Year In Communications: NSA Revelations Overshadow Communications Breakthroughs

MacRonin writes "Communications news in 2013 was dominated by serial revelations of the National Security Agency's mass collection of data from major Internet companies and mobile carriers, leading to widespread cries of governmental overreach. But those revelations, based on leaks from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, were accompanied by remarkable advances in wireless communications. The Snowden documents also galvanized new efforts at making the Internet more secure and private. The folks at MIT Technology Review have their year-end rundown."

Comments

Uh, okay?

[vadim_t]

This reads like: This bunch of corporate press releases haven't been getting as much attention as we'd like, so we'll mention Snowden, which is what seems to get attention these days, and then proceed to dump a list of the stuff we do care about.

It doesn't seem to be anything that exciting. Yeah, technology marches on. Somebody figuring out a way to get more bandwidth out of a cell tower is normal and expected. And I can't say I care that much since all this would do is to allow me to consume my tiny quota faster.

The more interesting bits about balloons and IETF proposing Tor already got discussed, so not like they got overlooked either..

Re:Uh, okay?

[Anonymous Coward]

Really /. has beaten this into the ground. And you make good points on the wording they choose to use about this.

Does anyone honestly believe that million/billion dollar internet companies are going to do anything to make people's privacy secure? It was bad enough they fooled some people with these FBI/NSA letters requesting information, meanwhile they were pretty much just giving these agencies anything and everything they wanted while using this "transparency" report to appear as if people have some sort of freedom from any random invasion.

No, no, no the only thing that is going to happen is the status quo, companies will use PR to mind f**k citizens. Politicians, and Washington in general, will do the same, were already reading stories coming out on how the NSA has been given more wide spread abusive go ahead from the White House. And meanwhile the NSA and other agencies will lock down everything preventing anyone even politicians (tho I think it is a safe bet they do not care anyway) from finding out what secret plans or programs they have, or the next wide spread abuse of power among these spying agencies.

With legalizing Marijuana, we may not end up enjoying it for to much longer, or anything for that matter, this country will have cameras everywhere, facial recognition, almost an immediate police presence because there will be algorithms written into the software/hardware to recognize when you are in a "bad act", thinking about going to a night club or raven, thinking of going out and doing a little drinking? Wrong put your hands on the car, you'll be seeing the judge. Your Honor you see the camera shows this girl is on drugs, and drunk after coming out of this night club, the blood test will prove the presence of !!! and of !!!..

Sorry but it is going to get to that point, it has already started with people being on the "wrong street" at the "wrong time".. People need to get there arrogance out of there ass and realize that while they "think" this would not happen, the fact the this country has continued to do things people didn't "think" possible, we continue to see how wrong we are.

Everyone has something to lose despite the ignorance of thinking they are not a stereo typical "criminal" or "terrorist".

actually

[Anonymous Coward]

the american taxpayer is the owner. the nsa is only an entity that the us taxpayer completely funds and owns - if there were no american taxpayer to provide funds for the nsa, then nothing would be owned. that's the point of the whole snowden protest - beacuse people like you are too blind to realize any true fundamental problems with the system, but instead insist on arguing over stupid shit like which of the elderly rich white men in the usa technically have top secret access to the taxpayers paid for information.

a complete re-haul and transparent oversight of the NSA is needed to redefine your concept of ownership to explicitly state that taxpayers own this information. any attack on the USA should be publicly stated as soon as it's known. oh that's right, all of that is bullshit - the entire organization is corrupt from the NSA to their CIA counterparts. many psy ops have been had to achieve these successes an implant the mind control you've been given to defend an organization such as the nsa. individuals in the military industrial complex need to perpetuate the war myth forever to enrich themselves. these people are protected, but their invincibility breaks when you do not comply. it starts with a change in mentality though, and part of it is not believing the bullshit lie of 'national security'.

the notion that 'national security' can be a scapegoat for anything and everything confidential is now considered unacceptable by the people who pay the bills. now if only the docile , weak minded, enslaved people realize they don't have to comply when someone says "do it for national security!' which has been exposed as a farce. when you state the nsa owns anything, you are literally complying with your own enslavement. because you perpetuate the myth that you have no power, and that only a cabal of rich old guard white men can dictate who enlightened with knowledge and who is not. Slashdot did a good job in sticking with this new idea of thinking - unlike yourself.

Re:Citation needed?

[TheCarp]

> Excuse me, but Snowden didn't create anything.

Excuse yourself; then go look up "galvanized" and consider meditating upon what the difference is between "creating something" and "galvanizing new efforts". Generally if you want to dispute a claim that wasn't actually made, its best to not quote

Makes the shilling for the surveillance state far less obvious.