helps Putin and CCP. At least the US has a feedback loop that the people are in, they can vote and actually make a difference. He stays in Russia, which does the same thing but doesn't let any of that get out - they'd killed anybody who leaked one thing. And of course the CCP, which implements all of this on such a large and open scale it's hilarious. Of course Snowden won't speak out against them, because he'd be gone in a second. So yeah - get this guy back, give him a trial, and give him what he deserves. PS: As a normal American who doesn't do anything bad, I don't care that they collect my anonymous metadata and apply some ML algos to it.
- _def 5y ago
  He doesn't talk only about the US. Regarding your PS, how do you know what is "bad" and will be considered "bad" in the future? This is blind trust in your privileges. Also, there is nothing "anonymous" about mass surveillance.
  - rhabarba 5y ago
    Also, not everyone will always be reigned by benevolent politicians. A malevolent politician could have interesting ideas on what to do with collected "anonymous" metadata.
    - randomopining 5y ago
      There's too many checks and balances in the US government. ex. The opposing party in congress has powers on the committees to investigate things, etc. State govs have powers etc.
      - _def 5y ago
        No, there are not. Intel services are abusing their power and will continue to do so.
      - excalibur 5y ago
        Because all of those checks and balances have been working so WELL of late.
m0zg 5y ago
In-Q-Tel, folks. Look it up. It funded all this "social media" BS early on for what appears to be precisely this reason.
- marnett 5y ago
  In-Q-Tel appears to be a not for profit venture capital firm explicitly with the aim of investing in companies that aid the US Intelligence effort. However, I just looked at their investment portfolio via Wikipedia and didn’t see any notable social media startups they invested in. What companies are you thinking of?
  - m0zg 5y ago
    https://search.brave.com/search?q=social+media+in-q-tel&source=web https://search.brave.com/search?q=social+media+in-q-tel&sour... That wasn't so hard, now, was it? Nothing overt, as it were, but the claws are clearly in there, all over the place, and the interest is undeniable. Notably, they have ties to other, for-profit VC firms, one of which is Accel.
    - sneakerblack 5y ago
      Yo, chill
      - eurasiantiger 5y ago
        This is not the way.
  - Saptarishi 5y ago
    In the words of Andy Greenberg, in Sandworm, he says In-Q-Tel is assigned the task of furthering the interests of 3 letter agencies.
  - atatatat 5y ago
    > I just looked at their investment portfolio via Wikipedia Go back two spaces.
beezischillin 5y ago
Scientific progress seems to turn everything into an arms race that becomes more and more tempting, dangerous and risky as things advance. We seem to lack the self restraint necessary to stop ourselves from playing the game, the primary victim of which are always going to be us eventually, in this case as the means of tyranny are democratised.
- lanevorockz 5y ago
  Pretty much an inevitability once governments become too big. It’s a common literary topic in the early 1900s covering from Orwell, Kafka, Brave New World just to name a few examples.
  - 8note 5y ago
    Or too small, as gilded ages and the like show in practice
cinquemb 5y ago
There's an implicit trust assumption in the upstream data sources provided to such that goes unmentioned…
entropicgravity 5y ago
Snowden for president. Hard to believe that Obama didn't have the balls to pardon him.

78 points by rhabarba 5y ago

The joke is on them. I don't have a cell phone, I don't use Facebook, and I am constantly Linux distro hopping when I work writing code while ssh'ed into private servers behind my private VPN.

