[Wikimedia-l] NSA

[Michael Snow]

On 7/31/2013 3:31 PM, Nathan wrote:
> And another thought - you know what unites most of the other companies
> represented by the logos in that image? Leaks have confirmed that most
> of them are the subject of secret orders to turn over huge amounts of
> raw data to the government. They are all bound to secrecy by law, so
> without permission none of them are permitted to describe or disclose
> the nature or extent of the data demands the U.S. government has made.
>
> Now if you imagine the puzzle globe on that slide implies that
> Wikipedia traffic is retained for intelligence analysis, it's a short
> hop to assume that the Wikimedia Foundation is also the subject of a
> blanket order transferring its server logs to the NSA.
Facebook, Google, Yahoo, and Twitter, yes. But mail.ru? The shift from 
"most" to "all" in the first paragraph may make it easy to assume the 
similarity is universal, but it's ignoring the full context. That kind 
of rhetorical shift is a favorite trick of conspiracy theorists, it's 
how they get you to make those short hops to unwarranted conclusions.

--Michael Snow