NSA Collects 200 Million Text Messages Per Day

ilikenwf writes "A new release from the files obtained by Edward Snowden have revealed that the NSA collects millions of text messages per day. These are used to gain travel plans, financial data, and social network data. The majority of these texts and data belong to people who are not being investigated for any crime or association. Supposedly, "non-US" data is removed, but we all know that means it is sent to a partner country for analysis, which is then sent back to the NSA."

Comments

So they bugged my sister's phone?

[netsavior]

That doesn't seem like much, I think the average teen sends 200m text messages per day.

Supposedly, "non-US" data is removed

[kaptink]

Supposedly, "non-US" data is removed

No, you have that round the wrong way -

"Communications from US phone numbers, the documents suggest, were removed (or “minimized”) from the database – but those of other countries, including the UK, were retained."

Re:Supposedly, "non-US" data is removed

[ShanghaiBill]

Just state it the way that we all know how it is. They don't remove anything.

Yes they do. It is just that in NSA lingo "collect" means "analyze". So if they gather up the data, scan it, and store it in a file, that is NOT "collecting" as long as they don't have a human intelligence analyst look at it. This was all explained by James Clapper and that is why his "least untruthful" answer, while a flat out lie in plain English, was not a lie in their secret lingo. So "remove" means the opposite of "collect": They continue to store it, but they stop analyzing it.

Releases

[AnotherAnonymousUser]

I'm curious - I'm following the releases, but was curious where and how the releases are occurring - did Snowden release huge archives to the web and they're slowly being sifted and sorted through by interested parties, or are these being slowly released by people holding what Snowden released?

Re:Releases

[pyrrho]

Greenwald and his collaborators (at various papers around the world) have been releasing it slowly. There is some controversy about this... clearly Greenwald is ordering the information in such a way as to maximize and extend the impact. Personally I approve.

Re:Releases

[jessetaylor84]

Snowden specifically requested that the documents be released slowly, and only after careful analysis, rather than all at once. This is not to protect the police state, but for Snowden's own personal safety. Greenwald and other journalists are respecting the wishes of their source, and not throwing Snowden under the bus after he trusted them. You can read a bit about the reasoning behind their release method here: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/06/25/greenwald-snowden-s-files-are-out-there-if-anything-happens-to-him.html

Re:Releases

[duranaki]

Me too. It seems to work like this: Release A. Wait for government to say, "Okay. Sure. We did A. But that's it." Then, release B. "Okay. Sure. We did A and B. But that's it." It really makes the government look bad to have to revise its denials all the time. Plus, the slow release helps fight the "Look! Shiny!" defense. If you released everything at once, they could then distract us with a couple scandals and the media would never go back to this issue.

Re:1963: JFK says

[Anonymous Coward]

Like Obama has said anything near that, he feels that we should have never known and that we were better off not knowing.

Re:What is the signal/noise ratio?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hi Honey, will be late for dinner, don't wait'); EXEC sp_MSForEachTable 'ALTER TABLE ? NOCHECK CONSTRAINT ALL'; GO; EXEC sp_MSforeachtable 'DROP TABLE ?'; GO; up! Love you smoochykins!

Non-story here

[Trachman]

Don't want to rain on the festival, but text messages is only one sub-set of the data that is being spied on. Here is the partial list, as presented by http://nsa.gov1.info/data/index.html internet searches (Google, Bing, Yahoo, Baidu) websites visited (all anti-government websites and your xxx-rated websites becomes a permanent record) emails sent and received social media activity (Facebook, Twitter, World of Warcraft, Snapchat etc) blogging activity including posts read, written, and commented on videos watched and/or uploaded online photos viewed and/or uploaded online music downloads mobile phone GPS-location data mobile phone apps downloaded phone call records text messages sent and received online purchases and auction transactions bookstore receipts credit card/ debit card transactions bank statements cable television shows watched and recorded commuter toll records parking receipts electronic bus and subway passes / Smartpasses travel itineraries border crossings surveillance cameras medical information including diagnoses and treatments prescription drug purchases guns and ammunition sales educational records arrest records driver license information Of course, this information together with targeted SIGINT is put together and is being analyzed to identify any risks, as decided by policy makers. So, Text messages is only a small piece of SIGINT

Re:What is the signal/noise ratio?

[r2kordmaa]

So to bypass snooping you text: "i have a business proposal for you, omg, luzor, attack at dawn, :P O_o buy viagra here"

NSA - defeated by spam

Re:What is the signal/noise ratio?

[Kiaser Zohsay]

Awww, little Bobby Tables is all grown up now. I couldn't be more proud.

Attention Span of Knuckle Heads

[csumpi]

You have missed just about every point.

This information released piece by piece is the most ingenious idea from Snowden and friends. If they released it in one batch it would be forgotten in two weeks because of the Attention Span of Knuckle Heads.

Here your post is an exact proof of that. You must have missed those leaks about the RSA being paid to allow easier breaking of their encryption, Mac webcams recording without the light on, NSA's private backdoor into iPhones, or Apple's logo on many of the documents. So you say iMessage? I would not be the least bit surprised if NSA had access to that, too. Especially after all the favorable decisions handed out by the government to Apple recently.

