NSA can read your emails as you type them (not kidding)

[5mj7R7yf4Dwr3gdZyyu9PeGNwYjlNrjzuh3iTXQG]

Can we please start the impeachment process now?...

What good will that do?

At this point every new boss will be the same as the old boss.

238U

 

[Neonit]

Ahhh, i seem to recall when western nations where condemning eastern nations - because of their constant spying on their own citizens.... those were fun times!

as to the people who ask "i have nothing to hide, why should i worry" - ask someone more experienced in history, why for example ballots are secret. i mean, why should you worry about who you vote for right?

or better yet, ask why nazi's found complete archives of census data very helpful.

sigh.....

 

[Greg White]

Hey, man, not everyone drives those tiny clown cars you people have in Europe

Seriously, though. My car is pretty darned small for something on the roads in this country, and I still go for it on yellow more often than not, because I can't safely come to a stop fast enough unless I'm pretty far back before the light turns yellow. Now figure that most cars on the road are quite a bit bigger than mine, and the trucks are ginormous, and you might be able see the problem.

Oh, also, those traffic cameras are handled differently from the way it would be if a cop saw you run the red light. You can't get a ticket or anything, no points on your license, it's just a way for the local government to raise taxes without having to actually say they're raising taxes. Public safety really does have absolutely nothing to do with it.

I think I've only seen a handful of those in a year and a half.

Not sure about your town, but most cities in the US have a 35-45mph speed limit within the city itself and you aren't supposed to be going anywhere near that when making a turn.

 

[Beffudled Sheep_v1legacy]

I have nothing to hide sure.
Which means they have nothing to fucking read and no fucking reason to try. The NSA can go fuck right off and die in a pit somewhere. This is fucking bullshit. Good on that guy for leaking this and good on him for running. Hopefully he can keep people reminded of this shit so the populace doesn;t forget in a few hours when the next fucking shiny thing shows up on the tv.
Fuck this shit.

 

[zumbledum]

I don't get why everyone wants to hide what they're doing.
if you don't do anything wrong, you shouldn't have to worry about this.

The natural progress of things is for Government to gain ground and for Liberty to yield.
--Thomas Jefferson

Rights do not disappear suddenly and noticeably, but slowly and often subtly. The price of democracy is eternal vigilance, but not all people are vigilant all the time, and most are willing to see various freedoms erode and even disappear.

Maybe your right , maybe you dont do anything wrong. but do you do anything that could be perceived as wrong, are you sure that will be true in the future when the next small erosion happens or a new fear wave drives a new witch hunt? in a union? have a political opinion? are you religious? do you hold an opinion about anything?

First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.

Then they came for the socialists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Catholic.

Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for me.

 

[Angie7F]

I have nothing to hide sure.
Which means they have nothing to fucking read and no fucking reason to try. The NSA can go fuck right off and die in a pit somewhere.

this is what I think too.
I have nothing to be worried about.
However I also think that it is important to have people to speak up and protest about this stuff because it will be of relevance to some people. Just not me.

 

[Da Orky Man]

I don't get why everyone wants to hide what they're doing.
if you don't do anything wrong, you shouldn't have to worry about this.

The natural progress of things is for Government to gain ground and for Liberty to yield.
--Thomas Jefferson

Rights do not disappear suddenly and noticeably, but slowly and often subtly. The price of democracy is eternal vigilance, but not all people are vigilant all the time, and most are willing to see various freedoms erode and even disappear.

Maybe your right , maybe you dont do anything wrong. but do you do anything that could be perceived as wrong, are you sure that will be true in the future when the next small erosion happens or a new fear wave drives a new witch hunt? in a union? have a political opinion? are you religious? do you hold an opinion about anything?

First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.

Then they came for the socialists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Catholic.

Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for me.

Are we doing depressing yet oddly suited quotes now? Me want one!

Under the spreading chestnut tree
I sold you and you sold me
There lie they, and here lie we
Under the spreading chestnut tree

 

[Lightknight]

Wow, they must be really bored. If only I had a life interesting enough to be worth monitoring...

Still, this could have some SIGNIFICANT corporate espionage issues. Some NSA asshole reading an email between employees that leads him/her to patent the idea first. Crap like that. Any time you tell your spouse bank account information, passwords or anything across email. All it takes is a few NSA employees who realize they're not getting paid what they could.

