FBI 'secretly spying' on Google users, company reveals

[HS Cult Leader]

FBI 'secretly spying' on Google users, company reveals

Published March 06, 2013
FoxNews.com

• 

The FBI used National Security Letters -- a form of surveillance that privacy watchdogs call “frightening and invasive” -- to surreptitiously seek information on Google users, the web giant has just revealed.
Google’s disclosure is “an unprecedented win for transparency,” privacy experts said Wednesday. But it’s just one small step forward.
“Serious concerns and questions remain about the use of NSLs,” the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Dan Auerbach and Eva Galperin wrote. For one thing, the agency issued 16,511 National Security Letters in 2011, the last year for which data was available. But Google was gagged from saying just how many letters it received -- leaving key questions unanswered.
“The terrorists apparently would win if Google told you the exact number of times the Federal Bureau of Investigation invoked a secret process to extract data about the media giant’s customers,” Wired’s David Kravets wrote. He described the FBI's use of NSLs as a way of "secretly spying" on Google's customers.
National Security Letters are a means for the FBI to obtain information on people from telecommunications companies, authorized by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) and expanded under the Patriot Act. It lets the agency seek information on a subscriber to a wire or electronic communications service, although not things like the content of their emails or search queries, Google said.
And thanks to secrecy constraints built into NSLs, companies that receive them usually aren’t even allowed to acknowledge the request for information. Citing such extreme secrecy, privacy experts have decried the use of these letters in the past.
“Of all the dangerous government surveillance powers that were expanded by the USA PATRIOT Act, the National Security Letter (NSL) power … is one of the most frightening and invasive,” the EFF wrote. “These letters … allow the FBI to secretly demand data about ordinary American citizens' private communications and Internet activity without any meaningful oversight or prior judicial review.”
Thanks to negotiations with the government, Google finally opened the smallest chink in the armor, allowing the search giant to reveal the fact that it had received these requests for data, as well as some general information about them.
“Visit our page on user data requests in the U.S. and you’ll see, in broad strokes, how many NSLs for user data Google receives, as well as the number of accounts in question,” Richard Salgado, Google’s legal director of law enforcement and information security, wrote in a Tuesday blog post.
A new table posted to Google’s Transparency Report site outlines the details; it tabulates how many requests for information the company has received over each of the past four years: some undisclosed number between 0 and 999. With those NSLs, the FBI sought information on somewhere between 1,000 and 1,999 users/accounts.
“People don’t always use our services for good, and it’s important that law enforcement be able to investigate illegal activity,” Salgado wrote.
No other technology company presently disclose such basic information about government requests, experts noted.

[KillVampires]

This is nothing. During the Cold War and the Red Scare the FBI was listening in to everyone's phone calls and intercepting everyone's mail. Now it has moved into the digital era. Cell phone intercepting. Email intercepting. Text messages. It's almost always used for illegal reasons like the government blackmailing someone or using information for political leverage. This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.

[FlaFlaFlunkie]

This is nothing. During the Cold War and the Red Scare the FBI was listening in to everyone's phone calls and intercepting everyone's mail. Now it has moved into the digital era. Cell phone intercepting. Email intercepting. Text messages. It's almost always used for illegal reasons like the government blackmailing someone or using information for political leverage. This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.

Anyone who uses a cell phone and cries about it not being private is an idiot.

Even before cell phones, we knew that baby monitors could pick up your home, cordless telephone.

It's a fucking RADIO, people.

The email and texting is a different story. That's hella bullshit.

[JumboWop]

This is nothing. During the Cold War and the Red Scare the FBI was listening in to everyone's phone calls and intercepting everyone's mail.

no they weren't. that would have been impossible then.

[DaBUU]

Google is owned by the government. No gmail account for me.

[FlaFlaFlunkie]

Google is owned by the government. No gmail account for me.

I'm fine with it.

(when I sign up for access to gay porn sites, I use either my gmail or hotmail address. Let 'em look.)

[ohmicah]

Government Watch Everything You Say & Insurers Watch Everything You Eat

[FlaFlaFlunkie]

Government Watch Everything You Say & Insurers Watch Everything You Eat

pay cash for your groceries & don't use a discount card. voilà! problem solved.

