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

Try this - wrap your cell phone in aluminum foil. Call it from another phone. Did it ring?

 

That was excellent. I especially liked #6 on the list. Good read.

 

If you have a sheet of lead, wrap it in it, call it. Did it ring?

 

The amendment got shot down: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...own-nsa-phone-dragnet-in-sudden-217-205-vote/

And not a soul is surprised. I loved the "Passing this will take us back to Sept 10th" comment from the opposition. Ladies and gents, that's precisely how these powers come to be and how they stay put.

I'm not even concerned about Snowden anymore. There are only 3 outcomes for the guy, running for the rest of his days, jail or death. He can never set foot inside the U.S again willingly unless he's okay with the last two options, and other governments don't really have that much use for him. The nation he's in right now (if he's there) is far better than the NSA at doing this stuff.

 

True.

But lead is only 11.4% as electrically conductive as aluminum, so an 8.7 times thicker sheet would be needed for equivalent isolation. The density of lead is 4.18 times that of aluminum, so the mass of a lead container would be at least 36.4 times the mass of an equivalent aluminum container.

 

Thanks for better carifying the precise measurements of the mechanics of it's properties. It had been a long time since those studies. Revisiting some interesting.history once again courtesy radio frequency devices.

 

Feds put heat on Web firms for master encryption keys
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57595202-38/feds-put-heat-on-web-firms-for-master-encryption-keys/

The most interesting (yet hard to verify) part is here:

 

Actually this may not necessary prove anything when it comes to tracking.
Most smart phones have multiple antennas working on different wavelengths and all working independently of each others...

For example the antenna for the GPS is completely different than the one for GPRS, or even for GSM and LTE network. Many of these technologies was developed by the military for military applications but later released to the general population. I am in wonder when I consider how many of these tech's are designed by military contractors or Military research think thanks and we use them everyday for personal and business uses...

Without even knowing it or caring of the implications. The risk of which is now becoming much clearer as these stories unfold.

So I would pay attention to the subtleties of these signals.

New antenna tech being introduced (only part of the story)
Tunable Antena's http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1280794


An Ominous, dark and optically nasty future is evolving right before our eyes...

 

dumb question but isn't this worse than anything else the gov't has done or is trying to do so far re spying on us?

 

And the beat goes on.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/federation-council-invites-snowden-to-investigate-spying-claims/482444.html

 

German president says whistleblowers like Snowden merit respect.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/26/us-usa-security-snowden-germany-idUSBRE96P0NQ20130726

 

http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deuts...estieren-gegen-nsa-ueberwachung-a-913513.html

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2013/07/2013727144045742109.html

http://english.ruvr.ru/news/2013_07...ny-against-US-intelligence-surveillance-5818/

 

http://mondediplo.com/openpage/surveillance-blowback

 

Guardian link

 

PRISM: 50% of Americans approve of NSA's internet spying program (44% disapprove it)
http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2013/07/29/prism-50-of-americans-approve-of-nsas-internet-spying-program/

Note: I added the bold part in parentheses for completeness, for those who do not want to read the whole article

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/29/poll-nsa-surveillance-privacy-pew

 

Perhaps this is the same highly intellectually functional percentage (Dominant Group) that believes that Evolution is a lie, and that the world was created in 6 days, and that it's no older than 6000 years old.

According to them the evidence is clear scientists are wrong, the astronomically large body of evidence from Genetics, Biology, Archeology, and geology not to mention cosmology is a figment of the imagination...

My point is popular opinion polls from these characters... is well... Stupendously obvious!

What really boggles my mind is that they are dominant in power circles and control practically every policy the U.S. does...
In a country where intellectual achievements, science and higher learning, used to mean something....

From an observer perspective this would be hilariously funny but the U.S. impacts almost every country in the world. They have the largest military, and has the largest economic impact (See Europe economic Crisis) and they are engaged in the most militant de funding of science and perhaps the only popular support in the world for the persecution of science teachers in middle schools (Against the teaching of Evolution) further undermining future generations intellectual development and emancipation...

This is no longer funny it's scary!

 

This is exactly what puzzled me when I read the whole study. On one hand, people seem to think that "anti-terror policies have gone too far in restricting civil liberties" (47% vs 35%), and on the other hand most of them are supporters of surveilance (50% vs 44%). Both are the results of the same study!

This could mean that either the study was not conducted properly (poorly worded questions, for instance) or that people didn't understand what are they being asked...

 

It could also mean that some respondents (perhaps including the most concerned ones) didn't feel safe to answer honestly

 

http://www.spiegel.de/international...pying-and-data-collection-leaks-a-913635.html

 

http://www.dw.de/germans-demonstrat...berlin-appoints-cyber-commissioner/a-16979997

 

As from the article posted above (thanks Pinga), a NSA 'Global Heat' world map from its 'Boundless Informant' program, puts Germany in the yellow region.
A position apparantly shared with the USA, UK, Philippines, Kenya, Yemen and Tunisia, early this year.

http://cdn4.spiegel.de/images/image-526197-galleryV9-rxxs.jpg

~ Removed Attached Copyrighted Image ~

 

Surveys ? Unless they Actually ask 100% of the population, the results are bogus. What they really mean is, out of a few 100 or 1000 people they polled !

~Off topic comments removed~

 

That's pretty much every poll that has ever been made. There's no possible way to poll 50% of the country, especially not in the short time since these events were first brought to the public. And, with every bit of information that has come out lately regarding how people felt about it, businesses and individuals alike, only the naive would believe the results of this poll.

I would love to see these major tech companies come out and tell the governments to eff off, and do it publicly. The governments involved can't afford to lose these companies for myriad of reasons, and they can't arrest everyone. Governments don't care about bad PR, they care about losing money. If the corporate world fights back with their massive wallets, things have a chance to change. Public outcry and pathetic and useless "won't vote for you" threats aren't going to do it. The problem is, these same corporations get a lot of leeway in how they do business (including their own "spying", tax incentives, etc) in return for playing along. They may not like what the government is doing and likely will lose business from both domestic and foreign partners, but that leeway is very hard to ignore as well.

 

I don't understand if it's a cultural or a psychological problem from who approves PRISM: they don't care of rights and privacy because they are not so fundamental, and governments are always good and honest, or they are so worried for terrorism that they can accept whatever to protect the nation ? As I already wrote in another thread in the forum " European countries had, and have, many problems with terrorism, long before USA: Rote Armee Fraktion, Brigate Rosse, Action directe, fascist terrorism, IRA, ETA, fundamentalist terrorism... ", we had many more problems with internal terrorism than USA, but we never gave up to check what our governments made to protect us, and we always cared ours freedoms, rights, privacy. Sure, " shoot everything that moves " it's easier