US mines personal internet data

[dedanna1029]

Funny, I was just reading up on those at Business Insider too.

The numbers also do not include the numbers they aren't telling us about. It took a whistleblower to get it to where we'd know about this much.

9,000-10,000 FACEBOOK? I don't think so. Probably more like 900,000,000-1,000,000,000,000. It was known that Zuckerberg was in with the CIA some two years ago.

I've deactivated mine, btw. I got burned out on FB, and tired of their sh!t. It's crap now anyway.

Oh, and since Twitter has remained silent on this issue, except for denials, I've also deleted both my twitters. Not deactivated, deleted.

I'm tired of playing these f*cking corps games, and tired of playing the government's games, too.

[R_Head]

K.... I told you that before this shit came out. That is why I do not do social media. Try Diaspora if you need to socialize instead.

[dedanna1029]

I knew it, P. I didn't care. Still don't. I'm standing for principle now in this, that's why. It's not that I give two sh!ts about them listening to anything I say. It's that they lie. Call it a boycott due to dishonesty.

Like I said, I was long past ready to give them up anyway, because their APIs are total crap now, and I'm just plain burned out on them, too.

viking can confirm that the the twitter he had me on is gone. @dedannarocks. The other one was so politically polluted (@dedanna1029) from the Twitter March for the Unemployed (among other things), and I'm damn tired of politics. I'm more out for what's right. Screw the politics, I'm out of that crap. Politics never has, and never will, get anyone anywhere. I hadn't been on twitter in almost two years anyway (homelessness will do that), other than a very few posts. Why have it if you don't use it? They just gave me the perfect excuse to kiss it all good-bye.

[dedanna1029]

[viking60]

This is how the government treats openess around PRISM in an environment they are in absolute control of:

The U.S. Army

The U.S. Army has admitted to blocking access to parts of The Guardian website for thousands of defense personnel across the country. A spokesman said the military was filtering out reports and content relating to government surveillance programs to preserve "network hygiene" and prevent any classified material appearing on unclassified parts of its computer systems.[60

Source: the PRISM wiki

Get ready for "network hygiene" - Iran has it, North Korea has it.

How come that it still smells bad?

On the positive side; there is discussion about this in the US
Some important voices:
Senator Mark Udall (D-CO)

June 9

I don't think the American public knows the extent or knew the extent to which they were being surveilled and their data was being collected." "I think we ought to reopen the Patriot Act and put some limits on the amount of data that the National Security (Agency) is collecting," "It ought to remain sacred, and there's got to be a balance here. That is what I'm aiming for. Let's have the debate, let's be transparent, let's open this up.

Representative Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI), principal sponsor of the Patriot Act

June 9,

This is well beyond what the Patriot Act allows."[55] "President Obama's claim that 'this is the most transparent administration in history' has once again proven false. In fact, it appears that no administration has ever peered more closely or intimately into the lives of innocent Americans

Senator Susan Collins (R-ME), member of Senate Intelligence Committee and past member of Homeland Security Committee

June 11 I had, along with Joe Lieberman, a monthly threat briefing, but I did not have access to this highly compartmentalized information" and "How can you ask when you don't know the program exists?

If she does not know - how can you even begin to influence the actions of the politicians that you are expected to elect?

And the most frightening thing about this is that they are actually discussing it in the US. In the UK everybody shuts up - but the guardian did reveal this so at least the media seems to be free in regard to "patriot acts" etc. In Norway everybody shuts up - and the biggest newspaper is reporting more about the paradise hotel winner who will have a breast silicon implant than about prism (I will admit that she looks good and probably will sell a lot of newspapers though).

The German Kanzlerin Angela Merkel was forced by the public outcry to address the matter directly with Barack Obama - Let us hope this was not a show put on for the people to disguise that she already knew (It is hard to imagine that the US would commence hostile actions against their biggest allies in Europe - they cannot be that stupid?).
The German constitution is upheld by the Constitutional court - that has shown it's true independence before. So the way it is handled in Germany can uphold the Germans confidence in their constitution though (that is important - and even discussing violation of "amendments" is bad for democracy, because they should represent clearcut basics for everyone to understand without "lawyer ups" - not even/especially by presidents).

The Norwegian prime minister is a personal friend of Bill Gates and the Norwegian minister of Justice is a former Microsoft director - so they have probably known about Prism for years.

The authorities set to ensure computer privacy - Datatilsynet - described Prism as very grave - and played the ball to the politicians and described it as a political matter that foreign agencies could be monitoring Norwegian citizens.

Who knows if the Prime minister and the Justice minister know? They won't comment on it.... nuff said

Governments will experience confidence crisis as long as this is going on - no matter if it is done with the best of intentions.

[R_Head]

What blows my mind is why people are shocked by this.

Are they stupidly blind? Brain washed? Programmed?

Still, people reactions are like "meh...! no big deal"

[viking60]

Most people cannot imagine the possibilities - and how they are (ab)used.
(Young people and tech minded people are mostly opposed, because they understand more of it)

It is dirty from our governments to exploit this without being open about it ACTA SOPA PIPA PRISM they all have some sneaky secrecy in common.

And it does not matter much if it is about National security or Copyrighted Business (assuming that they are not the same).
The secret sneaky approach is the same.

I would expect some company to cut corners to make a buck - not so with the governments.

This looks more like a fight to control the internet, and it is a power game.
It represents a crossroad where the control is transferred from the citizens to the government. It used to be customary that the people control the governments by their representatives.

This needs to be evaluated and therefore transparency is a must. Ordinary people like it - people in power don't, so they make secret courts and secret laws or sneak it in via a bureaucracy that never has learned to speak plain "English" - like with ACTA

They do not seem to realize that if in fact everything you put on the internet belongs to someone else or can be viewed and used by someone else (aka Big Brother) then people would not use the internet as they do today.

And they need that - it is no fun to spy when there is no activity. And it is no fun when people actually know that they are being spied upon either.

The terrorists know that and so do the other organized criminals - so that leaves you and me....

[dedanna1029]

How dogs play (printable version).