As a Member of the European Parliament (MEP), Nils was present at recent committee inquiry held on the “Mass Surveillance of EU Citizens”. Here, representatives from a number of companies named in documents leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden were questioned about their own (alleged) involvement.
Following a question put to a Microsoft spokeswoman by Pirate Party MEP Christian Engström on whether the company willingly include “backdoors” for the NSA in their system, Nils Torvalds MEP said:
When my oldest son [Linus Torvalds] was asked the same question: “Has he been approached by the NSA about backdoors?” he said “No”, but at the same time he nodded. Then he was sort of in the legal free. He had given the right answer …everybody understood that the NSA had approached him.
If that sounds familiar to you then you might have seen the snippet on YouTube. Linus went on to insist that he was joking, and that the NSA had not approached him.
But, speaking at November 11th’s inquiry, his father seems to think otherwise.
Following on from allegations that Google, Yahoo!, Facebook and, indeed, Microsoft are among the many companies wilfully cooperating with the agency to provide “backdoor” access to their systems, this revelation is far from earth-shattering. In fact, is makes sense in the grand scheme of things." -OMGUbuntu
I don't think I can add to this... I now realize just how serious the NSA is about gaining information..
Any hole the NSA has added to our software is just another hole others can exploit.
I get why they would want these holes.. I wonder though if they realize the damage they might be causing to those of us who are in the line of fire.
The everyday person just going on the internet, checking their email, and maybe watching youtube or netflix are more vulnerable because of these actions by the NSA...
-Denny
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