US Spying Double Standards

The cluster centers on debates about hypocrisy in US surveillance practices, where the NSA spying on foreigners and allies is seen as acceptable, but foreign spying on Americans or domestic surveillance is criticized, often referencing Five Eyes alliances and legal loopholes.

📉 Falling 0.3x Politics & Society
3,844
Comments
19
Years Active
5
Top Authors
#3673
Topic ID

Activity Over Time

2007
1
2009
4
2010
15
2011
27
2012
56
2013
895
2014
362
2015
291
2016
214
2017
235
2018
189
2019
307
2020
253
2021
247
2022
164
2023
304
2024
148
2025
128
2026
4

Keywords

US OP HN OK PS PS2 FBI USA NSO OTHER spying spy nsa spies citizens americans foreign countries intelligence usa

Sample Comments

chirau Mar 30, 2020 View on HN

What is the issue here? Does the US not spy on pretty much every other country and its people?

hnwh Aug 2, 2012 View on HN

that's right! Leave the spying on Americans for the US Govt..

sharperguy Nov 18, 2022 View on HN

Isn't the logic reversed in this case? Spying on US citizens is fine as long as you aren't the US government. Hence 5 eyes and so on.

s3b Feb 12, 2020 View on HN

The US can spy on you; they just don't want anyone else to do so as well.

mrweasel Jun 1, 2015 View on HN

Soldiers aren't asked to shoot every single foreigner traveling through your country, just in case they may want to hurt you.There's nothing wrong in having an intelligence agency that spy on people you may suspect of wanting to hurt you or your country. What the US does, other countries do this as well, is spying on people that aren't suspected of anything, even people living in their own or allied countries. Even worse is that in the process of ensuring that they are able to

angio Jun 1, 2021 View on HN

Not OP, but we keep reading articles about US spy agencies illegally spying on americans so I don't trust them not to break the law to spy on us as well.

saint_fiasco Sep 14, 2015 View on HN

The NSA spies on foreign people more than they spy on Americans.Remember that when they spy on Americans, they have to at least pretend to have a cause, and fill all those secret reports to give to the secret judge and receive the secret authorization and so on.

Hitton Dec 23, 2022 View on HN

So if I'm reading this right, it was wrong only because they were spying on Americans. Spying on others is apparently still ok.

dmix Jun 5, 2015 View on HN

Yep, the US is a foreign country and hey they do it too. Every country spies!

NicoJuicy Aug 28, 2014 View on HN

I'm from Belgium and he is right - i do think that USA spies on everyone, it makes sense and USA had admitted it multiple times.They are just worried that US citizens think the USA spies on them.PS. The USA doesn't only spy on non-US traffic, they just hide the spying inside the US more secretive :)PS2. Every country tries to spy though, not only the US :)