Uncle Sam is watching you

[Nara]

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The Guardian reports today that the U.S. is gathering vast amount of data from computer and telephone networks all over the world. Iran comes in at the top of list with the most at 13.5 billion pieces of data in a one month period. India comes in at number 5 with 6.3 billion in one month (March 2003). Obama says this has to be done to keep the Americans safe.

Do you care?

Boundless Informant: the NSA's secret tool to track global surveillance data | World news | guardian.co.uk

"Iran was the country where the largest amount of intelligence was gathered, with more than 14bn reports in that period, followed by 13.5bn from Pakistan. Jordan, one of America's closest Arab allies, came third with 12.7bn, Egypt fourth with 7.6bn and India fifth with 6.3bn."

 

[sangom]

The Guardian reports today that the U.S. is gathering vast amount of data from computer and telephone networks all over the world. Iran comes in at the top of list with the most at 13.5 billion pieces of data in a one month period. India comes in at number 5 with 6.3 billion in one month (March 2003). Obama says this has to be done to keep the Americans safe.

Do you care?

Boundless Informant: the NSA's secret tool to track global surveillance data | World news | guardian.co.uk

"Iran was the country where the largest amount of intelligence was gathered, with more than 14bn reports in that period, followed by 13.5bn from Pakistan. Jordan, one of America's closest Arab allies, came third with 12.7bn, Egypt fourth with 7.6bn and India fifth with 6.3bn."

This was somewhat known even an year or so earlier. Most social networking sites' enormous amounts of data are, reportedly, mined on a regular basis to keep track of any one whom uncle sam wants to spy on. So, people addicted to FB, Twitter etc., beware; uncle sam can keep track of you in any corner of the world or in space too!!

 

[kunjuppu]

usa should be more worried of china. i thought obama will pull out some statistics when he met xi jinping...usa, my deepest fears, cannot match the long term consistency and vision of china. hence hoping china will trip up somewhere doing something foolish like sending ships to sea of japan, or south china sea and get a nose cut

 

[biswa]

I am glad to have an uncle watching over me.

 

[prasad1]

I am glad to have an uncle watching over me.

May be, or may not be, it depends on how it is used and who uses it. If it was Dick Cheney, I would not trust them.

 

[biswa]

May be, or may not be, it depends on how it is used and who uses it. If it was Dick Cheney, I would not trust them.

Dick Cheney is more of a scary grandpa.

 

[kunjuppu]

I am glad to have an uncle watching over me.

sorry biswa, you are not on my watch list mon

 

[Anand Manohar]

Prasad Ji

Your post # 5

The character mentioned might just be a little cog in the complex mesh of gears, clutches
and grease that keeps the NSA machinery in motion.

The 'system' is explicitly described in Dan Brown's "Digital Fortress" and to a slightly lesser extent
by Fredrick Forsyth in his "The Afghan" and "The Avenger". Incidentally, "The Avenger" has nothing to do
with a movie by the same nameDoesn't appear to be just one Cheney / Rumsfeld / Rice / Bush - it is a far more complex maze at work, irrespective
of political affiliations and election victories.

One needs to look at things from a different view-point, in order to get a better grasp of things.

Yay Yem

 

[prasad1]

Prasad Ji

Your post # 5

The character mentioned might just be a little cog in the complex mesh of gears, clutches
and grease that keeps the NSA machinery in motion.

The 'system' is explicitly described in Dan Brown's "Digital Fortress" and to a slightly lesser extent
by Fredrick Forsyth in his "The Afghan" and "The Avenger". Incidentally, "The Avenger" has nothing to do
with a movie by the same nameDoesn't appear to be just one Cheney / Rumsfeld / Rice / Bush - it is a far more complex maze at work, irrespective
of political affiliations and election victories.

One needs to look at things from a different view-point, in order to get a better grasp of things.

Yay Yem

My post was a response to Mr. Biswa's post.
Yes we have been giving away our privacy and personal liberties in the name of National security and combatting terror. There are no good solutions, and at this point no good line to stop. So the governments of the world could keep stretching the line and we keep backing off.

