Edward Snowden exposes National Security Agency domestic surveillance

http://www.theguardian.com/world/vi...owden-files-guide-surveillance-industry-video
Animated comparison of defense/ intelligence operations

Eight tech giants have sided with citizens over spies, but it's not enough | The Guardian

In an extremely significant move, tech giants have written an open letter to the White House seeking surveillance reform. This should be the welcome beginning of a bigger debate.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/09/tech-giant-companies-open-letter-white-house

http://www.providencejournal.com/br...-spying-program-as-2013-story-of-the-year.ece
named to be the story of the year.

Also this.

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2013/12/silicon-valley-takes-nsa

a bit ironic isn't it?

Edward Snowden voted Guardian person of the year 2013 | The Guardian

Whistleblower's victory, for exposing the scale of internet surveillance, follows that of Chelsea Manning last year.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/09/edward-snowden-voted-guardian-person-of-year-2013

Revealed: spy agencies' covert push to infiltrate virtual world of online games | The Guardian

NSA and GCHQ collect gamers' chats and deploy real-life agents into World of Warcraft and Second Life.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/09/nsa-spies-online-games-world-warcraft-second-life

Yet more evidence these jackasses have way too much time and way too much money. Sack the lot of them.

What are they looking for? The source of secret fedora smuggling rings? Neckbeard growing secrets? Terrorist cells operating from their mothers' basements? WTF?

http://www.telerama.fr/medias/glenn-greenwald-edward-snowden-nsa,105927.php

http://money.cnn.com/2013/12/09/technology/security/snowden-new-york-times/

Looks like the NYT exec was shit scared of our aggressive side of our government...

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-set-up-spy-posts-for-u-s-new-snowden-document-shows-1.2457299

Here is more of canada.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/09/nsa-spies-online-games-world-warcraft-second-life

Also this, their snooping in WoW and others

New Legislation Would Ban NSA From Arizona

State senator says 'the NSA isn't welcome in Arizona unless it follows the Constitution'

By Steven Nelson

Arizona state Sen. Kelli Ward announced legislation Monday that would ban the National Security Agency from operating in her state.

"I believe the number one priority for national security is defending and protecting the Constitution," the Republican who represents the Lake Havasu City area of northwest Arizona said in a statement. "Without that, the rest becomes irrelevant. There is no question that the NSA program, as it is now being run, violates the Fourth Amendment. This is a way to stop it."

Ward described her legislation as a preemptive strike.

"While media attention is focused on a possible effort to shut off water to the NSA data center in Utah, I'm introducing the Arizona Fourth Amendment Protection Act to back our neighbors up," Ward said. "Just in case the NSA gets any ideas about moving south, I want them to know the NSA isn't welcome in Arizona unless it follows the Constitution."

The Arizona legislation is modeled off a state-level template produced by the Tenth Amendment Center, which is urging Utah lawmakers to legislatively override a contract signed by the city of Bluffdale to provide water to the NSA's $1.5 billion Utah Data Center.

No Utah lawmaker has come forward to sponsor the legislation, but Mike Maharrey of the Tenth Amendment Center says he has received private assurances from a legislator there - and in Washington state - that they will do so.

Maharrey's group is part of the OffNow coalition, which includes the Bill of Rights Defense Committee and state-level advocacy groups. The coalition is urging passage of state anti-NSA laws using the catchphrase "nullify the NSA."

Continued here:
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/12/09/new-legislation-would-ban-nsa-from-arizona

More here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/09/nobel-writers-nsa-_n_4414951.html

LMAO! But so curious to what this "gigantic faggot and a troll" fucken criticism made actual sense!

BTW Thanks "Wrong Guy" for link!

I just realized what the "S" in NSA really means!

"He sees you when you're sleeping,
He knows when you're awake,
He knows if you've been bad or good,
so be good for goodness sake!"

http://www.thestar.com/news/2013/12...otest_to_utah_data_centre_aka_bumblehive.html

I LIKE IT!

http://0v.org/what-is-it-all-about/

This Is How Often Your Phone Company Hands Data Over To Law Enforcement | Forbes

By Kashmir Hill, Forbes Staff

Thanks to Edward Snowden, we know how often the major Internet companies turned over information about their users to the U.S. government in the first half of this year (about 50,000 times affecting 100,000 people). Thanks to a different Ed, we now know how often the telephone companies do the same. Hint: it’s a lot more often.

Graphic credit to David Lada, of Forbes. Source: Letters from telcos to Sen. Ed Markey.

