Report: NSA broke into Yahoo, Google data centers

[Logical]

LOL, where are all the NSA defenders now?

WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency has secretly broken into the main communications links that connect Yahoo and Google data centers around the world, The Washington Post reported Wednesday, citing documents obtained from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

A secret accounting dated Jan. 9, 2013, indicates that NSA sends millions of records every day from Yahoo and Google internal networks to data warehouses at the agency's Fort Meade, Md., headquarters. In the last 30 days, field collectors had processed and sent back more than 180 million new records — ranging from "metadata," which would indicate who sent or received emails and when, to content such as text, audio and video, the Post reported Wednesday on its website.

The latest revelations were met with outrage from Google, and triggered legal questions, including whether the NSA may be violating federal wiretap laws.

"Although there's a diminished standard of legal protection for interception that occurs overseas, the fact that it was directed apparently to Google's cloud and Yahoo's cloud, and that there was no legal order as best we can tell to permit the interception, there is a good argument to make that the NSA has engaged in unlawful surveillance," said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of Electronic Privacy Information Center. The reference to 'clouds' refers to sites where the companies collect data.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/10/30/4586459/report-nsa-broke-into-yahoo-google.html

[MADem]

1. Yahoo! and Google....defenders of your privacy~!!!

I can't help but laugh like hell that Google is "outraged." Where was their outrage when they were reading their customers' emails and targeting advertisements to them?

[Logical]

2. They are not really reading your emails but keep believing! n-t

[MADem]

8. I have no expectation of privacy on the internet. None. Never have, either. nt

[Wilms]

10. Then how are you signing up for ACA?

[MADem]

15. Well, I'm not.

I am covered under TRICARE.

Not sure what your question has to do with my expectation of privacy, though.

If I use the internet, I acknowledge the risk of "data loss" because I don't regard the internet as private.

I never have.

[Wilms]

16. I haven't "trusted" the net either...

But I have to add the NSA as entities I can't trust to respect the Constitution. Nice. Isn't it.

[joshcryer]

12. They actually are. It says so in the ToS.

And the NSA is only collecting metadata.

[RKP5637]

3. D-Central

Not automatiically connected to the Internet (hence the anti-surveillance tag), D-Central will be a building block for island networks that can connect to one another without the need to risk eavesdropping via Internet service providers. Users on each router will be able to communicate with one another in either public or private, anonymous modes.

http://news.techworld.com/security/3471450/john-mcafee-proposes-anti-surveillance-d-central-router-to-beat-the-nsa/

[MADem]

9. Gee, I was talking about something just like this on this board, and some genius

told me "It can't be done."

Ha!

[jsr]

4. Zero accountability and totally out of control.

[Logical]

5. +1000! n-t

[jsr]

14. Liar denies lying.

[LittleBlue]

7. We knew this already doncha know

[Warren DeMontague]

11. Google people are pissed.

[joshcryer]

13. Google: don't expect privacy when sending to Gmail

People sending email to any of Google's 425 million Gmail users have no "reasonable expectation" that their communications are confidential, the internet giant has said in a court filing.

Consumer Watchdog, the advocacy group that uncovered the filing, called the revelation a "stunning admission." It comes as Google and its peers are under pressure to explain their role in the National Security Agency's (NSA) mass surveillance of US citizens and foreign nationals.

"Google has finally admitted they don't respect privacy," said John Simpson, Consumer Watchdog's privacy project director. "People should take them at their word; if you care about your email correspondents' privacy, don't use Gmail."

Google set out its case last month in an attempt to dismiss a class action lawsuit that accuses the tech giant of breaking wire tap laws when it scans emails sent from non-Google accounts in order to target ads to Gmail users.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/aug/14/google-gmail-users-privacy-email-lawsuit