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NSA can follow nearly everything you do online in real-time
In a report on VentureBeat Edward Snowden's latest relevations uncover that the NSA can basically see nearly everything you do online. This is getting a PR nightmare for the USA. According to the whistleblower, the XKeyscore program enables the NSA to wiretap anyone, almost instantly. They can also see your real-time Internet activity, read your e-mail, monitor your Facebook, and get your IP address by searching for visitors to any specified site.
According to the latest revelations from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, the NSA can:
- wiretap anyone, almost instantly, as long as it has their email address
- see your real-time Internet activity
- read anyone’s email
- monitor Facebook chats
- see “nearly everything” you do online
- get your IP address by searching for visitors to any specified site
The NSA program that does this is called XKeyscore, and it’s a massive big data collection, warehousing, and analysis program that, if we can believe what Snowden is saying, basically lays bare your entire digital self. Essentially, we’re Frodo and Sam, and the NSA is the Eye of Sauron — but more effective, more powerful.
The question is whether or not we can believe him. Those are big, big accusations.
The evidence that Snowden provided to The Guardian is compelling: vast quantities of screenshots that show training materials and actual applications that the NSA has built to enable armchair James Bonds, AKA intelligence analysts, to sort and sift through a vast database of 850 billion events and 150 billion Internet records, with 20+ terabytes being added daily:
Essentially, it’s armchair surveillance via WYSIWYG drag-and-drop menus. If we can believe what we’re hearing.
That “if” is rather crucial.
There are only two ways the NSA could amass such huge amounts of unencrypted data: by intercepting everything at the ISP level and decrypting in almost-real time any HTTPS or otherwise encrypted transmissions, or by having backdoors in dozens if not thousands of companies’ systems to access data on a regular and continuous basis.
Companies like Google have completely and categorically denied those allegations, saying that “There is no free-for-all, no direct access, no indirect access, no back door, no drop box.”
In a statement to the Guardian, the NSA denied that XKeyscore was accessible to all analysts and said that it was a “lawful foreign signals intelligence collection system,” but did not deny any of the capabilities Snowden claims it has. And the NSA, which has said that 300 terrorists were captured via XKeyscore as of 2008, defended the value of the program.
More on venturebeat (click source).
Chillin
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Senior Member
Posts: 6814
Joined: 2006-01-18
#4629653 Posted on: 08/01/2013 09:44 AM
Yes and no, mostly no. It depends on the security level of the database. To balance this, most data acquired without a warrant or similar is inadmissible in court unless there are exceptional circumstances.
There's also the civilian aspect:
Do you guys have a data retention law ?
Yes and no, mostly no. It depends on the security level of the database. To balance this, most data acquired without a warrant or similar is inadmissible in court unless there are exceptional circumstances.
There's also the civilian aspect:
Unlike the EU,85 Israel does not have a general data retention statute. This means that telecom operators could ostensibly delete communications data promptly after using them for billing purposes. Indeed, a possible interpretation of the purpose limitation provisions in the PPA86 is that such deletion is required by privacy law. To this end, Section 11(e) of the GSSA authorizes the Prime Minister to promulgate rules ‘regarding the retention by a licensee of categories of data according to subsection (b), for a period that he determines’. As discussed, such rules, if they have been put in place, remain secret. A similar provision is not found in the Communications Data Act, raising doubts whether telecom operators must (or even may) retain data if not required to do so under the Prime Minister's national security rules.
