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US intelligence mining data from 9 US Internet companies in broad secret program

washingtonpost.com

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Re: US intelligence mining data from 9 US Internet companies in broad secret program

#271

Post by ColinCochrane »

belorn wrote: post #217
frisco wrote: post #130

I think it's interesting to ask why these programs are so widely hated. These are national security assets: evidence gathered here will never be used in a drug case, or a tax evasion case. Why not? These tools exist for the bigger fish: the dozens of Soviet-era nuclear weapons believed to be missing, or the small amounts of dangerous pathogens that periodically vanish from research labs. These are what the government…

When Germany introduced their ubiquitous wiretap law, they saw the actually cost of introducing such law. The most notable change in peoples behavior was that hot-lines, priests and lawyers started to see fewer phone calls as people reacted to the surveillance. To this then can be concluded that some cases of children being sexually abused, and domestic violence, will continue as a direct result of people being too a…

> Political figures are commonly the second largest requester for domestic intel, only second to the secret police.

I would certainly be interested in seeing the evidence to back up this claim.

Re: US intelligence mining data from 9 US Internet companies in broad secret program

#272

Post by Spooky23 »

frisco wrote: post #130

I think it's interesting to ask why these programs are so widely hated. These are national security assets: evidence gathered here will never be used in a drug case, or a tax evasion case. Why not? These tools exist for the bigger fish: the dozens of Soviet-era nuclear weapons believed to be missing, or the small amounts of dangerous pathogens that periodically vanish from research labs. These are what the government…

How do we know that we have a functioning democracy?

If I run for congress against a candidate strongly favored by this or a future administration, how do I know that my telephone call records aren't being leaked to the opposition?

Or worse, how do I know that the people running these programs aren't using a decade of collected data to influence vulnerable politicians? How do I know if someone in the NSA isn't blackmailing the President?

Who is watching the watchers? Some kangaroo secret court, who the intelligence community has had broad authority to ignore?

Re: US intelligence mining data from 9 US Internet companies in broad secret program

#273

Post by mladenkovacevic »

Taylorious wrote: post #219
kevinalexbrown wrote: post #143

I've lived under surveillance before, so I feel my perspective might be somewhat appropriate. I won't comment on the specifics (uninteresting and irrelevant, had to do with where I was living). I won't even make a statement about whether it's justified in my case or in general. I'd just ask everyone here to do one thing: Watch this, then ask yourself how you feel (if it doesn't go directly to 6:40, fastforward to it,…

I laughed at how incredibly shifty the General is when he "answers."

Seriously... You'd think of all the billions of dollars that go into military training they'd be able to put up a few bucks to teach this guy how to lie a little more believably

Re: US intelligence mining data from 9 US Internet companies in broad secret program

#274

Post by XorNot »

Afforess wrote: post #183
XorNot wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you call speed cameras, signs, highway maintenance, driver education, highway patrol policing, periodic public information campaigns and aggressive regulation of safety standards in the automobile industry?

Interestly enough, speed cameras and highway patrols have nothing to do with traffic safety either. Highways could easily have camera systems to monitor the exact time when cars get on and off exits to determine how fast on average they were going during their trip. These systems have been tested and work, but the fact is that actually cracking down on speeders is massively unpopular and a political non-starter.

Or you know, that there is such a thing as safe speeding, such as when overtaking or to avoid an accident, and creating a system which would require someone to slow down and become a traffic hazard in order to avoid a fine, is absurd, oddly draconian, and likely to increase accident rates?

Re: US intelligence mining data from 9 US Internet companies in broad secret program

#275

Post by dschiptsov »

Why so much cries? As long as operators has all kind of logs anyway (location, calls, IP sessions) it is only matter of time that authorities will use it with this or that pretext.

In countries like Russia where police and intelligence services have unlimited power, every provider is obliged to collect and keep such logs for use of authorities.

The first thing that authorities around the globe are copying from each other is any kind of scam that gives them even an illusion of more "control" over the people. Why should it be different in US?)

And of course, such programs are great opportunities to allocate and "utilize" (read: steal) millions of government money.

Re: US intelligence mining data from 9 US Internet companies in broad secret program

#276

Post by Spooky23 »

zeddie wrote: post #228
enraged_camel wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>Warren Buffet has predicted a major nuclear terrorist attack on an American city to be a "virtual certainty" given enough time. Everything is a certainty given enough time. In addition, Mr. Buffet may be a great investor, but what exactly how much would he know about terrorists or nuclear weapons? Probably as much as you and I.

Buffett (via Berkshire Hathaway) has made huge amounts of money selling insurance against catastrophes. This includes natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, and floods, as well as other catastrophic events including terrorism.

Acts of war and nuclear disasters are excluded from insurance.

Re: US intelligence mining data from 9 US Internet companies in broad secret program

#277

Post by kps »

stfu wrote: post #36

What really saddens me is that this confirms all the conspiracy rumors. Wasn't it always just a rumor going around that the U.S. Government "made" Microsoft buy Skype for spying purposes? Well: "10 May 2011, Microsoft Corporation acquired Skype Communications" and on 2/6/11 Skype was added to the US spy program [1] They were so eager to spy on Skype users that they implemented that "feature" even before the deal was…

Not to detract from the concerns surrounding this program, or to defend Microsoft, but from the dates for Google, YouTube, and AOL one can see that Skype joined on February 6, not June 2.

Re: US intelligence mining data from 9 US Internet companies in broad secret program

#278

Post by [deleted] »

stfu wrote: post #36

What really saddens me is that this confirms all the conspiracy rumors. Wasn't it always just a rumor going around that the U.S. Government "made" Microsoft buy Skype for spying purposes? Well: "10 May 2011, Microsoft Corporation acquired Skype Communications" and on 2/6/11 Skype was added to the US spy program [1] They were so eager to spy on Skype users that they implemented that "feature" even before the deal was…

[deleted]

Re: US intelligence mining data from 9 US Internet companies in broad secret program

#279

Post by pgrote »

frisco wrote: post #130

I think it's interesting to ask why these programs are so widely hated. These are national security assets: evidence gathered here will never be used in a drug case, or a tax evasion case. Why not? These tools exist for the bigger fish: the dozens of Soviet-era nuclear weapons believed to be missing, or the small amounts of dangerous pathogens that periodically vanish from research labs. These are what the government…

The Patriot Act has been used in drug cases more than terrorism.

http://nymag.com/news/9-11/10th-anniversary/patriot-act/

Re: US intelligence mining data from 9 US Internet companies in broad secret program

#280

Post by rsync »

rdl wrote: post #117
rsync wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If only there was a provider that respected your privacy and allowed you to use basic unix primitives to interface with your cloud storage... If only... http://www.rsync.net/resources/notices/canary.txt

Do something for mobile please? You're one of the most trustworthy providers, particularly if you build things on mobile so we don't necessarily need to trust you...

We're genuinely interested in what you mean by this ...

Android devices are unix devices, and (I assume) either have ssh/scp/sftp/rsync in their userland or it can easily be placed there...

If I had a modern phone, which I do not[1], I would probably just load duplicity[2] on it ? But now that I think about it, in the same way that I have zero data on my laptop, I assume I would also have zero data on my phone ?

Please do elaborate.

[1] Motorola F3 ("MOTO FONE")

[2] http://duplicity.nongnu.org/

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