 

[Kenami]

But BoredRolePlayer....what Bradley Manning has had to go through for what he did is EXACTLY why Snowden seeking asylum (which is not the same thing as running as far as the law of various nations and the definition of the word are concerned) in Hong Kong is a necessary and smart move. Consider that this is a man who made a six figure salary and had no incentive to divulge this information (as of now) decided to do so despite the fact he will never see his family again or be allowed to re-enter the country he STILL considers a home. That sucks, that's not something to take lightly. I don't mean to insult you by saying this but a lot of this 'he's a coward' or 'he should face trial here' sounds like something someone both young and naive would say; I don't begrudge you for that at all and don't mean to insult you but to assume that if he turned himself in would cause him to receive a fair and publicized trial is just....just wrong. You're entitled to your own opinion and I don't think anyone gains anything trying to change it but honestly put yourself in his shoes for at least two seconds.

 

[careful]

Lmao, I haven't used e-mails since high school.

Fuck this shit though, for real.
Hey NSA, can you see this?

Hey...hey over here..yeah...

Spoiler: BLOW ME!

I'm going to be in Canada one day, mark my words.

The Canadian government collects metadata.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/news-video/video-surveillance-investigation-is-anyone-listening-to-your-phone-calls/article12478252/

as for the use of metadata of communications, as far as i understand, it's a better predictor of variables of interest than the content of the communications. here's an example of metadata:

• 
  Earlier in the week, Bob had a cancer screening appointment, and Bob makes a phone call from the hospital
  Later that week Bob gets a call from a registered cancer doctor
  Immediately Bob calls the hospital
  Bob then calls his wife

How much would you bet Bob has cancer? anyways, i'd be interesting to see a study on what can be predicted using metadata.

 

[barbzilla]

I don't get why everyone wants to hide what they're doing.
if you don't do anything wrong, you shouldn't have to worry about this.

I have plenty to hide because I do plenty that's "wrong".

The issue is with who's defining the word "wrong". Are you? I'm not. I don't much agree with those who are, either.

They set the stage now to be able do do whatever they want, and you say it's fine because you're not doing anything wrong. Then, once the system's in place, they begin moving the bar higher and higher. Soon enough, it becomes nearly impossible to not be doing something wrong.

When they can't find enough criminals to justify their own unlawful actions, they have to start manufacturing them.

Perfect example, in my city they decided to put in trafic light cams years ago to gain more revenue through ticket generation. They were told to take them down by the citizens of my state (it caused as many accidents as it prevented), and instead of doing that they "deactivated" them (which is BS because they never stopped flashing, they just stopped sending tickets), when the next governor hits office, the cams were fully operational again. Here in the past year, the number of red light tickets were on the decline (I guess people finally got tired of having to pay $300 because of a bad photo, so they started braking sooner causing more accidents), instead of saying "great our citizens are safer now" they instead decided to shorten the length of our yellow lights by 2 seconds. So now we have almost doubled the red light cam tickets, and our accident rate is skyrocketing as people have to slam on the brakes to avoid a $300 ticket.

The government isn't there to help the average citizen any more, and anyone who thinks otherwise is blind to the truth.

Learn to not go for it on yellow and you won't have a problem.

Europe is much worse, btw. They have speed cameras installed everywhere over here.

I think you missed the point of the story here. They shortened the lights, knowing that it would cause more accidents, just to improve their profits. Does this sound like the kind of government you want to trust with your personal information. This is the UK, we have a different government. Our government has been acting shady for a while now, and I don't like the fact that they can get away with circumventing the constitution our country was built on.

I hear other countries poking fun at the US constantly because of decisions our government makes (well, that and the crazies we get). So when we are complaining about our government, now the other countries are saying "hey trust your government". I don't get the disparity. I know we are like a soap opera for other countries watching the news, but living in the country isn't as entertaining.

Before you pop in with "if you don't like it move", I am already planning for it. I want to finish my education first though. If I stop now, I would have to retake everything because credits don't transfer between most countries.

 

[Seydaman]

I don't get why everyone wants to hide what they're doing.
if you don't do anything wrong, you shouldn't have to worry about this.

The natural progress of things is for Government to gain ground and for Liberty to yield.
--Thomas Jefferson

Rights do not disappear suddenly and noticeably, but slowly and often subtly. The price of democracy is eternal vigilance, but not all people are vigilant all the time, and most are willing to see various freedoms erode and even disappear.

Maybe your right , maybe you dont do anything wrong. but do you do anything that could be perceived as wrong, are you sure that will be true in the future when the next small erosion happens or a new fear wave drives a new witch hunt? in a union? have a political opinion? are you religious? do you hold an opinion about anything?

First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.

Then they came for the socialists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Catholic.

Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for me.

That was...really poetic, gave me chills.

I feel like if the whole world was unified we could do this stuff better, have people decide if they went to sacrifice freedom for intense security, or security for freedom. While both do not exclude one another, they do have an affect one each other. So people just live where their political ideas are most satisfied...okay maybe that just sounds like countries....

