4 ms·

Can someone clear it up for me. How likely is it that my google searches are being swept up and stored indefinitely, because I'm foreigner. I've disabled google

Can someone clear it up for me. How likely is it that my google searches are being swept up and stored indefinitely, because I'm foreigner. I've disabled google search history, though I doubt it will help. Similar question - do they have a profile for every foreigner they can identify?

seanp2k2 9y ago
See https://www.eff.org/nsa-spying/wordgames#collect https://www.eff.org/nsa-spying/wordgames#collect : Normally, one would think that a communication that has been intercepted and stored in a government database as “collected.” But the government’s definition of what it means to “collect” intelligence information is quite different from its plain meaning. Under Department of Defense regulations, information is considered to be “collected” only after it has been “received for use by an employee of a DoD intelligence component,” and “data acquired by electronic means is ‘collected’ only when it has been processed into intelligible form.” In other words, the NSA can intercept and store communications in its data base and have an algorithm search them for key words and analyze the meta data without ever considering the communications “collected.” TL;DR they're being swept up and stored indefinitely for everyone, all the time, right now.
efoto 9y ago
Google search uses HTTPS and, unless you personally is a target and/or your devices are hacked, the content of your searches is not visible to anyone except Google. Your citizenship doesn't matter.
- nullifidian 9y ago
  They've tapped into google's internal networks in the past. I suspect they've already regained the access. Another matter is whether google really deletes accounts when asked, or really doesn't store histories when asked. Because if the data is stored by Google, when the time comes and the person becomes "interesting" for the US establishment, they can rubber-stamp FISA court warrant and get this data.
  - efoto 9y ago
    1. Google engineers took the challenge personally and there is no evidence suggesting Prisma capabilities were regained. 2.I tend to agree in a sense that it is rather difficult to delete all the data. But no more difficult, than to find it later when requested by law enforcement.
forapurpose 9y ago
> Can someone clear it up for me. Nobody can clear it up for you, except possibly someone who has knowledge of the top secret programs run by all the U.S. government agencies, by agencies of other governments, by commercial businesses, and possibly by sophisticated criminal organizations. Regarding only U.S. government surveillance, even the most informed citizen's knowledge is based on years-old incomplete reports of a subset of programs; nobody knows what was left out and what has changed, but we know that the NSA alone has maybe 40,000 employees and a $10 billion budget; that pays for a lot of surveillance. Remember that many other governments and businesses share their surveillance with the U.S.; if what you do is picked up by one, others may know too. In other words, assume that anything you do online, or on a computer or phone which collects user data, is swept up.
willstrafach 9y ago
Previously would have been incidentally picked up and retained in a 5 day rolling buffer due to lack of encryption (if your traffic transited one of the tapped backbone links), but now, such queries are encrypted and I believe Google now encrypts transit between their data centers. Now you would need to be more specifically targeted under FISA, if they felt there was valid reason, and the timeframe for collection on that data would vary.

seanp2k2 9y ago

See https://www.eff.org/nsa-spying/wordgames#collect https://www.eff.org/nsa-spying/wordgames#collect : Normally, one would think that a communication that has been intercepted and stored in a government database as “collected.” But the government’s definition of what it means to “collect” intelligence information is quite different from its plain meaning. Under Department of Defense regulations, information is considered to be “collected” only after it has been “received for use by an employee of a DoD intelligence component,” and “data acquired by electronic means is ‘collected’ only when it has been processed into intelligible form.” In other words, the NSA can intercept and store communications in its data base and have an algorithm search them for key words and analyze the meta data without ever considering the communications “collected.” TL;DR they're being swept up and stored indefinitely for everyone, all the time, right now.

efoto 9y ago

Google search uses HTTPS and, unless you personally is a target and/or your devices are hacked, the content of your searches is not visible to anyone except Google. Your citizenship doesn't matter.

nullifidian 9y ago
They've tapped into google's internal networks in the past. I suspect they've already regained the access. Another matter is whether google really deletes accounts when asked, or really doesn't store histories when asked. Because if the data is stored by Google, when the time comes and the person becomes "interesting" for the US establishment, they can rubber-stamp FISA court warrant and get this data.
- efoto 9y ago
  1. Google engineers took the challenge personally and there is no evidence suggesting Prisma capabilities were regained. 2.I tend to agree in a sense that it is rather difficult to delete all the data. But no more difficult, than to find it later when requested by law enforcement.

forapurpose 9y ago

> Can someone clear it up for me. Nobody can clear it up for you, except possibly someone who has knowledge of the top secret programs run by all the U.S. government agencies, by agencies of other governments, by commercial businesses, and possibly by sophisticated criminal organizations. Regarding only U.S. government surveillance, even the most informed citizen's knowledge is based on years-old incomplete reports of a subset of programs; nobody knows what was left out and what has changed, but we know that the NSA alone has maybe 40,000 employees and a $10 billion budget; that pays for a lot of surveillance. Remember that many other governments and businesses share their surveillance with the U.S.; if what you do is picked up by one, others may know too. In other words, assume that anything you do online, or on a computer or phone which collects user data, is swept up.

willstrafach 9y ago

Previously would have been incidentally picked up and retained in a 5 day rolling buffer due to lack of encryption (if your traffic transited one of the tapped backbone links), but now, such queries are encrypted and I believe Google now encrypts transit between their data centers. Now you would need to be more specifically targeted under FISA, if they felt there was valid reason, and the timeframe for collection on that data would vary.