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Obama Administration Set To Expand Sharing of Data That NSA Intercepts (nytimes.com)

schwit1 writes: The Obama administration is on the verge of permitting the National Security Agency to share more of the private communications it intercepts with other American intelligence agencies without first applying any privacy protections to them, according to officials familiar with the deliberations.

The idea is to let more experts across American intelligence gain direct access to unprocessed information, increasing the chances that they will recognize any possible nuggets of value. That also means more officials will be looking at private messages - not only foreigners' phone calls and emails that have not yet had irrelevant personal information screened out, but also communications to, from, or about Americans that the NSA's foreign intelligence programs swept in incidentally.

Civil liberties advocates criticized the change, arguing that it will weaken privacy protections. They said the government should disclose how much American content the NSA collects incidentally - which agency officials have said is hard to measure - and let the public debate what the rules should be for handling that information.

103 comments

  1. Wow! Just Wow! by deadwill69 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I can not even begin to imagine the implications this will have. Let the fishing begin!

  2. Impeach Obama by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why the hell isn't there interest in impeaching Obama for the rampant violations of the fourth amendment under his watch?

    1. Re:Impeach Obama by Rockoon · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Because racism

      --
      "His name was James Damore."
    2. Re:Impeach Obama by Flavianoep · · Score: 0

      If racism was a problem, he would not have been elected to begin with.

      --
      Linux is for people who don't mind RTFM.
    3. Re:Impeach Obama by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      No.

      He's claiming one reason he won't be impeached is because would-be impeachers are afraid of being called racists.

    4. Re:Impeach Obama by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because he is fulfilling the dream of all politicians, red and blue.

    5. Re:Impeach Obama by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > If racism was a problem, he would not have been elected to begin with.

      And if I had a cape, I could fly around and spin the Earth backwards, fly thought time and pay your mother $20 for a quickie nine months before you were born.

      What's your point?

    6. Re:Impeach Obama by phayes · · Score: 2

      You may have missed Rockoon's point.

      As he is replying to "why isn't there interest in impeaching Obama?" with "Because Racism", logically he is saying that racism protects Obama.

      Few people denounce the racism of minorities versus other minorities or versus the majority because they do not want to be called racist for "picking" on a minority. Thus racism protects Obama in some ways.

      --
      Democracy is a sheep and two wolves deciding what to have for lunch. Freedom is a well armed sheep contesting the issue
    7. Re:Impeach Obama by CeasedCaring · · Score: 0

      You DO realise that POTUS probably has the LEAST power in Washington DC?

      Watch some more West Wing, and learn!

    8. Re:Impeach Obama by Trailer+Trash · · Score: 1

      If racism was a problem, he would not have been elected to begin with.

      Did you happen to hear a loud "whoosh" as you posted? Just curious.

    9. Re:Impeach Obama by kilfarsnar · · Score: 1

      Why the hell isn't there interest in impeaching Obama for the rampant violations of the fourth amendment under his watch?

      Because it doesn't affect people's daily lives. If it was in their face they might notice, but it's not. Besides, at least half of them have been so propagandized they think whatever has to be done to "keep us safe" is appropriate. You don't want to be killed by ISIS affiliated Mexican rapists pouring over our southern border do you?

      --
      "What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
    10. Re:Impeach Obama by MisterSquid · · Score: 1

      Because racism

      Obama is not not impeached because people would cry racism. Get real here.

      No President of the United States will ever be impeached for violations of the Fourth Amendment, even if some interpretations of the Fourth Amendment are violated.

      Courts determine which actors are in violation of of what interpretation and given modern US governmental bureaucratic structures and processes, the President of the United States is very unlikely to ever be identified as one of the principal actors responsible for governmental overreach in terms of surveillance.

      You can hate liberals, conservatives, what have you, but if you're really interested in protecting our privacy, you would be better off

      1. Advancing case law and judicial interpretations of what is and is not acceptable for the US government to collect.
      2. Supporting legislators and political representatives who are committed to protecting the privacy of citizens from governmental overreach
      3. Building technologies that secure involuntary disclosure of private information

      Or you can carry on playing political name-calling.

      In my opinion, privacy would be much worse off had McCain or Romney been elected President. Which is not to say privacy is not a shithole under the current administration. It's only to say this is not a matter of red or blue but of state but a matter of citizen, and our efforts and analyses should always take this into consideration.

      --
      blog
    11. Re:Impeach Obama by MisterSquid · · Score: 1

      It's only to say this is not a matter of red or blue but a matter of state and citizen, and our efforts and analyses should always take this into consideration.

      --
      blog
  3. Panopticon by sasparillascott · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The former East German Stasi would be proud.

    Thank you President Obama for making govt surveillance of the citizenry the new normal, I'm sure with a history of political characters like McCarthy, Hoover, Nixon etc. that this won't be abused in the future. /s

    1. Re:Panopticon by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      I'm sure with a history of political characters like McCarthy, Hoover, Nixon etc. that this won't be abused in the future. /s

      The amazing thing with the NSA program is how quickly it was abused. Almost every abuse you can think of has already happened, and almost as soon as the program was implemented. Love INT? Yup. Spying on politicians? Yup. Influencing elections? Maybe.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  4. good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    gotta track the muzzies

  5. Can you spot the similarities? by buck-yar · · Score: 4, Interesting

    From Wiki

    1984 is a dystopian novel by English author George Orwell published in 1949. The novel is set in Airstrip One (formerly known as Great Britain), a province of the superstate Oceania in a world of perpetual war, omnipresent government surveillance and public manipulation, dictated by a political system euphemistically named English Socialism (or Ingsoc in the government's invented language, Newspeak) under the control of a privileged elite of the Inner Party, that persecutes individualism and independent thinking as "thoughtcrime."

    The tyranny is epitomised by Big Brother, the Party leader who enjoys an intense cult of personality but who may not even exist. The Party "seeks power entirely for its own sake. It is not interested in the good of others; it is interested solely in power." The protagonist of the novel, Winston Smith, is a member of the Outer Party, who works for the Ministry of Truth (or Minitrue in Newspeak), which is responsible for propaganda and historical revisionism. His job is to rewrite past newspaper articles, so that the historical record always supports the party line. The instructions that the workers receive specify the corrections as fixing misquotations and never as what they really are: forgeries and falsifications. A large part of the ministry also actively destroys all documents that have been edited and do not contain the revisions; in this way, no proof exists that the government is lying. Smith is a diligent and skillful worker but secretly hates the Party and dreams of rebellion against Big Brother.

    As literary political fiction and dystopian science-fiction, Nineteen Eighty-Four is a classic novel in content, plot and style. Many of its terms and concepts, such as Big Brother, doublethink, thoughtcrime, Newspeak, Room 101, telescreen, 2 + 2 = 5, and memory hole, have entered into common use since its publication in 1949. Nineteen Eighty-Four popularised the adjective Orwellian, which describes official deception, secret surveillance and manipulation of recorded history by a totalitarian or authoritarian state.

    1. Re:Can you spot the similarities? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Cult of personality?

      There was quite a bit for Obama - initially. Now, it's Trump and Sanders.

      We have the author of the movie Idiocracy has turned into a "documentary".

      Much of the popularity of Trump and Sanders is backlash against the political class - the career poltiicians and dynasties like the Bushes and Clintons. They have not represented us little people very well. While the World's economy becomes more and more integrated, we little people here in the US do not seem to be getting the benefits; it's mostly going to the top. And when I see companies mostly recruiting in India (GE) or replacing them with H1-bs (Disney); by-passing hardworking qualified Americans, I just have to wonder what is our leadership up to?

      But we have a populace that is being distracted by issues like immigration, abortion, gay marriage, teaching Evolution in schools and how our country is losing it's Judeo-Christian values. And while folks are being distracted by things like that, we have a government that is steadily chipping away at our rights because of the fears of terrorism.

      I find that our political trajectory to be more along the lines of the movie 'V for Vendetta". We have quite a few protections in our government to prevent a complete takeover by on individual - at least now - but we can still be tyrannized by a political elite who will hold power by whatever means necessary.

      I am quite concerned for the direction of this country.

    2. Re:Can you spot the similarities? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It wouldn't be so bad if people didn't deny the very possibility so damn vehemently.

    3. Re:Can you spot the similarities? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Much of the popularity of Trump and Sanders is backlash against the political class - the career poltiicians and dynasties like the Bushes and Clintons

      Yeah, I'm sure the popularity of Sanders in particular - a politician for the last almost 40 years - is backlash against career politicians.

  6. Rules? We don't need no stinkin' rules! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Watch out for the usual giveaways while enjoing the ride on the slippery slope.

  7. No honor among thieves by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If stealing data is theft, then this is the inevitable backstabbing.

    It's a damn good thing for reality that copyright is (in itself) the true theft.

    1. Re:No honor among thieves by buck-yar · · Score: 1

      Police say NDA prevents them from getting a warrant for stingray use.

      What if I sign an NDA with my recipient, that would prevent the police from getting a warrant, right?

  8. Re:Wow! Just Wow! by fustakrakich · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What's the complaint? Didn't he promise to be more transparent? He didn't say with whom

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  9. Why we need an MI5/Shin Bet by MikeRT · · Score: 2

    We had one for a little while, but rather than reform CIFA it was shut down in a hurry.

    We need something like CIFA because having the FBI do both general law enforcement and counter-intelligence and counter-terrorism makes it too hard to prevent intelligence products from landing in general law enforcement operations.

    The agency doesn't need to be big. In fact, it should be the smallest member of the intelligence community because virtually none of our "domestic threats" are anything more than ordinary hate crimes that belong to the states and FBI. Even most of the hate crimes by Muslims that have been prevented aren't strictly speaking relevant because they're just people trying to act on ISIS propaganda, not a real nexus to ISIS. That too is the domain of the FBI.

    You know what would be the domain of a domestic intel agency would be the Saudi and Qatari funding of extremist mosques on our soil. Or Russian espionage. Things that actually have a nexus between domestic and foreign, so there would be a domestic agency that could work hand in hand with the CIA and NSA to hunt down the domestic side of international threats without involving ordinary law enforcement.

  10. The collection of data is the problem by Zet · · Score: 1

    I don't think the NSA sharing the data they collect is the problem. The
    real problem lies in what data the NSA--as a government agency with
    special powers--collects. Could making some of this more public be the
    thing that finally leads to a change in the NSA's blanket surveillance
    over citizens? (Actually, I'm not that hopeful.)

    1. Re:The collection of data is the problem by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      That all came out in the Church Committee https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... and the US finally thought its telco The Fourth Amendment issues fixed.
      Color of law was then used with the Freedom act, PATRIOT Act, Transit authority, certification, Executive order's, Special procedures to get around any protections and limitations for bulk domestic collect it all.
      STORMBREW, COWBOY, BLARNEY, FAIRVIEW, PRISM, MUSCULAR.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
  11. Unreal by bigbrownepaul · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Wow and he's a Democrat? Scary

    Bit like the Labour government we had here with Tony Blair, socialist morals led to the most authoritarian government in the UK since the war.

    Socialism doesn't understand privacy or rights of the individual, you keep hearing about "the greater good".......

    --
    Being Mutual - Working together for a better society
    1. Re:Unreal by AchilleTalon · · Score: 1

      Being leftist or rightist has nothing to do with an authoritarian regime. Both sides are likely to support such a regime for different reasons. Most socialist regimes are authoritarian on this planet. This is the only way they can hold the power.

      --
      Achille Talon
      Hop!
    2. Re:Unreal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wow and he's a Democrat? Scary

      ...

