Former NSA Chief Keith Alexander Joins Amazon's Board of Directors (theverge.com) 30
Gen. Keith Alexander is joining Amazon's board of directors, the company revealed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing today. The Verge reports: A former director of the National Security Agency and the first commander of the US Cyber Command, Alexander served as the public face of US data collection during the Edward Snowden leaks, but he retired from public service in 2013. Alexander is a controversial figure for many in the tech community because of his involvement in the widespread surveillance systems revealed by the Snowden leaks. Those systems included PRISM, a broad data collection program that compromised systems at Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Facebook -- but not Amazon.
Alexander was broadly critical of reporting on the Snowden leaks, even suggesting that reporters should be legally restrained from covering the documents. [...] Alexander's board spot will also give Amazon new expertise in defense contracting, an area of particular focus for the company in recent years.
Alexander was broadly critical of reporting on the Snowden leaks, even suggesting that reporters should be legally restrained from covering the documents. [...] Alexander's board spot will also give Amazon new expertise in defense contracting, an area of particular focus for the company in recent years.
And you're shocked because? (Score:3)
Hoovering up your data is a valuable commodity. Who better to learn from than the NSA?
Shocked by the revolving door between (Score:5)
big business and government in the US? Hardly, it has been like that since forever.
The US is not a democracy, it is an oligarchy with little or no input into politics from the "common man" (see e.g. DOI 10.1017/S1537592714001595).
Besides, it is only natural that a government expert in data collection and abuse be hired by one of the largest data collectors and privacy abusers on the internet.
It is not like you're out of alternatives either, if you're worried about Amazon and their 500+ trackers, there's always Aliexpress and their 500+ trackers...
The fox is in the henhouse. (Score:2)
It's the natural order of things.
Re: (Score:1)
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer?
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
Still though, Amazon what were you thinking. Do they not realise how bad this looks, how the public will meme it to death and how much damage it will do to Amazons reputation. I am now far less inclined to purchase anything from them, not that I do because Amazon just ewww, I would rather pay more.
Re: The fox is in the henhouse. (Score:1)
I don't think Amazon can look much worse.
Bezos is already parodied as an "uncanny valley"-creepy alien Rockefeller. And Amazon's usual work practices are completely illegal in my country and at least partially illegal in most modern ones.
Amazon could announce that they turned paleo and will, from now on, only eat their babies raw... and I'd go "Weird. I thought they already did." ;)
How appropos (Score:1)
Washington DC, revolving door, private sector contractors. Somebody cashed in their brass parachute.
T'was ever thus... (Score:5, Insightful)
This son of a bitch should be in prison for raping the US Constitution, then lying about it. And Snowden should have received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for outing the rape.
Instead, Snowden is living in exile, and this treasonous prick moves over to a company renowned for kicking its workers in the face and using its near-monopoly position to pervert the free market.
I don't expect the United States to be perfect, or even close, but it would be nice if once in a while it at least made a feeble gesture in the direction of standing up for the ideals of freedom, capitalism and integrity it claims to champion.
Re: T'was ever thus... (Score:2)
"I don't expect the United States to be perfect, or even close, but it would be nice if once in a while it at least made a feeble gesture in the direction of standing up for the ideals of freedom, capitalism and integrity it claims to champion."
Consider all the people harmed by cellphone metadata collection, then consider all the people in this country harmed by things that actually matter, like housing and wage discrimination, or being kicked out of it when it's the only home you've ever known, or being pu
Re: T'was ever thus... (Score:5, Insightful)
If I understand correctly, they did a hell of a lot more than read your phone bill. But even if that's all it was, amassing a record of all the people you talked to, and all the people they talked to, and one iteration past that, amounts to a pretty good way to map out an entire social network.
So if you happened to be a deeply-closeted gay person in a small, conservative town, the government would know exactly what you were. And they could yank on your chain if they ever decided they wanted to. They'd also be able to identify a whole lot of other gay people who may not want their sexual orientation made public. Meta-data can reveal a whole lot about you. In most cases, it won't matter because you don't matter. But if you're a person the powers that be want to manipulate or shut up, this is exactly the kind of information that gives them a hold on you.
