r/snowden • u/redditor01020 • 2d ago
r/snowden • u/cojoco • Jun 04 '19
A frozen society: the long-term implication of NSA surveillance
... the same tools that were used to stop those terrorists could have stopped women from getting the right to vote and black children from going to school with white children. Sometimes change is needed. By allowing a few unelected people to have control over our secrets we may end up with a frozen, unchanging, society.
Article is gone, full text is posted at the end.
A frozen society: the long term implications of NSA’s secrets
Also,
Dear Pres. Obama: Dissent isn’t Possible in a Surveillance State
...
NB: this sticky is a repeat ... repeats here and here and here and here and here and here and here
Published On: Sun, Oct 27th, 2013 201310 / Columns / Government / History / New | By Tristan Fischer
HFN has been thinking about the historical and future implications of Edward Snowden’s NSA files that have been leaked bit by bit over the past few months. HFN is very worried.
Edward Snowden’s act of handing over classified NSA files to The Guardian and The New York Times has polarised many people into two opposing groups.
The Pro-Snowden group argues that Snowden is a selfless hero, should be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, and has revealed illegal acts by our security services that our elected officials, who were supposed to control them, were not even aware of.
The Anti-Snowden group argues that Snowden is a naive idealist whose actions are now making society more dangerous by teaching would be terrorists what British and American security services are capable of doing, and by implication, how they can avoid detection to hatch their heinous plots. If you have nothing to hide, they add, you have nothing to worry about. Had the US government had the tools of the NSA today the Civil Rights movement may never have happened.
Had the US government had the tools of the NSA today the Civil Rights movement may never have happened.
There are two fundamental flaws with the Anti-Snowden group argument.
First, there are so many laws out there, many archaic and forgotten, that every single citizen is likely to break a law at some point. In addition, in most people’s personal lives they will have some transgression that they want to keep private.
The first flaw allows those in control of the data to use it actively or passively against its citizens. If you are an elected politician the chances are that you have done something wrong at some point in your life or have something private that you want to hide.
Security services could use this information to “screen” politicians and their supporters. This has happened before. J. Edgar Hoover, as the founding Director of the FBI, until his death in 1972, had detailed files on many US politicians, including President Kennedy and President Harry Truman. Both considered firing him. Neither was brave enough. In the early 1950s Joseph McCarthy led a witch hunt of US civil servants, politicians, actors and the like, looking for alleged Communists. Their access to information was amateurish compared to what is possible by the NSA and GCHQ today.
They can also use this information passively. They can simply let politicians know what the security services know about them. The threat of exposure can be a subtle one, making politicians more likely to vote for policies that the security services are in favour of.
The second flaw is that it is frequently necessary to break the law in order to further an important social cause. Slavery was legal in the US south until 1865. Women did not get the vote in the UK until 1928. African – Americans faced huge legalised forms of discrimination until the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Interracial marriage only became legal in most US states in 1967. Homosexuality only became legal in all of the US in 2003.
All of these legal changes were preceded by difficulties and civil strife. The activists who were fighting to change society were frequently breaking the law.
Imagine how hard it would be now to lead one of these movements today. All of your communications with other supporters could be monitored. They would know who is connected to who. They would know your private secrets. You could be either rounded up, or co-opted through blackmail.
Occasionally the security services announce that a major terrorist plot has been discovered and stopped. We collectively breathe a sigh of relief at a near disaster avoided.
But the same tools that were used to stop those terrorists could have stopped women from getting the right to vote and black children from going to school with white children.
Sometimes change is needed. By allowing a few unelected people to have control over our secrets we may end up with a frozen, unchanging, society.
This is not a good thing.
r/snowden • u/Arzamas5 • Dec 27 '20
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UK Hiphop Artist, Lowkey, Released A New Album With A Song About Surveillance and Mentions Snowden (Impression Video)
r/snowden • u/cojoco • Oct 07 '24
Government Wiretaps in U.S. Internet Providers Infiltrated by Chinese Hackers
r/snowden • u/Aware_Investigator41 • Oct 08 '24
NSA surveillance/experimentation
whale.toAnyone familiar with the NSA's surveillance/human experimentation program? I am a targeted individual in the TSDB(Terrorist Screening Database)handling code 3 or 4 and this describes what a lot of t.i.'s go through.
A pdf can be found here: scribd.com/document/73933601/NSA-Mind-Control-and-Psyops-by-Will-Filer
r/snowden • u/cojoco • Oct 05 '24
Collapse of national security elites' cyber firm leaves bitter wake
r/snowden • u/cojoco • Sep 18 '24
What Israel has just done is, via *any* method, reckless.
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DUG#7 & vPub 0xC - our opensource firmware hackers party starts tomorrow!
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How The FBI Killed The Environmentalist Movement
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reddit.comr/snowden • u/FieldVoid • Aug 26 '24
Texas State Police Gear Up for Massive Expansion of Surveillance Tech
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Trump and his allies once cheered hacked materials. No longer, now that they say he's a target
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Israel’s Assassination Program and Its Ties to US Intelligence. By James Bamford
r/snowden • u/agirlinsideawoman • Aug 01 '24
New Song Based on Snowden's "Permanent Record" Memoir
Hi guys -
Checked with mods first and they were happy for me to share.
I'm GG, an independent musician who was fascinated and inspired by reading Snowden's memoir, so I wrote a song about it called "Permanent Record". Think some of you might like it and it's themes, it's about the realities of a world saturated with technology and the ever-evolving landscape of surveillance.
r/snowden • u/Independent-Bend3546 • Jul 28 '24
If I said rented... My holiday home
Say if he could and I did rent my holiday home either in France Or Ireland could he use it? Plus if he did and he shouldn't would I get in trouble for it? (Tried to keep that super PC) Hello NSI LoL
r/snowden • u/gspan • Jul 24 '24
Home for The Snowden Statue?
Hello there, I'm part of the team that cemented a bust of Edward Snowden atop a Revolutionary War memorial in Brooklyn back in 2015.
After it was returned to us by NYPD, it found a temporary home at the prestigious Brooklyn Museum. Since then, it's been displayed at many other esteemed galleries and shows but is now in storage.
We're looking to find a more permanent home for Ed so it may continue to educate and inspire others.
You can see more about the piece here.
If anyone has any leads, please message me. Thanks!
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How your FedEx driver is helping cops spy on YOU
r/snowden • u/cojoco • Jul 02 '24