[ExI] The NSA's new data center

[Eugen Leitl]

On Sun, Apr 01, 2012 at 04:55:53PM -0600, Kelly Anderson wrote:

> Yes, it is an arms race. But, like the war on drugs, is it a fight

So far, the situation wouldn't even exist if people would pick up
the arms and munitions laying on the very ground before them.

> worth fighting? Yes, drugs are bad. Yes, loss of privacy is bad. But

I think you must be on drugs in order to equate the war on (some)
drugs with the desire to protect one's privacy and the right to
be anonymous in some transactions. Like the fucking vote, you know.

> is fighting against it worth the cost? Will it still be perceived as

*Which cost*? The cost of your freedom?

> worth the cost by the next generation? Those are the interesting
> questions.

Yes, these are extremely interesting questions. And especially,
the people who hold them. Very interesting. In the clinical sense.
 
> When we are no longer the most intelligent and important species on
> the planet, our privacy will not be any more important than that of a
> gorilla in the zoo. The privacy of the new big dogs will likely still

Do you really want to be that gorilla? I mean, right now? You're certainly
awfully accepting of being locked up in a panopticon. I hear lots of
municipalities run for-profit prisons. As in forced inmate labor. 
It would be very easy to get in there, just get rid of your privacy.
The average US American commits some 3 felonies a day.

> be important.
> 
> Any technology for encryption only slows the other side down. When you

No offense, but you seem to have little clue about cryptography, especially
the economics of it.

> encrypt something, you aren't hiding it forever, just until the
> technology exists to decrypt it. And it always will. So think of it

So why don't they just store the entire Internet traffic, you think?

> like they rate safes. Some safes are rated for 5 minutes, others for

Try 15-20 years. In case of one-time pads, infinity.

> ten hours, big ones at the bank for a few days. Nothing can stop you
> when you are determined, only slow you down. So if you have something
> you want kept secret forever, then you had better not put it into
> electronic form, talk over the phone about it, or anything. Just keep

So why do politicians use crypto phones, you think?

> it to yourself. Always. Consistently. But this is not the normal way
> we think of things.