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NSA Spying Is Making Us Less Safe


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2013 Sep 22, 4:16pm   1,747 views  8 comments

by curious2   ➕follow (2)   💰tip   ignore  

"NSA has commandeered the entire Internet and turned it into a surveillance platform. We are seeing the NSA collecting data from all of the cloud providers we use: Google and Facebook and Apple and Yahoo, etc. We see the NSA in partnerships with all the major telcos in the U.S., and many others around the world, to collect data on the backbone. We see the NSA deliberately subverting cryptography, through secret agreements with vendors, to make security systems less effective. The scope and scale are enormous.
***
The NSA’s actions are making us all less safe. They’re not just spying on the bad guys, they’re deliberately weakening Internet security for everyone—including the good guys. It’s sheer folly to believe that only the NSA can exploit the vulnerabilities they create. Additionally, by eavesdropping on all Americans, they’re building the technical infrastructure for a police state.

We’re not there yet, but already we’ve learned that both the DEA and the IRS use NSA surveillance data in prosecutions and then lie about it in court. Power without accountability or oversight is dangerous to society at a very fundamental level."

Personally, I can't help wondering how many people other than Edward Snowden might be absconding with data collected via federal authorities, and how many of them might be selling it for marketing or more nefarious purposes - identity theft or worse. Multiple leaks have shown the federal government does not adequately secure even its own most sensitive information, let alone yours.

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1   Dan8267   2013 Sep 22, 5:37pm  

And you haven't even mentioned blowback from both neutral countries and our allies.

2   bob2356   2013 Sep 22, 6:28pm  

Remember that if you don't do anything wrong then you have nothing to worry about. The government told me so, it must be true. To bad Orwell didn't live long enough to realize he was only off by 20 years.

It's really odd how all the right wing government haters don't have a problem with this stuff. Doublethink I guess.
“Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.”
― George Orwell, 1984

3   Dan8267   2013 Sep 23, 1:04am  

bob2356 says

To bad Orwell didn't live long enough to realize he was only off by 20 years.

1984 did not take place in 1984. As the novel states, the actual year is unknown. Furthermore, a date mentioned in the novel does not fall on the day of the week that it would using the Gregorian calendar. Therefore, the date is clearly incorrect.

4   curious2   2014 Feb 10, 7:23am  

Dan8267 says

bob2356 says

To bad Orwell didn't live long enough to realize he was only off by 20 years.

1984 did not take place in 1984. As the novel states, the actual year is unknown. Furthermore, a date mentioned in the novel does not fall on the day of the week that it would using the Gregorian calendar. Therefore, the date is clearly incorrect.

Also, 20 years after 1984 would be 2004. Math, again.

I agree though about the relevance of doublethink to many current policies, including some at the NSA.

5   Tenpoundbass   2014 Feb 10, 8:55am  

bob2356 says

“Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.”

It happens all the time.

"All Men must work"
"Well except for the sick and infirmed..."

This isn't double speak, and as far as I can tell the Right is very bent out of shape over this. This is Obama's baby, don't try to lay that paternity suit on them. This is the result of an Obama spooge pile on the American people. Especially those who voted for him.

6   bob2356   2014 Feb 10, 10:48am  

Dan8267 says

bob2356 says

To bad Orwell didn't live long enough to realize he was only off by 20 years.

1984 did not take place in 1984. As the novel states, the actual year is unknown. Furthermore, a date mentioned in the novel does not fall on the day of the week that it would using the Gregorian calendar. Therefore, the date is clearly incorrect.

You really need a hobby. I was speaking figuratively. Everyone else figured it out from context, what happened to you?

CaptainShuddup says

It happens all the time.

"All Men must work"

"Well except for the sick and infirmed..."

This isn't double speak, and as far as I can tell the Right is very bent out of shape over this. This is Obama's baby, don't try to lay that paternity suit on them. This is the result of an Obama spooge pile on the American people. Especially those who voted for him.

Coming from the master of double, triple, quadruple, and beyond think.

7   MAGA   2014 Feb 10, 12:15pm  

My old unit.... :-)

8   Dan8267   2014 Feb 10, 12:41pm  

bob2356 says

You really need a hobby. I was speaking figuratively. Everyone else figured it out from context, what happened to you?

Bullshit. Your statement was "To bad Orwell didn't live long enough to realize he was only off by 20 years.". There is no basis to make the statement that "everyone else figured" out you were speaking figuratively because

1. You were not being figurative.
2. There is no "figurative" interpretation of that statement. It's like saying "I was speaking figuratively when I said that my blue car was red; it was figuratively red.". That's just backtracking.

Your backtracking reminds me of Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) who said, "Well over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does.” In reality, just three percent of its work is related to abortion. Later, the senator says that his statement "was not intended to be a factual statement, but rather to illustrate that Planned Parenthood, a organization that receives millions of dollars in taxpayer funding, does subsidize abortions.". That's bullshit.

By the way, it wouldn't have been a bad thing to say, "Hey, I never knew that 1984 didn't actually take place in 1984.". Most people don't know that fact. It's hardly a disgrace to learn that fact on PatNet.

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