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Comment by meowface | Hacker News Reader

I fully agree. Private industry, as well as fraudsters and criminals who were somehow armed with all of this data could probably end up being far more nefarious than anything the NSA is actually doing right now.

Imagine if a Russian cybercrime gang gained access to NSA's Quantum Insert method, for example.

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I mean, obviously a criminal organization having this data would be much more of issue than the government having it...

But, I don't see how that justifies the US government having the information in the first place. That's obviously not the point that you're making or agreeing with, but I feel like it's almost being implied.

"Oh well, at least it wasn't Russian cybercrime that completely and pervasively destroyed the worlds trust in our entire nations technological infrastructure", seems to be a tangential point at best to the conversation at hand.

If anything, it's another reason the US government shouldn't have it ... any insecurity they create / encourage, or data trove they maintain becomes a target for the criminals (or other nations' spies) and therefore makes us all less safe.

It doesn't justify it. The NSA should be barred from further operations like this. I can think it's wrong, while still not personally fearing the NSA looking at my personal data.

Would I be right to say it isn't a lack of fear, its just a much reduced fear?

Sure. If an analyst was directly looking at web traffic and behavioral patterns of mine, I'd certainly be a bit creeped out. But in reality it's fairly unlikely to occur.

I still don't think anyone should be suspect to that (without a formal warrant), but it's just not a concern for me.

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