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NSA Scraping Buddy Lists and Address Books From Live Internet Traffic

Posted by Unknown on from the deep-packet-inspection-for-fun-and-profit dept.

Charliemopps writes that the Washington Post reports "The NSA is collecting hundreds of millions of contact lists from all over the world, many of them belonging to Americans. The intercept them from instant messaging services as they move across global data links. The NSA is gathering contact lists in large numbers that amount to a sizable fraction of the world's e-mail and instant messaging accounts." According to the leaked document (original as a PDF), the NSA is intercepting some chat protocols and at least IMAP, and then analyzing the data for buddy list information and inbox contents.

7 of 188 comments (clear)

  1. Raspberry Pi to the rescue! by Noryungi · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Host your own email server on a Pi. Encrypt everything. Go back to Fidonet or even to snail mail.

    I am in the process of doing just that.

    --
    The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
  2. Foreigners by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I am so sick of hearing this idea that just because I am not a citizen of the USA then somehow I have less rights to privacy.

    1. Re:Foreigners by Aguazul2 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Then do something about it and stop using US-based web services.

      Also European and Australian ones, in fact any web services that are in a country where there is an NSA-affiliated tap point, or where your traffic crosses one of those countries. In fact, if you are a 'foreigner' best disconnect completely and go live in a cave -- but not one dug by the CIA because then you're a terrorist and we will send drones.

  3. Re:Isn't it ironic by durin · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "I want the good guys to win."

    And you think the NSA and the US government are the good guys?

    Agh! The stupid! It burns!

    --
    Why, yes! I AM new here.
  4. Re:Isn't it ironic by lightknight · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You seem to assume that the choices are mutually exclusive: Soviet KGB-style interrogations and intelligence, or total Anarchy.

    I ask you, why did we even fight the Cold War, and win it, if we were just going to embrace everything at a later time?

    --
    I am John Hurt.
  5. Most transparent administration ever by GoChickenFat · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I guess "most transparent" actually referred to us and not the government.

  6. Re:Isn't it ironic by jigawatt · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm a Canadian, but I support the NSA, and the job it does to protect American (and indirectly) Canadian interests.

    "But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother."