Googly, Googly… revisited… Facebooky… Facebooky…

How is anyone surprised by the “Big Reveal”, in every entendre imaginable, from Facebook that ALL OF YOUR INFORMATION WAS USED IN A WAY THAT YOU DON’T LIKE… AND THEY TOOK YOUR FRIENDS INFO TOO… BECAUSE YOU LET THEM.

How is the news?

We’ve been talking about this for over 5 YEARS!  It’s now 032118…

And, I’m always fashionably late to the party!

Where have you been?

(Update 091113: Yesterday, Google lost a similar decision to the one below.  It was on Appeal before the Ninth Circuit.  The Folks at EPIC are happy… but doesn’t the this story make more sense and a seem little less conspiratorial now that we know the NSA has been collecting all of our data and doing so with the aid of our allies?  Originally Posted 072712)

“In April, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission fined Google, saying the company “deliberately impeded and delayed” its investigation into Street View.

It’s unclear what, if any, penalties would be imposed on Google by Britain’s ICO or regulators in any of the 10 other jurisdictions in which the company had wrongly retained Street View data.

“We need to take a look at the data… There’s all sorts of questions we need to ask,” an ICO spokesman said, speaking on condition of anonymity because office rules prohibit him from being named in print.”

The above quote and where I decided to begin and end it may seem a little confusing, but there is a point…

Today we find out that Google has not destroyed/deleted all of the street view info it was caught collecting in Britain. Keep in mind, when I say “street view info” that includes wi-fi networks and names, e-mail addresses and various and sundry other items of information having nothing to do with a street, or the view from it.

Here’s the fun part however… Britain’s regulators, the IOC, are very “upset”. There has been aplenty “tough” language directed at Google for this blatant breach. Yes… they are terribly, terribly upset don’t you know.

While Google has apologized, it is clearly not enough for the IOC.  In all fairness it’s not enough for me either but here’s the punch line; the IOC is demanding to see the information for “forensic analysis”.  Seriously… You Brit’s are Brilliant!  “Yes, yes, I will need to see all the pornography you have so I can determine if it is actually pornography.  I will also need plenty of time to review it… alone…”

So why did I take the above quote from where I did?

Without question Google was harvesting the same information here in the U.S. that it was in Britain.  No doubt about it.  And the U.S. is watching closely what is going on across the pond… very closely.  But why?

If the IOC is successful in gaining access to the Google information for “forensic analysis” because Google has been very, very bad… then U.S. regulators will not be far behind the Google spanking bandwagon.  What red-blooded, privacy cherishing, citizen wouldn’t want Google to be punished for collecting a bunch of info it shouldn’t have?

Well… this one.  If punishing Google requires the government seeing all of the intel, I would prefer Google to get away with it and we can deal with them in the market place.   Think about this for a second, who would you rather have possessing your secrets, a private company answerable to the legal system or a government answerable to no-one?

The monster under my bed has always scared me the most by whispering “don’t worry…  I’m from the government and I’m here to help…”.  Now he’s muttering “googly… googly..” and my parents still don’t believe me.

Your freedom is directly correlated to your ability to live your life anonymously.  If you care.

Apparently, like the rest of the planet, I may just elect to drink myself to sleep.  Unlike the rest of the planet I will only do it late at night… straight from the bottle… in front of a full length mirror… crying…

NSA disguised itself as Google to spy, say reports  (link added 091213)

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The NSA and Kevin Bacon…

Since we’ve returned to caring about being Surveilled…

Let’s climb into our time machine and travel all the way back to 2013, when we told you so.

An unprecedented, at least to me, move by No Such Agency has brought the Director to an open briefing on Capital Hill.

So I’m listening.

But, there are two things which I would like to hear…

Mr. Alexander is very careful to remind everyone paying attention, which appears to be very few, that the NSA does not listen to the content of these calls collected under this program.

I’d like to focus on the “…under this program.” part of his repeated statement and reassurance.

There are many programs within all government operations, many of which overlap. This is practiced for various reasons. Some of them funding, some of them compartmentalization. Some, simply because of turf and time on scene.

So, I would like to hear someone ask; “Mr. Director, is anyone at NSA listening to the content of the calls collected, or reading the e-mail and text messaging?”

Another aspect I find interesting is the “connection to a known, or suspected terrorist” requirement Mr. Alexander has reassured us exists prior to looking at your information.

On this I bring up Kevin Bacon. Yes, the actor.

There exists a mathematical formula which connects us all.  It has been around for 80 years but has recently been popularized through something called the Kevin Bacon Game.

Six degrees of separation, a theory developed by Frigyes Karinthy in the year 1929, proposes that an individual is only six connections away from any person in the world.

Read the last five words in the above sentence again.  “…any person in the world.”

That would include Terrorist A-holes.  Yep… if you’re just catching up, YOU are separated by the most horrible person on earth by only 6 degrees.

The exploration of the degrees of separation between individuals communication, or connections, is called “spidering“.

So, my next question would be; “Mr. Director, how many degrees of separation from the suspect do you find acceptable to explore?  In other words, do you stop at say Two?  Four?  Six?”

Because stopping at “Six” means they have given themselves the authority to Spy on “…any person in the world.”  (Even “Five” should make most of us physically ill… “Three” only marginally better.)

