
Ask HN: What could be the real world applications of Snowden's revelations? - imheretolearn
I was just wondering if someone without the credentials of Snowden told you the applications of mass surveillance would you believe him?
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vlod
To a degree, but it's ranked to how close to the edge they are.

As experienced technologists we certainly know HOW it can be done but we
probably struggled to believe they have the competence (governments generally
suck at getting stuff done) or the generally willingness to store generally
boring chit-chat on phone-calls/social media.

i.e. from an efficiency point of of view, I expected them to monitor "bad"
people and didn't really expect them to monitor "boring/normal" people.

I think having someone with Snowdens credentials certainly helps. I think
critical thinking people generally listen to people who we value as being
closer to the issue. (or least rank them higher)

e.g.

\- Is climate change real? What do the majority of climate scientists think?

\- Is this startup trend/idea interesting? What does pg think?

\- Is this thing about COVID-19 real? What does Dr. Champbell (youtube) think?

~~~
imheretolearn
What about the victims of the surveillance? Are they lying then?

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vlod
Maybe I was being a bit too generic. I was trying to lay down the framework I
use to determine how credible a source of data is.

Since Snowdown is on the 'edge' (i.e. worked for the IC), I'm going to believe
him more than Uncle Bob who works at the 7-11 and ranting about the
government.

