Anyone following the furore around PRISM?
The Guardian and NYT broke the news of NSA’s secret program called PRISM and it has been revealed that NSA has full access to internet/telecom/phone data from users all over at the name of security.
This world is becoming a highly unethical, public & uncomfortable place to live in.
Re: ‘PRISM’ program by NSA: Access to all data
Re: 'PRISM' program by NSA: Access to all data
this whole saga reminds me of the movie called Enemy of the state. It was based on exact concept.
Re: 'PRISM' program by NSA: Access to all data
Why are you surprised? There were rumours of this before.
I am pretty sure that this website is also monitored (we already have a entity called CENTCOM posting here). People posting pro-jihadi comments are definitely on a list somewhere.
Re: 'PRISM' program by NSA: Access to all data
Concerns for those who've been doing hanky panky on internet.
'PRISM' program by NSA: Access to all data
Concerns for all, regardless of who youre talking to, or what you are saying. And its not just metadata; they can put together all the info, and directly identify you.
It started after 9/11 based on the total info awareness program, complete with the eye of God logo, but due to opposition back then it went underground, but carried on in different name and only now exposed by guardian. Not surprising but def shocking for the american and british public. Something you would expect from countries like saudi arabia.
Re: 'PRISM' program by NSA: Access to all data
They can identify me? So what?
And yes it's nothing new...it started in 90s.
'PRISM' program by NSA: Access to all data
Just because you are happy for them to keep track of everything you do, it doesnt mean others deem acceptable for their personal lives being watched. The excuse ' if you've nothing to hide, you've nothing to fear ' is plain wrong. Would you ok with the gov putting cameras in your rooms to monitor your activities, perchance you are a terrorist?
Have you heard of the notion of privacy?
Re: 'PRISM' program by NSA: Access to all data
Putting cameras in room is a hypothetical matter so I won't go there.
as for tracking and keeping record of individuals...they can do the search of what you've seen or wrote on Internet, what you've bought by swiping the card and where you live or work etc even without PRISM. If its not Obama then it's your cable or Internet provider or the grocery store you shop from regularly. You are being watched by God knows who. At least, in this case we know its Obama uncle spying on us.
Re: 'PRISM' program by NSA: Access to all data
You just need to look at those google ads up there on the GS banner to see that you have been given targeted advertising based on your location and possibly your viewing habits.
Re: 'PRISM' program by NSA: Access to all data
Facebook push things to you based on your friends interests because they use algorithms to determine what kind of thing you like based on the likes of your friends as well as your own.
'PRISM' program by NSA: Access to all data
There is a huge difference between a gov monitoring all your interaction and facebook like websites pushing things for your attention. Facebook does not have the same power over its customers the gov does over its citizens. Its a different issue that the nsa has secretly overreached for personal information via prism.
Re: 'PRISM' program by NSA: Access to all data
Double-edge sword. If you're not doing anything wrong; don't worry. But if you're a concerned citizen that thought they had the freedom in its purest form; worry because that is not true.
It is just what it is. What's coming may be more restrictive than what's already here.
Re: ‘PRISM’ program by NSA: Access to all data
PRISM by the Numbers: A Guide to the Government’s Secret Internet Data-Mining Program
One day after The Guardian revealed that the U.S. government has been secretly collecting call log data from millions of Verizon customers, The Washington Post reported Thursday that the government’s monitoring of American’s data goes much, much deeper. The FBI and the National Security Agency are mining the servers of the country’s biggest technology companies for the purpose of hunting spies and terrorists. The program, code-named PRISM, is massive in scope and involves web services that many Americans use every day.
To make all this shadowy surveillance easier to digest, here are the relevant data points about the massive data collection:
9
The number of tech companies involved in the PRISM program. Here’s a list, from an NSA slideshow, including the date when monitoring began:
Microsoft (September 2007)
Yahoo (March 2008)
Google (January 2009)
Facebook (June 2009)
PalTalk (December 2009)
YouTube (September 2010)
Skype (February 2011)
AOL (March 2011)
Apple (October 2012)
So far Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Yahoo have flatly denied that they provide the government backdoor access to their services, according to a variety of news sources. Twitter, which says it has been particularly vigilant in protecting user data from government agencies, is notably absent from the list. Dropbox is next in line to be added to PRISM, according to the Post.
10
The number of different types of data that are collected through PRISM. E-mails, instant messages, videos, photos, stored data (likely items stored on cloud services like Google Drive), voice chats, file transfers, video conferences, log-in times, and social network profile details have all been monitored by the government. Through PRISM NSA officials can even conduct live surveillance of someone doing a Google search, according to the Post.
$20 million
The annual cost of PRISM, according to NSA documents obtained by the Post
2007
The year PRISM was established. The Post describes an “exponential growth” in the program since President Obama took office. The government has snooped on other forms of communication in recent years as well. On Thursday, Senator Dianne Feinstein confirmed that the NSA phone log database has been in place for at least seven years.
1,477
The number of times PRISM data was cited in 2012 as part of President Obama’s daily briefing, a high-level intelligence presentation given to the president, the vice president and select cabinet members. According to the Post, at least 1 in 7 intelligence reports from the NSA make use of PRISM data.
51%
Confidence level intelligence officials are supposed to have of a target’s “foreignness” to make use of PRISM data. The massive database is aimed at surveilling spies and foreign terrorists, not Americans. However, large amounts of American user data is also picked up as officials hunt for threats. The NSA describes this as “incidental.”
Re: 'PRISM' program by NSA: Access to all data
one day this world is going to be like in the movie, "Minority Report".
Re: 'PRISM' program by NSA: Access to all data
what happened to the right to privacy under your so called human rights in west? another lie by your governments.
Re: ‘PRISM’ program by NSA: Access to all data
its not only social media “shops” and search engines etc which are selling our data, there are companies formed exactly doing that, steeling your data, and govts worldwide “help” them steel and then buy back.
google about them, and read more. for those who think its only in west, wrong. its also in ME. they have recently opened offices in Abu Dhabi, and they were hiring technical team here in the UAE. They already had contracts with govt entities more than a year ago.
don’t know how many more such companies will be out there
Re: 'PRISM' program by NSA: Access to all data
I'm surprised a lot of people are willing to trade their privacy for a bit of security. They don't need camera in your house, they can put gps trackers on you without you knowing about it.
Re: 'PRISM' program by NSA: Access to all data
What could be the possible end results of all such spying projects?
Re: 'PRISM' program by NSA: Access to all data
^^^ A comprehensive data warehouse/database in the 3rd Normal form of metadata about people with multiple input sources.
Users will be able to run search queries (much like the search function in this website) and find linkages.