Prism and Verizon surveillance discussion thread

[Junkenstein]

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/08/groklaw-shuts-down-rather-than-risk-feds-snooping-through-e-mail/

More related

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130816/08404424206/who-will-take-privacy-seppuku-pledge.shtml

we noted that Cryptocloud has promised something similar for a while -- what it terms "corporate seppuku":
In the context of privacy issues, "corporate seppuku" means shutting down a company rather than agreeing to become an extension of the massive, ever-expanding, secretive global surveillance network organized by the U.S. National Security Agency. It means, in short, saying "no." Sometimes, we hear people say that this or that company "had no choice" in what they did. Bullshit. There's always a choice; it's just that the consequences of certain options might be really severe, and are thus not chosen. But that's a choice. It's always a choice.
It has even formulated what it calls the Privacy Seppuku pledge:
if a company is served with a secret order to become a real-time participant in ongoing, blanket, secret surveillance of its customers... it will say no. Just say no. And it will shut down its operations, rather than have then infiltrated by spies and used surreptitiously to spread the NSA's global spook malware further. You can't force a company to do something if there's no company there to do it.
It's a noble gesture, but would it do much good in the real world of US government spying? Cryptostorm, the company behind Cryptocloud, has provided a fuller analysis of why it thinks such a pledge would work. Here's a key point:
That one that went thru with the seppuku? She'll likely have a new service up and running in a few days or weeks. The customers who got dinged by the shutdown? They'll all get up and running on her new service. This is all 1s and 0s, remember? You don't have to demolish a car manufacturing plant, after all -- you're just wiping some VMs and reincorporating elsewhere. Lease new machines. Call it "lavabutt" on the new corporate docs, in Andorra. Sign on to the Privacy Seppuku pledge, as lavabutt, again. Off you go. Do you think it'll be hard to get customers -- old ones migrated over, and new ones alike? Think on that: a privacy company that shut down rather than be #snitchware... do you trust them, now?

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Heard about this.  One company that did so is being investigated for "obstructing" by the very act of shutting down.

You can't win.  You can't break even.  You can't even quit the game.

[McGrupp]

SWEET BABY JESUS!

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/britain-forced-guardian-destroy-copy-snowden-material-222933670.html

After further talks with the government, Rusbridger said, two "security experts" from Government Communications Headquarters, the British equivalent of the ultra-secretive U.S. National Security Agency, visited the Guardian's London offices.

In the building's basement, Rusbridger wrote, government officials watched as computers which contained material provided by Snowden were physically pulverized. "We can call off the black helicopters," Rusbridger says one of the officials joked.

It's like there's an office pool for spys and whoever can do the most overt act of shitting on the law and human rights without causing a riot wins.

"Well, we could just walk through the guardian's front doors and start smashing their computers with hammers."

"The people would never stand for that."

"Wanna bet......."  He pulls out a roll of bills and they both start laughing maniacially as they run to grab their hammers.

[Salty]

I'm actually just surprised the whole office didnt careen through an intersection, hit a tree, and burst into flames instantly incinerating every person inside.

[Ben Shapiro]

Someone's getting a promotion.

[P3nT4gR4m]

top headlines on itv news right now - greenwald interview

[Junkenstein]

I'm actually just surprised the whole office didnt careen through an intersection, hit a tree, and burst into flames instantly incinerating every person inside.

It would be marginally less suspicious.

[Triple Zero]

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/08/groklaw-shuts-down-rather-than-risk-feds-snooping-through-e-mail/

check out Groklaw's post itself, just READ it

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20130818120421175

just READ it, really, this, RIGHT HERE, this fucking shit is really really really making me so. fucking. anrgy.

it's all going to SHIT.

I know many of you have been saying this for years, and I've been hearing it, but now I FEEL it. burning right there somewhere. which probably says more about me than about the world, since there's been enough atrocities before.

I said a few pages back, like punch in the gut. It's exactly like the Groklaw article says, the whole Internet, all phones, everything, fucking tapped, you can't go anywhere! you can't do anything, you can't subvert anything, because if you could, that's just proof it was something meaningless anyway. It's all gone to SHIT.





(AND IM EVEN MORE LATE FOR WORK TODAY IS NOT A GOOD DAY)

[McGrupp]

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/08/groklaw-shuts-down-rather-than-risk-feds-snooping-through-e-mail/

check out Groklaw's post itself, just READ it

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20130818120421175

just READ it, really, this, RIGHT HERE, this fucking shit is really really really making me so. fucking. anrgy.

it's all going to SHIT.

