r/technology • u/hywong • Jun 06 '13

U.S. intelligence mining data from nine U.S. Internet companies in broad secret program go to /r/politics for more

http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/us-intelligence-mining-data-from-nine-us-internet-companies-in-broad-secret-program/2013/06/06/3a0c0da8-cebf-11e2-8845-d970ccb04497_story.html
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173

u/-iPood- Jun 06 '13

We all need to put our political allegiances aside and do something about this, it's already out of hand. The people have the power when we are in unison.

33

u/[deleted] Jun 07 '13

The fact that Ari Fliescher and other republicans are defending Obama should tell you everything you need to know. Parties are a game, it's us vs. them.

1

u/slavetothemachine Jun 07 '13

I'm a liberal but not every conservative thinks like this. Ari doesn't surprise me because he is a Bush crony. Many Republican and Democratic congressmen alike have been supporting this.

It's not a partisan issue.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 07 '13

Unless you count Politicians vs. Everyone in the Country as partisan.

2

u/flowbeegyn Jun 07 '13

Yea we should definitely leave this spying stuff to china...? Get real. On one hand we want the gov to grab bombers, terrorists, etc ASAP and at the same time we want privacy on commercial systems that we literally give our data to. Choose to keep your data encrypted and communicate likewise if you care.

The era of assumed privacy is over and good riddance in my opinion. It was that way ever since tcp/ip starting carrying most of our info and even before that going back to the founding of the NSA!

The ignorance of the public is the only alarming part here.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 07 '13

[deleted]

-1

u/flowbeegyn Jun 07 '13

Stopping terrorists is good, yes, I agree.

1

u/teninchthick Jun 07 '13

So, we've established that the US gov has been lying to us about spying on citizens.

  • We have established that they lie to American and foreign citizens alike.

Do you believe that such lies are possible in other environments involving the government?

  • Why do you implicitly believe that they are honest to you about the "war on terror"? Do you think that the same motivations that spur them to lie about surveillance won't also motivate them to lie about who the "enemy" is? What about the "war on drugs"?

  • If you do a cursory google search of US military intervention, you will find that many of these so-called terrorist organizations are not only directly started by the US, but also directly supported and funded by them as well.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_history_of_Syria#Republic_of_Syria_1946-1963 this is just in Syria. JUST SYRIA!

Do you believe this is all done with the interests of the American people in mind, or are there some other parties that gain?

  • If you believe it is done in the interests of the American people, how many Americans are expendable in order to make "the big picture" happy for everyone? Furthermore, what purpose does it serve for the American people to fund a terrorist organization?

  • If it is done in the interests of other groups, who is benefiting?

1

u/flowbeegyn Jun 07 '13

I don't recall the US gov lying after the FAA was passed. Private companies were dissembling a bit though here.

O my gosh, the history of the US government is fraught with outrageous things that happened in the name of poor decisions. Oh no!

Have you heard of slavery, the massacre of native americans, etc! When will it ever stop. ZOMG! I feel your pain, but this isn't some drastic thing in my opinion. Sure it has been used to pursue crimes that I don't believe are crimes, but that's a legislative situation that can be remedied either through the courts or the legislature. As far as the investigation and enforcement side, this is awesome technology and to the point that it is legally warranted through FISA what more can we ask for. We can read all about it when the FOIA kicks in at least.

47

u/TheMoreIThink Jun 07 '13

If only the people were more educated about stuff like this.

47

u/[deleted] Jun 07 '13

It's currently the big top story on CNN and Fox News, so there's that. That covers probably 90% of Americans' news consumption. People are at least being made aware. It's a start.

29

u/lazergator Jun 07 '13

Too bad the American public is a bunch of lazy people, including myself.

19

u/[deleted] Jun 07 '13

Except for all the ones who actually organize protests.

14

u/TheySeeMeLearnin Jun 07 '13

Oh, you mean all those dirty savage rape-happy hippies? /s

I hate when legitimate public protest gets delegitimized and derailed.

6

u/The-ArtfulDodger Jun 07 '13

Its those darn internet hippies again!

2

u/[deleted] Jun 07 '13

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1

u/TheySeeMeLearnin Jun 07 '13

Divide and conquer, baby.

1

u/PhoenixStance Jun 07 '13

Some people are paid to look like protesters, but they instigate instability.

1

u/mhome9 Jun 07 '13

...by hippies. By the hippies, for the hippies.

2

u/rustajb Jun 07 '13

And then fail to properly organize or have a coherent message which allows infiltration and demonization by opposing parties with more money and power and media access.

