Prankster Calls NSA To Restore Deleted E-mail

First time accepted submitter manu0601 writes "Since the NSA snoops, intercepts and store our e-mails forever, why not use it as a backup service? It just lacks the API to restore files, therefore this guy [YouTube video] called the NSA to ask for a backup restoration. Guess what? It did not work." After all, why should we have to pay twice for services already performed with tax dollars?

Comments

Cant help you, give me your information

[dadelbunts]

I love how the lady kept trying to get this guys information even tho they supposedly couldnt help him. WE HAVENT BEEN KEEPING TRACK OF YOUR EMAILS BUT WE SURE WOULD LIKE TO.

Re:Cant help you, give me your information

[girlintraining]

I love how the lady kept trying to get this guys information even tho they supposedly couldnt help him. WE HAVENT BEEN KEEPING TRACK OF YOUR EMAILS BUT WE SURE WOULD LIKE TO.

Well yeah... it's like the guy that called the BATF to ask which assault rifle would be better to use for destroying his computer, which he was upset with. The agent dead panned with a reply of, "Well sir, that depends... how much have you had to drink?"

But I will admit... if someone rang me and wanted to restore deleted e-mails, and I was a law enforcement officer, I'd want to know what kind of e-mail could be so important it'd compel people to call me too. If nothing else, I'd want to investigate the guy just to make sure he really was just another harmless drunk, and not one of the perenially stupid people who buzz the police to complain about being ripped off by their drug dealer, or who gave money to a prostitute who then left without rendering service. Take enough phone calls from the general public, and you will have no faith left in humanity to speak of... at which point you just dutifully take down the information, be as polite as possible, and then file it under "Yet Another Probably Drunk Person, But Since It Could Be A Really Stupid Terrorist, Please Sign This Search Warrant" and move on to the next idiot caller.

Re:Cant help you, give me your information

[Pharmboy]

Ping time can geolocate? Within 10 feet. I'm about to piss on myself laughing. Ping is more determined by quality of network than distance, and varies according to the route each ping takes. You assumptions assume every route is the same, or is on a cell phone. They are not.

Go play network expert somewhere else, and get off my lawn.

Re:No service.

[fustakrakich]

So what are we paying them for, anyway?

To be allowed to live... To avoid 'detainment'. These are the things you pay for. I don't know why people are so repulsed when the mafia does these kinds of things.

Re:First Post

[3vi1]

Damn you, XKCD. See what you did?

customer service

[Toast or Rice]

Great demonstration of great telephone manner and customer service for a challenge customer, Respect NSA. I for one welcome our new customer service overloads!

Now on the No-Fly list...

[tekrat]

Just wait until this individual attempts to travel in the near future. If you phone the NSA and acknowledge that they have your email, they will retaliate.

After all, the government right now is persecuting a "leaker" who they "claim" is lying because after all, they swore up and down that they weren't reading email and listening to phone calls of average Americans. And the government wouldn't LIE, now would they? So the leaker has to be wrong. And yet, they pursue him like he has some relevant information that can cause damage.

Re:No service.

[h4rr4r]

I thought it was to build roads, sanitation and the basics of civilization. Your local mafia does that?

Re:No service.

[davester666]

Well, they do the actual building...

What are we paying them for?

[Overzeetop]

Is the water you drink clean?
Is your food supply safe?
Do the lights come on when you flip a switch?
Can you travel through the air at nearly the speed of sound for a few hundred dollars?
When you turn on the radio in your car, do you hear voices/music coming out of the speakers?
Can you read this message?
Are you speaking English?

Because if you are, you can be assured that your government is doing at least some things you find useful. There are places - quite a few actually - for which the above do not all apply. The taxes there are exceptionally low, and you may wish to consider relocating to take advantage of the savings and buy the above items yourself. Note: if you form a group to provide such services, that's cheating. another word for that kind of cheating is called "Government."

Re:What are we paying them for?

[butchersong]

Most of those services are provided by state and county government. The federal government does not educate you for instance... Several of them (like electricity) are typically provided by private companies though there are a few large federal projects left over from earlier last century. The stuff you cited that does apply to the federal government applies to regulation. The vast overwhelming (pretty much all) majority of our taxes do not go to anything in this list.

Re:What are we paying them for?

[PraiseBob]

Is every phone number you call stored in a big database, to be used against you later?
Is every word you type into the internet carefully saved, to be used against you later?
Is your participation at a religious worship service documented, to be used agaisnt you later?
Do citizens get a free dronestrike for talking to the wrong people, saying the wrong thing, and going to the wrong church?

Thank you tax dollars!

Re:What are we paying them for?

