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Comment by zeveb | Hacker News Reader

> Dozens, if not hundreds, in every major US city at the very least.

That's the most paranoid thing I've read in ages.

NSA's job isn't domestic surveillance.

Just to throw in my anecdote: when touring a local datacenter some years ago one of the principals pointed out equipment cages they claimed were rented by the NSA. The facility wasn't the local carrier hotel, but did have a large number fiber loops into it, enough that peering with virtually everyone was trivial. It would be a reasonable place to duplicate and sift through traffic that goes out over a number of pacific undersea cables. It's also entirely possible the principal was telling a tall tale.

In any case I think given all that's been disclosed over the last 10 years it's more reasonable to assume over-collection than under-collection.

Undersea cables go to other nations, and thus aren't domestic.

The idea that NSA has 'dozens, if not hundreds' of devices 'in every major US city,' regardless of utility for foreign intelligence, is just rampant paranoia, not much behind claiming that the lizard people are eating our brains while we sleep.

I would love to downvote you; sadly, I can't yet.

Why? Snowdon's leaks and the law show that he is correct.

Interestingly, Android autocorrect replaces Snowden with Snowdon. No idea why Android has Snowdon in its English dictionary.

Snowdon is the highest peak in the UK.

> NSA's job isn't domestic surveillance

We've known since 2013 that is certainly is.

GP hasn't gotten the memo. Instead of "paranoid fantasy" now they're supposed to say "nothing new here; intelligent people have known about this for decades".

It's really not: https://www.nsa.gov/about/faqs/sigint-faqs.shtml

Well, I guess that settles it, then! There's no way their job is broader in scope than what they publicly say. I'm convinced.

Where have you been the last few years?

I'm usually not this snarky... but seriously... it's fact NSA operates an enormous surveillance infrastructure within the US borders targeting US citizens.

That is not debatable.

What may be debatable by some, is whether or not it's legal/constitutional/moral... but you are not making that point.

You're right that it is not debatable. It's simply false. There is no evidence that supports your claim of the NSA operating enormous surveillance infrastructure targeting US citizens. The one program that Snowden leaked that included US citizen data (phone metadata) has since ended, and the way that metadata was queried according to Snowden's leaks does not constitute surveillance.

You'll never win with facts, unfortunately: the only things that sway this crowd are half-truths, falsehood and innuendo.

So weird then, because thats exactly what they do....

The terms "foreign" and "domestic" are meaningless in the context of the world wide web.

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