Page 1 of Government surveillance and secrets leaker Edward Snowden

If you've been sleeping under a rock for the last month, a quick reminder...

US contractor for the CIA, decides that his government is illegally spying on its citizens, so flees to Russia and leaks a load of info about the dubious methods they are using on a daily basis.


Now apparently he was using a secure email service called Lavabit, that the owner has decided to close it down:
http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/08/13/20008036-lavabitcom-owner-i-could-be-arrested-for-resisting-surveillance-order

Quote:
Levison, a 32-year-old entrepreneur who ran his company out of a Dallas apartment, said in a public statement last Thursday that he made "the difficult decision" to shut down Lavabit because he did not want "to become complicit in crimes against the American people."
Quote:
"Because the government has barred Lavabit from disclosing the nature of its demands, we still don't know what information the government is seeking, or why it's seeking it," said Ben Wizner, a national security lawyer for the ACLU. "It's hard to have a debate about the reasonableness of the government's actions — or Lavabit's response, for that matter — when we don't know what we're debating."
So far so America, land of the free, except when the government wants complete access to every part of your life "to keep you safe".

But then we have this:

Brazilian partner of Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald held for nine hours and released without charge:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/senior-mp-to-ask-police-why-david-miranda-partner-of-reporter-linked-to-whistleblower-edward-snowden-was-detained-at-heathrow-8773642.html

At Heathrow!

Quote:
Keith Vaz, chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, has said the nine-hour detention of David Miranda by officers during a stopover on his journey from Berlin to Rio de Janeiro, appears to be a new use of anti-terror laws.

Miranda, partner of the US journalist Glenn Greenwald who interviewed the whistleblower, was stopped at 8.30am on Sunday morning while passing through Heathrow on a stopover on his way home from Berlin to the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro.
But then maybe Miranda had something to hide? Because you shouldn't have anything to fear if you have nothing to hide... right?


Editor
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And you wonder why I get paranoid about conspiricies, then when they come true, people just go, who cares if we are under survellance all the time, until its too late.

Isn`t Miranda the boyfriend/partner of a Guardian journalist who`s been helping to disseminate the secrets pilfered by Snowden?  And he was apparently in Berlin to interview some documentary maker who is also involved with Snowden.

Maybe these things are all connected in some tenuous way...

---------

Si Wooldridge
Reviewer

http://synth.myreviewer.com

Quote:
bandicoot says...
And you wonder why I get paranoid about conspiricies
No, we wonder why you get paranoid about fantastically moronic and completely unbelievable conspiracy theories. When it comes to ultimately justifiable paranoia we`re generally on the same wavelength

============================


Writer`s Release

This item was edited on Monday, 19th August 2013, 18:26

To some people everything's a conspiracy. Providing he likes Rats Bandi would be a shoe in for a remake of The Abyss.

Essentially he's bang on with the second point though. It's the old Pastor Neimoller statement 'First they came for....'
Unless it affects peoples own comfort zone mostly they don't give a flying fornicate.

Snaps

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My new Flash Fiction blog. All my own work
500ish

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I used to be with it, but then they changed what `it` was.
Now, what I`m with isn`t it, and what`s `it` seems weird and scary

This item was edited on Tuesday, 20th August 2013, 02:36

I am now paranoid about the mention of flying fornication in abyss`es, he he he.

yes, I am still up in these early hours, Snaps, glad I am not alone 

How the current justification for the NSA spying program is flawed:
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/12/30/opinion/bergen-nsa-surveillance-september-11/index.html

TL;DR...

The intelligence agencies in the US had all the information they needed to prevent 9/11 from happening, they just didn't talk to each other and threw away numerous chances to stop it.

Personally I think the whole "let's use computers to find patterns and detect future attacks" is heavily flawed. All you can do is train them to find patterns of things that have already happened, they will miss anything new that doesn't fit these patterns, as they are unable to adapt in the way humans do (and humans miss new patterns too).


Editor
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Quote:
Rob Shepherd says...
"Personally I think the whole "let's use computers to find patterns and detect future attacks" is heavily flawed. All you can do is train them to find patterns of things that have already happened, they will miss anything new that doesn't fit these patterns, as they are unable to adapt in the way humans do (and humans miss new patterns too)."
That's why they need Jack Ryan...


---------

Si Wooldridge
Reviewer

http://synth.myreviewer.com

One of the biggest problems with mass computer data take in on citizens, is creating profiles on you, even though you have nothing to do with spying or whatever.

whether you like it or not, computers profile you and catogarise you by the content you look at on the net and also what financial, political things you deal with that can be logged somewhere in a data base.

A good example that happened to me in two of my banks recently because of IT survellence, was that I could not use the £250 button on Santander cash machines, when I tried it, because 'I had never used it before, only the £100 or £200 button', hence my account was instantly frozen. Crazy, all due to profiling you!

Also in one of my other banks I was sent an annual statement that looked at all my dearer items bought over the year, and then made comment on their financial services that would have helped. I sent a letter of disgust to the head of the bank on this spying on my account, and so must have others, as I never got that annual statement again, but I bet they are still collating on what you buy.

So what right do they have to have a bank department looking at any item you bought over the year. They should be dealing with cash figures and balences, not looking at your life style and what you buy. Again its profiling of individuals from data bases.

Its a big brother world whether you like it or not, and its only going to get worse, unless we can get government guarentees to curb this spying on the individual.

This item was edited on Thursday, 2nd January 2014, 18:14

Quote:
bandicoot says...
"Crazy, all due to profiling you!"
To be fair, they do that sort of profiling for fraud reasons, as if someone steals your card or details they are more likely to present a different pattern of behaviour. I would say this use benefits the bank and you, since it does help prevent people stealing your money.


Quote:
bandicoot says...
"Also in one of my other banks I was sent an annual statement that looked at all my dearer items bought over the year, and then made comment on their financial services that would have helped. "
I'm with you on this though, I hate it when any company does things like this. It's like when you buy a game for your mobile phone and every time you launch it, the thing you paid money for spends time pushing you to buy more games by the same publisher. :(


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