U.S. intelligence mining data from nine U.S. Internet companies in broad secret program

Originally posted by Archie
reply to post by ThreeBears

 

I am heartily sick of this "I told you so, no big shock *yawn*" stuff people are coming out with. It's becoming so ubiquitous amongst those who've done everything everyone's told them to their whole lives without question and is being used as a brick bat to make the rest of us accept this. If I was the paranoid type, I'd think it was a co-ordinated government campaign to try and force people into lying down and accepting it through sheer peer pressure.

Make no mistake, this is massive. Never has a country spied on its own and other countries citizens to this extent. Never in history. Of course most of us knew this was happening, we're not morons, but not to this extent.

The breadth of this is incredibly disturbing and if you are a sentient human being you *should* be disturbed. This is raw, unfettered power and no government, right or left, will ever do away with it. It's why people become politicians, to have so much power at the end of their fingertips.

So don't give me this "Oh, we always knew it was happening, *yawn*' crap, it is so bloody obnoxious. You should be disturbed and you should be angry. WTF is wrong with people?

edit on 8-6-2013 by Archie because: clarity

see my other reply on the Anon and NSA etc., it's relevant to this as well,

As for this, it's too bad I can't write the way I would prefer to, which is from the Street level because I would really go off in a few things and offend a lot BUT see, from a Class lens I don't have a lot of sympathy to the majority of apathetic Snobs, yes I said Snobs, and their bs self righteousness of oh we did Everything right why oh why me God is government going after precious Folks like Us, well

Waaa waaa waaa to That, mentality,

because truth be told...Hundreds of Dirt Poor, WARNED about this Very thing YEARS AGO and these angry folk now, back THEN were saying, "well if you weren't such u righteous folks why you wouldn't have Anything to worry about OR the "You're just being Paranoid" etc etc etc...oh yea we heard it ALL.

When the Tips program came out, during ole Bushes day, the neocons were all Fine with That, when the Patriot Act came about and YES there was major coverage of the Government THEN Spying and I recall Exactly articles written asserting that Utility companies and Cable companies would be harvesting Data, the PEOPLE KNEW IT

And they were FINE WITH IT THEN for the most part because IN their geo political Racist minds and Classist they never thought it would EVER be "THEM" being Spied on, oh no Not Uncle SAMs precious little Children, not Them why They SPECIAL...the Rest of us scum well we could just Rot,

A d many yes DID ROT. A Young man, anarchist was Arrested, for what HE wrote on Facebook YEARS ago, Targeted for his anti government speech! WHERE we're the Angry AMERICANS THEN???? NO WHERE, why he was a Leftie, let the pinko burn, never mind that he wasn't a commie but regardless...the Middle Class then you see we're Fine and Comfortable and THEY didn't Care about the poor being rounded up on the streets OR the activists Then who were being targeted by the Feds and put on Spy files and being Stalked, and for What? One group, for Feeding the Poor, that's right, they were potential Threats for Feeding Poor folk,

But warn then it was Oh Noooo, that would Never happen HERE, why you must be Crazy to suggest such a thing!!!

The Writing was all Over the wall TEN years ago...so uh, forgive me if I'm not Surprised...I saw a man who taught college get Railroaded for having Views not Accepted by the status quo...lost his career, was stalked, nearly arrested and for having the Nerve to CRITICIZE the Government but Because he wasn't sine white neo can boy no Ine gave a Damn. He wasn't the only one either, but he Was one that WARNED about the deliberate making segments Invisibke therefore the gov could easily just sweep them and kill them off and without even a notice...and HE WAS RIGHT now wasn't he? But you see Ten years ago, even Twenty years ago, the People did NOT CARE and when they DID not Care they GAVE GOV THEIR CONSENT, Implied but it's still Consent. NOW it's operational and Guess what Virginia its NOT just to the black in the ghetto who is being spied on or the crazy homeless man or the young anarchist squatting to survive, oh no NOW it's also the Yuppie in his computer tech Jon or the Smiths and the occur Mom, well Guess what? Welcome to the rest of the slave world, which you've Always been a PART of, and when they load Us into the trains guess what baypby you'll be right next to us, headed to the same camp.

