Barack Obama’s National Security Agency (NSA) is tracking the location of hundreds of millions of cell phones by tapping into the global networks of their providers, according to new documents leaked by former NSA analyst Edward Snowden.
In other words Big Brother isn’t just collecting your emails, texts, internet searches and phone records … he’s tracking you.
And while the records stored from this mass surveillance program – estimated to total 5 billion per day – are not supposed to include domestic devices, government officials acknowledge such surveillance occurs “incidentally.”
Oh, and if you’re among the millions of Americans who travel abroad each year … you are being tracked, too.
The practical application of this technology is truly frightening.
“In scale, scope and potential impact on privacy, the efforts to collect and analyze location data may be unsurpassed among the NSA surveillance programs that have been disclosed since June,” The Washington Post reported. “Analysts can find cellphones anywhere in the world, retrace their movements and expose hidden relationships among the people using them.”
Unreal …
With each passing day, America slips further away from the “land of the free” and find itself more squarely occupying the realm of Nouveau Nazism.
In no respect is this more evident than its Orwellian domestic surveillance network – which, incidentally, is strongly supported by South Carolina’s “Republican” U.S. Senator, Lindsey Graham.
9 comments
How much do you think they get for tapping phones?
What kind of test do they give you? That thing where they put a little girl on the other side of a one-way mirror, and give you a button that seems to cause them excruciating agony? Or do they just check your voting record?
I could use a change of profession – think they’d let me listen in? I’m a good listener.
BTW, how much do you have to pay for those stock photos? Is it a one time thing, or do you have to pay every year?
At this point, nothing the NSA is spying on is surprising anymore.
I’ll bet Ms. Lindsey would find this program objectionable if the NSA posted not only where he travels six months and more after the fact, but more importantly what other cell phone #’s/people were traveling with him.
“In other words Big Brother isn’t just collecting your emails, texts, internet searches and phone records … he’s tracking you.”
And Ronald Reagan gave the NSA the authority to do so …… before the internet existed and when cell phone were the size of a pint carton of milk.
In the video on the webpage with the Washington Post story, the reported stated that the NSA is acting under the authority granted by Executive Order 12333 that was issued by Ronald Reagan.
Executive Order 12333–United States intelligence activities
http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/codification/executive-order/12333.html
Most of NSA’s data collection authorized by order Ronald Reagan issued
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/11/21/209167/most-of-nsas-data-collection-authorized.html
[Excerpt]
WASHINGTON — The National
Security Agency’s collection of information on Americans’ cellphone and Internet usage reaches far beyond the two programs that have received public attention in recent months, to a presidential order that is older than the Internet itself.
Approved by President Ronald Reagan in 1981, Executive Order 12333 (referred to as “twelve-triple-three”) still governs most of what the NSA does. It is a sweeping mandate that outlines the duties and foreign intelligence collection for the nation’s 17 intelligence agencies. It is not governed by Congress, and critics say it has little privacy protection and many loopholes. What changes have been made to it have come through guidelines set by the attorney general or other documents
Under its provisions, agencies have the ability to function outside the confines of a warrant or court order, if approved by the attorney general. Its Section 2.5 effectively gives the attorney general the right to authorize intelligence agencies to operate outside the confines of judicial or congressional oversight, so long as it’s in pursuit of foreign intelligence – including collecting information of Americans.
“The Attorney General hereby is delegated the power to approve the use for intelligence purposes, within the United States or against a United States person abroad, of any technique for which a warrant would be required,” 12333 reads.
Monitoring the actual content of Americans’ communications still requires a warrant under 12333, but metadata – the hidden information about a communication that tells where a person is, who he’s communicating with, even the number of credit cards used in a transaction – can be swept up without congressional or court approval.
Been going on waaay before Reagan. NSA has been recording all overseas calls since at least the mid seventies, and FCC regs allow anyone to monitor cell traffic. Always has been that way with over the air communication.
Not at all surprising.
What IS suprising is the number of Americans will to comprimise OPSEC by wearing GPS locators at all time and sending out EMF willy-nilly.
“Death and Wil Folks and the NSA smiles at us ALL…..all you have to do is smile BACK…!!!”
Was it Wil Folks who said “You have nothing to fear but FEAR itself….”?? It is rather visibly clear that Mr Wil Folks has seemed to reach a certain “Plateau” with regards to his little Fitsnews experiment. ….or has he. The sides for advertising are still as white as a Pamper’s diaper. So, we wonder what will happen first, will Wil Folks get a sponsor ship or will his Pamper’s diapers get a printed advertisement on the butt of each diaper worn. Are babies any different than NASCAR drivers to stockholders..?
Ask yourself, if you were a stockholder in Pampers (J&J), would you be screaming mad that you were not getting stock dividends from each advertiser on the butt of every baby in the WORLD…? Would Mrs. Folks stop buying pampers because her baby was a billboard like a NASCAR driver…or not..?
We wonder why Wil Folks has not told NANCY MACE to get some diapers printedup with Lindsey Grahams face on the inside and her face on the outside to raise campaign STASH and loot. How would this diaper be used as a prop in a debate by Nancy on Benghazi or Obamacare or immigration reform or BOEING 900 million campaign dollars or Greenbelt funding or sand re-nourishing or Wind Turbine Research…?
Does Wil Folks ever use that BALD head of his…or not..?
Dude? Are you ranting about diapers now? WTF
All we have to go by sometimes is personal experience. Most of us have forgotten what it’s like to wear diapers. Others might be more closely connected via sexual proclivity, regression therapy, or incontinence. The question for Mr.Branton is, which of the three does he fall under?