5 ms·

The cynic in me feels that this might be part of a PR campaign coordinated between the US govt and US tech companies to try to give the impression of an adversa

by okasaki 12y ago

The cynic in me feels that this might be part of a PR campaign coordinated between the US govt and US tech companies to try to give the impression of an adversarial relationship between the two. The article quotes Steven Bellovin: “Their attitude is basically amoral: whatever works is OK.” If you forgot the article, could you tell who this is talking about? The government or the corporations? It seems like it fits both pretty well. The two entities both have a lot to gain from cooperating. Why wouldn't they? Whatever works.

IBM 12y ago
Interesting twist when Glenn Greenwald/Snowden is now suspected of doing PR for tech companies.
- Intermernet 12y ago
  I must have missed that release, do you have any links?
  - IBM 12y ago
    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9176630 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9176630
    - Intermernet 12y ago
      You may have posted the wrong link there. It seems to be a link to @okasaki's comment, which doesn't seem to pertain to the issue you mentioned, and contains no links of it's own. I assume copypasta error? I'd still appreciate it if you have any links, as I'm trying to map out the various accusations and counter-accusations in the Snowden case. It's a good study in information warfare :-)
      - IBM 12y ago
        It's no error.
      - JohnLen 12y ago
        Test
      - tedunangst 12y ago
        "this might be part of a PR campaign coordinated between the US govt and US tech companies" sounds like it pertains to the topic of people suspecting this to be PR, no?
        Intermernet 12y ago
        The comment I was asking for references to was: > Glenn Greenwald/Snowden is now suspected of doing PR for tech companies Which is not >a PR campaign coordinated between the US govt and US tech companies Suspecting PR collusion yes, but on the wrong side.
- aburan28 12y ago
  It was written by Jeremy Scahill.
  - IBM 12y ago
    Glenn Greenwald is the "Co-founding Editor" and the source for the story were the Snowden documents.
SagelyGuru 12y ago
It is certainly in the interests of the government and its spying agencies for the big monopolies to be successful. It must be a comforting thought to them to know that if they bug just Apple and Microsoft, at a stroke they have over 90% of the population under effective surveillance.
- higherpurpose 12y ago
  It's a shame Apple became so cooperative with the government recently. They agreed to "share cyberthreat info" which could mean zero-days, and maybe much more, which we know how the government will want to use first (hint: not for security). My guess is Tim Cook agreed for the same reason Microsoft agreed to do the same thing long ago, and now again with the new program - to get government contracts, such as the one where Apple Pay will be used to get federal services and with the plan to use Passbook or whatever as driver license in the future. Apple actually announced this in the very same day they announced it will share cyber info with the government, so it's not even trying to hide it. I doubt Steve Jobs would've compromised the same way. As we've seen from the leaked Snowden charts, Apple only entered PRISM after Steve Jobs died. As for Microsoft, I won't even waste my breath. They would sellout anyone for an extra million dollars. They only fight against this stuff when it seems to be publicly damaging them, because they don't want to lose billions of dollars in revenue from abroad because of this issue. So they would have no problem giving US authorities data from abroad, as long as it's still secret. Once it gets public they will "fight hard" against the practice.
  - JohnLen 12y ago
    Test
  - sseveran 12y ago
    I believe Microsoft was one of the few companies to challenge the NSA in the early 2000s. If I recall correctly Ballmer thought that the NSLs would eventually become public and Microsoft needed to be on the right side of history by challenging them.
- prawn 12y ago

by okasaki 12y ago

IBM 12y ago

Interesting twist when Glenn Greenwald/Snowden is now suspected of doing PR for tech companies.

Intermernet 12y ago
I must have missed that release, do you have any links?
- IBM 12y ago
  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9176630 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9176630
  - Intermernet 12y ago
    You may have posted the wrong link there. It seems to be a link to @okasaki's comment, which doesn't seem to pertain to the issue you mentioned, and contains no links of it's own. I assume copypasta error? I'd still appreciate it if you have any links, as I'm trying to map out the various accusations and counter-accusations in the Snowden case. It's a good study in information warfare :-)
    - IBM 12y ago
      It's no error.
    - JohnLen 12y ago
      Test
    - tedunangst 12y ago
      "this might be part of a PR campaign coordinated between the US govt and US tech companies" sounds like it pertains to the topic of people suspecting this to be PR, no?
      - Intermernet 12y ago
        The comment I was asking for references to was: > Glenn Greenwald/Snowden is now suspected of doing PR for tech companies Which is not >a PR campaign coordinated between the US govt and US tech companies Suspecting PR collusion yes, but on the wrong side.
aburan28 12y ago
It was written by Jeremy Scahill.
- IBM 12y ago
  Glenn Greenwald is the "Co-founding Editor" and the source for the story were the Snowden documents.

SagelyGuru 12y ago

It is certainly in the interests of the government and its spying agencies for the big monopolies to be successful. It must be a comforting thought to them to know that if they bug just Apple and Microsoft, at a stroke they have over 90% of the population under effective surveillance.

higherpurpose 12y ago
It's a shame Apple became so cooperative with the government recently. They agreed to "share cyberthreat info" which could mean zero-days, and maybe much more, which we know how the government will want to use first (hint: not for security). My guess is Tim Cook agreed for the same reason Microsoft agreed to do the same thing long ago, and now again with the new program - to get government contracts, such as the one where Apple Pay will be used to get federal services and with the plan to use Passbook or whatever as driver license in the future. Apple actually announced this in the very same day they announced it will share cyber info with the government, so it's not even trying to hide it. I doubt Steve Jobs would've compromised the same way. As we've seen from the leaked Snowden charts, Apple only entered PRISM after Steve Jobs died. As for Microsoft, I won't even waste my breath. They would sellout anyone for an extra million dollars. They only fight against this stuff when it seems to be publicly damaging them, because they don't want to lose billions of dollars in revenue from abroad because of this issue. So they would have no problem giving US authorities data from abroad, as long as it's still secret. Once it gets public they will "fight hard" against the practice.
- JohnLen 12y ago
  Test
- sseveran 12y ago
  I believe Microsoft was one of the few companies to challenge the NSA in the early 2000s. If I recall correctly Ballmer thought that the NSLs would eventually become public and Microsoft needed to be on the right side of history by challenging them.
prawn 12y ago