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Why do you think NSA cares much about hiding their activities from you? I can tell you a story. Some years ago, back in Russia, as a [naive] kid, I've develop

Why do you think NSA cares much about hiding their activities from you? I can tell you a story. Some years ago, back in Russia, as a [naive] kid, I've developed a surveillance system for Telrad telecom exchange [ultimately for FSB]. Do you think anyone cared to do that project in secrecy? I can give you the answer. Nope. As far as I understand NSA can legally intercept packages and can legally install undetectable surveillance devices. As long as they are not using collected surveillance data, legally they are fine and they do not absolutely have to hide their activities at all costs. Hiding large scale operation is difficult and plugging every information leak is expensive. So they are not necessarily prioritizing that. So, yes, there is a change that we simply see their activity. And yes, it could be just an Amazon bug.

tptacek 13y ago
Gee, I don't know what gave me the impression that NSA was secretive.
- busterarm 13y ago
  It's going after low-hanging fruit to say this and while the link I'm providing is not the NSA, our government agencies seem to have a real hard time keeping secrets lately. http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20131220/10200525651/fbi-agent-tries-to-register-copyright-top-secret-interrogation-manual-making-it-available-to-anyone.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20131220/10200525651/fbi-ag... Apparently keeping secrets is hard. Human error and all.
ewoodrich 13y ago
It would be pretty stupid for a spy agency to give a target clear warning that their electronics were tampered with. Isn't the whole point of this program to capture information that the target wouldn't otherwise broadcast publicly?
jonhohle 13y ago
During the cold war (and shortly after), this type of activity would be exactly what red-blooded Americans would say differentiated us from Russia (not hiding it, but doing it at all). Americans have constitutional protection against unreasonable search and seizure by the government. These days you could probably drop the country and year and have trouble differentiating tactics used by the US and Russia.

tptacek 13y ago

Gee, I don't know what gave me the impression that NSA was secretive.

busterarm 13y ago
It's going after low-hanging fruit to say this and while the link I'm providing is not the NSA, our government agencies seem to have a real hard time keeping secrets lately. http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20131220/10200525651/fbi-agent-tries-to-register-copyright-top-secret-interrogation-manual-making-it-available-to-anyone.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20131220/10200525651/fbi-ag... Apparently keeping secrets is hard. Human error and all.

ewoodrich 13y ago

It would be pretty stupid for a spy agency to give a target clear warning that their electronics were tampered with. Isn't the whole point of this program to capture information that the target wouldn't otherwise broadcast publicly?

jonhohle 13y ago

During the cold war (and shortly after), this type of activity would be exactly what red-blooded Americans would say differentiated us from Russia (not hiding it, but doing it at all). Americans have constitutional protection against unreasonable search and seizure by the government. These days you could probably drop the country and year and have trouble differentiating tactics used by the US and Russia.