MetaFilter posts tagged with NSA and surveillance

IRS Claims Authority to Read Your E-Mail Without A Warrant

Sleeper — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 13:11:55 -0800

The ACLU reports that the IRS claims in an internal document that it has the authority to access citizens' online communications without a warrant. The IRS claimed in a 2009 document that "the Fourth Amendment does not protect communications held in electronic storage, such as email messages stored on a server, because internet users do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in such communications." It still retains that position even after the 2010 case of US v Warshak which determined that citizens have a reasonable expectation of privacy in such communications. The IRS to this day declares in bland language that no warrant is required for e-mails held by an ISP for more than 180 days. (One relevant document). A CNET article gives additional context. The ACLU is currently awaiting a response to its FOIA requests to other agencies like the FBI and Justice Department for information on their policies, procedures, and practices in reading citizens' private communications. The related case of Jewel v NSA, in which the EFF is suing the NSA on behalf of AT&T users for the NSA's dragnet surveillance of Americans' electronic communication, is ongoing (after nearly being completely dismissed on the grounds that nobody has standing to challenge the practice because it's secret).

"Evidence in the case includes undisputed documents provided by former AT&T telecommunications technician Mark Klein showing AT&T has routed copies of Internet traffic [including ~1.7 billion e-mails etc. daily] to a secret room in San Francisco controlled by the NSA. It also includes declarations from three NSA whistleblowers along with a mountain of other evidence."

The government's use of electronic surveillance is increasing dramatically each year.

Electronic surveillance skyrockets in the US

Sleeper — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 21:02:11 -0800

The Justice Department, after a legal battle with the ACLU to avoid having to admit it, recently released documents showing that the federal government’s use of warrantless “pen register” and “tap and trace” surveillance has multiplied over the past decade. But the Justice Department is small potatoes. Every day, the NSA intercepts and stores 1.7 billion emails, phone calls, texts, and other electronic communications. (Previously on Metafilter: Mobile Phone Surveillance by the numbers, Former NSA officials sue NSA over NSA misconduct, Washington Post's project on government surveillance, Map of organizations authorized to use drones in the US) Surveillance is ubiquitous. Do we really need more data, or do we need better data & analysis? The Washington Post’s project on electronic surveillance raised some important points:

* Many security and intelligence agencies do the same work [as each other], creating redundancy and waste. For example, 51 federal organizations and military commands, operating in 15 U.S. cities, track the flow of money to and from terrorist networks. * Analysts who make sense of documents and conversations obtained by foreign and domestic spying share their judgment by publishing 50,000 intelligence reports each year - a volume so large that many are routinely ignored. ….improvements have been overtaken by volume at the ODNI, as the increased flow of intelligence data overwhelms the system's ability to analyze and use it. Every day, collection systems at the National Security Agency intercept and store 1.7 billion e-mails, phone calls and other types of communications. The NSA sorts a fraction of those into 70 separate databases. The same problem bedevils every other intelligence agency, none of which have enough analysts and translators for all this work.

To deal with the information glut, the government is turning to artificial intelligence for help. AI surveillance has also gone from cyberspace to meatspace: Known projects for sorting through the high volume of video surveillance include the military-developed Mind’s Eye (still in the works) and the privately-developed Trapwire, (already in use here). Sooner or later it will be standard for security cameras to be able to identify individuals and recognize their actions at least as well as the Xbox Kinect can. Updates on the legal status of domestic surveillance: 1.The House of Representatives last month re-approved the FISA bill, and the bill is now ready to pass in the Senate as well. 2. In August a federal appeals court ruled that the federal government may spy on Americans’ communications without warrants and without fear of being sued in the case of Al-Haramain Islamic V. Obama. This case is all over unless the Supreme Court agrees to hear it. 3. The Electronic Frontier Foundation's case Jewel v. NSA challenges the NSA's enormous domestic spying operation. It looked like a lost cause, but it's now up for a hearing on December 14, 2012. 4. The Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that law enforcement officers can’t sneak a GPS tracking device onto an individual’s vehicle unless they get a warrant first. 5. (From Salon):

the Obama administration is aggressively seeking to block any efforts to have federal courts rule on the constitutionality of this new FISA law. Immediately after its 2008 passage, the ACLU, on behalf of journalists, activists, and writers, sued to invalidate the law on the ground that it violates the Fourth Amendment rights of Americans by subjecting them to warrantless eavesdropping. As they always do in such cases, the Bush and Obama DOJs demanded dismissal of the suit on the ground of “standing”: namely, they asserted the definitively Kafkaesque claim that because the list of Americans who have their conversations intercepted is kept secret, the plaintiffs cannot prove they were eavesdropped on under the law, and thus lack “standing” to challenge it.

