NSA CS Man: My Tracking Algorithm Was 'Twisted' By the Government 267
decora writes "Crypto-mathematician Bill Binney worked in the Signals Intelligence Automation Research Center at the NSA. There, he worked on NSA's ThinThread program; a way to monitor the flood of internet data from outside the US while protecting the privacy of US citizens. In a new interview with Jane Mayer, he says his program 'got twisted. ... I should apologize to the American people. It's violated everyone's rights. It can be used to eavesdrop on the whole world. ... my people were brought in, and they told me, "Can you believe they're doing this? They're getting billing records on US citizens! They're putting pen registers on everyone in the country!"'"
Oh? (Score:5, Insightful)
In other news (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Consequences (Score:2, Insightful)
Maybe he is one of the few people out there that actually give a fuck about the constitution.
Re:Twisted? (Score:5, Insightful)
Hmm.
I designed a gun.
No, no, no! You're supposed to point it away from you.
Re:In other news (Score:5, Insightful)
Happens in Europe as well, nothing new at all (Score:0, Insightful)
As I usually say: Surveillance will just keep growing and growing, because there is no ideology for which its masters don't feel surveillance is useful.
Right-wing? Got to protect that property from illegal sabotage and activists.
Left-wing? Got to monitor those social deviants so they can't threaten The People.
Religious? Got to discover that sinfulness and lack of fear of God.
Atheist? Got to make sure nobody commits the child abuse of raising someone religious.
Green? Still relatively useful as a tool because people mean shit compared to the planet.
Sure, your average person in the street might feel surveillance isn't needed, but the people who float to the top of any political movement tend to enjoy power and its tools.
I don't have the background to say what could avoid that situation though. Maybe a popular movement that aims to fill the channels with noise - a simple program that runs in the background and accesses various pieces of illegal/objectionable information on a running basis.
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
oh fuck off (Score:3, Insightful)
Green? Still relatively useful as a tool because people mean shit compared to the planet.
you dont need to make things off of your ass if you cant find anything against a particular ideology.
Re:Oh? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm shocked that we haven't launched prosecutions of most of the Bush Administration...
So am I, but then we'd have to prosecute most of the Obama administration, which has continued the same policies. And I say that with shame as a lifelong Democrat.
Barack Obama - best Republican president so far.
Last paragraph sums it up nicely. (Score:5, Insightful)
The Bush people have been let off. The telecom companies got immunity. The only people Obama has prosecuted are the whistle-blowers.
Re:Oh? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why shouldn't I work for the N.S.A.? That's a tough one, but I'll take a shot.
Say I'm working at N.S.A. Somebody puts a code on my desk, something nobody else can break. Maybe I take a shot at it and maybe I break it. And I'm real happy with myself, 'cause I did my job well. But maybe that code was the location of some rebel army in North Africa or the Middle East. Once they have that location, they bomb the village where the rebels were hiding and fifteen hundred people I never met, never had no problem with, get killed. Now the politicians are sayin', "Oh, send in the Marines to secure the area" 'cause they don't give a shit. It won't be their kid over there, gettin' shot. Just like it wasn't them when their number got called, 'cause they were pullin' a tour in the National Guard. It'll be some kid from Southie takin' shrapnel in the ass. And he comes back to find that the plant he used to work at got exported to the country he just got back from. And the guy who put the shrapnel in his ass got his old job, 'cause he'll work for fifteen cents a day and no bathroom breaks. Meanwhile, he realizes the only reason he was over there in the first place was so we could install a government that would sell us oil at a good price. And, of course, the oil companies used the skirmish over there to scare up domestic oil prices. A cute little ancillary benefit for them, but it ain't helping my buddy at two-fifty a gallon. And they're takin' their sweet time bringin' the oil back, of course, and maybe even took the liberty of hiring an alcoholic skipper who likes to drink martinis and fuckin' play slalom with the icebergs, and it ain't too long 'til he hits one, spills the oil and kills all the sea life in the North Atlantic. So now my buddy's out of work and he can't afford to drive, so he's got to walk to the fuckin' job interviews, which sucks 'cause the shrapnel in his ass is givin' him chronic hemorrhoids. And meanwhile he's starvin', 'cause every time he tries to get a bite to eat, the only blue plate special they're servin' is North Atlantic scrod with Quaker State. So what did I think? I'm holdin' out for somethin' better. I figure fuck it, while I'm at it why not just shoot my buddy, take his job, give it to his sworn enemy, hike up gas prices, bomb a village, club a baby seal, hit the hash pipe and join the National Guard? I could be elected president.
Re:Oh? (Score:5, Insightful)
Barack Obama - best Republican president so far.
He's nowhere near the best Republican: Abe Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, and Dwight Eisenhower all come out way ahead of him. And all of those guys would be branded as complete and utter loonies in current US politics, especially their views on class, corporations and taxes. Heck, there's a good argument that Ronald Reagan wouldn't be accepted within the current Republican Party, because he allowed for some tax increases in the 1980's.
Re:Oh? (Score:5, Insightful)