The most interesting aspect of this is that immediately after the NSA seems to agree that it lets trainees listen to random phone calls it claims it "absolutely does not" spy on citizens. What is spying, then, according to the NSA definition?
"Shamrock covered decades-old secret agreements with the nation's large telegraph companies under which NSA and its predecessor agencies automatically received copies of international telegrams.
"At the peak of the operation, in the early 1970s, NSA analysts were reviewing 150,000 telegrams a month selected by computers scanning for keywords of interest to U.S. intelligence. Only in 1975, as Senator Church's committee began its inquiry, was Shamrock stopped."
Alright guys, can we put an end to this NSA and Snowden stuff? Why are we pretending this is some forum to discuss politics and ethics? This is a forum for software and entrepreneurs. Can HN go back to it's roots?
Now, I am sure someone will immediately downvote and point out that this stuff is 'interesting' and related to hackers because this is data theft. If you are concerned, do something about NSA/Snowden. And then show HN what you have done. You will have my highest regards. But just reading and commenting on 100's of articles rehashing the same thing is a pointless waste of time. This is all getting very tiring. We have reddit for just this.
Hacker News is a place for news relevant to hackers. This is relevant, as evidenced by the fact that its members continue to upvote and discuss it. If you don't want to read about or discuss it, don't, and submit and upvote other stories instead.
I'd love to see solutions submitted as well. Let's see more of that. But discussing it is also valuable, as it helps build momentum and prevents the story from dying out and fading away like it always has in the past when similar revelations came out.
Though the tone and relevance of your post may not have been spot on, I have to agree. I spend an inordinate amount of my free time reading news and in-depth political commentary, but I've found myself returning to HN less and less as sophomoric legal analysis and cyber-anarchist hero worship is regurgitated to the front page ad nauseam.
This is not to say I agree with "Prism" or dragnet surveillance, but I've found HN to be the last place I've found actual insight on the issue as of late.
I think it's highly relevant to HN, but agree that the quality of discussion here has been abysmal. Just because you think logically as a hacker doesn't mean you automatically understand law, for example.
