NSA Scraping Buddy Lists and Address Books From Live Internet Traffic

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.

Comments

Raspberry Pi to the rescue!

[Noryungi]

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.

Foreigners

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Foreigners

[Aguazul2]

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.

Re:Foreigners

[s122604]

You sound angry. I'm glad my NSA is keeping tabs on you, who knows what you are capable of.

Re:Foreigners

[IamTheRealMike]

The article explicitly says this does not appear to be based on the co-operation of US providers but rather international fibre taps - presumably placed or operated by compliant intelligence agencies that are merely extensions of the NSA. The US might be a ringleader in this activity, but other countries have out of control security services as well. After a long period of political silence in the UK we finally got some discussion this week, after senior cabinet members who served on the national security committees admitted they had no clue anything like that was happening. Cameron's response was priceless, he said the agencies would have told them about it if they'd asked!

Re:Isn't it ironic

[durin]

"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!

Re:Isn't it ironic

[lightknight]

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?

Most transparent administration ever

[GoChickenFat]

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

Re:Isn't it ironic

[jigawatt]

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."

Re:Clapper...

[bigtrike]

For people who aren't aware:
"I responded in what I thought was the most truthful, or least untruthful manner by saying no."

http://www.nbcumv.com/mediavillage/networks/nbcnews/pressreleases?pr=contents/press-releases/2013/06/09/nbcnewsexclusiv1370799482417.xml

Re:Isn't it ironic

[Ogi_UnixNut]

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?

You are making the mistake of assuming that the cold war was fought between lovers of freedom, democracy and individual rights, vs totalitarian all controlling power hungry nut jobs.

Truth of the matter is, both sides were all controlling power-hungry nut jobs, and the cold war was a fight over who gets to be the all-controlling big-daddy of the world.

The problems with the Soviets is that they laid their system bare, they didn't bullshit. This is how life is, these are your rights, if you're a party member, or if you work to benefit the system, you will be rewarded with perks (Nicer houses, cushy jobs , nice car, sometimes even nice German/American ones).
If you don't work for the system, but not actively against it, you are pretty much left to your own devices, live and let live, and all that.
If you work against the system, directly or indirectly (or you piss off someone in power), then you can be arrested, tried, stuck in prison/work camp, or otherwise disappear.

Now the western system, that was far more subtle. They told you you were free, they gave you the impression you were, that you could choose who ruled you, but fundamentally I don't think the systems were different, like so:
If you work for the system, or to its benefits, you are rewarded with more tokens than most (currency) with which you can spend on bigger/nicer houses, or a nice foreign car, etc...
If you ignore the system and go about your daily life, you are pretty much left alone. You earn your keeps, pay your dues, and you live you life.
If you work against the system, directly or indirectly (or just piss off someone high up and well connected), you can be arrested, tried, put in a prison/work camp, or disappeared (via drone or otherwise). For minor misdemeanors they can just destroy you financially, which is another, less radical lever they have against you.

Turns out, when push comes to shove, people are more willing to serve you if you give them the illusion of freedom, choice and power. One ideology was in your face, the other was in the background. Turns out this worked well for a long time, until the internet came around and made knowledge dissipation so easy, that people began to realise what their world really looks like.

For some the revelations were not a surprise, for others it was a confirmation of what they suspected, but some are in shock about it all, and more are in denial about it.