NSA has direct access to tech giants' systems for user data, secret files reveal

From Told You So, FBI Back Door Search:

 

Does talking about privacy-related technology make you a target of the NSA/other spying agencies?

We talk about Tor, truecrypt, VPNs and basically how the police state is trying to monitor all of our internet activities (for shady purposes). Does that make us bigger targets for extra surveillance? After all, we are more enlightened and concerned about how digital privacy, and based on the attitude spying agencies have, people concerned about privacy and anonymity online must have something to hide! And if you have something to hide, you must be a terrorist or "criminal"!

Well, let me tell you his, I have nothing to hide. I just don't like nosy three-letter agencies treating me as a terrorist by default. It is as though they are treating everyone as guilty before proven innocent. Everyone should be innocent before proven guilty, but this Orwellian spying says otherwise.

I don't care that a three-letter agency knows that x person (John Smith) is posting on Wildersecurity. Come at me bro, and if you want to put forth extra surveillance on me for using this site, do it, because you (the government) is proving my point. That point is the government is shady and doesn't want people to have privacy and anonymity for fear that people will use that privacy/anonymity to criticize the shady government.

 

Nah, government agencies don't really work that way. 1970 has passed long ago. As long as you don't live in one of the Middle East countries, People's Republic of China or North Korea you shouldn't be too worried.

 

Boy are you in for a surprise.

@Desu: Yes, you can become a red flag in their systems for it. As you have already seen if you've been following news and threads just at Wilders, even going to the websites of tools like TOR can get you looked at more closely. The U.S is quite close to becoming China in that sense. It really doesn't matter if you don't live where they would literally kill you for dissenting. The loss of privacy and the right to oppose is bad whether you lose your head or just your job. You should be worried, but you shouldn't stop opposing. I don't suggest you do or say things to blatantly get them to "come at you, bro", because you'll find out very quickly they will indeed come at you whether or not you think you're a criminal. But don't shut up and take all this spying, or else you give them an easy win. Unlike what Graf thinks, we're back in 1970. But this time the spying isn't just on the Soviets and their allies. It's on everyone and their citizens.

 

What? It's not that this world had become so filthy that there's no hope left or something. Yes, governments do keep their eyes on their citizens by all means, including the old school ways. But, with the exceptions of countries I mentioned above, they're not going to send you to a remote high-security prison just because you said the current dominant party is not pro-citizens. The US based proxies are still alive and seem to be well. If it really is that bad, they will ban the usage of privacy toolkits right away. Currently they do not, and IMO it's just too much to think US will be like China. Either you are underestimating China's bloody principal and its bloody business practice, or you don't count there are more unfortunate countries which legalize a form of dictatorship in their constitutions.

 

What exactly do you think is happening when 10 years ago you weren't being watched more closely if you used a VPN/TOR and now you are? How are things not going bad when journalists are having their homes rifled through because they wrote a report on a Federal program http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013...-dawn-raid-on-reporter-home-raises-questions/ ?
You say these tools aren't banned..so why is the government flagging and watching people who use them..people who aren't on any watch lists or have never and aren't suspected of a crime or possible crime? Why is our Constitution being interpreted to fit their needs or outright ignored when the government is called out on some of the things they are doing? You don't have to be sent to a gulag to be controlled by a government. They can simply just scare you into behaving or make your life hell until you conform. No need for bullets or bars. I guess you're just one of those people I talked about in another thread, either you don't understand or things just have to get worse for you to finally understand what is happening. Of course there is hope, but not for the ones who deny anything is going on. I answered the posters question and we already have a very long thread for this discussion in the NSA thread, so I'll move along.

Edit: Speak of the devil..how the hell did it end up in the NSA thread? Oh well, at least now the comments are in the right place.

 

Holy toothbrush why is this thread ended up in here? I'm surprised myself.

Anyway...

Dave, there's no Norsefire in the United States of America. Just be careful on what you read because some of them have hidden agendas in directing people's minds for certain purposes of some elite puppeteers' own benefits.

 

Yes, this is so.

 

Anyone recall how the Weather Underground in Chicago got off because the Feds couldn't figure out how to use NSA intercepts without revealing too much about capabilities? Back then, even the NSA's name was classified. Then it became "No Such Agency" And now we have leaks from Snowden and perhaps others. But will it make a difference?

For kicks, check out "The President's Analyst", especially if you've never heard of it

 

Could latest NSA revelations further impact online behavior, denting the economy?

Reducing and/or modifying Internet activity in the wake of the NSA revelations instigated by Edward Snowden is a phenomenon we have documented on several occasions on We Live Security. In theHarris poll that we commissioned and earlier studies, we found that as many as 46% of people who were aware of the Snowden/NSA revelations had changed their online behavior in response to mass online surveillance. About a quarter of “NSA aware” people had reduced their online shopping and banking, as well as their use of email. I discussed these issues in a couple of podcasts, hereand here.

http://www.welivesecurity.com/2014/07/08/nsa-revelations-tor-linux-90-percent/

 

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/hillary_clinton_flaunts_her_surveillance_state_baggage_20140707

 

From Meet the Muslim-American Leaders the FBI and NSA Have Been Spying On:

Civil Rights Organizations Demand Answers From White House on Surveillance of Muslim Leaders

Five Takeaways from Glenn Greenwald's and Murtaza Hussain's Reddit AMA

 

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/nomads_of_the_digital_age_20140709

 

I think that question is already being answered. The intelligence agencies from both the U.S and U.K have their claws embedded in every aspect of the Internet, from email to personal blogs. ISPs are choking off bandwidth for services they deem undesirable and dangerous to their way of business like Youtube, Netflix, etc. A small handful of the largest corporations on Earth are responsible for a good 90% of 3rd party tracking of users across the web. And the American MPAA/RIAA have decided they have jurisdiction in every corner of the world..with the blessing of the occupants of a very large, white house who also seem to believe they have jurisdiction in every corner of the world. Yeah, the internet is pretty much screwed I'd say.

 

hi
The NSA playset or gadgets http://haxpo.nl/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/D1T1-The-NSA-Playset.pdf
The Do it yourself site http://www.nsaplayset.org/
After that, most people can only approve the attached message
Seriously, the problem is to defend our privacy against attacks, zero days, gadgets, subversion, masquerading....that we ignore.
Equation without solution.

rgds

 

13 ways the NSA spies on us.

-- Tom

 

http://www.spiegel.de/international...-greater-political-independence-a-979695.html

 

Because he is so widely read and respected as a journalist. Any such attempt to shut him down would confirm the truth and reality of his writings.

 

"Spying on Innocents

By Judge Andrew P. Napolitano

July 11, 2014 "ICH" - In what appears to be one of Edward Snowden's final revelations, the former CIA and NSA agent has demonstrated conclusively that the National Security Agency has collected and analyzed the contents of emails, text messages, and mobile and landline telephone calls from nine non-targeted U.S. residents for every one U.S. resident it has targeted.

This puts the lie to the government's claims that it has only collected metadata — identifying markers such as phone numbers and email addresses — and not content from unsuspecting and unsuspected Americans.......

This was accomplished through the issuance of general warrants by FISA court judges. General warrants do not particularly describe the place to be searched or the person or thing to be seized as the Constitution requires. General warrants authorize the bearer to use the power of government to search wherever he wishes. The use by British troops of general warrants was a principal motivation for the American Revolution, and the very purpose and literal wording of the Fourth Amendment was to outlaw and prohibit them.............

The recent Snowden revelations showed that about 900,000 innocent U.S. residents — including President Barack Obama himself — were subjected to heavy NSA scrutiny. This was done by NSA agents who knew that the subjects of their scrutiny were not the targets of their investigation.

How could that happen? It happened because the FISA court meets in secret, where the NSA has no opposition and the court has no transparency. This volatile mix has resulted in that court's granting well over 99 percent of NSA applications, including the "hop" rule implicated in the scrutiny of innocent Americans..............

In the sterile, isolated and secret environment of the FISA court — where even the judges cannot keep records of their own decisions — NSA agents and lawyers have persuaded judges to permit spying on people who are six hops from a target. Thus, by way of illustration, if A is a target and speaks with B, the NSA can listen to all of B's conversations, even those not with A. The leap from A to B is one hop, and the NSA gets six, so it can listen to any C who has spoken to B, any D who has spoken to any C, any E who has spoken to any D, any F who has spoken to any E and any G who has spoken to any F.

The 900,000 innocent U.S. residents whose private and personal lives have been subjected to NSA scrutiny — including the examination of their photographs, intimate personal behavior, medical and financial needs — consist of those who are within six hops from a target;.....................

But remoteness does not trouble the NSA, and neither does the Constitution. Remoteness is a serious constitutional and practical problem. It violates the rights of known innocents, as the NSA has no constitutional or lawful authority to spy on any non-targets and FISA court judges have no power to authorize that spying. ......

When the government sees or hears all, it knows all. And when the people tolerate a government that knows all, they will be afraid to be themselves. And the joy of being and expressing oneself is the very reason we have a Constitution designed to restrain government.

James Madison warned that the loss of liberty rarely happens in one great event but rather happens gradually, over time, resulting from the actions of government officials who claim to be fortifying security. He practically predicted today's events. The violations of our rights are obvious, undenied and undeniable. Yet what Madison probably feared most, he did not articulate: Once lost, liberty is lost forever.

Andrew P. Napolitano, a former judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey, is the senior judicial analyst at Fox News Channel. Judge Napolitano has written seven books on the U.S. Constitution

Full Story Here: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article39049.htm

 

“Loopholes for Circumventing the Constitution”, the NSA Statement, and Our Response.

-- Tom

 

A new level?
Not after this level:

It is not a surprise if the US is spying on a foreign government, even if a friendly foreign government.
But it is a surprise if the CIA is spying on its own parliament in its official job to oversee the CIA.

 

It's been reported that the NSA spies on US government officials, and then provides raw intercepts to the Five Eyes and Israel If that's true, the NSA has truly gone rogue. It's like a global BOFH

 

Newly Obtained Emails Contradict Administration Claims on Guardian Laptop Destruction (also contains follow-up to recent Muslim American story)

 

Justice Department won't investigate CIA for spying on Senate committee

 

Bruce Schneier's blog post on the recent Muslim American story: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2014/07/nsa_spied_on_pr.html