The widespread use of electronic surveillance couldn’t occur without the assistance of the telecommunications companies. The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:

The undisputed documents show that AT&T installed a fiberoptic splitter at its facility at 611 Folsom Street in San Francisco that makes copies of all emails web browsing and other Internet traffic to and from AT&T customers and provides those copies to the NSA. This copying includes both domestic and international Internet activities of AT&T customers. As one expert observed “this isn’t a wiretap, it’s a country-tap.”

The ACLU lists several ways that telecommunications companies stumble over themselves to meet the government’s requests for private information: Copying of existing messages to a separate account, The Voicemail PIN Reset, Voicemail “cloning," etc. Related: Spy drone usage increases domestically and globally. Last year saw the first-ever drone-assisted arrest of a US citizen, as well as the first-ever drone-assisted killing of a US citizen by the US government. Lastly, coming soon to a city near you: Gorgon Stare , a drone-mounted city-spanning surveillance system planned to be deployed in Afghanistan that could eventually be deployed in the US. (Man, who named that thing?) It's designed to be combined with visual recognition technology like Mind's Eye. With this, they won’t need to put a GPS tracker on anyone’s car.

Challenging the Surveillance State

dunkadunc — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 14:21:11 -0800

"If the government is able to learn what we speak about, and know who we're talking to, and know what it is that we're planning, it makes any kind of activism extremely difficult, because secrecy and privacy are prerequisites to effective activism. "

Glenn Greenwald on challenging the surveillance state: (1 - 2 - 3 - 4).

... and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

jeffburdges — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 17:38:23 -0800

The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has supposedly started holding closed door meetings on extending the FISA Amendment Act to again extend the NSA's domestic warrantless wiretapping program. Senators Ron Wyden and Mark Udall are trying to ammend the amendment with :

In democratic societies, citizens rightly expect that their government will not arbitrarily keep information secret from the public but instead will act with secrecy only in certain limited circumstances.

Anyone who missed the backstory may checkout the FISA or wiretapping tags. Wyden showed up on the blue recently for working against the Protect-IP Act.

Pinwale

homunculus — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 14:33:51 -0800

NSA E-Mail Surveillance Renews Concerns in Congress. "Since April, when it was disclosed that the intercepts of some private communications of Americans went beyond legal limits in late 2008 and early 2009, several Congressional committees have been investigating. Those inquiries have led to concerns in Congress about the agency’s ability to collect and read domestic e-mail messages of Americans on a widespread basis, officials said. Supporting that conclusion is the account of a former N.S.A. analyst who, in a series of interviews, described being trained in 2005 for a program in which the agency routinely examined large volumes of Americans’ e-mail messages without court warrants. Two intelligence officials confirmed that the program was still in operation." [Via]

Stellar Wind

homunculus — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 09:21:36 -0800

The Fed Who Blew the Whistle: Is he a hero or a criminal? Three years after the New York Times first revealed the NSA's warrantless wiretapping program, whistleblower Thomas Tamm has acknowledged his role in making it public. [Via]

Room 641A

homunculus — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 13:05:51 -0800

The Secret Room: EFF Designer's Cartoon on Illegal Spying. [Via] Appeals Court Punts on AT&T Spying Case Appeal Rights Group Suing AT&T for Spying Will Sue Government Too

Remember Total Information Awareness?

[expletive deleted] — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 12:35:14 -0800

Two years ago, then NSA-chief Gen. Michael Hayden said its domestic surveillance program was "not a driftnet over Lackawanna or Fremont or Dearborn, grabbing all communications and then sifting them out." Today, a story in the Wall Street Journal alleges this is precisely what is happening. Total Information Awareness seems to not have died, but to have just been quietly absorbed into the NSA's already extensive surveillance apparatus, all without the hassle of any kind of transparency or oversight.