So yes, all those other concerns you mention are important. Mostly, they're more important. But don't think for a minute they're unrelated. Let's say, for example, you lead a movement to forbid eviction of people who can't pay their rent because of COVID-19. You're just an average guy (like that fired Amazon worker) who winds up having some influence. All of a sudden, you become that one person out of a few million worth some attention. It's not like Big Brother has to go to a court for a surveillance warrant or even worry about breaking the law. They just pull up a file, and you get a phone call asking whether whatever secret you have is worth more than your current cause. THAT is what is so insidious and dangerous about this kind of massive scoop of personal information.
Re: T'was ever thus... (Score:2)
So imagine saying to those people and the many others I've left out, that the real problem with this country is the government reading your phone bill.
Reading your phone bill is what enables these people to do all the other things and stay out of jail.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Thank you for that. I think you really summed up the situation well.
Re: (Score:1)
"I don't expect the United States to be perfect, or even close, but it would be nice if once in a while it at least made a feeble gesture in the direction of standing up for the ideals of freedom, capitalism and integrity it claims to champion."
Consider all the people harmed by cellphone metadata collection, then consider all the people in this country harmed by things that actually matter, like housing and wage discrimination, or being kicked out of it when it's the only home you've ever known, or being put away in jail because of a dried up plant that's as harmless as tobacco, or even waiting in a long line at the state DMV as punishment because your registration expired and they won't just add a surcharge over the phone and do the needful.
So imagine saying to those people and the many others I've left out, that the real problem with this country is the government reading your phone bill.
Imagine you finally grasping why law enforcement creates and then abuses "civilian" loopholes for data collection.
Imagine the people you claim "don't get it" finally grasping the fact that they were put in jail because of data collection.
The largest problem with your assessment is we can see first hand the pain being caused by the issues you've raised. Yes, it's bad, but it's at least quantifiable. In the meantime, you have no idea the pain that is caused by abuses in data collection. Against domestic a
Re: (Score:2)
This son of a bitch should be in prison for raping the US Constitution, then lying about it. And Snowden should have received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for outing the rape.
This, unfortunately is the natural order of things. In every country.
Spooks rape the constitution, whistleblowers rot in exile or jail. On a good day. On a bad day rot on the bottom of the local river in a fashionable chickenwire dress and designer concrete shoes.
alexa, build me an army worthy of Mordor. (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Wrong. By "American" logic this guy has no links to the military while at Amazon, and no links to Amazon while at the military even though he (and Amazon and the military) are a property of the same owner at all times.
Related story from 2014 (Score:1)
A reminder of a related story from 2014
Condoleezza Rice supports warrantless wiretaps, she thinks that organisations such as the FBI and the NSA should
be able to look through all the stuff you keep in the "cloud" without a warrant. In mid 2014 she joined the board of
dropbox and is currently still on it. Dropbox is a "store your files in the cloud and sync them across computers" thing.
http://www.drop-dropbox.com/ [drop-dropbox.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Well, well, in-q-tel. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Also, look up its founder.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
This is what a ruling class looks like folks (Score:4, Informative)
Another one [yawn] (Score:1)
Just another member of a Democrat administration merging into a big tech company to stay parked there for a while before being recycled back into government when the next Democrat administration gets into power. There was practically a revolving door between the Obama admin and Google, with literally HUNDREDS doing this, and Eric Schmidt was in the white house with Obama more often than some cabinet members. Amazon and Facebook are also parking spots for DC Democrats.
Republicans have their forms of this - t
Actual chief, or public chief? (Score:1)
You know that spying agenciy leaders are always secret, and the official one is merely for public reasons, to reduce the risk of the actual leadeship being kidnapped or similar, right?
The keyword is... (Score:2)
"Former".