Move over, Big Brother, NSA is doing it far more efficiently...
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Re: Move over, Big Brother, NSA is doing it far more efficiently...
Hm. I think this pro-gun stance is actually a bit bewildering...
Americans hate terrorists and love our kids, right? So you might be shocked to know that preschoolers with guns have taken more lives so far this year than the single U.S. terrorist attack, which claimed four lives in Boston.
This is admittedly tongue-in-cheek, but one has to wonder if the NSA's PRISM program would have saved more lives had it been monitoring toddlers - or gun owners - rather than suspected terrorists.
http://www.sott.net/article/262876-Toddlers-with-guns-kill-more-Americans-than-terroristsIn 2010, 13,186 people died in terrorist attacks worldwide, while 31,672 people were killed with firearms in America alone, reports CNN's Samuel Burke.
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-03-01/opinions/37364660_1_gun-violence-hadiya-pendleton-gun-industryThen ponder this: Americans suffer assaults on their privacy — they are groped in public and wiretapped en masse — and surrender their constitutional protections against unwarranted searches in the name of the war on terror, yet they cannot muster the will to protect children from mass murder with military-style weapons. We have spent more than $1 trillion on homeland security since Sept. 11, 2001, yet have withheld annual funding of less than $3 million for research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on gun violence.
Why are the First, Fourth and Fifth amendments subject to erosion in the name of homeland security, but the Second Amendment is beyond compromise in the name of saving innocent lives?
The risks of terrorism are not so much greater than the risks of gun violence that a disproportionate response is justified. Between 1969 and 2009, according to a 2011 Heritage Foundation study, 5,586 people were killed in terrorist attacks against the United States or its interests abroad. By comparison, about 30,000 people were killed by guns in the United States every year between 1986 and 2010. This means that about five times as many Americans are killed every year by guns than have been killed in terrorist attacks since Richard Nixon took office.
rwo power- Super Moderator
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Re: Move over, Big Brother, NSA is doing it far more efficiently...
By the way, here's another nice comment by the Guardian (i posted some excerpts, the full text is in the source link):
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/22/gchq-internet-snooping-kafkaesqueIf you think GCHQ spying revelations don't matter, it's time to think again
by John Naughton
Will the revelation that GCHQ taps every internet communication that enters or leaves the UK mark the moment when ordinary citizens stop and say: "Oh, now I get it." A moment when people realise that the stuff that nerds and activists had been droning on about might actually affect them?
My hunch is that it isn't such a moment. Most people will just shrug their shoulders and get on with life. They will accept the assurances of those in authority and move on. If they do, then they will have missed something important. It is that our democracies have indeed reached a pivotal point. Ever since it first became clear that the internet was going to become the nervous system of the planet, the 64 billion dollar question was whether it would be "captured" by giant corporations or by governments. Now we know the answer: it's "both".
The parts of their reports that are deemed "publishable" are presented to Parliament. The non-publishable parts are, er, secret. In the last two weeks, the adjective "Orwellian" has been widely deployed. But "Kafkaesque" seems more appropriate to the situation in which we find ourselves. The conversation between the state and the citizen has been reduced to a dialogue that the writer would have recognised. It goes like this.
State Although intrusive surveillance does infringe a few liberties, it's necessary if you are to be protected from terrible things.
Citizen (anxiously) What terrible things?
State Can't tell you, I'm afraid, but believe us they are truly terrible. And, by the way, surveillance has already prevented some terrible things.
Citizen Such as?
State Sorry, can't go into details about those either.
Citizen So how do I know that this surveillance racket isn't just bureaucratic empire building?
State You don't need to worry about that because it's all done under legal authority.
Citizen So how does that work?
State Regrettably, we can't go into details because if we did so then the bad guys might get some ideas.
What it comes down to, in the end, is: "Trust us." And the trouble with that is that in recent decades our political elites have done precious little to deserve our trust. Now we're being asked to suspend our disbelief as they eavesdrop on all of our online activities – to trust them, in a way, with the most intimate details of our social and private lives. And all on the basis of laws that they – or their security apparatuses – wrote in order to rationalise and legitimate their snooping.
What we're witnessing is the metamorphosis of our democracies into national security states in which the prerogatives of security authorities trump every other consideration and in which critical or sceptical appraisal of them is ruled out of court.
