Inside PRISM: Why the Government Hates Encryption

Lauren Weinstein writes "Now, what's really going on with PRISM? The government admits that the program exists, but says it is being 'mischaracterized' in significant ways (always a risk with secret projects sucking up information about your citizens' personal lives). The Internet firms named in the leaked documents are denying that they have provided 'back doors' to the government for data access. Who is telling the truth? Likely both. Based on previous information and the new leaks, we can make some pretty logical guesses about the actual shape of all this. Here's my take."

Comments

Re:it just occurred to me

[ebno-10db]

On the eve of Obama's meeting with President Jinping, any conversations about Chinese espionage is going to be quite embarrassing.

That's it! The Chinese found out about this through their hacking, and leaked it to the press to avoid complaints about their hacking. Is there anything like a Pulitzer Prize for conspiracy theories?

Most obvious:

[fyngyrz]

A front door is not, after all, a back door.

Re:Most obvious:

[fyngyrz]

And then she said "Oh... OH!... So that's why people do this!

Re:Utter BS, trust no-one, including you.

[Seumas]

Bu- bu- but Obama said that they're not listening into our phone calls and not to worry and everyone else says if I'm not doing anything wrong then I don't have anything to hide and should just shut the fuck up because I'm being paranoid...!

Re:Definitions.

[PopeRatzo]

When we have technology capable of putting a missile through an attic window, or down a ventilation shaft

I don't think it's quite as reliably accurate as all that.

I admit, it's sometimes hard to tell the military contractor porn from Mission: Impossible.