We are enduring a death by a thousand cuts.
Funny, I thought you might respond to this post but I didn’t think it would be in 3 seconds 
lol
United States officials fought to conceal details of arrangements between US spy agencies and private companies tracking the whereabouts of Americans via their cell phones. Obtaining location data from US phones normally requires a warrant, but police and intelligence agencies routinely pay companies instead for the data, effectively circumventing the courts.
Sure are, but is anyone paying attention ?
Why are you surprised? The government has been doing this since it was passed in 2006. Yet when it becomes uncovered the people who passed it are all so surprised?
@rcleven I’m not sure if that is related to the PA, as that seemed to spell out, “Get”, “Take”, “Receive”, but this story seems to revolve around “Purchase”…
Obtaining location data from US phones normally requires a warrant, but police and intelligence agencies routinely pay companies instead for the data, effectively circumventing the courts.
the Pentagon only agreed to release details about the data purchases, which had always been unclassified, after Wyden hindered the Senate’s efforts to appoint a new director of the National Security Agency. “The secrecy around data purchases was amplified,”
Wyden’s office says it’s been investigating sales of location data to the government for years, uncovering multiple ties between the Department of Defense and what the senator refers to as “shady companies" committing “flagrant violations” of people’s privacy. The companies’ practices are “not just unethical, but illegal,” he says.
Pentagon offices known to have purchased location data from these companies include the Defense Intelligence Agency and the NSA, among others. Wyden’s letter, first reported by The New York Times, indicates that the NSA is also “buying Americans’ domestic internet metadata.”
Ehhhhh, Six of one, a half dozen of the other …
Before it seemed the gov’t got what they wanted by asking/demanding and most likely threatening companies to hand it over. Now that they’re paying for it, it seems to show that the companies are one up on the gov’t. This seems to be even more disturbing to me. To spit in our faces while being butt slammed they’re using more of our money to spy on us. In the words of some wise man, “WTF is going on here?”
Our government is intersepting Email since passage. Programs have been written to pick out key words in those Emails. Those programs were written by private contractors and paid for by US tax payer’s. This takes it only one step further. It was a grand jester when written but under thought out. It was nonspecific and allows the action agency to spy on American’s without due cause. Buying or ordering a company to turn over information without a cort order is not illegal under the PA. All the information collected and analyzed is huge. There’s only a few companies in the US that can store and crunch that much information. Last bid for that contract was won by Microsoft. The runner up Amazon has sued the US government and Microsoft for the last contract. The suit is now about 3 years old. Pay me now or pay me later.
WAIT, so you mean my Gmail mails aren’t private ?? !!!
Kidding.
Agreed …
EVERYTHING crossing INTO and over that American border is subject to the Patriot Act. Emails, photos, voice telephone calls, data backups … all of it. We would send backups by courier to our 3rd party disaster recovery site in the US by courier. We were even mandated to have those secret stingray boxes installed that we’d all casually refer to them as ‘the secret boxes’.
Haven’t been since 2006. Nobody actually reads them. They are read by computer programs looking for key words. If those key words are mentioned in your emails yes they’re kicked out to agent’s who further analyze what’s in your Email with no warrant needed. Today’s story is nothing more than the story’s in 2000’s about the Email scandles. SOS just a different day. It’s more about one party hassling the other party. Nothing will come from it. In 20 years from our news media it’s wash, rince, and repeat.
Thanks for clarifying that this is “recycled” media. I am not one bit surprised by that. I guess the post isn’t all that useless if someone learns of it for the first time or hasn’t actually read the PA. Thx for the link.
What does all that mean? What kind of work did you do?
Any idea what those keywords might be? I’d like to drive them crazy on purpose.
Have no idea what kicks them out. Be careful what you wish for though it may have an agency knocking on your door. Be safe use texts. Mine go out scrambled then delete themselves within an hour. It’s a standard feature on Android.
Wireless Telco Engineering.