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White House "Privacy Tour" a Flop On Its First Leg At MIT

v3rgEz writes "After the Snowden revelations, President Obama promised greater transparency on how the federal government collects and uses data on its citizens, including a three-leg 'privacy tour' to discuss the balance between security and privacy. Well, the first leg of the tour is up and — surprise, surprise — it's not much of a conversation, with official dodging questions or, in one case, simply walking out of the conference." There's a video of the workshop at MIT, and the article says not all of it was spent watching politicians be politicians: "The review, led by White House counselor John Podesta ... is not confined to intelligence gathering but is meant also to examine how private entities collect and use mass quantities of personal information, such as health records and Internet browsing habits. On the latter subject, the conversation was robust. Experts from places like MIT, Harvard, Nielsen, and Koa Labs traded pros and cons, and proposed high-tech compromises that could allow people to contribute personal information to big data pools anonymously. "

An Anonymous reader also wrote in that "Outgoing National Security Agency boss General Keith Alexander says reporters lack the ability to properly analyze the NSA's broad surveillance powers and that forthcoming responses to the spying revelations may include 'media leaks legislation.' 'I think we are going to make headway over the next few weeks on media leaks. I am an optimist. I think if we make the right steps on the media leaks legislation, then cyber legislation will be a lot easier,' Alexander said."

2 of 83 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Media leaks legislation by NotDrWho · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Bullshit Politician-speak: "We're making real constructive advances in improving national security and our ability to fight terrorism, through planned media leaks legislation."

    Non-bullshit Translation: "We're going to start throwing reporters in prison if they tell the public about any of the evil, unconstitutional shit we're doing in secret."

    --
    SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
  2. I find the Guardian reporting interesting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I find it interesting that I have to find out what is happening in this country, from the British newspapers. Where is the NYT or Washington Post, in reporting what is going on, and how we are losing our rights?