"If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear"

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

So a lot of people in the US are currently pulling their hair out about the new revelation that the NSA has been spying on people. Somehow they seem to have forgot they already have known that since the 90's, but that's material for another post.

In a recent post in another community, there was a quote that seemed off. So I went and looked for it, and besides being mis-attributed, its not real at all. However, there's plenty of people who are quick to grab any evidence they find that supports their views without much research.

Take this for instance:
http://politichicks.tv/column/nsa-if-you-have-nothing-to-hide-you-have-nothing-to-fear/

Mrs Goodman uses ample scary sounding links that are referenced. The problem is the reference is to a parody site: http://nsa.gov1.info/

You wouldn't know that unless you go to the very bottom where in small letters it reads: "This is a parody of nsa.gov and has not been approved, endorsed, or authorized by the National Security Agency or by any other U.S. Government agency."

Now, there is a Utah data center being built, but most of the information people claim as facts are not. Most seems to have come from a book http://www.amazon.co.uk/Secret-Sentry-History-National-Security/dp/1596915153 "The Secret Sentry" by Matthew Aid who is an Intelligence Historian. The only information known for sure is it will hold a whole lot of data.

Mrs. Goodman can feel a litle better in that she's not alone. I saw lots of people linking to that website stating it as evidence that Big Brother is being callous.

Here's a random other link: http://usc.247sports.com/Board/59419/NSA-IF-YOU-HAVE-NOTHING-TO-HIDE-YOU-HAVE-NOTHING-TO-FEAR-19245859/1 that goes on for pages of people just accepting that it was a real source and a real statement.

Forbes contributor who was previously fooled: http://www.forbes.com/sites/richardstiennon/2013/06/07/nsa-surveillance-threatens-us-competitiveness/
He's now changed his links to wikipedia. Unfortunately most of the wiki sources are unsourced opinion pieces. The most factual link that "it is to monitor emails" links to an article of the NSA denying it is to monitor emails. I guess that's all the proof some people need.


Please people, study your references.

Comments

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

I remember "If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear" more then a decade ago.

My problem now I think is, I'm all out of fear.

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

Believing that you are likely to have your emails read by the NSA is not the same thing as knowing for sure that they are capturing them. Also, people who believed they were being spied on were called paranoid and made fun of. So, your lead off statement is plain incorrect.

In a recent post in another community, there was a quote that seemed off

What quote is that? I assume that you mean the quote in the post title. Is your problem with it merely that someone claimed the NSA actually said that? That seems like a pretty silly problem to have, since most people don't make any such claim. The problem is all the people who support the government spying on everyone saying that.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of all the people who said that 'I can see Russia from my house' was said by Sarah Palin. Checking sources is part of a basic requirement for approaching real life in an objective, rational manner.

[devil-ad-vocate.livejournal.com]

I don't mind giving up the appearance of privacy to live with the illusion of safety.

[paft.livejournal.com]

One of the most classic examples of this took place during the 2000 presidential election. Someone took a bunch of bonafide Dan Quayle quotes and attributed them to Al Gore, reasoning (apparently correctly) that nobody would bother to check them out. What was fascinating was the number of right wingers who seemed to consider the fact that they were actually said by a Republican VP, not a Democratic VP, beside the point.

[uglich-jj.livejournal.com]

of course all e-maills , calls and SMS are subject of the key-words and other content analysis.
in case of something interesting - Big Brother is in action immediatly.

[brother-dour.livejournal.com]

It's the principle of the matter.