As for the Government never having this much Power, are you Serious? This Government detained HOW many Japenese at the blink of an eye in WWII? or the Thousands left to STARVE during the Depression? This gov???

What you all seem to be missing here is that Obama isn't the true problem here. You think that if Obama wasn't President this wouldn't be happening?

It's the entire rotten edifice of your government and intelligence agencies that's the problem. It doesn't matter who's President, it will still carry on.

Obama spouted numerous lies in his election campaign and so will future Presidential candidates.

Originally posted by bgold1212
Can someone explain how a company such as Google can be tapped into by the NSA and willingly expose all the data? Take Gmail for instance, each account features a password with encrypted emails. Does this override the encryptions?

It seems to me that Google's origins are a bit nebulous to begin with. I wouldn't be surprised if Google came straight out of the US intelligence community.

Originally posted by Kram09
What you all seem to be missing here is that Obama isn't the true problem here. You think that if Obama wasn't President this wouldn't be happening?

It's the entire rotten edifice of your government and intelligence agencies that's the problem. It doesn't matter who's President, it will still carry on.

Obama spouted numerous lies in his election campaign and so will future Presidential candidates.

Exactly. Obviously, he needs to be exposed as someone who can't be trusted but it won't ever matter much who is president. He wouldn't be president if he wasn't part of this to start with.

Originally posted by Kram09
What you all seem to be missing here is that Obama isn't the true problem here. You think that if Obama wasn't President this wouldn't be happening?

It's the entire rotten edifice of your government and intelligence agencies that's the problem. It doesn't matter who's President, it will still carry on.

Obama spouted numerous lies in his election campaign and so will future Presidential candidates.

edit on 8/6/13 by Kram09 because: (no reason given)

Let the truth be told, but only wise ears will receive it.

Playing the blame game is exactly what the hidden hand wants people to do. IT'S BUSH'S FAULT! NO, IT'S OBAMA'S! RAH RAH RAH

Fools.

US government invokes special privilege to stop scrutiny of data mining

www.guardian.co.uk...

Originally posted by MidnightTide
US government invokes special privilege to stop scrutiny of data mining

www.guardian.co.uk...

Thanks for posting the above.
This is a fascinating article...I recommend all here read it.

Originally posted by DistantThunder
If you're not doing anything wrong, you don't have anything to worry about.

You sir, deserve neither.

"If you can't trust us, then we are going to have some problems" - President Obama, June 7 2013

reply to post by ThePublicEnemyNo1


Apathy and fear are what rule our day to day lives. Most people will complain and point at the other side and say my guy would do a better job.


When your rulers are openly telling you they could care less about your freedoms you know something major is coming. What? I have no idea but I doubt it will be puppies and rainbows.


I personally think they finally realized just how blind we actually are and are moving into anti-freedom high gear. With each new story we accept our fates a little more piece by piece until we wake up one day months or years from now and wonder what happened.

Originally posted by ButterCookie
"If you can't trust us, then we are going to have some problems" - President Obama, June 7 2013

We're not looking into your private conversationsssss, you should trussssst ussss, if you don't then we have problemssss. Typical Obama flip flop snake speak. Then why are you collecting it??? I mean seriously is anyone really going buy into this crap? They use the same middleman technique's that hackers use to tap the lines.

I heard this on the radio the other day and really wasn't surprised...

What better surveillance devices than a smartphone, a desktop, a laptop, an xbox, a playstation?
If you have an iPhone by tapping into Apples servers they have all your passwords, contact info, your emails, your ph calls, what sites you visit, they can track you via gps, they know what you buy, if you use banking apps they have your banking info your transactions.They know when you get up by your alarm when you leave the house etc..They know your meetings by your reminders...
Through Facebook they know your friends, what you like etc..
They can turn on your cameras remotely.
Through Microsoft or Apple they have access to back doors on your pc through the operating systems.
Through the touchpad on your phone they have your fingerprints, through SIRI they have your voiceprint, through the camera maybe even your retina.

