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Edward Snowden: The World Says No to Surveillance

tungfa

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Edward Snowden: The World Says No to Surveillance
By EDWARD J. SNOWDEN JUNE 4, 2015
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/05/o...veillance.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&_r=0

MOSCOW — TWO years ago today, three journalists and I worked nervously in a Hong Kong hotel room, waiting to see how the world would react to the revelation that the National Security Agency had been making records of nearly every phone call in the United States. In the days that followed, those journalists and others published documents revealing that democratic governments had been monitoring the private activities of ordinary citizens who had done nothing wrong.

Within days, the United States government responded by bringing charges against me under World War I-era espionage laws. The journalists were advised by lawyers that they risked arrest or subpoena if they returned to the United States. Politicians raced to condemn our efforts as un-American, even treasonous.

Privately, there were moments when I worried that we might have put our privileged lives at risk for nothing — that the public would react with indifference, or practiced cynicism, to the revelations.

Never have I been so grateful to have been so wrong.

Two years on, the difference is profound. In a single month, the N.S.A.’s invasive call-tracking program was declared unlawful by the courts and disowned by Congress. After a White House-appointed oversight board investigation found that this program had not stopped a single terrorist attack, even the president who once defended its propriety and criticized its disclosure has now ordered it terminated.

This is the power of an informed public.

Ending the mass surveillance of private phone calls under the Patriot Act is a historic victory for the rights of every citizen, but it is only the latest product of a change in global awareness. Since 2013, institutions across Europe have ruled similar laws and operations illegal and imposed new restrictions on future activities. The United Nations declared mass surveillance an unambiguous violation of human rights. In Latin America, the efforts of citizens in Brazil led to the Marco Civil, an Internet Bill of Rights. Recognizing the critical role of informed citizens in correcting the excesses of government, the Council of Europe called for new laws to protect whistle-blowers.

Beyond the frontiers of law, progress has come even more quickly. Technologists have worked tirelessly to re-engineer the security of the devices that surround us, along with the language of the Internet itself. Secret flaws in critical infrastructure that had been exploited by governments to facilitate mass surveillance have been detected and corrected. Basic technical safeguards such as encryption — once considered esoteric and unnecessary — are now enabled by default in the products of pioneering companies like Apple, ensuring that even if your phone is stolen, your private life remains private. Such structural technological changes can ensure access to basic privacies beyond borders, insulating ordinary citizens from the arbitrary passage of anti-privacy laws, such as those now descending upon Russia.

Photo
05surveilWeb-master315.jpg

Edward SnowdenCreditFrederick Florin/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Though we have come a long way, the right to privacy — the foundation of the freedoms enshrined in the United States Bill of Rights — remains under threat. Some of the world’s most popular online services have been enlisted as partners in the N.S.A.’s mass surveillance programs, and technology companies are being pressured by governments around the world to work against their customers rather than for them. Billions of cellphone location records are still being intercepted without regard for the guilt or innocence of those affected. We have learned that our government intentionally weakens the fundamental security of the Internet with “back doors” that transform private lives into open books. Metadata revealing the personal associations and interests of ordinary Internet users is still being intercepted and monitored on a scale unprecedented in history: As you read this online, the United States government makes a note.

Spymasters in Australia, Canada and France have exploited recent tragedies to seek intrusive new powers despite evidence such programs would not have prevented attacks. Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain recently mused, “Do we want to allow a means of communication between people which we cannot read?” He soon found his answer, proclaiming that “for too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens: As long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone.”

At the turning of the millennium, few imagined that citizens of developed democracies would soon be required to defend the concept of an open society against their own leaders.

Yet the balance of power is beginning to shift. We are witnessing the emergence of a post-terror generation, one that rejects a worldview defined by a singular tragedy. For the first time since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, we see the outline of a politics that turns away from reaction and fear in favor of resilience and reason. With each court victory, with every change in the law, we demonstrate facts are more convincing than fear. As a society, we rediscover that the value of a right is not in what it hides, but in what it protects. ☐
 
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The thing about all these wars and propaganda is that they can never ever stop and give people time to think rationally, if this was allowed, the fear button would be turned off, the brain would stop short circuiting and people would start to realize just how twisted the whole decades long war machine really is.
 