Last edited by rwo power on Sun Jun 23, 2013 2:44 am; edited 1 time in total
rwo power- Super Moderator
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Re: Move over, Big Brother, NSA is doing it far more efficiently...
Shhh, rwo.
Don't you dare threaten our 2nd Amendment rights! The REST of the Constitution is clearly outdated in the modern age and there should be LESS protection for minorities and privacy rights, but an amendment written when we had legitimate concerns over invasion and did not have a standing, trained military, and when people regularly hunted for a living/food and when weapons were all single fire musket-loaded designs is CLEARLY still applicable.
DON'T TREAD ON ME!
Don't you dare threaten our 2nd Amendment rights! The REST of the Constitution is clearly outdated in the modern age and there should be LESS protection for minorities and privacy rights, but an amendment written when we had legitimate concerns over invasion and did not have a standing, trained military, and when people regularly hunted for a living/food and when weapons were all single fire musket-loaded designs is CLEARLY still applicable.
DON'T TREAD ON ME!
RedOranje- Admin
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Re: Move over, Big Brother, NSA is doing it far more efficiently...
Awww. I just think it is funny how afraid of terrorist attacks people are in the US that they instead embrace being snooped upon and everything. The gun stuff was just a side-product, and really when I saw that toddler thing I could but shake my head. Better jail those armed toddlers immediately - they pose a much bigger thread than terrorists and the state spying on you together ^^
rwo power- Super Moderator
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Re: Move over, Big Brother, NSA is doing it far more efficiently...
I'm not pro-gun to be honest buttttt I'm not entirely anti-gun however either.
I had to research gun violence and depending on how guns are reduced depends on how successful it is. Australia and England very, New York, Chicago, Illinois, California not so much where you can just go to Indiana or Arizona and walk out with a Ak-47
If done properly I support it but not half ass the way it is done now but let's not get off topic now
And nothing about journalism today makes me trust the Media exactly like the Walter Cronkite era. I have to deal with idiots like Bill Riley, Anderson cooper, Glen beck, etc where anyone can end up on tv or "publish an article"
People trust Jon Stewart and Stephan Colbert more which says a lot.
I had to research gun violence and depending on how guns are reduced depends on how successful it is. Australia and England very, New York, Chicago, Illinois, California not so much where you can just go to Indiana or Arizona and walk out with a Ak-47
If done properly I support it but not half ass the way it is done now but let's not get off topic now
And nothing about journalism today makes me trust the Media exactly like the Walter Cronkite era. I have to deal with idiots like Bill Riley, Anderson cooper, Glen beck, etc where anyone can end up on tv or "publish an article"
People trust Jon Stewart and Stephan Colbert more which says a lot.
I Have Mono- Starlet
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Re: Move over, Big Brother, NSA is doing it far more efficiently...
Well, in Germany we luckily have comparatively little gun violence in most areas. Of course, bad guys always have the chance to arm themselves, but as guns are by far not as ubiquitous as in the US, the number of gun related accidents leading to death and injuries is not so big.I Have Mono wrote:I had to research gun violence and depending on how guns are reduced depends on how successful it is. Australia and England very, New York, Chicago, Illinois, California not so much where you can just go to Indiana or Arizona and walk out with a Ak-47
If done properly I support it but not half ass the way it is done now but let's not get off topic now
And a killed person is usually dead, no matter whether it is due to an intended gunshot by a criminal or by an accident, maybe involving kids or toddlers. The latter is particularly disturbing - I mean, pro-gun people say "our kids are fine, they are taught from early on how dangerous guns can be" - but why are then so many deadly accidents involving kids and guns?
I mean, you don't let 4 or 5 year old kids drive cars either. You don't even let 20 year old people legally drink alcohol in the US because you deem alcohol dangerous, so why do you let little kids play will deadly arms?
Well, that is why I usually don't only read German media, but media of other countries, too - preferably in the language it was written in as even translation can be used to manipulate the content. If I post mainly English or US media for people to read here, it is because I have to assume that most English or US people are only able to read and understand English.I Have Mono wrote:And nothing about journalism today makes me trust the Media exactly like the Walter Cronkite era. I have to deal with idiots like Bill Riley, Anderson cooper, Glen beck, etc where anyone can end up on tv or "publish an article"
People trust Jon Stewart and Stephan Colbert more which says a lot.