 

[barbzilla]

Hey, man, not everyone drives those tiny clown cars you people have in Europe

Seriously, though. My car is pretty darned small for something on the roads in this country, and I still go for it on yellow more often than not, because I can't safely come to a stop fast enough unless I'm pretty far back before the light turns yellow. Now figure that most cars on the road are quite a bit bigger than mine, and the trucks are ginormous, and you might be able see the problem.

Oh, also, those traffic cameras are handled differently from the way it would be if a cop saw you run the red light. You can't get a ticket or anything, no points on your license, it's just a way for the local government to raise taxes without having to actually say they're raising taxes. Public safety really does have absolutely nothing to do with it.

I think I've only seen a handful of those in a year and a half.

Not sure about your town, but most cities in the US have a 35-45mph speed limit within the city itself and you aren't supposed to be going anywhere near that when making a turn.

You don't just stop if you are making a turn. In fact only a fraction of people going through the intersection will turn (for the most part). It takes distance for people to come to a complete stop. Our yellow lights here are 3 seconds long. A safe stopping speed (I.E. not slamming on the brakes) is 15FPS/S deceleration. At 45mph you are going 66fps. That means a minimum of 4 seconds to safely stop. Now imagine a semi-truck/trailer, of which we have tons of in the US. If they are going 45mph, it takes much longer than 4 seconds to come to a complete stop, and on top of that an accident involving a semi-truck is usually much worse than anything involving a small car.

 

[Seydaman]

But BoredRolePlayer....what Bradley Manning has had to go through for what he did is EXACTLY why Snowden seeking asylum (which is not the same thing as running as far as the law of various nations and the definition of the word are concerned) in Hong Kong is a necessary and smart move. Consider that this is a man who made a six figure salary and had no incentive to divulge this information (as of now) decided to do so despite the fact he will never see his family again or be allowed to re-enter the country he STILL considers a home. That sucks, that's not something to take lightly. I don't mean to insult you by saying this but a lot of this 'he's a coward' or 'he should face trial here' sounds like something someone both young and naive would say; I don't begrudge you for that at all and don't mean to insult you but to assume that if he turned himself in would cause him to receive a fair and publicized trial is just....just wrong. You're entitled to your own opinion and I don't think anyone gains anything trying to change it but honestly put yourself in his shoes for at least two seconds.

Man, I would be scared shitless. Knowing you did the right thing does nothing to remove the fear, and I have no idea how Snowden can keep himself moving. The idea of standing trial sounds poetic, and perhaps there is virtue in such, but realistically, he does more fleeing the country than by staying. But even if it was the wrong thing to do, I cannot fault him, because I would probably do the same thing.

I just worry that one day Snowden will regret his decision, and end up living hating himself. All the same, hope he is alright.

 

[Hawk of Battle]

Isn't this basically what Echelon has been doing for years already? Why is everyone surprised?

 

[Froggy Slayer]

Wait, so he'll never be able to go home again? They want to put him away for exercising his right to stand up and say 'no, I disagree with this'?

Christ, what happened to basic human empathy?

 

[Atmos Duality]

Hey! Hey, hey, heyhey, hey! Shoo auspher79! XD

Spoiler: This is my reaction if you are not Auspher

WHY?!

WHY?!

I think I'm just going to leave that one alone, as I'm utterly confused as to who or what on earth you're talking about.

 

[Saulkar]

Hey! Hey, hey, heyhey, hey! Shoo auspher79! XD

Spoiler: This is my reaction if you are not Auspher

WHY?!

WHY?!

I think I'm just going to leave that one alone, as I'm utterly confused as to who or what on earth you're talking about.

I live to frustrate! ^_^

Auspher is the name of the artist who originally drew the gif that if now your avatar. XD

P.S. I did not realise that the gif did not properly display like it did in the preview window.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Hey! Hey, hey, heyhey, hey! Shoo auspher79! XD

Spoiler: This is my reaction if you are not Auspher

WHY?!

WHY?!

I think I'm just going to leave that one alone, as I'm utterly confused as to who or what on earth you're talking about.

I live to frustrate! ^_^

Auspher is the name of the artist who originally drew the gif that if now your avatar. XD

I wish I could congratulate them; it's pretty awesome. And once again I silently wish Google image searches offered better credentials.

 

[Jaythulhu]

I mostly don't care, they're welcome to read the thousands of spam mails I get each day. However, if'n they start looking at the rare email I send, then we have a problem. I'm an Aussie living in Australia, and your presidents' legal powers do NOT flow across our borders.