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It's not a random sample of 0.1% of calls, though. Rather, they're collecting all the call metadata of a small fraction of subscribers; the number of people ta
by comex 10y ago
It's not a random sample of 0.1% of calls, though. Rather, they're collecting all the call metadata of a small fraction of subscribers; the number of people targeted may be relatively small (though not small in absolute terms), but each person targeted has their privacy significantly invaded, as the NSA learns quite a lot about their life. And to be targeted, you only have to have once talked to someone for whom the NSA has a "reasonable suspicion" they might be involved in terrorism. No need to do anything suspicious yourself.
- SomeStupidPoint 10y agoYes, I'm aware. But we're talking... one in a thousand people, likely targeting mostly those involved heavily with international relationships. Even if you confine it to the Arab population, they're still not tapping everyone (closer to 1 in 6, if it were all Arab targets, which is unlikely). If you confine it to immigrants, it's 1 in 200. This suggests that they're using some actual basis for their selection (as you seem to be aware). It's unfortunate, but if they're collecting metadata for network analysis and if their selection criteria is that it's foreign related (and preferably tracing back to known networks), then it doesn't really strike me as a problem. Also, your last line isn't true -- talking to someone who is strongly suspected of being a terrorist is suspicious until analysis reveals the nature of the relationship, particularly if you go on to contact others. I suspect that people who only ping once (or even very intermittently) are quickly pruned as not being useful to observe.