The thing about all these wars and propaganda is that they can never ever stop and give people time to think rationally, if this was allowed, the fear button would be turned off, the brain would stop short circuiting and people would start to realize just how twisted the whole decades long war machine really is.

Centuries, millennia even. Seems to be just built in, the first thing to crawl out of the primordial ooze probably tried to get a monopoly on this new fangled 'air' stuff and that was probably just another stage in a million year old feud. All the stuff happening with open ID's, voting, global communities forming, its all very hope-inspiring for a fair and just world but the more I look at it the more survival of the most ruthless seems to work its way in no matter what the environment, the rich get richer whether the wealth concerned is gold or square inches of rainforest. Peaceful revolutions might have worked on the odd occasion but pitting one predator against another in the hope they wipe each other out looks like a better bet long term, depressing stuff :/
 
Speaking of depressing stuff,
you see this ?

http://www.thevideo.me/8lv6njfsilsu

I would if I could find which fscking script to unblock ;) Its like a fecking lottery, "what about this one?.... agghh, go away poxy gambling site popup window..." :) Just had a look at a couple of trailersand will definitely give it a look later plus it has Amir in it :) I'm sure they've a donation address somewhere...

Classic "You will respect my authoritah" hatchet job though, crazy heavy sentence, any evidence of value to the defence blocked, an investigation that reeks of a stitch up and the investigators later charged for crimes committed during the investigation, etc, etc... yeah... sounds legit :/ Charlie Shem's another to suffer for daring to breath the same air as "the man" when he's found a new market and wants it all to himself, no laws to cover the situation but what the hell, some vague and bias interpretations will do, "off with his head!".

All this voting and web of trust stuff is kind of scary, it could go anywhere and one of the likely places is online global clans that could end up in a tech race between hacker collectives and the old school, the big business and government dinosaurs and its a no brainer who'll win that race. The NSA, GCHQ etc. can do all the dick waving they like, stupid budgets have turned "military grade" into "overpriced shite", their "cutting edge software" will be 90% bug infested propitiatory garbage with a red hot sales pitch and no amount of extra budget will change that, necessity is the mother of invention and its getting pretty fscking necessary.
 
I have no probs with that link
Press play, close the add with the X in same (1st) window and done
 
I have no probs with that link
Press play, close the add with the X in same (1st) window and done

I'm using noscript and it causes no end of problems sometimes, flash and a few adds and there's a list of block scripts covering half a page, I'm sure there's some way of figuring out what script does what but I've not come across it. Mainstream news sites are the worst, the likes of CNN and CNBC have hundreds of scripts trying to run in the background... actually, there was one worse, first time I went on ripplepay the whole desktop hung for about 5 min when it couldn't load the scripts it wanted :/
 
i just downloading a high res version
using vuze
 
Centuries, millennia even. Seems to be just built in, the first thing to crawl out of the primordial ooze probably tried to get a monopoly on this new fangled 'air' stuff and that was probably just another stage in a million year old feud. All the stuff happening with open ID's, voting, global communities forming, its all very hope-inspiring for a fair and just world but the more I look at it the more survival of the most ruthless seems to work its way in no matter what the environment, the rich get richer whether the wealth concerned is gold or square inches of rainforest. Peaceful revolutions might have worked on the odd occasion but pitting one predator against another in the hope they wipe each other out looks like a better bet long term, depressing stuff :/

Many separate ideas and opinions are around all this stuff many years...

Dash has a chance to become one of the element (same as Internet) of uniting reasonable people against barbarian competition with endless wars and dictate (they are effective for small communities, but ineffective for united global society).
This is why I am with Dash not only because of money - Dash may create very powerful global ideology of freedom. We need to spread the word, we need to form "freedom manifest" - Dash manifest"...
 
