Here’s one way to land on the NSA watch list

Wonky News Nerd ^ | 10 July 2014 | Julia Angwin and Mike Tigas

[ShadowAce]

Last week, German journalists revealed that the National Security Agency has a program to collect information about people who use privacy-protecting services, including popular anonymizing software called Tor. But it’s not clear how many users have been affected.

So we did a little sleuthing, and found that the NSA’s targeting list corresponds with the list of directory servers used by Tor between December 2010 and February 2012 – including two servers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Tor users connect to the directory servers when they first launch the Tor service.

That means that if you downloaded Tor during 2011, the NSA may have scooped up your computer’s IP address and flagged you for further monitoring. The Tor Project is a nonprofit that receives significant funding from the U.S. government.

The revelations were among the first evidence of specific spy targets inside the United States. And they have been followed by yet more evidence. The Intercept revealed this week that the government monitored email of five prominent Muslim-Americans, including a former Bush Administration official.

It’s not clear if, or how extensively, the NSA spied on the users of Tor and other privacy services.

After the news, one of Tor’s original developers, Roger Dingledine, reassured users that they most likely remained anonymous while using the service: “Tor is designed to be robust to somebody watching traffic at one point in the network – even a directory authority.” It is more likely that users could have been spied on when they were not using Tor.

For its part, the NSA says it only collects information for valid foreign intelligence purposes and that it “minimizes” information it collects about U.S. residents. In other words, NSA may have discarded any information it obtained about U.S. residents who downloaded Tor.

However, according to a recent report by the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, the NSA’s minimization procedures vary by program. Under Prism, for example, the NSA shares unminimized data with the FBI and CIA.

In addition, the NSA can also later search the communications of those it has inadvertently caught in its Prism dragnet, a tactic some have called a ” backdoor” search. It’s not clear if similar backdoors exist for other types of data such as IP addresses.

In response to the Tor news, the NSA said it is following President Obama’s January directive to not conduct surveillance for the purpose of “suppressing or burdening criticism or dissent, or for disadvantaging persons based on their ethnicity, race, gender, sexual orientation, or religion.”

[Disclosure: Mike Tigas is the developer of an app that uses Tor, called theOnion Browser.]

We updated our chart of NSA revelations to include monitoring of privacy software.

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For the geeks, here are the IP addresses of the were listed in the NSA Xkeyscore code and when they were added or removed from the list of Tor directory servers:

193.23.244.244
Added: Fri, 12 Feb 2010 15:31:08 -0400 (14:31 -0500)

194.109.206.212
Added: Sat, 8 Apr 2006 17:03:49 -0400 (21:03 +0000)

86.59.21.38
Added: Sat, 5 Nov 2005 16:20:51 -0400 (20:20 +0000)

213.115.239.118
Added: Thu, 10 Jun 2010 10:56:08 -0400 (16:56 +0200)
Removed: Wed, 29 Feb 2012 14:22:41 -0400 (13:22 -0500)

212.112.245.170
Added: Thu, 16 Dec 2010 08:10:19 -0400 (13:10 +0100)

128.31.0.39
Added Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:36:08 -0400 (19:36 -0400)

216.224.124.114
Added: Wed, 7 Nov 2007 17:20:45 -0400 (21:20 +0000)
Removed: on Wed, 4 Apr 2012 19:51:04 -0400 (01:51 +0200)

208.83.223.34
Added: Mon, 10 Aug 2009 01:32:51 -0400 (01:32 -0400)

[ShadowAce]

[latina4dubya]

ping...

[Jack Hammer]

One sure way to get on the list - read the constitution, and believe in what you read.

[no-to-illegals]

Post here at Free Republic and donate to Free Republic!?!

[circlecity]

"In addition, the NSA can also later search the communications of those it has inadvertently caught in its Prism dragnet, a tactic some have called a ” backdoor” search. It’s not clear if similar backdoors exist for other types of data such as IP addresses."

There's the rub. When Obama says they are not snooping on everyone's digital activity he's being very disingenuous. What they are doing is recording all digital activity and storing it in a database. Then if a certain person or goup appears on the radar they can search this database along with the banking, medical and commercial transaction (debit/credit card) databases to lean everyting they could want to know about that person or group and their activities.

[mylife]

If you’ve posted on FR you are probably on the list.

[I want the USA back]

“your computer’s IP address”
A computer does not have an IP address. At any given moment, while it is connected to the internet, there is an IP address by which your computer can be addressed. That IP address can vary from time to time. Some ISP’s allocate a “fixed” IP address. Even that can change, if you change ISP’s.
So, what good does it do the kgb to “scoop up your computer’s IP address”?

Answer?

[Jack Hydrazine]

Bill Still’s interview with Bill Binney who was in the NSA for 37 years until October 2001. His last position within the organization was Technical Director of The World For Geopolitical and Military Analysis and Reporting Group.

Part 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm-WA6XnBuc

Part 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQ5Tatq73Tw

Part 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwpyS3IJIrs

Part 4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPcyGxcZtoQ

Part 5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=—4Nka4_v_Q

Part 6
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooBiByfsEfk

Part 7
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AOQLEM5eNY

Part 8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONS9Aj6HLBw

[jsanders2001]

Hell I know I’m already on it because I occassionally identify terrorists through financial networks and pass the information onto them and zi’m a FR’per...lol

[C210N]

What about ways to get off or stay off the NSA watch list?

Working for the IRS comes to mind... the higher up your responsibility, the more you can stay out of the NSA’s way.

[I want the USA back]

The fascists already have rendered encryption useless. They have demanded and obtained, illegally, a way to read in the clear.

[Yo-Yo]

The MAC address can also be scooped up, and that is unique for every PC.

If the bits make it to your PC, they can be traced. It’s just a matter of how diligent and resourceful the ones doing the tracking are.

It doesn’t matter how many proxy servers you go through, again, if the bits make it to your PC, then your PC can be traced.

[Gay State Conservative]

According to a memo from Osama Obama's DHS that department considers veterans and those with Republican bumper stickers on their cars...among many others...to be potential domestic terrorists.So I just assume that I'm on every government watchlist there is.I'm surprised that I'm still allowed to board airplanes.Oh,wait....maybe I should give them any ideas.

And I think it would be naive to believe that posters to FR...except,maybe,the ones who get zotted...are being watched as well.

[null and void]

Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping!

To get onto The Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping List you must threaten to report me to the Mods if I don't add you to the list...

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

Pinged for later

[Georgia Girl 2]

I figure I am so on the list it doesn’t matter at this point. When they start rouonding up people to take to the re-education camps I just need to be elsewhere. :-)

[OneWingedShark]

What about ways to get off or stay off the NSA watch list?

Become a muslim with plans to plant a bomb in Boston?

[sten]

the easiest way would be to post to FR

signed,

un-reeducatable capitalist

[mylife]

Its like my friend says... “mylife yer gonnna get put on a list”!

And I rejoind, hey butthead I am on several lists!