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NSA Data : How It's Being Used

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posted on Mar, 15 2016 @ 12:11 AM
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NSA Data : How It's Being Used



I'm sharing an update for those interested with snippets and links of the articles pertaining to the subject, considering after the initial Snowden's revealing that many had wondered how the collected data will be used.

While I realized this won't be well received due to said "sensationalized titles" these article do contain information and/or re share it.

Nor given much attention due to the political season, I feel it's valid and going mostly ignored even by the politicians(would implore you to contact those you support about it) and denounced recently by the current administration.

Going back to 2014




• Peekaboo, I See You: Government Authority Intended for Terrorism is Used for Other Purposes
Oct. 26, 2014


The Patriot Act continues to wreak its havoc on civil liberties. Section 213 was included in the Patriot Act over the protests of privacy advocates and granted law enforcement the power to conduct a search while delaying notice to the suspect of the search. Known as a “sneak and peek” warrant, law enforcement was adamant Section 213 was needed to protect against terrorism. But the latest government report detailing the numbers of “sneak and peek” warrants reveals that out of a total of over 11,000 sneak and peek requests, only 51 were used for terrorism. Yet again, terrorism concerns appear to be trampling our civil liberties.

Throughout the Patriot Act debate the Department of Justice urged Congress to pass Section 213 because it needed the sneak and peak power to help investigate and prosecute terrorism crimes “without tipping off terrorists.” In 2005, FBI Director Robert Mueller continued the same exact talking point, emphasizing sneak and peek warrants were “an invaluable tool in the war on terror and our efforts to combat serious criminal conduct.”
Continued at EFF



• Surprise! Controversial Patriot Act power now overwhelmingly used in drug investigations
Oct. 29, 2014


One of the more controversial provisions of the Patriot Act was to broaden the “sneak-and-peek” power for federal law enforcement officials. The provision allows investigators to conduct searches without informing the target of the search. We were assured at the time that this was an essential law enforcement tool that would be used only to protect the country from terrorism. Supporters argued that it was critical that investigators be allowed to look into the lives and finances of suspected terrorists without tipping off those terrorists to the fact that they were under investigation.
WaPost





Fast forward to this year




• Obama Administration Set to Expand Sharing of Data That N.S.A. Intercepts
Feb. 25th '16


WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is on the verge of permitting the National Security Agency to share more of the private communications it intercepts with other American intelligence agencies without first applying any privacy protections to them, according to officials familiar with the deliberations.

The change would relax longstanding restrictions on access to the contents of the phone calls and email the security agency vacuums up around the world, including bulk collection of satellite transmissions, communications between foreigners as they cross network switches in the United States, and messages acquired overseas or provided by allies.
NY Times


• How new FBI powers to look through NSA intercepts will exacerbate mass incarceration
March 8th '16


The wall separating “foreign” intelligence operations from domestic criminal investigations has finally, fully collapsed. The FBI now plans to act on a rule change initiated by the Bush administration and finally massaged into actionable policy by Obama: Soon, domestic law enforcement agencies like the FBI will be able to search through communications collected under the mysterious authority of executive order 12333. Now, FBI agents can query the NSA’s database of Americans’ international communications, collected without warrants pursuant to Section 702 of the 2008 FISA Amendments Act. That law put congress’ stamp of approval on the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program, which was widely denounced as totalitarian when the New York Times‘ James Risen exposed it to the world in 2005.
PrivacySOS




• Surprise! NSA data will soon routinely be used for domestic policing that has nothing to do with terrorism
March 10 '16


This basically formalizes what was already happening under the radar. We’ve known for a couple of years now that the Drug Enforcement Administration and the IRS were getting information from the NSA. Because that information was obtained without a warrant, the agencies were instructed to engage in “parallel construction” when explaining to courts and defense attorneys how the information had been obtained. If you think parallel construction just sounds like a bureaucratically sterilized way of saying big stinking lie, well, you wouldn’t be alone. And it certainly isn’t the only time that that national security apparatus has let law enforcement agencies benefit from policies that are supposed to be reserved for terrorism investigations in order to get around the Fourth Amendment, then instructed those law enforcement agencies to misdirect, fudge and outright lie about how they obtained incriminating information — see the Stingray debacle. This isn’t just a few rogue agents. The lying has been a matter of policy. We’re now learning that the feds had these agreements with police agencies all over the country, affecting thousands of cases.
WPost


To be continued below...




edit on 15-3-2016 by dreamingawake because: (no reason given)



posted on Mar, 15 2016 @ 12:12 AM
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• It’s Official: NSA Data Will Soon be Used by Domestic Law Enforcement
March 13 '16

To point out:

In other news, the Pentagon admitted this week that they’ve been deploying military drones over the United States for domestic surveillance purposes. Much like the NSA’s surveillance apparatus, we were assured that drones were for terrorists in faraway lands. Nothing so Orwellian would ever be used against ordinary American citizens at home. Yet here we are, with more to come.