They can access anything and everything they could ever want to know through the gadgets we all pay good money for and carry everywhere with us.

We bought our own tracking devices.

reply to post by Anonbeleiver77
Yea they don't have to wait to start watching. They can go somewhere right now an call up every single text you ever texted and have all that printed out. And you have been paying your cell phone company to keep that info for the government. The cellphone world was not even allowed to come into existence without that feature made ready for those who pry and spy.......from day one.

Originally posted by MindpurelyMind
C'Mon guys...I think what we will find, perhaps down the track aways, is that all this was done to bring us a better shopping experience.

Now that was funny I am suprised you didn't get more stars. Google, FB et al are just as bad if not worse than the government...except they spy on you for money.

Government...we are just trying to keep you safe...
FB...we just want to help you find the perfect pair of pants.

Originally posted by bgold1212
Can someone explain how a company such as Google can be tapped into by the NSA and willingly expose all the data? Take Gmail for instance, each account features a password with encrypted emails. Does this override the encryptions?

Every office block or building has some room where the internet and telephone cables come in. Google have their own custom built data centers located at the intersection points of the main national internet links. Therefore the NSA wanted to be able to tap into each and every cable before it went into Google's servers, so they could get a true-copy. Then they'd sift that data for keywords, pictures, names, businesses, account numbers, and place those in a relational database (basically meaning they have a name, then additional details like pictures, address, past addresses, car number plates, telephone numbers, mobile phone numbers, email addresses, past email addresses, social links could all be stored).

For every message sent between two people, that forms a basic logical database link. How frequently and whether the messages were bidirectional, would indicate how strong that link was. The NSA wouldn't need your password, as they can copy the data raw as its sent along. It's only when you use a https link that the data is encrypted. Even 128-bit encryption is easy for a supercomputer to crack.

So how does the NSA do these things? Let us look at some of the information they keep dodging. Some thing simple as a name. Prism. What does it mean? Prism is the curved surface of glass used to focus on a spot. What are some of the other NSA programs then related by name? Looking glass, Fire eye. Fire eye is a interesting one.

en.wikipedia.org...

FireEye is a privately owned company whose major investors include Sequoia Capital, Norwest Venture Partners, JAFCO Ventures, SVB Capital, DAG Ventures, Juniper Networks, and In-Q-Tel.

See some companies that stand out? InQTel is CIA ran start up company. They funded Facebook when they started.

Throughout 2012, FireEye announced a number of industry partnerships with companies such as HP, Splunk, Blue Coat, McAfee, and RSA.[13] In June 2012, former CEO and President of McAfee, Dave DeWalt, announced that he had joined FireEye as Chairman of the Board of Directors.[13] DeWalt was later appointed CEO of the company in November 2012.[13][14][15] Upon joining as CEO, DeWalt announced that FireEye had more than 400 employees and more than $100 million in annual bookings.[1

June 2012 McAfee CEO and President is head of the Board of Directors now? Remember they are funded by CIA InQTel. Now McAfee why does that seem to ring a bell? Oh John McAfee he is the owner and creator of McAfee.

en.wikipedia.org...

