nexttimer

I like seeing people offering solutions against mass surveillance.

What I want to suggest is that you drop the requests you send to 3rd party services like Google. If somebody makes money off of collecting as much data about us as they can, it's Google, Facebook, etc. So, letting them track your users is a contradiction.

But what has really changed?

Nothing. And that seems to be his point. He's done (more than) his part. Now, if we don't like 1984, then it's now up to us to start acting.

The real use of money is to buy freedom

The real problem is: This additional freedom you can buy with money means less freedom for somebody else.

Inequality (wealth-based) means nothing else than domination. If you are richer, then you dominate the poorer people. And richer countries dominate poorer countries.

This is the most basic and fundamental injustice [0] we seem to accept in our Western culture. Because we are those who dominate.

[0] If you remember that we keep telling ourselves the nice little story how every life has the exact same value.

What's wrong with http://retroshare.sourceforge.net/ ?

It's encrypted, distributed, open-source. It has chat, messaging, file sharing, forums, etc.

What more do you want? If anything, why not just write a plug-in for it or otherwise contribute?

It's a dig at anything closed.

Buy hardware and software you, as the paying customer, remain allowed to control.

As usual - what's possible to exploit will be exploited.

There's really only 1 solid solution to this:

Open software and open hardware.

It's really "funny" how all this is happening.

Approved by our "representatives" in DC.

Approved by us, the consumers (by our continued use of the concerned technologies, products and services).

Yup, the redder the flag, the sooner you should quit.

Facebook is also on that list.

No shit, sherlock.

“I won’t call him a hero, but he’s sure as hell no traitor.”

No hero? What does it take for you then?

Actually, he's not a hero, he's more like Jesus of our times, giving away his (perfect) life for us (who - of course - don't even appreciate his sacrifice, let alone act).

Also, how can you claim to have a secure app when it runs on a closed-source operating system? (Even more, we know about Microsoft handing over security holes to the NSA - why would Apple or Google not do the same?).

It's like saying "this heat is really cold". In other words: a contradiction in itself.

Only open-source apps on open-source operating systems can start making claims about security and trustworthiness.

In plain English, this NSA is saying:

"If we 'consider' this, it's because the most important information is still not out there, yet."

So it's basically counter-productive, unless your goal is to get the public behind the NSA in order to hang Snowden one way or the other.

Why Are Americans Staying Put?

I was expecting an article on why Americans don't riot, given the circumstances and the trend.

I think the majority of the US public doesn't even need any of that propaganda to hang Snowden in public and continue to put up with corrupt DC.

:-) Sorry, it was sarcasm.

It's what psychopaths usually say to their victims. If you hear it (or think you're hearing it), the person/organization you have in front of you is of psychopathic nature (it should be stopped at all costs).

Other translation: If we let them rape us, then we deserve it.

Don't fight it. Just let it take over. Stop struggling. Once you'll have stopped struggling, it won't hurt anymore. You won't feel any difference anymore. And it will be like it was never different.