NSA targets privacy-conscious Linux users

[viking60]

So you are think that privacy is a human right and that privacy is pretty much the opposite of public? Well that makes you a public enemy worthy of special targeting The German broadcaster NDR has made some research and found some scary material.

The NSA has the ultra efficient Xkeyscore that logs everybody who visits sites like Tor and use the Tor network. So even if Tor is pretty safe once you are inside; the NSA has made a record of everybody who visits that site.
You will also be monitored if you visit Tails.

And they are treated as suspects pretty much because the NSA cannot access your traffic. The NSA do also track any visitor to certain safe mail services and naturally they monitor all visitors to the Linux Journal who are considered extremists.

The XKeyscore rules reveal that the NSA tracks all connections to a server that hosts part of an anonymous email service at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It also records details about visits to a popular internet journal for Linux operating system users called "the Linux Journal - the Original Magazine of the Linux Community", and calls it an "extremist forum".

So those that are extremely privacy conscious are considered extremists - The 4th amendment in the US constitution must be horrible extreme too:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects,[a] against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.[2]

The obvious point here is that the NSA surveillance is not all about terrorism and serious crime - it is more of a system to protect the institution against anyone critical...
The more you try to protect yourself and your privacy the less of it you get, because this very interest in itself will make you the target of the NSA.
Keeping things private is suspicious and borderline criminal according to those guys.

The Terror threats are great marketing for getting through undemocratic reforms - because they need immediate attention and action.
And once they have a system going; the NSA is not going to give it away.

That is how democracy slowly gets undermined.
Sure we want to be safe - but most of us do not want to sacrifice our freedom for it - not all of it.

Monitoring anyone who has shown interest in privacy software - is way past any acceptable line:

Months of investigation by the German public television broadcasters NDR and WDR, drawing on exclusive access to top secret NSA source code, interviews with former NSA employees, and the review of secret documents of the German government reveal that not only is the server in Nuremberg under observation by the NSA, but so is virtually anyone who has taken an interest in several well-known privacy software systems.

I wonder if the US presidency is even capable of handling this loose canon on deck

Now that I have their attention I would like to take this opportunity to say Hi to Michael and Richard.

Hi Michael!


Hi Richard!


You have been naughty boys Violating the 4th amendment and the human rights is a big no no, so get your act together
Yes boys I hear you - Putin is even worse, but that is no reason to take after his bad habits - try copying the good ones.

Did you always try to copy the bullies that stole lunch money in school? How about copying those polite working smart ones (the Germans)?

And by copying I do not mean retain everything they do on a computer.....

Simply telling the truth is not always a bad thing - even if it is hard to do so in the present culture.

In the present situation nobody in his right mind will believe anything you say - you know; once a liar....

More here
and here
and here

[Panther96]

The whole irony of it all I believe, is that its dubious that all the bullshit is even making us ¨safer¨ in the first place. Common sense would tell you for one that it is a lot easier to process information that is specifically relevant than to the objective than to process the whole entire catching net. With all the data they collect, it is a wonder they are only interested in meta-data, and considering anyone who expresses dissent is automatically a threat, how can they objectively filter out those are actually threats they claim to protect us from? I honestly think safety is a secondary objective for the USA intelligence agencies. There is all the evidence to support their industrial espionage endeavors, their spying on foreign heads to enhance their own positions now that they have their information, the shutting down of services that are a threat to them (*cough cough* truecrypt), the targeting of Americans AND foreigners who express disapproval of the US, and we can go on and on. But has the USA become any safer from terrorists or violent threats since the initiation of these programs in the early 2000s (some in the 90s but the nasty ones are post patriot act)? You would of think with all the information they collect, they could of stopped the Boston Marathon bombings, the Christmas Day Bombing attempt (which was neutralized by a civilian), or what about those mass shootings? Not what their interested in.

Let it be known: Linux users are a threat to Amerika! And so is Jane Fonda https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Minaret , apparently

[R_Head]

Safety is the excuse/vehicle for slavery.

Perhaps a bit of topic but I have a feeling the Germans and the Dutch will side with the Russians.
Not as a communist nation but more for economics reasons.

NATO cannot stand it.

[viking60]

No, the Germans are NATO members and will honor that.
That is why it is double disappointing that their main partner is spying on them.

And it is ironic that they target the people that are interested in the very OS they use themselves.

[viking60]

Since it is now clear what the NSA are using your tax money for; buttons and T-shirts pop up to illustrate the stupidity of it.



Sadly the stupidity is one thing - but the free access to information and expression is clearly hindered by this behavior of the NSA.

Who would have thought that reading about Linux is a Thoughtcrime

The term was popularized in the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, wherein thoughtcrime is the criminal act of holding unspoken beliefs or doubts that oppose or question the ruling party. In the book, the government attempts to control not only the speech and actions, but also the thoughts of its subjects. To entertain unacceptable thought is known as crimethink in Newspeak, the ideologically purified dialect of the party.

It is scary how accurately George Orwell described the NSA (thinkpol in his book). The description was "meant" for Totalitarian states like Communist, Fascist and Nazi states:

The Thought Police (thinkpol in Newspeak) are the secret police of the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. It is their job to uncover and punish thoughtcrime. The Thought Police use surveillance and psychological monitoring to find and eliminate members of society who challenge the party's authority and ideology.

The Thought Police of Orwell and their pursuit of thoughtcrime were based on the methods used by the totalitarian states and ideologies of the 20th century

The scary part is that the US is doing it; not Khmer Rouge the Soviet Communist party or the NSAPD

This clearly is because the US claim the moral high ground that entitle them - as did the Communists, the Fascists and the Nazis.
They do feel entitled to spy on the French President and the German Chancellor.

They do not even attempt to explain how that is connected to fighting terrorism or serious crime. And those two are not the only leaders they spy upon.

Linux Magazine readers and Western European heads of states are dangerous for some reason - but they can't tell you why.
Actually they do say that Linuxjournal forums are extremist, but by the strange standards of the NSA; what does that even mean?

Is it extremist to be against the described behavior above? Is it extremist to oppose retaining metadata and electronic communication of every person on earth - with a computer or a phone?
Or more to the point; is it extremist to be against the NSA as they appear these days?
Is it extremist to be for the 4th amendment and the human rights (Article 12)?

According the the NSA it is

That makes you an extremist. (if you actually have read this you are probably wanted dead or alive already)

The United Stasi of America is nothing to be proud of and there are many Americans opposing it, which after all is a sign of health and a somewhat working democracy.
The Brits who pride themselves with democratic tradition are efficiently suppressing such a debate even if they have the Guardian who is a light-tower in the dark.
(In NSA terms the GCHQ are succeeding where the NSA has failed) that is not so reassuring in the country of George Orwell...

[dedanna1029]

I don't care about any of it because I still to this day stand up to them and tell them to go f*ck themselves.