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I believe it's naive to think that paper stuff has centuries of protection. Back before digital records, do you HONESLTY believe your mail was safe? Safe durin
by criley2 13y ago
I believe it's naive to think that paper stuff has centuries of protection.
Back before digital records, do you HONESLTY believe your mail was safe? Safe during the Cold War? Safe during Hoover's era in the 30's?
I truly believe that every form of communication, from mail to telegram to telephone to internet, has been repeatedly and intentionally violated throughout our history by our governments and by other parties.
Hell, there's no way to prove it. It was switch boards. It was men walking into rooms. There's no records of it. There's no proof.
But I think it's utterly silly to pretend that mail has been safe, or telephone, or anything.
I honestly believe it's all been watched, when it was convenient, for our entire history.
- Spooky23 13y agoI'm a pretty cynical person. There have been incidental abuses with mail, systematic abuses with telegrams (the predecessor to the NSA read them), and lots of telephone abuses (which were addressed by strict wiretapping laws). Mail is fairly tamper evident. When the government read your mail to Eastern Europe or the Soviet Union, they usually re-enveloped it and put a notice on it. Non-spy agencies had to have a warrant.
- criley2 13y agoIt's paper and cheap glue, I'd be surprised if that defeated our clandestine organizations. The point of spying is that the target doesn't know they're being spied on.