Earlier quoted context omitted.
Try Perspectives addon: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/perspectives/
And Certificate Patrol: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/certificate-p...
+1 for cert patrol
Whistleblower Binney says the NSA has dossiers on nearly every US citizen
91–100 of 228 posts
Re: Whistleblower Binney says the NSA has dossiers on nearly every US citizen
#92Why is this a surprise to anyone? Governments will always want to have as much info as possible on anyone, especially their own citizens, and the US has been number 1 for a long time.
With Facebook, Twitter and face recognition, privacy is truly dead. Heck, even from public records you can get a lot of information about anyone, and if you have their SSN, you can increase that to a metric sheet ton. Any database and method of communication can be easily tapped for surveillance, too, so if they really want you, they're gonna get you.
Re: Whistleblower Binney says the NSA has dossiers on nearly every US citizen
#93I live in the Southern Hemisphere and like most 40 something year olds I follow whats happening in the States from a distance.
I've been reading and watching a fair bit of Jacob Appelbaum and reading Glenn Greenwald's posts which seem to be fair and well written. Democracy Now also does some interesting interviews with Jacob and William Binney.
Some stuff I recommend to have a look at... in no particular order.
Challenging the Surveillance State - Pt. 1 to Pt.4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VCTvs7UXa4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueDTOfEqey8&feature=relmf... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwm6VeYFdKM&feature=relmf... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fao4Z8JooxY&feature=relmf...
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/4/20/exclusive_national_sec...
Jacob Appelbaum (Part 1 & 2) Digital Anti-Repression Workshop - April 26 2012 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHoJ9pQ0cn8&feature=relmf... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9fByRmAHgU&feature=relmf...
Glenn's Salon Posts http://www.salon.com/writer/glenn_greenwald/
Re: Whistleblower Binney says the NSA has dossiers on nearly every US citizen
#94Switzerland had a huge surveillance scandal during the 80's. It was named "Fichenskandal" or in English, "Secret files scandal". More than 700'000 people or organizations were targeted, usually people on the left: unions, feminists, environmentalists etc. A friend of my father runs an independent book store and he requested his files after the scandal was made public. He received a stack of paper over 10 inches high.…
I wanted to work for Cyc Corp. several years ago. They have an interesting software and before Watson, maybe the closest thing to AI that there is out there. IT took me some time to understand why it was so hard to be a candidate as a non-US citizen : it was later disclosed that they were participants in the Total Information Awareness project. Its purported goal was to have a ten-pages file on every human on the planet. It is not clear that it has been discontinued.
Re: Whistleblower Binney says the NSA has dossiers on nearly every US citizen
#95Might I suggest having some fun with one's dossier? Like randomly doing the exact opposite of what you would ordinarily do on a daily basis. Here are some ideas... 1. Take the bus instead of driving your car. 2. Buy a pack of cigarettes if you're not a smoker. 3. Buy magazines you would never normally buy. 4. Attend a political meeting of the party you typically oppose. 5. Buy vegetarian food for a week if you're a m…
You would have to do this enough for it to be statistically significant otherwise it probably just averaged away.
OTOH....once might be seen as smoke-screening, making you more suspicious.
Re: Whistleblower Binney says the NSA has dossiers on nearly every US citizen
#96Switzerland had a huge surveillance scandal during the 80's. It was named "Fichenskandal" or in English, "Secret files scandal". More than 700'000 people or organizations were targeted, usually people on the left: unions, feminists, environmentalists etc. A friend of my father runs an independent book store and he requested his files after the scandal was made public. He received a stack of paper over 10 inches high.…
Is there a good reason for any country to have spies at all, especially for internal matters?
I feel that spying on other countries (let alone on own citizens) shouldn't exist at all, but it has become accepted by societies as something that the Governments just have to do, to "make their job easier", just like even FBI said recently that they'd prefer if they didn't need to get warrants, because it would make their job easier. Having a democracy and rights for people must be really tough on authorities, or at least that's how they sound.
Re: Whistleblower Binney says the NSA has dossiers on nearly every US citizen
#97About ten years ago, the NSA got direct access to every phone call, text and email sent via AT&T from the west coast to asia. Every. Single. Message. Set up shop next to the servers and just copied all of the data coming across. I think that by "dossiers" this guy meant "social network information from communication logs". They can start with your number (any number) and see who communicates with it. And then see who…
>facebook has a similar level of information about you and they haven't done much harm with it.
Facebook does not have anywhere near the level of surveillance that the NSA possesses. Please read the article again and do some research on the case. That being said, Facebook does have a lot of information about you. It will remain confidential until CISPA passes, at which point it will be legally beneficial for them to hand over this information to the government.
Re: Whistleblower Binney says the NSA has dossiers on nearly every US citizen
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
> If this is true doesn't it mean that Bin Laden won the war on terror? Not exactly: http://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/wcpls/this_i_my_friends...
It was pretty quickly concluded that that guy was straight out bullshitting. The quotes are from OBL's videos that he made and leaked out to mainly Al Jazeera. They were made after all of this made happened, and OBL obviously knew to read the papers and know how to make good propaganda. Be sceptics, fokes!
Actually those quotes reflect the same sentiments that I recall were expressed in an interview with OBL that either Time or Newsweek published prior to 9/11. I wish I could find a definite pointer to that issue, to check my recollection.
As a rule, most of history's bad actors -- Hitler, Lenin, bin Laden, G. W. Bush (via PNAC), and others -- have telegraphed exactly what they intend to do, years beforehand. Is it really their fault when nobody cares?
Re: Whistleblower Binney says the NSA has dossiers on nearly every US citizen
#99If this is true doesn't it mean that Bin Laden won the war on terror? Every time I go to the airport I think this. Those full body scanners? Thanks to Bin Laden, now you practically get strip searched for every flight. You have to take off your shoes. You cannot take drinks on a plane. You then have everyone on edge no matter where you go. You and a friend play CounterStrike. You get on the bus and start talking abou…
Why do you think that the ultimate goal of Bin Laden was to increase surveillance in the US and to annoy travelers at airports?
Re: Whistleblower Binney says the NSA has dossiers on nearly every US citizen
#100I really fucking hate the right wing and its authoritarian ideology. It's like there are two separate and distinct species of people on this planet: those with empathy and compassion for their fellow man, and these kinds of assholes who just want nothing but control. It's one of the reasons I got out of the US. My worry is I won't be allowed to return one day.
This isn't about the left wing or the right wing, it's the authoritarian wing. Jeff Flake, Ron Paul, Justin Amish, Gary Johnson, Rand Paul are all right wing and don't want to see you under the eye or chain.
On the authoritarian left, we have Obama:
- Ordered the killing of US citizens with no due process.
- Signed the National Defence Authorization Act, so now any American, at home or abroad, can be locked up with no trial at Guantanamo.
Many other examples. Not all the right is authoritarian and not all authoritarians are right.