But I wouldn't expect them to keep this power. Just like retail stores rid themselves of picketers by building shopping malls (you can't picket on private property, so pickets can only be at the street entrance to the mall property which severely hampers their effect on individual stores). No doubt they'll figure some way to take the wind out of these sails. Freedom of speech only belongs to those with money...
More important is whether or not they even care if you're hosting end-to-end encryption services. As long as they're getting their palms greased, they probably don't-- if they even have any idea what end-to-end encryption is.
No doubt terrorists are using Facetime and holding up pieces of paper with messages on them in order to force the NSA to automatically OCR every frame of video. You'd think these guys have nothing better to do.
Polygraphs are in the same category as the desklamp in your face during an interrogation, or for that matter, the rubber hose. They all simply stress you out hoping you will crack under pressure. And some people do, so they keep using it.
Ahm, steaming open, scanning and OCR'ing every piece of paper mail is a LOT more hassle than copying email off google's servers. And recording every search term you enter can be pretty revealing as well, of things you might not ever write in a letter or email.
I've certainly seen it, some of these guys are much better at producing hype than solid products. Leap Motion comes to mind, the hardware works ok, but the software is terrible and they rushed out their own "app store" long before the software is robust enough to warrant it-- no doubt because they wanted to get the gravy train rolling. The result is so bad I wouldn't be surprised if it kills off the whole enterprise. And if it does, it would be a shame because the technology does have some merit, it's the follow through that's lacking.
Bingo. The goofballs who claim altruism is illogical (including the goddess of selfishness, Ayn Rand) overlook at least one important factor: reputation effects. One example: I'd much rather dine with someone NOT inclined to stiff the waiter even if we're not likely to ever dine there again, because if he'll stiff the waiter he seems likely to jerk me around as well, given half the chance.
"There are two ways to slide easily through life: to believe everything or to doubt everything; both ways save us from thinking." -- Alfred Korzybsky's variation of Henri Poincare. Those who will believe anything, will believe the justifications for evil, and those who doubt everything, will doubt the justifications for good, generally to suit themselves.
"Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats. -- Howard Aiken
My favorite example is Raymond Scott. He had some interesting ideas about automated musical composition, (ala Joseph Schillinger I suspect), that as it ended up, he was so protective of that he took them to his grave. Now no one will ever know what insights he may have figured out...
The dilemma is, the NSA doesn't tell anyone until some leaker outs the information.
i guess we know what happened to all the truly "black hat" hackers, the NSA hired them.
Also don't forget that the party line is that he should have used "official channels." Which would be fine if there were official channels that actually WORKED.
Next time a local politician is suspected of philandering, simply FOIA the records and show how he and his girlfriend met at some hotel. Such rules will get changed in a hurry.
I'm afraid both solutions will be necessary. Laws are good, but it's clear that we can't guarantee they are followed by our government representatives. I will never trust the NSA or the US government again, to not illegally spy on its citizens and otherwise violate their civil rights, no matter what laws they claim to have on paper. Technological solutions must be employed to keep them honest, as it's clear they will not do it by themselves.
When cameras are outlawed, only outlaws will have cameras.
Doesn't it seem odd that while they're adding more cameras in the streets and using surveillance drones that they're also banning helmet cams? When will they start banning individual business security cameras-- when a police or fire or other government "mistake" is recorded by them? Welcome to the modern age, cameras are ubiquitous. If ANYTHING ought to be continuously recorded on video for posterity, it's GOVERNMENTAL activities.
No need to release new leaks when they keep pulling stunts like this! What better news story could there be than new examples of neo-Orwellian boot stamping, modern-day book burnings.
No, as long as surveillance doesn't get in the way of buying beer and Cheetos and watching American Idol and Jeopardy, most people just don't care. They don't even care if some NSA IT geeks use their database to make a killing in the stock market. As far as most people are concerned, it's no skin off their nose, whatever it takes to catch those nasty terrorists.
Another sticking point is that most of my friends will just roll their eyes if they have to change their gmail or yahoo mail addresses. Even if everything else was painless, they don't like having to notify the whole known universe of the change. So what if whatever mechanism is used, it could be made compatible with gmail, etc. if they could be pressured to comply with it, or maybe even whether or not they are? If all everyone had to do was use a special client tied to the gmail api, similar to how the mail aggregator apps in, say iOS operate, and layer the encryption at least, on top? Maybe this is already the plan? Uses existing servers as transport but keeps the encription off the servers, etc...
The Leap is great when it works, but the software is mostly crap at the moment. Many things didn't work in the initial release, then they pushed out an upgrade which broke most everything else.
There are a couple of tough problems to solve. One, defeating traffic analysis. Encryption is just a first step. Encrypting everything, no matter how trivial, will be important, and certainly helps, but it's not enough to keep listeners from knowing who is talking to who.
Second, bringing the public at large into the fold. Noone will use an email system that can't be used to send email to all their friends and family, most of which aren't going to be switching anytime soon. One thing that might help is a system that automatically knows when the recipient is encryption-capable, encrypts when it is, but when it's not, inserts a warning message that their email is not secure and may be stored by third parties and governments-- essentially an advertisement for switching to a more secure email system. This would help us all educate our friends and keep them reminded every time they get an email from us as to the issues. It could help convince them that it's worth switching.
Putin could decide he'd like to see Snowden's buddies release his failsafe leaks. All he'd have to do is make it look like the CIA offed him, his buds then release all their secret info. And Putin can pretend he had nothing to do with it...
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But I wouldn't expect them to keep this power. Just like retail stores rid themselves of picketers by building shopping malls (you can't picket on private property, so pickets can only be at the street entrance to the mall property which severely hampers their effect on individual stores). No doubt they'll figure some way to take the wind out of these sails. Freedom of speech only belongs to those with money...
