<story><title>Reddit co-founder on NSA snooping [video]</title><url>http://money.cnn.com/video/technology/2013/06/11/t-co-reddit-alexis-ohanian.cnnmoney</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>josh2600</author><text>Goddamn right.&lt;p&gt;Every now and then we have defining moments of global consciousness. This has the potential to be one of those moments and we should never let a good crisis go to waste.&lt;p&gt;The danger here is that if we do nothing, that will be seen as tacit acceptance of the world&amp;#x27;s largest spying apparatus. While I acknowledge there&amp;#x27;s some necessity globally, domestic spying through secret courts is more synonymous with the Gulag than the American dream.&lt;p&gt;Stand up for what you believe in; this is one time you can.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>parasubvert</author><text>I grew up in the Bush v1- Clinton era with Operation Sundevil, the Steve Jackson Games raid, NSA clipper chip, DMCA, Communications Decency Act, PGP legal battles, etc.   The movie Sneakers from 1992 was a great example of the NSA paranoia that existed at the time.&lt;p&gt;The result?  Won some, lost some, and the world moved on.&lt;p&gt;What&amp;#x27;s different now is that this surveillance is legal at scale because the majority of the populace &lt;i&gt;wants it to be&lt;/i&gt;.   They&amp;#x27;re more afraid of terrorists than having privacy.  Look at the polls:  Hacker News (and techies in general) seem to be in quite a bubble in this regard.&lt;p&gt;We have more clout than we did in the 90s, but the difference now is that there&amp;#x27;s a big Terrorism counter argument to anything we say.   A majority of the USA prefers to have the electric eye of Sauron to watch over them, because the alternative -- more freedom that might lead to more terror attacks -- is too scary for them to accept. In that sense, the terrorists have won.&lt;p&gt;There are two viable paths going forward, in my view:
(a) Work to convince people they want privacy, and don&amp;#x27;t want Brin&amp;#x27;s transparent society - this slows what appears to be the inevitable; (b) Work to ensure accountable oversight of surveillance.  No more FISA secret courts, but real public courts and judges and warrants.&lt;p&gt;What&amp;#x27;s not likely viable is
(a) encouraging people to stop using social networks -- they won&amp;#x27;t, we broadly LIKE being noticed by others, it gives meaning to our otherwise alienated capitalistic existence; (b) encouraging government to stop tracking people -- they&amp;#x27;re just getting into the game that Google and Facebook is in.&lt;p&gt;If a company can track people, so will the government.  The key is that government can and must be held accountable to a degree that companies don&amp;#x27;t have to be.   The US public has chosen not to exercise this power to date out of ignorance, laziness, and&amp;#x2F;or lack of desire.&lt;p&gt;The likely outcome of all of this is a resurrection and growth in the &amp;quot;darknet&amp;quot;, where younger techies go to hide.</text></comment>
<story><title>Reddit co-founder on NSA snooping [video]</title><url>http://money.cnn.com/video/technology/2013/06/11/t-co-reddit-alexis-ohanian.cnnmoney</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>josh2600</author><text>Goddamn right.&lt;p&gt;Every now and then we have defining moments of global consciousness. This has the potential to be one of those moments and we should never let a good crisis go to waste.&lt;p&gt;The danger here is that if we do nothing, that will be seen as tacit acceptance of the world&amp;#x27;s largest spying apparatus. While I acknowledge there&amp;#x27;s some necessity globally, domestic spying through secret courts is more synonymous with the Gulag than the American dream.&lt;p&gt;Stand up for what you believe in; this is one time you can.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ihsw</author><text>&amp;gt; The danger here is that if we do nothing, that will be seen as tacit acceptance of the world&amp;#x27;s largest spying apparatus.&lt;p&gt;Your acceptance is not required for the spying programs to continue operating. The sooner you realize that is the sooner you&amp;#x27;ll realize that your choices are currently very limited.</text></comment>