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Three NSA Whistleblowers Back EFF's Lawsuit Over Government Spying Program
- ajtaylor 14y agoI wish the EFF good luck with this case. They are certainly going to need it! The change in US government attitudes regarding spying on its own citizens (at least publicly) during the last 10 years is chilling to say the least.
- codehotter 14y agoIf they think this is necessary, then at the very least the legislative branch of government should sign this into law - just doing it is not how a democratic government is supposed to work.
- mindslight 14y agoActually it's exactly how "democracy" is supposed to work - giving the masses the illusion of control over the autonomous government. If the public makes a stink, escalate to getting the approval of congress. If the public still complains, fall back on the rules and tell them they need to vote in different "representatives". Most likely somewhere during this multi-year process, the momentum of the outrage is lost and the issue goes away. And in the rare case that the public won't let go of a particular issue, multiple new corruptions have sprung up in the meantime.
- losethos 14y agoGod says... neck persuaded panegyric fling belief perished horns eighth tempted compassionates strictness rouse heal bribe get Blessed wounded wealthy commencement tones formed trifles frantic aid holier_than_thou ha City attracts labour enquired prosper enforced damage imbue aforetime translated knocking FOR provide O knowing forests Howsoever ascend boasting utensils unpassable magistrates mercies'
- sneak 14y agoIf they manage to get the NSA off the backbones and repeal PATRIOT so the feds can't review my entire digital life in realtime with no warrant, I will move back to the USA. (But of course not NYC where you are subject to illegal search just riding the subway.) I ain't holdin' my breath. :(
- mtgx 14y agoIf you're still talking to people in USA, especially through Skype, your conversations are probably already monitored [1]. I think NSA already has a (secret, illegal) mandate to monitor all American communications with any foreigners. [1] http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/12/nsa_offers_billions_for_skype_pwnage/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/12/nsa_offers_billions_... http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9218002/Microsoft_seeks_patent_for_spy_tech_for_Skype http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9218002/Microsoft_see...
- sneak 14y agoOh, I know. :( It sucks because I don't have any good ways of securely communicating with voice and/or video to people on mobile in the US. PGP, OTR, SSL, etc work well, but there aren't any good PGP or OTR clients for iPhone AFAIK. I mostly just censor myself until I can speak to people in person, or communicate only unimportant things.
- cududa 14y agoLame. You copy and paste between Hacker News and your twitter ;)
- btilly 14y agoRule of thumb. If ever the government claims state secrets, they are playing their, "We did something wrong, and would like to get out of jail free" card. I know of a number of cases where state secrets was claimed, then later it was proven that there was no actual state secret proven. (Including the very first case where state secrets were used as a defense in a court room.) I know of no cases where state secrets were claimed, and then there turned out to be an actual state secret at issue.
- mtgx 14y agoAnd then they will lobby to pass a law to make everything illegal they've done over the past 5-10 years legal, and of course retroactively.
- btilly 14y agoCase in point: FISA. :-(
- rhizome 14y agoCase in further point: FISAAA http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Intelligence_Surveillance_Act_of_1978_Amendments_Act_of_2008 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Intelligence_Surveillan...
- s_henry_paulson 14y agoThis is what happened. It was called the Protect America Act. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protect_America_Act_of_2007 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protect_America_Act_of_2007
- Animus7 14y agoThis is such a powerful and often-(ab)used argument that it genuinely horrifies me. It seems these days just about anything the U.S. government does can be justified under a binding legal ruling of "top secret, we can't hear this in our courts. But trust us, it's cool." Call me paranoid, but this is the reason I'm frightened of setting foot on U.S. soil.
- thechut 14y agoI hope that this case brings new facts to lights. This stuff is too scary to be kept a secret.
- blackaspen 14y agoThis is the case of "We did something illegal, but it was really effective in treating X, so we should make it legal now."
- suprgeek 14y agoI sincerely commend the EFF for taking a stand to slow down the descent along the slippery slope of a 24x7x365 survelied society. At this point however, it is probably a safe assumption: No matter what the NSA/NRO/CIA/DOJ or anyone else says, the US gov. in one form or another is monitoring every single Phone call, E-mail, Chat, Skype and any other form of electronic communication into and out of the USA. Also the location data that your cell phone leaks pretty much makes physical surveillance superfluous. The Technology has been too cheaply available and the temptation too great for the truth to be anything else. What the EFF should also be doing is launching a campaign to make end-to-end encryption the default everywhere. Every e-mail you write /Chat session/Skype session should be encrypted in transport for every one. Make the cost of doing this mass-surveillance so expensive that the Govt is forced to prioritize on the actual targets.
- ljlolel 14y agoYou presume that it's still expensive for the government to break AES.
- einhverfr 14y agoI think that's a reasonable assumption. But even if it is wrong and the NSA has a shortcut.... And even if that shortcut affects all implementations of all cyphers.... 1) expensive is still relative. Even if there is a short cut it may be only feasible to decrypt a small part of encrypted communications. So they may have to prioritize. 2) If everything is encrypted, they may still have to start somewhere. so yeah, it's not a bad assumption even if it is wrong. Speaking of which, https works with HN, not that this likely matters much.
- mindslight 14y agoWhat's the actual alternative to assuming that some kind of crypto is feasible ? Physics informs philosophy.