On April 30, 2012, McAfee's property in Orange Walk Town, Belize, was raided by the Gang Suppression Unit. A GSU press release stated that McAfee was arrested for unlicensed drug manufacturing and possession of an unlicensed weapon.[10][17][18][19][20] He was released without charge.[21] In 2012, Belize police spokesman Raphael Martinez confirmed that he was not convicted nor charged but only suspected.[22] On November 12, 2012, Belize police started a search for McAfee as a "person of interest" in connection to the murder of American expatriate Gregory Viant Faull. Faull was found dead of a gunshot wound on November 11, 2012, at his home on the island of Ambergris Caye, the largest island in Belize.[23][24] Faull was a neighbor of McAfee.[25] No one has yet been formally charged.[24] In a November 2012 interview with Wired, [26] McAfee said that he has always been afraid police would kill him and thus refused their routine questions; he has since been evading the Belizean authorities.[25] Belize's prime minister Dean Barrow called McAfee "extremely paranoid, even bonkers".[27] McAfee fled Belize when he was sought for questioning concerning the murder.[28][29][30][31] McAfee accidentally gave away his location at a Guatemalan resort in early December 2012 by letting Vice take a picture with his iPhone and post it online with the Exif geolocation metadata still attached to it.[32] He then appeared publicly in Guatemala City and attempted to seek political asylum. On December 5, 2012, McAfee was arrested for illegally entering Guatemala. Shortly after being placed under arrest, a board to review McAfee's plea for asylum was formed. The committee denied his asylum, so he was taken from his holding facility to a detention center in order to await deportation to Belize.[33] On December 6, 2012, Reuters and ABC News reported that John McAfee had two minor heart attacks in a Guatemalan detention center and was hospitalized.[34][35] His lawyer stated that McAfee had not suffered heart attacks, but he had instead suffered from high blood pressure and anxiety attacks.[36][37][38] McAfee later stated that he faked the heart attack while being held in Guatemala to buy time for his attorney to file a series of appeals that ultimately prevented his deportation to Belize, hastening the government's decision to send him back to the United States.[39] On December 12, 2012, McAfee was released from detention in Guatemala and deported to the United States.[40]

So two months before the CEO and President of McAfee joins a CIA ran business the owner and creator of McAfee is targeted. He was even accused of shooting his neighbor in South America a US special forces military guy. But he is now back in the US so all talk about child rape,drugs and murder are gone. Where is he now?

But back to Fire Eye.
Board of Directors.

www.fireeye.com...

Robert F. Lentz President & CEO, Cyber Security Strategies, LLC

Robert F Lentz is former NSA. Try following that name and all the boards he is on.

Why did I mention Looking Glass in my last post but never say anything about it? Well let us take a look at looking glass then. Since you asked?

www.lgscout.com...

Seems simple right.

www.lgscout.com...

Board of Advisors Robert F. Lentz, CEO / Cyber Security Strategies LLC Terry Dolce, VP of Sales / Archer Technology Daniel Reilly, Managing Director / Thornburg Investment Management Newt Fowler, Partner / Rosenberg, Martin, Greenberg LLP

Wow Robert F. Lentz, CEO / Cyber Security Strategies LLC again?

But that does not mean anything. Or does it?

www.lgscout.com...

Investors Alsop Louie Partners Alsop Louie Partners is an early-stage technology venture firm based in San Francisco, CA. The firm looks for outstanding entrepreneurs who want to start and grow companies that will be significant drivers of the next technology cycle, which it calls the Evernet. The firm was founded by Stewart Alsop, industry pundit and venture investor, and Gilman Louie, technology and national security expert. www.alsop-louie.com...

Gilman Louie who is he?

en.wikipedia.org...

Gilman Louie (born 1960) is technology venture capitalist who got his start as a video game designer and then ran the CIA venture capital fund In-Q-Tel.[1] He graduated in 1983 from San Francisco State University. He attended the Advanced Management Program (AMP) while at Harvard Business School in 1997.

Wow InQTel and the CIA funded another company tied to the NSA guy and based on the code names tied to Prism, Looking Glass, Fire Eye.

So why the leaks now? what ties the above in with current events? Well how about the Boston Bombing and Russia? Oh that makes no sense right. Well lets take a look then!

The software and social media that the Boston Bomber was using. I made a thread but no one really looked at it. www.abovetopsecret.com... I guess the links are above top secret if your not into what our government and the world governments are up to.

Instagram adds data mining.
www.digitaltrends.com...

