Prism: Tech Industry Is Shaken by Online Privacy Fears

[gb2000ie]

Do you really think that the US is the only one doing that? I doubt it, the US just got caught...

No other government can do quite the same thing actually, not because they wouldn't want to, but because no other country is the home of Google, Apple, Microsoft, FaceBook, Twitter, etc.. They are all American companies, so the US government can use them in ways no other country can.

B.

 

[tonka]

It's the big patriotic holiday in the USA.
Bands, concerts, fireworks.

Limbs blown off by crazy assholes? I hope the NSA catches them first.
Paranoid? if you say so.

 

[Tjerk12]

 

[ihno]

Yes, yesterday it was "O tempora - o mores", today it's "O tempora, o prism!"

 

[MrMonkey]

It's the big patriotic holiday in the USA.
Bands, concerts, fireworks.

To all my dear Americans here I wish happy Independence Day!

Happy Fourth of July!

 

[bigsal]

then it would be ok if french or german secret service puts few "bugs" in the White House... because we are friends and allies...?

This is a good question, but I am more than sure that the U.S. government would not like this eventuality.

 

[tonka]

So we have all been discussing this, but it's pretty theoretical. Has anyone here been bothered by the NSA (that you know)?

I have a young friend at work. He rails against the NSA. I don't think he's ever been a target. But he has had his credit card info stolen twice in the last year. (New Egg, he thinks). He calmly reports it, and gets a new card.

I think it's odd that this is a huge matter, but is met with a shrug. Business sites are hacked all the time. A hidden shrug.
For me, innovative businesses having their secrets hacked is major. For new businesses, that is their worth, and it's gone.

So let's here your stories. Not what's in the news, but what's in your life. I've been lucky. Nothing to report. Though I keep getting bananas in the mail.

 

[ihno]

"Has anyone here been bothered by the NSA (that you know)?"

"It doesn't concern me, so I don't care" You can never know if and how it may concern you in the future. Then it would be too late to protest of course.

And it's this kind of thinking that allows your government to perform such breaches of civil rights on a large scale in the first place.

 

[gb2000ie]

So we have all been discussing this, but it's pretty theoretical. Has anyone here been bothered by the NSA (that you know)?

I have a young friend at work. He rails against the NSA. I don't think he's ever been a target. But he has had his credit card info stolen twice in the last year. (New Egg, he thinks). He calmly reports it, and gets a new card.

I think it's odd that this is a huge matter, but is met with a shrug. Business sites are hacked all the time. A hidden shrug.
For me, innovative businesses having their secrets hacked is major. For new businesses, that is their worth, and it's gone.

So let's here your stories. Not what's in the news, but what's in your life. I've been lucky. Nothing to report. Though I keep getting bananas in the mail.

You are arguing that because PRISM does not affect our individual lives now we should be happy to be lied to by a supposedly democratic government. That is nuts.

Firstly - the head of the NSA was caught lying to congress - a bald-faced lie under oath. He still have a job. That proves American democracy is sick.

Normalising a police state paves the way for government abuse. We've seen how this game plays out many times in our recent history. How many Germans could say that the Gestapo never did anything to them in the early days of the 3rd Reich?

The problem with PRISM is it proves the government acts as if it is above the law, and thinks lying to the people is OK in a democracy. It's not really about weather or not I care about them reading my email - it's that they chose to by-pass public debate, and to take the people out of the running of a supposedly democratic country.

PRISM is only what we know about - it proves they lie to us, so what else are they up to? Can we believe a word proven liars say?

If you think this doesn't affect every American you are missing the forest of the trees.

For someone like me, a non-American, the problem is a democratically in-accountable foreign government spying on my governments, and on everyone in my nation. Europeans have much better rights to privacy under EU law - America are breaching my rights, I have every right to care. America is behaving like a rogue nation. Imagine how Americans would react if China was reading all their email? There is no difference - America is behaving just like a dictatorship.

B.

 

[tonka]

If anyone want to see what your Prism style metaprofile might look like, MIT media labs has a site. Just Google Immersion MIT.

You have to have an active gmail account for it to work, and you can erase your data any time.

 

[gb2000ie]

If anyone want to see what your Prism style metaprofile might look like, MIT media labs has a site. Just Google Immersion MIT.

You have to have an active gmail account for it to work, and you can erase your data any time.

You might be able to erase the data from MIT's servers, but Google is never gonna give it up

B.

 

[VidPig]

this is just another tool used by the US government to watch over it's people and the world. Not much difference between them and Google. Except with Google, you can get a coupon for 10% off ED pills.