Senator Ed Markey asked the telephone companies to give him information about the number of requests they received from U.S. law enforcement for data about their customers’ text messages, voicemail, phone calling history, location and other information, as well as requests for “cell phone tower dumps” that will reveal all the people (with phones) in a given location at a given time. The latter can be useful if you’re trying to figure out who is responsible for a rash of bank robberies, for example. These seven phone companies — Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T, Sprint Nextel, U.S. Cellular, Cricket, and C-Spire — were asked to help out government investigations about 1.1 million times in 2012. (That’s less than in 2011, which was the last time Markey asked for one of these reports.) I also included their total number of subscribers to give a sense of scale. T-Mobile would appear to cater to customers who are particularly interesting to law enforcement given that they get the same number of requests as AT&T but have a third of the customer base.

Forget competition on rates and data plans. Over at Privacy SOS, you can see charts comparing the amount of time the telephone companies hold on to user data and what the legal requirements are to get access to it.

Markey also asked the telcos how much they got paid to help out law enforcement. While they did provide their po-po rates, Sprint and Cricket were the only companies not to give the total amount they requested or received from the government for performing these services. Cricket noted, though, that law enforcement is often delinquent in paying up.

“Cricket is frequently not paid on the invoices it submits to law enforcement,” it wrote in its letter to Markey. Who do you turn to for enforcement on bills when law enforcement is the one not paying them?

Continued here:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmir...e-company-hands-data-over-to-law-enforcement/

NSA seeks a few brave interns: Spy agency recruiting students as young as 15 | Salon.com

In this lackluster economy, a young person could do a lot worse than getting a cushy job reading your emails

By Charles Davis

If you’re a college student studying the art of asking who, what, when, where and why, you may not think of the U.S. intelligence community as a potential employer. But when your prospects are copy-editing a failing newspaper in a dying town, or working for free putting together slide-shows of celebrities’ plastic surgery disasters, you could do a lot worse than an internship – paid – at the National Security Agency (NSA).

During the Cold War, it was not terribly unusual for foreign correspondents at major newspapers to be on the CIA’s payroll. As reporters, they had access that was denied to other Americans and had a good cover for meeting with U.S. assets abroad. Many considered it a patriotic duty; others probably just needed to pay their tab at the Hilton. But that was a program for the old and seasoned. If you really want a loyal employee, you got to get them while they are young and earnest.

If you are a college junior or senior with a 3.0 grade point average, a concentration in “writing, editing, journalism” or a related field – and the ability “to be granted a security clearance” (delete your Facebook, friend) – you can be on your way to a “competitive salary” and subsidized housing at Ft. Meade, Maryland. The job: Promoting “accurate and timely information” on the NSA’s “missions and accomplishments,” which is probably less than true.

Continued here:
http://www.salon.com/2013/12/09/nsa...py_agency_recruiting_students_as_young_as_15/

NSA wants interns to help communicate 'accurate' public info

The reputation of the National Security Agency has taken quite a hit this year, what with fresh revelations from Edward Snowden hitting the press every week or two. The agency clearly needs some help on the public relations front, so how about some well-trained college students?

That’s right, the NSA posted a call for students to join its “Summer Strategic Communications Intern Program” to help with messaging.

Interns will assist the agency in crafting “accurate and timely information on NSA’s signals intelligence and information assurance missions and accomplishments to a variety of audiences using state-of-the-art messaging products.”

The agency could certainly use help with accuracy. Top NSA officials have routinely had to go back on the agency's prior assurances after being contradicted by materials from the Snowden files and related disclosures. For instance, claims that personal information hadn't been misused fell by the wayside after revelations that employees had spied on former lovers and secret court rulings disclosed the agency exceeded its legal authority.

Continued here:
http://news.yahoo.com/nsa-wants-interns-to-help-communicate--accurate--public-info-173208558.html

Sock account anyone?

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/12/massive-domestic-monitorning/?cid=15525744

Have you ever got the feeling that this could be abused by crooked people and turn our country into a feared police state?

NSA uses Google cookies to pinpoint targets for hacking | The Washington Post




A slide from an internal NSA presentation indicating that the agency uses at least one Google cookie as a way to identify targets for exploitation. (Washington Post)

The National Security Agency is secretly piggybacking on the tools that enable Internet advertisers to track consumers, using "cookies" and location data to pinpoint targets for government hacking and to bolster surveillance.

The agency's internal presentation slides, provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, show that when companies follow consumers on the Internet to better serve them advertising, the technique opens the door for similar tracking by the government. The slides also suggest that the agency is using these tracking techniques to help identify targets for offensive hacking operations.

For years, privacy advocates have raised concerns about the use of commercial tracking tools to identify and target consumers with advertisements. The online ad industry has said its practices are innocuous and benefit consumers by serving them ads that are more likely to be of interest to them.

The revelation that the NSA is piggybacking on these commercial technologies could shift that debate, handing privacy advocates a new argument for reining in commercial surveillance.

