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Spooky: How NSA's Surveillance Algorithms See Into Your Life
SmartAboutThings writes "A quite scary talk show with former NSA employees — now whistle blowers — Thomas Drake, Kirk Wiebe, and William Binney reveals that the NSA has algorithms that go through data gathered about us and they can basically 'see into our lives.' And this seems to be going on especially since the Patriot Act has removed the statutory requirement that the government prove a surveillance target under FISA is a non-U.S. citizen and agent of a foreign power." Binney's HOPE keynote has more detail on how the NSA watches people.
It is quite certain that what we concider privacy has long been done away with, even in venues such as wiretapping which is still suppose to be done by court order only.
Maybe he would have vetoed the Patriot spying Act. (Though I doubt it.)
My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
What on earth does "Binney's HOPE keynote" say? It comes up as:
Access has been blocked because of:
Prohibited by URL database (Pornography & Adult Material)
Back in the 90s pgp and widespread up public key crypto were going to be the next thing. Never caught on . But I am sure even the NSA doesn't have to power to decrypt the volume of a fraction of the populations communication if they were to use crypto regularly and even mundane communications
The Aurora shooting suspect left a digital path a mile wide indicating he was up to something nefarious. NSA didn't see that coming. I don't thing their reach is as pervasive as people fear.
...but didn't think it worthy of revealing their abilities by spending time trying to arrest him. This is the inherent problem with government surveillance, it will ultimately just serve the government, not it's people.
no, I don't wear a tinfoil hat, and no I do not believe 9/11 was an inside job.
I swear they give me mod points to shut me up.
http://www.zeit.de/datenschutz/malte-spitz-data-retention
Their biggest problem is not fixable and is linked to what type of communication ultimately destroys a fraudulent society. Hint: It is the mundane stuff. http://dissention.wordpress.com/2012/02/19/spying-and-surveillance-is-rapidly-becoming-worthless/ and it also does not help that intelligence agencies are run by status hungry human beings. http://dissention.wordpress.com/2010/12/05/universal-organizational-flaws-in-intelligence-agencies-1/
Who would of thought the NSA would use a :gasp: algorithm to sift and parse through data? I always thought it was a bunch of people in a basement with horn-rimmed glasses and 80's haircuts, reading endless packet traffic through a national-level Wireshark program. /sarcasm
sudo make me a sandwich
I get a large number of first posts with this. Nobody seems to care :(
... because I post as Anonymous Coward.
You think so. But we already have determined from your posting time, choice of words, habit to begin the text in the title, and habit of posting on Slashdot, together with some general internet traffic analysis and certain correlations the nature of which are top secret, who you are and where you live, and have increased your threat score (the number which tells how much of a threat we consider you to be) to reflect this activity of yours (people who think they are safe are of course more dangerous).
Who watches the watchers? Is already bad that "the government" knows, but is far worse that the people on it knows (that could use that information for personal gain or some private group interests). If this have to happen, then transparency is required. Wikileaks should not be necessary, the people, the ones ultimatelly paying their salary or at least that they should be working for, must really know what the government and the people working at it does.
... because I post as Anonymous Coward.
Well actually ... No. Unless you only use TOR, have a completely locked down (no, java, no javascript, no flash, adblocked, ghosted,...) browserr, randomly change screen sizes and your typing habits and have a computer so secure it, should not really be able to connect to the web at all.
If they want you, they will. All you can do is make it hard enough, that they'll go for the easier ones first.
Yes, but he's posting using your AC credentials...
So it looks like Anonymous Coward, but it's really Anonymous Coward.
I know it looks confusing, but trust me, I know what I'm talking about...
CAPTCHA = discerns (even now, they're watching)
It is prohibited to collect, store, analyze, or disseminate the contents of communications of US Persons anywhere on the globe without an individual, properly adjudicated warrant. This is as clear as it can possibly be spelled out.
NSA may, however, target the communications of NON-US Persons, even on equipment and systems within the United States, without a warrant. Foreign intelligence surveillance has never required a warrant. The Constitution of the United States does not apply to non-US Persons.
