"Wow, you must wear a tinfoil hat, you really think the government is tapping your phones?"
"Wow, you didn't already know that every phone is tapped? You're so behind the times. Every cool person is already jaded about that."
There's almost no will from voters to fight this, so the discourse instantly leaps from "impossible" to "acceptable".
“ The Defense Department has a long-standing relationship with Hollywood. In fact, it’s been working with filmmakers for nearly 100 years with a goal that’s two-fold: to accurately depict military stories and make sure sensitive information isn’t disclosed.”
https://www.defense.gov/News/Inside-DOD/blog/article/2062735...
Some people have standards and want to do good. Some of them work in Hollywood. And some of them in your city's administration. Not everybody is as selfish and unethical as portrayed here.
Maybe it reflects on the person expressing such theories though.
Meanwhile...the US Army's Public Affair Dept. is headed by a 2-star general (same rank as the top general in command of an entire Army Division), and its mission is:
"Public affairs fulfills the Army's obligation to keep the American people and the Army informed, and helps to establish the conditions that lead to confidence in America's Army and its readiness to conduct operations in peacetime, conflict and war."
(Source: https://www.army.mil/publicaffairs/ I'd guess that the Navy, Air Force, etc. all have similar...)
This kind of statement assumes a too simple model of the involved actors.
The Pentagon and CIA Have Shaped Thousands of Hollywood Movies into Super Effective Propaganda
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/how-hollywood-became-the-unof...
How Hollywood became the unofficial propaganda arm of the U.S. military
https://www.militarytimes.com/off-duty/military-culture/2022...
New documentary scrutinizes Pentagon-Hollywood relationship — but is it propaganda?
https://www.jstor.org/stable/45129369
The Historical Roots of CIA-Hollywood Propaganda
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/may/26/top-gun-for-hir...
Top Gun for hire: why Hollywood is the US military’s best wingman
https://netzpolitik.org/2022/dude-wheres-my-privacy-how-a-ho...
How a Hollywood star lobbies the EU for more surveillance
The European Union debates a new law that could force platforms to scan all private messages for signs of child abuse. Its most prominent advocate is the actor Ashton Kutcher.
Not sure I'd call it psy-op.
When it became feasible for the NSA to essentially tap every phone in the U.S. I think most of us just presume that they will do just that.
Historically, it's what those with power will do — exercise it.
And for all number of examples in history we are not naive enough to think that their saying they're not doing it (are no longer doing it) means nothing.
Much narrower claims were dismissed as paranoia before Snowden's disclosures. The comment you replied to made that point specifically.
First it was a problem for the people of 2050.
Then 2023 happened and it was too late so why bother doing anything.
And this was deliberate. Those in the know knew _of_ the program, but could do little actionable with that knowledge without Snowden’s public proof.
Seems to me this state of surveillance has just been accepted as a norm. People in the business have taken precautions like using more encryption and auditable open source, while the people outside the tech business just shrug their shoulders and shake their fists at dirty politicians.
Do you mean for their own small scale activities?
The only ECDH curves possible to use on the big tech internet were given by the head of the NSA with no explanation and are manipulatable.
Perhaps because until February 2023 (when FIPS 186-5 was published) it wasn't approved for US government use:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EdDSA#Standardization_and_impl...
So there would have been complications for a sizeable base of potential customers (US, contractors, allies).
For example my $dayjob does government contracts (in europe) and we're noticing a lot more agencies request on-prem, within borders, service hosting.
When the mainstream media doesn't report on something, it's forgotten within days. They dictate what most people think and talk about.
Pandora papers? Pleasure Island?
What was the name of the woman that got jailed? Do you remember her jail sentence being a joke? What about the list?
What was in the news two weeks ago? What was NOT in the news two weeks ago, despite being noteworthy?