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XKeyscore: NSA program collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'

theguardian.com

31–40 of 641 posts

Re: XKeyscore: NSA program collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'

#31
From the slides http://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2013/jul/31/nsa...

"Show me all the VPN startups in country X, and give me the data so I can decrypt and discover the users"

Does this mean using VPN is not very safe from dragnet?

Re: XKeyscore: NSA program collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'

#32
post #29

This is overwhelming. Even when you always hear the claims about we knew this was going on, somehow it is still shocking when you see it all laid out infront of you with screenshots and the capabilities described. I can see how they get HTTP information, since they would intercept at transit hubs - but how are they getting all Facebook private messages and Gmail? I was also looking for another unique ID that users ar…

Assume that Tor is broken. With this level of deep network monitoring, low-latency onion routing is essentially useless.

Re: XKeyscore: NSA program collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'

#34
post #30

Slide 6 of the presentation clearly shows that pretty much every government is in on the program, with heavy concentration in western Europe. One question, how did the dot in China get there? http://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2013/jul/31/nsa...

And look at slide 17:

"Show me all VPN startups in country X, and give me data so I can decrypt and discover users."

Holy crap. Is all encryption broken?

Re: XKeyscore: NSA program collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'

#36
Another data point on the relationship between government and terrorism:

I live in Columbia, South Carolina. A mile from my house there is a prominent statue of Ben Tillman. Tillman was an explicit advocate of terrorism, and indeed personally engaged in it [1], which drove his popularity and ensured his election to the governorship and the United States Senate.

Government programs such as the NSA's exist to protect the interests of the powerful. Same as it ever was.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Tillman

Re: XKeyscore: NSA program collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'

#37
post #11

One of the screen shots: http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/audio/video... says: Top Secret Comm(?) REL() to USA, AUS, CAN, GBR, NZL confirming the previous suspicions that many other governments are on board. Der Spiegel actually has reported a few weeks back about XKeyscore [1] and that it is used by the BND (Germany's NSA). I.e. all this data is also available to the NSA equivalents of Australia, Can…

Those are the Five Eyes countries: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Eyes

Re: XKeyscore: NSA program collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'

#38
post #29

This is overwhelming. Even when you always hear the claims about we knew this was going on, somehow it is still shocking when you see it all laid out infront of you with screenshots and the capabilities described. I can see how they get HTTP information, since they would intercept at transit hubs - but how are they getting all Facebook private messages and Gmail? I was also looking for another unique ID that users ar…

How long has https been an option with Facebook and messages? I don't think it was always required, if ever.

Re: XKeyscore: NSA program collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'

#39
post #35

You have to admit these guys are working on some cool problems. If you don't have a problem with the legality of it or potential for misuse it looks like a really interesting place to work.

Yeah and it looks like intelligence & skills doesn't always equate with having morals.
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