You know, it is fine when English/US people think "well, we are the big guys, English is the world language, we should expect everybody to speak and understand English", but that makes you very, very vulnerable to misinformation. And better don't trust Google or Yahoo to translate stuff for you - 1st it is routed via NSA/GCHQ and second it is easy to modify translations via a machine so that problematic stuff just happens to get filtered away.
From what I gathered, the US media preferred to run the internet snooping stuff rather subduedly. For a more open and critical reporting including rather retailed articles on the ramifications it can lead to, you might better look into European media. But not only such stuff gets wiped under the carpet in the US.
Or did you know that the NRA actively blocked research into gun-related violence by the CDC and the publication of gun critical studies from 1996 up to 2013?
Oh, and by the way, to come back to your statement
in response to why something like in the 3rd Reich or East Germany couldn't happen in the US... Are you really sure?I Have Mono wrote:The American citizen of today are a lot better armed then the German citizen of the 40's so it would be hard to do that on a nationwide scale, one reason why Americans like their guns.
When exactly is the time to raise your arms to defend yourself? And how can you rally the "free citizens"? As all ways of information in the US are under close surveillance, you have no chance whatsoever to organise a defense against any totalitarist machinations anymore.
Oh, by the way - did you know that the US of A put more people into prison than any other nation world wide? A study of the International Centre for Prison Studies published the following data: in 2011, about 10.1 million people were serving terms in prison world-wide - 2 292 133 of them in the USA alone. If you put it into relative data, you get 743 people in prison per 100 000 people living there. Not even Russia (568), Belarus (381) or China (122) have such high numbers. Contrast this with 153 people in prison per 100 000 in England+Wales or 85 people in prison per 100 000 in Germany or 96 per 100 000 in France.
Source: http://www.prisonstudies.org/images/news_events/wppl9.pdf of the ICPS in London http://www.prisonstudies.org/
I think the combination of perfect surveillance and the propensity of throwing people into prison should be rather worrisome to the people in the "Land of the Free".
Oh, by the way, in the US you can't even say you really have democratic elections in the first place either. The process with electoral delegates can easily lead to undemocratic results as it is possible to elect a president with only 23% of the voters.
rwo power- Super Moderator
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Re: Move over, Big Brother, NSA is doing it far more efficiently...
Im shocked at how strong the illusion of privacy is in this thread...The only place real privacy exists is in your thoughts and (to a small extent) your home, and that shift began before even 9/11: Drastically increased technological capabilities + organizations realizing the value of data = kiss your "privacy" goodbye
In terms of the government: when toeing the line between over-surveillance and under-surveillance, the government will err on the side of over-surveillance 100% of the time
Monitor too closely and you might annoy a portion of the public
Monitor too loosely and suffer a large-scale terrorist attack and everyone will freak out...like they said in men in black: "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it."
....easy decision for the feds to make
Not saying I agree with it; personally I would gladly sacrifice quite a bit of security for the sake of liberty, but I accept and respect that my outlook on life seems to be quite different than most, and there are plenty of people who would not make that choice....I just think there is some serious naivety in this thread as to the nature of privacy in the 21st century
In terms of the government: when toeing the line between over-surveillance and under-surveillance, the government will err on the side of over-surveillance 100% of the time
Monitor too closely and you might annoy a portion of the public
Monitor too loosely and suffer a large-scale terrorist attack and everyone will freak out...like they said in men in black: "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it."
....easy decision for the feds to make
Not saying I agree with it; personally I would gladly sacrifice quite a bit of security for the sake of liberty, but I accept and respect that my outlook on life seems to be quite different than most, and there are plenty of people who would not make that choice....I just think there is some serious naivety in this thread as to the nature of privacy in the 21st century
Swanhends- Fan Favorite
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Re: Move over, Big Brother, NSA is doing it far more efficiently...
@Swanhends
You underestimate how allergic Germans are to surveillance. We had that twice within the last 80 years in two totalitarian regimes and that is why people are fighting with teeth and nails for their privacy here.
You underestimate how allergic Germans are to surveillance. We had that twice within the last 80 years in two totalitarian regimes and that is why people are fighting with teeth and nails for their privacy here.
rwo power- Super Moderator
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Re: Move over, Big Brother, NSA is doing it far more efficiently...
rwo power wrote:@Swanhends
You underestimate how allergic Germans are to surveillance. We had that twice within the last 80 years in two totalitarian regimes and that is why people are fighting with teeth and nails for their privacy here.