[ohmicah]

pay cash for your groceries & don't use a discount card. voilà! problem solved.

Haven't you heard? Only terrorists, drug dealers and people with something to hide would use cash now a days. That's the reason we will soon be in a cashless society.

As far as the grocery cards go, you can always give them a fake name. Eventually though in a cashless society they'll be able to track all your purchases.

[FlaFlaFlunkie]

Haven't you heard? Only terrorists, drug dealers and people with something to hide would use cash now a days. That's the reason we will soon be in a cashless society.

As far as the grocery cards go, you can always give them a fake name. Eventually though in a cashless society they'll be able to track all your purchases.

Years ago, we had to get those stupid discount cards if we wanted to be able to write a check. now that we all use our debit cards, there's no reason for them. And cash will always be accepted. You can discriminate against people with shitty credit at the supermarket.

[ohmicah]

Years ago, we had to get those stupid discount cards if we wanted to be able to write a check. now that we all use our debit cards, there's no reason for them. And cash will always be accepted. You can discriminate against people with shitty credit at the supermarket.

IBM is 3 steps ahead of us. Here's a glimpse of their vision of the future.

[FlaFlaFlunkie]

...the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) and expanded under the Patriot Act. It lets the agency seek information on a subscriber to a wire or electronic communications service, although not things like the content of their emails or search queries, Google said.

Yeah. Because GOOGLE'S DOING THAT.

[stripes]

thanks obama

[Smiles]

thanks obama

Jenna Marbles??

[tHISisKiSSeL]

thanks obama

you know, this kind of shit completely disqualifies any validity any of your (rush army) arguments might possibly hold.

you people seriously believe google only started this shit under obama? you believe there were no problems with welfare and immigration before obama? you believe the shit war is all on obama? the tanked economy?

obama did not fix these problems, i'll give you that. did he cause them? fuck no. should he fix them? yes. fuhhhhhhhhhk man, fucking ponderous.

[FlaFlaFlunkie]

you know, this kind of shit completely disqualifies any validity any of your (rush army) arguments might possibly hold.

you people seriously believe google only started this shit under obama? you believe there were no problems with welfare and immigration before obama? you believe the shit war is all on obama? the tanked economy?

obama did not fix these problems, i'll give you that. did he cause them? fuck no. should he fix them? yes. fuhhhhhhhhhk man, fucking ponderous.

(While it's true he might be trolling, he could also be referring to the Internet meme: "Thanks Obama.")

[tHISisKiSSeL]

(While it's true he might be trolling, he could also be referring to the Internet meme: "Thanks Obama.")

i never saw that, i try to ignore all that kind of shit. i guess i just got to maximum shit level and now i can go back to ignoring for a while. i'm pretty sure i've seen the same old shit from stripes many times before though. rush is a good band. rush limbaugh is less attractive than howard stern.

[MatthewT]

i never saw that, i try to ignore all that kind of shit. i guess i just got to maximum shit level and now i can go back to ignoring for a while. i'm pretty sure i've seen the same old shit from stripes many times before though. rush is a good band. rush limbaugh is less attractive than howard stern.

you care how attractive radio dj's are?

[stripes]

you know, this kind of shit completely disqualifies any validity any of your (rush army) arguments might possibly hold.

you people seriously believe google only started this shit under obama? you believe there were no problems with welfare and immigration before obama? you believe the shit war is all on obama? the tanked economy?

obama did not fix these problems, i'll give you that. did he cause them? fuck no. should he fix them? yes. fuhhhhhhhhhk man, fucking ponderous.

...thanks obama for a shit band

[sarnie]

you know, this kind of shit completely disqualifies any validity any of your (rush army) arguments might possibly hold.

you people seriously believe google only started this shit under obama? you believe there were no problems with welfare and immigration before obama? you believe the shit war is all on obama? the tanked economy?

obama did not fix these problems, i'll give you that. did he cause them? fuck no. should he fix them? yes. fuhhhhhhhhhk man, fucking ponderous.