      What's REALLY scary is you somehow believe that "Democrat" means anything. (NB I didn't use the word "think"...)

      I'd opine that an ideal large DEMOCRAT-style government is a helluva lot more dangerous to individual liberty than an ideal small Republican-style government would be regardless of the authoritarian nature of the individuals in the government.

      The large DEMOCRAT-style government would have more resources TO USE AGAINST YOU.

    3. Re:Unreal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Most socialist regimes are authoritarian on this planet. This is the only way they can hold the power.

      By definition socialist and related factions have to be authoritarian.
      Let's go over the 1920's socio-economic theory debate again:
      Capitalism: the baseline, those who came up with the term used it to apply to everything from a mildly constrained market (like lead to the roaring '20s in the USA) to medieval serfdom arrangements.
      Communism: an unenforced and unenforceable ideal of societal cooperation
      Socialism: a heavily enforced model where all industry is directly run by the central planning authority
      Fascism: a heavily enforced model where all company owners are recruited into the central planning authority

      Fascists argued that socialism and communism would result in a loss of key knowledge and experience, wasting potential prosperity on following questionable ideological dogma.
      Socialists argued that fascism would simply lead to the same people who have power having new power and that communism was the "inevitable result of socialism as the government finds itself less and less important."
      Communists believed that fascism and socialism were both too focused on central authority and that the behavior of the commune should be enforced by very aggressive shaming campaigns and interpersonal ridicule. Despite that, they accepted the socialist line about socialism being a stepping-stone toward communism, and as a reward they were usually the first to be executed as traitors when a socialist faction gained power.

      This was also when the terms "left" and "right" became associated with politics. By the academic definition, communism was left, socialism was central, and fascism was right. Later attempts to apply the extremely vague axis to other political theory either kludge everything to fit between communism and fascism, or accept that socialism and fascism were nearly identical totalitarian dogmas and try to define the axis according to what few differences the two ideologies had. There is no consensus or standard about how to define the "left-right" axis in real world terms, it usually comes down to picking a term that you like and insisting that everything you dislike is an "extremist."

    4. Re:Unreal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're a retard.
      ALL political parties are a SCAM.
      NONE of them give even the tiniest SHIT about you.
      They are self-aware and exist SOLELY for their own purposes.
      That purpose is to STEAL POWER and MONEY from YOU and give it to THEM, and to deploy all means of CONTROL over you they can.

      This is why ANARCHY is the new thing.
      Because it is the ONLY political school of thought that does NOT involve any political party, but instead focuses on individual voluntary action while at the same time DISEMPOWERING the old party machines.

      Read about it.

    5. Re:Unreal by hey! · · Score: 1

      Well, the devil is in the details, as they say.

      If you did a serious analysis of what went wrong with US security in the run up to 9/11, one of the many things that might have stopped it was if the CIA had told the FBI that known Al Qaeda operatives were in the US. In fact the CIA knew that the perpetrators of the USS Cole bombing had met with two if the 9/11 bombers, but lied to the FBI when the FBI team investigating the Cole asked about it.

      Why did they lie? Two reasons. The first was that the CIA has a different organizational mission; they wanted to penetrate Al Qaeda, and having Al Qaeda operating in the US would be convenient. The second was institutional rivalry that rose the point of personal hatred. One CIA administrator actually testified that the one good thing that happened on the 9/11 was that the two towers fell on John O'Neill, the FBI administrator in charge of the Cole bombing. It's shocking that a US intelligence officer could feel that way, but even more shocking that he'd admit it publicly.

      Clearly US intelligence was horribly dysfunctional and misguided in the run up to 9/11, so what did we do about it? We promoted the CIA people who were responsible for stonewalling the FBI out of harm's way. Then we fought a war against a country which had nothing to do with 9/11 and which resulted in 4400 US troops being killed, and civilians killed and wounded beyond anyone's ability to count.

      Getting the US security apparatus working together would have been a much smarter response than invading Iraq, but even though it's the right thing to do people are also right to be concerned. Any power the government has to do legitimate things can also be used to do illegitimate things; that's the point we have to start with. Otherwise we're stuck with a false dichotomy: should we be safe or should we be free. If we argue in those terms we'll be neither. We should be arguing in terms of oversight and auditing that will place potentially career-ending if not prison-serving consequences on misuse of data.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    6. Re:Unreal by kilfarsnar · · Score: 1

      Wow and he's a Democrat? Scary

      Bit like the Labour government we had here with Tony Blair, socialist morals led to the most authoritarian government in the UK since the war.

      Socialism doesn't understand privacy or rights of the individual, you keep hearing about "the greater good".......

      How is this related to Socialism? Is the NSA Socialist?

      --
      "What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
    7. Re:Unreal by buck-yar · · Score: 1

      Democrat = big govt, authoritarian
      Republican = (supposed to be for) smaller govt

      The libertarian wing of the Republican party is non-authoritarian, the neo conservative is authoritarian.

      I've often thought the neo conservatives share more with the Democrats than the right wing. I think they just want the big govt but without the taxes.

    8. Re:Unreal by wyHunter · · Score: 1

      Um, Democrats are the intellectual heirs to Joseph Stalin so why is this surprising?

  12. Ummm... no. by denzacar · · Score: 3, Informative

    There IS a movement to impeach Obama on exactly those grounds... except that is not the priority reason OR the main reason.
    Nor is there anything to that spying on people wrong - it's Obama who is abusing the Patriot Act, not the Patriot Act that is abusive.

    But they do manage to make brown babies one of the reasons... no... Make that the only reason everyone actually agrees on.
    Hmm... Maybe you're right.
    Maybe racism IS the main motivator for why there IS a petition to impeach Obama.

    http://www.teaparty.org/impeac...

