5 ms·

No. I'm pointing out that (a) it's not marked as being from 2002 and someone would therefore assume it was some newly discovered backdoor and (b) there's no con

by spzb 3y ago

No. I'm pointing out that (a) it's not marked as being from 2002 and someone would therefore assume it was some newly discovered backdoor and (b) there's no context or commentary as to why it is relevant in 2023. Also, on closer inspection the story is from 1997 https://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/19.52.html#subj1 https://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/19.52.html#subj1

boffinAudio 3y ago
I'd wager that its still relevant today because the NSA is still the worlds greatest wholesale violator of human rights, at massive scale, and literally nothing effective has been done about this situation - we are still tolerating this repression, because we don't see it and simply don't care enough about the human rights violations, as a people, to reign in this out of control agency. Bringing these articles to light is of great utility to those of us who do not consider the NSA state of affairs to be, in any way, tolerable.
- acdha 3y ago
  > the NSA is still the worlds greatest wholesale violator of human rights, at massive scale, and literally nothing effective has been done about this situation - we are still tolerating this repression I don’t approve of their actions but turning the hyperbole up to 11 doesn’t help. There are millions of people in China who’d love to be only that repressed, for example.
  - boffinAudio 3y ago
    You can always rely on an American to bust out the China hate train when challenged on the facts of their own empires crimes .. Did you miss the fact that the NSA is literally violating the human rights of billions of people (including the Chinese), while China in the meantime has brought a billion people out of poverty conditions into their new middle class? >There are millions of people in China who’d love to be only that repressed, for example I seriously doubt you understand the nature of this fallacy. Meanwhile, how many families live under a broken bridge in the USA, just because Mom got cancer? Those 1,000 black-ops CIA sites around the world - you know for sure what they are being used for, eh? No torture? Seriously, get a grip. The moral authority you claim is a fallacy.
- FredPret 3y ago
  ... are you serious? You don't think military invasions & communist dictatorships constitute "wholesale violation of human rights at a massive scale"? If the NSA is spying on people, that's an invasion of their privacy, but it is nothing in comparison to those other violations
  - kmeisthax 3y ago
    The NSA violates privacy at scale - a lot of little violations of civil liberties. It's the difference between robbing a man for everything he has, versus pick-pocketing 30 cents out of the pocket of every person on the planet. Furthermore, they're part of a larger intelligence apparatus that has absolutely committed very large and very harmful violations of civil liberties. The NSA's sister org, the CIA, was overthrowing democratically elected left-wingers in South America for decades, replacing them with brutal dictators and tyrants that gave both Hitler and Stalin runs for their money. The CIA wrote the book on how to do so, arguably even moreso than the KGB did. In fact, the reason why Russia today[0] is so effective at information warfare and covert propaganda is specifically because they learned from observation. [0] Not(?) to be confused with Russia Today
    - tptacek 3y ago
      If you're thinking about overseas signals intelligence, then, like the signals intelligence practice in every industrialized state in the world, the chartered purpose of NSA is to conduct those privacy violations. The safeguards we're given against NSA --- take them as seriously as you want --- are about domestic surveillance.
      - boffinAudio 3y ago
        Just because Americans believe they have domestic rights being protected doesn't mean their intelligence apparatus isn't violating human rights at massive scale. Yes, the purpose of the NSA is to violate human rights at scale. No, this is not a tolerable situation for those of us in the free world.
dredmorbius 3y ago
I've pinged mods to fix the year based on that, thanks.

by spzb 3y ago

boffinAudio 3y ago

I'd wager that its still relevant today because the NSA is still the worlds greatest wholesale violator of human rights, at massive scale, and literally nothing effective has been done about this situation - we are still tolerating this repression, because we don't see it and simply don't care enough about the human rights violations, as a people, to reign in this out of control agency. Bringing these articles to light is of great utility to those of us who do not consider the NSA state of affairs to be, in any way, tolerable.

acdha 3y ago
> the NSA is still the worlds greatest wholesale violator of human rights, at massive scale, and literally nothing effective has been done about this situation - we are still tolerating this repression I don’t approve of their actions but turning the hyperbole up to 11 doesn’t help. There are millions of people in China who’d love to be only that repressed, for example.
- boffinAudio 3y ago
  You can always rely on an American to bust out the China hate train when challenged on the facts of their own empires crimes .. Did you miss the fact that the NSA is literally violating the human rights of billions of people (including the Chinese), while China in the meantime has brought a billion people out of poverty conditions into their new middle class? >There are millions of people in China who’d love to be only that repressed, for example I seriously doubt you understand the nature of this fallacy. Meanwhile, how many families live under a broken bridge in the USA, just because Mom got cancer? Those 1,000 black-ops CIA sites around the world - you know for sure what they are being used for, eh? No torture? Seriously, get a grip. The moral authority you claim is a fallacy.
FredPret 3y ago
... are you serious? You don't think military invasions & communist dictatorships constitute "wholesale violation of human rights at a massive scale"? If the NSA is spying on people, that's an invasion of their privacy, but it is nothing in comparison to those other violations
- kmeisthax 3y ago
  The NSA violates privacy at scale - a lot of little violations of civil liberties. It's the difference between robbing a man for everything he has, versus pick-pocketing 30 cents out of the pocket of every person on the planet. Furthermore, they're part of a larger intelligence apparatus that has absolutely committed very large and very harmful violations of civil liberties. The NSA's sister org, the CIA, was overthrowing democratically elected left-wingers in South America for decades, replacing them with brutal dictators and tyrants that gave both Hitler and Stalin runs for their money. The CIA wrote the book on how to do so, arguably even moreso than the KGB did. In fact, the reason why Russia today[0] is so effective at information warfare and covert propaganda is specifically because they learned from observation. [0] Not(?) to be confused with Russia Today
  - tptacek 3y ago
    If you're thinking about overseas signals intelligence, then, like the signals intelligence practice in every industrialized state in the world, the chartered purpose of NSA is to conduct those privacy violations. The safeguards we're given against NSA --- take them as seriously as you want --- are about domestic surveillance.
    - boffinAudio 3y ago
      Just because Americans believe they have domestic rights being protected doesn't mean their intelligence apparatus isn't violating human rights at massive scale. Yes, the purpose of the NSA is to violate human rights at scale. No, this is not a tolerable situation for those of us in the free world.

dredmorbius 3y ago

I've pinged mods to fix the year based on that, thanks.