Foreign communications that used to be targeted via a remote listening post, on a Navy ship sitting off of a foreign coast, or via risky foreign wiretaps, now travel through networks and systems that sometimes exist within the United States.
Tell me: how can NSA discern and identify targeted foreign traffic in the sea of all communications, including that of US Persons, traveling through US assets without being able to examine the metadata of said traffic? Therein likes the problem.
Here is where some also say that the US sidesteps the law by "buying" data from commercial providers, or by getting it from allies. Sorry, both of those activities are prohibited: the content of communications of US Persons may not be collected, stored, analyzed, or disseminated without a warrant.
Some people, apparently unaware of history or any semblance of reality, also can't accept that the United States has a legitimate interest in foreign intelligence, and that we need to conduct that mission. Why does NSA have the largest number of foreign linguists anywhere? To spy on Americans illegally?
Does all of this mean the government has never done anything wrong, that there has never been any abuse, that citizens shouldn't be watchful? No. Even the decisions made after 9/11 resulted in the warrantless wiretapping of individuals in the hundreds, thought to have direct ties to terrorism, was justified under the guise of the President's Article II authority under the AUMF, and briefed to Congress every 45 days. Now someone who hasn't been at NSA in over a decade claims that there is a "dossier" on every American, with no proof...and completely ignores the primary function of NSA, which is foreign signals intelligence, and you swallow it as unvarnished fact?
This is puzzling to me.
I hope that whoever is looking at me likes cars, 'cause they're going to get quite an education in rebuilding Chrysler small block engines and automatic transmissions...
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
But it is true both parties have supported an unprecedented (at least outside of major wars) expansion of executive branch power and a consequent reduction in civil liberties. There isn't any significant push back from Congress, or from the Judiciary, despite publicized abuses and the fact that the domestic spying apparatus is probably illegal under current law.
Well, given that it seems like all terrorism suspects that manage to get the label of "enemy combatant" must actually attempt to carry out the terrorist attack before they're hauled off to Cuba, I'm gathering that the data they collect isn't actionable. Notice that they don't bust the suspects when they've acquired some materials or even all materials, they wait until that suspect is attempting to strike. They can't seem to get them on conspiracy before the event, nor can they get them on some kind of material support charge. Seems to me that unless caught red-handed, there's no way that they can use what they aggregate. My guess is that the Constitution's protections for what is admissible as evidence is getting in their way. I'm still disappointed that the Fourth Amendment is interpreted so narrowly nowadays that constructs like the even somewhat egregious FISA court are no longer necessary, but there does seem to be that one check against power in that simply collecting and planning isn't enough...
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
That's the flaw of the Constitution; or any democracy for that matter. If the people are willing to be subjugated, there's no giant daddy entity that's going to come rescue you from your stupidity. All of these laws are in place because it's what the American people *want*. They might say they don't, but try voting against or vetoing one of these laws and see what happens to your career.
We're a country of fickle simpletons that waft from issue and opinion to issue and opinion usually based on superficial info or downright propaganda. I've been inundated with ads on TV that do nothing more than misrepresent facts that usually take no more than one missing in-context sentence to disprove. How on earth can you have a sensible democracy when all you have to do is remove the first sentence and misrepresent the second, then know that you can depend on citizens never figuring it out?
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
Did anyone think this wasn't happening?
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Comment removed based on user account deletion
even the NSA doesn't have to power to decrypt the volume of a fraction of the populations communication if they were to use crypto regularly
You would be wrong on this one. The NSA has had access to quantum computation since about 1996. This allows it to cut through public key cryptography as if it's not there, quickly and with ease. AES generally uses public key cryptography to exchange session keys. See my other posts for details.
See my previous posts.
If you take a quick look at The Gentleperson's Guide To Forum Spies you can observe that Technique #1, Forum Sliding, was just used on the Slashdot front page to obscure this NSA-related discussion thread. Note how lots and lots of semi-bogus new stories quickly appeared, causing this [mildly objectionable] story to slide off the front page.
