5 ms·

If you think this mass surveillance was set up to fight child porn or terrorists, you're extremely naive. It's a power grab. Pure and simple. Those who control

by rorrr2 13y ago

If you think this mass surveillance was set up to fight child porn or terrorists, you're extremely naive. It's a power grab. Pure and simple. Those who control this system can easily find dirt on their political/corporate opponents, while being completely immune. They might stop some occasional clueless idiot terrorists or CP distributors, but that's not the end goal, that's just the political theater. You really think terrorists don't properly encrypt their conversations? You really think high-level criminals don't properly encrypt their conversations? Think again.

betterunix 13y ago
"You really think high-level criminals don't properly encrypt their conversations?" Funny story about that: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/04/19/mafia_don_clueless_crypto/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/04/19/mafia_don_clueless_c...
- rorrr2 13y ago
  If you think mafia bosses are high-level criminals, I have news for you. Wall st.
  - veidr 13y ago
    Funny story about that: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9359392/Key-emails-how-Barclays-manipulated-Libor.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfina... > Hi Guys, We got a big position in 3m libor for the next 3 days. Can we please keep the libor fixing at 5.39 for the next few days. It would really help. (I actually think there are high-level criminals among terrorists, mafiosi, Wall St., and even computer programmers. But of course the existence of such high-level criminals isn't an excuse for a government to abandon the rule of law and violate its constitution...)
    - foobarbazqux 13y ago
      If you really think Wall St. executives are high-level criminals, I have news for you. Venture capitalists.
      - cududa 13y ago
        ...says the jilted entrepreneur.
- pyre 13y ago
  One mafia boss used poor crypto, therefore I can extrapolate that all mafia bosses use poor crypto! /s
GVIrish 13y ago
To be fair, I think most would-be terrorists are not terribly sophisticated. If they were very sophisticated we'd be seeing a lot more successful attacks against targets abroad. The current terrorist threat is overhyped to a large degree in my unprofessional opinion. I mean, the head of Al Qaeda was holed up in a small compound watching porn, he didn't even have any sort of backup plan for when SpecOps eventually came to his doorstep. High-level criminals otoh are most certainly savvy enough to not communicate important information through unencrypted channels.
- alan_cx 13y ago
  "If they were very sophisticated we'd be seeing a lot more successful attacks against targets abroad." This requires one to believe and accept the official threat level. I don't.

by rorrr2 13y ago

betterunix 13y ago

"You really think high-level criminals don't properly encrypt their conversations?" Funny story about that: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/04/19/mafia_don_clueless_crypto/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/04/19/mafia_don_clueless_c...

rorrr2 13y ago
If you think mafia bosses are high-level criminals, I have news for you. Wall st.
- veidr 13y ago
  Funny story about that: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9359392/Key-emails-how-Barclays-manipulated-Libor.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfina... > Hi Guys, We got a big position in 3m libor for the next 3 days. Can we please keep the libor fixing at 5.39 for the next few days. It would really help. (I actually think there are high-level criminals among terrorists, mafiosi, Wall St., and even computer programmers. But of course the existence of such high-level criminals isn't an excuse for a government to abandon the rule of law and violate its constitution...)
  - foobarbazqux 13y ago
    If you really think Wall St. executives are high-level criminals, I have news for you. Venture capitalists.
    - cududa 13y ago
      ...says the jilted entrepreneur.
pyre 13y ago
One mafia boss used poor crypto, therefore I can extrapolate that all mafia bosses use poor crypto! /s

GVIrish 13y ago

To be fair, I think most would-be terrorists are not terribly sophisticated. If they were very sophisticated we'd be seeing a lot more successful attacks against targets abroad. The current terrorist threat is overhyped to a large degree in my unprofessional opinion. I mean, the head of Al Qaeda was holed up in a small compound watching porn, he didn't even have any sort of backup plan for when SpecOps eventually came to his doorstep. High-level criminals otoh are most certainly savvy enough to not communicate important information through unencrypted channels.

alan_cx 13y ago
"If they were very sophisticated we'd be seeing a lot more successful attacks against targets abroad." This requires one to believe and accept the official threat level. I don't.