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> The remaining articles about NSA data collection have been about targeted programs. Cut the crap. * XKeyscore: NSA tool collects 'nearly everything a user d

• lern_too_spel 13y ago
  Reread the source documents. XKeystore isn't a data collection program. It is a system for retrieving data and metadata already collected through data collection programs like PRISM. I mentioned the Verizon program in my previous post. As I said, it is one of only two NSA domestic bulk collection programs that Snowden's documents have revealed, and it's the only one that is ongoing. * The Skype chat collection is targeted, not bulk, according to Snowden's documents. * The SMS program neither contains domestic data nor contains SMSes written by people. According to the document, it contains only automated SMSes. You're right about this one being bulk collection. I meant to write "bulk domestic data collection," and I didn't, so you are right that what I said was wrong. I didn't mean to mislead, only to correct the lunatics who continue to assert the government is doing things it is not, making the rest of us US privacy advocates look crazy by association. * Optic Nerve is neither an NSA program nor does it contain domestic data. It contains data from Yahoo webcam traffic passing through the UK's borders according to the documents.
  • nl 13y ago
    You may have missed the fact that other "five eyes" intelligence agencies conduct broad sweep data collection on US citizens, which is usually then shared with US agencies (the GCHQ Webcam program mentioned notes that it isn't clear if that program is shared with the NSA, but it also notes NSA documents protocols for dealing with webcam footage). You'll note the NSA statement on this program was very carefully worked: The NSA declined to respond to specific queries about its access to the Optic Nerve system, the presence of US citizens' data in such systems, or whether the NSA has similar bulk-collection programs. However, NSA spokeswoman Vanee Vines said the agency did not ask foreign partners such as GCHQ to collect intelligence the agency could not legally collect itself. A suspicious person might wonder why the spokesperson said the NSA "did not ask foreign partners" for intelligence it could not legally collect itself. Perhaps it is because they don't need to ask? We already know that intelligence sharing between the five eyes is very open (eg GCHQ used XKeystore to run the Yahoo program somehow), so it seems likely that the NSA has access to GCHQ intelligence on US citizens without asking for it. I'm not entirely sure why your acknowledgement of the phone metadata tapping program makes it less of an issue, either!
    • lern_too_spel 13y ago
      A suspicious person might think a lot of things. In this case, a suspicious person was actually in their document systems with access to all the program info and didn't leak anything to confirm those suspicions. Pointing out that I already mentioned the call log collection doesn't make that collection any less of an issue, but that's not why I pointed it out. The context is earlier in the thread.