Posted on 01/28/2024 9:42:12 AM PST by george76
The disclosure comes amid congressional scrutiny and a Federal Trade Commission crackdown on commercial data brokers.
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The letter by the National Security Agency, obtained by The New York Times, is the latest disclosure to highlight a legal gray zone on privacy
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The National Security Agency buys certain logs related to Americans’ domestic internet activities from commercial data brokers
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Intelligence and law enforcement agencies sometimes purchase potentially sensitive and revealing domestic data from brokers that would require a court order to acquire directly.
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The U.S. government should not be funding and legitimizing a shady industry whose flagrant violations of Americans’ privacy are not just unethical, but illegal,” Mr. Wyden
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Wyden. In November, the senator placed a hold on Biden’s nominee to be the next agency director, Lt. Gen. Timothy D. Haugh, to prevent the Senate from voting on his confirmation until the agency publicly disclosed whether it was buying the location data and web browsing records of Americans.
In the letter, General Nakasone wrote that his agency had decided to reveal that it buys and uses various types of commercially available metadata for its foreign intelligence and cybersecurity missions, including netflow data “related to wholly domestic internet communications.”
Netflow data generally means internet metadata that shows when computers or servers have connected but does not include the content of their interactions. Such records can be generated when people visit different websites or use smartphone apps, but the letter did not specify how detailed the data is that the agency buys.
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a warning to the intelligence community and asked that Ms. Haines “take action to ensure that U.S. intelligence agencies only purchase data on Americans that has been obtained in a lawful manner.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
sounds like conspiracy to undermine the constitution, which makes them domestic enemies.
Wyden seems to have forgotten Chucky’s warning that the Deep State has so many ways to get back at you.
There are probably twenty different intelligence agencies monitoring every trip Wyden takes to the bathroom.
Lol.
Uh, so, where is my check if they are “buying” MY stuff? Just sayin’. Besides, probably already a threat stamp on most FReepers already......
What needs to stop is the NSA, CIA, FBI, and ATF asking banks and cell phone companies for records without a warrant, and the institutions just handing the data over without a question.
Hmmm? I thought they already collected every bit and byte?
There’s a reason why EU-style privacy laws will never happen here. We currently abide an after-the-fact “opt out” Internet structure. You’re never given an option to opt out during a purchase. It’s only after your data has been sold and you start getting spam that you’re given the option to unsubscribe or opt out. The damage is already done at that point.
I’ve spent the last 18 months going through every possible privacy avenue to have organizations scrub my data from their systems, yet every legitimate purchase at a new broker means the process starts anew. We need a mandatory opt out purchasing contract with every Internet-based sales entity. If they want our data, they should have to pay us for it. You want to opt in to your data being sold? You should be paid for it. You bet your butt that people would do it, and those of us who demand privacy would be left alone.
Never happen, but that’s how it should be structured, IMO.
Wyden is an old Feingold liberal.
Your concepts are solid but imho naive.
The Europeans may be protected “by law” but it is virtually certain that their Deep States have loopholes that allow them to spy on everybody 24/7.
At a minimum they can use the “swap” technique explained by Snowden.
Country A secretly spies on the citizens of Country B.
Country B secretly spies on the citizens of Country A.
One click of a mouse and they swap data.
(From the article) :" The National Security Agency buys certain logs related to Americans’ domestic internet activities from commercial data brokers "
Intelligence and law enforcement agencies sometimes purchase potentially sensitive and revealing domestic data from brokers
that would require a court order to acquire directly."
...
The U.S. government should not be funding and legitimizing a shady industry whose flagrant violations of Americans’ privacy are not just unethical, but illegal,” Mr. Wyden "
How is this even concept Constitutional ?
This constitutes a blatant violation of the Constitutional right to Privacy by our own Federal government agency,
and overreach without a warrant.
I work in this sector. I can tell you that at this point any legislation reversing the data mining operations would be helpful. GDPR has specific rights laid out and something called a “right to be forgotten,” which Google ardently fought against.
At issue here is the collection and distribution mechanisms. If we had laws prohibiting the collection without our explicit consent, there would still be auditing required for the entities to prove they aren’t doing what they shouldn’t be doing at the risk of exceptional fines and even shuttering of the business. No entity would risk that.
Maybe naive in the sense that the government will still find a way to get our data, but at least it would be a significant stumbling block to the ease of their acquisition (which is why it’ll never come to pass).
Good ideas—but as Snowden showed .gov has a big bag of tricks—hardware, software, monkey in the middle, intelligence agency swaps, data wiretapping of every imaginable kind—and that was twenty years ago.
The data stealing technology these days must be incredible.
Any corporation that wants to play this game can easily be outside national borders—regardless of local laws.
The only way to stop it would be make possession of this data in any country an international crime against humanity and start having tribunals with hangings.
Other than that fuggedaboutit.
According to The Register, the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 “specifically authorizes intelligence agencies to monitor the phone, email, and other communications of U.S. citizens for up to a week without obtaining a warrant” when one of the parties is outside the U.S.
Mass surveillance in the United States - Wikipedia
What our spies can do is have another member of the 5 Eyes Group, the UK, Canada, Australia or New Zealand monitor US citizens like Trump and then provide the data to the NSA and other US monitoring groups.
The National Security Agency buys certain logs related to Americans’ domestic internet activities from commercial data brokersGOOGLE < - -
Go to a big vendor like Google, Microsoft, or Amazon and request a DSR (Data Subject Request). The big corps will have a process to allow you to do so, and they’re usually pretty quick about it. The data they have on you will chill you to the bone. Seriously. Try it.
Question… Would having a VPN help??
Sort of. The problem is that everyone has a “fingerprint.” Even the resolution of your monitor is captured, for example. You can stop your computer from “leaking” some things through privacy settings in most OS (Windows and MacOS), but browsers, esp. Chrome, are handing over everything. Again, it’s an opt-out model, which is terrible for the consumer but amazing for the data miners.
Data is king.
I remember reading at one time where the NSA had ‘arranged’ with major telephone carriers to get the live feed data with all the meta-data trimmings - all without legal orders, statutes or otherwise. Sort of just an intimidation ‘handshake.’
IMO, there is not one electronic bit of information on this planet that the NSA does not get - or sift through. That Mega-Death Star data storage facility in Utah wasn’t built just to ‘store’ data.
despicable!!!
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