According to the documents, the NSA and its British counterpart, GCHQ, are using the small tracking files or "cookies" that advertising networks place on computers to identify people browsing the Internet. The intelligence agencies have found particular use for a part of a Google-specific tracking mechanism known as the “PREF” cookie. These cookies typically don't contain personal information, such as someone's name or e-mail address, but they do contain numeric codes that enable Web sites to uniquely identify a person's browser.

In addition to tracking Web visits, this cookie allows NSA to single out an individual's communications among the sea of Internet data in order to send out software that can hack that person's computer. The slides say the cookies are used to "enable remote exploitation" although the specific attacks used by the NSA against targets are not addressed in these documents.

The NSA's use of cookies isn't a technique for sifting through vast amounts of information to find suspicious behavior; rather, it lets NSA home in on someone already under suspicion - akin to when soldiers shine laser pointers on a target to identify it for laser-guided bombs.

Separately, the NSA is also using commercially gathered information to help it locate mobile devices around the world, the documents show. Many smartphone apps running on iPhones and Android devices, and the Apple and Google operating systems themselves, track the location of each device, often without a clear warning to the phone's owner. This information is more specific than the broader location data the government is collecting from cellular phone networks, as reported by the Post last week.

"On a macro level, 'we need to track everyone everywhere for advertising' translates into 'the government being able to track everyone everywhere,'" says Chris Hoofnagle, a lecturer in residence at UC Berkeley Law. "It's hard to avoid."

Continued here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...ogle-cookies-to-pinpoint-targets-for-hacking/

Yes & yes as the crooked people in our government (which include both parties) are the politicians whom have sold out to big corporations. This has become a reality as a result of 30 years of Reaganomics & GOP'S so called trickled down affect which has basically created our current Oligarchy rule. This is the same scenario that's found in the popular books & movie trilogy the HUNGER GAMES. Sad part this resonates the same reality for our children and our children's children. MOST of us will be dead before our Mother earth can no longer handle the negative impact of global warming. Basically, the GLOBAL warming that's being caused by greedy ENERGY corporations such as oil, coal & gas, don't give a shit about any of us or Mother earth. They only care about making big PROFITS for their corporate masters!
The NSA doesn't want the sad reality of their ultimate intentions to be known, hmm...I wonder why?
But Santa wants to know if you've been naughty or nice? "sic"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...ogle-cookies-to-pinpoint-targets-for-hacking/

well oh shit... the NSA has pissed off the advertisement industry and google again. Sneakng a ride on a cookie no soup for you!

Actually the 'corporate masters' are us the people - the majority of shares in publicly listed corporations are owned by institutional investors (e.g. pension funds, insurance companies and the like) who invest the funds of 'the little people' like you and me.

Corporate managers would be failing in their duty to investors (you and me and the orphans and widows, remember?) if they didn't act to maximise profits (or even 'PROFITS'). It would be dishonest (fraudulent) of them to act other than in the best interests of their investors (this is basically what Conrad Black was convicted of).

What's needed is more shareholder activism. We need to tell senior management that we don't want them to act solely to maximise profits, that we want them to take account of wider societal obligations, even at the expense of (some) profits.

This is difficult to arrange while people are under the illusion (which you yourself seem to be under) that companies are their own owners.

The fact is we all share ownership of the world's large corporations - all of us with insurance, pensions, etc.

It's up to all of us to take responsibility for their actions, not simply to hive off the blame onto fictional (and possibly reptilian?) 'corporate masters'.

But you're right about Reagonomics, so carry on....

"Actually the 'corporate masters' are us the people - the majority of shares in publicly listed corporations are owned by institutional investors (e.g. pension funds, insurance companies and the like) who invest the funds of 'the little people' like you and me."

This is very true I have wondered why no one here has started an "activist investor" campaign. First off, its relatively cheap, you just buy one share of stock.Then there are the lulz: You can propose as many stupid measures in a ballot, and the company BY LAW, has to run a ballot on it. Corporations HATE activist investors sooo much, that they offer to buy the stock from them back at an increased price.

The downsides are that you loose your anonymity to an extent, and you can not organize. When i say organize, you can not encourage other people to buy one share of a company to help with the voting, because that is stock manipulation. However, from what i understand, if you are planning to buy one share of a company, but haven't done so yet, then that MIGHT be ok. Whole insider trading and stock manipulation laws are very hard to follow now.

/end derail

Then again, maybe we should be investing in the computer companies that are doing business with the NSA for prism, and every time something like this pops up, force a ballot to vote to pull out of the government contract, or to raise the price they charge the government. I know that this is oversimplifying the problem., but at the moment, i can not think of anything else to do.

