Showing posts with label NSA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NSA. Show all posts
[caption id="attachment_6552" align="alignnone" width="497"]
What's it mean? Search me. It's in Russian.[/caption]
My post on Adblock Plus, got me wondering about Yandex, the most popular search engine in the Russian Federation, and one of the online services reported to be paying Adblock's developers Eyeo to be on the program's "whitelist" allowing Yadex's ads to get through the popular ad blocker.
Yandex has a 60% market share in the Russian Federation, but they're far from being just a big fish in a small Russian pond; they're a pretty big deal, period. They are the fourth largest search engine worldwide, with more than 150 million searches per day as of April 2012, and more than 50.5 million visitors (all company's services) daily as of February 2013, all according to the Wikipedia entry.
What's it mean? Search me. It's in Russian.[/caption]My post on Adblock Plus, got me wondering about Yandex, the most popular search engine in the Russian Federation, and one of the online services reported to be paying Adblock's developers Eyeo to be on the program's "whitelist" allowing Yadex's ads to get through the popular ad blocker.
Yandex has a 60% market share in the Russian Federation, but they're far from being just a big fish in a small Russian pond; they're a pretty big deal, period. They are the fourth largest search engine worldwide, with more than 150 million searches per day as of April 2012, and more than 50.5 million visitors (all company's services) daily as of February 2013, all according to the Wikipedia entry.
[caption id="attachment_1968" align="alignnone" width="497"]
The recently revealed Prism program has civil rights advocates up in arms, and conspiracy wingnuts hunkering in their tinfoil hats. Click image to enlarge.[/caption]
The United States' National Security Agency, tasked with gathering, and assessing signal intelligence from, well, everywhere on Earth, is once again looking all Big brother-y, with revelations about a massive, ongoing domestic surveillance program, targeting cell phone users. by the millions. the unofficial Czar of all US counter-terrorism activities, since 9-11, Nicola Machiavelli, has been unavailable for comment. However, he has previously been quoted thus:
The US, intelligence apparatus doesn't bother too much with friendlies, and un-friendlies -- every other country is a competitor, and economics is war by a different name -- Canada too follows this model. Don't ask how Canada is involved in Prism; history suggests we'll be both a signal intelligence target, and collection asset. Where Canada is concerned (Woof!), the US doesn't respect -- it expects.
Privacy and civil right groups see Prism as more erosion of the American citizen's rights; the FBI will see it as more erosion of their rights -- they are the agency officially constituted to deal with crimes on US soil, but, the 9-11 terrorists toppled their rep also.
I think people protest too much. The Hoi Polloi, is givin' away what the NSA is supposedly taking. The Social Media business model is all but built on privacy violation.
And, how many of the cell phone conversations, particularly those containing embarrassingly personal information, will have been yelled out in public places -- people don't mind if everyone in a two-kilometre radius hears their side of a painful argument -- but it's a violation of their privacy if it make that extra effort, and reaches Langley, Virginia, and the NSA.
The recently revealed Prism program has civil rights advocates up in arms, and conspiracy wingnuts hunkering in their tinfoil hats. Click image to enlarge.[/caption]The United States' National Security Agency, tasked with gathering, and assessing signal intelligence from, well, everywhere on Earth, is once again looking all Big brother-y, with revelations about a massive, ongoing domestic surveillance program, targeting cell phone users. by the millions. the unofficial Czar of all US counter-terrorism activities, since 9-11, Nicola Machiavelli, has been unavailable for comment. However, he has previously been quoted thus:
"In actions of all men, especially princes, where there is no recourse to justice, the end is all that counts. A prince should only be concerned with conquering or maintaining a state, for the means will always be judged to be honourable and praiseworthy by each and every person, because the masses always follow appearances and the outcomes of affairs, and the world is nothing other than the masses. The few do not find a place wherever the masses are supported." ►
The US, intelligence apparatus doesn't bother too much with friendlies, and un-friendlies -- every other country is a competitor, and economics is war by a different name -- Canada too follows this model. Don't ask how Canada is involved in Prism; history suggests we'll be both a signal intelligence target, and collection asset. Where Canada is concerned (Woof!), the US doesn't respect -- it expects.
Privacy and civil right groups see Prism as more erosion of the American citizen's rights; the FBI will see it as more erosion of their rights -- they are the agency officially constituted to deal with crimes on US soil, but, the 9-11 terrorists toppled their rep also.
I think people protest too much. The Hoi Polloi, is givin' away what the NSA is supposedly taking. The Social Media business model is all but built on privacy violation.
And, how many of the cell phone conversations, particularly those containing embarrassingly personal information, will have been yelled out in public places -- people don't mind if everyone in a two-kilometre radius hears their side of a painful argument -- but it's a violation of their privacy if it make that extra effort, and reaches Langley, Virginia, and the NSA.
I could've just used this wallpaper as illustration, but that's cheating. ►
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