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GCHQ intercepted webcam images of millions of Yahoo users worldwide

theguardian.com

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Re: GCHQ intercepted webcam images of millions of Yahoo users worldwide

#191

Post by ohazi »

So up to now I've been operating under the assumption that anything I transmit/receive over low-bandwidth, unencrypted channels such as email, IM, sms, etc. are likely intercepted and stored forever dragnet-style.

I was also guessing that higher bandwidth channels such as voice chat, phone calls, video conversations, etc. were likely intercepted more selectively because of the difficulty of doing something like that en masse (and in the case of phone calls, because of laws (ha)).

I'm starting to think that I've just been grossly naive.

Re: GCHQ intercepted webcam images of millions of Yahoo users worldwide

#192

Post by DanielBMarkham »

I continue to find it amazing that a "free people" are allowing this kind of thing. No matter what the revelation, the big machine of internet data collection keeps on a 'rollin down the tracks. Web companies harvest it, and government skims what it wants off the top.

It's gotta stop, folks. It's just gotta stop. The scary thing isn't that we continue to create some dystopian nightmare. The scary thing is that this continues on and it doesn't matter; that we give up our privacy and anonymity and become some other species than the one we started off the 21st century being. (I mean that in a social behavioral sense, not that we grow new limbs or something) This would be a profound change for the negative, making us more like a beehive (with the associated single point of failure) that millions of troupes of hominids with the distributed self-optimizing pattern of improvement that model supports.

Re: GCHQ intercepted webcam images of millions of Yahoo users worldwide

#193

Post by wfn »

touristtam wrote: post #87

What's the purpose of founding this kind of spying program? Do they expect to find Al'Quaida' sbire among the average joe?

> What's the purpose of founding this kind of spying program? Do they expect to find Al'Quaida' sbire among the average joe?

I would suggest to finally drop the premise implied in these kinds of questions / indignation / etc.: that there's an actual purpose/principle (related in some or other way to the greater good and so on) which these systems are founded upon. I really think that there is no such thing. As cliche as it sounds, I believe it's simply about power (and power breeding more power, and all that.) This is the kind of framework which in some sense is at least meaningful and fruitful for discussion. Any moral ground on their side is a mere facade/veil/pretext (including for some level of self-deception/rationalization, sure), but its existence and use is purely instrumental.

Re: GCHQ intercepted webcam images of millions of Yahoo users worldwide

#194

Post by mullingitover »

The way these disclosures keep building in severity, it almost makes it seem like Greenwald et al are preparing us for some truly horrific news. Something along the lines of, "NSA and GCHQ have been using their agencies' resources to alter the outcome of elections."

Re: GCHQ intercepted webcam images of millions of Yahoo users worldwide

#195

Post by user24 »

eliasmacpherson wrote: post #83
user24 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The mic issue is actually more worrying, but as you point out, there aren't such easy solutions.

Hacksaw a 1/4 inch jack, insert. Disable what you can at software level, remove drivers/codecs for recording. Not easy though.

"iMac has two built-in microphones"

https://www.apple.com/imac/features/

So that won't work for me, sadly.

Re: GCHQ intercepted webcam images of millions of Yahoo users worldwide

#197

Post by user24 »

efuquen wrote: post #79
Lagged2Death wrote: post #54

ISTR that in the futuristic dystopia depicted in V for Vendetta , there are government spy cameras everywhere, including in people's bedrooms. And it turns out that's not so futuristic. We're already there. The moment it became technically (Edit: and really, economically) feasible to spy on people's bedrooms, our governments leapt at the chance. I wonder what Alan Moore would have to say about that. We didn't have to…

>We didn't have to experience a crisis of social, governmental, or financial instability. September 11th and the London train bombings? No argument against how disturbing this all is, but don't feel it's accurate to say this increased surveillance wasn't caused by a crisis. It's all being done in the name of preventing terrorism, significant acts of which have occurred in the last decade both on US and UK soil. So if…

The London train bombings were nothing in comparison to the years of IRA terrorism that London suffered.

The argument that "these are strange times and require a new class of countermeasures" is exactly the lie they want to sell you.

Re: GCHQ intercepted webcam images of millions of Yahoo users worldwide

#198

Post by sentenza »

spenvo wrote: post #172

-- Top comment on Reddit [0]: 'This clearly violates both EU and British law. It's simple: Parliament and the CPS can no longer ignore GCHQ's abuses and the entirely inadequate 'oversight' regime of the Intelligence and Security Committee. Brooks et al. go on trial for allegedly hacking celebrities' voicemail messages, but Cabinet ministers walk free after approving secret suspicion-less dragnet recording of millions…

I am not sure if there is even the hint of a chance that anything will change in the UK. However, the scandal has not died down in some continental EU countries, most prominently Germany, so these revelations might make a difference yet.

It is quite fun to see the press/populace turn on our politicians (here in Germany) with them slowly realizing that they put their unconditional trust into the wrong people.

Re: GCHQ intercepted webcam images of millions of Yahoo users worldwide

#199

Post by user24 »

computer wrote: post #161
acqq wrote: post #124

From one of the comments there: "if someone (...) could explain why the line has always been "the metadata" when it is obvious that mass interception of content has always been part of the equation i would be grateful. i would also be grateful if from now on every article relating to the NSA scandal will mention that fact that there is bulk collection of content. i would also be grateful if from now on every time a p…

Let me take a stab at creative government-speak: No, this is also metadata. They are only taking a screenshot every few minutes, with as aim to get a clear picture of the face of the person operating the computer. Just like an email header contains a From-address in the content that's metadata, a webcam session contains the same metadata in the form of these screenshots of people's faces. They're not collecting the d…

My attempt:

NSA: We categorically do not store any content.

subtext: we don't, but GCHQ does and they let us search it.

That's the real insideousness of the whole five eyes thing. If it's illegal in your country, just get another of the eyes to do it. You can truthfully deny that you do it, while still reaping the benefits as if you had done it. Disgusting subversion of controls that are there for good reasons.

Re: GCHQ intercepted webcam images of millions of Yahoo users worldwide

#200

Post by jerf »

icarus127 wrote: post #182
Loughla wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to get too far afield from the original post, or to start a religious debate where we end up calling each other Hitler, but I've got some good stuff for you: "But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." (Matthew 5:28) "If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulte…

I think the point was that homosexuality has been taboo for a lot longer than the CIA has been around. So while they obviously have found it useful there's no reason to think they needed to work to keep it taboo for so long.

It has been both taboo to the point of the death penalty, and widely and openly practiced all the way through to outright championed (Relevant Futurama quote: "Let us party like the Greeks of old... you know the ones I mean!"), by any number of societies throughout history.
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