NSA data collection/analysis and justifcation methods.

[RickM]

I personally have no problem with digital data analysis, as pervasive as it is. If you think the internet and 10101s are anything but a virtual reality, then you've lost your grip on life.

No one really cares about private companies storing personal information in the first place -- heck, we're all quite enthusiastic to hand it over to use their internet services.

I am not so concerned until LEO, whoever actually unreasonably search my property and person. And if I were to take online privacy seriously, I sure as hell wouldn't be virtually-active in this layer of the net. I'd be fully embedded in the darkweb and only use burners. But who is going to do that? No thanks.

Just be smart about your online life and pay better attention if this whole NSA thing is news to you.

Controversial opinion, but thats my line of thought.

What is controversial about your opinion, do you think?

[Cookietruck]

Stay off the phone, don't use a computer, pay for everything with money, stay away from towns cause you are on a monitor at least a hundred times a day. I never dreamed it would happen like in the si fi books of my youth, but I think it is way past the "Big Brother" concept. (not the TV show kids, look it up) Twenty years ago if someone mentioned that they were going to put this little device on you that others could track your every movement and conversation ( you wouldn't have known about your texting habits back then). There would have been a riot going on. Now people pay a $100 bucks a month for the privilege of having one. Crazytown but it is here to stay.

yeah pretty much this
the email is whatever, its pretty obvious that is easily monitored
but the cell phones, you have a gps tracking device in your pocket all the time. for the last few years i've been noticing how suspects get linked to serious crimes because they didn't turn off their cell phones. the LEO can do cell phone tower dumps to find people, the nsa is probably monitoring every phone in the USA or most likely an even broader range.
it'll get interesting when the drones start flying. perhaps we'll be like china soon, the gov't will have cameras everywhere, face recognition all over, will probably be in the air.
i'm not some consiracy theorist weirdo, but this all seems pretty likely, especially if you've read about other stuff the gov't has done since the 50's and what the NSA has been doing the last 10yrs or so.

the best part about the snowden thing is, first he exposed the NSA and the NSA got hammered a little by congress, the NSA says, oh we don't do this or that then the journalist releases more info from snowden proving that the NSA does in fact do this and that and the NSA has no problems lying to congress to maintain the power they've already been secretly granted...
at this point there are no checks and balances for the NSA, they can do anything they want.

[Cookietruck]

wonder how this will go
Obama considering stripping NSA's power to store phone records - CBS News

[xjoex]

I have worked extensively with Federal LEO and government agencies while a researcher at an FFRDC. I know that groups like the FBI, USSS, etc have to jump through huge hoops to get cell phone tower records. To get content of a call or email, or even a full packet is a huge pain.

The most common method is called a pen register, which is the first 68 bytes of every packet or NetFlow/IPFIX can be used. What this does is tell them what ips, bytes, packets, flags, start/end times, a few more things. But not content.

To get content (called a T3) you essentially have to be 95% sure the person/connection you are monitoring is guilty. This will take many lawyers and a judges approval.

That said when you go to the NSA or our if you want to look at a government network it all goes out the window.

But say what you want about the USA, I was doing an incident response class for an ex soviet country's police force. When I was showing them the method for data collection to get who they were contacting(you want the drug dealers supplier, not just the dealer). Without any irony they said "Why would we do that, we'll just put them in hand cuffs and not feed them for a week. They will tell us anything we want."

-Joe

[vertical_doug]

But say what you want about the USA, I was doing an incident response class for an ex soviet country's police force. When I was showing them the method for data collection to get who they were contacting(you want the drug dealers supplier, not just the dealer). Without any irony they said "Why would we do that, we'll just put them in hand cuffs and not feed them for a week. They will tell us anything we want."

-Joe

You need the data collection because chances are the dealer died in a hail of bullets. (half joking)
List of killings by law enforcement officers in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There is a remarkable increase in shootings. The number started growing after 9/11, but has really turned parabolic last 2 years. If it is start of a trend and not an outlier, we are in trouble. If you read the incident captions, the use of lethal force in non-lethal situations is what is most disturbing. A key piece of data the list is missing is number of shoots fired.

[lukasz]

wonder how this will go
Obama considering stripping NSA's power to store phone records - CBS News

Political damage control, and I bet they have already moved on to something better.

[dgaddis]

...the gov't will have cameras everywhere, face recognition all over,...

Facebook already has facial recognition. It started a few months ago, when you go to tag someone in a picture FB make a recomendation, before you start typing a name or anything. 9 times out of 10, it's right too.