Monday, July 22, 2013
Good analysis
A nicely written AP piece by Oskar Garcia, covering the fallout of Snowden's "revelations."
In Louisiana, the wife of a former soldier is scaling back on Facebook posts and considering unfriending old acquaintances, worried an innocuous joke or long-lost associate might one day land her in a government probe. In California, a college student encrypts chats and emails, saying he's not planning anything sinister but shouldn't have to sweat snoopers. And in Canada, a lawyer is rethinking the data products he uses to ensure his clients' privacy.Well, good. Finally. Trouble is, you should have been aware of this from the start. It was never a fucking secret. NSA was part of the Net from the very start in 1968. Anyone who thinks NSA is limited in the tiniest way by dust specks or laws or coffee stains or regulations or mosquito bites or morality has NOT BEEN PAYING ATTENTION. Garcia correctly emphasizes the truly important problem:
Gabriel Weinberg, chief executive of DuckDuckGo, said the NSA programs reminded people to consider privacy but that government snooping may the least of an everyday computer user's concerns. DuckDuckGo's website warns of the pitfalls of Internet search engines, including third-party advertisements built around a user's searches or the potential for a hacker or rogue employee to gain access to personal information.Just right. NSA violates all principles and laws, but in practice won't bother you. Plain old criminals will take all your money and ruin your reputation. NSA knows everything and does nothing; doesn't even act on its knowledge when it's supposed to act. Tamerlin Tsarnaev. Nuff said. Reminds me of the old line about the French royal family: Remembers everything, learns nothing. ¶ 4:46 AM
