Monday, June 10, 2013

Yeah, I know that we have no privacy, but damn

In 1999, Sun Microsystems' Scott McNealy famously said "You have zero privacy anyway.  Get over it."  So how shocking is the revelation that the NSA hoovers up 3 Billion phone calls each day?  Even McNealy is shocked.

We're seeing the collapse of trust in the government.  Quite frankly, the government has brought this on itself, step by step, over the course of the last 20 years.  This has been building since the end of the Cold War when the "End Of History" looked like it might make the Intelligence community superfluous.

Man, I'm cynical today.  Introducing a new post tag, "Eye of Sauron".


eiaftinfo said...

I think what's going on here is the difference between knowing something and "knowing something".

Folks have known of the government's fondness for data gathering . . . . now they "know it". Big difference. It's one thing to see the guys/gals of NCIS track a person via phone calls, credid card data, cell phone location, image tracking via security cameras and a host of other fantasy data . . .

It's quite another to realize that it can actually be done . . . . and then have parts of it used against citizens for political reasons.

It's a bit like watching a game of Jenga . . . . I wonder what the last block will be.

MSgt B said...

Eye of Sauron

Love it.

NSA called and said I had nothing to worry about...except the milk in my fridge was well past it's freshness date and might be sour by now.

Those guys, they really care.

Old NFO said...

Hit the nail on the head with that one BP... LOVE it... sigh

Spec-Ops Medic said...

James Clapper at NSA gave me a buzz and said, "better change your socks and underwear cause its about to get real ugly." "As soon as we take care of Edward Snowden and a few million others, we're coming for you."

Samrobb said...

"We're seeing the collapse of trust in the government." The government in general, or specifically the *federal* government? As far as I can tell, people seem to largely be OK with their state and local governments; and what they're not happy with, they're working on changing.