Obama Admin: "All your privacy belongs to US!"

[doom&gloom]

Watch the video:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...leTabs%3Dvideo

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...040640006.html

U.S. Terrorism Agency to Tap a Vast Database of Citizens

Top U.S. intelligence officials gathered in the White House Situation Room in March to debate a controversial proposal. Counterterrorism officials wanted to create a government dragnet, sweeping up millions of records about U.S. citizens—even people suspected of no crime.

Not everyone was on board. "This is a sea change in the way that the government interacts with the general public," Mary Ellen Callahan, chief privacy officer of the Department of Homeland Security, argued in the meeting, according to people familiar with the discussions.
A week later, the attorney general signed the changes into effect.

*snip*

The rules now allow the little-known National Counterterrorism Center to examine the government files of U.S. citizens for possible criminal behavior, even if there is no reason to suspect them. That is a departure from past practice, which barred the agency from storing information about ordinary Americans unless a person was a terror suspect or related to an investigation.

Now, NCTC can copy entire government databases—flight records, casino-employee lists, the names of Americans hosting foreign-exchange students and many others. The agency has new authority to keep data about innocent U.S. citizens for up to five years, and to analyze it for suspicious patterns of behavior. Previously, both were prohibited. Data about Americans "reasonably believed to constitute terrorism information" may be permanently retained.

And there you go. So much for the intrusive Patriot Act, and even the NDAA, now we have true totalitarianism in gov't oversight.

[aaron]

Re: Obama Admin: "All your privacy belongs to US!"

Do they call it the Pre-crime division?

I have no doubt that it is possible to wade through vast databases of citizens and find criminals, or soon to be criminals. Also, political enemies, those bloggers that should be silenced, etc.

[doom&gloom]

Re: Obama Admin: "All your privacy belongs to US!"

[Adeptus]

Re: Obama Admin: "All your privacy belongs to US!"

Yep, and as previously discussed here...
http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthr...ded#post225816
... just wait until the NSA turns on its 2 BILLION dollar data center in Utah Sept 2013. They will have hooks into all the major Internet data exchanges and will be siphoning every packet from every US citizen from any and all ISPs. And if you think your encryption is safe, one of their ambitions is to have enough CPU power in this gigantic data center to crack anything they find "interesting" in a small amount of time. And this is only the beginning, read the rest to learn about some of their other ventures.

I'd mockingly say...."You guys are so screwed"... except that many of Canada's major fiber backbones also pass through the states. Personaly, while I've done nothing illegal, I will be avoiding travelling through the USA as much as possible in the future. Who knows if I am not already on some black list because of my disaproval and voicing my opinions of how some things are done over there?

[Adeptus]

Re: Obama Admin: "All your privacy belongs to US!"

Also see this link, where they are creating Artificial Intelligence to predict future events (i.e. crimes, being just one possibility). Once you have all the data (thanks to Utah Data Center), you have all the variables. You then just plug them into the magical AI algo, and voila: Out comes a nicely printed list of pre-crime suspects.

[aaron]

Re: Obama Admin: "All your privacy belongs to US!"

If they have set up quantum computers, then yes, I believe they can crack encryption. Otherwise, they probably have to use real data-center horsepower. That is only good for messages that are deemed important. No way they can break everything.
Quantum computing seems too close to believe the military has not already developed it. With a few billion dollars, I would not be surprised if they actually have 'em. With thousands of them, then yes, they can crack everything. It would be best to keep this hidden for as long as possible; there is already code out there that can use quantum computers (that do not exist yet) to make unbreakable ciphers.

[Forrest]

Re: Obama Admin: "All your privacy belongs to US!"

The immediate question arrises to me is what information do they have? My e-mails...talk about boring...just call me, or what time, etc. And blogging data, or forum use...gee, I was already posting that for anyone to see. I'm not on Facebook...I don't have that kind of time, and nearly everything I buy is through Amazon...which, so far as I know, whose records hold no interesting information other than my taste in books, music, and computer accessories. I'm on Social Security Disabilty, so they already have my medical records, and might find that I don't visit doctors unless the doctor calls me (Broke my neck in a car accident).

I suppose they can charge me with a felony count of mediocrity, but I would think they have other things to do, except of course that they are the gub'ment, and so have plenty of time and money to look at the sillliest stuff imaginable.

Am I angry about the invason of privacy? A little. But I already knew we had a budding totalitarian government, so I'm not surprised.

Can I do anything about it? Yes, I can. I can obey the laws, fill out the forms, and mind my own business, and never, ever, be truthful again about anything I don't want everyone to know.

I believe that will make me politically correct to not always be disputing with the status quo. But since I don't do that anyway, I guess nothing will really change.

Then again, what I have just written may be a tangled web of deceit concocted in the dead of night for some evil motive.

After all, who knows who we are? And just who are you?

[doom&gloom]

Re: Obama Admin: "All your privacy belongs to US!"

Since passage of the NDAA, journalists that cover 'touchy' areas have already noted the chilling effect it has had upon their work. Now couple it with this, and the new SLC NSA data center that captured everything that moves electronically thru the US and you have a complete 'picture' of anyone you want -- except you can change that picture to highlight the negative any way you want when YOU have all the data and all the control of it.

[Forrest]

Re: Obama Admin: "All your privacy belongs to US!"

Since passage of the NDAA, journalists that cover 'touchy' areas have already noted the chilling effect it has had upon their work. Now couple it with this, and the new SLC NSA data center that captured everything that moves electronically thru the US and you have a complete 'picture' of anyone you want -- except you can change that picture to highlight the negative any way you want when YOU have all the data and all the control of it.

Alas, too true. Once we were out of paper and into computers, it was understood, at least by all sensible proponents of the internet, that damn near anything could be changed, twisted, or turned inside out, and upside down.

At the moment there is no real reason to be rid of me, so they will not bother...I don't take up much space, I don't raise a ruckus, and I pay my way.

If I get in someone else's way...well, that happens, but I'll be planning on it not being my fault, and my actions being within the current law, which ever day it is. All one can do is to be small in one's own eyes, and not ruffle other people too much. You know, wise as a snake, and meek as a dove?

When they get to the bowing down part, and the mark...well, I already know what to say, when to stand up for myself, and what it will cost me.

After all, we are talking about evil now, aren't we?