Leak: NSA Tracks Location of Billions of Mobile Phones

The National Security Agency is collecting billions of records on the location of mobile phones around the world, The Washington Post reported, citing documents from US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden.

The information is added to a gigantic database that shows the locations of "at least hundreds of millions of cell phones" worldwide, a stunning revelation that suggests the eavesdropping agency has created a mass surveillance tool, according to the Post report.

....

The data is scooped up by tapping into cables that link mobile phone networks -- both American and foreign -- across the globe, the Post said. The location data is pulled in with the help of two unnamed corporate firms, according to leaked documents.

Leak: NSA Tracks Location of Billions of Mobile Phones

Well the news just keeps getting better. So they are tracking cell phone location data - wunderbar....

Unnamed corporate firms .. how nice of them to protect big business. I think we should know which companies are selling us out to the highest bidder.

The search function is down -- don't know if any one else posted this -- it's a bit old (in the 24 hour news cycle) but important enough to state.

I wonder what will be next...

reply to post by FyreByrd


I always thought this was happening any way. If the can do it, they will.
Reminds me of the phone hacking thing with rupert murdoch. It was a big surprize to alot of people, but remenber 15-20 years ago prince charles and camilla and the whole tampoon thing.

Much like Facebook collecting data, only those with something to hide, have something to fear.


King

I don't do anything illegal or immoral in my home, but I don't want just anyone looking in my windows.

Privacy is a principle many Americans hold dear.

The sheep will never even see this article or care if they do. It's shopping season remember everything Is on sale!

Business as usual. Move along.

kingears
Much like Facebook collecting data, only those with something to hide, have something to fear.


King

edit on 5/12/2013 by kingears because: (no reason given)

spoken like an apologist.

it only takes a quick law change, or for your government to turn against you for things you have always felt were ok, and enjoyed doing ... to become illegal, and your phone hands you over.

its not an issue of "im not doing anything wrong now".
for example, a time comes when even saying something bad against your government might be called "sedition" they tried to get a law like this in australia in 2002.

because you weren't doing anything wrong when you let them pass laws, or get away with tapping and tracing phones... the facebook post you made about the crappy job president whoever did, gets you arrested in the middle of the night. you werent doing anything wrong, but what was wrong changed.

its in times like these when we see the infrastructure of an oppressive globalist regime start to show.
and yet no one does anything. "only people who do something wrong have something to fear!"

kingears
Much like Facebook collecting data, only those with something to hide, have something to fear.


King

edit on 5/12/2013 by kingears because: (no reason given)

That remark is not entirely true. There are parts of our data that are highly sensitive under any circumstances. And Governments have had a terrible time maintaining what data it has swagged over the decades. Remember when a USB stick was 'lost' on a train containing alot of private data.

Data lost news

Data loss part 2

The British government is to data protection as Hurricane Katrina was to New Orleans property values. In the past we have covered the loss of data, including bank details, for 25 million people, and government intelligence documents seem to repeatedly get left on trains or in bars. Now, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has announced that a memory stick containing information on thousands of individuals in the criminal justice system has also gone walkabout. USB data lost...again

A lot of other good news source for similar topic is a blog page by Simon Davies. The Privacy Surgeon

Well, they aren't talking about me.
I'm one of the knuckle draggers that doesn't own a mobile.

-Peace-

reply to post by okamitengu


While i respect your views, we are only on this earth for a finite period, and I have more pressing concerns like scrapping a living to put food on my table for my family, than some spook listening to my telephone or reading my internet posts. I am aware that privacy is a concern for many many people, and I respect that. However allowing decisions beyond your control to dictate how you live your life is not how I wish to live.


King

RidgeWalker
I don't do anything illegal or immoral in my home, but I don't want just anyone looking in my windows.

Privacy is a principle many Americans hold dear.

Do you answer your landline when it rings?

That means someone knows where you are when you use your land line phone.

oO

Insidious...

okamitengu
the facebook post you made about the crappy job president whoever did, gets you arrested in the middle of the night. you werent doing anything wrong, but what was wrong changed.

