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I liked the article, but the part i found most interesting was the comment. I just want to point out a flaw in your individual count calculation. Although norm

I liked the article, but the part i found most interesting was the comment. I just want to point out a flaw in your individual count calculation. Although normal person would have just 40 contacts you forget that some of us call very common number and that lets NSA to connect even more people that 19mil. Even I never met this article author, we are probably connected in less than 3 hops :). If I called Verizon support and author called Verizon support, we are connected. And if some suspect called Verizon support, our phone call history is in that “corporate store” where NSA can query any way they want :). You are absolutely right – evil is in details… so this is a huge loophole. i think every one i know and people i don't have called verizon or comcast. so if someone that is a foreigner makes a call to verizon or comcast, i am now able to be collected on? welcome to the party everyone. i'm in a terrorist bin at the NSA. EDIT: also, i was just thinking: if i want to track someone and all i have is the phone number, why can't i just have someone i know that's overseas call them once? they are now able to be tracked. isn't that a flaw to the system? there is no way this kind of power can be contained.

jnbiche 13y ago
And you better believe that after being harangued by the President and Congress for years following 9/11 to "act more creatively", the Intelligence Community is using exactly these types of loopholes.
eliasmacpherson 13y ago
Are you using a pay as you go mobile? Under that definition, everyone that 'tops up' is connected.
- epoxyhockey 13y ago
  I also receive free text messages from my provider (Edit: e.g. the texts that say 'thank you for paying your bill'). Does that mean that I'm connected to every subscriber on the network that also receives these free texts?
  - eliasmacpherson 13y ago
    I didn't think of that, I suppose it would by the same standard. They aren't really 'free' but they are offers and information and so on, about 25% of my inbox is from them.
    - 3825 13y ago
      Or if you text 40404 to tweet? This is really ridiculous. In my opinion, no sane person would sign off on it if they knew these details.
  - scoggs 13y ago
    What about the emergency alerts that we get on mobile? Recently I got a pair and they did help: http://imgur.com/a/03Ipl http://imgur.com/a/03Ipl , but as always this is what that companies FAQ says about the process: WHAT: ----- Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs) are free wireless notifications that are delivered to your mobile device as part of a new public safety system provided by Authorized Senders. They are designed to inform you of imminent threats to safety or missing persons alerts in your area. In order to receive WEAs, you must have a capable device and be located in an area (e.g., county) targeted by Authorized Senders to receive the alert. If every provider has some sort of program like this that connects everyone on that network.
Zoomla 13y ago
interesting issues, but 3 hops is too much no matter...

jnbiche 13y ago

And you better believe that after being harangued by the President and Congress for years following 9/11 to "act more creatively", the Intelligence Community is using exactly these types of loopholes.

eliasmacpherson 13y ago

Are you using a pay as you go mobile? Under that definition, everyone that 'tops up' is connected.

epoxyhockey 13y ago
I also receive free text messages from my provider (Edit: e.g. the texts that say 'thank you for paying your bill'). Does that mean that I'm connected to every subscriber on the network that also receives these free texts?
- eliasmacpherson 13y ago
  I didn't think of that, I suppose it would by the same standard. They aren't really 'free' but they are offers and information and so on, about 25% of my inbox is from them.
  - 3825 13y ago
    Or if you text 40404 to tweet? This is really ridiculous. In my opinion, no sane person would sign off on it if they knew these details.
- scoggs 13y ago
  What about the emergency alerts that we get on mobile? Recently I got a pair and they did help: http://imgur.com/a/03Ipl http://imgur.com/a/03Ipl , but as always this is what that companies FAQ says about the process: WHAT: ----- Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs) are free wireless notifications that are delivered to your mobile device as part of a new public safety system provided by Authorized Senders. They are designed to inform you of imminent threats to safety or missing persons alerts in your area. In order to receive WEAs, you must have a capable device and be located in an area (e.g., county) targeted by Authorized Senders to receive the alert. If every provider has some sort of program like this that connects everyone on that network.

Zoomla 13y ago

interesting issues, but 3 hops is too much no matter...