Re: NSA given a back door into every copy of Windows sold

TwistyCreek <anon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
news:ZFA6YN9Y38851.748599537@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:

nemo_outis wrote:

Waffle all you like, but by delineating one nation you most
certainly do compare it to all others. It's impossible to not infer
that comparison. You even included the phrase "worldwide" in your
statements, as though you believed that had Windows been a "Chinese"
concept it might have been more secure.

There was no waffling then or now. I made an absolute statement - as
far from waffling as one can get. That's why you objected to it,
remember?

Delineating a country by name in respect to a world wide distribution
of wares most certainly IS a comparison, whether you see it or not.
But for the sake of argument we can both pretend that your "global
software manufactured in the US" statements never happened.


Discussing the practices of the country from which Windows originates in
considering whether it might have a government-installed backdoor
requires no comparison with any other country. Which is why I made none.


You're still wrong.

Examined in a vacuum the US does far more in writing AND in practice
to protect your rights to privacy and free speech than it does to
breach those rights. You're still taking the thin brush of recent
transgressions and attempting to, or unwittingly, painting broad
strokes with it. You're falling victim to TV mentality judgments, when
in fact there a lot more "crimes" that go unpunished to protect even
the criminal's rights than there are innocent people convicted because
their rights have been trampled. And even more people convicted for
breaching the right to privacy itself. The net figure remains clearly
in favor of the US being favorable to ones privacy, and a particularly
poor place for your "spies" to operate with impunity.


Recent events are hardly the sole basis for my position. No, recent
events are just additional confirmation and corroboration of longstanding
practice: the US government has a long and ignoble history of trompling
on the 4th amendment. However, you may, as you choose, decide to
overlook, ignore or excuse it. Others, like me, are not so cavalier with
their own privacy. It would be imprudent to the point of rashness to
assume that (which is to say, act as if) Windows does not have backdoors
- whether it does or not!

Regards,

PS In fact, if I were president I would consider my spy agencies grossly
negligent, derelict, and deficient if they had NOT taken steps to implant
such backdoors.

Moreover, it is hard to believe that the current administration which has
balked at no other impropriety, no other intrusion, no other legal
equivocation or outright transgression (indeed, not even at the ultimate
crime of launching a war of aggression on false pretences) would shrink
from tampering with Windows.

.