7 ms·

Does anyone else find it ironic that they couldn't detect Snowdon communicating with Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras?

EthanHeilman 13y ago
That is because the NSA's spying program only works against those that believe they "have nothing to hide". Terrorists or whistle blowers that take even moderate precautions are immune.
- michaelwww 13y ago
  That's another bunch of billions down the drain, unless it's designed for another purpose entirely. A certain segment of the elite have always dreamed about tracking every citizen. Larry Ellison of Oracle famously proposed a National Identity Card. So it goes...
  - EthanHeilman 13y ago
    Well not all terrorists take precautions, many are quite stupid and it only takes one to bring a whole network the attention of the NSA. The bigger problem is that even if their false positive rate is really low, they are hoovering so much data that the true positives (dumb terrorists) get drowned out by the noise. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8153539.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8153539.stm It's why this sort of large scale surveillance is really only effective as tool for coercing public dissent ("We know all about you Mr. Michaelwww").
    - michaelwww 13y ago
      I've lived my life like everything I do online is or could be public for several years now. It forces me to be mindful of the issue.
    - nano111 13y ago
      they can't even catch internal leaks
jivatmanx 13y ago
The old HBGary case revealed that Greenwald was being extensively targeted by various defense contractors. I'll be he now takes measures.
windexh8er 13y ago
Ironic? Not in the least. Even if he only mildly knew about the things he described he has an understanding of the points of tap the state actors have free access to. In all generalities hiding from the NSA should be trivial with simple precautions (as it pertains to the Internet). Part of the problem is that those points of access are generally revered as daily can't-live-withouts and present trivial access and collection easement. The more interesting point will likely be that they don't find him - and then generalizations can be made about the efficacy of the NSA without their crutch. Good old 'Catch Me if You Can'? TL;DR Just because it's the NSA doesn't mean you can't beat them at what they do. There's always someone in the room smarter than yourself.
- michaelwww 13y ago
  You don't understand irony. Many people don't (Alanis Morissette.) If my house burns down, that's unfortunate. If I install a fire detection system in my house and through a fault in itself it burns my house down, that's ironic.
  - windexh8er 13y ago
    Really? It's not ironic because it's obvious - just not to you apparently. So in that regard it's not ironic that you misunderstood the response. -- an outcome of events contrary to what was, or might have been, expected.
    - michaelwww 13y ago
      I see you're point but mine's funnier. It's ok to take a little license in humor. You sucked all the funny out of it.

That is because the NSA's spying program only works against those that believe they "have nothing to hide". Terrorists or whistle blowers that take even moderate precautions are immune.

michaelwww 13y ago
That's another bunch of billions down the drain, unless it's designed for another purpose entirely. A certain segment of the elite have always dreamed about tracking every citizen. Larry Ellison of Oracle famously proposed a National Identity Card. So it goes...
- EthanHeilman 13y ago
  Well not all terrorists take precautions, many are quite stupid and it only takes one to bring a whole network the attention of the NSA. The bigger problem is that even if their false positive rate is really low, they are hoovering so much data that the true positives (dumb terrorists) get drowned out by the noise. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8153539.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8153539.stm It's why this sort of large scale surveillance is really only effective as tool for coercing public dissent ("We know all about you Mr. Michaelwww").
  - michaelwww 13y ago
    I've lived my life like everything I do online is or could be public for several years now. It forces me to be mindful of the issue.
  - nano111 13y ago
    they can't even catch internal leaks

jivatmanx 13y ago

The old HBGary case revealed that Greenwald was being extensively targeted by various defense contractors. I'll be he now takes measures.

windexh8er 13y ago

Ironic? Not in the least. Even if he only mildly knew about the things he described he has an understanding of the points of tap the state actors have free access to. In all generalities hiding from the NSA should be trivial with simple precautions (as it pertains to the Internet). Part of the problem is that those points of access are generally revered as daily can't-live-withouts and present trivial access and collection easement. The more interesting point will likely be that they don't find him - and then generalizations can be made about the efficacy of the NSA without their crutch. Good old 'Catch Me if You Can'? TL;DR Just because it's the NSA doesn't mean you can't beat them at what they do. There's always someone in the room smarter than yourself.

michaelwww 13y ago
You don't understand irony. Many people don't (Alanis Morissette.) If my house burns down, that's unfortunate. If I install a fire detection system in my house and through a fault in itself it burns my house down, that's ironic.
- windexh8er 13y ago
  Really? It's not ironic because it's obvious - just not to you apparently. So in that regard it's not ironic that you misunderstood the response. -- an outcome of events contrary to what was, or might have been, expected.
  - michaelwww 13y ago
    I see you're point but mine's funnier. It's ok to take a little license in humor. You sucked all the funny out of it.