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It's a little bit weird how a few years ago all those powerful tech company heads were meeting with the President. Then finally it came out that they all had ma

It's a little bit weird how a few years ago all those powerful tech company heads were meeting with the President. Then finally it came out that they all had made deals directly with the NSA and colluded to give them access to user's data. And now all of these companies seem to be working very hard to reverse all of it. It's a good thing that they are, and they seem to be genuinely doing it. But it's still seems a bit odd. Zuckerberg talks about the government needing to be more transparent, but FB and the like haven't explained the details of the previous deal they made with the government. I imagine because they are still somehow gagged. I wonder how many drafts of this message went through FB lawyers.

arebop 13y ago
[citation needed] about those deals between Facebook and NSA.
- hnnewguy 13y ago
  That citation might be tough. But what do you honestly believe? Personally, at this point, with all the Snowden revelations, it should be up to Facebook to prove to me that they aren't sharing information with the government.
- Zigurd 13y ago
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM_(surveillance_program) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM_(surveillance_program)
  - arebop 13y ago
    The slides (as usual for slides) are pretty ambiguous, but http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM_(surveillance_program)#Initial_public_statements http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM_(surveillance_program)#In... says that the companies and Facebook in particular deny cooperation with PRISM, and the only quote from media sources that sounds skeptical about that is from WaPo wonkblog [http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/06/12/heres-everything-we-know-about-prism-to-date/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/06/12/h...] which says that one of the slides talks about combining data provided by companies (with warrants, NSLs, and other legal orders) with data collected by adversarial means. So, no, that link does not support the claim that Facebook cooperated with PRISM.
    - Zigurd 13y ago
      "which says that one of the slides talks about combining data provided by companies (with warrants, NSLs, and other legal orders) with data collected by adversarial means" Cool story. If it was true, surely one of the nine companies listed on the PRISM slides would have adopted it as an explanation for why they are listed.
      - arebop 13y ago
        There are five quotes explaining it that way right in the wikipedia article. The only company quoted that doesn't admit to complying with court orders is Dropbox; they flatly deny involvement in anything such as PRISM. I'm not saying there is proof of lack of wrongdoing, but it would be great if people would stop claiming without evidence that these companies made deals with NSA. Evidence-based decision making is better than paranoia.

arebop 13y ago

[citation needed] about those deals between Facebook and NSA.

hnnewguy 13y ago
That citation might be tough. But what do you honestly believe? Personally, at this point, with all the Snowden revelations, it should be up to Facebook to prove to me that they aren't sharing information with the government.
Zigurd 13y ago
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM_(surveillance_program) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM_(surveillance_program)
- arebop 13y ago
  The slides (as usual for slides) are pretty ambiguous, but http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM_(surveillance_program)#Initial_public_statements http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM_(surveillance_program)#In... says that the companies and Facebook in particular deny cooperation with PRISM, and the only quote from media sources that sounds skeptical about that is from WaPo wonkblog [http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/06/12/heres-everything-we-know-about-prism-to-date/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/06/12/h...] which says that one of the slides talks about combining data provided by companies (with warrants, NSLs, and other legal orders) with data collected by adversarial means. So, no, that link does not support the claim that Facebook cooperated with PRISM.
  - Zigurd 13y ago
    "which says that one of the slides talks about combining data provided by companies (with warrants, NSLs, and other legal orders) with data collected by adversarial means" Cool story. If it was true, surely one of the nine companies listed on the PRISM slides would have adopted it as an explanation for why they are listed.
    - arebop 13y ago
      There are five quotes explaining it that way right in the wikipedia article. The only company quoted that doesn't admit to complying with court orders is Dropbox; they flatly deny involvement in anything such as PRISM. I'm not saying there is proof of lack of wrongdoing, but it would be great if people would stop claiming without evidence that these companies made deals with NSA. Evidence-based decision making is better than paranoia.