Slashdot Mirror
Laptop Destroyed Over Snowden Leaks Is Now an Art Exhibit
An anonymous reader sends word that a busted MacBook Air and a Western Digital hard drive that once held Snowden revelations are going on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. "The remains of computer hardware which had contained the Guardian's London trove of Snowden documents – and which was destroyed on the rather spiteful demands of GCHQ personnel – have gone on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum. While the frankly unremarkable remnants of a MacBook Air are uninteresting in and of themselves – who among us has not taken an angle grinder to an errant machine? – the causes of the MacBook Air's destruction are seemingly interesting enough to merit those remnants being considered art and subsequently included in V&A's new exhibition about 'the museum as a public space and the role of public institutions in contemporary life.' Disconcertingly titled All of This Belongs to You, the exhibition is to include 'three specially curated displays,' among which is Ways to be Secret, which will examine what the curators describe as 'the contradiction between our concern for online privacy and our obsession with sharing via social media.'"
Even though data remanence is merely a widely-believed urban legend, who actually thinks that the GCHQ actually let that hard drive or laptop leave their grasp either at the point of contact/destruction or silently behind the scenes after the fact.
I'm sick of being fed what my feelings about something should be even before I'm presented with the facts. This isn't journalism, it's propaganda.
Actually, none of the above. You must be either a naive small child or an adult simpleton. The purpose of making a show of destroying the laptop wasn't out of spite, just a show of power targeted to the one entity that until then thought was safe from the overbearing might of the State: the press. The message is clear: you're no longer safe. Your privileges have been revoked. You're not untouchable and you will do as we order. It was a symbolic gesture, not different from a nobleman forcing a commoner to lick his boots. The purpose is not to clean the boots, but to show who's the boss. The fact that the Guardian did not publish anything more regarding this afterwards should tell you that GCHQ was absolutely successful. They won, the press caved in. It had to surrender. The myth of the "free press" bringing down corrupt governments is dead, forever. Have you tested the limits of your "free speech" rights yet? You may have some unpleasant surprises.