Reply #102: Finally in this thread, some common sense

[longship]

A utility called "snoop" can copy any and all Net activity off of any Net connection from anywhere in the world.

If the gov't wants to spy on people, they only need to sit on your connection and read it. The NSA does this anyway with Echelon. So, there's no need to do anything so invasive as viral code, hacking, or opening ports to individual machines.

On top of everything, there is a perfectly normal explanation for these extra connections. Suggesting that they are sinister is stupid.

I acknowledge that ChimpCo is evil. But the chance that this is spying is so close to zero that it doesn't warrant discussion.