
NSA chief sidesteps queries on cellphone location tracking - sethbannon
http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2013/09/26/official-sidesteps-queries-cellphone-locations/09N2IlzgGjTT9pFq4XEN7K/story.html
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swombat
For the record, I am saddened to see that HN has given up on giving stories
about this their proper place. There haven't been many stories on the topic
rising to the top recently, and the few who did sank back down quickly,
presumably under the weight of flaggings by people who'd rather read about
Erlang or web design or funding topics or startup stories or obscure
technological marvels or some other worthy topic (not sarcastic - I think
those are fine topics to read about).

It is sad to see that in the end, distraction wins. Huxley was right - the
world is going to turn bad before our eyes but we (as a civilisation) won't
care, it's more fun to just read about what we like. We're just too good at
producing stuff that we like to read, and at ignoring stuff that's
uncomfortable.

Until this is resolved in some way, there should not be a day that passes
without one of the top HN stories being about NSA spying.

~~~
mintplant
There are plenty of places to talk about the NSA outside this site. The issue
has taken over the conversation on so many discussion boards that I'd much
prefer if HN doesn't get drowned out by the same. Especially if the actual
content is mostly speculation.

~~~
swombat
Pray tell what those places are. I don't have any other such places.

Also, HN was drowned out for the first week or so. Then it became a steady
trickle. Then a bunch of people, presumably such as yourself, decided that
even that trickle was irritating to them and started flagging NSA stories on
sight. Since then the trickle has died out, and there is nothing.

Obama and his cohorts can go back to bed in peace, knowing this was just
another internet fad and, as predicted, the geeks are easily distracted by
some new gadgets or talk of technical gimmicks.

~~~
krapp
>Obama and his cohorts can go back to bed in peace, knowing this was just
another internet fad and, as predicted, the geeks are easily distracted by
some new gadgets or talk of technical gimmicks.

Yes, because Obama and his cohorts were really sweating over what Hacker News
thought about anything.

------
frank_boyd
1\. Since Snowden's revelations, we'll always have to assume the worst.

2\. Any answers from any of these government agencies must be assumed to be
lies (except for admission of guilt, of course) or to be misleading.

So, the circus is almost certainly worth nothing anyway.

~~~
bediger4000
I heartily endorse items (1) and (2), but I disagree with your conclusion. At
the very least, having a major paper put out the denials so publicly will
allow folks to match the inevitable Glenn Greenwald or Bart Gellman shocking
revelation with the original lame denials.

It's like Ben Franklin wrote, everybody's good for something, even if it's
only as the "before" exhibit.

------
ISL
Ron Wyden would appear to be a patriot in the true sense of the word.

It's refreshing to see the "if you're not doing anything wrong, you have
nothing to hide" approach turned about.

------
throwaway_yy2Di
They're not "tracking" your cellphones. You are voluntarily transmitting the
location of your cellphones to telecoms, who can do whatever they want with
it. It is not a "search" under the 5th (sorry! 4th!) amendment, because the
information is the property of a third party. Also it's just metadata.

 _edit: This comment is meant to be sardonic._

~~~
pyrocat
Wrong amendment, "just metadata", "they're not tracking your cellphones"

Sheesh, no wonder you posted with a throwaway.

~~~
throwaway_yy2Di
Sorry about the wrong amendment! I need a coffee.

I think the tone of my comment didn't come through clearly, I've added a
disclaimer.

------
ankushnarula
How they gonna drone your ass if they can't track your ass?

In all seriousness - at the Aspen Institute talks former NSA chief General
Hayden emphasized that location data is much more important than the content
of mobile wireless traffic. So this tells me that if "they" know where you
are, they can at the very least deploy assets to contain, apprehend, or
neutralize a target. The US almost certainly used this technique to track and
kill US Citizen turned al-Qaeda soldier Anwar Awlaki in Yemen (no due
process/no trial).