DailySheeple




• Your Metadata Taken by the NSA Will Now be Shared With All Agencies: The Same Data They “Haven’t” Been Collecting for Years
March 14 '16




Now, despite this past revelation, and the fact that the NSA publicly announced that they were ending the very data-mining program that is now being expanded, the New York Times reports that NSA data will now be shared with other members of the Alphabet Mafia, such as the FBI or CIA, without first applying any screens for privacy. It could be considered that at least now the secret data-sharing and spying on the American public is being publicly acknowledged and done in the open, instead of being carried out in their typical clandestine manner. Yet there is something quite foreboding about the fact that the government no longer feels the need to hide this gross intrusion and violation of Americans’ rights. The Drug Enforcement Administration and the IRS have been getting information from the NSA for years now, and without a warrant.
Source



posted on Mar, 15 2016 @ 12:16 AM
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Also see:

• New FOIA Documents Confirm FBI Used Dirtboxes on Planes Without Any Policies or Legal Guidance
March 9, 2016



EFF recently received records in response to our Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Department of Justice for information on how the US Marshals—and perhaps other agencies—have been flying small, fixed-wing Cessna planes equipped with "dirtboxes”: IMSI catchers that imitate cell towers and are able to capture the locational data of tens of thousands of cell phones during a single flight. The records we received confirm the agencies were using these invasive surveillance tools with little oversight or legal guidance.
EFF
[editb y]edit on 15-3-2016 by dreamingawake because: source link



posted on Mar, 15 2016 @ 12:30 AM
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You forgot :
The Utah NSA data center. The ability to scan every single phone call , every single word on every single page of the internet vusuted , every single medical record , every purchase made by debit credit or check and store every bit for every single US citizen for the next 1000 years
I apologize if I stole your thunder. Just adding to it



posted on Mar, 15 2016 @ 01:59 AM
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originally posted by: Gothmog
You forgot :
The Utah NSA data center. The ability to scan every single phone call , every single word on every single page of the internet vusuted , every single medical record , every purchase made by debit credit or check and store every bit for every single US citizen for the next 1000 years
I apologize if I stole your thunder. Just adding to it


No, didn't forget as it's part of the whole thing, rather sharing an update of what has gone on since the initial sharing of spying, if anyone is interested. However, thanks for the reply.

Some of the articles do have images of the Utah data center if anyone isn't too aware of it what it looks like.



posted on Mar, 15 2016 @ 03:34 AM
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a reply to: dreamingawake

It's quite worrying, indeed. One thing I'd like to point out is that it is quite impossible to have humans analyze all that data. Hence there are programs available that help with the analysis. So, it's not like everybody is being actively monitored all day - agencies normally work with a list of targets, a list they compose partially from the output of said programs, but mostly from other (more conventional) sources.

But the data is there allright. And frankly, the government is not really always that good in protecting their data, so one day some hacker will get in, and will use the data to his needs. And then there is the high risk of inside fraud: people that legitimately have access to the data might also use it for illegit purposes, e.g. Snowden. The ETHICAL side of things is actually more important than the LEGAL side of things. Most disturbing is when the government breaks both their own Laws AND the common ethics, like the American government did.

In my opinion the benefits are grossly outranked by the disadvantages. Alas, I'm not in a position to change all this. Americans seem to be mostly in favour of this, given that various laws have been passed to allow it. Somehow the initial shock of the "terrorist attacks" was sufficient to lure the American people into giving up a lot of essential rights. I bring before you that America is now a formal class society: the haves are the ones that have access to the databases - the havenots are vastly in the majority, but do not have access.



posted on Mar, 15 2016 @ 11:54 AM
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How long before the government admits to sharing this data with banks, insurance companies, and other corporations? Of course, they're not doing that now, right?



posted on Mar, 16 2016 @ 01:15 AM
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originally posted by: VictorVonDoom
How long before the government admits to sharing this data with banks, insurance companies, and other corporations? Of course, they're not doing that now, right?


Exactly. Auto companies and credit companies have influenced and works with each other since their inception. Between this, the data and the HRC system issues and the already linked data between companies if the government isn't going to utilize it fully the broad system will.



posted on Mar, 16 2016 @ 01:17 AM
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a reply to: ForteanOrg
Thanks, you bring up some good points. Pre crime determination(or other) software seems more concerning than humans running it.



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