In the end, you're treated like a spy, says MIT scientist

Re:In the end, you're treated like a spy, says MIT scientist by mjparrott on Friday January 28, 2022 @12:52PM (#30118033)

[Impact per unit of spying] X [number of spies caught] - [impact per unit of innocent person being impacted] X [number of innocent people falsely accused] = net impact to society

Typically, the first part of the equation is wildly overestimated because by stopping spies in 1 area, they just find another way to do what they want to do and the impact happens anyways. Or the threat evolves over time but the policies do not resulting in negative side-effects and very little benefit anymore (e.g. the TSA)

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Re:In the end, you're treated like a spy, says MIT scientist by kelnos on Friday January 28, 2022 @02:54PM (#30119515)

This was my thought as well. The comparison isn't exact, but this feels like a War on Drugs situation: you're never going to stamp out all spying, and as you try, a lot of innocent (or at least non-harmful) people will get swept up in the process and their lives destroyed.

Now, I think policing espionage is more valuable than policing drugs, and the dynamics certainly all aren't the same. But I think the bar for making espionage accusations -- just the accusations themselves -- needs to be much higher than it is.

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Re:In the end, you're treated like a spy, says MIT scientist by rayiner on Friday January 28, 2022 @11:44PM (#30123858)

The “impact per unit of spying” buries a big term in there. It effects 330 million Americans, while a wrongful accusation affects just a few.

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