NSA deletes hundreds of millions of call records over privacy violations
The NSA unfortunately has a long history of violating privacy rules, although this time the agency might not be entirely to blame. The NSA is deleting hundreds of millions of call and text message data records (collected since 2015) after learning of "technical irregularities" that led to receiving records it wasn't supposed to obtain under the USA Freedom Act. General counsel Glenn Gerstell told the New York Times in an interview that "one or more" unnamed telecoms had responded to data requests for targets by sending logs that included not just the relevant data, but records for people who hadn't been in contact with the targets. As it was "infeasible" to comb through all the data and find just the authorized data, the NSA decided to wipe everything.
[...] The companies involved have "addressed" the cause of the problem for data going forward, the NSA said.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by edIII on Tuesday July 03 2018, @12:05AM (5 children)
This one of the campaign promises he broke; Bringing Telecom executives and NSA officials to task over this bullshit. People deserve prison over this.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 03 2018, @12:09AM
He got swamped, just like God Emperor Trump. The only difference is how hard each one resisted.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 03 2018, @12:54AM (1 child)
Don't worry, as soon as President Trump gets reverse pardon powers this will be taken care of... #CrookedHillary first, then the rest of the gang.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 03 2018, @01:10AM
Myeaaah, and I woulda gotten away with it if it wasn't for you meddling red hats and your sentient cheeto!
(Score: 3, Touché) by c0lo on Tuesday July 03 2018, @01:32AM
People may already be in prison over calls&text messages data - it may be that we just haven't learnt about them yet [aclu.org]
Oh, wait... you meant telecom&NSA executives? And you call them... people?
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday July 03 2018, @01:07PM
They do deserve prison. That they have not been put there for such obvious and open crimes speaks volumes about the state of the Rule of Law in the USA in 2018. It tells you all you need to know about how legitimate our democracy is. That is to say, it is all a charade.
The NSA must be dissolved and its members thrown into the deepest, darkest holes in Guantanamo. The execs at AT&T and other telecoms who collaborate with the NSA must be thrown into supermax prisons. The members of the government from George W. Bush and afterward who condone and cover up for this must also be thrown in prison.
I remember when I was interviewing with the CIA 25 years ago they posed the "Security vs. Freedom" dilemma as a question. I argued that a government that abandons freedom for security will make itself the enemy in the place of the one it purports to fight. They really should have taken note of that, because it's exactly what has happened.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 03 2018, @12:14AM (5 children)
See this is why tech billionaires should run your government, because only tech billionaires employ elite rockstar coders to code AI blockchains powerful enough to comb through all your data for legal irregularities.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Uncle_Al on Tuesday July 03 2018, @12:29AM (4 children)
https://www.fastcompany.com/3046756/obama-and-his-geeks [fastcompany.com]
how soon we forget..
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 03 2018, @12:58AM (3 children)
That's funny. I don't see your precious "Digital Service Corps" running billboard ads in every bus and train station. I do see Facebook billboards in every bus and train station. Seems your precious shit has a lack of fucking funding.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 03 2018, @01:00AM (1 child)
Or they didn't want to advertise what they do.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 03 2018, @01:04AM
Link to their GitHub or they don't fucking do anything except be a mutual admiration society of hipsters who all call each other supergeniuses.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 03 2018, @01:14AM
The unfounded levels of rage are getting ridiculous. It totally sucks when you believe someone's lies and get scammed, but this shit over Trump is beyond wacko. Calm down, let yourself acknowledge that he's not America's savior, and get on with your life.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Tuesday July 03 2018, @01:20AM (3 children)
They probably wanted to be good little corporate stooges/snitches, after all that is how you get those big fat government paychecks, porkbellies and handouts. Or it was the complete opposite, they wanted to just obfuscate the interested parts by drowning them in useless shit data. Or they are just that incompetent and couldn't really be bothered, send it all and let the NSA sort it out. Perhaps a little of all each and all of the above.
Considering the corporations have now changed their tune and made suitable adjustments to the process I guess it was not the option where they might have been trying to look out for their customers; or perhaps the NSA is the customer and they are ...
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday July 03 2018, @02:07AM (2 children)
I read an article recently, I think it was in the submission queue, about AT&T. It seems they are the worst of the worst when it comes to granting the NSA anything they request. They will go above and beyond said requests, in an apparent hope of currying favor. The other Telcos sometimes resist the NSA's demands, but never AT&T.
“Take me to the Brig. I want to see the “real Marines”. – Major General Chesty Puller, USMC
(Score: 3, Informative) by requerdanos on Tuesday July 03 2018, @02:47AM (1 child)
Something like this?
- https://theintercept.com/2018/06/25/att-internet-nsa-spy-hubs/ [theintercept.com]
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday July 03 2018, @03:11PM
Yes, than exactly!
“Take me to the Brig. I want to see the “real Marines”. – Major General Chesty Puller, USMC
(Score: 5, Informative) by crafoo on Tuesday July 03 2018, @01:30AM (3 children)
Remember when there was a big to-do about retroactive immunity for the telecoms for violating customer privacy and breaking the law? And Obama promised to give them immunity to the law? But then he did, because, Fuck You citizen?
After all of that, I think there is no real consequence for telecoms wholesale violations of privacy. Why should they care? No consequences, no changes to behaviour. We didn't hold our politicians accountable and so we now pay the price.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 03 2018, @01:54AM (2 children)
You brought up one of the biggest problems with the US system of government. The people have absolutely no power over the politicians except every 2/4/6 years, and then the elections are so filled with hype, bullshit, and political party backroom deals that the people have effectively no power at all!
We need a more dynamic system where the people can easily get a no-confidence vote in to replace anyone. Before that even we could at least get the money out of politics and do away with gerrymandering. Fuckin' gerrys.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday July 03 2018, @02:10AM (1 child)
If the population were less polarized on a few key issues, the voter's power might have some meaning. Those polarized issues are brought to the fore, and other more important issues are kept somewhere backstage. Out of sight, and out of mind is the best place for them, from the politician's point of view.
“Take me to the Brig. I want to see the “real Marines”. – Major General Chesty Puller, USMC
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday July 03 2018, @12:59PM
They're polarized by design. When you sift out the political jargon, the talking points, the propaganda, they hype, then the vast majority of Americans are not very far apart at all in terms of what they value and what their goals are, because those are rooted in a common set of material circumstances.
It is useful for the power elites to expand upon trifling differences to create the illusion of contested elections. When the dust from the election pageant settles, they calmly carry on and continue looting the national wealth and siphoning off the productivity of regular people who have skills and know how to do stuff. It's the best scam in history.
To begin to change that, it's necessary to abandon the entire raft of divisive language the power elites employ.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by requerdanos on Tuesday July 03 2018, @02:37AM (2 children)
Here is the same NSA propaganda simplified by having the parts that are outright lies highlighted in bold for the reader:
Simply remove the boldface portions for an approximation of truth--a scratching of the surface, if you will.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Tuesday July 03 2018, @03:44AM (1 child)
"Now look at these empty servers as proof we have deleted everything"
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 03 2018, @03:12PM
Wiped? Like with a cloth? -NSA guy