Might as well get them trained to submit to totalitarian regimes early.
More important is whether or not they even care if you're hosting end-to-end encryption services. As long as they're getting their palms greased, they probably don't-- if they even have any idea what end-to-end encryption is.
Good idea if either it's open source or based in Venezuela or somewhere... Otherwise, say hi to the TLA visitors you're about to have.
No doubt terrorists are using Facetime and holding up pieces of paper with messages on them in order to force the NSA to automatically OCR every frame of video. You'd think these guys have nothing better to do.
Like these? http://www.amazon.com/216-Neodymium-5mm-Sphere-Magnets/dp/B00EI846PK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1378002899&sr=8-1&keywords=sphere+magnets
Polygraphs are in the same category as the desklamp in your face during an interrogation, or for that matter, the rubber hose. They all simply stress you out hoping you will crack under pressure. And some people do, so they keep using it.
Ahm, steaming open, scanning and OCR'ing every piece of paper mail is a LOT more hassle than copying email off google's servers. And recording every search term you enter can be pretty revealing as well, of things you might not ever write in a letter or email.
Yes, they used to use headerless Forth for that, not all that hard to hack if you were familiar with Forth.
I've certainly seen it, some of these guys are much better at producing hype than solid products. Leap Motion comes to mind, the hardware works ok, but the software is terrible and they rushed out their own "app store" long before the software is robust enough to warrant it-- no doubt because they wanted to get the gravy train rolling. The result is so bad I wouldn't be surprised if it kills off the whole enterprise. And if it does, it would be a shame because the technology does have some merit, it's the follow through that's lacking.
Bingo. The goofballs who claim altruism is illogical (including the goddess of selfishness, Ayn Rand) overlook at least one important factor: reputation effects. One example: I'd much rather dine with someone NOT inclined to stiff the waiter even if we're not likely to ever dine there again, because if he'll stiff the waiter he seems likely to jerk me around as well, given half the chance.
"There are two ways to slide easily through life: to believe everything or to doubt everything; both ways save us from thinking." -- Alfred Korzybsky's variation of Henri Poincare. Those who will believe anything, will believe the justifications for evil, and those who doubt everything, will doubt the justifications for good, generally to suit themselves.
"Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats. -- Howard Aiken
My favorite example is Raymond Scott. He had some interesting ideas about automated musical composition, (ala Joseph Schillinger I suspect), that as it ended up, he was so protective of that he took them to his grave. Now no one will ever know what insights he may have figured out...
The dilemma is, the NSA doesn't tell anyone until some leaker outs the information.
i guess we know what happened to all the truly "black hat" hackers, the NSA hired them.
The only problem with that is their motivation for doing this in the first place is so they can lay off their existing moderators.
Also don't forget that the party line is that he should have used "official channels." Which would be fine if there were official channels that actually WORKED.
Next time a local politician is suspected of philandering, simply FOIA the records and show how he and his girlfriend met at some hotel. Such rules will get changed in a hurry.
I'm afraid both solutions will be necessary. Laws are good, but it's clear that we can't guarantee they are followed by our government representatives. I will never trust the NSA or the US government again, to not illegally spy on its citizens and otherwise violate their civil rights, no matter what laws they claim to have on paper. Technological solutions must be employed to keep them honest, as it's clear they will not do it by themselves.
When cameras are outlawed, only outlaws will have cameras.
Doesn't it seem odd that while they're adding more cameras in the streets and using surveillance drones that they're also banning helmet cams? When will they start banning individual business security cameras-- when a police or fire or other government "mistake" is recorded by them? Welcome to the modern age, cameras are ubiquitous. If ANYTHING ought to be continuously recorded on video for posterity, it's GOVERNMENTAL activities.
No need to release new leaks when they keep pulling stunts like this! What better news story could there be than new examples of neo-Orwellian boot stamping, modern-day book burnings.
No, as long as surveillance doesn't get in the way of buying beer and Cheetos and watching American Idol and Jeopardy, most people just don't care. They don't even care if some NSA IT geeks use their database to make a killing in the stock market. As far as most people are concerned, it's no skin off their nose, whatever it takes to catch those nasty terrorists.
Another sticking point is that most of my friends will just roll their eyes if they have to change their gmail or yahoo mail addresses. Even if everything else was painless, they don't like having to notify the whole known universe of the change. So what if whatever mechanism is used, it could be made compatible with gmail, etc. if they could be pressured to comply with it, or maybe even whether or not they are? If all everyone had to do was use a special client tied to the gmail api, similar to how the mail aggregator apps in, say iOS operate, and layer the encryption at least, on top? Maybe this is already the plan? Uses existing servers as transport but keeps the encription off the servers, etc...
The Leap is great when it works, but the software is mostly crap at the moment. Many things didn't work in the initial release, then they pushed out an upgrade which broke most everything else.
There are a couple of tough problems to solve. One, defeating traffic analysis. Encryption is just a first step. Encrypting everything, no matter how trivial, will be important, and certainly helps, but it's not enough to keep listeners from knowing who is talking to who.
Second, bringing the public at large into the fold. Noone will use an email system that can't be used to send email to all their friends and family, most of which aren't going to be switching anytime soon. One thing that might help is a system that automatically knows when the recipient is encryption-capable, encrypts when it is, but when it's not, inserts a warning message that their email is not secure and may be stored by third parties and governments-- essentially an advertisement for switching to a more secure email system. This would help us all educate our friends and keep them reminded every time they get an email from us as to the issues. It could help convince them that it's worth switching.
Putin could decide he'd like to see Snowden's buddies release his failsafe leaks. All he'd have to do is make it look like the CIA offed him, his buds then release all their secret info. And Putin can pretend he had nothing to do with it...