You're limiting surveillance to the government though, which is short-sighted IMO
Take a look around, I mean literally take a look around yourself. Everything you are surrounded by that was purchased by means other than cash saw personal information about yourself transferred to the company you bought the product from, and you had to send personal information to the credit card company in the first place. Used cash? The bank has your personal information. I use netflix, they have a history of everything I've watched on their service. My parents use cable TV, the company has a list of everything they've watched on demand (on top of the information transferred at purchase). Even if the phone company is not actively listening in on our calls, they still have records of who my parents have called and who has called my parents. Unless you use a very strong proxy server every single time you access the internet, your ISP has record of what you've done. Buy a car, buy a home? Info sent to the dealership, the car company, the bank, and the company that handles credit checks...Oh by the way you have to get your car registered with the state and submit more personal information to the insurance company. Go to college? Information going to states, universities, and banks. Want to apply for a job? Information required by employers, possible background checks. This is before even mentioning cell-phones..
There may not be people from these places actively watching you, but the fact is that your personal information is all over the place, and any organization with enough resources can piece it together easily...Privacy is an illusion
Everyone wants the privacy of living off the grid, without all the inconvenience.....but thats not how it works
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Re: Move over, Big Brother, NSA is doing it far more efficiently...
Well, you know I only use cash and definitely not anything like payback cards and stuff. And I don't have cable TV either (satellite TV is more far spread in Germany anyway as it is cheaper than cable). And as I mentioned before, I don't own a mobile phone for a reason, too. I have been rather paranoid for ages (ever since the internet became commercial, that is)
rwo power- Super Moderator
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Re: Move over, Big Brother, NSA is doing it far more efficiently...
Swanhends wrote:Im shocked at how strong the illusion of privacy is in this thread...The only place real privacy exists is in your thoughts and (to a small extent) your home, and that shift began before even 9/11: Drastically increased technological capabilities + organizations realizing the value of data = kiss your "privacy" goodbye
In terms of the government: when toeing the line between over-surveillance and under-surveillance, the government will err on the side of over-surveillance 100% of the time
Monitor too closely and you might annoy a portion of the public
Monitor too loosely and suffer a large-scale terrorist attack and everyone will freak out...like they said in men in black: "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it."
....easy decision for the feds to make
Not saying I agree with it; personally I would gladly sacrifice quite a bit of security for the sake of liberty, but I accept and respect that my outlook on life seems to be quite different than most, and there are plenty of people who would not make that choice....I just think there is some serious naivety in this thread as to the nature of privacy in the 21st century
There's a difference between naivety and blind support. We're arguing against the latter.
RedOranje- Admin
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Re: Move over, Big Brother, NSA is doing it far more efficiently...
Snowdengate turning into blockbuster material as we speak.
US' deception level: over 9000
US' deception level: over 9000
BarrileteCosmico- Admin
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Re: Move over, Big Brother, NSA is doing it far more efficiently...
Naturally the media has basically lost sight of the real NSA story and is instead fixated on "herpy derpy wheres Snowden?!?"
Honestly is it really all that surprising that the government can get away with this when THESE are our watchdogs?
Honestly is it really all that surprising that the government can get away with this when THESE are our watchdogs?
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Re: Move over, Big Brother, NSA is doing it far more efficiently...
Snowden is most probably in Russia. He is never getting found.
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Re: Move over, Big Brother, NSA is doing it far more efficiently...
I'm with bhends here, why are people so surprised?
NSA is probably watching this thread too
NSA is probably watching this thread too
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Re: Move over, Big Brother, NSA is doing it far more efficiently...
Hm. There is always a difference between suspecting something and knowing something.M99 wrote:I'm with bhends here, why are people so surprised?
NSA is probably watching this thread too
Moreover, if - as you say - people always knew it anyway, why did the US then get so ballistic for the anyway known info being published? ^^
There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to."
George Orwell, 1984
rwo power- Super Moderator
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Re: Move over, Big Brother, NSA is doing it far more efficiently...
(Reuters) - The United States taps half a billion phone calls, emails and text messages in Germany in a typical month and has classed its biggest European ally as a target similar to China, according to secret U.S. documents quoted by a German newsmagazine.
