fianchetto

Hell yeah, I'll give those boys with the funny accents a bitcoin.

Very curious.

"Rulers who distrust their own people, must govern in a spirit of absolutism ; and suspected subjects will be ever sensible of their bondage."

The Constitutional History Of England Vol II

Erskine May

1863

Bernie Madoff didn't have direct access to his victims' accounts. They willingly gave him the money.

> FWIW, I believe them when they say they aren't giving direct access to their servers to the government.

What have they done to earn your trust so that you believe them?

In matters of espionage and mass surveillance, I expect lying to be the default response for the government and corporate players involved.

> If you're going to say your data not safe in Google's hands, then your data just isn't safe on the internet which I think is a needlessly extreme position to take.

Google isn't the internet.

Dump gmail, FB and other spy holes. Use public key crypto. Take your own network back.

Or continue on as usual. Our choice.

> I'm really not sure why HNers reacted differently in this instance though.

Because the government has admitted it.

> Facebook is not and has never been part of any program to give the US or any other government direct access to our servers.

Amazing how all them, to a company, are using the "direct access" phrase.

Plausible deniability for the whole world to see along with the revelation of the biggest spying operation in history.

> I wouldn't question their motives

I would.

> The same thing happened when Steve Jobs died.

People and events resonate with, move or touch other people.

Most other people, I should say.

> Why does the NSA want so much information?

> Since the program is secret, it’s hard to say for sure. But the NSA is probably using a software technique called data mining to look for patterns that could be a sign of terrorist activity.

Mr. Lee is assuming a whole lot. I don't trust journalism that tries to steer me into thinking the government is just watching out for us, especially when they've just been caught spying on us.

The biggest government spy operation in history is now public knowledge. It's kind of a big deal.