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NSA tracking cellphone locations worldwide, Snowden documents show

washingtonpost.com

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Re: NSA tracking cellphone locations worldwide, Snowden documents show

#71

Post by qq66 »

marvin wrote: post #65
angersock wrote: post #3

From the article: NSA Director Keith Alexander disclosed in Senate testimony in October that the NSA had run a pilot project in 2010 and 2011 to collect “samples” of U.S. cellphone location data. The data collected were never available for intelligence analysis purposes, and the project was discontinued because it had no “operational value,” he said. Alexander allowed that a broader collection of such data “may be so…

> And that, folks, is why we as engineers and hackers have a moral duty to be very selective in the types of work we take on and for whom. Computer yechnology work is still a wild west. Other fields which have similar ethical considerations - medicine, chemistry, engineering - have ethics courses which make it clear to the graduates that their professional decisions have consequences. There is no such standard for co…

Prism may have been built by people holding their noses for the paycheck, but it could also have been built by people who genuinely believe that its social benefits outweigh its costs. Even if only 0.1% of software professionals believe this, it's enough to staff the project.

Re: NSA tracking cellphone locations worldwide, Snowden documents show

#72

Post by easy_rider »

theg2 wrote: post #21
contingencies wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did anyone else read that and think of that scene in Enemy of the State ? It's eerily equivalent. "Treadstone! Ahh yes, Treadstone. Treadstone was a pilot project to . It's all but decomissioned at this point."

Treadstone is from The Bourne Identity isn't it?

Yeah. Enemy of the state is the one where one of the Gov. hackers wears computer/shooting glasses and looks like Dexter Holland from The Offspring. http://images.fanpop.com/images/image_uploads/Enemy-of-the-S...

Re: NSA tracking cellphone locations worldwide, Snowden documents show

#74

Post by BlackDeath3 »

theg2 wrote: post #21
contingencies wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did anyone else read that and think of that scene in Enemy of the State ? It's eerily equivalent. "Treadstone! Ahh yes, Treadstone. Treadstone was a pilot project to . It's all but decomissioned at this point."

Treadstone is from The Bourne Identity isn't it?

Yes it is. Though technically I've never seen Enemy of the State, so I suppose they could theoretically share the dialogue...

Re: NSA tracking cellphone locations worldwide, Snowden documents show

#75

Post by drcube »

stdbrouw wrote: post #45
drcube wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don't want people to view something on the public web, don't post it there. This page design is infinitely better than the other one, also linked on the HN front page. Seems like you get a choice. Hooray for freedom!

He's saying it's rude (not despicable or forbidden) to link to this page when putting it in front of a big crowd (not e.g. when viewing it on your own). Your comment is therefore entirely beside the point.

It's rude to link to an ugly site when you could link to a better, more readable one. It's rude to lie and manipulate people for money, when you could easily avoid doing so. Advertising should not be encouraged, ever.

When you have the opportunity to show someone an ad-free, single page, uncluttered version of a piece of literature, do it. Please. Always.

Re: NSA tracking cellphone locations worldwide, Snowden documents show

#76

Post by lignuist »

middleclick wrote: post #68
mjolk wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? Why are you envious of him? You can choose to only sometimes carry a phone or turn it on.

Most modern phones take a long time to start up. Reminds of the time I had one of those Nokia phones. 2-3 seconds bootup time. I think putting in Airplane Mode should be a good idea.

> I think putting in Airplane Mode should be a good idea.

And then you still would have to trust this Airplane Mode.

Honestly, I have absolutely no idea what is happening in my phone. Is it maybe still collecting data while it is in Airplane Mode and sending it somewhere once it is set back to regular mode? Or is it even sending data all the time, because the NSA knows that never a single plane has crashed because of active cellphones? Probably some smart people out there are checking their phone's internals and activities more than I do...

Re: NSA tracking cellphone locations worldwide, Snowden documents show

#77

Post by BlackDeath3 »

Scriptor wrote: post #60
efuquen wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pointless in what sense? In that the Washington Post needs to make money or that you want quality journalism, no ads, to pay nothing for it, and golden unicorns to ride on? Also, the original page has a single page, no pagination: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-tr...

I'm not sure which plugins you have running, but it definitely splits it into three pages for me.

Three pages here as well.

Re: NSA tracking cellphone locations worldwide, Snowden documents show

#79

Post by sjtgraham »

> The NSA does not target Americans’ location data by design, but the agency acquires a substantial amount of information on the whereabouts of domestic cellphones “incidentally,” a legal term that connotes a foreseeable but not deliberate result.

The implication that Americans being "incidentally" caught in the dragnet is the only aspect that makes this egregious is absolutely fucking disgusting. This is a habit endemic in the American media that persistently differentiates between Americans and mere humans, as if the former is sacred and the latter mere fodder. I try to avoid swearing in comments, but damn it that's how angry this attitude makes me (and pretty much every non-American, I'm sure).

Re: NSA tracking cellphone locations worldwide, Snowden documents show

#80

Post by adamnemecek »

marvin wrote: post #65
angersock wrote: post #3

From the article: NSA Director Keith Alexander disclosed in Senate testimony in October that the NSA had run a pilot project in 2010 and 2011 to collect “samples” of U.S. cellphone location data. The data collected were never available for intelligence analysis purposes, and the project was discontinued because it had no “operational value,” he said. Alexander allowed that a broader collection of such data “may be so…

> And that, folks, is why we as engineers and hackers have a moral duty to be very selective in the types of work we take on and for whom. Computer yechnology work is still a wild west. Other fields which have similar ethical considerations - medicine, chemistry, engineering - have ethics courses which make it clear to the graduates that their professional decisions have consequences. There is no such standard for co…

Is it possible that the development of these technologies is compartmentalized? And the single engineers only know the part that they are supposed to work on but don't really understand what is the larger project that their slice will be a part of? It would probably be hard to pull this development methodology off.
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