The revelations of alleged U.S. surveillance programs based on documents taken by fugitive former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden have raised a political furor in the United States and abroad over the balance between privacy rights and national security.
Exposing the latest details in a string of reputed spying programs, Der Spiegel quoted from an internal NSA document which it said its reporters had seen.
The document Spiegel cited showed that the United States categorized Germany as a "third-class" partner and that surveillance there was stronger than in any other EU country, similar in extent to China, Iraq or Saudi-Arabia.
"We can attack the signals of most foreign third-class partners, and we do it too," Der Spiegel quoted a passage in the NSA document as saying.
It said the document showed that the NSA monitored phone calls, text messages, emails and internet chat contributions and has saved the metadata - that is, the connections, not the content - at its headquarters.
On an average day, the NSA monitored about 20 million German phone connections and 10 million internet data sets, rising to 60 million phone connections on busy days, the report said.
It's scary how much power the NSA has
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Re: Move over, Big Brother, NSA is doing it far more efficiently...
They potentially have more power than the president. (Obama himself was spied upon back in 2006 lol)
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Re: Move over, Big Brother, NSA is doing it far more efficiently...
BERLIN (AP) — German federal prosecutors say they are looking into whether reported U.S. electronic surveillance programs broke German laws.
The Federal Prosecutors' Office said in a statement Sunday that it was probing the claims so as to "achieve a reliable factual basis" before considering whether a formal investigation was warranted.
It also said private citizens were likely to file criminal complaints on the matter.
Germany news weekly Der Spiegel reports that at least one such complaint was lodged with prosecutors in the state of Hesse last week.
The magazine reported Sunday that apart from its PRISM program used to eavesdrop on Internet traffic, the U.S. National Security Agency also spied on European Union offices on both sides of the Atlantic.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
A top German official accused the United States on Sunday of using "Cold War" methods against its allies, after a German magazine cited secret intelligence documents to claim that U.S. spies bugged European Union offices.
Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger was responding to a report by German news weekly Der Spiegel, which claimed that the U.S. National Security Agency eavesdropped on EU offices in Washington, New York and Brussels. The magazine cited classified U.S. documents taken by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden that it said it had partly seen.
"If the media reports are accurate, then this recalls the methods used by enemies during the Cold War," Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said in a statement to The Associated Press.
"It is beyond comprehension that our friends in the United States see Europeans as enemies," she said, calling for an "immediate and comprehensive" response from the U.S. government to the claims.
According to Der Spiegel, the NSA planted bugs in the EU's diplomatic offices in Washington and infiltrated the building's computer network. Similar measures were taken at the EU's mission to the United Nations in New York, the magazine said.
Der Spiegel didn't publish the alleged NSA documents it cited or say how it obtained access to them. But one of the report's authors is Laura Poitras, an award-winning documentary filmmaker who interviewed Snowden while he was holed up in Hong Kong.
The magazine also didn't specify how it learned of the NSA's alleged eavesdropping efforts at a key EU office in Brussels. There, the NSA used secure facilities at NATO headquarters nearby to dial into telephone maintenance systems that would have allowed it to intercept senior EU officials' calls and Internet traffic, Der Spiegel report said.
Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger urged EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso to take personal responsibility for investigating the allegations.
The United States has defended its efforts to intercept electronic communications overseas by arguing that this has helped prevent terror attacks at home and abroad.
The Federal Prosecutors' Office said in a statement Sunday that it was probing the claims so as to "achieve a reliable factual basis" before considering whether a formal investigation was warranted.
It also said private citizens were likely to file criminal complaints on the matter.
Germany news weekly Der Spiegel reports that at least one such complaint was lodged with prosecutors in the state of Hesse last week.
The magazine reported Sunday that apart from its PRISM program used to eavesdrop on Internet traffic, the U.S. National Security Agency also spied on European Union offices on both sides of the Atlantic.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
A top German official accused the United States on Sunday of using "Cold War" methods against its allies, after a German magazine cited secret intelligence documents to claim that U.S. spies bugged European Union offices.
Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger was responding to a report by German news weekly Der Spiegel, which claimed that the U.S. National Security Agency eavesdropped on EU offices in Washington, New York and Brussels. The magazine cited classified U.S. documents taken by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden that it said it had partly seen.
