Revealed: The names NZ targeted using NSA's XKeyscore system

[Trillo]

Last edited Sat Mar 14, 2015, 09:45 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: The New Zealand Herald

New Zealand spies programmed an internet mass surveillance system to intercept messages about senior public servants and a leading anti-corruption campaigner in the Solomon Islands, a top-secret document reveals.

For the first time, New Zealanders can learn about people their government has targeted as part of its role in Five Eyes, a surveillance alliance that includes New Zealand, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.

The secret document, dated from January 2013, shows some of the names and other search terms that the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) entered into the internet spying system XKeyscore. XKeyscore is run by the US National Security Agency and is used to analyse vast amounts of email, internet browsing sessions and online chats that are intercepted from some 150 different locations worldwide.

GCSB has gained access to XKeyscore through its partnership in Five Eyes, and contributes data to the system that is swept up in bulk from a surveillance base in Waihopai Valley.

Read more: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11417386

[Inbetweendays]

1. Surprising to see New Zealand do this.

I thought they were one of the few countries that stayed out of the crazy stuff that is going on around the globe.

[shaayecanaan]

2. They've always been part of the Anglo Saxon Alliance

aka the UKUSA alliance, aka Five Eyes.

And as such have always been participants in ECHELON, aka PRISM aka XKeyscore.

[whereisjustice]

3. NSA and CIA are no doubt accumulating emails of public interest groups and anti-corruption

advocates in the USA. As we saw in Ferguson, unchallenged and unsupervised authority WILL act to enrich itself above all else.

Now we have NSA apologists claiming we need to destroy freedom in order to save it.


CIA and NSA are the same fuckers who led us into Iraq. Thanks to the apologists fighting to preserve the abuses, they have the power to do it again.

[dougolat]

11. And - once identified, watch more, and find ways to hamper

Consider:
Perhaps a majority of the personnel involved are private contractors, and even less subject to public scrutiny or accountability; think "Snowden ! but they're not all whistleblowers", and many are involved in various corporate or political campaigns.

So it's more than just the Agency's interests being persued by intercepting messages but those of the companies involved, and right on down to the individuals involved, and anyone who can pay or pressure them for a little access!

[whereisjustice]

19. Good point. What if a protest were being planned against a contractor who also

has business at NSA? As the industry consolidates into virtual monopolies, NSA is going to fuck over public participation and determination.

Or perhaps the contractor hear's about a protest over a cheical plant that the contracting company has a financial stake in?

It is stunning how easily the Democratic Party gave unconditional, unregulated control of our private communications to NSA.

[Cryptoad]

4. The Age of Privacy is Dead and Gone.......

the Digital Age drove a wooden stake thru its heart!

Like it or not!

Face up to it,,,,, if you want to do something that you don't want the whole world to know,,,,,, dont do it on , in or around anything digital!

Stop Whining!

[zeemike]

9. So if privacy is being raped might as well lay back and enjoy it.

Cause there is nothing we can do.

But it is not being used to see what the bad people are thinking but who opponents of the PTB are thinking and saying...they identify their enemies so they can stay in power...and keep track of who they are and what they plan to do.

Big brother was always about power and control.

[Cryptoad]

10. It aint being raped

its dead and gone,,,,,,,,,, forever,,,,,,,,, !!!! like the buggy whips makers,,,,, its over ,,,, move on!

[zeemike]

13. Privacy is a value not a commodity.

That becomes obsolete because something better takes it's place.
When a value becomes obsolete it is not because something better takes it's place, quite the oppsite...as history has shown.

[Cryptoad]

14. CAll it waht you like,,,,

it don't exist any mo,,,,,,,,,,its gone,,,,been gone since the late 80's,,, the earlier you come to terms with that the better off you and all of us will be!

[zeemike]

15. Coming to terns with it does not mean surrender to it.

And surrendering to it does not mean we are better off.

You can come to terms with slavery too...or Facism...but you will not be better off for it.

[Cryptoad]

16. Accepting the non existence of something

is not surrendering but it is far better for your mental health. Absolute Transparency for everyone will be far more liberating than privacy for a few.

