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Google accounts


Posted: Mar 6, 2013

FBI 'secretly spying' on Google users, company reveals The FBI used National Security Letters -- a form of surveillance that privacy watchdogs call “frightening and invasive” -- to surreptitiously seek information on Google users, the web giant has just revealed. Google’s disclosure is “an unprecedented win for transparency,” privacy experts said Wednesday. But it’s just one small step forward. “Serious concerns and questions remain about the use of NSLs,” the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Dan Auerbach and Eva Galperin wrote. For one thing, the agency issued 16,511 National Security Letters in 2011, the last year for which data was available. But Google was gagged from saying just how many letters it received -- leaving key questions unanswered. “The terrorists apparently would win if Google told you the exact number of times the Federal Bureau of Investigation invoked a secret process to extract data about the media giant’s customers,” Wired’s David Kravets wrote. He described the FBI's use of NSLs as a way of "secretly spying" on Google's customers. National Security Letters are a means for the FBI to obtain information on people from telecommunications companies, authorized by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) and expanded under the Patriot Act. It lets the agency seek information on a subscriber to a wire or electronic communications service, although not things like the content of their emails or search queries, Google said. And thanks to secrecy constraints built into NSLs, companies that receive them usually aren’t even allowed to acknowledge the request for information. Citing such extreme secrecy, privacy experts have decried the use of these letters in the past. “Of all the dangerous government surveillance powers that were expanded by the USA PATRIOT Act, the National Security Letter (NSL) power … is one of the most frightening and invasive,” the EFF wrote. “These letters … allow the FBI to secretly demand data about ordinary American citizens' private communications and Internet activity without any meaningful oversight or prior judicial review.” Thanks to negotiations with the government, Google finally opened the smallest chink in the armor, allowing the search giant to reveal the fact that it had received these requests for data, as well as some general information about them. “Visit our page on user data requests in the U.S. and you’ll see, in broad strokes, how many NSLs for user data Google receives, as well as the number of accounts in question,” Richard Salgado, Google’s legal director of law enforcement and information security, wrote in a Tuesday blog post. A new table posted to Google’s Transparency Report site outlines the details; it tabulates how many requests for information the company has received over each of the past four years: some undisclosed number between 0 and 999. With those NSLs, the FBI sought information on somewhere between 1,000 and 1,999 users/accounts. “People don’t always use our services for good, and it’s important that law enforcement be able to investigate illegal activity,” Salgado wrote. No other technology company presently disclose such basic information about government requests, experts noted. Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/03/06/fbi-ecretly-spying-on-google-users-company-reveals/#ixzz2Mo4MGz8W;

Good ole' Patriot Act, - the gift that keeps on giving.

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I'm always in such a debate - Fanatical Hypocrite

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with myself as to how far I think the government should be allowed to go. I've never been a big fan of the Patriot Act though. I feel it went way too far. The government likes to tell us that we live in a post 9/11 world in order to justify whatever they want to do. The whole world and everyone in it have been dealing with war, terrorism and crime since the beginning of civilization and we will continue to do so.

For me, the places I feel we've gone unequivocally too far are torture, suspension of habeas corpus, no oversight on targeted drone strikes and extraordinary rendition.

However, I'm unsure how I feel about monitoring our digital habits. As long as I can't be secretly arrested and thrown in Guantanamo, does my right to online privacy trump the need for the government to seek out mass murderers? That's a tough question to answer. My main problem right now is that they could theoretically see you looked up the wrong thing or someone using your IP looked up the wrong thing and throw you in prison forever. I doubt this actually happens often or even ever, but it's still a concerning possibility.

What it would take for me to agree to the possibility of being watched is:
1. Only watching for terrorist/international criminal communication.
2. Multiple forms of oversight and eventual disclosure of prosecutions and their evidence to prevent false arrests.
3. No cooperation between other law enforcement agencies. In other words, this is for truly heinous crimes. Not helping the police track down people for overpaid parking tickets or petty stuff. If we're going to violate the privacy of American citizens, it shouldn't be a 24/7 watch on 300 million people to make sure we're all eating our vegetables and brushing our teeth.

Problem is, initial intentions always degrade. Information is power - and power will be used. A nation that excuses

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arresting and holding people without trial (us) can be expected to abuse its power in many other ways. Those who abandon freedom in the name of national security, feeling safe under the assumption that we wouldn't (or at least seldom) arrest white people born and raised American, just mostly brown-skinned foreigners, are beyond foolish.

The only thing that will keep us safe is if the American people develop the standards we need our government to adhere to. After all, in a republic the government is its people in action. We need to recognize that additional safety is purchased at a cost and decide what costs we are unwilling to pay, instead of saying, "Just take care of me, Daddy" every time something happens.

Unfortunately, as the passage and acceptance of the Patriot Act and all the other legislation of its type show, we're far from that point. In fact, we're potentially just another bombed high rise from slipping farther away from the nation we once thought we were.

A dem

Source is Fox News. Does this mean apologists for - spying on citizens are changing their minds?

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From my position to the left, I, and all my friends, were horrified at the "Patriot Act" and all its adjunct legislation.

We recognized it as a far larger victory for Al-Qaeda than 9/11 itself, an ongoing attack on the American people perpetrated by ourselves, long before Bin Laden was shown boasting about it.

In any case, long overdue perhaps, but let's think about what it once meant to be a free citizen of our republic and what it should mean.

Would that all the people who think they need a handgun to protect themselves from the government also recognized that the laws we once created to protect ourselves are each the 1st Infantry Division in comparison--if we don't abandon them.

BTW, this is no real news. We've known all along that our on-line activities were spied on. This just explains ONE of the practices utilized.

A dem

Sh-h-h. I use a special program to get rid of my history and other issues - Truthhurts

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You would be surprised how many hits from "Privacy Issues" I get each day even just getting on THIS site.

When I go to other newspapers...well, that's a biggie.

I've had as many as 200+ privacy issues. I have now started to erase at the end of the day and maybe twice a day in between, plus 1st thing in the morning.

Plus, if I get a phone call, I always hear a "click" after I say hello. - Truthhurts

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I'm serious on this. Never had it happen before a year ago.

Hopefully, that's just the way my phone service connects to the person calling me. Otherwise, should I be afraid?

I hope you understand - doe

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that getting rid of your history does not make you invisible on line.

Yeah, I know. Trying to lighten my mood yesterday. (no msg) :) - Truthhurts

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