Google Takeout means something else in light of PRISM
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Google Takeout means something else in light of PRISM
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Re: Google Takeout means something else in light of PRISM
#2Exporting every account on a daily basis can't possible work for Google or the government. To be scalable and useful, and to meet the "no direct access to our servers" mantra, they would instead need for Google to replicate all database updates straight onto the NSA servers.
That's no small feat, and it certainly requires explicit engineering effort, but it's not a hugely complex undertaking either. Maybe the infrastructure of Takeout can also be used to do that, but the data transmission itself would have to work differently. Again, I believe it has to be basically a data pipe that replicates every user action, probably in real time.
Re: Google Takeout means something else in light of PRISM
#3When this came out, I remembered about that whole "you can never really delete your Facebook account, or the data from Facebook's server" situation. The whole NSA thing could also be one of the reasons why you can not.
Oh, and you can't delete your Skype account either. Not even in the UI.
Re: Google Takeout means something else in light of PRISM
#4Exporting every account on a daily basis can't possible work for Google or the government. To be scalable and useful, and to meet the "no direct access to our servers" mantra, they would instead need for Google to replicate all database updates straight onto the NSA servers. That's no small feat, and it certainly requires explicit engineering effort, but it's not a hugely complex undertaking either. Maybe the infrast…
I'm not aware of a good reason to think that Google sends all user data for everyone (or even all non-US-citizens) pre-emptively (or at all) to the NSA. The Takeout system is doubtless used to comply with FISA requests targeted at specific individuals, but it's not at all news that Google receives and accedes to such requests fairly routinely.
The three questions which remain open are 1) just how many individuals are getting FISAed - and has it gone up sharply thanks to the shiny new infrastructure for streamlining the request process? 2) do the FISA requests being acceded to now also include "broad sweep[s] for intelligence" in addition to those "specific orders about individuals" which the Internet companies have acknowledged (and which everyone knew about already) and 3) to what extent are the CEOs still fully aware of the nature and extent of the FISA inquiries now that the nice semi-automated processes are in place?
Re: Google Takeout means something else in light of PRISM
#5Exporting every account on a daily basis can't possible work for Google or the government. To be scalable and useful, and to meet the "no direct access to our servers" mantra, they would instead need for Google to replicate all database updates straight onto the NSA servers. That's no small feat, and it certainly requires explicit engineering effort, but it's not a hugely complex undertaking either. Maybe the infrast…
I'm not aware of a good reason to think that Google sends all user data for everyone (or even all non-US-citizens) pre-emptively (or at all) to the NSA. The Takeout system is doubtless used to comply with FISA requests targeted at specific individuals, but it's not at all news that Google receives and accedes to such requests fairly routinely. The three questions which remain open are 1) just how many individuals are…
PRISM means that internet companies like Google will be free from future FISA and NSL headaches, and so they can even truthfully say that they haven't received any requests.
Re: Google Takeout means something else in light of PRISM
#6Let's all do a blogpost on PRISM and see how many eyeballs we can get.
Google takeout most likely has nothing whatsoever to do with PRISM or any other NSA programme, why go through a clunky one-user-at-a-time batch process when you can be comfortably sitting right where the action is, where updates are incremental and where information is available when it happens instead of when you ask for it.
Push over pull any day for the NSA and the likes.
Re: Google Takeout means something else in light of PRISM
#7When this came out, I remembered about that whole "you can never really delete your Facebook account, or the data from Facebook's server" situation. The whole NSA thing could also be one of the reasons why you can not. Oh, and you can't delete your Skype account either. Not even in the UI.
I wonder if deactivating one's FB account triggers a copy to be sent to the NSA? The "Logic" being a panicked user trying to cover tracks.
Re: Google Takeout means something else in light of PRISM
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not aware of a good reason to think that Google sends all user data for everyone (or even all non-US-citizens) pre-emptively (or at all) to the NSA. The Takeout system is doubtless used to comply with FISA requests targeted at specific individuals, but it's not at all news that Google receives and accedes to such requests fairly routinely. The three questions which remain open are 1) just how many individuals are…
PRISM means that internet companies like Google will be free from future FISA and NSL headaches, and so they can even truthfully say that they haven't received any requests.
But Google said it denies taking part in PRISM...that denial could be a lie, but nothing so far has substantiated that.
The NYT article that so incensed Michael Arrington, for example, exclusively refers to the FISA procedure, which Google has more or less already admitted that they comply with (lawyered requests for specific individual/groups data).
The only part of the NYT article that sounds like the alarming scenario outlined in the PowerPoint slides is this:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/08/technology/tech-companies-...
> In one recent instance, the National Security Agency sent an agent to a tech company’s headquarters to monitor a suspect in a cyberattack, a lawyer representing the company said. The agent installed government-developed software on the company’s server and remained at the site for several weeks to download data to an agency laptop
There's no mention that the company here is Google and there's really no reason to believe that it is Google (in this instance)...I mean, because if it was, then the procedure described here has vast implications about Google's software stack that would seem untenable for a company with Google's kind of infrastructure
(It's possible that the procedure described here is inaccurate, as it is third hand, but that only underscores the vagueness of this whole thing)
Re: Google Takeout means something else in light of PRISM
#9Good points - other things that mean something else in this light is the realname enforcing policy and the unification of Google accounts (that we got Google+ to blame for exclusively so far). Taking it further, I wonder what the information that Google's personalized search is based on, can be used for. It must be a good summary of your habits, interests etc., right?
Re: Google Takeout means something else in light of PRISM
#10When this came out, I remembered about that whole "you can never really delete your Facebook account, or the data from Facebook's server" situation. The whole NSA thing could also be one of the reasons why you can not. Oh, and you can't delete your Skype account either. Not even in the UI.
Why on earth do you call out Skype? That's true of tons of services.