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Yes, you are right. Collecting all this info in the first place is diametrically opposed to the security of individuals, companies, and the state. It is like

Yes, you are right. Collecting all this info in the first place is diametrically opposed to the security of individuals, companies, and the state. It is like a nuclear power plant, with a reactive fission core that has to be very well-contained. And then the 'waste' has to be put away for 500 years. It's diametrically opposed to environmental safety. I completely agree with you that it needs to be incredibly tightly controlled. It's precisely the fact that I learned that, in fact, this was largely the case that left me impressed with them. It was as though you have learned that there has never been a nuclear meltdown, but, unbeknownst to anyone, nuclear has been providing cheap, low-pollution energy throughout the world for decades, while being very well-run. That was leave you with a sense of both uneasiness, but perhaps respect that it has been done well. I will say that I think that some of the people collecting all this data are like how some 'hoarders' of copyrighted, etc, files feel and behave. They kind of feel like if there is data (bits) that are out there, they should have a right to get them. This does not ordinarily make someone want to do damage with it, and perhaps the employees of the NSA care more about siphoning up everything than using it for any harm. Overall I would agree that it is a very dangerous thing to exist, and would require the smartest people on the planet to keep secure; as well as deny the existence of it at all. I think there's a huge difference between them admitting to what they're doing, or doing it in secret. They should completely deeply deny everything they're doing. While retaining the capability for when someone decides to be a genuine evil person. You just can't be one these days and have any success! This is as it should be. They should not admit to anything, which would have a chilling effect on free speech. I want to be able to live my life in complete freedom from any oversight or surveilance :) that is the difference between the free world and a dictatorship.

dreamfactory2 12y ago
Two things completely contradict this romantically naive line of reasoning: 1) that they were caught using this capability to stalk their lovers (that's just the one we know of) 2) that the systems were not protected (Snowden being able to hoover it up using wget and no audit trail). (The fact that that these toxic datastores would be created so thoughtlessly and kept so badly makes one wonder about 'the smartest people on the planet'. Though if you've ever worked for a government contractor, you'll know that technical standards are typically among the worst on the planet.)

dreamfactory2 12y ago

Two things completely contradict this romantically naive line of reasoning: 1) that they were caught using this capability to stalk their lovers (that's just the one we know of) 2) that the systems were not protected (Snowden being able to hoover it up using wget and no audit trail). (The fact that that these toxic datastores would be created so thoughtlessly and kept so badly makes one wonder about 'the smartest people on the planet'. Though if you've ever worked for a government contractor, you'll know that technical standards are typically among the worst on the planet.)