4 ms·

Why?

mtraven 13y ago
Well, I guess it is safe to say that the Stasi would have sucked up and stored zettabytes if they had the capability to do so. So, the implication that the NSA is much worse than the Stasi is wrong. But they don't seem to be any better, at least when it comes to data collection. That is not very comforting.
- straight_talk 13y ago
  NSA is much worse than the Stasi, because there is no free world out there.
  - embolism 13y ago
    Something people should remember when talking as though bringing down the US government is a great option.
arkem 13y ago
The article compares the hypothetical amount of data to be stored in a NSA data center to the records storage area of the Stasi. That is, a guess at the amount of data one facility of a modern signals intelligence agency (belonging to a super-power) is being compared to the amount of record keeping space a cold war era security agency (belonging to a Soviet client-state) possessed. The two agencies have vastly different missions (state security versus signals intelligence), operated at vastly different scales, and in completely different eras. The two facilities being compared are not at all similar. A large computing facility (probably processing raw data) is being compared to a large library archive (largely storing files and documents generated by the agency). No valid conclusions could possibly be drawn from this comparison. The closest we could come to a valid conclusion is; if we printed out 5 zettabytes of data we would have wasted a lot of paper. Edit: What I'm trying to say is that this is an apple to oranges comparison made across space and time.
- straight_talk 13y ago
  Different missions? Both have exactly the same mission - keep the current elite in power at any cost.
  - arkem 13y ago
    The National Security Agency is a cryptolgic agency tasked with gathering foreign signals intelligence and providing information assurance services to the United States Government (especially the military). The Ministry for State Security was a secret police / intelligence service tasked with a broad range of powers focused in keeping the party strong as evidenced by their motto "Schild und Schwert der Partei" (Sword and shield of the Party). They were primarily responsible for internal surveillance of people that were deemed enemies of the party and the personal protection of party leaders. It's pretty clear that a catch all secret police / security intelligence agency is different to a foreign signals intelligence agency.
    - straight_talk 13y ago
      Isn't it obvious that the official task of a totalitarian agency can be different from the actual job it's doing??
      - embolism 13y ago
        Isn't it obvious that anyone can accuse anyone of anything? Usually it's more meaningful when they have evidence. [edit: since this is receiving downvotes - clearly we have evidence that the NSA is dangerously overreaching and should stop. We have absolutely zero evidence that it is their mission to keep an elite in power 'at any cost']
        straight_talk 13y ago
        “All it takes for evil to succeed is for a few good men to do nothing...”

Why?

Well, I guess it is safe to say that the Stasi would have sucked up and stored zettabytes if they had the capability to do so. So, the implication that the NSA is much worse than the Stasi is wrong. But they don't seem to be any better, at least when it comes to data collection. That is not very comforting.

straight_talk 13y ago
NSA is much worse than the Stasi, because there is no free world out there.
- embolism 13y ago
  Something people should remember when talking as though bringing down the US government is a great option.

arkem 13y ago

The article compares the hypothetical amount of data to be stored in a NSA data center to the records storage area of the Stasi. That is, a guess at the amount of data one facility of a modern signals intelligence agency (belonging to a super-power) is being compared to the amount of record keeping space a cold war era security agency (belonging to a Soviet client-state) possessed. The two agencies have vastly different missions (state security versus signals intelligence), operated at vastly different scales, and in completely different eras. The two facilities being compared are not at all similar. A large computing facility (probably processing raw data) is being compared to a large library archive (largely storing files and documents generated by the agency). No valid conclusions could possibly be drawn from this comparison. The closest we could come to a valid conclusion is; if we printed out 5 zettabytes of data we would have wasted a lot of paper. Edit: What I'm trying to say is that this is an apple to oranges comparison made across space and time.

straight_talk 13y ago
Different missions? Both have exactly the same mission - keep the current elite in power at any cost.
- arkem 13y ago
  The National Security Agency is a cryptolgic agency tasked with gathering foreign signals intelligence and providing information assurance services to the United States Government (especially the military). The Ministry for State Security was a secret police / intelligence service tasked with a broad range of powers focused in keeping the party strong as evidenced by their motto "Schild und Schwert der Partei" (Sword and shield of the Party). They were primarily responsible for internal surveillance of people that were deemed enemies of the party and the personal protection of party leaders. It's pretty clear that a catch all secret police / security intelligence agency is different to a foreign signals intelligence agency.
  - straight_talk 13y ago
    Isn't it obvious that the official task of a totalitarian agency can be different from the actual job it's doing??
    - embolism 13y ago
      Isn't it obvious that anyone can accuse anyone of anything? Usually it's more meaningful when they have evidence. [edit: since this is receiving downvotes - clearly we have evidence that the NSA is dangerously overreaching and should stop. We have absolutely zero evidence that it is their mission to keep an elite in power 'at any cost']
      - straight_talk 13y ago
        “All it takes for evil to succeed is for a few good men to do nothing...”