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Wrong. This isn't abuse. The audit found only unintentional spying--in other words, mistakes. No organization is perfect; bugs do exist, especially in softwa

by codex 13y ago

Wrong. This isn't abuse. The audit found only unintentional spying--in other words, mistakes. No organization is perfect; bugs do exist, especially in software. It's pretty amazing to see the detail at which these incidents were logged, however.

j_baker 13y ago
According to Google, abuse means the improper use of something. Regardless of whether it was accidental or intentional, abuse is abuse.
- codex 13y ago
  Oh, come now. The definition of the verb is "use (something) to bad effect or for a bad purpose; misuse". That implies willfulness. Accidents and bugs are not abuse; were they, we wouldn't have separate words for them. Or, put another way: I hear you inadvertently spilled water on your wife at the dinner table last night; tell me, for how long have you been abusing her?
  - samweinberg 13y ago
    That's a bad analogy. Spilling water on your wife and domestic violence are very different things. Both the inadvertent (and arguably unconstitutional) collection of Americans' data by the NSA and the willful abuse of power by the NSA are pretty horrendous acts, whichever you choose to believe happened.
  - j_baker 13y ago
    You talk about the verb when we're talking about the noun. I call cherry-picking. And yet the point still stands. You can accidentally misuse something. How many people have accidentally misused C pointers?
rhizome 13y ago
So, 2nd degree civil rights violations. Also: ignorance of the law is no excuse.
vidarh 13y ago
> The audit found only unintentional spying--in other words, mistakes. An internal audit by an agency that routinely fails to report "mistakes" to the people responsible for their oversight, and who routinely instructs staff to alter information before it is handed over, and which has previously been found to instruct staff in how to "shore up" justifications for their searches, "only" finds unintentional violations of the law. What a shock.

by codex 13y ago

j_baker 13y ago

According to Google, abuse means the improper use of something. Regardless of whether it was accidental or intentional, abuse is abuse.

codex 13y ago
Oh, come now. The definition of the verb is "use (something) to bad effect or for a bad purpose; misuse". That implies willfulness. Accidents and bugs are not abuse; were they, we wouldn't have separate words for them. Or, put another way: I hear you inadvertently spilled water on your wife at the dinner table last night; tell me, for how long have you been abusing her?
- samweinberg 13y ago
  That's a bad analogy. Spilling water on your wife and domestic violence are very different things. Both the inadvertent (and arguably unconstitutional) collection of Americans' data by the NSA and the willful abuse of power by the NSA are pretty horrendous acts, whichever you choose to believe happened.
- j_baker 13y ago
  You talk about the verb when we're talking about the noun. I call cherry-picking. And yet the point still stands. You can accidentally misuse something. How many people have accidentally misused C pointers?

rhizome 13y ago

So, 2nd degree civil rights violations. Also: ignorance of the law is no excuse.

vidarh 13y ago

> The audit found only unintentional spying--in other words, mistakes. An internal audit by an agency that routinely fails to report "mistakes" to the people responsible for their oversight, and who routinely instructs staff to alter information before it is handed over, and which has previously been found to instruct staff in how to "shore up" justifications for their searches, "only" finds unintentional violations of the law. What a shock.