    TO ALL MEMBERS OF THE U.S. CONGRESS:

    Let it be known that I stand with the Tea Party and demand that impeachment proceedings be brought against President Barack Obama for high crimes and misdemeanors, including, but not limited to the following:

    1. Failing to protect American citizens in the Libyan embassy in Benghazi and purposefully allowing them to be tortured and murdered in cold blood. Cries for help were ignored. Pleas for ground support were brushed off. While American ambassador Chris Stevens and his colleagues were being slaughtered at the hands of murderers, Obama turned a blind eye and went to bed, blaming a YouTube video for the attack.

    While âoejustice will be servedâ has resonated from his lips, nothing has been done to bring justice for this crime. Instead, it has been swept under the carpet. Now the Obama State Department is compounding the crimes against our diplomats and military by intimidating government civilian and military personnel into not testifying.

    2. Blatant abuse and misuse of the true intention of the PATRIOT Act. Obama and is administration deem it acceptable to invade the privacy of U.S. citizens by reading our e-mail, tracking our Internet visits, comparing notes with the IRS about our taxes and âoeminingâ our every purchase. These are egregious violations of our right to privacy.

    3. Outright brutal assaults on the First Amendment by the Obama Justice Department. Those who are held accountable to the highest extend of the law chose to break the law by illegally wiretapping phone lines and cell phone conversations and invading email accountsâ"spyingâ"on members of the press and accusing reporters doing their job of being criminals.

    4. Under Obamaâ(TM)s ruling hand, the Internal Revenue Service purposefully, knowingly and willingly targeted conservatives and Tea Party members, delaying their non-profit status and then lying to Congress about their activities.

    5. Repeatedly hiding illegal Federal activities, such as the Justice Departmentâ(TM)s âoeFast and Furiousâ program where guns were handed to KNOWN criminals and members of Mexican drug cartels then used to kill our own border agents. Obama acolytes still continue to lie to Congress and the citizens of the United States about the gun-running operation.

    6. For purposefully, willfully and wrongfully putting a bounty on the heads of 22 Navy Seals aboard a Chinook helicopter in Afghanistan. Obama knowingly sent those Seals to their deaths that fateful day then had his military brass issue orders to cremate the bodies for no reason. Despite the outright lies told to the American people, those men did not all die aboard that helicopter that day. Eight Navy Seals jumped out alive and fought for their lives. Again, no backup reinforcementsâ"only a team of Afghans that were waiting to ambush them. Despite false promises of âoejusticeâ by the president, nothing has been done.

    7. For constant violations of the regulatory and law-making processâ"end running Congress with Executive Orders after theyâ(TM)ve voted down bills and making appointments while the Senate was in session, effectively violating the Constitution of the United States of America.

    8. Allowing criminals to go unchecked a

    --
    Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
    1. Re:Ummm... no. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      There IS a movement to impeach Obama on exactly those grounds... except that is not the priority reason OR the main reason.
      Nor is there anything to that spying on people wrong - it's Obama who is abusing the Patriot Act, not the Patriot Act that is abusive.

      I don't agree with that conclusion. If the Patriot Act weren't abusive to begin with it would not be possible to use it like that.
      Anything the government is allowed to do will always be stretched to the extreme. (Well, this is true for everyone else too, if it is barely legal it will be done.)
      If the government says "Oh, this law technically allows for this, but we won't go that far." then they are lying.

      I'm not saying that it wouldn't be justified to impeach Obama, but he is using the Patriot Act for it's intended purpose, not abusing it. The Act should never have been put in place to begin with.

    2. Re:Ummm... no. by qeveren · · Score: 1

      Yup, Meringuoid's Law in action.

      --
      Don't just stand there, get that other dog!
  13. All communications by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Dark government knows all and sees all, including Obama's communications, Senators financial dealings, Judges indiscretions. JFK warned of us this, and we did nothing.

  14. Left and Right by Okian+Warrior · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The elites in this country are quick to frame everything in terms of "left" and "right", "Liberal" versus "Conservative", and so on.

    I've come to the realization that this is a false distinction, made to distract people from the issues and give the illusion of choice.

    The real choice is populist (in the interests of the people) and non-populist (to the interests of anyone else).

    Both Liberals and Conservatives in this country are on the non-populist end of that spectrum. All bad government actions have bipartisan support, whether it's H1B visa programs taking away our jobs, Patriot act(s) taking away our rights, our 3rd world health care, draconian IP laws passed by secret treaty, killing citizens without trial, secret laws, secret lists... it goes on and on.

    What good does it do to argue that D's are better than R's when neither side will present a unified front on our behalf?

    Take up the cause and tell us how such-and-so was Bush's fault. Someone will point out that the Democrats controlled congress during that time. Someone else will point out that the bill's opposition was mostly Democratic.

    Therefore we should vote for the D's - they're always on the correct side of a losing battle.

    One way out is to always vote against the incumbent. If enough people do this and the pols realize that a non-populist term will be their only term, we'll eventually see change.

    This election presents a rare choice of two populist candidates: Bernie and Donald. It's apparent that neither is traditionally "left" or "right", so if one of them wins we might get some actual change.

    Pay no attention to the name callers you see in the media, or even on Slashdot - that's just the elites trying to sway your vote by emotional means.

    Look at their policies, and ask the question: if this policy were implemented, would the *people* benefit?

    If the answer is "yes", then that's the candidate we need.

    1. Re:Left and Right by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Both equally bad...

      Left
      1) Secretary of state uses private email, deletes half of them after they are subpoenaed by Congress investigating one of her employee's death.
      2) Refusal to hand over a gun running program's documents, subpoenaed by Congress.
      3) Using the IRS to censor political opponents in the year of a presidential election.
      4) Had intelligence agencies delete emails about progress of dealing with ISIS to hide what is going on.
      5) Lied to Congress about collecting information on every US citizens' phone calls.

      Right
      1) Deleted 18 minutes of an audio tape to cover up an office break in.

