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News: US Govt secretly mining data from 9 US Internet companies
Member Since: 1/1/2013
Posts: 3,975
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US Govt secretly mining data from 9 US Internet companies
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The National Security Agency and the FBI are tapping directly into the central servers of nine leading U.S. Internet companies, extracting audio, video, photographs, e-mails, documents and connection logs that enable analysts to track a person’s movements and contacts over time.
The highly classified program, code-named PRISM, has not been disclosed publicly before. Its establishment in 2007 and six years of exponential growth took place beneath the surface of a roiling debate over the boundaries of surveillance and privacy. Even late last year, when critics of the foreign intelligence statute argued for changes, the only members of Congress who knew about PRISM were bound by oaths of office to hold their tongues.
An internal presentation on the Silicon Valley operation, intended for senior analysts in the NSA’s Signals Intelligence Directorate, described the new tool as the most prolific contributor to the President’s Daily Brief, which cited PRISM data in 1,477 articles last year. According to the briefing slides, obtained by The Washington Post, “NSA reporting increasingly relies on PRISM” as its leading source of raw material, accounting for nearly 1 in 7 intelligence reports.
That is a remarkable figure in an agency that measures annual intake in the trillions of communications. It is all the more striking because the NSA, whose lawful mission is foreign intelligence, is reaching deep inside the machinery of American companies that host hundreds of millions of American-held accounts on American soil.
The technology companies, which participate knowingly in PRISM operations, include most of the dominant global players of Silicon Valley. They are listed on a roster that bears their logos in order of entry into the program: “Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple.” PalTalk, although much smaller, has hosted significant traffic during the Arab Spring and in the ongoing Syrian civil war.
Dropbox , the cloud storage and synchronization service, is described as “coming soon.”
Government officials declined to comment for this article.
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Member Since: 12/28/2011
Posts: 4,108
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Member Since: 1/1/2013
Posts: 3,975
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@ this coming the same day we find out the US Government is monitoring data from millions of Verizon users 
Is someone in the US Intelligence community out for revenge leaking all this? Either way thankfully all this information is coming out.
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Member Since: 9/3/2011
Posts: 28,911
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Member Since: 9/22/2011
Posts: 9,178
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I'm glad the tea has been spilled on this and the new about the phone leaks. All of this digital surveillance and tracking is an affront to our rights.
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ATRL Senior Member
Member Since: 3/22/2012
Posts: 53,769
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I feel like this is sort of a massive invasion of private citizens' privacy, but I'm conflicted because it does say the program is mainly used for foreign intelligence purposes by the NSA - which means it's mostly geared toward counter-terror, rather than snooping into regular peoples' activity. I don't know. It's scary, and I don't believe in the invasion of privacy it constitutes, but at the same time I'm glad it can help to prevent violence by terrorists.
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Member Since: 9/3/2011
Posts: 28,911
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Quote:
Originally posted by Arking
I'm glad the tea has been spilled on this and the new about the phone leaks. All of this digital surveillance and tracking is an affront to our rights.
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This.
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Member Since: 5/18/2012
Posts: 20,576
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This isn't new. I thought many people knew this, especially since the New York Times exposed this awhile ago. The government will continue to do this, and it really isn't just the US. Its becoming an international issue also. We live in a time when information like this is so easily accessible that anyone can get it. Like Facebook and Google know more about us than our parents, that's crazy isn't it? Also this is the price we will have to pay for safety.
And if you're gonna be angry about this protest with your votes.
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Member Since: 12/27/2011
Posts: 20,704
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I'm kind of mixed about this becuase it is an invasion of our privacy but it's done with good intention. I also don't do anything illegal online so I have nothing to worry about.
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Member Since: 11/13/2009
Posts: 25,902
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There's nothing we can even do about it. This country won't be here in 50 years.
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Member Since: 5/18/2012
Posts: 20,576
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Quote:
Originally posted by Arking
I'm glad the tea has been spilled on this and the new about the phone leaks. All of this digital surveillance and tracking is an affront to our rights.
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Not really you see, we live in a day and age when people don't take the time to read the fine print. Often we just sign our rights away with the TSO.
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Member Since: 1/1/2013
Posts: 3,975
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Quote:
Originally posted by Rivington Reject
I also don't do anything illegal online so I have nothing to worry about.
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This is true and I agree (I'm not personally worried, well, aside from downloading music... but there's no way they care about people downloading some songs  ).
However in a broader sense it's deeply disturbing to think there are secret courts in the US where the White House/Govt can request stuff like this and the public has no idea what's going on. I mean who knows what else they could do behind our backs (not to sound conspiracy theory-ish but these two big stories today should really worry everyone)
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Member Since: 9/22/2011
Posts: 9,178
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Quote:
Originally posted by Rivington Reject
I'm kind of mixed about this becuase it is an invasion of our privacy but it's done with good intention. I also don't do anything illegal online so I have nothing to worry about.
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The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
They could say they're doing this to prevent the Dark Lich Bin Laden from being resurrected from the depths of the ocean by his online-based terrorist cult, and it still wouldn't matter. However they justify this slippery slope, it's essentially a legal invasion of privacy.
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Member Since: 1/1/2013
Posts: 3,975
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Quote:
Originally posted by Arking
The road to hell is paved with good intentions. They could say they're doing this to prevent the Dark Lich Bin Laden from being resurrected from the depths of the ocean by his online-based terrorist cult, and it still wouldn't matter. However they justify this slippery slope, it's essentially a legal invasion of privacy.
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!!!
Obviously everyone wants to stop terror, but we also don't want to be living in a Big Brother state. It has to be a balance and there has to be limits to this sort of intelligence gathering. Being able to monitor emails and live chats in real time (  ) is going wayyyyy over the line.
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Member Since: 11/11/2010
Posts: 11,240
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I'm not shocked by any of this. They have Bering doing stuff like this for years Glad its all coming out now.
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Member Since: 3/15/2013
Posts: 25,228
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Not a big deal. I don't do anything illegal online (or over the phone) so it doesn't bother me.
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Member Since: 1/1/2013
Posts: 3,975
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^So you wouldn't care if people were able to monitor all your internet activity live as it happens at all times?
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Member Since: 12/29/2011
Posts: 1,963
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It's completely hilarious how this is news now. The Patriot Act told y'all asses 11 years ago. I even wrote an essay for social studies on how this would happen at the time.
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Member Since: 8/29/2012
Posts: 22,883
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Mess, and they won't even release the evidence for SH either. 
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Member Since: 9/18/2011
Posts: 18,295
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I'm glad this tea has been spilt. The government needs to stop playing big brother. Its really disturbing that people's calls and web histories are being monitored like this.
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