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Microsoft secretly gave the NSA, CIA, FBI access to Skype, Outlook, Skydrive

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T

tokkun

Member
MIMIC said:
So when Obama said that "no one is listening to your phone calls", he wasn't including video conversations on Skype?
Click to expand...

That quote was about domestic phone calls. At the time, we already knew the government can listen in to the phone calls if it is an international call and at least one of the participants is a non-US citizen.

I'm not seeing anything in this report to say it's different with the Skype tapping, so it doesn't seem as if anything has changed.
 
Baki

Baki

Member
Do these actually require court orders. Because I shudder to think about a reality where a random analyst can peek into our lives.

Tl:Dr: No more dick pics hahahaha
 
DiscoJer

DiscoJer

Member
Baki said:
Do these actually require court orders. Because I shudder to think about a reality where a random analyst can peek into our lives.

Tl:Dr: No more dick pics hahahaha
Click to expand...

Supposedly, but it's from a special secret court which rubber stamps everything.

And as to why it's a problem, Cardinal Richelieu said it best

"If one would give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest man, I would find something in them to have him hanged."

Things have only gotten worse since his time. There's a famous saying, a prosecutor could get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich. Is it perhaps overstating things? Yes, but not by much. There are just so many laws nowadays it's hard not to break some.
 
T

tafer

Member
DiscoJer said:
Supposedly, but it's from a special secret court which rubber stamps everything.

And as to why it's a problem, Cardinal Richelieu said it best

"If one would give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest man, I would find something in them to have him hanged."

Things have only gotten worse since his time. There's a famous saying, a prosecutor could get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich. Is it perhaps overstating things? Yes, but not by much. There are just so many laws nowadays it's hard not to break some.
Click to expand...

Yep, it's kinda funny how bad this whole mess actually is.

And yet, at this point I don't know what is more sad:
- The naive people who still think there is something "ok" about this stuff.
- The folks who refuse to acknowledge what we know and proceed to defend it.
- The cynical masses too tired of taking shit to do anything about it.

Oh well, interesting time we are living guys.
 
T

tafer

Member
ivedoneyourmom said:
Just imagine how the world would be if we had this surveillance technology before 1850.
Click to expand...

Certain groups of people wouldn't exist these days, tyrants would rule the world, etc... pretty !

You know, because this stuff is abused and used against the people without fail.
 
K

killer rin

Member
Madness said:
I'm in Canada. My ISP has no legal obligation to turn over my data to the NSA. It's probably collected by CSIS but I mean, this is a US software company willfully giving the information to a foreign government in my eyes.
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As long as we keep on stopping the conservatives from trying to implement Harpers Warrantless Online Spying bill or Vic Towes' Child Pornography bill every couple of months, they will continue to collect the bare minimum.
 
Monocle

Monocle

Member
DyTonic said:
If you have nothing to hide, why live in fear. With these revelations, people will be utilizing tools to stay off radar with their plans..
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A similar line of thinking was used to justify gross violations of human rights under Stalin. Don't you realize how sinister it is to presume guilt just because people object to invasive surveillance? The erosion of your right to privacy is kind of a big deal.
 
L

Lynn616

Member
People have every right to be paranoid about this stuff. People that are worried about this should also be worried about any camera that is connected to the Internet. The 20 Million existing Kinects, the millions of PSEyes, the PS4 camera, iPhones, iPads and Laptop Webcams. If you are worried about one be worried about all of them.
 
M

MIMIC

Banned
tokkun said:
That quote was about domestic phone calls. At the time, we already knew the government can listen in to the phone calls if it is an international call and at least one of the participants is a non-US citizen.

I'm not seeing anything in this report to say it's different with the Skype tapping, so it doesn't seem as if anything has changed.
Click to expand...

I haven't read the whole thing but does the article say that the Skype interceptions are limited to foreign individuals?

edit: N/M. Just skimmed and found it:

Blanket orders from the secret surveillance court allow these communications to be collected without an individual warrant if the NSA operative has a 51% belief that the target is not a US citizen and is not on US soil at the time. Targeting US citizens does require an individual warrant, but the NSA is able to collect Americans' communications without a warrant if the target is a foreign national located overseas.
Click to expand...
 
T

Toa TAK

Banned
tafer said:
Yep, it's kinda funny how bad this whole mess actually is.

And yet, at this point I don't know what is more sad:
- The naive people who still think there is something "ok" about this stuff.
- The folks who refuse to acknowledge what we know and proceed to defend it.
- The cynical masses too tired of taking shit to do anything about it.

Oh well, interesting time we are living guys.
Click to expand...

That's me unfortunately.

All this about the NSA, this thread, Snowden, etc. I always thought it was assumed that there was no such thing as privacy to begin with. I'm 19, I don't know jack shit about how the world works, so I'm basically a bystander watching the confused and angry masses.
 
P

Pctx

Banned
F**k the US Government and the cold war shit storm they gave us over the last 30 years. I am so sick of this garbage, nothing is private nor was it ever.
 
C

crozier

Member
IMO we shouldn't be concerned about the devices we have connected to the Internet and elsewhere, but rather the fact our government seeks to monitor our activities through these devices illegally and without cause. The Kinect shitstorm never would have happened without the recent NSA revelations.

Get to the root of the problem.
 
I

I H8 Memes

Member
Well, those massive data centers arent there for meta data. You really think they need data centers that large for meta data?

I bet MS got a fat software contract in return.
 
C

CLEEK

Member
MIMIC said:
So when Obama said that "no one is listening to your phone calls", he wasn't including video conversations on Skype?
Click to expand...

Or apparently, calls made by US Verizon customers.

Due to the very nature of the secrecy behind the FISA process, we just don't know the scale, or the companies involved. But I think the picture is pretty clear that all major US companies that can provide user data have been ordered to do so.
 
P

polyh3dron

Banned
Yep and now they'll be in your living room with a camera and microphone connected to them at all times if you buy a XBone. But it's okay because MS takes your privacy very seriously.

I'm just gonna iMessage people from now on because they apparently can't crack that. Thank you, based Apple.
 
M

Mariolee

Member
I'm surprised this thread is so small. I would expect far more outrage considering how much of these apps we actually use.
 
SJRB

SJRB

Gold Member
Mariolee said:
I'm surprised this thread is so small. I would expect far more outrage considering how much of these apps we actually use.
Click to expand...

The overall lack of outrage about the entire PRISM scandal is nothing short of mindblowing. It's amazing to see people getting invaded in their most intimate privacy and then shrugging it off like it's no big deal. There is some random schmuck sitting in a cubicle somewhere reading your emails, your text messages, listening to your phonecalls, watching your Skype videos and god knows what else. All for the sake of "safety and security".


We should talk more on how to circumvent this. Obviously the first step is to stop using the programs, but if the receiving party is still using outlook, gmail and the likes you're still locked in.

So then what? Third party email client, encrypted and through proxy? Just to send an email? This entire situation is insane, and I don't know what's more worrying - the gross breach of privacy by our governments or the complete apathy of the everyday man.

Edit: if this thread was about Kinect collecting metadata this thread would've had 23,528 posts by now.
 
E

Erasus

Member
Sadly my family and freinds use Skype and Facebook and MS Windows has me hooked on directX. If I didnt need that I would install Ubuntu/Mint and only use IRC and drop outlook/gmail. But thats a pretty big thing to do.

Plus EU probably does the same so I dont feel any safer being there.
 
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