      Yea, they are both equally as bad. Now remember, deleting 18 minutes of audio was sufficient to impeach and destroy the reputation of a former president (who wasn't involved in the original office break in).

    2. Re:Left and Right by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 1

      Now remember, deleting 18 minutes of audio was sufficient to impeach

      I do remember. He was never impeached, he resigned.

      Only two presidents have ever been impeached; Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton.

    3. Re:Left and Right by kilfarsnar · · Score: 1

      Both equally bad...

      Left 1) Secretary of state uses private email, deletes half of them after they are subpoenaed by Congress investigating one of her employee's death. 2) Refusal to hand over a gun running program's documents, subpoenaed by Congress. 3) Using the IRS to censor political opponents in the year of a presidential election. 4) Had intelligence agencies delete emails about progress of dealing with ISIS to hide what is going on. 5) Lied to Congress about collecting information on every US citizens' phone calls.

      Right 1) Deleted 18 minutes of an audio tape to cover up an office break in.

      Yea, they are both equally as bad. Now remember, deleting 18 minutes of audio was sufficient to impeach and destroy the reputation of a former president (who wasn't involved in the original office break in).

      Really, for the Right all you can come up with is Nixon? Ooookay.

      You seem to have missed Okian Warrior's point. And that's a shame because it's a good one. People of various political stripes are fed up with a status quo that serves almost only the Elite. Thus we see the rise of Trump and Sanders. They have appeal as "outsiders". People seem to have figured out that it's not a much about Right and Left as it is Inside and Outside. That is, the real difference in America is whether you are on the inside and get your needs attended to or are on the outside and don't. That's really just another way of describing the parent poster's point, that things are either populist or not.

      Most Americans are on the outside. Some folks at Princeton recently did a study and found that popular opinion has a statistically insignificant effect on the policies of the Federal Government. People know that the government is not serving the needs of most of the population. They may disagree on why that is, and what is to be done about it. But they know it. And they know their current representation, D or R, is not going to fix it.

      --
      "What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
    4. Re:Left and Right by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Unfortunately Donald is not much different than a completely crazy Hillary with a cult following. He even paid to have her at his wedding and praised her as a senator. On the Republican side, the populist is Ted Cruz. You might not agree with him on some economic or social issue, but he's against NSA bulk surveillance, against shredding constitutional protections (eminent domain, etc), etc. So the populist choices are Ted and Bernie - the rest are all establishment.

    5. Re:Left and Right by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Right
      1) Deleted 18 minutes of an audio tape to cover up an office break in.

      You forgot
      2) Used war powers against American citizens to justify warrantless wiretapping.

      At least, I'm assuming treason is a "high crime or misdemeanor".

  15. "share unaltered data with other agencies" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is not a slide down a slipperyy slope.
    This is jumping off a cliff in the dark while meeting your spirit animal under the influence of something.

    There have already been stories ( documented ) about local law enforcement agencies having to create justification for warrants
    because they received information about some local who either had his cell-phone conversation recorded, email read,
    internet browsing listed, purchases listed.... so that is already happening. Just not on this scale or in such detail.

    Illicit affairs, gays hooking up, alternative lifestylers are going to be targets here ( Alabama ) as well as druggies, gun freaks, and Bronies....
    This, combined with currency removal is going to be a real blow to the black market for services, goods, tutoring, and food for the people who cant afford
    the normal route.... ( home repair, plumbing, electrical, education in arts, languages, drugs, food, specialty goods are all currently 'under the table' deals...).

    Does anyone know some math for an independent crypto method that would foil them?
    It would have to be a method not currently used... 'different' math... not primes or elliptic curves,
    The algorithm should not EVER be revealed.
    The code to execute it should be mangled beyond Klingon.
    Email, text, file sharing.... all need this.

    How much does anyone want to bet that Law Enforcement Officers will give each other a free pass on data ?
    Any takers for bets on Congressmen, Lobbyists, Upper Bureaucracy having no data collected or shared?
    The bets also apply to local 'good-ol-boy' networks.... no takers??? Thought not...

    Notice that unlike corporate data, there is NO OPTION to have data cleaned or deleted or forgotten.... it will be for forever.

    TL: It's gonna happen.

    1. Re: "share unaltered data with other agencies" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Does anyone know some math for an independent crypto method that would foil them?

      http://www.alexirpan.com/2016/02/11/secure-computation.html

    2. Re:"share unaltered data with other agencies" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Local PD's already have this, and I'm not talking tips from SOD. They just wish to legalize what they are currently doing, so they don't have to hide anymore.

      Its crazy, local PD's also have stingrays. Every day I meet a Chevy Express van on my way home from work that has different paint jobs of different companies. Same guy driving.

  16. Correction by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Surveillance IS the abuse. If practiced by anyone other than government, it would be called stalking, and would be grounds for a restraining order, if not criminal prosecution. Yet when it comes to government -- which is nothing but a group of individual human beings -- we're supposed to give them the benefit of the doubt? I don't believe I can laugh hard enough at that sentiment.

    The people who have been cheering for big government must be so proud, because this is it, and it's only going to get bigger. Congratulations.

    1. Re:Correction by buck-yar · · Score: 1

      Most people want bigger govt. They like regulation- if its regulating the other guy. When the big guns of govt turn towards their hobbies or interests, then they get a taste of their own medicine (and usually carve out exemptions).

    2. Re:Correction by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      government -- which is nothing but a group of individual human beings

      Reeducation to remove blasphemous thoughtcrime requested. Government, please help Anonymous Coward!

  17. Re:Wow! Just Wow! by cayenne8 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm loving me some more of that "Hope and Change"....

