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Amazon Publishes Opaque Transparency Report
Mark Wilson writes: Post-Snowden there is great interest in just what involvement the government has with technology firms. There are frequent requests from government agencies for information about users and the likes of Google, Snapchat and even the NSA itself have all released transparency reports that reveal, in broad strokes, the number of requests for data they have received. Amazon is the latest company to release a transparency report — although the term really should be used in the loosest possible sense. The report includes scant details about the number of subpoenas, search warrants, court orders, and national security requests received in the first five months of 2015. The report is so vague as to be virtually meaningless.
Everything else is just marketing.
They made it transparent so you can see its total opacity.
So, a lot like their annual report, then?
it's the new fad!
Amazon AWS is full of commercially sensitive business data.
Its worth remembering Lavabit, had to close down over these requests to understand what they ask for:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavabit
"The court records show that the FBI sought Lavabit's Transport Layer Security (SSL) private key. Levison objected, saying that the key would allow the government to access communications by all 400,000 customers of Lavabit. He also offered to add code to his servers that would provide the information required just for the target of the order. The court rejected this offer because it would require the government to trust Levison and stated that just because the government could access all customers' communication did not mean they would be legally permitted to do so. Lavabit was ordered to provide the SSL key in machine readable format by noon, August 5 or face a fine of $5000 per day.[23] Levison closed down Lavabit 3 days later."
So these requests can be so broad that *1* request would be one too many. It requires Amazon trust the FBI who in turn hand the process over to the NSA to implement, who in turn keep all the data anyway regardless of any promise the FBI made to the court.
The US Government does a LOT of work using Amazon clouds. They basically own Amazon at this point in the administrative sense.
I'm fairly sure that's why Amazon blocked wikileaks payments.
They chose a very strange wording to categorize in this report. Why "responded"? Why not "complied with" or "fulfilled"? Do they mean to imply that they don't actually follow through with them all, even if law enforcement gets involved? Do they simply blow off those that they don't think are important? Very interesting, I wonder what the hidden meaning is...
"Set a man a fire, he'll be warm for the rest of the night. Set a man afire, he'll be warm for the rest of his life."
Edgy maymay, bro.
Amazon is CIA. A distinction without a difference, but... you know...
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
what's sad is that some poor fucker had to be paid by Amazon to type this garbage into paragraphs
but i think it is far from worthless.
We can derive some facts from it:
a) the majority of access by the government and courts seems to take the legal route (which does not mean these accesses are completely ok with me)
b) a significant part is beyond control
c) I wont be affected; if the number of intransparent requests is less than 250, they are most likely not targeting me.
You Will Be Lied To... By the Department of Truth!
You Will Be Tortured... By the Department of Love!
You Will Be Laid Off... By the Department of Employment!
You Will Be Confused and Misled... By the Transparency Report!
and even the NSA itself have all released transparency reports
Where can I peek at this NSA own transparency report, I am curious to learn wether it is about data they request or data thy provide.
Like social networking, surveillance transparency reports are the new fad. The fact is, producing actually transparent reports is illegal. Therefore, the game is appearing transparent when in fact you are not.