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XKeyscore: NSA tool collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'

Jango

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A top secret National Security Agency program allows analysts to search with no prior authorization through vast databases containing emails, online chats and the browsing histories of millions of individuals, according to documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The NSA boasts in training materials that the program, called XKeyscore, is its "widest-reaching" system for developing intelligence from the internet.

The latest revelations will add to the intense public and congressional debate around the extent of NSA surveillance programs. They come as senior intelligence officials testify to the Senate judiciary committee on Wednesday, releasing classified documents in response to the Guardian's earlier stories on bulk collection of phone records and Fisa surveillance court oversight.

The files shed light on one of Snowden's most controversial statements, made in his first video interview published by the Guardian on June 10.

"I, sitting at my desk," said Snowden, could "wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant, to a federal judge or even the president, if I had a personal email".

US officials vehemently denied this specific claim. Mike Rogers, the Republican chairman of the House intelligence committee, said of Snowden's assertion: "He's lying. It's impossible for him to do what he was saying he could do."

But training materials for XKeyscore detail how analysts can use it and other systems to mine enormous agency databases by filling in a simple on-screen form giving only a broad justification for the search. The request is not reviewed by a court or any NSA personnel before it is processed.

XKeyscore, the documents boast, is the NSA's "widest reaching" system developing intelligence from computer networks – what the agency calls Digital Network Intelligence (DNI). One presentation claims the program covers "nearly everything a typical user does on the internet", including the content of emails, websites visited and searches, as well as their metadata.

Analysts can also use XKeyscore and other NSA systems to obtain ongoing "real-time" interception of an individual's internet activity.

XKeyscore: NSA tool collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet' | World news | theguardian.com

Anyone still in favor of this dragnet that ensnares us all, or is privacy worth something to you now? I mean, are you comfortable with the government (and whoever they share information with) having this much data on you at any given time? Isn't it time we, as American citizens, demand that our intelligence community be reigned in and actually controlled? Isn't it time that we find lawmakers that won't condone or sign off on gross Constitutional violations that affect millions? Isn't time?
 
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Anyone still in favor of this dragnet that ensnares us all, or is privacy worth something to you now? I mean, are you comfortable with the government (and whoever they share information with) having this much data on you at any given time? Isn't time we, as American citizens, demand that our intelligence community be reigned in and actually controlled? Isn't it time that we find lawmakers that won't condone or sign off on gross Constitutional violations that affect millions? Isn't time?

More comfortable with the government having it than Facebook and Google <<and the latter do have it>>
 
I wonder where all of this stops?

Do they keep seeking advancements in technology that allow for a more efficient and thorough invasion of our privacy? Look at what they can do right now. Phone records. Internet records. They know all of this right now. Does anyone really believe that, say, 20-30 years from now the technology they will be using WON'T be radically advanced from what they use today? Voice recognition... facial recognition... This technology is only in it's infancy. Does it finally stop when they can listen in on any face to face conversation they want to... from outer space? While also getting a positive photo ID of the conversation's participants? Will it ever stop? The scary part isn't what they can do today but where this is all headed.

Seems to me that we are not only giving them the green light to develop more and better ways to spy on us, we're actually agreeing to pay for the research and development.
 
XKeyscore: NSA tool collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet' | World news | theguardian.com

Anyone still in favor of this dragnet that ensnares us all, or is privacy worth something to you now? I mean, are you comfortable with the government (and whoever they share information with) having this much data on you at any given time? Isn't it time we, as American citizens, demand that our intelligence community be reigned in and actually controlled? Isn't it time that we find lawmakers that won't condone or sign off on gross Constitutional violations that affect millions? Isn't time?
If the government has money to spy on its people then it has too much money period. The government has no business spying on its people.
 
The US gummint is a plutocracy. That means if the US gummint has backdoor access to accounts on these companies' services, then each of these companies has access to each others' services (using the NSA as their proxy).

Rich corporations control the govt., not the other way around.


Yep... except people aren't afraid of the corporations.

The FedGov must be the enforcement arm of the corps.
 
More comfortable with the government having it than Facebook and Google <<and the latter do have it>>

Yeah, that's totally a valid reason to let it continue.
 
Meet the NSA's New Data Centers: Russia, China, and Venezuela | FP Passport

keyscorecrop.png
 
More comfortable with the government having it than Facebook and Google <<and the latter do have it>>

Really??? You trust the state more than you trust facebook and google? I can understand not trusting facebook and google either, but trusting them less than the state seems strange.......

The goveernment can use the data to ruin your entire life. Either by shooting you with the guns they have, and get to use fairly easily. Or using their "justice" system to incarcerate you in a cage for an extended period of time. All google and facebook will do with your data is try to sell it and make some cash. They don't want you in a cage, or dead, because they make money off your search terms and profile.

And since most americans commit 3 felonies a day without knowing it (because their are soooooo many laws), it wouldn't be hard to end up in prison if you piss off the wrong bureaucrat.

A perfect example of this is the kid in texas that has been in jail since april for a distasteful joke on facebook. Facebook might have simply suspended his account, or banned him. But they surely won't show up with guns and put you in a cage.
 
XKeyscore: NSA tool collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet' | World news | theguardian.com

Anyone still in favor of this dragnet that ensnares us all, or is privacy worth something to you now? I mean, are you comfortable with the government (and whoever they share information with) having this much data on you at any given time? Isn't it time we, as American citizens, demand that our intelligence community be reigned in and actually controlled? Isn't it time that we find lawmakers that won't condone or sign off on gross Constitutional violations that affect millions? Isn't time?

I think it's very interesting that the same people who were calling for Snowden's head and waving the American flag while stroking a bald eagle just a week or two ago are now nowhere to be found.

Woops, looks like it was just as bad as we'd been saying all along.
 
Yet another article that exaggerates info and presents it out if context; not surprising to see all the "OMG, big brother!" concerns...

People are afraid of Cookie Monster LOL
 
Yet another article that exaggerates info and presents it out if context; not surprising to see all the "OMG, big brother!" concerns...

People are afraid of Cookie Monster LOL

And you have something that can refute what was published in the Guardian?
 
XKeyscore: NSA tool collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet' | World news | theguardian.com

Anyone still in favor of this dragnet that ensnares us all, or is privacy worth something to you now? I mean, are you comfortable with the government (and whoever they share information with) having this much data on you at any given time? Isn't it time we, as American citizens, demand that our intelligence community be reigned in and actually controlled? Isn't it time that we find lawmakers that won't condone or sign off on gross Constitutional violations that affect millions? Isn't time?

it's past time. it was time in the 1990s. it was especially time after 911 when all of this stuff got really going. the FISA kangaroo court has been around most of my life.

this stuff trumps republican / democrat. i do get annoyed when the outrage becomes dependent on which side's currently in charge.
 
It's only just beginning.
Watch what happens when the Feds tie XKeyscore program, GPS program, and the domestic drone program.
Now THAT will be interesting --- not!
 
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