^^second quote above is a comment.

so how much is the damn orange

http://www.greenamerica.org/socialinvesting/
One of many

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/dec/11/mi5-andrew-parker-mps-snowden-guardian-nsa-files

Ah such hypocripsy, do they think were stupid or any MP?

Well, it's basically a surrender on their part. If they dont defend their decision to go after the Guardian, it's as much as admitting they cant.

Time names Person of the Year; Snowden comes in second | The Associated Press

Time magazine selected Pope Francis as its Person of the Year on Wednesday, saying the Catholic Church's new leader has changed the perception of the 2,000-year-old institution in an extraordinary way in a short time.

The pope beat out NSA leaker Edward Snowden for the distinction, which the newsmagazine has been giving each year since 1927.

Continued here:
http://www.insidebayarea.com/spotlight/year-in-review/ci_24701189/time-person-year51dd.html

The thread about the Pope is here:
https://whyweprotest.net/community/threads/the-pope-this-is-the-reason-the-last-guy-retired.115463/

Would someone please provide links to the most truthful news sources that aren't corrupted by their corporate (oops met) MASTERS puppets. I just deleted two old & very faithful (one of them Huffington Post) accounts and it really hurts because they're enforcing members TO synchronized their Facebook accounts in order for you to make any COMMENTS! I closed my FACEBOOK account years ago! YOUTUBE, already wants us to use google fucken + !

Mark Zuckerberg, gets pwnd by the NSA, and his Facebook members are paying the price. That's smart

http://www.seattlepi.com/technology...ew-Cloud-Project-Code-Named-Cloud-5056782.php

This is what cisco is planning on creating, it's rather interesting.

Read more: Runner-Up: Edward Snowden The Dark Prophet | TIME.com http://poy.time.com/2013/12/11/runner-up-edward-snowden-the-dark-prophet/#ixzz2nF8e0BNg

I found this posting of the excellent article at Cryptome to be on a single page, sans all the commercial site crap, and way easier to read.

Also, a very good read. As usual, Cryptome has no comment thread but the Time Magazine posting does.

http://cryptome.org/2013/12/snowden-dark-prophet.htm

Glenn Greenwald ‏@ggreenwald 2h
Great review by @conor64 on how many times Obama officials misled public and Congress about cell phone data:

How Americans Were Deceived About Cell-Phone Location Data | The Atlantic

Remember when multiple Obama Administration figures said the NSA doesn't collect it? That wasn't true.

By Conor Friedersdorf

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics...ceived-about-cell-phone-location-data/282239/

"Would someone please provide links to the most truthful news sources that aren't corrupted by their corporate puppets."

The National Public Radio website: www.npr.org Although I always leave the comments sections of news sites strictly alone, so I cant help you there.

A little detail from that article Commisiar linked to: "...Now the company is starting to talk about a new product, code-named Cloud Fusion, that it says will protect companies from NSA spying...

...Enter Cloud Fusion. This technology will allow them to use cloud software from one cloud provider while storing their data in another spot, like their own data center, under lock and key. As Hickins explains:

Since Cisco doesn’t have access to the corporate data, it would be unable to comply with any U.S. government demands to share its customers’ data.""

Edward Snowden: MEPs vote to invite ex-NSA contractor to testify | The Guardian

Opposition from conservatives fails to derail vote on inviting Snowden to hearing, which could take place as early as January

By Philip Oltermann in Berlin

The European parliament has voted to formally invite Edward Snowden to give testimony on NSA spying, despite opposition from conservative MEPs. If the US whistleblower provides answers to the questions compiled by parliamentarians in time, a hearing via video link could take place in early January.

It had looked on Wednesday as if European conservatives were trying to kick the hearing into the long grass. The European People's party (EPP), the alliance of centre-right parties, had raised a number of concerns about inviting Snowden for a hearing, noting that it could endanger the transatlantic trade agreement with the US.

But on Thursday morning, the leaders of the main political groupings in the European parliament voted to invite Snowden. In the coming weeks, questions will be compiled and then forwarded to the former NSA contractor's lawyer, with roughly two questions coming from each political group.

Labour MEP Claude Moraes, the lead rapporteur for the European parliament inquiry on the mass surveillance of EU citizens, welcomed the outcome of the vote and promised that questioning would be "rigorous and fair".

"Amongst the questions I will ask Mr Snowden," Moraes said, "will be why he decided to reveal the information and the consequences and implications of his actions; questions around his current situation in Russia; questions around his opinion on the impact of his revelations on security, the intelligence services, and 'the right to know'; questions around his opinions of where his revelations and allegations take the area of mass surveillance in the future."

Continued at
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/12/edward-snowden-meps-vote-invite-nsa-contractor-testify