Use of Tor and e-mail crypto could increase chances that NSA keeps your data

Use of Tor and e-mail crypto could increase chances that NSA keeps your data

Using online anonymity services such as Tor or sending encrypted e-mail and instant messages are grounds for US-based communications to be retained by the National Security Agency even when they're collected inadvertently, according to a secret government document published Thursday.

The document, titled Minimization Procedures Used by the National Security Agency in Connection with Acquisitions of Foreign Intelligence, is the latest bombshell leak to be dropped by UK-based newspaper The Guardian.

While the documents make clear that data collection and interception must cease immediately once it's determined a target is within the US, they still provide analysts with a fair amount of leeway. And that leeway seems to work to the disadvantage of people who take steps to protect their Internet communications from prying eyes. For instance, a person whose physical location is unknown—which more often than not is the case when someone uses anonymity software from the Tor Project—"will not be treated as a United States person, unless such person can be positively identified as such, or the nature or circumstances of the person's communications give rise to a reasonable belief that such person is a United States person," the secret document stated.

Link

Seems like a logical move for them.

TOR puts you on the radar. Do you trust all the TOR exit nodes? Which ones are run by the NSA?

I would think people plotting something really bad would do it off the internet.

reply to post by roadgravel


If they really wanted your information they would get it anyway, so i think some exit nodes could be NSA and others are not

This is the perfect opportunity to troll the NSA hard!

It is possible the NSA has access to methods and tech to crack encryption much faster than is commonly perceived however it still takes time.

There is a large organization of tech minded individuals who work for a defense contractor in my area that are engaging in this wonderful opportunity.

The organization is essentially a literary club for the more "nerdy." They all chose different books to read and write reports on for the others to read.

The kicker is that they do this one chapter at a time and encrypt the chapter and the report separately and send it via untrusted tor channels to ensure maximum likelihood of interception.

I can only imagine the reactions of the intelligence agents as they crack each message!

reply to post by roadgravel

I firmly believe they already keep all our data and have been doing so for at least two years. No doubt in my mind whatsoever.

They must admit one thing though. TOR is very useful to view web pages that are outside of your region. For example, there's some web pages that cannot be viewed in America that can be viewed in Europe.

There's a perfectly legitimate use for it. You should use that browser to view news pages as if you're viewing it from the country that it was published in, and then look at the sometimes more than subtle differences if it is viewed from a different region. All I can say is it's interesting looking at things from both perspectives sometimes, and without that browser it would be much more difficult.

Stop and frisk for the Internet I guess.

Young, black, poor? Must be a criminal.

Encrypted, Tor, no FedBook profile? Must be a criminal.

Let them waste time decrypting my shopping lists.

Only drawback I see is that my taxes are paying for their time wasting.

Use of Tor and e-mail crypto could increase chances that NSA keeps your data,

Bingo! Bango! Boncho!

That's the winning answer.

The only solution to this mess is going to be for everyone to be exactly who they say they are. This truly is humanity's moment of truth.

Tor exit relays are funded by USAID. When you use TOR that is who you are running your computer traffic through. The government it self.

pgpboard.com...

reply to post by roadgravel


by that logic all business traffic would be stored too,
enterprise uses encryption between server clusters, to protect their Intellectual Property,
if companies can value their intellectual property, why cant people value their own intellectual property?
does that mean that companies have more rights to secure their own Intellectual Property,
than a human being?

your trying to conclude,
that it is a bad thing to secure privacy in order to protect Intellectual Property,
when YOUR alternative is to surrender privacy and any rights to intellectual property online.

why do businesses get treated better than people when their encrypted communications are not stored?

xploder

reply to post by XPLodER

your trying to conclude, that it is a bad thing to secure privacy in order to protect Intellectual Property, when YOUR alternative is to surrender privacy and any rights to intellectual property online.

I am not concluding that, you are thinking I am. I am just posting about some info from the NSA.

It would make sense that encrypted email would be of more interest then some unencrypted. Also the TOR network traffic since people are trying to hide their traffic. NSA isn't stupid.

Originally posted by JBA2848
Tor exit relays are funded by USAID. When you use TOR that is who you are running your computer traffic through. The government it self.

pgpboard.com...

That link was an interesting read. Be suspicious of anything that grows beyond a certain size. Not saying all growth is bad but some rotten parts seem to always appear.

Originally posted by roadgravel
reply to post by XPLodER

 

your trying to conclude, that it is a bad thing to secure privacy in order to protect Intellectual Property, when YOUR alternative is to surrender privacy and any rights to intellectual property online.

I am not concluding that, you are thinking I am. I am just posting about some info from the NSA.

sorry
i thought you were trying to make the point that encryption gets you more scrutiny,
but not if your a company.

my point would be your Intellectual property has value, and if you placed value in your data you can encrypt and have a commercial reason for it to be encrypted.

ie you wouldn't leave valuable data unattended in public would you?
or
leave your wallet open in public, and walk away from it?

the article tries to imply only bad people have a reason to encrypt,
when smart people with designs and art and ideas also need encryption to protect the value in their Intellectual Property.

why do companies get better treatment than humans?

xploder

reply to post by XPLodER

Encryption is a good thing.

The real nugget of truth will be knowing if the NSA can break certain encryption and if so then is it faster then what is generally accepted as possible.

Much of the data flowing out here is time critical. Finally being able to read some encrypted data from years earlier doesn't seem very useful.

Here is an idea.. just use a copy of an operating system running in a virtual machine and use a VPN. If you download anything they might want, back it up then restore the VM to it's default state. If they take your computer, they won't find anything.

The Best solution is for Everyone to use such technology as a VPN all the time. If everyone is protecting themselves they will not be able to attack everyone.

This coupled with the thread on DuckDuckGo a google clone search engine that does not record tracking information - they have seen a big rise in usage due to all the NSA spying concerns. Everyone should use tools like this and never use Google. Everyone should also use only secure SSL websites through HTTPS in tandem with the VPN. This forces any and all data to be encrypted and harder to track through the VPN.

It's really messed up you know.. used to be if you were an internet Pirate uploading and downloading illegal files you wanted to protect yourself from government snooping - but now with the NSA spying on everyone for any reason, it makes sense that everyone use these tools. It's sad it's come to this.