Slashdot Mirror
Shadowy Tech Brokers Deliver Data To the NSA
An anonymous reader notes an article about a group of companies whose business is to wiretap various ISPs (with permission) to gather data in response to federal subpoenas. Many smaller ISPs don't have the resources to deal with the flood of data requests from agencies like the NSA, so they outsource compliance and collection in order to keep costs down. The article profiles one of these companies, called Neustar:
Neustar can in many cases execute the warrant from anywhere within the U.S., keeping within the bounds of the country's surveillance law. But when a wiretap device is needed, they are not hard to come by. Most networking equipment makers sell devices that can be used to collect data, or used to inspect data — so-called deep-packet inspection devices, which can also be used to prevent piracy, the spread of malware, and website access, all at the Internet provider level. Once a FISA warrant is issued, so-called "tasking" orders, which contain selectors — like a phone number or an email address — are often sent electronically to the ISP. These tell the ISP or phone company, or third-parties like Neustar, exactly where to wiretap and what data to collect to hand back to the requesting authority.
Man. Just think HOW MUCH WORSE it would have been, if the Nazis or the Communists won. We'd have to watch everything we say, not sure if our innocent statements were being permanently recorded - only to be retrieved and used against us, years later.
Oh, wait...
Well I'm sure glad that the people spying on us are also the one's reassuring us that Russia is evil, and all the other dangers we are protected from.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
I find it interesting how we can gloss over the power from being a government agency with access to the data of billions of people and veer right into ZOMG someone's making money! The real story is power without accountability. You could have dropped the first two paragraphs without materially changing a thing.
Motive just isn't that relevant. An organization brutalizing or blackmailing you for your own good is just not that different from one doing it to make a buck. Except that the latter would stop when things start to get unprofitable.
Please don't call FISA directives "warrants." They aren't issued upon probable cause of suspicion of a crime. NSA defenders love calling them that because it gives them a false veneer of legality.
It is impossible to enforce the laws when you can catch all the violations.... What will happen when the slumbering public becomes aware that society gives some criminals a free pass?
I think the premise of your argument, (that the primary concern of Three Letter Agencies is stopping crimes of various kinds), is largely false. The prime directive of these agencies, (organisms if you will, because they have many characteristics of living entities), is to grow, to thrive, to gain power, and to become ever more robust and resistant to damage. For example, the last thing the NSA wants is an end to terrorism and various foreign threats. Too much money is at stake, and too many jobs, careers, and personal empires are on the line; if enough enemies don't exist in reality, they will be fabricated as required. (BTW, all that data they're gathering comprises a shitload of raw material for said fabrication). Ditto for the DEA, (that's why you'll never see legalization of drugs), the military, etc.
Wars of various kinds, (including NSA 'intelligence wars'), are simply too profitable to be 'won' or otherwise concluded; the agencies in question will continue to expand their power and reach so they can make damned sure that the wars will never end. As for the "slumbering public", your description of them answers the question you asked.
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
It is impossible to enforce the laws when you can catch all the violations
You're asking the wrong question - the correct question is this - how have we wound up in a situation where he have so many offenders, of so many laws, that there's not enough resources to lock them all up even if we knew every last one of them.
The answer is simple - if you create a job which comes with money and power, and where the job description is writing laws - you are going to have more laws. It's inevitable. And in a society where as a lawmaker you are rewarded for being "tough on crime", each subsequent law will be nitpickier and more punishing than the last.
That's it - our own system is going to bury us all in petty crime.
Freedom is the ability to break little rules. Rule of law is when you get caught when you break the big rules. A police state is when everyone is guilty, and it's up the police to decide who gets caught at what time.
As someone who was born behind the Iron Curtain, I promise you that the latter is very very scary.