Well, it is easy to dismiss people saying kind of stuff as 'crackpots' or 'tin-foil-hatters'.
I personally keep to a simple rule. If something is technologically feasible[0], economically viable and someone has an incentive for it, it will happen, period. This rule of thumb successfully filters out weather control crackpottery while correctly identifying surveillance capabilities (and no, it's not hindsight bias; the only thing I was surprised about Snowden revelations was that it was underwhelming).
[0] - and keep in mind that pretty much anything is.
In what way were the revelations underwhelming? For me overwhelming is their ability to coerce companies and their willingness to do so, in spite of the potential for a loss of trust in US companies. Sometimes such maneuvers can have a big cost long term - I can imagine at least governments switching software, hardware or services to more local providers. I mean, think about backdoors - you may trust the NSA, but if backdoors exist, it is only a matter of time before they get discovered by other parties. Countries now also have the ultimate argument for the balkanization of the Internet. This can't be good and all of this distinction between US citizens and foreigners doesn't mean anything for foreigners.
The technological ones. I was expecting (and I still believe) that they're tapping much better into the Internet that it is revealed, and that there are many more hardware backdoors out there.
Countries now also have the ultimate argument for the balkanization of the Internet.
I agree. This is very bad. I didn't say I was underwhelmed with outcome (though I am with the reaction of public and of Internet companies), just with the revealed capabilities of the NSA.
Comments
Well, it is easy to dismiss people saying kind of stuff as 'crackpots' or 'tin-foil-hatters'.
I personally keep to a simple rule. If something is technologically feasible[0], economically viable and someone has an incentive for it, it will happen, period. This rule of thumb successfully filters out weather control crackpottery while correctly identifying surveillance capabilities (and no, it's not hindsight bias; the only thing I was surprised about Snowden revelations was that it was underwhelming).
[0] - and keep in mind that pretty much anything is.
In what way were the revelations underwhelming? For me overwhelming is their ability to coerce companies and their willingness to do so, in spite of the potential for a loss of trust in US companies. Sometimes such maneuvers can have a big cost long term - I can imagine at least governments switching software, hardware or services to more local providers. I mean, think about backdoors - you may trust the NSA, but if backdoors exist, it is only a matter of time before they get discovered by other parties. Countries now also have the ultimate argument for the balkanization of the Internet. This can't be good and all of this distinction between US citizens and foreigners doesn't mean anything for foreigners.
The technological ones. I was expecting (and I still believe) that they're tapping much better into the Internet that it is revealed, and that there are many more hardware backdoors out there.
I agree. This is very bad. I didn't say I was underwhelmed with outcome (though I am with the reaction of public and of Internet companies), just with the revealed capabilities of the NSA.