Good to know.

when they are actually helping you.

Doesn't mean they CAN'T look at the finances of their neighbors. They are not supposed to, and can get fired for doing so.

And in all of these cases, technology mechanisms are always being added, so that audits of access can be conducted and those who abuse their access authority can be identified and stopped, and if appropriate, prosecuted.

the technology will provide the means for potential abuse.

Policy is everything.

a couple steps behind.

Put the policy in place, and improve the auditing.

Then repeat.

Forever.

Unless China tires of him, this will drag on for months.

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by some right wing groups.

If there were technical restrictions -- encrypted databases, flags on anyone who accesses classified data -- those would be a lot harder to get around and change than relying on policy, which can change at any moment depending on who's in power (or who's asking), and does nothing to stop anyone with the proper clearance from accessing what they shouldn't.

It's inherent in the technology.

Particularly when you know it's classified, sensitive, personal information on virtually every American and there are things you can do to safeguard it?

BAH's revenue for fiscal year 2013 was $5.76 Billion, and it's profits were $219 Million. I think at the very least they can afford to properly protect the data they're handling. And they're just ONE contractor. We have no idea how the other contractors are handling our information.

But anything can during this administration can easily be undone by the next. This will be a constant battle between "bad" and "worse."

It's much easier to change/ignore policy than it is to subvert technical security when done right.

decide to make changes.

Where the hell is the oversight? There certainly has been a lot of silence on that score.

Where is the President's email he said he could so easily access? Where is anybody's email that he said he could so easily access?

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You think it's usual for an analyst in HI to have access to something like that? It doesn't suggest to you that he could have looked at anything he liked?

I doubt he's going to disclose someone's email since part of his issue is how insecure our private data is. And I doubt that any proof would be enough for some.

If he had access to the President's email as he said, why didn't he snag one for us?

All we have to go on is his word that he "saw things" as he said. What things? He never specified!

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...would have to display in order for you to believe it was the genuine article?

Then remember that everyone else would have access to that data as well.

He says he knows how the NSA is tapping into the Internet. Some schematics maybe? Diagrams?

He says the NSA can see our thoughts form as we type. Some explanation of how that occurs, maybe?

During the Q&A today, he changed what he said about 'direct access'. Now he says it refers to looking at the phone metadata where before he claimed the NSA watched and stored everything on the Internet on a daily basis.

Where is this storage? How is it searchable? Of course it's not even believable except in a Harry Potter novel.

He said he "saw things" during his career. What things? He has never specified!

If he was half the IT guru he portrays himself to be, he would have offered us technical knowledge of some sort to support his outlandish claims.

He has offered nothing except his word. And I am not going to take the word of someone hiding in Hong Kong.

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I don't get it at all.

I think we would pay better homage to the concept of Progressive Thought -even basic scientific thinking- by looking at the evidence and going wherever it may lead.

There is practically no evidence to go on here except Snowden's word.

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...or has "practically no evidence"?

judgment capability and intelligence.

I have to wonder if his decision to pack up, run to Hong Kong, and do a Goodbye Cruel World had anything to do with emotional lability as a side effect of his brand-new diagnosis of epilepsy.

Sure that was necessary to his job...NOT.

He could say that Obama really is a Muslim afterall!

and there are enough idiots to believe him, just on his word. cuz he's a hero and shit.

Because I bet there were a whole lot of "policy restrictions" that he broke, but not much technology to stop it.

Repetition as if that action was somehow magical....

Repeat a slogan or lie enough times and many will start to believe it.
Spam is a technique, one that is being used here apparently.

... the sarcasm thingie

Hello...

Consider who makes the policy....(Hint: Its not you or me.....Well, maybe thats not entirely true. I really dont know about you. It sure as fuck isnt me.)

and just say that you hate him and be done with it.

....this week

I imagine the critics could then offer their own proclamations of love for Snowden and also be done with it. However, removing the postings of both petulant, child-like extremes would leave me with that much less to giggle at...

It is the most I've seen DU at war with itself since I started in 2010 here.

Yikes.

... vetted, hired and gave access to "classified information" to "An Idiot," are what?

Fucking geniuses?

It still doesn't justify running to hide in Hong Kong, though.

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Snowden's a free man. He can go wherever he pleases.

The guy has a loose screw or two.

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She protested on a bus in Hong Kong.

oiy

The government/corporate intelligence industry is too vast for any semblance of accountability.

There are farmers who pay good money for that big a pile of B.S.

with a top secret clearance that has forced the U.S. government to deny spying on Americans.

Anyway, thanks for a fresh revelation of the method. It's what Greenwald has been doing for at least four years. Very clever and oh so tasty.

K/R

Sid

Aren't you the least bit interested in considering the implications for democracy of the ever-expanding Surveilliance State? Does it not bother you at all that we are spending $billions on hiring private contractors to vacuum up ever more and more data? Is your witch hunt so emotionally all-consuming that you prefer it to the difficult exercise of taking a larger view of the state of our nation?

You post OP after OP full of bloodlust for tearing down a single person. I suspect it's because your worldview has been challenged - and you're totally invested in preserving it and denying all evidence to the contrary. You want to kill the messenger so you won't have to let go of your illusions.

I pity you.

Snowden, Bad. NSA, Good. Guess there's no need to ever discuss this topic again. Your wise words have settled this once and for all. Gracias!

Just give it up. This is becoming sad.

Who's fucking policy? They didnt ask me.
Did they ask you?

I trust the current administrations "policy" as far asw I can throw a piano.

That is NOT how society and laws work . Society and laws work through transparency.

Do you really BELIEVE the swill you're dumping?
Jesus.