From: NSA/FISA Central Command Center
To: All middle to mediocre federal bureaucrats with job justification issues
Subject: Monitor all XBox Live games & all possible video games
>>Please monitor all video games for possible terrorist activity. It seems terrorists like to blow up and kill people. Video game users also like to shoot and blow up things - logically they are or could/may be the same thing, or vice versa. Budget is unlimited.<<
In another chilling report, it seems like the NSA is watching video games for terrorist activity. If you play World of Warcraft and Second Life among others the NSA has been gathering data on millions of users which many view as a violation of their privacy. NSA spies have created avatars to "snoop and try to recruit informers, while also collecting data and contents of communications between players". Apparently terrorists use fake identities, the NSA believes they will use video games as a way to communicate with each other. However, to date there has not been any success in capturing a terrorist through monitoring of video games. Watch out - that Orc you were talking to might be a federal bureaucrat! I feel a whole lot safer!!
Here's the article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/10/world/spies-dragnet-reaches-a-playing-field-of-elves-and-trolls.html?ref=us
Hey Mr. Weisback, I actually just read an article about this. Interestingly, both Microsoft and Blizzard Entertainment claim that they haven't seen any evidence of surveillance, though if it is happening, it is without their consent.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ign.com/articles/2013/12/10/nsa-can-listen-to-xbox-live-world-of-warcraft-communications
I'd also like to add that there is a huge logical fallacy behind this surveillance, if it is actually occurring.
Delete"It seems terrorists like to blow up and kill people. Video game users also like to shoot and blow up things - logically they are or could/may be the same thing, or vice versa. Budget is unlimited.<<"
Seriously? Assuming that gamers who like to, as they said, "shoot and blow up things" in video games, a form of virtual entertainment, “logically…may be the same thing” to terrorists who enjoy killing and blowing up people in real life is just wrong. It’s like saying someone who is interested in, say, Michael Bay movies is interested in blowing up things. Does that make them a surveillance target, too? Or what about someone who likes watching violent films in general, where people can blow up and kill each other? Does that make them someone who needs to be observed? According to the logic of the sender of the email, “logically”, that somehow makes sense. That’s the kind of comparison that’s being made here.
People who indulge in these forms of entertainment do not necessarily act out whatever they watch/listen to. If that were the case, then the 7.5 million-plus people who bought Call of Duty: Black Ops II last year would be a much bigger threat than what the email suggests. What people enjoy and what people actually do are two very different things.
kenny - I put that email, but I was joking around as if it was an actual memo! But that essentially is their twisted logic - it makes no sense. Terrorism is a tactic - with the NSA they are looking for possible terrorists everywhere. We cannot live in a completely secure world.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget to put my city lights questions in the grade book
ReplyDelete- Isaiah Johnson