Saturday, August 2, 2014

Privacy World's August 2014 Newsletter Issue 1Aug

Sent: Friday, August 01, 2014 11:10 PM
Subject: Privacy World's August 2014 Newsletter Issue 1Aug


> Privacy World - The WORLD'S SHREWDEST PRIVACY NEWSLETTER
> 
> NSA Records and Stores at Least 80 Percent of All Audio Calls in the US
> 
> At least 80% of all audio calls, not just metadata, are recorded
> and stored in the US, says whistleblower William Binney - that's a
> 'totalitarian mentality'
> 
> William Binney is one of the highest-level whistleblowers to ever
> emerge from the NSA. He was a leading code-breaker against the
> Soviet Union during the Cold War but resigned soon after September
> 11, disgusted by Washington's move towards mass surveillance.
> 
> On 5 July he spoke at a conference in London organised by the
> Centre for Investigative Journalism and revealed the extent
> of the surveillance programs unleashed by the Bush and Obama
> administrations.
> 
> "At least 80% of fibre-optic cables globally go via the US",
> Binney said. "This is no accident and allows the US to view all
> communication coming in. At least 80% of all audio calls, not just
> metadata, are recorded and stored in the US. The NSA lies about
> what it stores."
> 
> The NSA will soon be able to collect 966 exabytes a year, the total
> of internet traffic annually. Former Google head Eric Schmidt once
> argued that the entire amount of knowledge from the beginning of
> humankind until 2003 amount to only five exabytes.
> 
> Binney, who featured in a 2012 short film by Oscar-nominated US
> film-maker Laura Poitras, described a future where surveillance is
> ubiquitous and government intrusion unlimited.
> 
> "The ultimate goal of the NSA is total population control", Binney
> said, "but I'm a little optimistic with some recent Supreme Court
> decisions, such as law enforcement mostly now needing a warrant
> before searching a smartphone."
> 
> He praised the revelations and bravery of former NSA contractor
> Edward Snowden and told me that he had indirect contact with a
> number of other NSA employees who felt disgusted with the agency's
> work. They're keen to speak out but fear retribution and exile, not
> unlike Snowden himself, who is likely to remain there for some time.
> 
> Unlike Snowden, Binney didn't take any documents with him when he
> left the NSA. He now says that hard evidence of illegal spying
> would have been invaluable. The latest Snowden leaks, featured
> in the Washington Post, detail private conversations of average
> Americans with no connection to extremism.
> 
> It shows that the NSA is not just pursuing terrorism, as it claims,
> but ordinary citizens going about their daily communications. "The
> NSA is mass-collecting on everyone", Binney said, "and it's said
> to be about terrorism but inside the US it has stopped zero attacks."
> 
> The lack of official oversight is one of Binney's key concerns,
> particularly of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance
> Court (Fisa), which is held out by NSA defenders as a sign of the
> surveillance scheme's constitutionality.
> 
> "The Fisa court has only the government's point of view", he
> argued. "There are no other views for the judges to consider. There
> have been at least 15-20 trillion constitutional violations for US
> domestic audiences and you can double that globally."
> 
> A Fisa court in 2010 allowed the NSA to spy on 193 countries
> around the world, plus the World Bank, though there's evidence
> that even the nations the US isn't supposed to monitor - Five Eyes
> allies Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand - aren't immune
> from being spied on. It's why encryption is today so essential to
> transmit information safely.
> 
> Binney recently told the German NSA inquiry committee that
> his former employer had a "totalitarian mentality" that was the
> "greatest threat" to US society since that country's US Civil War
> in the 19th century. Despite this remarkable power, Binney still
> mocked the NSA's failures, including missing this year's Russian
> intervention in Ukraine and the Islamic State's take-over of Iraq.
> 
> The era of mass surveillance has gone from the fringes of public
> debate to the mainstream, where it belongs. The Pew Research Centre
> released a report this month, Digital Life in 2025, that predicted
> worsening state control and censorship, reduced public trust,
> and increased commercialisation of every aspect of web culture.
> 
> It's not just internet experts warning about the internet's
> colonisation by state and corporate power. One of Europe's leading
> web creators, Lena Thiele, presented her stunning series Netwars
> in London on the threat of cyber warfare. She showed how easy it is
> for governments and corporations to capture our personal information
> without us even realising.
> 
> Thiele said that the US budget for cyber security was US$67 billion
> in 2013 and will double by 2016. Much of this money is wasted and
> doesn't protect online infrastructure. This fact doesn't worry the
> multinationals making a killing from the gross exaggeration of fear
> that permeates the public domain.
> 
> Wikileaks understands this reality better than most. Founder Julian
> Assange and investigative editor Sarah Harrison both remain in
> legal limbo. I spent time with Assange in his current home at the
> Ecuadorian embassy in London last week, where he continues to work,
> release leaks, and fight various legal battles. He hopes to resolve
> his predicament soon.
> 
> At the Centre for Investigative Journalism conference, Harrison
> stressed the importance of journalists who work with technologists
> to best report the NSA stories. "It's no accident", she said,
> "that some of the best stories on the NSA are in Germany, where
> there's technical assistance from people like Jacob Appelbaum."
> 
> A core Wikileaks belief, she stressed, is releasing all documents
> in their entirety, something the group criticised the news site
> The Intercept for not doing on a recent story. "The full archive
> should always be published", Harrison said.
> 
> With 8m documents on its website after years of leaking, the
> importance of publishing and maintaining source documents for the
> media, general public and court cases can't be under-estimated. "I
> see Wikileaks as a library", Assange said. "We're the librarians
> who can't say no."
> 
> With evidence that there could be a second NSA leaker, the time for
> more aggressive reporting is now. As Binney said: "I call people
> who are covering up NSA crimes traitors".
> 
> The above by Antony Loewenstein, Guardian UK
> 
> Until our next issue stay cool and remain low profile!
> 
> Privacy World
> 
> PS - Inexpensive - NO id ATM card that allows you to withdraw cash
> from PayPal and BitCoin? Acts same as a virtual Credit card
> on-line as well!
> 
> No problem, just send us an email with "$135 ATM" in your subject heading.
> 

> Yes we accept BitCoin!

No comments: