NSA has ability to read 75% of all US internet traffic - report

NSA has ability to read 75% of all US internet traffic - report

rt.com

Newly unveiled National Security Agency programs detail how the US government has the ability to monitor approximately 75 per cent of American internet traffic, and further discloses how telecommunications companies are compelled to provide such data.

(visit the link for the full news article)

This snooping stuff just gets grubbier and grubbier by the minute, 75 percent of ALL communications in the U.S. can be monitored? And here's what the NSA have said:

NSA officials have claimed in recent weeks that the intelligence agency “touches” a mere 1.6 percent of internet traffic, although TechCrunch speculated that rhetoric refers to information that has been sent to the NSA and “culled to their liking.”

1.6 percent? Hold on, I think someone's telling porkies here. And additionally:

One NSA official, who wished to remain anonymous, told The Wall Street Journal that the NSA is “not wallowing willy-nilly” through Americans’ communications. “We want high-grade ore.”

Surely this isn't the point, this kind of monitoring is immoral and if I was American, I'd be pretty angry right now.

Not to worry, us in the U.K. are still waiting to hear how much monitoring has gone on.


rt.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

When Gore invented the internet i'm positive data thieves were just giggling like madmen. I'm 100 sure the internet has been tracked, logged and data mined since day one.

I just don't understand why its an issue today.

Btw, how'd you get 16 million stars?

Originally posted by litterbaux
When Gore invented the internet i'm positive data thieves were just giggling like madmen. I'm 100 sure the internet has been tracked, logged and data mined since day one.

I just don't understand why its an issue today.

Btw, how'd you get 16 million stars?

NSA probably, sarcastic hack

reply to post by Zcustosmorum


Honestly, i wouldn't be that worried unless you are doing something questionable through email. Besides, i have heard this time and again since i was in high school and gradually just came to accept it as part of the technological world.

Didn't you watch the X-files?

Who even uses email that much these days when texting/instant messaging is so much faster?

Anyway, i suppose the real question i have to ask is how would you feel if the NSA wasn't doing all of this and missed some key information that was needed to stop a deadly attack on american soil?

We might not like it much, but in the ever advancing world we live in today it was going to happen eventually.

My advice, accept it and move on or start sending really disturbing emails so you can ask them in person what they think they are doing.

reply to post by Zcustosmorum


Can you imagine the good that could be done using the resources invested in having the potential to monitor 75% of communication in the continental US.

Good thing that US fed has the ability to create money out of thin air, as i think their internet bill is through the roof.

However i would like to add that there is a significant difference between possessing the ability to monitor up to 75% of all communications and effectively capturing and translating relevant data.

Hundreds of millions of American's sending billions of communications daily. Its unfathomable to conceive of a infrastructure that could accomplish this. I am sure that through a copious amounts of filters and keyword detectors that they are able to flag a certain amount of viable information, but the amount of information being generated from moment to the next is so staggering, I can only imagine how improbable it would be that your information is effectively tracked.

reply to post by Zcustosmorum


See, I disagree respectfully there.
It is the point.

I couldn't give two hoots if someone knows I look at porn, or email my x when im drunk, or that ive purchased crap of eBay.. I couldn't give two bloody cares in the world. For them its a waste of time, for me, its no big deal.
Especially , and this is the main point, when I'm one of just 100s of millions of people being looked at it.
No one in the right mind is going to waste time look at me or going through my junk because im not planning on building a nuke, I'm not planning on flying planes into buildings. No ones going to bother looking at me.

But, If I was 1 in a pool of 100 being monitored, then yes, Id care.

Also, I think people are a bit naive to think in today's world of saturation technology that eves dropping on phone calls, emails accounts and texts is just the government. It probably isn't hard to do for a seasoned technology analyst from any tel-co.

If it really upsets you that much, throw away your mobile, turn off your computer and go back to tried and tested methods of the 80's 90's... but none of you will, will you, because you need your facebook and gmail fix. You need your internet youtube, you refuse to give up this time wasting bs.

You, YOU put your life online, you put your life in the airwaves knowing full well, 100% it wasnt safe and was inevitable to be monitored. Yet, you still did it.

Personally I think way to much has been made of this.

In saying that, I do think the government is pretty stupid if they believe there going to find terrorists online. Most people doing anything illegal or of a terrorist nature will not post about it on facebook or email there jihadi friends

reply to post by Thorneblood


This has nothing to do with doing/not doing something wrong, it's the question of privacy. And judging by your tone, let me say, when all the privacy you have has gone and you don't have the space to breath without someone knowing, you may want to re-think your ideas back to when something could be done about it

reply to post by Zcustosmorum


As a previous poster put it, what expectation of privacy do you really think i possess anymore?

We put half of our lives online, more so for those who are facebook addicts.

And really, what personal information do you think is really relevant to them anymore?

Like most americans i have put my ssn number, home address, etc on multiple applications for all manner of things since i was old enough to start working. All of which is either stored in some file cabinet or tucked away in some computer file. So none of that info is a real concern for me anymore.

What does that leave? Porn? Shopping Habits? The websites i visit?

