Yahoo webcam images from millions of users intercepted by GCHQ

GCHQ files dating between 2008 and 2010 explicitly state that a surveillance program codenamed Optic Nerve collected still images of Yahoo webcam chats in bulk and saved them to agency databases, regardless of whether individual users were an intelligence target or not.

In one six-month period in 2008 alone, the agency collected webcam imagery – including substantial quantities of sexually explicit communications – from more than 1.8 million Yahoo user accounts globally.

Yahoo webcam images from millions of users intercepted by GCHQ

Fed up, yet?

Tired of the BS from this corrupt government?

If you think this program is limited to yahoo webcam chatting surveillance, dream on.

The article goes on to state:

While the documents do not detail efforts as widescale as those against Yahoo users, one presentation discusses with interest the potential and capabilities of the Xbox 360's Kinect camera, saying it generated "fairly normal webcam traffic" and was being evaluated as part of a wider program.

Yes, they're watching you at all times. Yes, you should tape over your webcam when not in use. Yes, you should boycott Yahoo and Micro$oft and Apple and Google, and all these corporations that are all too willing to sell out your privacy and freedom for a little judas gold. You should stop using their products--ALL OF THEM.

But you already knew that.

Now, the question is, will you finally act in accordance with your beliefs? Will you finally wake up and take action against the surveillance state? Will you start using alternative private search engines like Startpage and giving up your smartphone addictions? Or will you keep on buying your iCrap and Xboxes and Androids and just turn the other cheek while the NSA continues destroying this country?

It's your choice, and you're not going to get another shot. Once you surrender your rights with apathy and inaction, you forfeit them forever. So do the right thing. Do something NOW, and let this criminal fascist corporate-state know we the people have had ENOUGH.

Nice collection of amateur porn.

reply to post by therealguyfawkes


Its threads like this that make me happy I never owned a webcam, and that I always cover the one camera on my phone with some duct tape.

People always laughed at me for it but this right here makes it all worth while.

reply to post by therealguyfawkes


For the sake of being the devils advocate.....

What kind of device are you using to post on ATS? Dont you think it is a little hypocritical to be saying boycott those companies when there is a 99% chance you are using their products to post on ATS?

I was recently in a thread about webcams being used to spy-and to by unamazment I found I was amonst many ATSers who stick tape over their webcams and mic!
I wonder how many of these images in the OP article were just solid black?

reply to post by therealguyfawkes


What do they expect to find other than the occasional person spanking there monkey? LoL

I have NOTHING to be ashamed about. lol I pack a big sword. See avatar. lmfao

If any of them were under 18 and getting their bits out the person viewing them could be technically done for viewing CP as its illegal to have a sexual imagine of anyone under 18 with the only exception being people 16-18 who are in a serious relationship/married

Silcone Synapse
I was recently in a thread about webcams being used to spy-and to by unamazment I found I was amonst many ATSers who stick tape over their webcams and mic!
I wonder how many of these images in the OP article were just solid black?

Black electric tape! No joke.

Reverse it

Instead of taping your webcam and raise curiosity and become probable target, why not behave like normal user ? blend into it. Be a Justin Beiber fan, jolly happy facebook user. Overload the information, create new account with small minor "typo", become Brittany Sper, Brittany Spaer and Brittainy Sper and before you know it, which one is the correct Britnoy Spars from these 12 million result ?

Secret in the open.

and yes, I felt that, my avatar showing monkey spanking itself.

it doesn't say any arrest where made. And with that many images I'm sure they found some incriminating evidence. Really no big deal though, they listen to your phone calls and you still use phones.....

3u40r15m
it doesn't say any arrest where made. And with that many images I'm sure they found some incriminating evidence. Really no big deal though, they listen to your phone calls and you still use phones.....

Are you suggesting that it's "really no big deal" the government is violating the law and the Constitution to invade your home and spy on your every move? Yeah?

My friend, if you came home from work or school to find a thief rooting through all your belongings, you would freak the # out. But that's what the government is doing EVERY SINGLE DAY.

Realign your perspective, because it doesn't compute.

They're working hard to collect faces and names for their facial recognition databases:

"Face detection has the potential to aid selection of useful images for 'mugshots' or even for face recognition by assessing the angle of the face," it reads. "The best images are ones where the person is facing the camera with their face upright."

Once upon a time you had to opt-in by having a Facebook page or getting a photo ID. Cataloging everyone is the goal and this tool helps move it along even for those who have consciously avoided opting in to such databases in the past.

Sooner or later a security camera, a traffic camera, being in the background of some picture that gets put online, etc... will catalog every one of us.

reply to post by therealguyfawkes

Yes, you should tape over your webcam when not in use.

I just cut the end off an envelope, and made a notch in the back to allow for the mount, and used a black felt pin to darken the spot in front of the lens.
I just slide it on, and on the rare occasions that I do web-cast, I can just pull it right off. (that's for the separate camera that clips to the top of the monitor)
There are programs the gov. spies have that turn on cameras without making the red record light come on (or so I have heard).
I did tape over the lens on my mobile device, with blue masking tape, since I never use it to web-cast, and use a regular camera if I want to take pictures.

Does this include family members changing their clothes at the time? This is terrible... and Obama said that they were not interested in my photos..

reply to post by 3u40r15m


Obvious shill... take your .01 Karma and shill somewhere else... burrrp in your general direction!

The reality is non of this matters and nothing will come from it.

The majority of the population would rather talk about what is wrong with their sports team or which celebrity is f'd up on drugs and what they would do to fix it. The other part are the ones that solely blame the opposing political party for all our problems.

The Non critical thinkers and the easily distracted crowds make the majority of the population.

reply to post by therealguyfawkes


There was once a time, just a couple of years ago, when this news thread on ATS would have seen 5 or 6 pages of comments and 50 flags within the first hour of being posted. How freaking sad when even the (allegedly) enlightened people within the CT community are so apathetic and so well conditioned that this topic is treated with such non-challant indifference.

America 2014 disgusts me. The country has become little more than a bloated, rotting corpse of Lady Liberty, filled with apathetic maggots and surrounded by perverted vultures.

If a hacker did this to just one person there would be serious consequences.
In fact, I'm pretty sure it happened. In the case I'm thinking of, he blackmailed a beauty queen. The blackmail is obviously illegal, but I'm sure even w/o blackmail, this would be considered a serious crime.
What we have here is the gov't doing it to millions.
Pretty sad when the head of the Executive branch is a constitutional lawyer and not only does't see it as illegal, but embraces it.
What a sham.
PS, anyone who says this is OK... Just because you don't personally care, does not make it alright for anyone to be doing.

burdman30ott6
reply to post by therealguyfawkes

 

There was once a time, just a couple of years ago, when this news thread on ATS would have seen 5 or 6 pages of comments and 50 flags within the first hour of being posted. How freaking sad when even the (allegedly) enlightened people within the CT community are so apathetic and so well conditioned that this topic is treated with such non-challant indifference.

America 2014 disgusts me. The country has become little more than a bloated, rotting corpse of Lady Liberty, filled with apathetic maggots and surrounded by perverted vultures.

You mean before ATS went commercial? Ever wonder why members don't see pop-ups? They have to be monetizing us some other way. The possibilities with that are not all that appealing. You can't expect anything different here than in that regard than you find everywhere else.
The money whores have their hands on everything and won't stop until they know everything about everyone so that they can protect their money and control positions.