5 ms·

Don't forget that the FBI has an office AT Facebook HQ, as mentioned in the writeup of Zuckerberg when he was named Time's person of the year: "The door opened

by mikece 3y ago

Don't forget that the FBI has an office AT Facebook HQ, as mentioned in the writeup of Zuckerberg when he was named Time's person of the year: "The door opened, and a distinguished-looking gray-haired man burst in — it's the only way to describe his entrance — trailed by a couple of deputies. He was both the oldest person in the room by 20 years and the only one wearing a suit. He was in the building, he explained with the delighted air of a man about to secure ironclad bragging rights forever, and he just had to stop in and introduce himself to Zuckerberg: Robert Mueller, director of the FBI, pleased to meet you." Yeah.. he just happened to be in the building... and I suspect FB isn't the only tech giant with an "interesting" relationship with law enforcement and intelligence. https://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2036683_2037183_2037185,00.html https://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28...

meepmorp 3y ago
> Don't forget that the FBI has an office AT Facebook HQ, as mentioned in the writeup of Zuckerberg when he was named Time's person of the year: I read the article you linked, and it doesn't say that there was an FBI office at Facebook. It only mentions the FBI in reference to a single event where Mueller is at their HQ and visits. How are you getting that they have an office there? Or are you suggesting that Mueller was working out of Facebook HQ?
- vuln 3y ago
  It’s not hard when telcos often had “rooms” for the alphabet agencies. Not much of a leap to assume Facebook has at least a room also. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A
  - nyc_data_geek1 3y ago
    I worked at a mid-size MSP some years back, and their datacenter had a room only the three letter agency folks could access. While it was never explicitly articulated, the belief was that the room was filled with the gear they were using to suck up whatever communications they deemed interesting and worthy of snooping. As far as I know, no warrant, subpoena or other formal request for such was ever issued. At some point, the Internet becomes a tool for surveillance above all, and only by building from the ground up for privacy, can we hope to use it as a tool for anything other than propaganda, advertising and oppression.
    - meepmorp 3y ago
      > As far as I know, no warrant, subpoena or other formal request for such was ever issued. Ok, but otoh, if you aren't involved in handling warrants, why would anyone tell you anything about it? Aren't those things under seal sometimes? Especially for wiretaps?
      - nyc_data_geek1 3y ago
        Yes, this is true, and I was not in a position of needing to know, so likely wouldn't have been privy. This is also what warrant canaries are for.
    - bamfly 3y ago
      There are allusions in open sources (e.g. the Afghanistan Papers—a series of interviews the government conducted to perform a "WTF went wrong" appraisal of the war in and occupation of Afghanistan, that has since been released to the public) to some agencies having free (as in, unrestricted, not gratis—I expect the arrangement involves money changing hands) access to customer data & activity at several major telcos. I'd be very surprised if none of Google, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft, and Apple have similar arrangements with them, these days. I'd also be surprised if all of them have such arrangements, but I doubt none of them do.
      - Terr_ 3y ago
        > as in, unrestricted, not gratis Like a dark twist on the open-source saying: "Free as in weapons-free, not free as in beer."
  - NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
    Journalists regularly use social media to report on any private citizen who can be positively identified. Sometimes they even appear to have privileged access to profiles, posts, and other data. Is it any surprise that intelligence agencies would have an order of magnitude more privilege with any social media that matters? Don't ever do anything newsworthy while you have a social media profile, unless you are an influencer, because if you are a normal private person, you don't want that kind of publicity.
  - dylan604 3y ago
    "Rooms" are now probably miniaturized down to 1RU piece of equipment or smaller.
    - mistrial9 3y ago
      that would be a router
      - dylan604 3y ago
        That's just what they want you to think it is
iJohnDoe 3y ago
The big tech companies get hundreds of thousands of data requests a year from the FBI and other agencies. This used to swap the big tech companies by being overloaded with requests. They’ve all gone through great lengths to make it easier to request and provide data to the agencies. Companies like Microsoft have provided direct taps to the agencies.
gmerc 3y ago
Do tell, which building is this room in? MPK20? 21? Classic?

by mikece 3y ago

meepmorp 3y ago

> Don't forget that the FBI has an office AT Facebook HQ, as mentioned in the writeup of Zuckerberg when he was named Time's person of the year: I read the article you linked, and it doesn't say that there was an FBI office at Facebook. It only mentions the FBI in reference to a single event where Mueller is at their HQ and visits. How are you getting that they have an office there? Or are you suggesting that Mueller was working out of Facebook HQ?

vuln 3y ago
It’s not hard when telcos often had “rooms” for the alphabet agencies. Not much of a leap to assume Facebook has at least a room also. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A
- nyc_data_geek1 3y ago
  I worked at a mid-size MSP some years back, and their datacenter had a room only the three letter agency folks could access. While it was never explicitly articulated, the belief was that the room was filled with the gear they were using to suck up whatever communications they deemed interesting and worthy of snooping. As far as I know, no warrant, subpoena or other formal request for such was ever issued. At some point, the Internet becomes a tool for surveillance above all, and only by building from the ground up for privacy, can we hope to use it as a tool for anything other than propaganda, advertising and oppression.
  - meepmorp 3y ago
    > As far as I know, no warrant, subpoena or other formal request for such was ever issued. Ok, but otoh, if you aren't involved in handling warrants, why would anyone tell you anything about it? Aren't those things under seal sometimes? Especially for wiretaps?
    - nyc_data_geek1 3y ago
      Yes, this is true, and I was not in a position of needing to know, so likely wouldn't have been privy. This is also what warrant canaries are for.
  - bamfly 3y ago
    There are allusions in open sources (e.g. the Afghanistan Papers—a series of interviews the government conducted to perform a "WTF went wrong" appraisal of the war in and occupation of Afghanistan, that has since been released to the public) to some agencies having free (as in, unrestricted, not gratis—I expect the arrangement involves money changing hands) access to customer data & activity at several major telcos. I'd be very surprised if none of Google, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft, and Apple have similar arrangements with them, these days. I'd also be surprised if all of them have such arrangements, but I doubt none of them do.
    - Terr_ 3y ago
      > as in, unrestricted, not gratis Like a dark twist on the open-source saying: "Free as in weapons-free, not free as in beer."
- NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
  Journalists regularly use social media to report on any private citizen who can be positively identified. Sometimes they even appear to have privileged access to profiles, posts, and other data. Is it any surprise that intelligence agencies would have an order of magnitude more privilege with any social media that matters? Don't ever do anything newsworthy while you have a social media profile, unless you are an influencer, because if you are a normal private person, you don't want that kind of publicity.
- dylan604 3y ago
  "Rooms" are now probably miniaturized down to 1RU piece of equipment or smaller.
  - mistrial9 3y ago
    that would be a router
    - dylan604 3y ago
      That's just what they want you to think it is

iJohnDoe 3y ago

The big tech companies get hundreds of thousands of data requests a year from the FBI and other agencies. This used to swap the big tech companies by being overloaded with requests. They’ve all gone through great lengths to make it easier to request and provide data to the agencies. Companies like Microsoft have provided direct taps to the agencies.

gmerc 3y ago

Do tell, which building is this room in? MPK20? 21? Classic?