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Most people who support mass surveillance when asked in surveys only do it because they don't fully understand what's happening. Let's go back to John Oliver's

Most people who support mass surveillance when asked in surveys only do it because they don't fully understand what's happening. Let's go back to John Oliver's recent show episode where people seem very concerned that the government would have their naked pics - yet they were completely unaware that the government actually does that (as in collecting everything, including their naked pics). So most people just don't fully (or even partially) grasp the government's surveillance power right now. The media doesn't help here. The media is supposed to inform people about this, but instead either it doesn't talk too much about it, or if it does, the mainstream media is usually pro-mass surveillance (because the powerful friends of the networks are).

pdkl95 11y ago
While the Snowden leaks were being released, I made a habit of doing a few very general searches to get a sampling of how the events were being reported. I really wish I had taken it a step further and saved regular tables of those observations, because I suspect it could have been made into a very interesting paper. Most of the time the lazy reprints of an AP/Reuters story.would dominate, as expected. Once and a while - usually after a really import release such as COTRAVELER[1] - the story would happen... and then suddenly everybody is talking about Prism and explaining how it is "just metadata". Any momentum the new story had ended was redirected into topics that were already known. There would be small-time media doing proper reporting, of course, but it was clear who the "big media" worked for. The media following the orders of those that sign their paychecks isn't really news, but it was very interesting to watch it happen in realtime. [1] I still believe that COTRAVELER is one of the most important thing we have learned from Snowden, as it builds relationship maps and it doesn't rely on the target performing some specific action such as an HTTP requests that QUANTUM can race. Bonus: it only relies on "metadata".
- pakled_engineer 11y ago
  The discussion about COTRAVELER was usually totally poisonous too https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/02/24/jtrig-manipulation/ https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/02/24/jtrig-manipula...
LLWM 11y ago
That's a bit patronizing. Of course it is true that most people who support surveillance don't understand what's happening, but only because most people in general don't understand what's happening. Plenty of us understand what's happening and also support it - anecdotally, at least. Fully understanding is asking for too much, though. I doubt anyone outside of a select few at the NSA fully understand what's happening, and it seems reasonable to guess that they support it.

pdkl95 11y ago

While the Snowden leaks were being released, I made a habit of doing a few very general searches to get a sampling of how the events were being reported. I really wish I had taken it a step further and saved regular tables of those observations, because I suspect it could have been made into a very interesting paper. Most of the time the lazy reprints of an AP/Reuters story.would dominate, as expected. Once and a while - usually after a really import release such as COTRAVELER[1] - the story would happen... and then suddenly everybody is talking about Prism and explaining how it is "just metadata". Any momentum the new story had ended was redirected into topics that were already known. There would be small-time media doing proper reporting, of course, but it was clear who the "big media" worked for. The media following the orders of those that sign their paychecks isn't really news, but it was very interesting to watch it happen in realtime. [1] I still believe that COTRAVELER is one of the most important thing we have learned from Snowden, as it builds relationship maps and it doesn't rely on the target performing some specific action such as an HTTP requests that QUANTUM can race. Bonus: it only relies on "metadata".

pakled_engineer 11y ago
The discussion about COTRAVELER was usually totally poisonous too https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/02/24/jtrig-manipulation/ https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/02/24/jtrig-manipula...

LLWM 11y ago

That's a bit patronizing. Of course it is true that most people who support surveillance don't understand what's happening, but only because most people in general don't understand what's happening. Plenty of us understand what's happening and also support it - anecdotally, at least. Fully understanding is asking for too much, though. I doubt anyone outside of a select few at the NSA fully understand what's happening, and it seems reasonable to guess that they support it.