Spy Program Gathered Americans' Internet Records (Until 2011)

[Hissyspit]

Last edited Thu Jun 27, 2013, 07:21 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: Associated Press

SPY PROGRAM GATHERED AMERICANS' INTERNET RECORDS

By KIMBERLY DOZIER and LOLITA C. BALDOR
— Jun. 27 5:52 PM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration gathered U.S. citizens' Internet data until 2011, continuing a spying program started under President George W. Bush that revealed whom Americans exchanged emails with and the Internet Protocol address of their computer, documents disclosed Thursday show.

The National Security Agency ended the program that collected email logs and timing, but not content, in 2011 because it decided it didn't effectively stop terrorist plots, according to the NSA's director, Gen. Keith Alexander, who also heads the U.S. Cyber Command. He said all data was purged in 2011.

Britain's Guardian newspaper on Thursday released documents detailing the collection, though the program was also described earlier this month by The Washington Post.

The latest revelation follows previous leaks from ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who is presumed hiding at a Moscow airport transit area, waiting to hear whether Ecuador, Iceland or another country might grant him asylum. He fled Hong Kong over the weekend and flew to Russia after being charged with violating American espionage laws.

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/spy-program-gathered-americans-internet-records

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GD: NSA Collected US Email Records In Bulk For More Than Two Years Under Obama (w/Documents) - Guardian" http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=3110914

GD "How the NSA is still harvesting your online data": http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023110981

[aquart]

1. NSA Voluntarily Stopped Internet Data Collection Program.

Gosh what a difference a headline makes.

[Hissyspit]

5. "How the NSA is still harvesting your online data"

http://www.guardiannews.com/world/2013/jun/27/nsa-online-metadata-collection

[JDPriestly]

6. Read the article. Actually, they are still collecting a lot of data based

on what you read in the article.

Obama needs to take some action. What a waste of money.

[Th1onein]

9. The NSA doesn't HAVE to collect it anymore. The British are collecting it FOR them.

It is not illegal, here, for the Brits to collect our information, because we are "foreign" to them. And, it is not illegal, here, for the NSA to collect the Brits information, because it is "foreign" to them. So, they both collect the information and they simply trade it with each other. See how they made it all "legal" now? Feel better?

[Spitfire of ATJ]

2. Hard to drag someone into court based on evidence obtained illegally....

....so I guess not having a trial helps there.

Or are we supposed to just accept that absolutely NOBODY in the nation's missing persons records was scooped up?

[formercia]

7. It's not about taking you to Court

It's about being able to co-opt you or otherwise make you compliant if the need arises.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

8. I was hoping someone would have claimed it was UFOs.

[Ian David]

3. Oh, good. I didn't discover RedTube until 2012. n/t

[wtmusic]

4. Oh good. All data was purged.

Phew! What a relief.

[Ash_F]

10. And not one terror attack stopped with this data. /nt

[blkmusclmachine]

11. Change you CAN'T believe in.

[struggle4progress]

12. So let's see if we can get the chronology right:

2011: NSA ends this particular program
2012: Snowden gives money to Ron Paul and does not vote for Obama
2013: Snowden becomes bitterly disappointed in Obama, who has dashed his hopes, begins to contact journalists
2013: Snowden seeks job at BAH in order to collect documents
2013: Snowden gets job, collects documents, leaves country
2013: Snowden exposes spy program that ended in 2011

[Hissyspit]

13. That's the only thing he exposed?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/27/nsa-online-metadata-collection

On December 31, 2012, an SSO official wrote that ShellTrumpet had just "processed its One Trillionth metadata record".

It is not clear how much of this collection concerns foreigners' online records and how much concerns those of Americans. Also unclear is the claimed legal authority for this collection.

Explaining that the five-year old program "began as a near-real-time metadata analyzer … for a classic collection system", the SSO official noted: "In its five year history, numerous other systems from across the Agency have come to use ShellTrumpet's processing capabilities for performance monitoring" and other tasks, such as "direct email tip alerting."

Almost half of those trillion pieces of internet metadata were processed in 2012, the document detailed: "though it took five years to get to the one trillion mark, almost half of this volume was processed in this calendar year".

Another SSO entry, dated February 6, 2013, described ongoing plans to expand metadata collection. A joint surveillance collection operation with an unnamed partner agency yielded a new program "to query metadata" that was "turned on in the Fall 2012". Two others, called MoonLightPath and Spinneret, "are planned to be added by September 2013."