Today's headline online on FOX News Politics*:
"NSA can reportedly break into most encrypted Internet communications"
No duh. Do you think, if there's a computer geek smart enough to create encryption NSA can't crack, that they're going to stay both alive and not an employee of NSA for more than a week? And further, there's no reversing this revelation. What're they gonna do? Say, "We promise we won't peek anymore"? You believe them? Why?
It's like a scene I imagine:
NSA Dude: "Mr. President, the Secret Spying Program has been discovered. Our citizens and other countries are outraged."
President: "Sigh. Well, what now? What's your recommendation?"
NSA Dude: "There's only one solution Mr. President. The ultimate option. We have to make the Secret Spying Program....EVEN MORE SECRET."
So what's that mean for you? Well, if you want to plan a revolution or a terrorist attack or a school shooting, kidnapping, murder, affair, or any other unsanctioned behavior, you'd better do it in a paper spiral notebook kept under your bed and not "in the cloud", nor even on a computer that is connected to the internet.
The chilling thought is that "unsanctioned behavior" is a shifting definition. So while today's government may only be looking for Arabs bent on blowing things up, tomorrow's government might decide it has a problem with Native Americans, African Americans, Japanese, Germans, Jews or Christians, Muslims or gay people, cat people or dog people, gun owners or pro-lifers. (I assume you noticed that some of these historically have already been the case, but they didn't have Facebook, Google drive, and iPhones) And if you put your thoughts in digital format (whether typed, audio, or video), then they can already read your mind. And by the way, there's plenty of science news that they are working on that even as I type.
*Disclaimer: I am not a FOX News junkie, it just turned up in my Google News Feed.
"NSA can reportedly break into most encrypted Internet communications"
No duh. Do you think, if there's a computer geek smart enough to create encryption NSA can't crack, that they're going to stay both alive and not an employee of NSA for more than a week? And further, there's no reversing this revelation. What're they gonna do? Say, "We promise we won't peek anymore"? You believe them? Why?
It's like a scene I imagine:
NSA Dude: "Mr. President, the Secret Spying Program has been discovered. Our citizens and other countries are outraged."
President: "Sigh. Well, what now? What's your recommendation?"
NSA Dude: "There's only one solution Mr. President. The ultimate option. We have to make the Secret Spying Program....EVEN MORE SECRET."
So what's that mean for you? Well, if you want to plan a revolution or a terrorist attack or a school shooting, kidnapping, murder, affair, or any other unsanctioned behavior, you'd better do it in a paper spiral notebook kept under your bed and not "in the cloud", nor even on a computer that is connected to the internet.
The chilling thought is that "unsanctioned behavior" is a shifting definition. So while today's government may only be looking for Arabs bent on blowing things up, tomorrow's government might decide it has a problem with Native Americans, African Americans, Japanese, Germans, Jews or Christians, Muslims or gay people, cat people or dog people, gun owners or pro-lifers. (I assume you noticed that some of these historically have already been the case, but they didn't have Facebook, Google drive, and iPhones) And if you put your thoughts in digital format (whether typed, audio, or video), then they can already read your mind. And by the way, there's plenty of science news that they are working on that even as I type.
*Disclaimer: I am not a FOX News junkie, it just turned up in my Google News Feed.
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