The question of whether telecom providers are required (or indeed allowed) to retain communications data arose in the Amir Liran v Pelephone case.87 The plaintiff, a lawyer, requested that his two cellular operators delete his communications data after he settled his account. To assure the cellular operators he was not going to challenge their bills at a later stage, Liran was willing to execute a waiver of claims. He argued that retention of his communications data without a specific purpose infringes his privacy rights under the PPA. The Attorney General, who has authority to intervene in litigation in order to represent the public interest, submitted a brief in the case arguing that the Communications Data Act should be interpreted to permit data retention ‘for a reasonable period of time’. The Tel Aviv District Court accepted the Attorney General's argument, holding that absent a specific obligation to delete communications data, telecom operators were permitted to retain them. This decision was criticized by commentators, including the current author, who argued that the court misinterpreted the balance struck by the PPA between individual rights and legitimate business interests, and failed to take account of the constitutional status of the right to privacy.88
The question of whether telecom providers are required (or indeed allowed) to retain communications data arose in the Amir Liran v Pelephone case.87 The plaintiff, a lawyer, requested that his two cellular operators delete his communications data after he settled his account. To assure the cellular operators he was not going to challenge their bills at a later stage, Liran was willing to execute a waiver of claims. He argued that retention of his communications data without a specific purpose infringes his privacy rights under the PPA. The Attorney General, who has authority to intervene in litigation in order to represent the public interest, submitted a brief in the case arguing that the Communications Data Act should be interpreted to permit data retention ‘for a reasonable period of time’. The Tel Aviv District Court accepted the Attorney General's argument, holding that absent a specific obligation to delete communications data, telecom operators were permitted to retain them. This decision was criticized by commentators, including the current author, who argued that the court misinterpreted the balance struck by the PPA between individual rights and legitimate business interests, and failed to take account of the constitutional status of the right to privacy.88
Chillin
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Posts: 6814
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#4629654 Posted on: 08/01/2013 09:46 AM
And by the way, everything I just said is open and common knowledge. I make no claim to know what goes on behind the scenes.
And like I said, I am mostly for such programs, but they have to have much more civilian oversight and open rulebooks.
And by the way, everything I just said is open and common knowledge. I make no claim to know what goes on behind the scenes.
And like I said, I am mostly for such programs, but they have to have much more civilian oversight and open rulebooks.
WhiteLightning
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#4629656 Posted on: 08/01/2013 09:49 AM
ah ok. here everything is kept for 12 months.
ah ok. here everything is kept for 12 months.
Veeshush
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Senior Member
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Joined: 2010-11-28
#4629660 Posted on: 08/01/2013 09:51 AM
Has Snowden even leaked everything he has yet? It seems he keeps pumping out tidbits when his urgency of "all powerful big brother spying on everyone" would suggest he should do otherwise, like uploading everything he has and then blowing his brains out. It's like he was hoping some country would set him up with a condo for his information.
It's still somewhat of a waste to go that route to begin with, especially when, like you said, much of it is of no value. But that's my argument though, that it's not of any value or concern.
No, right. But those are (at least piracy) what the average person would fear about. Or their Facebook affair messages or whatever the ****. ISPs are even known to hold logs of up to year on internet traffic.
https://torrentfreak.com/how-long-does-your-isp-store-ip-address-logs-120629/
HOWEVER, open routers/wifi can throw a wrench in that. Most people up to something of a noteworthy threat to the public will at least be doing something as simple as looking for wifi spots, using Tor, and using very heavy encryption - if they're not seeing each other in person and transferring data that way (imagine trying to find a micro SD card). And that's only the tidbits I know of, god knows of other better ways.
Has Snowden even leaked everything he has yet? It seems he keeps pumping out tidbits when his urgency of "all powerful big brother spying on everyone" would suggest he should do otherwise, like uploading everything he has and then blowing his brains out. It's like he was hoping some country would set him up with a condo for his information.
No, they are looking for very specific indicators of activity which interests them; everything else is pretty much discarded almost immediately.
It's still somewhat of a waste to go that route to begin with, especially when, like you said, much of it is of no value. But that's my argument though, that it's not of any value or concern.
Finally, the NSA is not responsible for nearly all the examples you posted, that is the area of the FBI. The NSA is responsible for collecting intelligence, not dealing with petty online crime.
No, right. But those are (at least piracy) what the average person would fear about. Or their Facebook affair messages or whatever the ****. ISPs are even known to hold logs of up to year on internet traffic.
https://torrentfreak.com/how-long-does-your-isp-store-ip-address-logs-120629/
HOWEVER, open routers/wifi can throw a wrench in that. Most people up to something of a noteworthy threat to the public will at least be doing something as simple as looking for wifi spots, using Tor, and using very heavy encryption - if they're not seeing each other in person and transferring data that way (imagine trying to find a micro SD card). And that's only the tidbits I know of, god knows of other better ways.
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.. and not you or me unlike some people with inflated ego's would have you believe.
Alex Jones LOL, 'buy my videos!'