Remeber SOPA and PIPA?

melodiccolor wrote:OK, I expect a huge backlash on all levels, lots of innocents to get hurt in the process as the power grabs continue to escalate....so reminiscent of the McCarthy era it's frightening.  It's even worse now because of the tools they have and the patriot acts being abused.

I also found a treasure trove of information on the ACLU's website.  We may all want to consider joining them....

Snowden went on to say, quote, "When Congress returns to session in September, let us take note of whether the internet industry’s statements and lobbyists—which were invisible in the lead-up to the Conyers-Amash vote—emerge on the side of the Free Internet or the NSA and its Intelligence Committees in Congress."

melodiccolor wrote:2 new updates in developing stories:

Feds Threaten To Arrest Lavabit Founder For Shutting Down His Service (link)

Court: Ability to police U.S. spying program limited (link)

Oh yeah there is going to be backlash as it becomes clearer how out of control this all is.

It has been revealed today, thanks to Edward Snowden, that Google and other US tech companies received millions of dollars from the NSA for their compliance with the PRISM mass surveillance system.

So just how close is Google to the US securitocracy? Back in 2011 I had a meeting with Eric Schmidt, the then Chairman of Google, who came out to see me with three other people while I was under house arrest. You might suppose that coming to see me was gesture that he and the other big boys at Google were secretly on our side: that they support what we at WikiLeaks are struggling for: justice, government transparency, and privacy for individuals. But that would be a false supposition. Their agenda was much more complex, and as we found out, was inextricable from that of the US State Department. The full transcript of our meeting is available online through the WikiLeaks website.

melodiccolor wrote:Why am I not too surprised?  The companies who are not being harrassed in today's suppressive climate are probably the ones in partnership in the subversion of the US Constitution for power and profits, protection and immunity.

MC wrote:It does rather uncover backroom stuff that is usually more hidden, but this close relationship has been standard pretty much since the 1890s.

melodiccolor wrote:The story goes on.

Crypto prof asked to remove NSA-related blog post (link)

The article that got him into trouble: A Few Thoughts on Cryptographic Engineering (link)  The main point here is if the NSA is weakening security for all sources.  Bad guys can break into just about anything easier and publish the way in for others so everything from banking to medical to business is far less secure than it should be due to the NSA.

This makes this article a bit of smoke and mirrors then: Google encrypts data amid backlash against NSA spying (link) .