I'm sure all their algorithms have a good laugh at how boring my life is.
Invalid Checksum. Retrying.
..they are unable to tell that when someone with no interest in guns suddenly buys automatic weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition that they are planning something big.
I feel safer don't you?
Plus Slashdot records the hash of your IP address when you post. All the information to find everybody, including anonymous, is stored in the database. Reversing the hashes is trivial and fast.
They have been doing this since the early 80s.
I don't see why this is news to you.
What disturbs me are the five official military spying agencies paid thru the black budget, and the sixth unofficial one you civilians don't know about.
They have more guns.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
We should "minimize" our footprint on the internet if we really care about this. I deleted all my FB friends, pictures, and posts. I then changed my fb name to a fictitious one. I think we should all do it. Sure I have an account on a Jeep forum, linked in (it's out of data because my present employer monitors activity of employees there), slashdot, diydrones, and that's it. Everything else just has my ip as a footprint. I'm not doing anything wrong. I'm just tired of big brother. I'm worried about what society is going to be like 20 years from now. I hope my kids and grandkids still have their freedom.
Actually, make it hard enough, and perhaps they SHOULD go after you, first. After all, by taking all of those steps to protect your privacy, it proves more than ever that you have something to hide! Some idiot who browses with no protections isn't smart enough to hatch an effective terrorist plot. Someone who takes all of the appropriate step is. Someone who takes all of the appropriate steps, and knows how to hide the fact that those steps were taken, is even scarier.
(Don't know if this is sarcasm or sad.)
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
"The technetronic era involves the gradual appearance of a more controlled society. Such a society would be dominated by an elite, unrestrained by traditional values. Soon it will be possible to assert almost continuous surveillance over every citizen and maintain up-to-date complete files containing even the most personal information about the citizen. These files will be subject to instantaneous retrieval by the authorities." - Z. Brzenzinski in his book published in 1969.
Because i'm behind 7 proxies! .
The greatest right given is the right to be wrong...
Just because they're out to get you, doesn't mean they're out to get you.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
sad
...what bothers me more is that they're mixing in incorrect information to make decisions.
Case in point, I upgraded my insurance for my home and cars to a higher tier, higher coverage, less expensive plan that had a high application hurdle to jump..you had to be pretty squeaky clean.
I got rejected at first, because they had me linked to an ex girlfriend I'd bought a house with almost ten years earlier, because it turns out that her ex husband from ten years prior to that got into some insurance fraud.
So the connection was her ex that I never met from 20 years ago to her who I dated and lived with for 2 years and hadn't seen for 8, to me in current time. Enough incorrect influence to potentially cost me money. But after we went over the 'six degrees of cute fuzzy bunny', they let me in.
Yet I wonder how often someone elses data or influence or the connections made cost me money or exclude me from opportunities.
The other fun portion of this is when you point out to the aggregators and gatherers that they're doing it wrong and have some bad data. They don't want to fix it and admit the data was less than 100%. They hide it. The perception of data integrity is more important than the data integrity itself.
although I didn't bother to read the article, they track much more than personal data. they have software that can read your mind through phone and track people's conversations with the attention and precision of a computer, digitally analyzing a conversation, tracking emotion, arousal, the spoken word, and can basically read intent and follow the direction of a conversation. they can tell whether your deceptive or if your serious, and the software easily highlights whatever pattern of behavior or information they are looking for. its capable of acting intelligently on its on and making decisions to inform people, act and track people. just like they are illegally watching internet traffic, this is occurring with all telecommunications, just like in certain spy movies. they can deploy this with very senstive listening and imagining devices in the public to listen to people and conversations, see and hear through walls, and they're also using psychotronics and synthetic telepathy to track and read people's thoughts. as far as the demonstrations I've witnessed, they can see everything going on inside the human brain, see what you see, hear, think, feel, see pain and nerve impulses, explore your memory and subconciousness. software has been designed to thoughly track your thought, read emotion, and it can even digitally simulate responses and human reactions. the human mind has been explored and can he tracked very well.
