So, the majority of the population now realizes that their activity is in some way monitored, and they wish to evade that monitoring. They need to consider this: they are amateurs playing for nickel stakes in this game. The NSA doesn't care about them, and the people aren't used to playing this game either, for their part. This game exists, at the moment, primarily between the most sophisticated intelligence apparatus in human history and a very small population that is doing everything they can possibly do to hide. We think that using airgapping a network and using USB drives simply to move data across the room is a powerful security measure...these guys used USB drives to move data between countries, and even that wasn't good enough to protect them. The average citizen merely worries about some amorphous knowledge of their habits...the real target population faces death, or perhaps even worse internment in a black site somewhere for years first. And that population has been working on hiding for quite some time now; this is not a new game just because the rest of us know it's being played now.
So...with that context, why would anyone think that simply using a different search engine fucking matters?
>.these guys used USB drives to move data between countries
Look, if anyone with any sense can bypass the snooping, they must know that. That only leaves *us* that they are snooping on.
I notice how you conveniently change what I said by omitting the second half of the sentence: "...and even that wasn't good enough to protect them." So no, that does not leave *us* that they are snooping on. And also, your premise assumes that no new targets come up, that there's no reason to snoop on other nations, and that no nations ever change sides from friendly to hostile (like happened with Venezuela, Belarus and the Ukraine and is happening with Argentina, for example).
why would anyone think that simply using a different search engine fucking matters?
It may not. But anything that makes more work for the secret police is a good thing.
(If you object to the NSA being called "secret police", remember that they turn over any evidence of crimes that they find to other police agencies. They don't have "active" agents, they don't torture like the Gestapo, the US has other organizations to do that, they're more like a department of the Stasi.)
Larger picture... (Score:4, Insightful)
So, the majority of the population now realizes that their activity is in some way monitored, and they wish to evade that monitoring. They need to consider this: they are amateurs playing for nickel stakes in this game. The NSA doesn't care about them, and the people aren't used to playing this game either, for their part. This game exists, at the moment, primarily between the most sophisticated intelligence apparatus in human history and a very small population that is doing everything they can possibly do to hide. We think that using airgapping a network and using USB drives simply to move data across the room is a powerful security measure...these guys used USB drives to move data between countries, and even that wasn't good enough to protect them. The average citizen merely worries about some amorphous knowledge of their habits...the real target population faces death, or perhaps even worse internment in a black site somewhere for years first. And that population has been working on hiding for quite some time now; this is not a new game just because the rest of us know it's being played now.
So...with that context, why would anyone think that simply using a different search engine fucking matters?
the NSA doesn't care about them?? (Score:3)
> .these guys used USB drives to move data between countries
Look, if anyone with any sense can bypass the snooping, they must know that. That only leaves *us* that they are snooping on.
Re: (Score:2)
> .these guys used USB drives to move data between countries
Look, if anyone with any sense can bypass the snooping, they must know that. That only leaves *us* that they are snooping on.
I notice how you conveniently change what I said by omitting the second half of the sentence: "...and even that wasn't good enough to protect them." So no, that does not leave *us* that they are snooping on. And also, your premise assumes that no new targets come up, that there's no reason to snoop on other nations, and that no nations ever change sides from friendly to hostile (like happened with Venezuela, Belarus and the Ukraine and is happening with Argentina, for example).
Compare the value of a terro
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
why would anyone think that simply using a different search engine fucking matters?
It may not. But anything that makes more work for the secret police is a good thing.
(If you object to the NSA being called "secret police", remember that they turn over any evidence of crimes that they find to other police agencies. They don't have "active" agents, they don't torture like the Gestapo, the US has other organizations to do that, they're more like a department of the Stasi.)
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, carry on and pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.