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> useless Not to the NSA! With no effort at all, they've gathered the names of 100,000 subversives to put on a secret watch list! (I hope I'm kidding.)
by csense 13y ago
> useless
Not to the NSA! With no effort at all, they've gathered the names of 100,000 subversives to put on a secret watch list!
(I hope I'm kidding.)
- korethr 13y agoI hope you're kidding too. However, the cynic in me suspects that most of the signatories to the petition might already have been identified by the likes of PRISM as potential subversives and put on a secret watch list. This petition is probably just a confirmation of the majority of the names on that list.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- binarycrusader 13y agoWelcome to the new era of McCarthyism.
- redblacktree 13y agoWhere privacy is the enemy? Really?
- binarycrusader 13y agoI was referring to how in the McCarthy era, people were persecuted for mere association with any sort of "unpatriotic" activity or organization. That's a dark place to which I hope we never return.
- Bill_Dimm 13y agoThis petition is probably just a confirmation of the majority of the names on that list It's far worse than "just confirmation." If the NSA is training a machine learning algorithm to identify subversives based on various features/activities of those people, they need a set of labeled (i.e. subversive = yes/no) training data for the algorithm to learn from. They now have 100,000 extra training samples to help the machine learning algorithm better tune its ability to identify subversives. So, not only have the 100,000 people moved from the "probably subversive" to "known subversive" column, but the NSA is better able to predict subversiveness for all of the people that didn't sign the petition by comparing their features/activities to those that did.
- Gaggleduck 13y agoWell, time to get better AQUAINTed. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/military/nsa-police.html http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/military/nsa-police.html
- DennisP 13y agoThat's a perspective I hadn't thought of, and will try to apply to other situations. On the other hand, if the 100,000 people who already signed have now identified me as a subversive, I'd better go ahead and sign, in the hopes that it will maximize the odds of reigning in the NSA before they come get me.
- drivebyacct2 13y agoA secret watch list? Holy shit, I wonder if they constantly surveil people on that list. Oh wait.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- iguana 13y agoI hesitated signing it for a good 5 minutes because I didn't want my name on the list of subversives, but then realized that since they monitor everything, I was already on the list. Oh well, I'll let you guys know how good the food is in the secret prisons.
- a3n 13y agoI think you'll be proud to tell your grandchildren that you were on the list of subversives.
- stox 13y agoI made the subversive list, I kid you not, at the age of 12. Needless to say, I stopped caring long long ago. Didn't find out about it until years later, when I was silly enough to think about enlisting in the Navy's Nuclear Propulsion School.
- brokenparser 13y agoOn the subversive list years before it was cool. Dude, you are the real hipster.
- dredmorbius 13y agoPlease tell me you've shared that story somewhere.
- stox 13y agoTrust me, everyone who knows me has heard the story. But you do make a point, I should write it up and put it up on a website to educate others as to some of the abuses that have been occurring for so long.
- redblacktree 13y agoHold on. Are you saying that being on the side of freedom, privacy and government transparency is now "subversive?" Where did America go?
- lessnonymous 13y agoThe constitution used to be about restricting what the government could do. Now it's about restricting what the people can do.