5 ms·

"It's not enough for me as president to have confidence in these programmes; the American people need to have confidence as well." Great tactic. Redefine the p

"It's not enough for me as president to have confidence in these programmes; the American people need to have confidence as well." Great tactic. Redefine the problem. NSA is not the problem. Confidence is.

jshen 13y ago
I think the NSA should exist, so it is not the problem. Balancing safety and privacy is the challenge. Preventing abuse is the challenge. Having enough transparency that we are comfortable is the challenge.
- brokenmusic 13y ago
  So can you tell me how has NSA protected you? What has it done?
  - jaekwon 13y ago
    The NSA should be about protecting privacy & communications infrastructure by hardening crypto security. Don't they do some of this already? I just think this is what they should be focusing on, rather than gathering data.
    - brokenmusic 13y ago
      When people say "but government is supposed to do that" it sounds almost like a religious belief. Just because the holy book - in this case, the constitution - says so, it doesn't mean it is so. It also doesn't mean we should somehow fix the government. When a religious person complains his priest is not praying hard enough for him that's why he's not doing so good, the solution is NOT to find a better priest. But a less abstract reply to your comment should be this: what does protecting privacy and communication mean in the case of NSA doing it, how is it done specifically and why does it make you safer?
  - hackinthebochs 13y ago
    Listening into communications between known terrorists is legitimate. I'm sure this function has "protected" me in some abstract sense.
  - jshen 13y ago
    It tries to prevent terrorism before it happens. I don't expect it to give us a detailed breakdown of its activities toward this end. What I expect is for there to be good checks and balances along with consequences for the bad actors when abuses happen. They have not done a great job on those fronts, but the agencies existence and mission is not a problem by itself.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
chiph 13y ago
"I don't have confidence in you, or these programs. You're a lame duck and a doormat, for letting these programs continue."
penguindev 13y ago
> [Lack of] Confidence is [the problem]. Funny, the federal reserve uses the exact same strategy. They must not grasp that confidence is an outcome of a process, and you can't target outcomes.. you have to target processes.

jshen 13y ago

I think the NSA should exist, so it is not the problem. Balancing safety and privacy is the challenge. Preventing abuse is the challenge. Having enough transparency that we are comfortable is the challenge.

brokenmusic 13y ago
So can you tell me how has NSA protected you? What has it done?
- jaekwon 13y ago
  The NSA should be about protecting privacy & communications infrastructure by hardening crypto security. Don't they do some of this already? I just think this is what they should be focusing on, rather than gathering data.
  - brokenmusic 13y ago
    When people say "but government is supposed to do that" it sounds almost like a religious belief. Just because the holy book - in this case, the constitution - says so, it doesn't mean it is so. It also doesn't mean we should somehow fix the government. When a religious person complains his priest is not praying hard enough for him that's why he's not doing so good, the solution is NOT to find a better priest. But a less abstract reply to your comment should be this: what does protecting privacy and communication mean in the case of NSA doing it, how is it done specifically and why does it make you safer?
- hackinthebochs 13y ago
  Listening into communications between known terrorists is legitimate. I'm sure this function has "protected" me in some abstract sense.
- jshen 13y ago
  It tries to prevent terrorism before it happens. I don't expect it to give us a detailed breakdown of its activities toward this end. What I expect is for there to be good checks and balances along with consequences for the bad actors when abuses happen. They have not done a great job on those fronts, but the agencies existence and mission is not a problem by itself.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]

chiph 13y ago

"I don't have confidence in you, or these programs. You're a lame duck and a doormat, for letting these programs continue."

penguindev 13y ago

> [Lack of] Confidence is [the problem]. Funny, the federal reserve uses the exact same strategy. They must not grasp that confidence is an outcome of a process, and you can't target outcomes.. you have to target processes.