Government Surveillance: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

Last Week Tonight did this bit brilliantly when they interviewed Edward Snowden - [VIDEO] - in essence we need to get dramatically better at telling this story so everyone understands.

That is a good question because it comes up a lot and people start explaining ideologies rather than showing real world examples. I believe John Oliver provided the best example when he interviewed Edward Snowden. John walked around town asking people how they felt about the government monitoring their phone communications, text messages, etc... People were mostly indifferent until he rephrased the question asking if it was alright if someone was monitoring the pictures and videos (sexting) between they and their spouse/partner. When that topic came up, the nearly unanimous answer is that they would be furious if someone was watching their sexting content. [1] So in summary, I believe the answer is to find something that people actually wish to keep private when discussing it. [1] - [VIDEO]

This paints an unfair portrait of the average American. It isn't that they don't care, they just aren't as technologically savvy as this audience. Take the Edward Snowden leaks. John Oliver did a wonderful segment interviewing people about NSA surveillance.[1] If you ask an average citizen if they are for or against "Section 215" or "X-Keyscore", they'll fall back on vague national security scare quotes. If you ask them if the government should see your dick-pics, then they start to understand what is at stake. In many people's minds, what the FBI is saying makes sense. What's the big deal? They want to access a single iPhone from a terrorist . Teach people that it means their nude photos could be accessed by any law enforcement official and I think you'll find that people really do care. [1]: [VIDEO]

John Oliver's "Dick Pics" seem like a pretty good argument that can reach average citizens. [VIDEO]

"(Likely an overabundance of trust or a lack of understanding of all the real implications and potential for exploit.)" I think that's a lot of it. People aren't trading privacy for convenience... people are taking convenience. It makes a lot more sense when you think of it that way. You can do an experiment yourself to show this; take 5 non-techie/non-HN people and explain to them exactly what this thing does and how it works. You'll find people's attitudes change, rationally or otherwise, which I present only as evidence that they haven't thought about this and incorporated it into their worldview, not that they are right or wrong. Or watch this: [VIDEO] John Oliver on Government Surveillance. Perhaps ironically, mere nude photos of myself aren't really what I'm worried about. I mean, I wouldn't be happy if they got out, and since I'm not in the habit of texting them about I have questions about where they came from, but by and large, nobody would care and it would affect my life only briefly. I'm far more worried about the government scraping everybody's postings on Facebook and building up a GoodThink/BadThink database, which I know basically already exists, because our political parties (let alone our intelligence community) build voter databases that are probably at least 90% accurate on that front. A concrete list of Everyone Who Disagrees With Me, one accurate enough for someone powerful to decide the rest of the inaccuracy is acceptable collateral damage, is scary.

From what I can see, we have mass surveillance because it is what the people want. We have the TSA because it is what the people want. We have drone strikes because it is what the people want. From what I can see, most people just don’t understand and don’t care. Just like I don’t understand and don’t care about my local football team, most people don’t understand and don’t care about security. Worse, they have the relentless propaganda machine of government and access journalism to mislead them. Ask an ordinary American to apply common sense, and I think the majority will say: of course I don’t want the government looking at my dick pics[1], of course I don’t want to be processed like cattle before I enter the airport, of course I don’t want to execute people without trial with lots of collateral damage. But hide all of that in a veneer of: the experts say we need this, the government says it’s fine, and look at this cute puppy and the weather is beautiful and who is the latest celebrity and our sports team is doing… and I can understand why most Americans don’t do anything about mass surveillance. [1] [VIDEO]

> Most people don't care about NSA surveillance or they agree with it. John Oliver went to the streets with the question, if people have ever send a naked photo of themselves with a cellphone or email, should the government have the right to collect and look at those photos? None of the people agreed that the government should have that right. [VIDEO]

Our forthright discussion on this issue on HN, while valuable, will not help the broader problem of educating the voting public. It's kind of like John Oliver's interview with Edward Snowden[1]. This issue needs to be translated into "pics of my junk" and become a sort of meme. Is the issue being framed wrong more of a problem than it not being framed at all? 1. [VIDEO]