 

[Anand Manohar]

Prasad Ji

I got back to base after a 10 day trip to erstwhile Yugoslavia - had some catching up
to do with some lovely people there with whom I shared time and space, slightly over
two decades ago. Some of them made it, some didn't . [ I am sure you are aware of the
ethnic cleansing, war crimes tribunals, ICJ etc etc and what transpired there ]

It's a period of 'peace' there now and the resilience of the people is just remarkable.
I stood at the very spot that had taken the brunt of the NATO bombings - I remembered
it as a place reduced to a rubble, people running and screaming in pain and panic.

It sort felt odd that more people would recognize and interact with me with ease there, than the
number of people who would in Chennai - I guess it was easy for them to spot a dark-skinned guy
with Asian features, grey hair, grey mustache etc - no, I wasn't having a 'lost' expression on my face
but entire cities and colonies have been re-built so beautifully - I might have got lost, if left to
to fend for myself.

Every home that I was invited to was so full of warmth and affection - in the interceding years
I had lost fluency and was totally out-of-touch with spoken Russian. I could understand, but found it difficult
to get myself understood.

It's tough to come to grips with Pre-War, War & Post-War situations and one's head spins when somebody
gives big yarns like " the end justifying the means " etc etc.

I guess we are all in a world that worships at the altar of materialism and as a consequence driving
a whole populace into the abyss of spiritual vacuum.

Prasad Ji, I know one thing for sure - some things are deliberately falsified and others may never be
de-classified - so much for the freedoms that Govts assure us of.

I guess, I'd better sign-off now.

Yay Yem

 

[Nara]

To be a free people we need to live by the rule of law whether the uncle is Cheney or Obama. If Bush/Cheney had done what Obama is doing there would have been a huge outcry from the Democrats. Now, Obama has upped the ante and the Democrats are fine with that, except for a handful, and they are easily ignored. As a result, this gross invasion of privacy and shredding of the 4th Amendment has been normalized and those who raise their voice have to flee to other countries or get prosecuted and convicted by a show trial. This is what the Peace Prize Winner and Professor of Constitution is really like.

I am really surprised the Indian friends in the forum are resigned to the fact that a foreign power is intruding into private communication networks so blatantly. Of course it is hard to get all excited about something that we can't see in the open.

 

[prasad1]

In India they do not have 4th amendment (like US).
Privacy and individual freedom does not have the same meaning at all locations in the world.

 

[prasad1]

Top American officials have defended the controversial secret surveillance programme of the Obama administration, saying such efforts helped them to abort several terrorist attacks and nab terrorists like David Headley, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks convict.
Earlier, US President Barack Obama strongly defended sweeping secret surveillance into telephone records of millions of Americans and foreigners' Internet use, saying it has helped prevent terrorist attacks, even as he assured people that nobody was listening to their calls.


Defending his administration's decisions in this regard, including seeking information about internet and email usage of foreigners, Obama asserted that this has helped the US prevent terrorist attacks.



Is the trade off worth it? I guess it depends on your perspective?

 

[Haridasa Siva]

I wanna share the following on cyber crime. Though it may not have anything direct with the OP, I thought it might be relevant. Sorry if I transgressed.


According to a Harris Interactive survey commissioned by CTIA, a wireless trade group, less than half of all wireless device owners use passwords or personal identification numbers (PINs) on their handsets, a much smaller percentage than computer users. Among those who conduct online banking on mobile devices, only half encrypt the data or use some form of security software. Moreover, less than a third of users have installed antivirus software on their mobile devices compared to 91% on their laptops. This may explain why: 45% do not see cyber security on their mobile devices as a threat in the same way as they see it on their computers, according to the survey, which was released in May. The dangers, of course, are plenty. Rogue mobile apps can record the information that users type into a device, such as bank account numbers and PINs, according to CTIA. They can read data stored on a handset, such as emails, text messages, attachments, credit card numbers, and log-ins and passwords to corporate networks. A phone can even secretly record conversations within earshot. Data that leaves a mobile device wirelessly to connect to a Wi-Fi network could be hijacked in midair in "man in the middle" attacks. Malware can transmit this information to hackers, including those in foreign countries. The security risk expands to areas such as Internet-connected cars and medical devices that send out personal data wirelessly.