Glenn Greenwald reveals 7 new NSA crimes against graphic design

Glenn Greenwald's new book No Place to Hide based on his work with Edward Snowdenis unlikely to change many minds on National Security Agency surveillance given the vast amount of information that the Snowden/Gellman/Greenwald/Poitras crew has already brought to light. But Greenwald is publishing a bunch of new documents to the web concurrent with the book's release, and these let us explore a subsidiary issue that Snowden has brought to public attention: the NSA's addiction to ridiculously ugly PowerPoint slides.

Seven of the most egregious new offenses.

3D charts

There is basically never a valid reason to use 3D charts. In addition, the stacking makes it hard to do year to year comparisons. Maybe an area chart would work better.

Meaningless flow charts

There is a time and a place for flow charts, but this one doesn't say anything. Whether the NSA is trying to get your email address or your phone number or whatever, it all goes the same way.

Terrible color choices

Not only are the copy-and-pasted logos here ridiculous, but the yellow text on orange background is illegible. And a good thing, too, because claiming that websites use HTTP is some kind of "top secret" insight is laughable.

I can't even

What?

Maps nobody can read

Maybe do the flow chart or the map.

Clustered columns would work here

Much logos. very illegible numbers. Wow.

Blarney

That hat!

Will you support Vox’s explanatory journalism?

Most news outlets make their money through advertising or subscriptions. But when it comes to what we’re trying to do at Vox, there are a couple of big issues with relying on ads and subscriptions to keep the lights on:

First, advertising dollars go up and down with the economy. We often only know a few months out what our advertising revenue will be, which makes it hard to plan ahead.

Second, we’re not in the subscriptions business. Vox is here to help everyone understand the complex issues shaping the world — not just the people who can afford to pay for a subscription. We believe that’s an important part of building a more equal society. And we can’t do that if we have a paywall.

So even though advertising is still our biggest source of revenue, we also seek grants and reader support. (And no matter how our work is funded, we have strict guidelines on editorial independence.)

If you also believe that everyone deserves access to trusted high-quality information, will you make a gift to Vox today? Any amount helps.

One-Time Monthly Annual

$5/month

$10/month

$25/month

$50/month

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Yes, I'll give $5/month

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via