Talk:National Security Agency

Relevance

I don't see how an article for a DoD federal agency is within the scope of the wiki, not deserving it's own page anyway. Government agency abusing their power is a civil issue, not a consumer one. Beanie Bo (talk) 20:32, 11 October 2025 (UTC)

(@User:Beanie Bo)I think the NSA definitely has issues that relate to consumer security and privacy, such as features that are put into consumer devices (e.g., clipper chip, backdoors in encrypted communications, phone communication aggregation, etc.) Even if most consumers aren't directly interacting with it, they may be affected by its policies and actions in ways that they do not realize. The NSA data slurping affects everyday people outside the US as well.

For the purposes of the wiki I think the question is not what issues this org may have outside of the wiki purpose (e.g., whether NSA abuses power), but what issues/relation does it have to the wiki purpose (e.g., does what it does affect consumers and new consumer things).

The divide between citizens/subjects of a government and consumers is at best a fuzzy one. The wiki has things like military right to repair, which I think is entirely appropriate, but not a classical consumer thing. Just as the "new consumer" view deals with issues that weren't part of old consumer. I think the new view should also encompass an updated conception of what a consumer is. About which, more later elsewhere.

My inclination would be to keep it for now. Can always delete it later. (I don't see that it does any harm.) Drakeula (talk) 21:17, 11 October 2025 (UTC)

Citizens and consumers is not a blurry line. We just happen to be victims of both private companies and our very own government. That's the only thing they have in common. You can best believe that every federal government agency and contractor in the US has purchased illegally obtained consumer data at some point.

This article is scope creep. Beanie Bo (talk) 14:58, 12 October 2025 (UTC)