NSA Surveillance -- keeping up with Lavabit

Started by red_dirt, February 25, 2015, 09:24:18 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

red_dirt

http://lavabit.com/

Lavabit was a great email service, serving some 40,000 happy customers over the years.
Until, that is, government agents came to call with demands that all mail be routed through
government computers, and that the operator hand over all user names, passwords, and
encryption data the company was using to protect the privacy of customers.  That's when
the owner balked.  His position was that by cooperating with Uncle, he would be complicit in
a crime.  Government excuse: Ed Snowden was a customer.
Read about it.

Current:
http://darkmail.info/

red_dirt

Precedent for this?

I think this tantrum does more to discredit the NSA than ten thousand T-shirts.
I say that because it shows how small minded and over sensitive they are, the
government snoops.  We always used to say, "That's why we are fighting, so that
you can have the right to say it."  That's passe, now, I suppose.

http://www.wnd.com/2013/08/nsa-crushes-free-speech-on-t-shirts/

walkstall

Quote from: red_dirt on February 26, 2015, 09:40:48 AM
Precedent for this?

I think this tantrum does more to discredit the NSA than ten thousand T-shirts.
I say that because it shows how small minded and over sensitive they are, the
government snoops.  We always used to say, "That's why we are fighting, so that
you can have the right to say it."  That's passe, now, I suppose.

http://www.wnd.com/2013/08/nsa-crushes-free-speech-on-t-shirts/




A politician thinks of the next election. A statesman, of the next generation.- James Freeman Clarke

Always remember "Feelings Aren't Facts."

red_dirt

Cybersecurity reveals insidious surveillance in Baltimore, MD.

Baltimore, Maryland, the city on the Chesapeake Bay  everybody would love to visit, were it not worth your life to get out of your car there, is back in the news, following Martin O'Malley's  announcement of a Presidential bid. This time, the story involves Baltimore officials' use of ingenious wireless snooping devices, since 2007, which mimic cell phone towers, process and relay phone calls just like a regular cell tower, with an ingenious added feature, listening ports and tracking software.

The devices, code named "Dirt Box," (used to monitor communications from the air,) and "Stingray," (normally installed in vans and driven around to sites officials want to monitor,) have recently gained publicity from privacy and Bill of Rights advocates.  The possibilities of such technology appear endless.

--------------------------------------------

Hacker News Report



Local police might be spying on your activities, too. According to the recent details published by the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU),  the police department of Erie County, New York, has used the controversial "Stingray" spying tool nearly 46 times since 2010 without any warrant. Also, the police department of Baltimore used the latest version of the Stingray surveillance device, called
Hailstorm, more than 4,000 times in recent years, reports the Baltimore Sun.

Late last year, we reported how US Marshals Service gathered data from millions of mobile phones by using a little device, nicknamed "Dirtbox," in order to track  criminals while recording innocent citizens' information. Dirtbox was used in spy airplanes to mimic mobile phone tower transmissions from the sky and operates in the same way as Stingrays.



Baltimore Sun Article

The Baltimore Police Department has used an invasive and controversial cellphone tracking device thousands of times in recent years while following instructions from the FBI to withhold information about it from prosecutors and judges, a detective revealed in court testimony Wednesday.
The testimony shows for the first time how frequently city police are using a cell site simulator, more commonly known as a "stingray," a technology that authorities have gone to great lengths to avoid disclosing. The device mimics a cellphone tower to force phones within its range to connect. Police use it to track down stolen phones or find people. Until recently, the technology was largely unknown to the public. Privacy advocates nationwide have raised questions whether there has been
proper oversight of its use.
-----------------------------------------------------

(Note: This story breaks as some in Congress are considering massive surveillance legislation. Think about it: Barack Obama and Eric Holder have this technology at their disposal.)

daidalos

And yet Congress has signed off on this, is totally A-OK with this, so long as it's not their calls being snooped on. And yet it begs the question, where were they when Hillary and company were letting an American Ambassador and three other Americans be brutally murdered in the one place an Ambassador should be safe. The Ambassadorial compound. Nowhere to be seen, no, no, then we were busy snooping on American's who might be critical of their own government. The depths to which this President and company will go, to use the power and authority of government to shut up their opponents is beyond disgusting.
One of every five Americans you meet has a mental illness of some sort. Many, many, of our veteran's suffer from mental illness like PTSD now also. Help if ya can. :) http://www.projectsemicolon.org/share-your-story.html
And no you won't find my "story" there. They don't allow science fiction. :)