Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by rcamera 4729 days ago
You start talking about Snowden, but then switched the topic to information freedom and privacy.

Anything about Snowden appears to be on-topic to me. No, his sex life, what he eats, how he sleeps, all those personal aspects don't matter, what matters is the leaks, and discussing where the person who disclosed them is at the moment is pretty useless because this will be an entire discussion based on assumptions and I think this or I think that...

Now, if you want to discuss about information freedom or privacy issues or the leaks, this thread has nothing to do about it.

2 comments

Snowden is the current face of information freedom and privacy. His whereabouts, whether or not he's been secretly rendered, been abducted by the Russians, whisked away to China as a spy, or if he's made it to his final destination of Ecuador is insight into the information wars the world's governments are waging upon one another and their citizens.

As far as "...information freedom or privacy issues or the leaks, this thread has nothing to do about it.", I think you are missing the story.

Whatever happens to Snowden is part of the story. What happens to the guy who revealed this information will set the posture for how the US treats future Bradley Mannings. This incident will be shaping information security policies for dozens of governments, hundreds of multinational companies, and affect international relations between the US and the most powerful countries in the world.

This particular post raises an important question of are we being told the truth about Snowden's whereabouts? It wouldn't be difficult to imagine that some government, foreign or domestic, has him in a hole, trying to get information out of him somewhere while the speculation of him tucked in a corner of a Russian airport, drinking newsstand coffee and bathing in the public restrooms circulates the news headlines.

While on-topic, there are certainly other posts on the topic that provide much more value. Snowden's whereabouts are part of the biggest story to rock the Internet in the past decade: The US government is listening to the intimate details of everything the world is transmitting (potentially including US citizens), and some lone analyst is responsible for telling the world about these violations of privacy and trust.

Why are you trying to hijack this thread with these mentions of eating and sleeping and so forth? If this conversation truly doesn't interest you, then go read another thread.