full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Sharon Weinberger: Inside the massive (and unregulated) world of surveillance tech

Unscramble the Blue Letters

You know, not many companies can build mlseisis or aircraft, but it doesn't take a lot of capital to create software that can hack into someone's sarothpmne. Computer hackers have been around for years, but now their skills could be used to build technologies that were in high demand by law enforcement and icleietnglne agencies. And soon, doznes and even hundreds of companies were getting into this wire-tappers' market. And that little conference in vrigniia, it grew and soon became known as the Wiretappers' Ball.

Open Cloze

You know, not many companies can build ________ or aircraft, but it doesn't take a lot of capital to create software that can hack into someone's __________. Computer hackers have been around for years, but now their skills could be used to build technologies that were in high demand by law enforcement and ____________ agencies. And soon, ______ and even hundreds of companies were getting into this wire-tappers' market. And that little conference in ________, it grew and soon became known as the Wiretappers' Ball.

Solution

  1. smartphone
  2. dozens
  3. virginia
  4. intelligence
  5. missiles

Original Text

You know, not many companies can build missiles or aircraft, but it doesn't take a lot of capital to create software that can hack into someone's smartphone. Computer hackers have been around for years, but now their skills could be used to build technologies that were in high demand by law enforcement and intelligence agencies. And soon, dozens and even hundreds of companies were getting into this wire-tappers' market. And that little conference in Virginia, it grew and soon became known as the Wiretappers' Ball.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
surveillance technology 4
arms trade 3
spy bazaar 3
facial recognition 3
uzbek government 2
build technologies 2
private spy 2
authoritarian regimes 2
traditional arms 2
reportedly sold 2
million people 2
united states 2

Important Words

  1. agencies
  2. aircraft
  3. ball
  4. build
  5. capital
  6. companies
  7. computer
  8. conference
  9. create
  10. demand
  11. dozens
  12. enforcement
  13. grew
  14. hack
  15. hackers
  16. high
  17. hundreds
  18. intelligence
  19. law
  20. lot
  21. market
  22. missiles
  23. skills
  24. smartphone
  25. software
  26. technologies
  27. virginia
  28. years