Jun 17
It’s only natural to be a little skeeved out by the idea that the government is slurping up your private data
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Jun 17
UK reportedly set up fake internet cafes, hacked diplomats’ BlackBerrys during 2009 G20 summit
Posted in: Today's Chili
If you’re antsy at the idea of PRISM reading your Facebook messages, be thankful you’re not a foreign diplomat. The Guardian is reporting that GCHQ, the UK’s communications surveillance unit, hacked delegates’ BlackBerry handsets during 2009’s G20 summit in London. According to leaked documents, spies were able to relay private messages to analysts in “near real-time,” and pass that information along to top politicians as they were negotiating deals. The organization is also said to have set up fake internet cafés around the conference area, which used key-logging software to steal dignitaries’ passwords for long-term surveillance. If you’ll excuse us, we’re just off to, you know, change all of our login details.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
Source: The Guardian
Jun 17
The impact of the NSA’s secret surveillance through PRISM
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Jun 17
Apple releases statement on customer privacy, received over 4,000 government information requests in six months
Posted in: Today's Chili
Following the likes of Microsoft and Facebook, Apple has publicly responded to the explosion in interest in the NSA’s PRISM program, and has been authorized to reveal some of the data on what it’s shared with the US government in the past. It apparently first heard of the program when the media started to ask about it earlier this month and has reiterated that it provides no government agency with direct access to its servers. It does, however, get its fair share of requests for customer data from US law enforcement, receiving between 4,000 and 5,000 of them between December 1 2012 and May 31 2013. These requests covered over 9,000 accounts or devices, and come from federal, state and local authorities. Apple elaborated a little on these information requests too, saying that the majority of these requests have involved searching for missing children, preventing suicides and robberies. The company says it has “always placed a priority on protecting our customers’ personal data,” and its legal team evaluates each request. Apparently, Apple can’t decrypt (and thus share) iMessage and FaceTime data, which is encrypted end-to-end. We’ve added its full statement after the break.
Filed under: Internet, Software, Apple
Source: Apple
Jun 14
Microsoft just released data on its government requests (including FISA) too.
Posted in: Today's ChiliMicrosoft just released data on its government requests (including FISA) too. For the last six months last year, Microsoft received between 6,000 and 7,000 government requests affecting between 31,000 and 32,000 accounts. [Microsoft]
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Jun 14
Facebook is finally going to come clean. Or well, as clean as the government will allow it to. Like Google’s Transparency Report and like similar reports given by Microsoft and Twitter, Facebook is releasing its data on the amount of government requests it receives. Of course, the numbers are completely unspecific but that’s not exactly Facebook’s fault, it comes with the territory.
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Jun 14
While everyone’s skeptical
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Jun 14
Bloomberg is reporting that the recent NSA Prism scandal is just a tiny scratch on the privacy surface. Citing "four people familiar with the process", the agency claims that in fact thousands of technology, finance and manufacturing companies work with US national security agencies.
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Jun 13
WSJ: T-Mobile, VZW don’t directly share call data to NSA, but that might not matter
Posted in: Today's Chili
Providing another wrinkle to the recently exploding privacy debate, a Wall Street Journal report indicates which wireless companies are providing call information to the government. According to the infamous people familiar with the matter, foreign ownership of Verizon and T-Mobile presents several obstacles including them in the program. Chief among them is that the requests are top secret and might prohibit some of the owners from being aware.
Meanwhile, Sprint and AT&T are said to have “long cooperated with the government,” although it may not really matter which provider you’re using when it comes to popping up in NSA-requested files. Last week’s leaked court order requested call logs and metadata from Verizon Business Network Services, which, along with AT&T provides the backbone most calls go through. No matter which carrier you’re on, if your call is routed along that backbone, the information about it is recorded and could be passed along.
Filed under: Wireless, Mobile, Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile
Source: Wall Street Journal
Jun 13
The highly-classified, confidential documents that revealed the NSA’s massive data-mining operation, PRISM
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