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NSA Tracking Cellphone Locations Worldwide
tramp writes "The National Security Agency is gathering nearly 5 billion records a day on the whereabouts of cellphones around the world, according to top-secret documents and interviews with U.S. intelligence officials, enabling the agency to track the movements of individuals — and map their relationships — in ways that would have been previously unimaginable. Of course it is 'only metadata' and absolutely not invading privacy if you ask our 'beloved' NSA." Pretty soon, the argument about whether you have in any given facet of your life a "reasonable expectation of privacy" may take on a whole new meaning. Also at Slash BI.
No, it absolutely will not. People need to get through their heads that just because your rights are violated, that doesn't mean expecting them not to be becomes unreasonable. If someone breaks into your house every day, it doesn't become "reasonable" for them to do so, or unreasonable for you to expect people to stay out of your house.
The logic espoused by the quoted idea is the same as saying if police were to start strip searching everyone without cause, it would be reasonable simply because it always happens.
Stop that.
What else is there to say.
I'm not saying its ok, but what did people think was going to happen when they started carrying around devices that store and report their physical position every few minutes. Somebody is getting that data. If its not the NSA, then its a phone company or an advertising company or police officers or etc...
Precedent is a bigger component of the law than logic is.
Don't mistake the way you'd like things to work from the way they actually work.
Depends on how you define metadata. Nowadays the line between privacy, metadata and your last name, habits, shopping, etc seems to be a single "SELECT" line involving one or two tables.
The information is obviously a valuable law enforcement tool. Just like phone records, like wiretapping (under a judge auth.).
At least my perception, way before snowden and all the latest leaks, was that this was actually happening. This is just a confirmation.
Would be great if, as in wiretapping, this would be supervised by justice, and used only in criminal investigations. Sound naive ...i know
Possible meanings of that quote:
1 - We're collecting it unintentionally
2 - We're collecting it without authority
3 - We're not doing it in bulk, each one is individually collected
4 - We're not doing it in the US, only everywhere else
5 - We're collecting information, just not location information
6 - We're using subcontractors that are not part of the "intelligence community"
7 - We're considering the entity doing it something other than an "element"
8 - We're collecting it from devices other than cellphones
9 - We're collecting location information about people, not about cellphones
10 - I am the very model of a modern major-general.
Interesting spin
"One senior collection manager, speaking on the condition of anonymity but with permission from the NSA, said “we are getting vast volumes” of location data from around the world by tapping into the cables that connect mobile networks globally and that serve U.S. cellphones as well as foreign ones. Additionally, data are often collected from the tens of millions of Americans who travel abroad with their cellphones every year."
You are supposed to infer from that, that only Americans who travel abroad with their cellphones are the ones tracked. When it's not, it's Americans at home too, the tower ids are in the metadata he's already admitted they collect.
“there is no element of the intelligence community that under any authority is intentionally collecting bulk cellphone location information about cellphones in the United States.”
Police Officer : "Did you murder that woman?"
Knife carrying suspect, caught as scene of crime, covered in victims blood: "I had no authority to intentionally kill that woman"
And if any foreign government was doing this to America it would be deemed an act of war.
So at some point, you more or less have to expect the rest of the world to start yelling really loudly to their leaders that they're not willing to put up with this any more.
I would like to think some countries will grow some balls and start saying "you know that navy base, you have to leave now".
If this was Russia or China, America would be indignant. Since it's America, Americans treats it like it's their right. The rest of us don't agree and have no desire to be beholden to your security interests. Because we don't see that your rights supersede ours.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Because Dancing with the Stars is on and it's that nasty Obamacare that's the real threat to freedom!!!
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
You could infer
11 - The NSA didn't have to collect the data at all because Telecom companies gave them the data "freely".
"History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." Mark Twain
With all this 'fear', the terrorists have already won. Rhetoric or not.
There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
then use your powers as a citizen to advance policy that would be different
may I remind you that fixing the government, way back then, was possible by regular people. the gov didn't control nukes and stuff, back then.
now, the armed forces and the local police (no diff anymore, sigh) will do all they can to 'follow orders' and won't let an uprising happen. each time we've tried, lately, the news media (owned by the government, for all practical purposes, even though not directly or literally) refuses to cover the events or makes the protesters look like 'bad guys' and they laugh it off. then they go to commercial.
you have the nsa keeping tabs on everyone and so you can't even gather in groups in private without them knowing (take your phone batteries out; if you even can, anymore). clear your gps in your car (oh right, you can't clear the obd2 blackbox that is mandated in every new car these days).
every thing that we could use to regain control has been thought of and 'worked around' by our oh-so-wonderful government. they realize that we are Pissed Off and they will do all they can to stop any revolt or even simple protest.
I don't see any peaceful solution and I shudder to think of the alternative.
I do fear that my memories of what was a free country will be all that's left for the next 1 or even TWO generations.
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
How is that different?
There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure