[Zuben Elgenubi]

An NSA contractor employed by Booz Allen Hamilton, Snowden became similarly alarmed that he was “designing systems to amplify state power”.

[lee martell]

Utterly Engrossing, maybe, but we already know the House of Obama is full of liars and incompetents. What else can be said that has not been said? I hope to be truly surprised and shocked at a clear chain of evidence linking Obama to some of these harebrained schemes. Otherwise, whatever.

[dennisw]

Snowden plus— He exposed un-Constitutional NSA spying and electronic data collection on all American

Snowden minus -— He was forced to give all his information to Vladimir Putin. Nobody rides for free in Vlad’s Russia

[upchuck]

From the article:

Revelations that every phone and mobile device can be remotely used as a bug (at one point, Snowden hides beneath a cowl to protect his keystrokes) crank up the tension further still; when a mobile phone went off in the early screening I attended, the audience’s annoyance was tempered by all-too-nervous laughter. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who went home and took the battery out of their mobile.

Taking the battery out does no good. There is another, internal, unremovable, battery that tracks the location even when the battery is taken out.

The only way I know of to truly turn "off" a cell phone is to put it in a mylar bag, like a potato chip bag. The metal in the bag bag will intercept transmission from the phone. Unfortunately, the bag will also prevent transmissions to the phone.

[sourcery]

If there is no right to self defense (of which the right to privacy is an essential component,) then there can be no rights at all.