Snowden

Yes there is accountability, but i get the feeling the public don't trust the people they are accountable to, parliament and senior members of the Judiciary for GCHQ (sry don't know who it is for the NSA)

Politicians don't exactly have a good track record when it comes to being truthful

 

Isn't that the truth!

 

You want the truth? You can't handle the truth!

 

The plot thickens
http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?p=3384991#post3384991

 

Fair I suppose. But therein lies the problem. Who will watch the watchers? I know that sounds awfully pessimistic, but handing someone the keys to your safe is not exactly the best way to ensure secuirty. Especially given our history with government efficiency.

Legally they are still in the green. But who writes and enforces these laws?

 

He confirmed something we all knew was happening anyway, and has potentially written his life off in terms of never going back to the US, probably never being employed again (Given his now very public history of getting a job just to see confidential data) in anything but basic roles.

I think he wasted his time, yes he's confirmed that government agencies use backhanded methods to spy, but they have done since the dawn of time. I was under the impression that subterfuge was, in fact, basically a synonym for spying anyway.

 

To me that's a worrying and dangerous thing to be saying; that someone who pretty much sacrifices his liberty in an effort to stem the tidal wave of government invasion is wasting his time.

Most people have some degree of pessimism that grants them to assume that this sorta thing is going on, but it's only with Snowden's evidence that large data-mining companies are scrambling around to explain the extent of their co-operation and being put under increasing pressure to stand their ground.

What pisses me off about this is all the snarky remarks from people who pretend they aren't surprised about any of it and knew this sort of thing had been happening all along. If there was the sort of conclusive evidence that's come to light floating about all along then we should be ashamed of not reacting quicker.

 

To say hes written of his life does what he has done an injustice imho, without people willing to sacrifice their life we wouldn't have things like votes for women.

 

Exactly, he confirmed it. In the past you would've been called a nutjob and a conspiracy theorist if you said in public that the US government was gathering information about anyone and anything without any regard to privacy. Now not anymore.
Also, now it's been uncovered, something can (hopefully) be done about it.

 

Yes, he's confirmed something that we've pretty much expected for a while, yes he's given evidence to support "conspiracy theories", but in reality, his sacrifice will mean a great deal of nothing.

Sure, sacrifice for something important, to use your example, like womens rights, but to confirm what is pretty obviously happening?

That'd be like Bit-Tech breaking an NDA and souring their relationship to confirm that AMD/Nvidia are working on another series of graphics cards. Yes, proof is nice, but for reasons a shade further down my post, in this instance is somewhat pointless.

Nothing will be done about it.

Middle management "layoffs" at these agencies & corporations are pretty much the only likely outcome, with the laid off being absorbed into another department. In fact, I'd expect that corporations aren't going to do ****, and just try and weather out the storm so to speak.

In reality all Snowden has done is oust himself from his country in the name of altruism, he likely won't ever see his family again, his family will probably have a member of at least one agency living in their rectum for the rest of their lives, he won't be in a position to earn the money he was, if anything at all, and all he's achieved is confirmation of popular belief.

Agencies affected by this will not be shut down, they will not shut down their monitoring systems, they'll just change them when the public backlash has died down, so we'll be in the same position of being monitored.

Honestly, I don't know what's so bad about being monitored. I'm not interesting* enough for the British government to take any notice of what I do, and I don't mean to come across as rude, but I very much doubt any of you are either.

Sure, it's going to get abused. That's the nature of it, but there's not a great deal we can do. MI5, MI6, SOCA, they'll do whatever they please (Whether they should or not is another question, but really, I'd be impressed to see anyone stop them without doing anything illegal) to "maintain the status quo" as it were, of the country. Chances are, a Government official won't even know about it either.

*Government interesting. Talking about/actively planning terrorist attacks, bomb making, civil unrest, etcetera.

 

Rationalisation and justification in one, easy to understand, image:

 

That is what members of my family used to say, until the day that they were sent to a political prison and they were never seen again or got home with severe psychological problems.

 

Random thought of the moment...

I want a Manning / Snowden 2016 bumper sticker!

 

Change it to say "Manning / Snowden 2016, the truth wants to be free" and I'll order one!

Seriously, I want one of these for my truck

 

thought the change was from man to woman

 

It's a bit off-topic since this thread is about Edward Snowden, but I have to say I love the media-created straw man about Manning's sexual identity. I was just thinking this morning that the one thing lacking in the public media discourse is pundits spewing uninformed opinions about complicated psychology issues.

 

Yeah, my breakfast cup of coffee just doesn't taste the same without some right-wing homophobes ('cause gender identity and sexual orientation are the same thing, right? Right?) shouting conspiracy theories on the morning news.

 

I made an appointment with my MP today to discuss GCHQ.

I'm considering creating an "information pack" explaining the technology behind our current policies, and why they are so dangerous, citing historical precedent and illustrating potential future abuses - Do you think it's worth doing to get beyond the rhetoric, or should I just wear a tinfoil hat and have a good rant?

 

Personally, I'm partial to tin foil hats and ranting. It makes for better YouTube videos to run ad nauseum on the nightly news.