    --
    Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
  18. CALL FOR INFO: domestic NSA dark fiber by TheRealHocusLocus · · Score: 1

    (cross post)

    CURIOUS as to how much 'dark fiber' the NSA may be leasing within the United States for purely domestic purposes, and where. If there are any Mark Kleins out there who have noticed anything funny, do share! This includes fiber leased to anything you may suspect is a shell corporation, for which you (the technician) can see that the paperwork is a bit odd; or an unusual number of individual fibers terminating in a locked room, where the normal requirement is a few.

    With the rise of cloud computing the issue is clouded somewhat, there are plenty of start-ups with goofy names whose business models call for more resources than they need. But the discrete number of fibers terminating in a room, especially if routed from/to places which are obviously not associated with the same entity, might be your best clue. A specific scenario is a number of fibers without proper paperwork that run from passive tap/splits to a server room where the traffic is analyzed, streams selected and (leased) fiber is used to push the chosen data somewhere else. Such as Utah. We're looking for evidence of Big Domestic Packet Listen infrastructure.

    If you notice something unusual, you might try disconnecting it and see who complains and how quickly. With a little hands-on we could get to the bottom of this much sooner.

    If you do not have an interesting story to share, just make something up. We'll know if your tale is relevant, because we're the NSA and we know where our stuff is, and we're only here to help. We are putting out this request for information to find out if anyone else got there first.

    --
    <blink>down the rabbit hole</blink>
  19. Re:Wow! Just Wow! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Are you saying you love advertising? (FYI, political promises are about as meaningful as the ads from your local car dealer.)

  20. Laugh by koan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You know this survalience hasn't really poanned out in regards to stopping "terrorism", look at France, San Berndino.

    So I am left scratching my head exactly what use is this data?

    I mean it's really only useful to spy on your population this way if you believe them to be the threat.

    But why would a nation force fed illegal immigration, the shipping of jobs overseas, the repeated financial thefts by large banks who were then bailed out, illegal wars, and a massive growing security apparatus costing billions being built next to crumbling public infrastructure be a threat?

    --
    "If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
    1. Re:Laugh by kilfarsnar · · Score: 1

      You know this survalience hasn't really poanned out in regards to stopping "terrorism", look at France, San Berndino.

      So I am left scratching my head exactly what use is this data?

      I mean it's really only useful to spy on your population this way if you believe them to be the threat.

      But why would a nation force fed illegal immigration, the shipping of jobs overseas, the repeated financial thefts by large banks who were then bailed out, illegal wars, and a massive growing security apparatus costing billions being built next to crumbling public infrastructure be a threat?

      Heh, exactly. The powers that be know they are heating the pot and it will someday boil over. They just don't want to stop and are planning to try and contain it. It won't work forever.

      --
      "What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
    2. Re:Laugh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well clearly the reason for that is encryption... so we need to stop encrypting everything.

      Haven't you been listening to the news? /sarc

  21. Re:Wow! Just Wow! by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

    CHANGE prior administrations' policies very little
    HOPE you don't get indefinitely detained

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  22. Its Bush's Fault by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Clinton is a square shooter. Clinton 2016!

  23. Doubling down by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Not only is the NSA not supposed to be collecting this stuff...now they will sharing the stuff there aren't supposed to have with people that should definitely never have access to this information.

    Always best to knock a man down and then shit on his chest for good measure.

  24. Question.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is it possible that "caturday", an expression used by 4chan users, may be a reference to Scott Addams human resources character "Catbert", and be slang used to identify a specific attack, where cyber criminals take care of manipulating companies hirings, so members of gangs could get inside and gather info about their clients, suppliers and employees?

  25. Re:Wow! Just Wow! by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

    Can you spare some?

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  26. Re:Wow! Just Wow! by alvinrod · · Score: 2

    It seems more and more like what he really said was "Rope and Chains" given the crap we've been shackled with.

    I really hope both Sanders and Trump get their party's nominations just to shake things up a bit.

  27. Hard to measure? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    which agency officials have said is hard to measure

    It is easy as cake. Just log the number of reduced documents. You don't do the reduction anymore, NSA? Okay then. Have a piece of apple pie while you are about to deviate from the executive order 12333. Obama order is required.

  28. "Permitting"? as if the CIA would by evolutionary · · Score: 1

    The CIA Isn't exactly known for sharing. not sure this will mean anything at all on a practical level. Sounds like it's an attempt to shift accountability for secrets to the CIA instead of the executive branch.

    --
    "Imagination is more important than knowledge" - Einstein
    1. Re:"Permitting"? as if the CIA would by evolutionary · · Score: 1

      Sorry, misread, my bad.. Of course the word "allow" suggests it's voluntary. But of the CIA wants other agencies to collaborate and they are being allowed without any checks? Although I maintain the CIA is not really into sharing, I suppose they might trade, or even "sell" for other info in return.

      --
      "Imagination is more important than knowledge" - Einstein
  29. And we will be so much better off now. . . . . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ha. . . . ha. . . ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!.

  30. Any attempt to evade will be deemed as criminal by schwit1 · · Score: 1

    Just ask Dennis Hastert.
    http://www.theatlantic.com/pol...

  31. Re:Unreal, "Socialism" and privacy right? by evolutionary · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Uh, "Socialism doesn't understand privacy or rights of the individual". I think there is a very basic misunderstanding of what socialism is. Which is a system of economic priorities. China is even more capitalist than the USA (if you look at the actual culture and not the labels...might find a visit interesting..). And we all know how much the Chinese Party values the rights of the individual (or even the community). The USA hasn't really valued the rights of the individual since the "so called" Patriot Act was put into law (and renewed/strengthened several times since). Are we as a "capitalist" society (we aren't pure capitalist FYI, we bailed out Ford didn't we?) with our spying (without warrant or cause), imprisoning without due process under the guise of national security, rendition and basically declaring ourselves in a state of war (without actually legally declaring war against anyone in particular, or is that everyone?), respecting rights of the individual? France and Germany respect privacy rights far more. Perhaps more "socialism" would help bring more respect of privacy in the USA. "Capitalism" certainly isn't doing much of a job here. As I said before, neither economic approach has any real bearing on how rights of privacy being respected.Canada is consider in many way more socialist (although under Harper that was scary), and we still (to a lessor degree than we used to) respect privacy rights (as far as we know) more than in the USA. for now. Anyway, just something to think about.

