
Only Edward Snowden Can Save James Bond - buserror
https://theintercept.com/2015/11/09/only-edward-snowden-can-save-james-bond/
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mtgx
> Knowing everything about everyone is actually of limited use to the good
> guys. But it’s hugely useful to the bad guys — be they extortionists,
> terrorists, or power-mad bureaucrats. And if it’s collected, somewhere, be
> assured the bad guys can get their hands on it.

I love that argument. We should use that more. The "a backdoor for the good
guys is a backdoor for the bad guys" argument seems to have (mostly) worked in
the US at least, and this is just an extension of that but for the broader
mass surveillance argument.

And another great one:

> What if mass surveillance by an ostensibly beneficent national government
> really means that whatever the government collects is de facto transparent
> to SPECTRE, SMERSH, Kaos, the mob, the cartels, Carlos the Jackal, ISIS, and
> Vladimir Putin?

It reminds me of this post that was on HN earlier this year, too, about how
the Nazi used the Dutch registry to find where the Jews were and exterminate
them:

> Once the civil registry was in the hands of the enemy the extermination
> program for Amsterdam based Jews (those that had not fled) moved into high
> gear and street after street was raided. Entire neighbourhoods stood empty.
> The importance of the registry was not lost on the resistance who planned
> and executed a brave attack (Dutch) to destroy as much of the registry as
> they could by firebombing it after subduing the guards.

[http://jacquesmattheij.com/if-you-have-nothing-to-
hide](http://jacquesmattheij.com/if-you-have-nothing-to-hide)

In other words, this isn't just a theory that the bad guys have more use for
this centralized "everything about everyone" information, but it has _actually
happened_. Of course all of the data breaches we see these days serve to show
that point as well.

Maybe we need to ramp up our own campaign that tries to demolish the "mass
surveillance keeps you safe" message with the "mass surveillance puts you in
danger" message.

~~~
buserror
That's the scary bit, and it seems nobody actually groks that. Asks people,
they are happy for their supermarket to track them, the utility companies to
track them and as for the state, the argument 'but, I have nothing to hide' is
typical...

And they don't realize that it's when that data will go astray that Bad Things
happends... and data WILL escape, either by bad guys getting their hands on
them, or these companies selling it on.