"If the media reports are accurate, then this recalls the methods used by enemies during the Cold War," Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said in a statement to The Associated Press.
"It is beyond comprehension that our friends in the United States see Europeans as enemies," she said, calling for an "immediate and comprehensive" response from the U.S. government to the claims.
According to Der Spiegel, the NSA planted bugs in the EU's diplomatic offices in Washington and infiltrated the building's computer network. Similar measures were taken at the EU's mission to the United Nations in New York, the magazine said.
Der Spiegel didn't publish the alleged NSA documents it cited or say how it obtained access to them. But one of the report's authors is Laura Poitras, an award-winning documentary filmmaker who interviewed Snowden while he was holed up in Hong Kong.
The magazine also didn't specify how it learned of the NSA's alleged eavesdropping efforts at a key EU office in Brussels. There, the NSA used secure facilities at NATO headquarters nearby to dial into telephone maintenance systems that would have allowed it to intercept senior EU officials' calls and Internet traffic, Der Spiegel report said.
Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger urged EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso to take personal responsibility for investigating the allegations.
The United States has defended its efforts to intercept electronic communications overseas by arguing that this has helped prevent terror attacks at home and abroad.
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Re: Move over, Big Brother, NSA is doing it far more efficiently...
McLewis wrote:The Patriot Act, lady and gents.
Bush's admin created it, Obama's admin continues it. The GOP championed it.
Now they don't recognize it.
Quoted from the video and Patriot Act:
"The law under which the government collected this data, Section 215 of the Patriot ACT, allows the F.B.I. to obtain court orders demanding that a person or company produce 'tangible things,' upon showing reasonable grounds that the things sought are 'relevant' to an authorized foreign intelligence investigation.'
"Even in a fearful time when the Patriot Act was enacted, in October 2001, lawmakers NEVER contemplated that section 215 would be used for phone metadata or mass surveillance of any sort."
This provision put in the Patriot Act was meant to stop something like this from ever happening. If you watch the video, the man who created the Patriot Act even says what the government is doing is illegal.
This isn't about Republican's or Democracts at all.
Re: Move over, Big Brother, NSA is doing it far more efficiently...
'I Have Mono wrote:The supreme court has always been the law of the land but ita biased. If the supreme court justices are impartial like they are supposed to be why does it matter if they are all white, all mexican, all black, all men, or all women, they are not impartial thats why.
So to tell me something that gets passed 5-4 by Biased judges can not be bent a little is ridiculous.
The us constitution is so outdated its not even funny, what founding father had to foresight to think in 250 years we would have giant satillites, the ability to instantly communicate with each other, automatic weapons.
The country is so divided its basically impossible to amend the constitution with anything valid. So yes I'm ok with bending the rules a little bit.
Incorrect. THE CONSTITUTION is declared as the Supreme Law of the Land. The Supreme Court interprets the law and is the Supreme Court in the land. The SC has not made any ruling on this case but it is completely obvious that the government is breaking the 4th Amendment AND the Patriot Act which makes it illegal.
Re: Move over, Big Brother, NSA is doing it far more efficiently...
Please explain to me what probable cause the the goverment have to get millions of data and spy on US citizens?
Re: Move over, Big Brother, NSA is doing it far more efficiently...
Russia decided to undertake measures to make sure that the USA can't spy into their important intelligence agency paperwork anymore via the internet: they ordered typewriters to actually make it paperwork again!
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/russian-intelligence-seeks-typewriters-for-secret-documents-a-910677.html
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/russian-intelligence-seeks-typewriters-for-secret-documents-a-910677.html
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Kaladin- Stormblessed
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Re: Move over, Big Brother, NSA is doing it far more efficiently...
The Guardian just published another pretty interesting Article... You might want to visit the Guardian for the screenshots of the slides, BTW.
- Spoiler:
- XKeyscore: NSA tool collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'
(c) Glenn Greenwald, 31 July 2013
• XKeyscore gives 'widest-reaching' collection of online data
• NSA analysts require no prior authorization for searches
• Sweeps up emails, social media activity and browsing history
• NSA's XKeyscore program – read one of the presentations
A top secret National Security Agency program allows analysts to search with no prior authorization through vast databases containing emails, online chats and the browsing histories of millions of individuals, according to documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The NSA boasts in training materials that the program, called XKeyscore, is its "widest-reaching" system for developing intelligence from the internet.