    --
    "Imagination is more important than knowledge" - Einstein
  32. Re: Any attempt to evade will be deemed as crimina by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Unless of course you are ritch biotch. Misleading. They wanted him for the abuse but because of his wealth and clout had to settle on something else. Similar to OJ. Acquitted of murder yet is now in prison for something unrelated.

  33. Oversight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Who has oversight over this data sharing process? Or is it on an honor system (and we know how well that works where government spook agencies and lawyers are concerned)?

  34. Why not share it online with the american people? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The data is collected using public funds so make the data public.

  35. Re:Wow! Just Wow! by whoever57 · · Score: 1

    This is going to unleash far more parallel construction. I can see the way the courts will see this:
    "parallel construction is bad!. But you must prove that parallel construction has taken place before we will throw out this evidence."

    --
    The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
  36. Who owns the data? by fibonacci8 · · Score: 1

    I imagine there's going to be a flurry of DMCA take down notices if any of the data can even remotely be copyrighted.

    --
    Inheritance is the sincerest form of nepotism.
  37. Re:Wow! Just Wow! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The saddest part is it's happening again.
    Us, conservatives, warned you everyone who would listen that "Hope and Change" had no meaning other than what was ascribed to it by the listener.
    Now we get this whole "Make America Great Again" nonsense coming from Trump, proving that the right is not immune to this inane sloganeering and celebrity campaigning either. I'm sorry for judging you on the left, harshly for "falling for this crap". "Our side" is obviously no better.

  38. Re:Wow! Just Wow! by hey! · · Score: 2

    I can imagine some consequences, the biggest of which is that there'll be more leaks -- of the Bradley Manning type of the Edward Snowden type, as well as leaks to friendly and not-so-friendly intelligence services.

    Which doesn't mean it's not a good idea. Or that if it's a good idea it can't be a bad idea at the same time. Every tough decision has both desirable and undesirable consequences, the problem is that people aren't comfortable with that. In fact they shouldn't be. But they like to wrap themselves in a comforting blanket of confirmation bias so they act as if ideas are either entirely bad with no good consequences or entirely good with no bad ones.

    I don't fetishize the US Constitution; a lot of it (like the electoral college) is pretty half-assed. It's not surprising, because they didn't have a lot of models of a formal republican constitution to build upon. But the one thing about it that's really brilliant about the US Constitution is the notion of checks and balances. The powers you give the government are always dangerous, so you encumber their use by harnessing the natural instinct of institutions to guard their prerogatives. That's genius.

    I agree to stipulate this can be used for important and legitimate purposes, obviously it can. But if the government wants to do this I want to hear about the checks and balances.

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  39. Re:Wow! Just Wow! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Us, conservatives

    The people who posted the Dubya "miss me yet" billboards? We haven't missed him, he never left.

    Us, libertarians, that were warning that Dubya's use of war powers against the American people (see also: US Constitution's definition of treason) would come back to bite conservatives in the ass when the liberals got ahold of the position of Unitary God^H^H^HExecutive... well, I guess it's hard to say that I feel vindicated when my face is next to yours under the boot.

  40. Is this not treason? by LichtSpektren · · Score: 1

    Obama calls Edward Snowden a traitor for sharing the same info that he himself is about to share. Therefore, is not Obama a traitor by his own logic?

    1. Re:Is this not treason? by wyHunter · · Score: 1

      No, because it's a Democrat doing it! May they all crawl under rocks and die.

  41. Re:Wow! Just Wow! by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

    well, I guess it's hard to say that I feel vindicated when my face is next to yours under the boot.

    I disagree. It always feels good to say "I told you so!!!!", even if you're in the same sinking boat.

  42. Re:Wow! Just Wow! by Grishnakh · · Score: 2

    I don't fetishize the US Constitution; a lot of it (like the electoral college) is pretty half-assed. It's not surprising, because they didn't have a lot of models of a formal republican constitution to build upon. But the one thing about it that's really brilliant about the US Constitution is the notion of checks and balances. The powers you give the government are always dangerous, so you encumber their use by harnessing the natural instinct of institutions to guard their prerogatives. That's genius.

    No, it's one of those things that sounds good in theory, but doesn't actually work out in practice. All the other western governments do not have a government like ours, they have Parliamentary systems where the executive is chosen by the Parliament (legislature). It's a much more efficient system, and prevents the deadlocks we have in this country from time to time because Congress and the President are at odds, because the People are incompetent at voting coherently. Does this lead to far more abuses in those nations? Apparently not, because they don't seem to have any more problems with government spying and corruption than we do, and in many cases, they have far less. Not to say they're perfect, but places like Norway are not exactly a bunch of backwards countries or totalitarian hellholes.

    And yes, lots of other stuff in the Constitution is just a mess, especially the Electoral College bit. Face it, the document is archaic and needs to be replaced with something newer. It was a good try in the late 1700s when there weren't many other non-monarchy republics around, but other countries have had several centuries now to try out other stuff and they've found some better ways.

  43. Re:Unreal, "Socialism" and privacy right? by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

    China's far from capitalist. It's a fascist oligarchy, where the dominant industries and companies are majority-or-wholly State owned, and the rest are heavily regulated to the benefit of the State and State-owned entities. And it's all contolled by 2000 families in Beijing who make up the National People's Congress, who use their personal connections/influence to get the Premier and President to do what they want (where the real power resides).

