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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM

Elle Since: Jan, 2001
#177376: Mar 9th 2017 at 10:42:49 AM

Was Colbert, who interviewed the former CIA director.

Frankly, the existence of these hacking tools is pretty much a given by anyone who follows cybersecurity at all and the CIA having a collection of them should come as no surprise. They found the gun but it is not smoking, An actual smoking gun would be evidence (not insinuation) that they used those tools in an illegal or inappropriate matter.

Krieger22 Causing freakouts over sourcing since 2018 from Malaysia Since: Mar, 2014 Relationship Status: I'm in love with my car
Causing freakouts over sourcing since 2018
#177377: Mar 9th 2017 at 10:58:30 AM

I'd actually be less annoyed to discover that my smart TV is actually listening to me than ensuring I can't access the internet. If I bothered with buying a smart TV to begin with (how much stuff is mastered in 4K again?).

A closer look at the Sleeping Giants, the main driver of a campaign for various companies to end advertising ties with Breitbart.

I have disagreed with her a lot, but comparing her to republicans and propagandists of dictatorships is really low. - An idiot
TheWanderer Student of Story from Somewhere in New England (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: Wishfully thinking
Student of Story
#177378: Mar 9th 2017 at 11:01:30 AM

[up][up] I heard this morning that Apple already knew about the CIA's tools for cell phones and had patched for it awhile ago.

| Wandering, but not lost. | If people bring so much courage to this world...◊ |
vandro Shop Owner from The little shop that wasn't Since: Jul, 2009
Shop Owner
#177379: Mar 9th 2017 at 11:03:56 AM

I am actually bothered by those tools, Saying "We won't use them on US nationals" does jack shit to assuage those fears, given I am not one.

edited 9th Mar '17 11:04:27 AM by vandro

BonsaiForest Since: Jan, 2001
#177380: Mar 9th 2017 at 11:08:22 AM

Regarding the NYU study where people watched a gender-swapped debate between a female Trump and a male Clinton, I'm noticing that it's mostly right-wing websites reporting on it.

Their slant is "Trump's message is more popular no matter which sex it comes from" and "People hated Clinton for reasons other than sexism, and this proves it". And I have to say, they do have a point if a female Trump with Trump's manchildish behavior and a male Clinton result in people liking the female Trump more.

Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#177381: Mar 9th 2017 at 11:08:53 AM

The CIA is explicitly forbidden from operating on US soil (which I'm sure they've always adhered totongue), their job is to spy on foreigners.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
TerminusEst from the Land of Winter and Stars Since: Feb, 2010
#177382: Mar 9th 2017 at 11:08:54 AM

The CIA is a foreign intelligence agency. It's their job.

[nja]'d

edited 9th Mar '17 11:09:21 AM by TerminusEst

Si Vis Pacem, Para Perkele
vandro Shop Owner from The little shop that wasn't Since: Jul, 2009
Shop Owner
#177383: Mar 9th 2017 at 11:23:36 AM

The CIA that trained Noriega. So, excuse me for finding the CIA "doing their job" a sore spot.

edited 9th Mar '17 11:25:00 AM by vandro

DeMarquis (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#177384: Mar 9th 2017 at 11:24:47 AM

Worth hearing: What Is Steve Bannon And Jeff Sessions' Shared Vision For Remaking America? "Journalist Emily Bazelon says the relationship between Bannon and Sessions predates the 2016 campaign, and that their anti-immigration policies come from fears of a growing minority population."

This is apparently a follow-up interview to Bazelon's recent article in the New Yorker magazine.

edited 9th Mar '17 11:25:01 AM by DeMarquis

I'm done trying to sound smart. "Clear" is the new smart.
BonsaiForest Since: Jan, 2001
#177385: Mar 9th 2017 at 11:37:39 AM

Fears of a growing minority population have shown up again and again. One of our past presidents (don't remember who) encouraged white people to breed more often, to have more children. Yes, breed more so you crowd out those "other" people.

SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#177386: Mar 9th 2017 at 11:37:41 AM

Not convinced that I want to know what these two are planning. Chances are it's something horrible.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
CenturyEye Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign? from I don't know where the Yith sent me this time... Since: Jan, 2017 Relationship Status: Having tea with Cthulhu
Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign?
#177387: Mar 9th 2017 at 11:45:39 AM

Well, one would probably rather see it coming then be caught unaware when its time to be Released to Elsewhere.
Besides, it could be as mundane as reclassifying "white, hispanic as just "white," which would probably be the crowning irony of this administration.

Look with century eyes... With our backs to the arch And the wreck of our kind We will stare straight ahead For the rest of our lives
TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#177388: Mar 9th 2017 at 11:47:51 AM

Forgive me for stepping into the "If y'ain't doin' nothin' wrong" fallacy, but I don't really see the big deal about the CIA having these tools. The thought that somewhere, in some secret black site, a CIA operative has watched me rifle for the TV remote in a towel and may or may not have stolen sneak peaks at my pony romance fanfics fills me with a profound sense of meh.

edited 9th Mar '17 11:52:22 AM by TobiasDrake

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
GutstheBerserker from Haiti Since: Oct, 2014 Relationship Status: Drift compatible
Silasw A procrastination in of itself from A handcart to hell (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
A procrastination in of itself
#177390: Mar 9th 2017 at 11:52:00 AM

Yeah in the end the CIA things boils down to what it always does, yes the CIA can spy on you in a variety of creepy ways, but why on earth do you think they'd want to or bother doing the legal legworked needed to?

