Judge Says You Can't Know If Google Spies For NSA 197
witherstaff writes "A federal judge has ordered that whether Google is spying for the National Security Agency or not, you have no right to know. EPIC, which brought the lawsuit, says the NSA can neither confirm nor deny any relationship with Google. EPIC is worried the 'NSA is developing technical standards that would enable greater surveillance of Internet users.'"
Re:Misleading (Score:4, Interesting)
You have a fundamental misunderstanding of what a "right" is. That goes into huge and lengthy discussion, but to say that rights come from government is not it, especially not the US government. (Yes, we know the government people are ignoring the constitution and their limits of power.) The government comes from the people and exists to preserve people and to protect the rights of the same people it comes from.
The freedom of information act formalizes the right to know. Often, FOIA requests are ignored or handled in bad faith... once again, people in government ignoring the law.
Re:Misleading (Score:3, Interesting)
Sky=Falling (Score:3, Interesting)
Short version = I think I speak for most individuals when I say, Duh.
Long Version =
The illusion of anonymity that is the Internet. Does anyone honestly believe you have any real expectation or right of anonymity online?
When you hit a webserver... Logs are generated/stored
When traffic you generate is either passed through or blocked at a firewall... Logs are generated/stored
When you use a search engine from a company in the advertising industry (ex: google)... logs are generated/stored
Rinse and repeat for just about anything you do online... and add in a dash of other miscellaneous things like tracking cookies, flash cookies, etc...
In some cases logs are obfuscated, but not usually. I mean c'mon - legitimate advertising companies have gotten pretty good at targeting ads for users by datamining and trending data, do you honestly believe the NSA isn't doing this to a creepy scope and scale?
Correlating data mined from multiple sources (logs, cookies, etc...). is an expensive process from a resource standpoint. Anonymity through obfuscation, apathy, and prohibitive costs may be seemingly effective, but it is not absolute.
Re:Sooooo (Score:5, Interesting)
I've said it before and I will say it again. Google is an advertising/marketing company and because of that, I only trust them to be what they are and act accordingly. They offer great candy to the people, but I am careful about which candy I will eat. No Chrome for me, thanks. I only run customized Android OS loads with a lot of crap removed. I use Google for searching. That's just about it. The social network? Yeah, not gonna play there.
No Such Agency (Score:5, Interesting)
I have a bumper sticker for you; "It's a modern world; Surveillance Happens!"
Our government has been eavesdropping on us since the telegraph. Accept it, get over it. I don't worry because I am a "good ole boy". If they watch the likes of me with an iota of interest, the world must indeed be safe and boring. 99.99999999% of us are boring as hell. Hence is why you have to automate this crap and search for key words, then individual vocal and speech patterns. I bet they have some sweet gear for listening in on us these days. If they don't, I am so seriously disappointed it makes me want to cry. If they don't, lets pitch in and get them something for Christmas, ok?
On a slightly more somber note, I can't imagine what kind of monster computer these guys have. Seriously, what would YOU do with their computers if you were contracting for them and had access to them for a few hours. I would find a list of women who like middle aged fat guys. Make some serious raytraced animated porn? Or would you submit your "mind simulator" into it and see if you create a singularity? I think therefor I am? Or just get everyone in the building to get on a terminal and see what game everyone could play at once? Everyone log into WoW, make gnomes and storm Ironforge to be epically annoying?
Eww! I know, one could steal back all the money and give it to the poor. They would just blow it and the rich would get it again, but it would make a grand holiday.
Come on, people. It's the NSA, they are the weird uncle of the intelligence agencies as it is. They aren't worried about your mp3s, torrents, or your pron. 99.9999% of us are incapable of being weird enough to make their radar. Right? Besides, I am a Google fan, they stood up to China, and probably still are standing up to them. If the NSA is working with Google, that is cool. I bet they have some awesome apps for agents. "Google Agent"; I can see it now.
Can't lick 'em, join 'em?
Re:They do not need to confirm it (Score:4, Interesting)
Please. Don't even try to convince anyone here that "oh, it's not a two party dictatorship, anyone can run and become a candidate". Please. The US were a two party system from its very start. 200 years of two party system and you really want to tell me nobody bothered to try to crack that duopoly? Aside of a few desperate or dumb enough, only to find out that they couldn't even get close to winning a single state, let alone a national election? It's now almost 100 years since a "third" candidate in a president election came out in front of either party (1912 Roosevelt actually came out second in front of Taft), ever since the "third" candidates were mostly cute side effects with some entertaining value.
Please stop perpetuating the myth that the US aren't a firmly entrenched two party system that ensures with its very system that nobody else can muscle in.
Re:They do not need to confirm it (Score:4, Interesting)
I think it's odd that people are surprised by this at all. Eric Schmidt flat out stated that only people with something to hide care about privacy. That is your beloved Google, folks.