    --
    Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
  44. "Civil Liberties Advocates" wrong; end the spying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We need to end these spying programs and go back to targeted attacks on *foreign* adversaries. We should be focused on defensive measures for those in the United States. We need proper security- not spying of our adversaries. Right now there are people who focus significant amounts of time analysing programs for tiny security vulnerabilities that can be exploited. What we should be doing is reducing the size of the core applications and hardening against the most feasible attack vectors. We need to move from centralized repositories of proprietary software to decentralized repositories of completely free software with each being buildable in a deterministic way. Each application should also be developed in an open trackable fashion with signatures on each commit. Developers need to also be running up-to-date software and off hardened systems that aren't backdoored and dedicated to the task at hand (I'm looking at you Intel; and AMD; and everybody pretty much). We need to open the firmwares and drivers and BIOS components. These are the things that will make us more secure. A security first mindset. And lastly we need to make sure that our code is being peer reviewed by multiple disinterested parties, developers understand security, developers physical security isn't being compromised. There also must be a line of trust (that doesn't mean you can't be anonymous) between contributors to projects (or additional peer review of the code). We're far far off from this, but some components thereof are already here. To be a Debian contributor you have to be signed off by two other developers. Debian's core is 100% free (mainly not FSF endorsed due to linking issues with non-free repositories).

  45. Re:Wow! Just Wow! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Deadlocks are good. They make the progress of government move slowly, never growing too quickly. The public votes very coherently. They vote for deadlocks!

  46. So... by neo-mkrey · · Score: 1

    if a nation no longer respects its own constitution, and no longer cares for the well-being and concerns of its citizens, what are the citizens to do?

  47. Re:Wow! Just Wow! by Kazoo+the+Clown · · Score: 1

    You'd think he'd be concerned how much data is going to be saved and distributed on him, and his family, in the future.

  48. Another bad idea by WindBourne · · Score: 1

    I am all in favor of NSA doing the job that they do. However, the reason that it works well, is that they have NO REAL POWER. As such, it limits the possibility for real abuse.
    If raw data is allowed to go straight to ppl within FBI, CIA, DIA, etc. that increases the possibility of abuse exponentially.

    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  49. Re:Wow! Just Wow! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I understand that the FBI will soon have a treasure-trove of iPhone data, a true fountain of data that will be of endless fascination to the other security agencies. You took a dick-pic? Expect it to be in every security database from here to Timbuktu, within the year. Showed your titties? That's going on the cubicle walls of the CIA!

  50. Conservative lite, Tools by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "New Labour" have been repeatedly called Conservative Lite, and "Phoney Blah" as he gets called was among other things a closet catholic extremist... which he kept hidden because fanaticism in the UK gets you no votes. Given how out of touch and otherwise bad Jeremy Corbyn is he should not have had a chance, but due to the upper ranks of the parties betrayal of its socialist values he got in, no one else running for the leadership was even slightly like a real socialist.

    This does not change the fact that both socialism and capitalism are tools. Given that your favoured tool is not so tightly linked to your level of authoritarianism as some people think, saying socialism does not understand is just nonsense, my vacuum cleaner also lacks understanding of such things, should I avoid using it? At the same time making sacrifices for tools like the purity of your socialist or capitalist system is bad, they should serve the people not the other way around. Any time people say "The markets demand it" (capitalism) or "for the greater good" (socialism) or "for national security" or a number of other such key phrases you need to start watching for such tool serving ideological sacrifices.

  51. Re:Wow! Just Wow! by burtosis · · Score: 1

    And yes, lots of other stuff in the Constitution is just a mess, especially the Electoral College bit. Face it, the document is archaic and needs to be replaced with something newer. It was a good try in the late 1700s when there weren't many other non-monarchy republics around, but other countries have had several centuries now to try out other stuff and they've found some better ways.

    Then I suggest every eligible American to vote and cast a firm suggestion for president.

  52. TOLD YOU SO by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is this the data that Lindsey Graham and the director of the FBI would have everybody believe requires a warrant in order for the government to even collect it?

  53. "concerned" by wyHunter · · Score: 1

    "Civil libertarians are concerned." Um, yeah.

  54. Let's begin w/ the Federal Government by IHTFISP · · Score: 1

    They should begin by releasing only and all information directly related to those who swore an oath to defend the Constitution: any member of the White House staff, all members of Congress, all federal judges and all federal law enforcement officials, especially the NSA and FBI. Only once all that data has been released and thoroughly scrutinized by the free press should they consider releasing any data on private citizens. If the feds have nothing to hide, they should have no objection or concerns.

    --
    Error: NSE - No Signature Error
  55. Re:Wow! Just Wow! by lsatenstein · · Score: 1

    Finger prints and criminal records are shared, as well as the dna. So what else is missing? "Bad breath?"

    --
    Leslie Satenstein Montreal Quebec Canada
  56. Re:Unreal, "Socialism" and privacy right? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    so...what you're saying is...you still don't know what 'fascist' means.

  57. Re:Unreal, "Socialism" and privacy right? by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1
    --
    Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
  58. Re:Unreal, "Socialism" and privacy right? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You first.

  59. Re:Unreal, "Socialism" and privacy right? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    You first:

    No, China isn't fascist.

    Mere state ownership of the means of production is Socialism, or it's variants.

    In contrast, Fascism is not the state ownership of business, but rather than the business ownership of the state. An important distinction. It also has several other factors that cannot be ignored, with the result that Fascism is both an economic model AND a political model falling under the authoritarian heading. In comparison Socialism is almost entirely an economy model, with very little political attachment. Communism adds more to the political side, also under the authoritarian heading, and modifies the basic socialist economic model as well (state ownership becomes people's ownership). Fascism also includes extreme Nationalism, specific (conservative) gender and age roles, and typically the idea that it's people are the chosen people.

    In short, I repeat: so...what you're saying is...you still don't know what 'fascist' means.

  60. Re:Unreal, "Socialism" and privacy right? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    (fixed broken link)
    No china isn't fascist