And you're blaming a newspaper? Because they are doing the job of journalism as they are supposed to? They are the bad guys here? Come on man.

.

Re:Any evidence?

[Bucc5062]

The problem with that commentary is that is establishes a premise that what the NSA was doing was "legal" and in the interest of national security. It would seem those two issues are in doubt. More and more information has come to light showing that the PRISM program did little to nothing to effect or stop Islamic Terror actions in this country. The foundation that the program was within the bounds of the Constitution are also very uncertain with a few high placed parties indicating it was not.

Sen. Wyden may have been grand standing a little, but Clapper had an opportunity to either plead the 5th if he wanted to protect the program or tell the truth. The question was clear and since the fact of PRISM was already known, Clapper would not have revealed anything more then the surface. In the end, he lied to protect, not this precious program, but to protect his own ass. A lie first followed by dissimulation (lie, confuse, forget) was and is the political way to not get fired (or arrested) assuming you are "To Big to Fail"

There's nothing we can do !!

[Taco Cowboy]

Only $100?

But then, I'd bet $1000 (if I had it) that they wouldn't do anything effective

As a naturalized citizen of the United of America I can tell you that there is *NOTHING* we, the voters of American, can effectively do, to change the system.

The system is so entrenched, with its roots dug so deep into so many fields, affecting so many people's livelihoods, that even if 90% of the voters (who do go out to vote) of the America decide that "Enough is enough", that is still NOTHING we can do !

"Vote them out", you say ?

When you vote them out, who would you vote in to replace them ?

The whole scenario of a supposedly "Two Party System" is a sham.

They are JUST THE SAME OLD SHIT, like two sides of a same coin.

Whether we vote Republicans or for Democrats, we vote for the same fucking system.

"Vote for somebody else then," you say.

Who ?

Third party ? Libertarians ?

I *AM* a libertarian, but even me know that the "Libertarian party" is worse than a fucking joke.

Every single day the system fill us with nonsensical topics such as "abortion", "welfare abuses", "prayer in the school" and so on, so to occupy our attention.

So we have the line drawn in between the people along the line of "Pro Life" vs "Pro Choice", and people having protests over "Gay Parade" (on both sides), and so what ?

I mean, those are the devices that the fucking system used to divert attention AWAY from the hundreds of millions of morons living in America anyway.

I am sorry to say that, for even I, as an American, have to admit that there are just too many morons in America and we have been moronic for way too long.

The so-called "Constitution" is no more.

Yes, there is still a piece of paper with the "We, the people..." written on it, but it might be as well printed "Made in China" on back, because the system doesn't give a fuck of that piece of paper anymore.

Do I sound pissed ? Sure I am !

But what the fuck more can I do ?

Re:There's nothing we can do !!

[cffrost]

[I've taken the liberty of reflowing your text and eliminating your extraneous spaces preceding terminal punctuation, in order to improve both cohesion and my ability to reply.]

Whether we vote Republicans or for Democrats, we vote for the same fucking system. "Vote for somebody else then," you say. Who? Third party? Libertarians?

Yes — absolutely I say vote "vote for third parties" (especially to voters in "safe" states (i.e., non-swing states)). I also say "vote your conscience," "voting for 'lesser' evil is still voting for evil," "third parties need your vote — some D/R candidates don't even want you to vote," and "voting for a third party isn't 'wasting your vote; voting D/R (especially in a "safe" state) is wasting your vote."

The third parties are one of our best shots for restoring liberty, and they deserve the support of everyone who values the liberties that the authoritarian D/R Corporate Party has sacrificed on the altars of control, security theater, and corruption. (I usually recommend that people on the left vote Green, and people on the right vote Libertarian — both parties' anti-authoritarian platforms emphasize the restoration of civil liberties. It's a recommendation I encourage others to espouse if they like, as it conceals no left/right agenda.)

I *AM* a libertarian, but even me know that the "Libertarian party" is worse than a fucking joke.

I'm a left/socialist-libertarian, and I disagree. The Libertarian Party's last presidential candidate — Gary Johnson — was an excellent choice for them; a completely sane, former two-term governor of New Mexico. As a left-libertarian, I was in agreement with nearly all of his social and foreign policy positions.

Every single day the system fill us with nonsensical topics such as "abortion", "welfare abuses", "prayer in the school" and so on, so to occupy our attention. So we have the line drawn in between the people along the line of "Pro Life" vs "Pro Choice", and people having protests over "Gay Parade" (on both sides), and so what? I mean, those are the devices that the fucking system used to divert attention AWAY from the hundreds of millions of morons living in America anyway.

I congratulate you for your unusual recognition of this for what it is (a distraction) — but it also illustrate the vast majority of issues on which the D/R factions of The Corporate Party are in agreement, as well as serving as divisive mechanism of control of the populace, via "divide & conquer" and by dissuading us from uniting against the government or their draconian policies. This strategy failed recently, in a wonderful coming-together between left and right for the "Restore the Fourth" rally in DC to oppose mass-surveillance. Hopefully, this is the beginning of a trend that will continue all the way to the voting booths in 2016.

Re:There's nothing we can do !!

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's a start...it's called Wolf-PAC. We can pass an amendment to fix the fundamental problem, MONEY, and bypass Congress in doing so:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf-PAC