How the NSA Profits Off of Its Surveillance Technology

blottsie writes: The National Security Agency has been making money on the side by licensing its technology to private businesses for more than two decades. It's called the Technology Transfer Program, under which the NSA declassifies some of its technologies that it developed for previous operations, patents them, and, if they're swayed by an American company's business plan and nondisclosure agreements, rents them out. The products include tools to transcribe voice recordings in any language, a foolproof method to tell if someone's touched your phone's SIM card, or a version of email encryption that isn't available on the open market.

Comments

I can't quite decide

[i kan reed]

I know that the default majority slashdot opinion is, and for good reason, that everything the NSA is poisoned with malicious intent. But I can't actually decide if making useful security tools available is somehow against our citizens' interests.

I mean the compounding factors of large corporations, and big dumps of money, and selective availability all suggest problems too, but in a circumstantial way.

I can't make up my mind this time.

Re:I can't quite decide

[CaptainDork]

Truly, I feel the big bad monster out there is business. They have ways of getting their tentacles into everything.

It all started when the shoe shine boy started taking tips for information.

Re:I can't quite decide

[gstoddart]

their security systems and auditing don't have much oversight

So, they're incompetent then?

That makes me feel a whole lot better.

So, now instead of a bunch of lying bastards who abuse their power, ignore the law, and lie to the people who provide oversight ... they're a bunch of incompetent, lying bastards who abuse their power, ignore the law, and lie to the people who provide oversight.

That's what we need.

Honestly?

[s.petry]

Perhaps providing a few facts will help you decide. In order to do so, lets remove the term "security tools" because this is not the only thing they are renting out. Let us also remove "NSA", as they are not the only Government agency that does this.

1. Government agencies are funded with Tax dollars. They do not use their own capital to develop products, they use your money and my money.
2. Your taxes have never been reduced by the Government reselling this technology. That is absolutely zero dollars you or I have seen in refunds due to "selling" what your investment pays for.
3. Government agencies are supposed to be reigned in by their Budgets. Lawful requests receive lawful funding, unlawful requests are supposed to be removed from the budget by Congressional committee prior to approving the budget.

These facts should then lead to several key questions that should be answered by not just the NSA, but all Government agency following similar procedures.

1. Does the funding reduce the tax payer footprint for the agency, or extend the budget beyond what Congress is approving?
2. What accountability is there for how revenue from "renting" is being spent?

Given that the answer to those two question are "increases budget, does not decrease tax payer burden" and "no accountability" this should be illegal on all fronts. It is used to bypass both Congressional oversight and legal restrictions on spending.

I'm right there with you if you were to say "Not all technology developed by the Government is bad.", but that is not the point of debate we should be making. Most technology is not inherently bad, it's the implementation and abuse that is bad.