The US has released information all week in attempt to get citizens on board with NSA surveillance

28  2014-05-22 by [deleted]

Today's coverage (Thursday) - This is leaked information (source) The Republic. I think everyone would agree this is a good thing. Making some believe 'oh, yea. I guess recording and stuff is good and stuff.'

http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/21/5739638/fbi-dea-will-begin-recording-most-interrogations

Tuesday - US charges 5 in Chinese Military with cyber-espionage. PR campaign after the release about the Bahamas. A lot of Americans still distrust China so those people might now think 'u-sa u-sa u-sa oy! I guess we be needin that spyin' NSA if we want to keep using forks much longer'

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/20/us/us-to-charge-chinese-workers-with-cyberspying.html?_r=0

EDIT: I do not feel this way about China. In fact, I am 100% behind thier response to the cyber-theft charges. I also would rather buy router made in China than one made in the US.

9 comments

8  skyanvil 2014-05-22

1st, we need to get past the US Newspeak of calling some blatant privacy invasions as "surveillance".

"Surveillance" means monitoring of available information, i.e. security cameras on public streets. Posting a security guard is basically having a security guard perform surveillance in an area with proper access.

In public, "surveillance" is just taking information that's publicly available. It's completely legal (beyond some copyright issues). Anyone can do it. I can take my iPhone and take images from the streets. So can the Government.

What US government is doing, far beyond "surveillance", and it has been bombarding the public for years with propaganda to twist the meaning of the word beyond reason.

Hacking into someone's phone accounts or emails for "metadata" is still hacking. If any private citizen do it, it would be a crime. Yet, the government calls it "surveillance".

No. Let's get the definition straight.

Cyber-espionage is still espionage. By installing backdoors and malwares on other people's computer systems, the US government has essentially installed thousands of "Agent Smith's" into computers to take information.

Proverbially, that's like the US government hiding a security guard in your attic, who will come out every now and then to rummage through your belongings when you are not at home.

You would never tolerate US government putting a secret security guard in your attic.

And yet, because you might not even know whether they hacked into your email accounts, you don't feel the intrusion of Cyber-espionage as much.

But it's still there.

2  Mrg13 2014-05-22

Do they even make routers in the US anymore?

0  YoureAllRobots 2014-05-22

Do they make anything in the US anymore? Other than Big Macs, obviously.

1  Mrg13 2014-05-22

There is still some stuff. But nothing like it would have been 50+ years ago.

1  YoureAllRobots 2014-05-22

Yeah, I went a bit extreme with it, but with our population we should have much more industry. Like you said, nothing like it was before the 70's.

2  Mrg13 2014-05-22

Indeed growing up in Chicago and seeing and learning about all the stuff that used to be made here just hurts me now.

You can still find old tools that work perfectly from that area and yet the newer crap will break in a year.

2  YoureAllRobots 2014-05-22

Yep, and that is by design. Why make something that would last for decades when I can build a crap product for pennies that you will need to replace in 1-5 years? More profits for me.

2  Mrg13 2014-05-22

Good old planned obsolescence

1  glassa24 2014-05-22

Why exactly do you think it's bad for FBI interrogations to be recorded? Because of their permanence?