[zeemike]

18. Well I suppose if your mental health is that fragin.

You then should put on your happy face and pretend it don't matter...just accept whatever they give to you and pretend it is OK.
That makes it so much easier to fuck you any time they want...Abusive relationships work like that.

[JDPriestly]

12. Might as well have the NSA in your bed. That's what will be the next step.

They'll be monitoring your dreams before you know it.

The Constitution means nothing to them. The basic human right to privacy means nothing to them.

The loss of privacy is not a necessary result of the computer age. It is a choice by people who do not respect the human right to be alone and to have privacy.

[Cryptoad]

17. If you are dreaming ,,,,

in a digital format ,,,, they already are.......

[PSPS]

5. Please correct the headline.

[Trillo]

6. The headline changed.

At the time it was posted, that was the headline. I don't know what to do, since changing the headline with the old timestamp makes me a liar as a poster.

I still have a browser window open with the original headline, here's a picture.

[OKNancy]

8. You can edit your post. It won't be a problem

( I'm a forum host)

[fingrin]

7. Unfortunatly

The New Zealand herald leans towards the right. Our Pm John key affectionately know as Donkey is well documented as being, shall we say a liar.
What else to you expect from an ex Wall Street junkie that tows the American line. The TPPA is getting rammed down New Zealanders throats and trying to get a straight answer on Spying usually results in "I dont recall" or "I cant discuss that"
First order of business was asset sales. The man is a liar with over 100 well documented lies.
As for spying on our Neighbours its the Usual evasive B/S

PS Thanks for ruining my day by not putting a trigger warning. Nothing ruins your day like seeing a picture of that smirking scrote Monkey. New Zealands equivalent to GWB

[Blue_Tires]

20. So NZ can't spy on *foreign* officials and

*foreign* leakers of top secret documents? Is that how low the bar is getting now?


Anybody care to explain to me once and for all what kind of spying is universally acceptable? What are the "ground rules" supposed to be, since people are supposedly outraged about this?

[Trillo]

21. Why can governments do this, but citizens cannot?

We have corporations working in the U.S. that are clearly damaging our environment. Why isn't XKeyscore open to activists? It would be handy for citizens to have all of Bayer's internal communications regarding colonly collapse disorder. Another might be Monsanto's communications regarding BT corn. The taxpayers paid for this system, why can't we use it against the corporate enemies destroying our planet? Does corporate already use this system, or one similar to it, against activists? Wouldn't it be handy to have access to all of the Koch brother's communications?

[Blue_Tires]

22. "Citizens" hack systems all the time without needing XKeyscore

Maybe you should ask why "activists" are more interested in hacking Apple iCloud and distributing millions of private nude celeb selfies to the world (and playing very public blackmail games in the process) than more pressing matters...

For fuck's sake, if the self-styled "activists" want to do something, let them hunt down the ISIS senior members on social media...

[Trillo]

23. Way to miss my point.

Here's a post about testing companies violating the privacy of kids taking their tests.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026363033
Kids could have access to all that testing companies internal communications, just give them an interface to XKeyscore. Fair is fair.

[Blue_Tires]

24. Pearson? LOL

I worked for them briefly (long before the days of social media), and believe me when I tell you that you don't know the half...Pearson is filthy to the core, and there is a very real reason why they make their employees sign NDAs...


But back to my earlier point on the NZ non-scandal...Like it or not, after all the faux-outrage bullshit has subsided, eventually people have to acknowledge the fact that there is NO inherent right for foreigners to *not* get spied on by another country...There is nothing in Chinese law, for example to prevent Chinese intelligence from turning my PC or e-mail accounts upside down if they really wanted to do so...(and this example is equally valid with damn near any *foreign* country you'd wish to name)...

I guess what you're trying to say is if XKeyscore or whatever online surveillance/data theft tool was open source, it would keep everyone honest, almost as if every man, woman, and child on the street kept a live hand grenade in their pocket or something...I'll just say I don't agree with that assessment...

[Trillo]

25. Fascinating strawman, equating knowledge and information with a weapon of death.

I wonder what that strawman means for schools, particularly compulsory ones?

Yes, we disagree.