Science, Technology, + Culture

How Society, Science and Technology interact with each other

Menu

Skip to content
  • Home
  • About

Tag Archives: network theory

NSA and Edward Snowden

Posted on June 11, 2013 by Kapsar

Today saw the unveiling of the NSA leaker, Edward Snowden, a highschool dropout that worked his way through sheer capabilities as a programmer. To me this guy is pretty amazing. He cares about the people that he could have put in harms way, he made sure that he did not release any information that would put anyone in harms way, even though he had the capabilities. He learned from Bradley Manning and worked to ensure there would be no risks of physical injury. He felt that these actions violated the constitution and decided to expose these deeds to the public even though he knew his life was over. He believes he’s likely to be targeted by the US government or an agent, such as a member of the Triad gang (he’s in Hong Kong), to be executed.

Not only he is clearly concerned, but the media seems to think that this is also true. My roommate was watching ABC news with Diane Sawyer and during one segue she mentioned that he may have left because he feared for his life and was likely in danger. Think about it. It’s publicly acknowledged by our press, that it’s likely a whistleblower might be killed by the US government. This is a US citizen that has a family history of serving (father a member of the coast guard and mother a legal clerk) the US government. He is afraid for his life because he believes that the US government would murder him. If he dies and his body is found the blame will automatically fall upon the government. Edward will not be able to answer phone calls, call anyone, and is essentially on his own to make it to a country that has no extradition treaty with the US. This is a travesty – the fact that many people believe this man is going to die within the next few weeks – killed by his own government without his right to a trial.

Why does what he said matter? A lot of people are talking about it being only Metadata – here’s an excellent article explaining what would have happened if the British had meta data during the revolutionary war. It would have ID’d Paul Revere as a likely revolutionary based on his association. Knowing nothing else about him other than a few clubs he and 254 other people in Boston were members of it was possible to deduce the entire social network and who was at the center of the networks.

As I mentioned in my last blog post this network analysis would have caused the changes in my Facebook network to raise some red flags. I suddenly move to Europe (I didn’t list Eindhoven has my city of residence it would have been inferred from my friends), some of my first connects in Europe on Facebook were 2 Colombians, 2 Pakistanis, an Iranian, and a Turk. These changes represented a major shift in my circle of friends. I had few non-americans as friends and no Iranians or Pakistanis in my network. Using the full history of my data they wouldn’t have found much except that I liked to drink and wrote drunk posts on Facebook while in college. However, it’s likely I would have remained someone to keep an eye on, and since then I’ve written numerous posts about Anonymous, LulzSec and other controversial topics.

Anyway, it’s important to keep this in mind when selecting the companies you decide to store your information with, even if it’s “only” metadata. Where you go, who you talk to, and what you do online are all representations of you and a lot of information can be gleaned from that.

What can we do? Vote all the bums out of office next go around for one. Start companies that only hand over encrypted data that the end users are the only ones that can decrypt it. Educate your friends, family, co-workers, and anyone politically minded you know. We need to drive change otherwise this will continue and will only get worse. At what point do we need to start worrying that the NSA/US Government will start killing your friends because of who they talk to and what they believe?

Posted in Business, Technology | Tagged government, metadata, network theory, networks, NSA, Snowden, Surveillance, verizon | 1 Comment

Categories

Recent Posts

  • McKay has crossed the rainbow bridge August 29, 2022
  • Roe and the Erosion of Rights June 25, 2022
  • Published a Book! January 11, 2022
  • How I deal with – just Google It June 5, 2021
  • Cosmic Horror, Pandemics, and Allergies March 6, 2021

Archives

  • August 2022 (1)
  • June 2022 (1)
  • January 2022 (1)
  • June 2021 (1)
  • March 2021 (1)
  • February 2021 (1)
  • January 2021 (1)
  • November 2020 (1)
  • October 2020 (3)
  • August 2020 (3)
  • June 2020 (3)
  • May 2020 (1)
  • March 2020 (5)
  • February 2020 (4)
  • January 2020 (5)
  • October 2019 (2)
  • September 2019 (2)
  • July 2019 (1)
  • March 2019 (1)
  • January 2019 (5)
  • December 2018 (1)
  • November 2018 (1)
  • October 2018 (2)
  • September 2018 (3)
  • July 2018 (1)
  • June 2018 (1)
  • May 2018 (3)
  • April 2018 (8)
  • March 2018 (1)
  • February 2018 (3)
  • January 2018 (1)
  • November 2017 (2)
  • September 2017 (1)
  • June 2017 (1)
  • February 2017 (1)
  • January 2017 (4)
  • December 2016 (2)
  • November 2016 (2)
  • March 2016 (5)
  • February 2016 (6)
  • June 2015 (1)
  • May 2015 (1)
  • April 2015 (7)
  • March 2015 (9)
  • February 2015 (5)
  • January 2015 (6)
  • December 2014 (5)
  • November 2014 (6)
  • October 2014 (5)
  • September 2014 (5)
  • August 2014 (6)
  • July 2014 (4)
  • June 2014 (6)
  • May 2014 (12)
  • April 2014 (7)
  • March 2014 (8)
  • February 2014 (8)
  • January 2014 (11)
  • December 2013 (19)
  • November 2013 (4)
  • October 2013 (9)
  • June 2013 (3)
  • May 2013 (6)
  • February 2013 (2)
  • December 2012 (1)
  • November 2012 (1)
  • October 2012 (1)
  • August 2012 (2)
  • July 2012 (8)
  • June 2012 (6)
  • May 2012 (7)
  • April 2012 (9)
  • March 2012 (9)
  • February 2012 (7)
  • January 2012 (7)
  • December 2011 (11)
  • November 2011 (11)
  • October 2011 (22)
  • September 2011 (15)
  • August 2011 (15)
  • July 2011 (15)
  • June 2011 (23)

Recent Comments

Rose on Healthcare Exchanges offer a w…
Kapsar on McKay has crossed the rainbow…
Kelly Kapsar on McKay has crossed the rainbow…
Roe and the Erosion… on Book Review: White Rage by Car…
Grief, Depression, a… on Book Review: The End of Food A…
Follow Science, Technology, + Culture on WordPress.com

Follow me on Twitter

My Tweets

Goodreads

Blogs I Follow

  • Wizardness
  • andrewsarchis
  • Yanis Varoufakis
  • TechnoScience as if People Mattered
  • John Lee Taggart
Blog at WordPress.com.
Wizardness

Fantasy and Speculative Short Stories

andrewsarchis

Yanis Varoufakis

THOUGHTS FOR THE POST-2008 WORLD

TechnoScience as if People Mattered

John Lee Taggart

Writer, Filmmaker, & Procrastinator

  • Follow Following
    • Science, Technology, + Culture
    • Join 172 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Science, Technology, + Culture
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar