Comments

1
Good lord, Ansel.

Do you really not realize that any free email service available is already scanning the entire contents of all messages on behalf of every private corporation willing to pay for ad placement?

In your rush to whip up surveillance-state paranoia, you've managed to imply these free email services would be just fine and dandy and perfectly private if it weren't for the Big Bad Government.

Good job, kiddo.

Any post about any free internet anything should have the Andrew Lewis (blue_beetle) disclaimer at the top of the the writer's awareness, if not at the top of the page.
2
Bye, Yahoo!! (Just kidding. I haven't used Yahoo since the internet was text-only).
3
@1: "Every private corporation willing to pay for ad placement" doesn't target people for more invasive surveillance, put them in jail, blacklist them from traveling, hit them with assassination drones, etc. The U.S. government does all of that.
4
@3, you've obviously never encountered the Google Gestapo. It's not to be sniffed at.
5
I'll be sure to let the Baby Boomers (and older) people in my family know. They're the only folks left that use Yahoo mail, and saying they know how to use it is being generous.

This comes as no surprise though. I expect that most, if not all, of the major free mail providers work with the NSA/CIA/FBI/HPV/OPP on this stuff. Nothing is truly free, after all. And that founder of Open Whisper Systems? Precisely the stereotype I was expecting to see. I'm actually a little surprised that he fits so perfectly the mental picture I had come up with before clicking the link.
6
@3

Last time I checked, yes, The US Government bore the responsibility of preventing and prosecuting violent crime, not private corporations.

You would prefer to change this, and give private corporations more of those powers?
7
@6 ....seriously?
9
@7

Yes, absolutely seriously.

Who do you want to grant the power and responsibility of preventing, investigating, and prosecuting violent crime?
10
@9 Probably not a government that infringes on civil rights. You're arguing in favor of police state overreach, you understand that, right?
11
@10

I'm doing no such thing.

Why don't you tell us how you think the government is going to use the data gathered to violate people's rights? And why you think the companies paying for exactly the same service aren't violating anyones' rights?
12
My AOL email works just fine. Who are these Yahoo people?
14
@12 I HOPE your joking.

Not only did AOL do the exact same thing Yahoo did but they also have failed to update their service to use even the most basic of modern security measures.
15
@11 American's have the right to be free from Warrant-less Searches and Seizures.

That right was explicitly violated.
16
@13 not necessarily true. the licensing agreement specifies what information can be used, shared with others, and how. unless there is something the agreement that allows for sharing with the government for purposes the government is using it for, then, no, agreeing to share with one person isn't agreeing to share with everybody/the government.
18
@17 of course its unreasonable. Are you 10 years old?

Please wait...

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