ericwooley 5y ago
That will show em! Look at all the convenience your giving up, just so you can be red flagged.
- sysrpl 5y ago
  Since when is Facebook a convenience? Regarding a cell phone, I don't commute and I don't have even the tiniest bit of need for one. Linux is better than Windows, and it's my opinion everyone ought to use a VPN. Finally, you have to be a real conspiracy nut case to believe not having an Facebook account or cell phone would get someone `red flagged` by a shadow overlording spying agency.
  - harperlee 5y ago
    As a counterexample of your “nut case” hypothesis, in anti money laundering, now, across the globe, a bank not having enough profiling information about you is deemed a red flag, and assigns you more risk - that may rise to the point that they close your accounts or that your assets may be frozen proactively by the bank without a judge, or the police for that matter, to opine in the freeze. Not many banks use facebook as a datapoint but mobile phone and address? Par for the course. And this is going to increase with fraud and aml converging.
  - eurasiantiger 5y ago
    > you have to be a real conspiracy nut case to believe not having an Facebook account or cell phone would get someone `red flagged` by a shadow overlording spying agency. You are living in a dream world, Neo.
- banku_brougham 5y ago
  very skeptical of this assumption, maybe
nix23 5y ago
>and I am constantly Linux distro hopping when I work Oh no, not again that "security" "mitigation"....

randomopining 5y ago

Snowden is hugely hypocritical. Hurting the US, which helps Putin and CCP. At least the US has a feedback loop that the people are in, they can vote and actually make a difference. He stays in Russia, which does the same thing but doesn't let any of that get out - they'd killed anybody who leaked one thing. And of course the CCP, which implements all of this on such a large and open scale it's hilarious. Of course Snowden won't speak out against them, because he'd be gone in a second. So yeah - get this guy back, give him a trial, and give him what he deserves. PS: As a normal American who doesn't do anything bad, I don't care that they collect my anonymous metadata and apply some ML algos to it.

_def 5y ago
He doesn't talk only about the US. Regarding your PS, how do you know what is "bad" and will be considered "bad" in the future? This is blind trust in your privileges. Also, there is nothing "anonymous" about mass surveillance.
- rhabarba 5y ago
  Also, not everyone will always be reigned by benevolent politicians. A malevolent politician could have interesting ideas on what to do with collected "anonymous" metadata.
  - randomopining 5y ago
    There's too many checks and balances in the US government. ex. The opposing party in congress has powers on the committees to investigate things, etc. State govs have powers etc.
    - _def 5y ago
      No, there are not. Intel services are abusing their power and will continue to do so.
    - excalibur 5y ago
      Because all of those checks and balances have been working so WELL of late.

m0zg 5y ago

In-Q-Tel, folks. Look it up. It funded all this "social media" BS early on for what appears to be precisely this reason.

marnett 5y ago
In-Q-Tel appears to be a not for profit venture capital firm explicitly with the aim of investing in companies that aid the US Intelligence effort. However, I just looked at their investment portfolio via Wikipedia and didn’t see any notable social media startups they invested in. What companies are you thinking of?
- m0zg 5y ago
  https://search.brave.com/search?q=social+media+in-q-tel&source=web https://search.brave.com/search?q=social+media+in-q-tel&sour... That wasn't so hard, now, was it? Nothing overt, as it were, but the claws are clearly in there, all over the place, and the interest is undeniable. Notably, they have ties to other, for-profit VC firms, one of which is Accel.
  - sneakerblack 5y ago
    Yo, chill
    - eurasiantiger 5y ago
      This is not the way.
- Saptarishi 5y ago
  In the words of Andy Greenberg, in Sandworm, he says In-Q-Tel is assigned the task of furthering the interests of 3 letter agencies.
- atatatat 5y ago
  > I just looked at their investment portfolio via Wikipedia Go back two spaces.

beezischillin 5y ago

Scientific progress seems to turn everything into an arms race that becomes more and more tempting, dangerous and risky as things advance. We seem to lack the self restraint necessary to stop ourselves from playing the game, the primary victim of which are always going to be us eventually, in this case as the means of tyranny are democratised.

lanevorockz 5y ago
Pretty much an inevitability once governments become too big. It’s a common literary topic in the early 1900s covering from Orwell, Kafka, Brave New World just to name a few examples.
- 8note 5y ago
  Or too small, as gilded ages and the like show in practice

cinquemb 5y ago

There's an implicit trust assumption in the upstream data sources provided to such that goes unmentioned…

entropicgravity 5y ago

Snowden for president. Hard to believe that Obama didn't have the balls to pardon him.