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William Binney: 80% of audio calls are recorded and stored in the US

theguardian.com

11–20 of 135 posts

Re: William Binney: 80% of audio calls are recorded and stored in the US

#11
We're staring at the gradual but deliberate end of privacy and its scary. The large majority of the world's population either doesn't know or care how significant or dangerous this trend is, and those few who do will find their way into surveillance databases because they act "suspiciously" by encrypting their communications and guarding their privacy.

I don't see a powerful enough counterforce against this insidious trend anywhere around the world. "Inspired" by the US, other countries are joining a competitive surveillance race stoked by private corporations selling everything from GSM monitoring to big data.

Re: William Binney: 80% of audio calls are recorded and stored in the US

#13
post #12
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What source would you trust for a citation?

That doesn't mean you shouldn't ask for sources. Otherwise it's just blind fear mongering.

Well, Binney was an NSA employee and is now on the record saying that their goal is population control. That is a source.

Re: William Binney: 80% of audio calls are recorded and stored in the US

#14
post #6

"At least 80% of fibre-optic cables globally go via the US. This is no accident and allows the US to view all communication coming in. At least 80% of all audio calls, not just metadata, are recorded and stored in the US. The NSA lies about what it stores." I think he meant that the NSA had access to the 80% of calls that are routed through the US, not the the NSA is recording and storing literally every single one o…

No: the NSA is recording at least 80% of all calls and will, towards the end of the year, have the capacity to record 100%.

Re: William Binney: 80% of audio calls are recorded and stored in the US

#15
post #4

“The ultimate goal of the NSA is total population control” Scary shit...

[citation needed] though

Whether that is the NSA leadership's goal is anyone's guess. However, with the road they're going down, they will have the ability to exert considerable control over people around the world, particularly in the United States. Give that sort of capability it is inevitable that it will be abused. They're already abusing the power they have now.

Re: William Binney: 80% of audio calls are recorded and stored in the US

#16
post #6

"At least 80% of fibre-optic cables globally go via the US. This is no accident and allows the US to view all communication coming in. At least 80% of all audio calls, not just metadata, are recorded and stored in the US. The NSA lies about what it stores." I think he meant that the NSA had access to the 80% of calls that are routed through the US, not the the NSA is recording and storing literally every single one o…

the techy in me is greatly impressed that can do this.

the libertarian in me is greatly annoyed they can do this.

Re: William Binney: 80% of audio calls are recorded and stored in the US

#17
post #4

“The ultimate goal of the NSA is total population control” Scary shit...

So that they can do what, exactly? Once they get total population control what kind of stuff will they be able to do that they couldn't do before?

Re: William Binney: 80% of audio calls are recorded and stored in the US

#18
post #11

We're staring at the gradual but deliberate end of privacy and its scary. The large majority of the world's population either doesn't know or care how significant or dangerous this trend is, and those few who do will find their way into surveillance databases because they act "suspiciously" by encrypting their communications and guarding their privacy. I don't see a powerful enough counterforce against this insidious…

More or less, yes. However, the danger is really only to people outside the safe herd majority who might draw the wrong sort of attention. So I don't see it being a huge danger.

However, I don't think it'll ever devolve to the point where mass arrests or anything truly draconian takes place. There isn't any need in Democracy. You need to only control 51% of the engaged voters [e.g. the people who actually vote] and at least in the US the two party system controls that quite effectively.

I'm worried about this because it will lead to people getting stepped on and crushed between the massive gears of the "State Security" apparatus.

Re: William Binney: 80% of audio calls are recorded and stored in the US

#20
post #4

“The ultimate goal of the NSA is total population control” Scary shit...

So that they can do what, exactly? Once they get total population control what kind of stuff will they be able to do that they couldn't do before?

They could ensure that everyone lives by the true religion and the true constitution.
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