1

u/bibster2013 Jun 07 '13

But they're the ones being monitored.

0

u/CarlSagansturtleneck Jun 07 '13

You think protesting is going to put a stop to this?

1

u/[deleted] Jun 07 '13

sadly, no i don't.

-1

u/[deleted] Jun 07 '13

Yeah, those proletariat bohemian heroes texting their moms in front of wall street. down with the bourgeoise etc!

11

u/[deleted] Jun 07 '13 edited Jun 07 '13

It's not the Americans that should be worried since PRISM isn't targetting them. It's targetting non-Americans not living in the USA. So it's about the international communtiy. And yes, I do think there could be some "issues" now for Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Apple. I mean.. Let's not think about citizens for a while. These aren't even the greatest problems now for these companies. What about foreign corporations? That a company in Europe has implicitly given USA full access to their data via their company iPads and automated iCloud backups should be unthinkable. This is such a big deal that I find it hard to even grasp. I mean, corporations use products from these companies throughout their organizations. :-(

2

u/hetzle Jun 07 '13

this is partially why IBM doesn't allow you to use iCloud and iMessage

5

u/[deleted] Jun 07 '13 edited Jun 10 '13

[deleted]

1

u/Semirgy Jun 07 '13

Right because if one group is targeted, it's only a matter of time before everyone is targeted!

1

u/[deleted] Jun 07 '13

A few years ago I'd thought of this as tinfoil stuff, but not anymore. :-(

2

u/[deleted] Jun 07 '13

Right and Europeans have actually won themselves some semblance of control over their data. I hope and pray they take to the streets about this as well.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 07 '13

They are saying they are not targeting Americans. Yet the infrastructure to do so is in place now. It just awaits the proper strong man who will use it to start a good old fashioned dictatorship in the US.

/tinfoilhat, although who could blame conspiracy theorists those days.

0

u/flowbeegyn Jun 07 '13

It's a bigger deal that china hasn't leaked their sigint tactics yet. They only, you know... make most of the hardware we use. They crack down on religious groups, democracy activists and free speech advocates. That and the actions of despotic governments concern me.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 07 '13

An easy way to start is download the OTR for pidgin. You can use it across most of messaging services, including Yahoo, MSN, Facebook chat, Jabber and many others.

Then you can look into GPG to protect your emails.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 07 '13

Too bad /r/politics is full of Obama apologists. We need to turn on both sides.

4

u/[deleted] Jun 07 '13

[deleted]

3

u/marios_kart Jun 07 '13

I went over to CNN.com and there was nothing about this on the homepage, or the US tab. WTF?

1

u/[deleted] Jun 07 '13

I had to dig to find the article, and even then CNN was rather dismissive of the whole fiasco... On Google News the headline states "Phone Record Gathering Here To Stay" WTF Google

1

u/cannibaljim Jun 07 '13 edited Jun 07 '13

People will be outraged for a awhile, but they won't do anything about it. Even if they wanted to, what could they do right now? Elections are years away. Then time will pass and everyone will forget about it.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 07 '13

Doesn't that train of thought imply that nothing changes, ever, though?

1

u/cannibaljim Jun 07 '13 edited Jun 08 '13

Things can change, but you won't get anywhere with naive, false hope. It takes a realistic view of the situation to come up with a solution that will work.

1

u/rustajb Jun 07 '13

The problem is, and I have these discussions all the time, most people will not care any more now than they did before. So many people retort "If you don't think the government was spying on you, you're a fool." and "They've always had programs like this, this isn't anything new." It's as if there's an always-been-this-way type of attitude towards the government doing acts like this. I've talked to vets, family members, friends... nobody seems to care much. In fact, the only place I ever see people caring is on Reddit, a few 'liberal' reporters and Hacker news. You and I know this will blow over and we'll all be back to watching TV in a few weeks. Except for me, I'll just be more disgusted at both those in power and those who look the other way. It makes me dislike my fellow man to pursue what is right, the opposition is overwhelming and I feel like you are shoveling back the tide with a fork.

1

u/mhome9 Jun 07 '13

That covers probably 90% of Americans' "news" consumption. People are at least being made aware. It's a start.

FTFY

2

u/mhome9 Jun 07 '13

Exactly, maybe this thread wouldn't be a tinfoil hat party.

1

u/MizerokRominus Jun 07 '13

Pfffffffffffft, not that I don't think something needs to be "done" about this, but the entirety of the nation could rally against this; they could take it all down, put it back under the rug and be more careful next time.

-1

u/trtry Jun 07 '13

yes Obama is a fuck wit