as a side note, they can also broadcast messages, communications, thought, feeling, imagery, video, and sensations to and between people. simulate sensations, use ultrasound, sound, radiowaves, microwaves, infrared waves. heat, cold, buzz, move a person's tissue from afar, encode emotion, tickle, itch, burn.. torture, mutilate, simulate psychosis. its spooky what they're really capable of and how developed it all really is. if something is technologically possible, you can bet they do use and have interest in it..
they no longer have need for torture for information unless they want to make a public spectacle, mislead people and hide their capability, or physically dominate a person. since at least 2006, probably earlier. this may have been the case going hack to the 90s when information on the technology first erupted.
I kind of envision this as being used everywhere as an intelligence and perhaps communication tool for law enforcement, and the military. as far as I can tell its already extremely common and its used in secret everywhere. they might even use it to attack people with, and they do...
Yes Joseph, you're completely safe posting as "Anonymous Coward."
And by doing that you've done a great job of protecting your lovely wife Cindy and two kids, Mark and Mac.
Just keep posting as Anonymous Coward, and no one, not even your neighbors on Shelly St., will ever know who you are.
Sincerely,
NSA
9800 Savage Road
Fort Meade, MD 20755
(301) 688-6524
..., Citzen.
This is going to be even funnier when a swatted fly falls into the printer and misprints your name. The potential consequences may be hilarious really.
You missed the word "effective" in there. Besides, as mentioned, the post was in that odd space between snark, sarcasm, and sadness.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
The sheep have been voting for the wolves for decades. Do not complain to me.
An example is to post your 'favourite weapon' and then encourage other members of the forum to showcase what they have. In this matter it can be determined by reverse proration what percentage of the forum community owns a firearm, and or a illegal weapon.
Well, those clever fucking security service bastards, eh?
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Yes, and always remember that if ANYONE disagrees with you or appears not to be taking you SERIOUSLY enough, they are undoubtedly a government spy trying to LULL you into a false sense of security before they TRACK your internet ADDRESS and send a black HELICOPTER gunship to wipe out your entire family.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
If they want you, they will. All you can do is make it hard enough, that they'll go for the easier ones first.
You seem to think that the security services operate on some sort of piece work basis, where they are credited purely on the number of bodies they bring in, irrespective of innocence or guilt, and so just trawl through the low hanging fruit to get their quotas in.
What you paranoid "internet security experts" don't seem to realise is that if they want you as an individual that badly, they won't be farting around gathering evidence on which dodgy web forums you post to, they'll just knock on your door one fine summer dawn and drag you off to a secret torture box in Wherethefuckistan.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Yes Joseph, you're completely safe posting as "Anonymous Coward."
And by doing that you've done a great job of protecting your lovely wife Cindy and two kids, Mark and Mac.
Just keep posting as Anonymous Coward, and no one, not even your neighbors on Shelly St., will ever know who you are.
Sincerely,
NSA 9800 Savage Road Fort Meade, MD 20755 (301) 688-6524
Ha! You can't fool me, you're not really the NSA.
It's Shelby, not Shelly Street, fascists.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
they TRACK your internet ADDRESS.
With a GUI in Visual Basic.
Every end has half a stick.
There is no other way thing can go. You can't answer the threats present to and in a modern society without processing everyone's data automatically. If your data is processed automatically and no one looks at it until your activity throws a red flag, what do you care?
People just don't get that the world is changing faster than the Constitution - written in the 18th century by Men Who Wore Wigs and Owned Slaves - was designed to cope with. That's a fact.
An easy fix here is just to do the processing and run the algos but don't let any human see the names attached to suspicious results until a some Congressionally agreed upon threshold is reached. You can't run to the court every time your threshold is reached because what's the point?
for (int i= 0; iM everytimeTheyWantTo; i++) { NSA: "Your honor, we want to view Mr X's name."
Judge: what is your probable cause?
NSA- "our threshold we defined like THIS was met"
Judge "Uh, OK".
}