Nine Internet Firms Giving Data to Government

[Still_Small_Voice]

Report: Nine Internet Firms Giving Data to Government

Thursday, 06 Jun 2013 06:53 PM

By Greg Richter

It's not just your cell phone calls. Nine Internet companies have been giving your emails, videos, photos and more to the NSA and FBI, The Washington Post reports.

The classified program PRISM began in 2007 and has signed on Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, and Apple. Cloud storage website Dropbox is set to join soon.

PRISM has become the biggest contributor to President Barack Obama's Daily Brief, the Post reports, with a total of 1,447 articles in 2012. One in seven intelligence reports are based on PRISM data.

The program descends from a program in the 1970s in which 100 American companies worked with the government, though PRISM is more like the controversial warrantless surveillance efforts undertaken after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

PRISM attempts to use formulas to avoid gathering data from Americans, but the system isn't perfect. And while compliance by the companies is voluntary, the Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Court can force compliance.

Apple resisted participation for five years, and Twitter has never joined.

The Post said it obtained information on the program from a career intelligence officer who believes the program is a serious invasion of privacy.

"They quite literally can watch your ideas form as you type," the officer told the Post.

Reuters reports that both Apple and Facebook deny knowing anything about the PRISM program and say they do not allow any government agency "direct access" to their servers.

Report: 9 Internet Firms Giving Data to Government

[Blackmarch]

common sense; if you want something to stay private don't send stuff electronically.

[carlimac]

OK, I think I might get in trouble for that nasty email I sent to my sister-in-law. And maybe Obama's gang might have something against me for bad mouthing him now and then. Oh, and my attitude about gay marriage might not favor me with the libs. But other than that, my nose is clean.

[Still_Small_Voice]

I said this in another thread BlackMarch but I will say it again. We have the right to be secure in our persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures. If an authority does want information on us a warrant should be issued upon probable cause and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

This data mining on the common citizen is horrendous and only leads down a bad road. Knowledge is power. No one can be trusted with this much power. This system needs to be dismantled. It is a set up for an eventual totalitarian government.

[MorningStar]

I am absolutely disgusted, especially hearing that soldiers' calls to loved ones were intercepted "accidentally". I say whatever you say publically is fair game, but no one's private communications should be obtained without going through the proper channels!

To hear Obama say it is a "modest encroachment on our privacy" was the last straw for me. I signed the WhiteHouse.gov petition demanding he resign. Not that it will lead to anything, but I want him to know how many people are that disgusted with him.

[MarginOfError]

I am absolutely disgusted, especially hearing that soldiers' calls to loved ones were intercepted "accidentally". I say whatever you say publically is fair game, but no one's private communications should be obtained without going through the proper channels!

Technically, it did go through proper channels. These were all signed off by judicial review. which is the part that really bothers me. I don't see a need for anyone to resign. I see a need to repeal the PATRIOT acts.

[Still_Small_Voice]

I am absolutely disgusted, especially hearing that soldiers' calls to loved ones were intercepted "accidentally." I say whatever you say publically is fair game, but no one's private communications should be obtained without going through the proper channels!

To hear Obama say it is a "modest encroachment on our privacy" was the last straw for me. I signed the WhiteHouse.gov petition demanding he resign. Not that it will lead to anything, but I want him to know how many people are that disgusted with him.

I heard Federal Security Agency personnel were listening to phone sex going on between soldiers' calls to loved ones who were at home. It makes you wonder if they have also turned on cellular phones to cameras that were in the privacy of a married couples' bedroom to watch what was going on. This is not America anymore in my opinion. I am very bothered by this.

[NeuroTypical]

We have the right to be secure in our persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.

So, I'm a big 2nd amendment fan. I believe the words layed down in the age of muskets and horse-mounted cavalry are still relevant in an age of 33-rd concealable handguns.

I think through the changes in what "papers and effects" mean. Someone uses a computer that does not belong to them, to type words which are then sent through cables which do not belong to them, and stored in places they don't own, kept and maintained by people they don't know. And yet, these emails, and the systems which create and handle them, are set up so the author can try to exercise control over who can see them.

So I think I'll stand with the constitution here.

However, I also remain of a very practical mindset. If you do something electronically, you're a fool if you expect privacy, no matter what the constitution or law says.

[Smeagums]

So, I'm a big 2nd amendment fan. I believe the words layed down in the age of muskets and horse-mounted cavalry are still relevant in an age of 33-rd concealable handguns.

I think through the changes in what "papers and effects" mean. Someone uses a computer that does not belong to them, to type words which are then sent through cables which do not belong to them, and stored in places they don't own, kept and maintained by people they don't know. And yet, these emails, and the systems which create and handle them, are set up so the author can try to exercise control over who can see them.

So I think I'll stand with the constitution here.

However, I also remain of a very practical mindset. If you do something electronically, you're a fool if you expect privacy, no matter what the constitution or law says.

Please always stand with the Constitution.

[talisyn]

People in gov't have gotten lazy! Seriously, how much effort does it take to get warrants? Oh yeah, evidence. Wimps.