China's social network surveillance databases are apparently leaked to Internet

Re:China's social network surveillance databases are apparen... by Cthulhu_ on Monday March 04, 2019 @05:42AM (#19300245)

An argument can be made that any prevented crimes are not published, with the intent of lulling would-be criminals or terrorists into a safe sense of security - that is, that communicating via a certain platform is safe enough, not knowing the NSA is listening in.

And on the other hand, what makes you feel safer: no news at all, or "1000 potential terrorist threats thwarted through surveillance". The former is dull, but dull is good right? The latter is stressful on both sides, on the one hand that apparently there are at least 1000 terrorists active - and what about the ones they didn't catch - and on the other that the government is listening.

So that's my theory; if government surveillance is effective, it's kept under wraps so it remains effective.

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Re:China's social network surveillance databases are apparen... by viraptor on Monday March 04, 2019 @06:11AM (#19300381)

> An argument can be made that any prevented crimes are not published

Between the police fighting for funding, media fighting for content (Florida man), and police force for recognition (police posing with stashes of money/drugs/guns), I'm not sure there's much strategic hiding going on.

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