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I don't remember that Pollyanna public discourse. What would you consider the most shocking Snowden disclosure? None that I'm aware of were that surprising. It

I don't remember that Pollyanna public discourse. What would you consider the most shocking Snowden disclosure? None that I'm aware of were that surprising. It was an open secret at the phone companies that TLA folk of one sort or another have been (only sometimes with direct cooperation) plugging mysterious gear into the network for decades. Really astounding that their methods are now targeted at Gmail and Facebook?

jgroszko 12y ago
The firmware exploits that were being talked about a few weeks ago are probably the most surprising to me. But IIRC a lot of the stuff that Snowden revealed was previously considered the realm of tin foil hat conspiracy theory.
A_COMPUTER 12y ago
There is a huge difference between "carnivore", a box the FBI could put on a single network somewhere, and room 641A, six rooms hooked directly into AT&T backbones sniffing all data. There is also a huge difference between passive monitoring at specific points with some sort of criminal investigation, and actively infiltrating US companies and breaking their security to be able to monitor its traffic unimpeded. It's funny how I was a conspiracy nut when I told people this stuff was happening, and now I have people gaslighting me that everybody knew it was happening all along.
- amyjess 12y ago
  Room 641A was well known, as fact, years before Snowden and nobody gave a shit. I remember people talking about it circa 2006. It was in the context of "if the government wanted to ban something and actively enforce it, they have the ability to do that because they've got a room where they grab a beam off all of AT&T's fiber optics" Everybody knew, nobody cared.
njharman 12y ago
Taping phones of foreign politicians Intercepting shipments to plant back doors Sabotaging cryptography efforts to so everyone has weak encryption. Lying to congress. Are a few shocking revelations from Snowden disclosure my bad memory recalls.

jgroszko 12y ago

The firmware exploits that were being talked about a few weeks ago are probably the most surprising to me. But IIRC a lot of the stuff that Snowden revealed was previously considered the realm of tin foil hat conspiracy theory.

A_COMPUTER 12y ago

There is a huge difference between "carnivore", a box the FBI could put on a single network somewhere, and room 641A, six rooms hooked directly into AT&T backbones sniffing all data. There is also a huge difference between passive monitoring at specific points with some sort of criminal investigation, and actively infiltrating US companies and breaking their security to be able to monitor its traffic unimpeded. It's funny how I was a conspiracy nut when I told people this stuff was happening, and now I have people gaslighting me that everybody knew it was happening all along.

amyjess 12y ago
Room 641A was well known, as fact, years before Snowden and nobody gave a shit. I remember people talking about it circa 2006. It was in the context of "if the government wanted to ban something and actively enforce it, they have the ability to do that because they've got a room where they grab a beam off all of AT&T's fiber optics" Everybody knew, nobody cared.

njharman 12y ago

Taping phones of foreign politicians Intercepting shipments to plant back doors Sabotaging cryptography efforts to so everyone has weak encryption. Lying to congress. Are a few shocking revelations from Snowden disclosure my bad memory recalls.