Finally! A discovery engine for Instagram that lets you search by date and location

Instagram isn’t just an app for sharing candid photos anymore, and it’s realized its power as a source for breaking news. Professional reporters and citizen journalists alike have used Instagram to cover events like the Boston Marathon bombings and the Sandy Hurricane, as well as the Super Bowl and the presidential election. While we’ve been increasingly using it for these purposes, Instagram has yet to introduced a feature for specific search beyond its mobile-only hashtag and user discovery tab. There are third party Web tools to help find photos by hashtag or user as well, but nothing that complements its use as a news source. Fortunately, ProPublica’s news app developer Al Shaw did the hard work for us. He realized Instagram’s API has something called “Media Search” that supports searches for the time and distance of where an Instagram photo was taken. He ended up hacking together an open source app called Sinatra, which uses addresses and end-to-end time to search through Instagram photos. Shaw makes note of the app’s inadequacies, saying there are limitations to what you can do with the Instagram API. “There’s no way to search for text or hashtags (tags have their own endpoint which doesn’t allow geolocation), there’s no pagination of results, and results only go back a few months,” he explains. Read more: www.digitaltrends.com... Follow us: @digitaltrends on Twitter | digitaltrendsftw on Facebook

So that is not that important.

Really? It sounds like Shaw was handed some software from the NSA or other agency to data mine. But then again Facebook was started with CIA money to begin with. I guess it just took a while to get all that spyware installed on the new purchase of Instagram.

Now on to the Russian spying on VKontakte or VK a social network. This is very interesting with the way the Russians have forced there way into this company in order to take it over.

Kontakte or VK wiki page.
en.wikipedia.org...(social_network)

First you get a story about United Capital Partners buying two partners out of the company taking 48% of the stock giving them control over the company. The remaining stock was split up so 48% is the largest controlling interest.

Co-founders sell 48% VKontakte stock
en.therunet.com...

Two co-founders of VKontakte social network have sold their shares in the company to United Capital Partners fund. Vyacheslav Miramishvili parted with his 40%, and Lev Leviev - with 8% of VK's stock.

Remaining shareholders include the powerful Mail.Ru Group (39.99%) and VK's co-founder and current head, Pavel Durov (12%).


UCP is headed by Ilya Sherbovich, former head of Deutsche Bank's investment business in Russia and former President of Deutsche UFG. Mr. Scherbovich is also Board member at Rosneft.

No details on the deal have yet been made public, but it can be assumed that, as VKontakte is estimated between $ 2 NS 2.75 bn., the amount Mr. Scherbovich's fund paid for 48% of the company must be around $1 or 1.3 bn.

Pavel Durov, VKontakte CEO, said he had been unaware of the deal. "Our company's charter gives its current shareholders a priority right to buy its shares whenever they are being sold, Mr. Durov told Vedomosti newspaper. But we haven't yet received any news of a possible sale". In his post on VK, Durov wrote that the deal was part of a plot to remove him from the site's management: "Before they start changing things for the worse here, they will need to get rid of me, but they can't do that legally". Durov will have a majority vote on VK's board, as he holds his 12% share, and has been entrusted management of Mail.Ru's 39.9%.

Many experts believe Durov will be voted out of his post at VK board meeting in May, especially in the light of recent rumors that he had secretly collaborated with the Kremlin to help fight anti-government sentiment among VK's users; and the accusations that he hit a road police office on his Mercedez.

So the company is sold off by two co founders and the third has no idea what is going on. But now that third co founder is under investigation and will be voted out this month anyway?

Russia’s ‘Mark Zuckerberg’ caught in web of criminal accusations, police searches, and big money deals
rt.com...