The latest revelations will add to the intense public and congressional debate around the extent of NSA surveillance programs. They come as senior intelligence officials testify to the Senate judiciary committee on Wednesday, releasing classified documents in response to the Guardian's earlier stories on bulk collection of phone records and Fisa surveillance court oversight.
The files shed light on one of Snowden's most controversial statements, made in his first video interview published by the Guardian on June 10.
"I, sitting at my desk," said Snowden, could "wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant, to a federal judge or even the president, if I had a personal email".
US officials vehemently denied this specific claim. Mike Rogers, the Republican chairman of the House intelligence committee, said of Snowden's assertion: "He's lying. It's impossible for him to do what he was saying he could do."
But training materials for XKeyscore detail how analysts can use it and other systems to mine enormous agency databases by filling in a simple on-screen form giving only a broad justification for the search. The request is not reviewed by a court or any NSA personnel before it is processed.
XKeyscore, the documents boast, is the NSA's "widest reaching" system developing intelligence from computer networks – what the agency calls Digital Network Intelligence (DNI). One presentation claims the program covers "nearly everything a typical user does on the internet", including the content of emails, websites visited and searches, as well as their metadata.
Analysts can also use XKeyscore and other NSA systems to obtain ongoing "real-time" interception of an individual's internet activity.
Under US law, the NSA is required to obtain an individualized Fisa warrant only if the target of their surveillance is a 'US person', though no such warrant is required for intercepting the communications of Americans with foreign targets. But XKeyscore provides the technological capability, if not the legal authority, to target even US persons for extensive electronic surveillance without a warrant provided that some identifying information, such as their email or IP address, is known to the analyst.
One training slide illustrates the digital activity constantly being collected by XKeyscore and the analyst's ability to query the databases at any time.
The purpose of XKeyscore is to allow analysts to search the metadata as well as the content of emails and other internet activity, such as browser history, even when there is no known email account (a "selector" in NSA parlance) associated with the individual being targeted.
Analysts can also search by name, telephone number, IP address, keywords, the language in which the internet activity was conducted or the type of browser used.
One document notes that this is because "strong selection [search by email address] itself gives us only a very limited capability" because "a large amount of time spent on the web is performing actions that are anonymous."
The NSA documents assert that by 2008, 300 terrorists had been captured using intelligence from XKeyscore.
Analysts are warned that searching the full database for content will yield too many results to sift through. Instead they are advised to use the metadata also stored in the databases to narrow down what to review.
A slide entitled "plug-ins" in a December 2012 document describes the various fields of information that can be searched. It includes "every email address seen in a session by both username and domain", "every phone number seen in a session (eg address book entries or signature block)" and user activity – "the webmail and chat activity to include username, buddylist, machine specific cookies etc".
Email monitoring
In a second Guardian interview in June, Snowden elaborated on his statement about being able to read any individual's email if he had their email address. He said the claim was based in part on the email search capabilities of XKeyscore, which Snowden says he was authorized to use while working as a Booz Allen contractor for the NSA.
One top-secret document describes how the program "searches within bodies of emails, webpages and documents", including the "To, From, CC, BCC lines" and the 'Contact Us' pages on websites".
To search for emails, an analyst using XKS enters the individual's email address into a simple online search form, along with the "justification" for the search and the time period for which the emails are sought.
The analyst then selects which of those returned emails they want to read by opening them in NSA reading software.
The system is similar to the way in which NSA analysts generally can intercept the communications of anyone they select, including, as one NSA document put it, "communications that transit the United States and communications that terminate in the United States".
One document, a top secret 2010 guide describing the training received by NSA analysts for general surveillance under the Fisa Amendments Act of 2008, explains that analysts can begin surveillance on anyone by clicking a few simple pull-down menus designed to provide both legal and targeting justifications. Once options on the pull-down menus are selected, their target is marked for electronic surveillance and the analyst is able to review the content of their communications.
Chats, browsing history and other internet activity
Beyond emails, the XKeyscore system allows analysts to monitor a virtually unlimited array of other internet activities, including those within social media.
An NSA tool called DNI Presenter, used to read the content of stored emails, also enables an analyst using XKeyscore to read the content of Facebook chats or private messages.
