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NSA collects millions of text messages daily in 'untargeted' global sweep

theguardian.com

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Re: NSA collects millions of text messages daily in 'untargeted' global sweep

#41

Post by rhizome »

cryoshon wrote: post #19

Great, let's start doing something about it instead of complaining. Here's my cynical take on a back of the napkin recipe for political change: 1. Call, write, tweet, and facebook your representatives, both local and federal, and tell them what you think- be sure to inflate your credentials and threaten to give money/votes/accolades to their political enemies. For bonus points, tell their enemies the same thing. For…

I'm convinced that as much as people ever raise a hue and cry, including Congress, and including repealing or amending/trimming existing laws, the President has an ace in the hole to continue doing pretty much everything that is occurring now in the form of EO 12333.

So, I'm not sure where the repetition in this plan succeeds at affecting the executive order.

Re: NSA collects millions of text messages daily in 'untargeted' global sweep

#43

Post by sinak »

cryoshon wrote: post #35
eevilspock wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://thedaywefightback.org There's also a link there to a page that puts a #STOPTHENSA overlay on your Facebook and Twitter profile pics.

I support this campaign. It won't work singularly, but it might be another useful bullet point in fermenting dissent against the NSA. There are two major hurdles to social change success which this campaign does not overcome: 1. There's no political threat being projected, just general, unfocused discontent 2. There's no hook to entice people who don't already care about the issue

Any suggestions on 2? We'd love to change the page to help improve that aspect of it if we can. In particular on the day of action itself.

Re: NSA collects millions of text messages daily in 'untargeted' global sweep

#44

Post by sinak »

This is very clearly collection of the contents of messages, and not simply metadata. The fact that US messages may later be "minimized" from the database is vaguely helpful, but not much of a reassurance. That data should never be collected in the first place, and bulk collection of international data is also an unnecessary practice.

If this helps motivate you, we need all the help we can get with https://thedaywefightback.org. If you're a designer, developer (including frontend, backend, devops, mobile app), get in touch by emailing contact@thedaywefightback.org and we'll write back and let you know when we need your skillset the most.

Re: NSA collects millions of text messages daily in 'untargeted' global sweep

#45

Post by whatevsbro »

samstave wrote: post #31
easy_rider wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You also re-watched Enemy of the state (1998) last night?

Heh, I have been! I downloaded it (For the NSA, that means I torrented it from thepiratebay, just so we are clear) And I have been watching it... One of the best documentaries I have seen in a while...

> I downloaded it (For the NSA, that means I torrented it from thepiratebay, just so we are clear)

Oh you don't have to tell them that :p

Re: NSA collects millions of text messages daily in 'untargeted' global sweep

#47

Post by maqr »

sinak wrote: post #44

This is very clearly collection of the contents of messages, and not simply metadata. The fact that US messages may later be "minimized" from the database is vaguely helpful, but not much of a reassurance. That data should never be collected in the first place, and bulk collection of international data is also an unnecessary practice. If this helps motivate you, we need all the help we can get with https://thedaywefi…

I'm curious why they labeled it "METACONTENT: Message Content". So it's content about the content's content?

Re: NSA collects millions of text messages daily in 'untargeted' global sweep

#48

Post by bandushrew »

pvnick wrote: post #20

"Communications from US phone numbers, the documents suggest, were removed (or “minimized”) from the database – but those of other countries, including the UK, were retained." I'm interested in knowing the specifics on this. US data goes into a database and is then proactively removed? Minimization procedures [1] allow the nsa to keep US data up to 5 years to determine where it's coming from. It's also kept if "they…

I would think you are right.

My guess would be that the unspoken phrase there is:

the documents suggest, were removed (or “minimized”) from the database, ACCORDING TO APPROPRIATE LAWS (ie, within 5 years or...etc etc)

Re: NSA collects millions of text messages daily in 'untargeted' global sweep

#49

Post by moxie »

I help develop TextSecure, an Android app which allows users encrypt their text messages: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.thoughtcri...

It's fully open source: https://github.com/whispersystems/textsecure

You can also sign up to be notified when it's released for iOS: https://whispersystems.org/blog/iphone-rsn/

Re: NSA collects millions of text messages daily in 'untargeted' global sweep

#50

Post by jrochkind1 »

It's become like science fiction, or a bad joke.

Whatever you can imagine the most powerful intelligence agency imaginable doing, the NSA is doing. I am literally unable to think of anything that the NSA is _not_ collecting or controlling. Every SMS message sent? Yep. Location data on every cell phone? Yep. Controlling a 100k-computer botnet, including via radio transmitter to contact computers not on the internet? Yep.

I admit I can't keep track of it all; at this point I just assume that anything I can imagine the NSA doing, it's either already been revealed that they're doing it and I just haven't managed to keep track, or they're doing it even though it hasn't been revealed yet.

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