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

Spy Whistleblower Comes Forward, Says “NSA Routinely Lies”:

http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/09/spy-whistleblower-comes-forward-says-nsa-routinely-lies/

 

EFF’s Peter Eckersley On ‘Clever’ PRISM Denials, Fighting FISA, And Why Privacy Matters [TCTV]:

http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/08/ef...s-fighting-fisa-and-why-privacy-matters-tctv/

 

Wow, those "if you are a law-abiding citizen of this country going about your business and personal life, you have nothing to fear" words are rather chilling.

It seems we've learned that the major tech/cloud company systems are hooked by government systems in some way which allows government agencies to perform analysis/querying/retrieving (and possibly blocking and/or even modification for all we know) of company data... in secret. It seems as though the NSA is able to do such things through the supposedly FBI controlled systems so that the FBI can supposedly de-target US citizens. However, it would also seem that the FBI could initiate its own "content tasking instructions" which explicitly target US citizens. Since the FBI appears to be forwarding data to the NSA for analysis, it would appear that both the NSA and FBI gain access to all of the information that is gathered. Regardless, from a citizen POV of they are but two parts of one government. From a citizen POV, it would appear that the government genuinely does have the technical means to freely and secretly datamine both domestic and foreign information held by Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, & Apple.

Even excluding the at least pseudo related seven year telco metadata sharing fiasco, the PRISM related reports of ISP/upstream involvement, reports of credit card and credit agency company involvement, the reports of 50 companies being involved, and the known plans to expand surveillance (and blocking!) systems to include all key infrastructure companies... and just focusing on the situation with those specific tech/cloud companies explicitly mentioned in public reports on PRISM... we seem to be dealing with an absolutely incredible situation.

Be sure to upgrade those XP boxes to SmartScreen running Windows 8 platforms, establish Outlook.com accounts, use Microsoft cloud storage, oh and especially: add an Xbox One to your living room!

 

NSA Prism: Why I'm boycotting US cloud tech - and you should too:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/06/08/what_about_a_us_tech_boycott/

 

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/09/politics/nsa-leak-identity/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

 

Fear not. We're still going to have situations where your ~ Snipped as per TOS ~ will turn into ~ Snipped Too ~ after being probed for hidden messages. You know, for the sake of national security.

 

NSA Whistleblower Edward Snowden comes clean: The Guardian Interview.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2013/jun/09/nsa-whistleblower-edward-snowden-interview-video

 

Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind revelations of NSA surveillance

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2013/jun/09/nsa-whistleblower-edward-snowden-interview-video

 

Re: Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind revelations of NSA surveillance

Cited already here

 

Re: Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind revelations of NSA surveillance

I'm glad there are courageous people like Edward Snowden in the world!

I hope some brave country steps forward and not only grants him the political asylum he is wishing for, but is able to keep him from being holed up in their embassy indefinitely.

 

What’s in the Rest of the Top-Secret NSA PowerPoint Deck?
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/06/snowden-powerpoint/

Browse by tags can be funky -
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/category/nsa/
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/category/surveillance/
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/category/cybersecurity/

 

On a slightly comedic side - you want to ensure the NSA doesn't creep onto your Facebook Friends list

 

A majority of Americans find government’s secret tracking of data ‘acceptable’
http://venturebeat.com/2013/06/10/a...vernments-secret-tracking-of-data-acceptable/
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...-not-worried-about-govt-phone-email-tracking/

What say you ?

 

Here was one question:

And the % results, which don't add up perfectly: 56 Acceptable (30 strongly, 26 somewhat), 41 Unacceptable (27 strongly, 14 somewhat), 2 Don't know/refused

What if they had asked this question:

I suspect by just filling the question in a little bit... making it clear that it isn't just millions or tens of millions but probably all Americans with phones (over two hundred million probably)... presenting the government position as an assertion rather than a fact... and being sure the person that is being polled is answering from the POV of someone that was/is affected by this... the results might have been significantly different. I noticed that a majority was against email monitoring, and the phone monitoring is at least as bad if not worse. Especially if it applies to text messaging which it almost surely does.

 

This is the proof that this kind of daily brainwashing about "your security" works well.

 

Either something is wrong with the poll, or with the people... I find it rather strange that people didn't seem to have changed their views at all on this subject in 10 years or more.

 

I too. But I'm European, if I use a Google, or FB, or... service, and they store my data, traffic etc. in server physically localized in USA, which right NSA has to spy it ?!

 

I suspect a very large percentage of Americans would agree with the idea that government should be able to access a person's email or phone records *when* there is probable cause, perhaps even reasonable suspicion, to believe that the person presents a terrorist threat. I wonder if some responders to questions were assuming that there would be such tight restrictions on access.

I haven't heard that many people ask the question: what did/does the NSA do with all that US citizen telco metadata? How much have they kept? What metadata of their own did they create from it and how long is that kept? Have they been using it to profile us and build dossiers on each of us? Could we all be subject to such data collection, and perhaps such profiling, for the rest of our lives?

 

86 Civil Liberties Groups and Internet Companies Demand an End to NSA Spying
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/...-and-internet-companies-demand-end-nsa-spying

 

The problem is the probable cause. According to the police it is, if someone thinks, that someone else is doing something bad, no proofs or facts are required.

 

Mozilla, EFF and 86 others launch campaign against surveillance;

http://www.h-online.com/security/ne...ch-campaign-against-surveillance-1886717.html

 

Now the big mystery....

What's in those other 36 slides that nobody dare publish? Apparently what we've seen is nothing compared to what we haven't. WIRED has the story below.

Have you noticed the mainstream media pushback? All the attention now is on "getting" Snowden, the outrage is blunted as the media receives their "or else" marching orders.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/06/snowden-powerpoint/

I'm really curious about one thing with these "mystery slides."...

If Ed Snowden really wants all the slides made public and feels the newspapers were too intimidated to publish them all - why won't he do it himself? It's 2013, we're all publishers. He could put that Powerpoint anywhere, post on Reddit, and we'd all see it within the hour.

.

 

I think he wanted to avoid being classified as a 'Manning'...dumping gigs of data.

I think if the reaction goes a certain way, he might. I also saw where the Guardian has more stories lined up. It also may be insurance on his part. I know I'd have a way to dump it all, if I suddenly "disappeared".

Agree on the horrible media...they've been compromised for years...decades. Blogs are where it's at now, they are the real reporters.

PD

 

Very good point.

I worry about his disappearance. My gut tells me he's just on the run. I hope he's okay and hasn't been "disappeared."

 

Probable cause only, it's in the 4th Amendment. And not from a secret, rubber stamp court or judge.

Please let's not bring up terrorism, because I will be the one responsible for getting this thread locked. There have been a whopping 5, in 12 years, and none of this garbage has caught/stopped them.

PD