Law enforcement agencies request information from third party institutions roughly one and half million times a year, while also giving third parties the opportunity to manufacture their devices equipped with tools for government surveillance. However, on the flip-side of that same coin of surveillance, companies also have an opportunity to implement policies that keep the government from interfering with mass communication, but few chose to do so.
It is said that telecommunication service providers are stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to government surveillance because of their available positions, meaning they can take action against government surveillance, but what is their incentive? Does the privacy of customers outweigh the economic support of the government?
Are telecommunication service providers really stuck between a rock and a hard place, or is the government using the rock to scratch out the fine print for the American people?
Source: "The Spies We Trust: Third Party Service Providers and Law Enforcement Surveillance" by Christopher Soghoian
Alternet.org reports a list of “six government surveillance programs designed to watch what you do online,” which isn’t particularly interesting since it’s just a list of different departments of the government, but there was one particularly interesting program that could catch the eye.
The Department of Homeland Security has a program called EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Center) that tracks a list of approximately 380 words as they are searched for on the Internet, with the terms being organized into nine categories.
Source: http://www.alternet.org/story/155764/6_government_surveillance_programs_designed_to_watch_what_you_do_online
The Department of Homeland Security has a program called EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Center) that tracks a list of approximately 380 words as they are searched for on the Internet, with the terms being organized into nine categories.
- Agencies: 26 terms, including “DHS,” “FBI”, “CIA,” “Air Marshal,” “United Nations” and “Red Cross”
- Domestic security: 52 terms, including "assassination," "dirty bomb," “crash,” “first responder,” “screening” and “death.”
- Hazardous materials: 34 terms, including "hazmat," “nuclear," “leak,” “burn” and “cloud.”
- Public health: 47 terms, including "ebola," "contamination," “wave,” “pork” and “agriculture.”
- Infrastructure security: 35 terms, including “AMTRAK,” “airport," "subway," “port,” “electric” and “cancelled.”
- Southwest border violence: 65 terms, including "drug cartel," "decapitated," “gunfight,” “marijuana,” “heroin,” “border” and “bust.”
- Terrorism: 55 terms, including “Jihad,” “biological weapons,” “suicide attack,” “plot” and “pirates.”
- Emergencies and weather: 41 terms, including “disaster,” "hurricane," "power outage," “ice,” “storm” and “help.”Cyber security: 25 terms, including “cyber terror,” “malware,” “virus,” “hacker,” “worm,” “China” and “Trojan.”
Source: http://www.alternet.org/story/155764/6_government_surveillance_programs_designed_to_watch_what_you_do_online
The graphic to the left was taken from the NSA website explaining how third party surveillance works. If you browse through their website, you'll repeatedly see the phrase "top secret information" included in their brief explanation of their work.
https://nsa.gov1.info/surveillance/
The video to the right explains the graphic to the left in a less government way and a more average citizen way.
Make sure you say hey to Mike.
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What communications technologies have been developed in recent years with the intent of being used for government surveillance?
(Separately, what is the likelihood of finding a complete list of said technologies on the internet? Some things have to be kept secret, right?)
(Separately, what is the likelihood of finding a complete list of said technologies on the internet? Some things have to be kept secret, right?)
Through a source that was concerned about the domestication of military-grade surveillance equipment, The Intercept was able to obtain a “secret list” of government surveillance technologies. The devices listed on their secret-list include geo-tracking technology, as well as high-grade, Orwell’s 1964 Big Brother spying equipment. “We’ve seen a trend in the years since 9/11 to bring sophisticated surveillance technologies that were originally designed for military use — like Stingrays or drones or biometrics — back home to the United States,” said Jennifer Lynch, a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which has waged a legal battle challenging the use of cellphone surveillance devices domestically. “But using these technologies for domestic law enforcement purposes raises a host of issues that are different from a military context.”