The End of Privacy Is Near
The US government implemented Stellar Wind, a program to actively – and illegally – spy on all Americans within days of the 2001 9/11 attack. Ten years later, in 2011, construction began on an NSA data centre in the Utah desert. It’s now the largest surveillance storehouse in the US.
In his correspondence, Snowden warned Poitras that “telecommunication companies in the US are betraying the trust of their customers.” Through Stellar Wind, all phone calls and text messages were being intercepted and stored, and the Stellar Wind program has only expanded from there.
The NSA not only intercepts American citizens’ emails, phone conversations and text messages but also Google searches, Amazon.com orders, bank records and more.
“We are building the greatest weapon for oppression in the history of man,” Snowden wrote, “yet its directors exempt themselves from accountability … On cyber operations, the government’s public position is that we still lack a policy framework. This … was a lie.
“There is a detailed policy framework, a kind of martial law for cyber operations created by the White House. It’s called ‘Presidential Policy Directive 20’ and was finalised at the end of last year.”
As explained in the film, a key aspect of control through surveillance is the linkability of data. One piece of data about you is linked to another piece. For example, your bus pass can be linked to the debit card you used to buy the pass. Your debit card is also linked to all other purchases.
With two key pieces of information – WHERE you went on a given day, and WHEN you made purchases – they can determine who you spoke with and met up with by linking those data points with those of other people who were in the vicinity at the same time. And that’s without even using your cell or mobile phone data.
When all these various data points are aggregated – location data, purchases, phone calls, texts, social media posts and more – you end up with a collection of metadata that tells a story about you. However, while the story is made up of facts, it’s not necessarily true.
For example, just because you were standing at a particular street corner does not mean you had anything to do with the crime that was reported on that same corner at the time you happened to be there. The problem is that your data could be used against you in that way.
The 6 January prisoners are a perfect example of how bits and pieces of data can be misused. Many have now spent years in jail simply because their cellphone data showed them as being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
1 comment:
So, they have Intel gathering only if your a law abiding citizen they can easily nail, otherwise ALL influx of criminals un-vetted coming in, the harder to nail, nah, their tools are rendered useless, is that the game? Why aren't Cartel caught, why don't illegals get caught & sent back, why are mosque getting away with Anti-Americanism/Anti-Semitism, why are some in our Government going after other's to keep them from running for office, the list goes on, IMO!
Not impressed, those that once worked NSA did so to intercept spies messaging, go after real threats within USA, and on our soil, used for protecting the American Citizens, and now sounds like abuse of power can be implemented if the mood strikes them; still nothing makes sense, can we assume it's like movie where Tom Cruise "Minority Report" where someone can be set up for something they did not do, or assume to determine some crime will occur that in fact has not, or never would? Right now, we have had so many crimes occur with no accountability on our Forrest, railway spills, food plants burning, folks robbing stores, rioter's, and no suspects?
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