Russia’s ‘Mark Zuckerberg’ caught in web of criminal accusations, police searches, and big money deals
In the past fortnight, Pavel Durov, the 28-year-old founder of Russia’s biggest social network, has been accused of running over a policeman, had his home and office searched, whilst his partners sold a large share of the firm – despite his wishes. On April 9 several Russian news channels simultaneously reported that four days earlier, a man in a white Mercedes tried to outrun a police car, hit a policeman, and then escaped arrest as the passenger of the car was detained. All of the stories connected the white car of Durov, alleging he was the driver, although it appears that the only vehicle meeting such a description at Vkontakte is owned by another senior employee. The story was accompanied by an edited video, in which a white Mercedes moves several times, on a packed street, while the driver talks to policemen standing by his window. There seems to be no injury to the driver, nor is anyone detained. Durov’s representatives said that the multi-millionaire does not even drive, using the metro instead. Police say that an investigation has been opened, but have declined to name a suspect. On Tuesday, the story was given fresh legs, when police appeared at Durov’s flat and office. “Around twenty people dressed in leather overcoats – who look like Bolshevik commissars – appeared all of a sudden. Simply walked around the different offices, didn’t seem to be doing anything,” is how Nikolay Durov, Pavel’s brother described the search on his Vkontakte profile. The officers confiscated the complex’s CCTV footage before leaving. “This appears more like a media campaign. I did not have anything to do with any hit-and-run,” Durov told Vedomosti newspaper. On Wednesday afternoon, Vkontakte confirmed that 48 percent of the network – was purchased off Durov’s co-founders United Capital Partners (UCP) by an investment fund headed by Ilya Scherbovich, a senior figure at Rosneft, Russia’s state-owned oil company. The sum of the deal was not disclosed. But the website – which is visited by 40 million daily and according to Amazon’s Alexa Internet is the 25th most popular site in the world – was estimated to be worth between $2-$3.5 bln by market analysts.

video date stamped January 2012.


So what is going on? Sounds like the same thing that happened to John McAfee to me. But does that mean that Russia is using the same exact tactics and operations as the US to spy? Then you think back to another antivirus company Kaspersky labs. Kaspersky Labs outed STUXnet. Shortly after that his son was kidnapped by people who tracked followed and kidnapped him by his cell phone and social media accounts. Strange right? Does this show what the NSA can do even in a foreign government? But what happened to VK was all done by Putin and his good friend who took over VK. That does not show any US, NSA or CIA links. It was all Russian right? Well VK did add Facebook software called Joey which is a baby kangaroo which is updated software for kangaroo. I don't know what that software is but it must be connected.

So now you have a article where Ilya Sherbovich is denying connections to Putin.

New Investor In VKontakte, Russian’s “Facebook”, Denies Ties With Russian President Vladimir Putin
www.dailydealmedia.com...

Last Month a Moscow-based investment fund run by Ilya Sherbovich bought 48 per cent of VKontakte, Russian’s answer to Facebook, and now the company may be in trouble. Currently the Russian businessman is playing down concerns he has been brought in to crack down on activists who use the network to protest against Russian President Vladimir Putin. The purchase has been reported to have taken VK by surprise. According to the Globe and Mail, the purchase also came just days before police raided the company’s headquarters in St. Petersburg as part of an investigation into a car accident and allegations the company’s founder, Pavel Durov, ran over a policeman. VKontakte spokesman Georgy Lobushkin denied that Durov was involved or even owned a car. “When you drive over a policeman, it’s very important to drive back and forward a few times to squeeze out all the soft parts,” Durov himself wrote jokingly on VKontakte. The suspicious part about the story is that Durov, 28, has disappeared. Those inside VK are indicating that Sherbovich’s arrival and the police raid are part of an effort by the Kremlin to intimidate the seven-year old company, which has become a tool for protesters to communicate and organize. VKontakte currently has around 200 million registered users.

Sounds like a take over by Putin if you ask me.

And now Russia will have access to FBI database on Russians living in the United States?

www.forbes.com...

After Boston Bombing, Russians To Get Access To FBI Data Comment Now Follow Comments Federal Bureau of Investigation(FBI)Director Robert Mueller: Russian intelligence services will have access to some FBI data from now on in hopes to both avoid another Boston Marathon style disaster and help protect athletes and fans at the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014.