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who are these NSA people that aren't also random people?
by MWil 13y ago
who are these NSA people that aren't also random people?
- ewoodrich 13y agoThey are a subset of random people, and one OP is less concerned about having his credentials than random people as a whole.
- joelhaus 13y agoan interesting question GP raises... Who would you be more worried about having access to your email account and why? a. NSA b. a random criminal (unaffiliated with government) For me, the answer is not even close, but I'm more interested in understanding how others on HN process this.
- mden 13y agoIn cases like these you have to evaluate the probability of something bad happening times the magnitude of the harm (essentially the expected value). The NSA can do much more damage (excluding the fact that they can do similar damage even without having this information) than a random lowly criminal, however the likelihood they'll target a boring person such as me is much lower. So for me I'd be more worried about b. Of course, ideally I would rather not have to worry about either.
- tomelders 13y agoI'm insured against criminality. I'm on my own should the government decide to shit on me.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- mathrawka 13y agoThe sets of a and b are not exclusive, until _you_ explicitly declared them to be exclusive.
- collyw 13y agoWhat leads you to believe that a and b are mutually exclusive? OK a has probably not been caught and charged with anything, but may well have committed criminal acts. Is there not a statistic that the average American commits 3 criminal acts a day without realizing it?