You Know Who Else Collected Metadata? The Stasi

[marmar]

You Know Who Else Collected Metadata? The Stasi

Posted on Feb 11, 2014
By Julia Angwin, ProPublica




The East German secret police, known as the Stasi, were an infamously intrusive secret police force. They amassed dossiers on about one quarter of the population of the country during the Communist regime.

But their spycraft—while incredibly invasive—was also technologically primitive by today’s standards. While researching my book Dragnet Nation, I obtained the above hand drawn social network graph and other files from the Stasi Archive in Berlin, where German citizens can see files kept about them and media can access some files, with the names of the people who were monitored removed.

The graphic appears to be shows forty-six connections, linking a target to various people (an “aunt,” “Operational Case Jentzsch,” presumably Bernd Jentzsch, an East German poet who defected to the West in 1976), places (“church”), and meetings (“by post, by phone, meeting in Hungary”).

Gary Bruce, an associate professor of history at the University of Waterloo and the author of “The Firm: The Inside Story of the Stasi,” helped me decode the graphic and other files. I was surprised at how crude the surveillance was. “Their main surveillance technology was mail, telephone, and informants,” Bruce said. ..........................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/you_know_who_else_collected_metadata_the_stasi_20140211

[Fumesucker]

1. Imagine how effective they could have been if they had contracted the work out to the private sector

[woo me with science]

2. K&R

[Warren Stupidity]

3. It is just ridiculous to compare the Stasi to the NSA.

The Stasi simply wasn't in the same league with respect to mass surveillance

[Jesus Malverde]

17. It's like little league and the majors...nt

[TheMathieu]

4. Another ridiculous invoking of Godwin's law...

But what can one expect from that rag?

[Kelvin Mace]

11. Have you read Godwin's Law?

"As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1."

Reading the article I find no mention of Nazis or Hitler.

So, you have proved Godwin's Law by invoking it by citing the article as "invoking Godwin's Law" to discredit the article.

Wow. Neat accomplishment.

The article's premise is that the U.S. surveillance efforts are similar in scope to those used by the STASI. Is there any proof of this? Why, aside from the compelling evidence offered in the article, there is this quote from a McClatchy story:

Wolfgang Schmidt was seated in Berlin’s 1,200-foot-high TV tower, one of the few remaining landmarks left from the former East Germany. Peering out over the city that lived in fear when the communist party ruled it, he pondered the magnitude of domestic spying in the United States under the Obama administration. A smile spread across his face.

“You know, for us, this would have been a dream come true,” he said, recalling the days when he was a lieutenant colonel in the defunct communist country’s secret police, the Stasi.

In those days, his department was limited to tapping 40 phones at a time, he recalled. Decide to spy on a new victim and an old one had to be dropped, because of a lack of equipment. He finds breathtaking the idea that the U.S. government receives daily reports on the cellphone usage of millions of Americans and can monitor the Internet traffic of millions more.

“So much information, on so many people,” he said.

When a former member of the STASI admires your surveillance program (while also being appalled by its reach), I think you have a pretty open and shut case that the U.S. is now becoming a police state similar to East Germany.

[frylock]

14. take it with former stasi that are making the comparison

[LanternWaste]

15. I imagine it's pretty convenient to allow priority of an internet meme over actual history...

I imagine it's pretty convenient for far too many people to allow priority of an internet meme over actual history... but what can one expect from the historically sub-literate.

[randome]

5. You know who else used toilets? The Nazis.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]"There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in."
Leonard Cohen, Anthem (1992)[/center][/font][hr]

[awoke_in_2003]

9. I almost choked...

[awoke_in_2003]

10. DUzy alert...

just in case.

[Stuckinthebush]

13. Perfect!

I rolled my eyes when I saw the original post and then immediately saw your comment. Perfection!

Thanks for the laugh today.

[Adrahil]

18. Excellent..... NT

[Romulox]

6. We were brought up to think that the Stasi were the most fearsome monsters history had ever birthed.

The Stasi never had the ability to kill with drones. Our secret police are far more efficient, dangerous, and all pervasive.

[xchrom]

7. du rec.

[JaneyVee]

8. You know who else loved dogs? HITLER!

[grahamhgreen]

12. Welcome to the NSA police state!

[bvar22]

16. You know who else thinks collecting the Meta-Data is too intrusive?