Umm, you and I both know that's not ever going to happen in Australia. Or most places the people on ATS live.

But it makes the fearple bleat!

kingears
Much like Facebook collecting data, only those with something to hide, have something to fear.


King

edit on 5/12/2013 by kingears because: (no reason given)

With the way things are going, how long will it be until we all have something to hide?

reply to post by winofiend


I don't have a landline phone. Haven't had one in some time now.

I can also remove the battery on my cell if I opt to not have my location known.

I'm not sure I really see what your point is, but that's fine. Carry on.

RidgeWalker
reply to post by winofiend

 

I don't have a landline phone. Haven't had one in some time now.

I can also remove the battery on my cell if I opt to not have my location known.

I'm not sure I really see what your point is, but that's fine. Carry on.

edit on 5-12-2013 by RidgeWalker because: (no reason given)

His point is, if you are meant to be tracked and evesdropped on, its going to happen no matter how "stone age" you try to get. Unless you are almost 7 feet tall, wear a turban, and require dialysis apparently.

reply to post by FyreByrd


Why doesn't Snowden cut the **** and reveal all. Basically from the minute you put two feet on the floor in the morning until you collapse in bed at night, everything you do is monitored. You may be unhappy about this but that's what's happening.

reply to post by FyreByrd


People willingly choose to have phones when its been known for a while now that they are traceable, hackable and are advertising tools used by mega corporations and government agencies alike.

yet, you still willingly decide to have it.

Ignorance is bliss, huh?

kingears
Much like Facebook collecting data, only those with something to hide, have something to fear.


King

edit on 5/12/2013 by kingears because: (no reason given)

So you're ok with an organisation knowing just about everything you do (and make no mistakes, even metadata reveals more than anyone can imagine), but you wanting to know anything about said agency is met with cries of 'national security'?

winofiend

okamitengu
the facebook post you made about the crappy job president whoever did, gets you arrested in the middle of the night. you werent doing anything wrong, but what was wrong changed.

Umm, you and I both know that's not ever going to happen in Australia. Or most places the people on ATS live.

But it makes the fearple bleat!

id like to say i agree 100% but we can never know what changes will come.
i hope everyday you are right, but the first time john howard started talking about sedition as a law, i started being concerned of what may come.

it doesnt take much for a government we all love and trust, to change hands and turn. sometimes we ask them them to change hands and turn.

we take for granted the protections of our democracy, but these actions undermine those protections, and make every other protection we have a little weaker, eroding them all away until we have no protections.

used to be here in aus, we had unions protecting workers rights. howard government broke them, brought in work choices.
just a small example of how things we take for granted as a protection can be completely taken away.

maybe these things wont be an issue in our lifetime, but we cannot say they never will, and being ok with happening slowly now isn't something im prepared to be.

as for most places people on ATS live, i wont speak for them. i dont trust it not to happen, as historically these things have happened again and again.

this is realism, not fearporn. right now we still have power. what im saying is we should be using that power to nip this **** in the bud before it becomes something more.

reply to post by FyreByrd


This sounds to me, very much like old news. Of course they are tracking location data from mobile telecommunications equipment. They track every other damned thing, I do not see why they would have left out this particular bit of privacy invasion! Don't forget, they have to fill in the entire card before they shout "HOUSE!".

Honestly though, it is not as if this news can accurately be described as such. This is technically olds, not news. Once it became clear that the NSA was accessing private information from the world wide web, in my view that gave them access to all the information held, received, stored on, and pushed through, the internet. That includes cell phone data of this type. This is merely one facet of a very complex and effective data mining operation, a comprehensive gathering of all manner of data, from a wide range of sources.

I find it both very clever, and disgusting.

Pisses me off that the leaks are being made public little by little, with each having greater implications than the last. This is blunting the information's effect, people are already conditioned to an extent by these leaks. The information should have been disclosed - ALL OF IT - on day one. It may have been a huge amount of data, but let the people sort through it while it's new and has their full attention. Nothing will change with this gradual release BS because the people will not get angry enough. Perhaps by design, like the proverbial frog in boiling water.