[internerdj]

My electricity is provided by a government corporation because the private sector failed to reliably do so. Just because the private sector can, doesn't mean they will.

Re:What are we paying them for?

[Hobadee]

Yes and no...
> Is the water you drink clean?
In some places, the local government is in charge of the water supply. In others it's subsidized and regulated by them. Either way, the government is in the loop.

> Is your food supply safe?
While this is always provided by private industry in this country, it is rather heavily regulated by the government at all levels to ensure a safe food supply.

> Do the lights come on when you flip a switch?
Again, in some places, the local government is in charge of the electricity supply while in others it's subsidized and regulated by them. Either way, the government is in the loop.

> Can you travel through the air at nearly the speed of sound for a few hundred dollars?
While the actual air travel is provided by private industry, you can thank the government for not having to worry about crashing into other planes midair, parts falling off the planes, (Due to safety regulations) and safety from terrorists and other baddies on planes. (#3 is debatable, although they are *trying*...)

> When you turn on the radio in your car, do you hear voices/music coming out of the speakers?
This is another area where, although private industry provides the actual service, the government makes it possible. The FCC licenses frequencies to certain groups and ensures they don't interfere with each other. Think of the madness if anyone could broadcast anything they wanted on any frequency!

> Can you read this message?
> Are you speaking English?
Although there is private education in this country, there is also free public education. It's highly likely that a person picked at random went to public school and learned to read and write there.

The government may not be perfect - none is - but it is functioning on some level and you are getting services from it, whether you like it or not. Your job as a citizen is to try to fix the parts of it which are broken.

Re:Hmmm ...

[Arduenn6058]

He made the recording in the Netherlands. It's legal to record anyone there, on film and on tape. It's illegal to publish those recordings without the subjects consent, if they can be recognised in those publications. So the guy is in the clear (in the Netherlands). Then again, he can be extradited upon US request. Because it's on YouTube, which means it's published physically on US soil. I guess they could catch him at customs too, when he enters the US. But then again again, he's Dutch, of Iranian decent, so they'll do a total body cavity search at customs no matter how well he behaves.

Re:Freakin Hilarious!!

[Anonymous Coward]

The real problem is that even if you did get your email back it would be heavily redacted. :-)

They put stuff IN the cement. They dont make it.

[Marrow]

Becoming part of the foundation of a building is not considered construction.

Re:Naturally, they now DO have that video logged

[PPH]

So, we have to enable the backup service first? No problem:

al Qaida, Jihad, Backpack, Pressure Cooker, Fourth Amendment.

There. That should do.

Re:Anonymous Troll

[NatasRevol]

The opposite of providing that thing ... poorly.

See water, food, electricity.

Ironiception

[mcrbids]

Why does getting jailed for recording a call to an agency known for recording everybody's calls without legal oversight, in order to get a recording of a conversation (even if by email) strike me as just a tad ironic?

Re:Anonymous Troll

[clovis]

Well, sort of. one government service is protecting water rights.
I cannot dump my sewage in the stream upstream of you, nor can I dam up the stream and keep all the water for myself while you die.
Nor can I dump the waste from my factory or hog farm into the watershed.
This is a problem going back for millennia, and one of the reasons that people formed governments.

It has to do with what economists call "tragedy of the commons", a problem that governments are probably the only workable solution.

Re:No service.

[Razgorov Prikazka]

Yup that is correct! The government builds roads, schools, sanitation and they will even recover your lost email for you! ...If you pay... They clearly refused this caller because he lives in Amsterdam (--> The Netherlands --> Yurp) and therefore didn't pay a single penny to the good old IRS. So why /would/ they help him? No $$$ --> No service...

Otherwise I am CONVINCED that they would help him out. That is how the government works, right?
Helping the folks that pay for their wages, comfy chairs, first class coffee on their long leisurely coffee breaks?
Always at the service of the people in a jiffy and with a smile!
Always doing that little extra to make sure your every tax-penny is a well-spend-penny.
The government that always goes for the 110% customer care.
A wink and a tip to the hat whenever you merrily walking out of some government building where they truly understood your case.
Where papers and forms are kept to a bare minimum in order to keep the well oiled machine running as cost-effective as possible.
<bleep-bleep-bleep-bleep>
The government that <bleep-bleep-bleep-bleep>

Wait... what? Is that my alarm clock? <bleep-bleep-bleep-bleep-bleep-bleep>
I just KNEW I was dreaming...

Re:No service.

[MaskedSlacker]

Being a ward of the Bureau of Prisons is not the same as working for the fed.

Re:No service.

[TheRealMindChild]

All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?