NSA violated privacy protections from 2006 to 2009, pins blame on confusion

NSA violated privacy protections from 2006 to 2009, pins blame on confusion

By now, it’s no secret that the NSA has courted privacy violations, but new documents divulge just how long such incidents have occurred. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper released approximately 1,800 pages of declassified files, which reveal that the NSA’s phone record program violations happened between 2006 (when it first came under court supervision) and 2009, when the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ordered changes to the operation. During that period, a total of 17,835 phone numbers were listed for checking against Uncle Sam’s database, and only about 1,800 were based on the standard of reasonable suspicion. According to Clapper, congress received the papers we’re seeing now at the time of the incidents, and corrective measures have been put in place. Among the preventative actions are a complete “end-to-end” review of telephony metadata handling, the creation of the Director of Compliance position and a fourfold increase of the compliance department’s personnel.

As it turns out, the missteps are (again) said to have been accidents. “There was nobody at the NSA who had a full understanding of how the program worked,” an intelligence official claims. Sure, the increased transparency is certainly welcome, but a recently-leaked NSA audit from May of 2012 suggests that collection of protected data is still occurring from a combination of human error and technical limits. To pore through the National Security Agency’s fresh load of documents, hit the second source link below.

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Via: Wall Street Journal

Source: Office of the Director of National Intelligence

US government declassifies documents concerning telephonic data collection

DNP US government releases documents concerning data collected under the PATRIOT Act

Today brings another victory for transparency as the US government has just declassified three documents pursuant to the collection of telephonic metadata authorized by section 215 of the PATRIOT Act. The documents, released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, include the 2009 and 2011 reports concerning the reauthorization of the PATRIOT Act as well as the order for business record collection. During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the subject, NSA Deputy Director John Inglis made public for the first time the mechanism for accessing the metadata at the government’s disposal. According to Inglis, telephonic information — which does not include names, addresses, or social security numbers — exists in databases but cannot be accessed without reasonable suspicion of association with terrorists. Deputy Attorney General James Cole went on to say, “Nobody is listening to anybody’s conversations.” This revelation might be cold comfort to those concerned about the government’s ownership of this data to begin with, but it does pull back the curtain somewhat on the NSA’s policies and procedures. To read these declassified — and heavily redacted — documents in full, head on over to the source link below.

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Source: Office of the Director of National Intelligence

Inside the US Nuclear Stockpile’s Top Secret First Home

At first glance, this could be any huge, Cold War-era facility. The gray and green of poured concrete might remind you of a public school or a hospital. But this is no run-of-the-mill building. It’s the original home of the US’s nuclear arsenal, and it’s been top secret for over 60 years.

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Call of Duty Black Ops: Declassified pegged for 13th November release on PS Vita

Gamers if you were planning on picking up Call of Duty Black Ops: Declassified for your PlayStation Vita, you might be interested to learn that Activision has announced the release date for the game which has been revealed to be on the 13th of November, the same date that Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 will be released to the masses. For those unfamiliar, Declassified will be developed by Nihilistic Software and instead of being story-focused, Declassified will be looking at multiplayer aspects and will introduce the events that lead up to Black Ops 2. The good news is that for North American customers, those who pick up a copy of Declassified will be able to get their hands on a downloadable game for free – Call of Duty: Roads to Victory, a game which was previously only available on the PSP. Until then you can check out the trailer of the game in the video above.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Call of Duty Black Ops: Declassified and Assassins Creed III: Liberation on the PS Vita, Call of Duty Elite service to be made free with launch of Black Ops 2,