MIT Project Reveals What PRISM Knows About You 221
judgecorp writes "MIT's Immersion project sifts your Gmail, and constructs a map of your associations. Without opening a single message, it gives a clear view of who you connect with. It's a glimpse of some of what the NSA PRISM can do. From the article: 'You can assume that if the NSA is looking at your email, the information in Immersion is similar to what they will see. Consider that they probably see all of your email addresses (and not just Gmail) and that the metadata is examined along with the metadata from everyone you’ve corresponded with, and you can see just how much can be inferred from this data alone.'"
Re:Just askin... (Score:2, Interesting)
They're both wasting government funds, I don't see the difference.
Reverse honeypot (Score:3, Interesting)
I always thought it would be interesting way to figure out a way to seed surveillance and information gathering networks with unique information you could then watch for to see where it "leaks out". For all the worry about NSA surveillance, my real fear is that is that it's actually a front for commercial operations. (My theory is that the NSA is mostly a headless monster of a "Security Industrial Complex" that lives off of milking the public for money in exchange for useless services and general industrial espionage. It's really the perfect scam because you can avoid any investigation of conflict of interest with 'state secrets' privilege) It would be a real coup to find your honeypot information leaking in to commercial databases.
More than a decade ago I registered a few domains with bogus names. To this day I still get offers in the mail for "Longdong McPorksword", even though mining whois data for commercial purposes has always been supposedly illegial (well, a terms of service violation at least)
Absolutely Nothing (Score:2, Interesting)
Why?
Because I use POP3 rather than the bullshit IMAP for my mail access. There is nothing on the server, so there is nothing to analyze.
Re:Just askin... (Score:4, Interesting)
This. In the West, I am less scared of the government (in its public capacity) than any other entity. They have the most openness and democratic oversight of any organisation. The thing I fear most about the government is the extent to which it partners with private organisations which are more interested in furthering special interests of small groups - usually the bank accounts of the wealthy.
The information GCHQ/NSA has on me CAN be used to exploit me - if insufficient regulation allows corruption to set in. The information private entities have about me WILL be used to exploit me - by design.
Re:Just askin... (Score:5, Interesting)
How, when both of the only two parties the corporate media dare mention are both all for a surveillance state? Remember, a vote for a candidate who doesn't want your loved ones in jail for pot and doesn't want a police state (e.g., Green and Libertarian, both on enough ballots to win) is a wasted vote? All the newspapers and TV stations agree, we need to have a surveillance state and we need to jail your loved ones!
And nobody seems to realize how stupid their vote is, corporate media keep us in the dark.
Re:Misleading title (Score:5, Interesting)
The problem is that now, thanks to the PRISM leaks, no one believes Google. Not even a little bit. And yes, they can be legally compelled to lie and if they are so compelled they will be shielded from any consequences of those lies, just like the phone companies were the first time a massive warrantless wiretapping program leaked 5 years ago.
Re:Just askin... (Score:5, Interesting)
Your premise is wrong if it's "government is an entity that follows laws", because this completely ignores the fact that government is made up of individuals, with personal agendas. The data they collect may not be used against you right now, but that's only because you're not in someone's way yet. Once you step into the crosshairs of someone in power, do you still think all that data is innocent and inert? Do you think regulation is going to save you? Are you willing to accept a society where you cannot poke your head up too high, unless you're of a chosen breed and have greased the right palms?
Re:Just askin... (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't think it's apathy, I think it's surrender of the governed.
For example, Congress currently has an approval rating of 7%, and a disapproval rating of 65% (Rasmussen [rasmussenreports.com]). If there's one thing Americans agree on, it's that our elected leadership is, on average, terrible. And yet early polling suggests that of 435 Congressmen, only about 50 are likely to be replaced.
The fastest-growing party affiliation in America is independent. That strongly suggests that neither major party is representing the citizens. And yet there are only 3 independents holding federal elected office, and 1 of those independents (Joe Lieberman) is really a Democrat in disguise because his party supported him over the candidate chosen by voters in Connecticut in the primary.
So this leads to the argument that Americans are paying attention, think their elected leaders and political parties are horrible, and vote for them anyways because they think the alternatives are even worse.