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NSA Admits Searching "3 Hops" From Suspects

Posted by timothy on from the extrapolation-nation dept.

New submitter cpitman writes "In a house hearing Wednesday the NSA admitted that it could query not only a suspect's records, but also perform up to a 'three hop query'. Considering that most people in the world are separated by under 6 degrees of separation, the NSA essentially claims that any single suspect gives them rights to investigate a large chunk of the world's population. With the terror watch list having over 700,000 names, just how many times has Kevin Bacon been investigated?"

4 of 322 comments (clear)

  1. Congress is "angry" by SirGarlon · · Score: 5, Interesting
    The first paragraph of TFA is:

    The National Security Agency revealed to an angry congressional panel on Wednesday that its analysis of phone records and online behavior goes exponentially beyond what it had previously disclosed.

    If it's true that members of Congress are angry, that's favorable news! Maybe they can be persuaded to get off their butts and do something about this.

    --
    [Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight that is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.
  2. This might be of interest.. by Shoten · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Foreign Policy had a fascinating article last month on how metadata analysis is used in terms of relationships between suspected "evil" people and known "evil" people. (The word "evil" in quotes to signify that for purposes of this topic, the definition of "evil" is unimportant.) The article talks about the challenges of fewer vs. more degrees of separation in link analysis; the new revelation that they go to 3 degrees throws it into even more perspective.

    http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/06/17/evil_in_a_haystack_nsa_metadata

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  3. "Admission" vs. Truth by CanHasDIY · · Score: 5, Interesting

    In a house hearing Wednesday the NSA admitted

    What cause do we have to believe them? They've been lying to us about surveillance for at least 8 years, probably much, much longer.

    Oh, right, we're just supposed to take their word for it, because they've been so goddamn trustworthy up to this point, haven't they?

    Fuck these pieces of shit. Disband their organization, and charge every single employee and contractor with high treason. It's the only way to make things right.

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  4. Re:Can we discuss the fourth amendment now? by Jstlook · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Let's even just estimate:

    Facebook says most people really only associate with 30 'friends'.

    Hop 1: 9000 x 30 = 270k people.

    Assuming that those people have associates that overlap the existing list somehow, we arrive at:

    Hop 2: 270k x 15 + 270k= 4.32 million people

    With a conservative estimate of the last hop only adding another three to twelve people, you're still talking between:

    Hop 3: 4.32m + (4.05m x 3-12) = 16.47 million to 52.92 million people

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    ---jstlook ---For that is the way of Elves, for they say both yes AND no, and mean every word of it. --- J.R.R.T.