Former CIA and NSA employee source of intelligence leaks

[derspiess]

Perhaps they lack the recent reminder of totalitarianism. Like Zanza I find it really funny how a society can be so vocal about gun rights and totally disregard the government encroaching on their privacy.

[Zanza]

My reasonable expectation of privacy is that the government does not track ANY data on me unless it has a clear purpose for a particular function of government.

I haven't seen anything yet that indicates that the US government is doing otherwise.

To answer you and CC: I consider what is going on - namely collecting communication profiles on millions of completely innocent people - as not having a clear purpose for a particular function of government.

Maybe you really need a court order to access this data and officially link it to a certain person. But I object to the collection itself.

[The Brain]

If the government has nothing to hide surely it can do without this information.

[Zanza]

GPS location data can definitely be used to establish a link to a specific individual. In fact, for most people a single datapoint will do, since we do tend to spend the night at home.

http://www.nature.com/srep/2013/130325/srep01376/full/srep01376.html#auth-1
This is an article where scientists actually checked not GPS data, but rather mobile phone cell data. The movement profiles of mobile phones are almost unique and very easy to link to persons.

If the government has a complete database of these, they can track every single American owning a cellphone even months later.

They just need a court order.

Or do they in cases of "national security"? Apparently FISA orders are outnumbered 10:1 by "National Security Letters" which the FBI can issue by itself without a judge...

[Valmy]

It sounds like the "court order" in this case is something like:

"To whom it may concern,

Go ahead, take a look."

Yep do not get me wrong, it is better than nothing but...the judiciary is not exactly a super active partner here.

I have been thinking about it DG and I think you are exactly right.  I can only hope these scandals get the attention of the electorate.

[derspiess]

I have Google location tracking turned on for my profile.  It's both cool and creepy to click on a calendar date and see where I was that day.

[Iormlund]

You know what's cool and creepy as well? The new Xbox has to be online for it to work. And it has an infrared (so it sees in the dark) camera with facial recognition software that can track your emotions and how you react to ads, shows, news, certain parties or politicians or your browsing history. Oh, and the mike is always on.

[Tamas]

You know what's cool and creepy as well? The new Xbox has to be online for it to work. And it has an infrared (so it sees in the dark) camera with facial recognition software that can track your emotions and how you react to ads, shows, news, certain parties or politicians or your browsing history. Oh, and the mike is always on.

surely you can't be serious

[Iormlund]

Yep. Someone noticed the patents. Microsoft's response is:

Microsoft has more than 10 years of experience making privacy a top priority

Unless you are the US government (or a contractor), obviously. 

[Zanza]

surely you can't be serious

He is serious. Apparently you can turn off the camera, but not the microphone - it allows you to start the Xbox with a voice command. 

This is from the company that was supposedly the first to be signed up to PRISM.

[mongers]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/06/phone-call-metadata-information-authorities

Let's be clear - if you turn on your GPS function, you are advertising to your carrier and potentially to anyone who makes an application for your phone or tablet where you are.  That is why (at least on iOS) the switch to turn that on and off can be found under privacy settings.

If you want a reasonable expectation of privacy re your movements, turn off your GPS/location functions.

This is good advice, but unfortunately a lot of broad location information can be garnered from where your phone is in relation to the nearest 2 or 3 cell towers and how move between subsequent cells and so forth.

[Phillip V]

29-year-old low-level IT administrator with no high school diploma earning $200k/yr.

[DGuller]

29-year-old low-level IT administrator with no high school diploma earning $200k/yr.

Yeah, that thought occurred to me.  If they need people to analyze data for $200k/yr, and interesting private data at that  , I would definitely like that.  I don't think CIA hires active FSB agents, though. 

[The Minsky Moment]

GPS location data can definitely be used to establish a link to a specific individual. In fact, for most people a single datapoint will do, since we do tend to spend the night at home.

And yet under Apple's policy, it is considered to be non-personal information, along with your occupation, language, zip code, area code, and unique device identifier.  They can do whatever they want with it - sell it, trade it, whatever.

[derspiess]

You know what's cool and creepy as well? The new Xbox has to be online for it to work. And it has an infrared (so it sees in the dark) camera with facial recognition software that can track your emotions and how you react to ads, shows, news, certain parties or politicians or your browsing history. Oh, and the mike is always on.

They've softened me up already on that.  My Kinect has been sitting on top of my TV looking straight at me for two & a half years-- I barely notice it's there any more. 

That said, I don't see myself pre-ordering one of these bad boys just yet.