Improved Billboard Touts AT&T and NSA Collaboration

homunculus — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 13:00:15 -0800

"The Billboard Liberation Front today announced a major new advertising improvement campaign executed on behalf of clients AT&T and the National Security Agency. Focusing on billboards in the San Francisco area, this improvement action is designed to promote and celebrate the innovative collaboration of these two global communications giants." [Via Threat Level.]

Surveillance state in progress

baphomet — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 09:46:40 -0800

In 2006, the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a class-action lawsuit against AT&T for cooperating with an NSA wiretapping program that created a "black room" in their San Fransisco office, which operated hardware that captured the entire stream of data travelling through AT&T's system (allegedly 2.5 gigabits of data/second). The details of this arrangement were revealed by Mark Klein, a 22-year employee with AT&T who stumbled across documents detailing the program in 2004. The lawsuit, which alleges that AT&T illegally cooperated with the NSA's domestic spying program, is facing a major hurdle in the Senate right now as Senators have reached a tentative agreement to give the company legal immunity from actions relating to their cooperation. This story previously on MeFi. Note that according to Mr. Klein in the interview, no other telecom companies approached by the NSA complied with this request, citing concerns over the legality of the program. Says Mr. Klein: "If they've done something massively illegal and unconstitutional -- well, they should suffer the consequences. It's not my place to feel bad for them. They made their bed, they have to lie in it." I rather agree.

"If you scratch a paranoid, you find a narcissist"

homunculus — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 18:10:28 -0800

What's the Big Secret? Four surveillance experts try to figure out what the NSA's superclassified wiretapping program really is (hint: it may have something to do with the filters). They don't seem to realize that this kind of reckless public discussion means some Americans are going to die. [Via Threat Level.]

National Surveillance State

homunculus — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 17:40:07 -0800

Bush Gets a Spying Blank Check. The passage of the new FISA bill was a hurried response to the revelation that the FISA court recently decided that at least part of the NSA wiretapping program is illegal. It looks to be another step in our gradual transition into a National Surveillance State.

You had to live -- did live, from the habit that became instinct and the assumption that every sound you made was overheard.

homunculus — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 00:33:17 -0800

For Your Eyes Only? Allegations that the government is reading your e-mails, with the help of AT&T. The latest episode of NOW did a good piece on the NSA's domestic surveillance program (previously discussed here.) It can be viewed on their website. Meanwhile, Canadian human rights attorney Maureen Webb has written a new book on the scope of government surveillance, and found that the use of sophisticated methods to search for terrorists is not identifying the right suspects.

Your world, delivered to the NSA

homunculus — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 21:59:02 -0800

AT&T Ducks Accountability. Lawsuits, Questions Follow NSA Surveillance Approval.

It's time for you to get some new cell phones, quick.

EarBucket — Mon, 15 May 2006 07:59:07 -0800

Federal Source to ABC News: We Know Who You're Calling

Black-Bag Jobs

digaman — Sun, 19 Mar 2006 18:33:48 -0800

"Don't worry Mr. President, we have Kansas surrounded." Warrantless searches: they're not just for wiretaps anymore. U.S. News and World Report probes the Bush administration's covert drive to conduct physical searches of American homes without court approval.

Censuring Domestic Surveillance

digaman — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 09:22:26 -0800

"Resolved that the United States Senate does hereby censure George W. Bush, president of the United States, and does condemn his unlawful authorization of wiretaps of Americans." Invoking "high crimes and misdemeanors," Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold introduces a motion to censure [PDF link] President Bush for his controversial, legally dubious NSA wiretapping program. Feingold declares: "The President must be held accountable for authorizing a program that clearly violates the law." Republican leader Frist retorts: "It's a crazy political move" that sends a "terrible" signal to Iran. Democratic bloggers say: Call your senator. [More legal fallout from the NSA program recently discussed here.]

Secret Justice

digaman — Sat, 11 Mar 2006 10:04:39 -0800

Newsfilter: Secret arrests, secret renditions, secret interrogations in secret jails, and now, secret rulings from US federal judges. More fallout from the Bush administration's NSA domestic-spying program [recently discussed here].