There is also the issue of freely denying that anyone can listen to your phone calls.  I have seen this in practice first hand… when a suspect is apprehended, say a burglar, the police cannot legally go through his cell phone.  Yet… they do.  What “legally” means is whatever information found there is not admissible in court.  It does not mean that some amazing physics come into play preventing the very action of going through the person’s cell phone.  Remember folks, words mean things.  The world becomes much clearer when you listen carefully.

Finally, I am intrigued by what is considered “civilian” over-sight.  In this case, the “civilian” oversight is being performed by ex-military appointees.  One might ask, is this a difference without a distinction?  I understand the argument could be applied to the President on down, but those are elected positions.  I would like to hear someone explore how Civilian oversight has any impact after the person performing that service has retired from a Government entity.  In other words, once you’ve completed serving the Government Mission for many years you can take Retirement and then serve the Citizens interest by overseeing the very programs you may have been associated with the day before.

While I deeply respect those in the military as a rule, it does not change the fact that many of the most horrid Statists known to man have come directly from there.  Seems like the checks and balances are not served in a way that is as reassuring as possible… at least to me.

It will be interesting to view the transcripts of this hearing once complete.

My overall feeling here is They are intentionally missing the point… as They know Domestic Spying IS the point, not catching Foreign Terrorist A-holes.

The Red Herring is the reiteration that all the information being used is Public and available to Private Companies, so No Problem.  It is a blatant attempt to blur the definition of Public as it is meant.  In this case, Public means out in the open… not Government Property.  The fact the information is available to PRIVATE companies is irrelevant.  If this information is truly “out there for all to see” then the Government should not need to demand it from any Private entity.  But it is not… and the Government sees fit to use their power to compel certain Private entities to supply it to them.

All of our information is not available, nor should it be available, to GOVERNMENT without direct legal cause, free of Constitutional restriction.  That is a very, very important distinction here in the “Freest Country on Earth”.  (Damn that Constitution is SO restrictive…  it tells them what they CAN’T do to us, but not what they CAN do to us…)

It’s amazing how quickly one sobers up when listening to our Spooks…  Unless you’re an elected representative in the room with them, then it appears you fall asleep. (You’ll have to watch the hearing to see what I’m typing about here.  I want you to watch, so I won’t ruin it by showing you.)

(Also! For the record, I love our Spooks.  But much of what they do should stay, or be returned to being, illegal… just in case.  I know this Borrows their argument about why they want to store all of OUR info… we might need their actions to have been illegal down the road.  That’s a real check.  And, they answer to us not the other way around.)

(061813)

The Cute Little Furry Face of the NSA

 

Sit NSA, Sit.

There was an incredibly Important Interview with NSA Director Keith Alexander that you Probably Missed because you were studying the vagaries of fuzzy blobs provided by various unclassified Satellites roaming the Earth. Let me tell you a little about it…

(And I also would like to suggest a couple additional Questions that must have been overlooked by the Interviewer, and in the Rare Event that another Opportunity to Record an Interview with General Alexander would be really Cool to ask.)

So the Full Court PR campaign is underway to put a Happy Face on No Such Agency.

The Fear is that Voters will demand the NSA be a Campaign Issue heading into the Midterms and Force Candidates to take a Position… Like; Do you think it’s OK for the NSA to Spy On American Citizens that have Committed No Crimes?

Eeewww… That could definitely suck.

Too Bad.

As I have said before… there is an Element of Danger one must accept in Order to Remain Free.

The Argument that the NSA is “Keeping Us Safe” may be true, but it is most certainly removing our Freedom to be Left Alone and is arguably Unconstitutional… no matter how “Nice” those good Folks at the NSA may be.  It’s also worth Remembering that All of Government is made up of Human Beings… Whom are All Flawed deeply by their personal interests and insecurities.  Men are not Angels.

But what really piqued my interest in this interview was a specific quote from General Alexander regarding the monitoring of Citizen’s e-mail (Jimmy Carter was the Citizen of question.):

“…The reality is, we don’t do that. And if we did, it would be illegal and we’d be…held accountable and responsible.”

Alexander said that even after an investigation into the agency’s practices,

“no one has found anything, zero, except for in 12 cases where people did that and we had already reported those.”

(Bold and Italics mine. Since I’m Cherry Picking, Full Transcript Here.)

 

Well OK then…  Except for those we caught doing it, nobody has done it.

I will refer you to previous posts here that have dealt with NSA Domestic Spying which you can skim if you’d like.

Love NSA Style and Love NSA Style II and NSA Dir. Keith Alexander and Kevin Bacon

This Interview Left me with Two Questions that seemed Natural as Follow Up’s to General Alexander’s Unequivocally Hazy Statement.

1.  “Sir, When you say held accountable and responsible does that mean these Individuals who Spied on Citizens without the Knowledge and Approval of the NSA were Prosecuted?”

2.  “Were the Victim’s of this Domestic Spying Informed of the Acts and allowed to take Appropriate Actions?”

Just for the Fun of It, what do You think the response to those questions would be?

(Update:  Someone should tell James Clapper to get on the Same Page… since he’s out admitting they do it.  Do it.  As in right now are Doing It.)