An analyst can monitor such Facebook chats by entering the Facebook user name and a date range into a simple search screen.
Analysts can search for internet browsing activities using a wide range of information, including search terms entered by the user or the websites viewed.
As one slide indicates, the ability to search HTTP activity by keyword permits the analyst access to what the NSA calls "nearly everything a typical user does on the internet".
The XKeyscore program also allows an analyst to learn the IP addresses of every person who visits any website the analyst specifies.
The quantity of communications accessible through programs such as XKeyscore is staggeringly large. One NSA report from 2007 estimated that there were 850bn "call events" collected and stored in the NSA databases, and close to 150bn internet records. Each day, the document says, 1-2bn records were added.
William Binney, a former NSA mathematician, said last year that the agency had "assembled on the order of 20tn transactions about US citizens with other US citizens", an estimate, he said, that "only was involving phone calls and emails". A 2010 Washington Post article reported that "every day, collection systems at the [NSA] intercept and store 1.7bn emails, phone calls and other type of communications."
The XKeyscore system is continuously collecting so much internet data that it can be stored only for short periods of time. Content remains on the system for only three to five days, while metadata is stored for 30 days. One document explains: "At some sites, the amount of data we receive per day (20+ terabytes) can only be stored for as little as 24 hours."
To solve this problem, the NSA has created a multi-tiered system that allows analysts to store "interesting" content in other databases, such as one named Pinwale which can store material for up to five years.
It is the databases of XKeyscore, one document shows, that now contain the greatest amount of communications data collected by the NSA.
In 2012, there were at least 41 billion total records collected and stored in XKeyscore for a single 30-day period.
Legal v technical restrictions
While the Fisa Amendments Act of 2008 requires an individualized warrant for the targeting of US persons, NSA analysts are permitted to intercept the communications of such individuals without a warrant if they are in contact with one of the NSA's foreign targets.
The ACLU's deputy legal director, Jameel Jaffer, told the Guardian last month that national security officials expressly said that a primary purpose of the new law was to enable them to collect large amounts of Americans' communications without individualized warrants.
"The government doesn't need to 'target' Americans in order to collect huge volumes of their communications," said Jaffer. "The government inevitably sweeps up the communications of many Americans" when targeting foreign nationals for surveillance.
An example is provided by one XKeyscore document showing an NSA target in Tehran communicating with people in Frankfurt, Amsterdam and New York.
In recent years, the NSA has attempted to segregate exclusively domestic US communications in separate databases. But even NSA documents acknowledge that such efforts are imperfect, as even purely domestic communications can travel on foreign systems, and NSA tools are sometimes unable to identify the national origins of communications.
Moreover, all communications between Americans and someone on foreign soil are included in the same databases as foreign-to-foreign communications, making them readily searchable without warrants.
Some searches conducted by NSA analysts are periodically reviewed by their supervisors within the NSA. "It's very rare to be questioned on our searches," Snowden told the Guardian in June, "and even when we are, it's usually along the lines of: 'let's bulk up the justification'."
In a letter this week to senator Ron Wyden, director of national intelligence James Clapper acknowledged that NSA analysts have exceeded even legal limits as interpreted by the NSA in domestic surveillance.
Acknowledging what he called "a number of compliance problems", Clapper attributed them to "human error" or "highly sophisticated technology issues" rather than "bad faith".
However, Wyden said on the Senate floor on Tuesday: "These violations are more serious than those stated by the intelligence community, and are troubling."
In a statement to the Guardian, the NSA said: "NSA's activities are focused and specifically deployed against – and only against – legitimate foreign intelligence targets in response to requirements that our leaders need for information necessary to protect our nation and its interests.
"XKeyscore is used as a part of NSA's lawful foreign signals intelligence collection system.
"Allegations of widespread, unchecked analyst access to NSA collection data are simply not true. Access to XKeyscore, as well as all of NSA's analytic tools, is limited to only those personnel who require access for their assigned tasks … In addition, there are multiple technical, manual and supervisory checks and balances within the system to prevent deliberate misuse from occurring."
"Every search by an NSA analyst is fully auditable, to ensure that they are proper and within the law.
"These types of programs allow us to collect the information that enables us to perform our missions successfully – to defend the nation and to protect US and allied troops abroad."
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