Tell 'em Uncle Alberto Says It's Cool

digaman — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 08:51:01 -0800

'The committee is, to put it bluntly, basically under the control of the White House," said Jay Rockefeller, vice-president of the Senate Intelligence Committee, after the committee quashed a broad inquiry into the legality of the NSA spying on Americans -- despite an increasing number of legal scholars coming forward and declaring that the program is "blatantly illegal," in the words of Yale Law School dean Harold Koh. Meanwhile, the GOP proposes giving spying on Americans the "force of law" while subjecting it to "rigorous oversight."

Evidence of a Slippery Slope

digaman — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 06:56:58 -0800

Evidence of a slippery slope continued: Newsweek reports that White House counsel Steve Bradbury believes President Bush can order killings on US soil as part of the Terrorist-Surveillance Program^TM. Meanwhile, while Attorney General Gonzales "lashes out" at the media and insists that the TSP^TM is "not a dragnet that sucks in all conversation and uses computer searches to pick out calls of interest," the Washington Post reports it's precisely that -- "computer-controlled systems collect and sift basic information about hundreds of thousands of faxes, e-mails and telephone calls into and out of the United States before selecting the ones for scrutiny by human eyes and ears" -- and has led to very few leads. (See also discussion of Arlen Specter and the legality of the TSP^TM here.)

Specter: Administration broke law

bukharin — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 19:39:38 -0800

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, says President George W. Bush's warrantless surveillance program appears to be illegal. Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," Specter called the administration's legal reasoning "strained and unrealistic" and said the program appears to be "in flat violation" of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

NSA Whistleblower Alleges Illegal Spying

bukharin — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 17:06:42 -0800

Watch what you say. Russell Tice, the NSA whistleblower who was the source for the NYT, has alleged that the the technology exists to track and sort through every domestic and international phone call as they are switched through centers, such as one in New York, and to search for key words or phrases that a terrorist might use. "If you picked the word 'jihad' out of a conversation," Tice said, "the technology exists that you focus in on that conversation, and you pull it out of the system for processing." What else are they listening for?

National Security Agency

Postroad — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 13:48:49 -0800

National Security Agency What is it that NSA does? What are or were its legal parameters and its history? This is a quick "NSA 101" course that might be helpful as stories continue to emerge about the agency. Oddly, as large as this organization is, it has been very much in the background, and only recently when some whistleblowers spoke up, has this agency gained a good deal of public attention. Some of you may recall the fuss raised about some spy agency named Echelon and wonder how this group is or is not connected to NSA. And soon at least one whistle blower will testify before congress, though the White House seems to have convinced some 50% of Americans that the president can do whatever he wants in time of war, ignoring legal constraints upon intel branches. And that raises the question (for me): if NSA can skirt the courts to "fight terror," then what of the FBI, also once requied to have court approval for phone taps. Are they too now free to do as they want in this "fight against terror"?

Hello, 1984?

GregW — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 13:25:15 -0800

Our Domestic Intelligence Crisis Federal Appeals Court Judge Richard Posner imagines a world in which US citizens are constantly under electronic surveillance.... and is totally okay with it. Once you accept Posner's premise that "machine collection and processing of data cannot, as such, invade privacy," how far are we from cameras and microphones in private homes. After all, there is no privacy invasion so long as it is only a computer flagging "suspicious" activity, right?

On Policy Discussions in a Never-Ending War

digaman — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 07:26:40 -0800

"I learned this week that on December 6, Bush summoned Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger and executive editor Bill Keller to the Oval Office in a futile attempt to talk them out of running the story..." President Bush really did not want journalists to reveal his NSA spying program against Americans [discussed here.] And in yesterday's rare press conference, the President said: "An open debate about law would say to the enemy, 'Here's what we're going to do.' And this is an enemy which adjusts... Any public hearings on programs will say to the enemy, 'Here's what they do. Adjust.' This is a war." Neocon guru William Kristol argues that talk of Bush being an "imperial" president" is "demagogic" and "irresponsible" since "Congress has the right and the ability to judge whether President Bush has in fact used his executive discretion soundly." What is the role of "open debate" in a war against terror that may last for decades?