Ok. Now today there’s another news story being published about how the NSA is developing or has the capability to obtain data from “leaky” Android and iOS apps (such as the popular game Angry Birds).
Now someone might read this latest story and think “Why wouldn’t the NSA develop capabilities to obtain such data?” That’s a fair question and anyone would ask it.
But the answer I think is not so simple. To me it is a serious problem if my government knows that certain mobile devices or their applications are insecure and, rather than help protect Americans to ensure their privacy, it allows the insecurities to go on existing and then willfully exploits them. That is not the role that I think 99.9% of American citizens think that our government should serve.
If I have a friend – a neighbor, whatever – and I have information about something that is detrimental to him or her – and I not only willfully fail to disclose info about it to him or her but I actively develop something to take advantage of and exploit it – I think that is fucked. I think that is reprehensible. If I ever became such a lousy sleezebag in my relations with fellow human beings I should probably be taken out.
More and more the undercurrent of all these revelations is the tone one gets that our goverment is this shitty neighbor more than happy to see our fortunes fail and eager and willing at every opportunity to exploint any and all weaknesses or vulnerabilities we have. That makes our government the shittiest of neighbors. That is not what government is supposed to be, and it has everything to do with what Edward Snowden has been consistently telling us about.
Its as bad as the mobile carriers willfully failing to include a comprehensive solution to lock stolen phones and prevent them from being resold by thieves because they can milk it and sell such solutions as extra “features”.
And, by the way, its our government. We are paying for it.
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