Google, Yahoo, Microsoft reveal how many accounts are snooped by gov’t

Google, Yahoo, Microsoft reveal how many accounts are snooped by gov’t

Source: Arstechnica.com

After the NSA leaks began last summer, tech companies asked for permission to reveal more information about what kind of user data they provide in response to Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court orders.

Today, several companies including Google, Yahoo, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Microsoft are revealing the first information about the amount of user data they're handing over to FISA requests.

I was expecting the numbers to be much, much higher. Instead:

Microsoft provided content on somewhere between 15,000-15,999 accounts.
Google provided content on somewhere between 9,000-9,999 accounts.
Facebook provided content on somewhere between 5,000-5,999 accounts.
Yahoo provided content on somewhere between 30,000-30,999 accounts.
LinkedIn provided content on somewhere between 0-249 accounts, in response to both National Security Letters (NSLs) and FISA requests.

This seems oddly low... is it the usual rope-a-dope by the gov, meaningless numbers they toss out to allay suspicion?

My own theory behind these curiously low numbers is that these represent only the FORMAL requests by the Feds for account information, when they have to present snooped information in court as part of their prosecution - where they would be tasked by any competent defense attorney to provide as to how they legally obtained said information.

I don't think these numbers come anywhere close to the amount of accounts they illegally snoop on, via backdoors or carte blanche access granted by willing corporations.

reply to post by Blackmarketeer


I think you are probably right - it's only the accounts being asked about.

In reality the numbers should read like this.

Google accounts - However many Exist
Yahoo accounts - However many Exist
Microsoft accounts - However many Exist

etc., you get the point.

You know those numbers are total BS and should probably be tripled at the very least

reply to post by Blackmarketeer


That's what they've requested be "handed over". I thought Snowden said he could look up any account at anytime, unless I'm wrong about that.

I think you all give the National Security Complex too much credit for actually giving a damn about ordinary people. Of all the accounts that exist, what percentage would be a complete waste of time, effort, and money to investigate?

At the upper echelons of power, all they see are dead people anyway. They don't care so much, that should be evident.

Mon1k3r
I think you all give the National Security Complex too much credit for actually giving a damn about ordinary people. Of all the accounts that exist, what percentage would be a complete waste of time, effort, and money to investigate?

At the upper echelons of power, all they see are dead people anyway. They don't care so much, that should be evident.

See, this is the problem right here.

I don't think the Government gives a crap about me,

THAT DOESN"T MATTER.

What does, is they damn well better have probable cause, and a warrant before they so much as glance at my internet use.

ANYTHING less, is treason, and un-american PERIOD.

That is what angers me.

Not the amount looked at, its the manner in which they have looked.

Even the most vile of us deserve EQUAL protection under the Constitution.

reply to post by Mon1k3r

I think you all give the National Security Complex too much credit for actually giving a damn about ordinary people. Of all the accounts that exist, what percentage would be a complete waste of time, effort, and money to investigate?

Maybe you, me, and most people are just "ordinary people" that would be a waste of time, effort, and money to investigate. Bit I'm willing to bet that the instant any of us did something - attend a protest, run for office against an established member of the plutocracy, etc., then everything we've ever done, especially online, will be fully accessible - every email, text, and conspiracy forum posting. Anything they need to dig up dirt against us peons.

benrl

THAT DOESN"T MATTER.

What does, is they damn well better have probable cause, and a warrant before they so much as glance at my internet use.

ANYTHING less, is treason, and un-american PERIOD.

I agree on the legal standpoint, yes, constitutionally it is illegal. But I assume that the people that infringe on the constitution do not give a damn about it, and they also don't give a damn about the people who do. There are so many aspects of our lives over which they have complete control, that if we were to attempt to bring them to some kind of constitutional justice, they would simply make life more difficult.

They have already made life so complicated and difficult that we don't have the time or energy, not to mention the education that would be required to maintain this representative government as it was intended to function.

The time for revolution is past. We missed that window decades ago. The only thing that would be effective in creating an equitable social habitat for all human beings is global rebellion. We would have to forcibly work our way through the minions and underlings, all the way to the top.

I believe that if this were to occur, their defense would be to cut all power to anyone but themselves.

See now, if this kind of talk didn't attract the attention of the PTB, I don't know what would. However, the idea is still so absurd to most sleepy people that the PTB wouldn't care. These ideas are not ubiquitous enough to pose a threat.

As un-American as America is right now, do you still cling to the pride forthe principles on which America was based? I do too. But I'm sorry, I no longer claim to be OF America, only IN America. Nationalism is a destructive force, and if we blindly cling to the tenets of the constitution, while the people who create the laws only subvert it, we are simply distracting ourselves from those things which we still have the power to change.

Maybe this are the Numbers where they followed the right Procedure
to keep the Accusation airthight in a legal Sense?

They cant accuse you of doing bad with illegal collected Evidences!

reply to post by Blackmarketeer


Protests, and people who protest are merely a nuisance to the PTB. They make a mess, they hold up traffic, and they may have some detrimental economic effects locally. They don't care what we say, they know we can't hang out in the streets forever, and they're going to do what they're going to do anyway.

I would venture a guess that if you were a professional protester, they would likely be even less interested in you than someone who kept hidden and kept their mouth shut.

reply to post by Blackmarketeer

I would agree with that, they are all responses to FIS requests. The tip of the iceberg. Snowden has already revealed that the NSA and the rest can intercept mail, or digital information en route from and to servers, and can even tamper with it with nobody knowing. That would be in line with that barrister who made the suit against the NSA or the FBI, and won, (at least for the moment) and then people started getting funny, (as in peculiar) e-mails from him, except that they were not from him at all.

reply to post by smurfy


Faking email is very easy as generally email servers accept stuff without doing much checking (if any)

I'd imagine that these are the requests that need some proper paper trail and generally the NSA/GCHQ are just hoovering up everything up anyway.