I know many of you have been saying this for years, and I've been hearing it, but now I FEEL it. burning right there somewhere. which probably says more about me than about the world, since there's been enough atrocities before.

I said a few pages back, like punch in the gut. It's exactly like the Groklaw article says, the whole Internet, all phones, everything, fucking tapped, you can't go anywhere! you can't do anything, you can't subvert anything, because if you could, that's just proof it was something meaningless anyway. It's all gone to SHIT.





(AND IM EVEN MORE LATE FOR WORK TODAY IS NOT A GOOD DAY)

Yet another article that keeps making me think 'allright here is where folks have to acknowledge that messed up stuff is happeneing'.  I know better by now, but it's still depressing to go out and see what effects this has on the media and all I see is OBAMA GOT A DOG OBAMA GOT A DOG HERE ARE CONSPIRACY STORIES ABOUT OBAMAS DOG OBAMA GOT A DOG some stuff happened in egypt OBAMA GOT A DOG OBAMA GOT A DOG LOOK AT OBAMA'S DOG freedom is dead OBAMA'S DOG OBAMA'S DOG OBAMA'S DOG OBAMA'S DOG LOOK AT THE FUCKING DOG TALK ABOUT THE FUCKING DOG ITS A DOG OBAMA HAS A DOG.

Also I can't help but feel like not being dragged from bed in the middle of the night by secret police means I'm not trying hard enough. Although that's irrational wrongthinking for reasons too numerous to mention.

Did you hear about Obama's dog?

[P3nT4gR4m]

Obama got a dog? Like forealz? Why isn't there a thread about this? 

[Junkenstein]

Obama got a dog? Like forealz? Why isn't there a thread about this? 

It's in the UK baby thread. We don't get told about the dog until next week.

[Cain]

If you have nothing to hide, excluding facial structure similar to terrorists, dissidents and other enemies of the state, then you have nothing to fear:

The federal government is making progress on developing a surveillance system that would pair computers with video cameras to scan crowds and automatically identify people by their faces, according to newly disclosed documents and interviews with researchers working on the project.

The Department of Homeland Security tested a crowd-scanning project called the Biometric Optical Surveillance System — or BOSS — last fall after two years of government-financed development. Although the system is not ready for use, researchers say they are making significant advances. That alarms privacy advocates, who say that now is the time for the government to establish oversight rules and limits on how it will someday be used.

The limits will be "the DHS and all relevant, associated law enforcement agencies may use this whenever they flap their hands and scream "terrorism" at a judge, can share it with whoever the fuck they want, and you will suck it up, citizen". I'm guessing, anyway.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

The limits will be "the DHS and all relevant, associated law enforcement agencies may use this whenever they flap their hands and scream "terrorism" at a judge, can share it with whoever the fuck they want, and you will suck it up, citizen". I'm guessing, anyway.

Assuming no rate of change in assbaggery.

It could also mean the limits will be PRISON FOR PEOPLE WHO THINK THERE SHOULD BE LIMITS.

[Cain]

I actually strongly suspect this will form a central component of the "Main Core" program, which the NSA and DHS are said to be rapidly updating with current technologies.

Should something major goes down in the USA, BOSS links up with the MAIN CORE database and bam! instant dissident roundup.  MAIN CORE is a meta-database designed to work across government agencies, and in tandem with the advanced predictive software which is no doubt fed by PRISM and UPSTREAM and geolocation tools in most modern phones, you could snag a large number of potentially "difficult" people very quickly.

[Junkenstein]

Well I'm relived that there's not a multitude of simple ways to change your facial structure. Shit used by teens making amateur zombie movies will probably be enough to cover early versions of this. Terrorist groups will employ professional make up artists in the future. I say employ, I mean kidnap. That'll take care of the next couple of generations assuming no tech solution is more affordable.

End result - Terrorists detected when on recognition gird.-Entry/exit points to grid highly guarded. Probably bureaucratic, mass transit areas. This is where shit gets blown up.

I've been expecting more bombings in places like airport security queues since around the inception of the TSA. I surprised this hasn't happened more really but it seems inevitable to me.

Please correct the crazy paranoid ravings.