frank_boyd

Why, do they have something to hide?

Also, if they're doing things they don't want other people to know, maybe they shouldn't be doing those things in the first place.

Or something.

Yes, kind of, actually:

If our media are too corrupt, then we need to create new ones that work better and change our habits. Submission to corruption can not be a mid- or long-term solution.

In other words:

"Why I read less HN and you should, too!"

Forget the "media". Drop your stuff at WikiLeaks.org

The disadvantage: You're still funding Google b/c StartPage sells their ads.

Kind of "funny", if you remember that the US builds all kinds of stuff on other nations' soil:

- Tons of military bases (see: all over the world)

- NSA mass surveillance centers (see: Germany, and probably secret ones elsewhere)

> But it just feels creepy to email me about it this way.

In other words:

"Yes, I know it's wrong and they should not know these things about me, but I want to use their product anyway, so can we please just pretend nobody knows what's going on in our society?"

> FBI warns hacking spree on government agencies is a “widespread problem”

Another “widespread problem” is government agencies conducting mass surveillance.

EVERYTHING starts with education.

Education is the most important thing the human race needs.

It's nice to help suffering people.

The recurring pattern I see, however, is: We single out 0.001% of all cases, do something extraordinary, and make a big fuss about it in the media. All this to make us feel good about ourselves. What we don't want to fix though, are the real causes of the problems, because that's way less pleasant to do.

Sorry man, priorities - you got them wrong. Who cares about a few credit card numbers or "personal love notes" when we find ourselves living in corrupt "democracies" that are about to crumble pretty much all over the Western world.

I welcome all efforts to fight the abuse taken as granted by the government(s).

On the other hand:

> a virtual private network (VPN) smartphone app

"smartphone app": for iOS and/or Android, I suppose. Can we trust anything that does not run on an open-source OS? Absolutely not.