To be slightly more transparent and/or spew numbers to confuse the common citizen, the Obama administration released two documents to show the scope of the NSA’s data collection program. Those documents reveal that the NSA monitors 1.6% of the world’s Internet traffic and reviews .00004% of all traffic.
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Even as President Obama proposes a review of NSA procedures and oversight, the organization published a seven page document laying out in broad terms what it does, how it does it and why it thinks that’s OK. As Ars Technica points out, the memo claims “We do not need to sacrifice civil liberties for the sake of national security; both are integral to who we are as Americans. NSA can and will continue to conduct its operations in a manner that respects both.” While many would argue those points in light of the many programs recently uncovered, the NSA has a response there also:
According to figures published by a major tech provider, the Internet carries 1,826 Petabytes of information per day. In its foreign intelligence mission, NSA touches about 1.6% of that. However, of the 1.6% of the data, only 0.025% is actually selected for review. The net effect is that NSA analysts look at 0.00004% of the world’s traffic in conducting their mission – that’s less than one part in a million. Put another way, if a standard basketball court represented the global communications environment, NSA’s total collection would be represented by an area smaller than a dime on that basketball court.
Other sections go on to detail how it believes American citizen’s information could be picked up, and what it does to identify and minimize that data. Particularly illuminating is the six point process (listed after the break) by which it applies Executive Order 12333, considered “the foundational authority by which NSA collects, retains, analyzes, and disseminates foreign signals intelligence information” alongside the Foreign Intelligence Service Act of 1978 (FISA). It’s highly doubtful that any of these points will change your level of comfort with the policies and programs revealed or feelings about their need to change, but reading the document linked below may give some insight about how and why they were created.
Filed under: Internet
Via: Ars Technica
Source: NSA (PDF)
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
President Obama announced a series of reforms to the country’s surveillance practices on Friday at his first full press conference in nearly three months. The actions the administration is taking are many, and there’s still a lot that’s up in the air. One thing’s for sure, though. Obama does not think Edward Snowden deserves any credit.
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Revelations of government surveillance programs, including the headline-grabbing PRISM, have been nothing short of a PR nightmare for the White House. President Obama, who ran in part on a platform that included opposition to certain elements of the Patriot Act and President Bush’s illegal wiretapping program, has faced tough questions about his role in the NSA data collection system. Today, he addressed reporters in the White House press room and, as part of his regular briefing, began to layout a path to increased transparency that he hopes will re-earn the trust of the citizens.
After consulting with members of congress and civil liberties organizations, President Obama has come up with four initial steps to improve transparency and confidence, while working to maintain essential security apparatus. First up, is a direct dialog with congress about reforming section 215 of the Patriot Act, which is the part of the legislation regarding the collection of telephone records. Obama also took the opportunity to reiterate that the government does not have the ability to eavesdrop on phone calls without a warrant. The second step also involved congress and working to improve confidence in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC). Most notably, he said the government would pursue reforms that would ensure judges would hear opposing views from independent civil liberties proponents, in addition to government representatives.
The NSA, everybody’s favorite opaque government agency, would very much like for a leak like Edward Snowden’s to never happen again, so it’s firing all of the whistleblower’s old colleagues. Well, almost all.
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An important New York Times investigation from today reporting that the NSA "is searching the contents of vast amounts of Americans’ e-mail and text communications into and out of the country," coupled with leaked documents published by the Guardian, seriously calls into question the accuracy of crucial statements made by government officials about NSA surveillance.
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For those who have been following the news, you might recall that there was a huge fuss over how Edward Snowden, a former NSA system administrator, blew the whistle on the organization’s PRISM program which basically allowed the US government to spy on its own people. Instead of attempting to reassure the public that this was in their best interest, the program was defended and even called “lawful”, and now NSA director Gen. Keith Alexander has revealed future plans on how to prevent such leaks from occurring again. (more…)
NSA Director Wants To Replace Employees With Machines original content from Ubergizmo. 
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The unfortunate side effect of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden’s email provider Lavabit pulling the plug rather than complying with the feds
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You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
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