Now if your answer is "I live in a South America and it's the CIA" I can't fault you, but for 90% of people there remains the basic fact that the CIA has no reason to even consider using said tools on them.

“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
CrimsonZephyr Would that it were so simple. from Massachusetts Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
Would that it were so simple.
#177391: Mar 9th 2017 at 11:54:46 AM

What bothers me more is that the CIA is discovering all sorts of flaws in our tech, but sits on the information so that they'll have an easy back-door. The thought that the CIA is personally rifling through all my Internet activity is ludicrous, though — I mean, they'd have to sort through a lot of pornography before they even got to the political stuff, and even then, "mainstream center-left" won't raise any alarms.

edited 9th Mar '17 11:55:24 AM by CrimsonZephyr

"For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."
Zendervai Since: Oct, 2009
#177392: Mar 9th 2017 at 11:57:41 AM

I have a smart tv, an older one, but I just disconnected it from the internet when it started showing me ads while I was playing a video game.

Granted, I'm vulnerable to the CIA, as I don't live in the US, but again, there's nothing I can do about it, and it's unlikely the Canadian government will do anything about it.

CaptainCapsase from Orbiting Sagittarius A* Since: Jan, 2015
#177393: Mar 9th 2017 at 12:00:26 PM

[up][up] Until the organization ends up in the hands of a far right demagogue. This kind of stuff sounds harmless until it ends up pointed at you, and there's not very much you can do to preclude these sorts of programs from falling into the wrong hands other than not creating them in the first place.

edited 9th Mar '17 12:00:49 PM by CaptainCapsase

NativeJovian Jupiterian Local from Orlando, FL Since: Mar, 2014 Relationship Status: Maxing my social links
Jupiterian Local
#177394: Mar 9th 2017 at 12:00:32 PM

Flipping out at hearing that the CIA has tools to spy on people is like flipping out that the police has facilities designed to detain people against their will. It's literally their job to develop and deploy such tools. I'd be far more concerned if it turned out that they didn't have that capability.

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.
Lightysnake Since: May, 2010
#177395: Mar 9th 2017 at 12:06:39 PM

Yes, that's why the NSA story amounted to, IMO, so much sound and fury over nothing. Spy agencies should have the tools to spy. the police can wiretap you, even. It's a matter of legal framework blocking people from doing so without cause.

Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#177396: Mar 9th 2017 at 12:08:32 PM

[up][up][up] Any tool can be misused. That's not inherently a reason to shy away from developing it. If you don't, then it's guaranteed that other, less scrupulous people will. Right now, our entire government is compromised, and the fact that we have intrusion capabilities, military capabilities, nuclear weapons, and all the other apparatus of state may well be a problem. But that's not a reason to throw them all out.

edited 9th Mar '17 12:08:38 PM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Gilphon (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#177397: Mar 9th 2017 at 12:08:36 PM

I mean, being concerned about the possibility of the CIA doing shady things is reasonable, but it's also nothing new. Surely nothing about their methods makes them scarier than they already were.

vandro Shop Owner from The little shop that wasn't Since: Jul, 2009
Shop Owner
#177398: Mar 9th 2017 at 12:10:33 PM

@SilasW I am not from South America, I am from Central America.

TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#177399: Mar 9th 2017 at 12:12:19 PM

Until the organization ends up in the hands of a far right demagogue. This kind of stuff sounds harmless until it ends up pointed at you, and there's not very much you can do to preclude these sorts of programs from falling into the wrong hands other than not creating them in the first place.

That's not really how progress works. You can not make a thing but you can't make a thing unmakeable. It's like claiming that the key to ending shootings is to shut down all gun manufacturers because if nobody is making guns then nobody will have guns. Great logic until you realize that people who want guns can just make their own f*cking guns, because a thing not existing does nothing to preclude the possibility of it existing in the future.

Like, that's literally the reason we all have nuclear weapons pointed at each other in the first place. Because even if we all dismantled all our nukes and promised never to make more nukes, someone would still make nukes. There's no way to create a world where the existence of nukes is a physical impossibility, and so we all wind up having to have nukes as a deterrent against whichever crazy asshole winds up making nukes tomorrow.

Sure, Trump having access to these systems is scary. But even if they didn't exist, there is no way to pass a physical law of reality in which it would be impossible for him to commission them to exist. Since we cannot pass an Act of Physics that declares such technology now and forever impossible to create, then ultimately them existing constitutes a net zero effect on our security.

edited 9th Mar '17 12:12:29 PM by TobiasDrake

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
Kostya (Unlucky Thirteen)
#177400: Mar 9th 2017 at 12:13:07 PM

Even if the CIA didn't do this stuff it's not like they're the only people in the world that could hack you. I'm sure Russia knows about all this stuff too. They might actually use it on their citizens.


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