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i just downloading a high res version
using vuze

Have a torrent on the go at the mo, might not get to see it until next week though as away this weekend :/ No trouble at all finding a torrent, no luck at all finding a donation address... grrr, I'd have thought the torrent details would have listed one or at least some of the posters but cant even see one on the homepage for the movie.
 
Many separate ideas and opinions are around all this stuff many years...

Dash have a chance to become one of the element (same as Internet) of uniting reasonable people against barbarian competition with endless wars and dictate (they are effective for small communities, but ineffective for united global society).
This is why I am with Dash not only because of money - Dash may create very powerful global ideology of freedom. We need to spread the word, we need to form "freedom manifest" - Dash manifest"...

Folks said the same when TV was invented, the radio, the printing press, they where all predicted to bring world peace. Very true about the different views and opinions, all those things did bring changes and the world has certainly seen many improvements, guess I'm just in a pessimistic mood today.
 
lol
i think we are way past world peace
but i agree that here is more at stake than just money !
Freedom to the mind, the people and their finances ! (just as a start)
"manifesto" just sounds so .... Amir Taki :wink:

i think we as Dash should approach this more sophisticated,
a white paper on this issue of
'Privacy in Finances'
- the past
- the now
- and the future
> good (with Dash and general Privacy)
> bad (without Dash and general Privacy)
 
Cool... This article was written by Edward Snowden?
tungfa Please put his name in as the author or we might get in trouble with NYtimes. :)
 
What?? Amir for Emperor of the Universe!! He'd make a great Zaphod Beeblebrox and then the rest of us could get on with some good, honest anarchy ;)

All the web of trust type stuff really gets me hopeful as something that can take the little groups and get them pulling in the same direction, the old biddies pissed of at the state of their pensions swinging their handbags with the occupy wall street crowd and anyone and everyone between, all pulling together and learning from each other about the points they have in common. Probably tearing each other to shreds on the points they're opposed on but that's the point, we're told how to live on a national scale and that's just not the way things work, what's acceptable to me might be a hanging offence in someone else's community and vis versa, its up to communities to decide what's acceptable and in this day and age communities can cover the whole world, national borders are an illusion that's becoming less and less relevant all the time.

One day we'll likely look back on talk like that as primitive, folks will have figured out how that all meshes together and got it onto a 2"x3" screen in a way that works just right, that zeroes in on the stuff relevant to each individual and gets them involved in what matters to them but from here it looks like a great big jumbled mess, we've got a few things, mixed them together and they've gone bang spectacularly, now what can we do with it?

EDIT: "We are the darkness"... see? see? Amir for Pope!! ;)

EDIT1:
Speaking of depressing stuff,

you see this ?

http://www.thevideo.me/8lv6njfsilsu

Oh my ears and whiskers I'm late but had to keep watching, thanks, time well spent. So, what did we learn today kids? Only buy your drugs from CIA approved druglords and if you've money to launder be sure to do it through a state regulated bank, anyone else goes to jail for a long long time Depressing stuff indeed.
 
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Your link wants me to install files to watch it, want to watch but not risking ..

Not sure why everybody has so many problems with this link

Ignore the adds
Do NOT install anything
Stay on 1st page and all good

Or download , enought torrents out there
 
I can't see the video either.

Reading the article reminded me of this great example of why "metadata" matters:
  • They know you rang a phone sex service at 2:24 am and spoke for 18 minutes. But they don't know what you talked about.
  • They know you called the suicide prevention hotline from the Golden Gate Bridge. But the topic of the call remains a secret.
  • They know you spoke with an HIV testing service, then your doctor, then your health insurance company in the same hour. But they don't know what was discussed.
  • They know you received a call from the local NRA office while it was having a campaign against gun legislation, and then called your senators and congressional representatives immediately after. But the content of those calls remains safe from government intrusion.
  • They know you called a gynecologist, spoke for a half hour, and then called the local Planned Parenthood's number later that day. But nobody knows what you spoke about.
source
 
I can't see the video either.

Reading the article reminded me of this great example of why "metadata" matters:

source

Don't be so sure its not recorded there have been instances of happening to have the recording months later to aid in an investigation when it would have been impossible to have had it before the event actually happened.
 
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