Guess what, your IP provider probably has that info stored somewhere in its database as well if only to cover their own asses.

What information about yourself do you think is really that relevant to the NSA anyway?

They don't care about you, they don't see you as a threat and unless you are planning something terrible i seriously doubt they want to invade your privacy unless they have to, doing so would be a massive waste of time when they could be finding real criminals and terrorists and earning their promotions.



And seriously, how is it you have a higher WATS score and more Stars then Skeptic Overlord or anyone else on this site?

Me thinks perhaps you be a hacker and is worried for very real reasons.

Originally posted by Zcustosmorum

Originally posted by litterbaux
When Gore invented the internet i'm positive data thieves were just giggling like madmen. I'm 100 sure the internet has been tracked, logged and data mined since day one.

I just don't understand why its an issue today.

Btw, how'd you get 16 million stars?

NSA probably, sarcastic hack

edit on 20-8-2013 by Zcustosmorum because: (no reason given)

Amazing
OT I think its almost like Minority Report (wi fi - tv- radio signals etc.) signal waves all bouncing off of everything making images, toss in brain wave activity and AI assistance, in some areas with data collection on EA*RTH 1 can imagine some are considering going back to stone tablet writing but then as you write on the tablets your thoughts are still extracted rendering that option useless.
Hopefully they keep it respectful...

NAMASTE*******

If they can read 75% of emails I want to know who the other 25% are using.

Originally posted by liveandlearn
If they can read 75% of emails I want to know who the other 25% are using.

Sophisticated encrypted traffic would be the other 25%... They still log and collect it, and can run effective and rather fast decryption processes, but only when they believe they need to.

The NSA's addition of the Utah data center and other facilities provide them virtually unlimited data collection and processing capabilities...

IMO

Every one of you has a personality profile already existing in their database, all of your online activities only adds to that...

The only thing I can think of that could possibly know more about you would be God.

No.. your wrong. Obama went on the Tonight Show and specifically SAID that they do not spy on Americans!

reply to post by DerekJR321


Which in all probability is true since most american's are not that important to the government.

reply to post by Zcustosmorum


Hmm 75% and 1.6%.

I wouldn't be surprised if they scan 75% and save 1.6%to a database based upon scanning rules.

reply to post by Thorneblood


Most of this outrage stems from people effectively putting posters up in their local mall, and then complaining when other people look at it. Or expecting the right to privacy when none was ever implied. When it comes to email, I'm very concerned, as that is direct pricate conversation, and implies that a third party allowed the interception or kept archives.

But to say they intercept 75% of the internet traffic, so do many internet entities. It's sheer ignorance to expect that with such an open environment there is actual privacy when you're posting in more or less open formats.

They may only actually review 1.6%, but they have dedicated other resources to collecting as much as possible, testing new avenues of what they can and can't break into. Look, ask, break.

They only got caught asking.

Bottom line, the internet is not private. Aspects of it are, but the expectation of privacy should not be simply accepted. We just use the devices that connect us like we would shout out the window at the kids on the lawn that it's time for supper.

I was more paranoid about the internet in 1995 than I am now. Perhaps due to being bored with it having turned into a meme generator, or because their plan worked, to break down care over time, with incessant attempts and over the top curtailing.

meshnet sounds good to me. but as with anything, it too will be eventually dumbed down to a large advertising farm.

You're the commodity. you're the bill board.

Originally posted by Evil_Santa
reply to post by Zcustosmorum

 

Hmm 75% and 1.6%.

I wouldn't be surprised if they scan 75% and save 1.6%to a database based upon scanning rules.

That's exaqctly how it would be done. 75% grabbed, sifted and 1.6% sent to the snoops.

You can't expect 75% of the internet to be monitored and actively scrutinised. It would take 75% of the internet to get to gether to provide the resources to do it. Oo

That's what prism was all about, specificity. Or so I believe. The gold miner doesn't keep all of the sand he sifted.

It's all saved however, the volume of it requires it to be stored. So it's really just pushing the cherry to the other side of the cake.

Originally posted by Thorneblood
reply to post by DerekJR321

 

Which in all probability is true since most american's are not that important to the government.

Actually.. the NSA is right because it is Israel that is doing all the spying. But I have no doubts that they are capturing EVERYTHING and storing it in Utah. That facility can hold I've heard something like 5 yottabytes. For reference:

1 Yottabyte = 1,000 Zettabytes = 1,000,000 Exabytes = 1,000,000,000 Pettabytes = 1,000,000,000,000 Terabytes = 1,000,000,000,000,0000 Gigabytes.

Another reference. 400 Terabytes is enough to hold all books every written in every language.

So why do they need a Yottabyte worth of storage??

reply to post by DerekJR321


Porn and online video content mostly

Honestly, i imagine they are being proactive and building their centers with a mind towards the future when that amount of information passing over the internet is going to be relevant. Until then it will likely be a bunch of wasted space, just like a lot of information stored on hard drives across the world.

Let me put it this way. If computer technology continues to advance at the rate that it has so far then we will be seeing fully interactive VR sometime in the next 10 years. That amount of information spread across a wide enough population would likely add up to the amount they are currently capable of storing.