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Not to minimize the seriousness of the potential for this to invade a sovereign citizen's privacy, but this really counts as a leak? I didn't read through all
by billpatrianakos 15y ago
Not to minimize the seriousness of the potential for this to invade a sovereign citizen's privacy, but this really counts as a leak?
I didn't read through all the sources but here are the problems with the slant wiki leaks is spinning:
1. First off, this reads like an editorial. We want facts, not spin and their extremely biased writing takes their credibility from wherever it is to far lower now. Orwell's World? Maybe. But let me decide that and don't try to plant the idea. I think an organization that would spin this as anti-government propaganda is just as bad as the some of the things they're opposed to. Give me facts and let me decided - don't throw in opinions to guide me to the "correct" view.
2. I couldn't read every brochure nor do I want to but the brochures and videos I saw weren't all that evil. At least not as evil as they want me to believe. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to be spied on and I do see the potential for abuse but the brochures here are things I can get by myself. The HP brochure, the Hacker Team video, and others aren't hiding in some dark government lab. They're out there trying to sell this stuff to the right people! I don't come across it because I have no need for it nor am I interested in it. But anyway, they're pretty quiet about selling this stuff but they do know how to get heard by the right people. That doesn't mean it's a secret. They don't make secret brochures for spy products if their products and services are supposed to be considered sensitive information like wiki leaks wants us to believe.
3. Don't we all know about this? It really isn't a secret anymore that there are companies creating software and hardware specifically meant to take over devices and spy on people. We hope it doesn't happen to us but we know it sometimes does. That sucks. We should know. We should make a fuss and we do. But wiki leaks isn't sharing anything groundbreaking here. We all know about Carrier IQ, right? Maybe CarrierIQ is a little more benign but then we also know about the cyber attack on Iranian nuclear program via Stuxnet so we all know it goes on, already know the abuse potential, and already know about some but not all abuses. Nothing earth shattering again.
4. This could have come off as a jumping off point for discussing the seriousness of the problem in terms of how we can spot and stop the general public from being spied on but instead they just created tinfoil hat wearing conspiracy theorist fodder. I know it did spark some constructive discussion but I'll be damned if it didn't sound like the stuff you can find on anti GWB sites or "Obama is a member of the Skull and Bones, hey look at the secret symbols on a dollar bill" type sites.
Also, I want to see The sources for where they got the information on these spy products being used in Egypt and Lybia. If its there then it's hard to find. And the site needs a better layout. Nothing fancy, just make it easier to navigate and read.
I think WikiLeaks took what could have been a great jumping off point for debate and made it into a joke with their very generous helping of spin and what seems to be an antiestablishment agenda just for the sake of having an antiestablishment agenda.
- nomdeplume 15y agoagreed. Very suspicious timing. What ever happened to all of those Bank of America files they were supposed to release? I read on of their power point presentations and it gave absolutely no information. Made me think of this speech given by Richard Thieme http://danielmillsap.com/blog/technology-news/black-hat-2011-staring-into-the-abyss-by-richard-thieme/ http://danielmillsap.com/blog/technology-news/black-hat-2011...
- DanBC 15y ago> how we can spot and stop the general public from being spied on You can't spot when a well-funded government secret service, with access to communications infrastructure, is spying on the population. > Also, I want to see The sources for where they got the information on these spy products being used in Egypt and Lybia. I'm not sure I understand what you're saying. You think a site for whistleblowers should release information about those whistleblowers?
- billpatrianakos 15y agoNo, I don't think they should call out whistleblowers but they don't really say where they got the info on the secret spy rooms where all the devices were hidden in these countries. They don't say it was whistleblowers. They just say they know. Well let me tell you what I know: My neighbor murdered his wife and had our other neighbor, a police officer, cover up the crime. We now know this. How do we know thus? We just do, I'm fucking credible, don't ask questions. See what I mean? At least give us something to go on. Even a link to a previous article where they cover this source less information would do.