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Security United States

NSA Says Warrantless Searches of Americans' Data Rose in 2018 (techcrunch.com) 97

The intelligence community's annual transparency report revealed a spike in the number of warrantless searches of Americans' data in 2018. From a report: The data, published Tuesday by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), revealed a 28 percent rise in the number of targeted search terms used to query massive databases of collected Americans' communications. Some 9,637 warrantless search queries of the contents of Americans' calls, text messages, emails and other communications were conducted by the NSA during 2018, up from 7,512 searches on the year prior, the report said. The figures also don't take into account queries made by the FBI or the Drug Enforcement Administration, which also has access to the database, nor do they say exactly how many Americans had their information collected.
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NSA Says Warrantless Searches of Americans' Data Rose in 2018

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  • by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Wednesday May 01, 2019 @05:15AM (#58520604)

    There are now enough laws that everyone in the U.S. is guilty of something, therefore it seems obvious that it is OK that the NSA is allowed to spy on every person for probable cause.

    "Show me the man and I'll show you the crime." - Stalin's Lavrentiy Beria.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      Everyone has forgotten about the NSA's Clipper chip backdoor, probably because it was Bill Clinton who approved it.
      https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/04/clipper-chips-birthday-looking-back-22-years-key-escrow-failures

      Just like everyone has forgotten about the 1993 attempt to blow up the world trade towers. The FBI provided all the bomb making materials.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRaezLTU2a0

      • I remember, it was a good movie. And Redford was younger.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

        • by necro81 ( 917438 )
          About every year or two I re-watch that movie [imdb.com]. Aside from being just a fun heist/spy movie with an outstanding cast, it is proving to be remarkably prescient. To whit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKprr3tEBew [youtube.com]

          "There's a war out there, old friend, a world war. And it's not about who has the most bullets, it's about who controls the information: what we see and hear, how we work, what we think. It's all about the information."
          • The Pilot episode of the X-Files spinoff "The Lone Gunmen" had an American anti-terrorist group hijacka plane and try to fly it into the WTC.....BEFORE 9/11 ever happened...

            • And less than a year before it happened, IIRC . Yeah, that was pretty eerie, in retrospect.
              I liked that show because for the first in cinematic history that I recall, you had hackers actually using a 'nix, not a freakin' Mac (I mean, before modern Macs were based on BSD)
              It still sorta suffered from the "hackers out-hack each other by typing moar faster than the other guy!" trope though.

            • by necro81 ( 917438 )
              And the end of Tom Clancy's novel "A Debt of Honor [wikipedia.org]" has an airline pilot kamikaze into the US Capitol during a joint session of Congress, largely decapitating the federal government. And that was in 1994.

              In other words: I'm not sure what your point is.
              • by ebvwfbw ( 864834 )

                " airline pilot kamikaze into the US Capitol during a joint session of Congress, largely decapitating the federal government." ... Nah, too easy.

      • by jellomizer ( 103300 ) on Wednesday May 01, 2019 @09:02AM (#58521268)

        Statement: We are afraid of the government.
        Response: Look at all the bad stuff that the opposite party did while it was ruling the government.

        Contradictory to you favorite cable news channel. It isn't the case that one political party is a saint, and the other is pure evil. Because both sides are Americans and share the same culture, there is actually a lot of overlap and more similarities then differences. Americans love to say, We value our freedoms, and don't want to be spied on. But we also want our government to protect us from forces that can do harm, and when something bad happens we go, why didn't you know about this/these guy(s) and try to stop them before hand.

        The truth about America "The land of the free and the home of the brave" is that we are not as free as we think and we are not so brave. Because it will take bravery to stand up and say "I know this will make me less safe, but I am willing to endure this to make me more free"

        But right now we are afraid and for the most part willing to tolerate NSA spying on us to keep us safe, just as long as we are not reminded of this.

        • Half of Americans think that the other half are deplorable. This isn't an invention by a cable news channel, it was widely applauded and hailed as a true statement that needed to be said. Speak truth to the powerless!
          • by Holi ( 250190 )
            Nah, itsmore like 26% of Americans think that a different 26% are deplorables, and 48% of Americans wish you would all STFU.
            • This is in reply to your .sig, but your comment seems relatively accurate.

              It is not much of a teleporter if it doesn't teleport your soul too! Demand more from your teleportation technology. ;)

              It is an interesting conundrum though, isn't it? I am guessing we won't have teleporting until we get the "soul" thing worked out.

        • The truth about America "The land of the free and the home of the brave" is that we are not as free as we think and we are not so brave. Because it will take bravery to stand up and say "I know this will make me less safe, but I am willing to endure this to make me more free"

          Mostly agreed, but I would qualify this as some of us are brave enough to stand up and say "I know this will make me less safe, but I am willing to endure this to make me more free." But the majority seem to value a little more securi

      • by Holi ( 250190 )
        You mean the stupid encryption chip that was announced in '93 and was ignored by consumers and manufacturers and thus became irrelevant by '96?

        You mean that one, that went no where except the dustbin of history?
    • No Such Agency.
    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      It's precisely the other way around, of course. It's the tyranny of government that it presumes you guilty and can retroactively or proactively find evidence of it without regard to even the consideration of innocence. That's literally what those American colonists experienced, and it's precisely why the Bill of Rights was included because it was blatantly clear that without blatantly spelling out the limitations of government, government would come up with every imaginable--and plenty of unimaginable--ex

    • " They see people almost being denied a supreme court seat because they once had a beer while in school." - No, he perjured himself under oath. It's not the beer, you lying faggot. IT'S THE LYING, YOU LYING FAGGOT.

      YOU TELL A LIE UNDER OATH AND YOU ARE A CRIMINAL. That he basically ATTEMPTED TO RAPE A CLASSMATE also didn't really rise to the occasion of a lifetime appointment to the SCOTUS without investigation.

      But with TRAITOR SUPPORTING DISHONEST FAGGOTS LIKE YOURSELF in charge? He sailed right through any

  • The most important task is for the government to keep us safe. Everything else is secondary!

    Wait, they're spying on white people too? It's disgraceful *froth* *froth* fourth amendment *foth* *froth*.

  • Jeez, I can't believe people actually care about or believe in their self-reporting like this. Everyone gets searched. Every. One. They are grabbing as much data and recording as many statistics as they possibly can. "Transparency reports" are a soothing gesture to keep Congressmen and reporters from getting too indignant, nothing more.

    There's no reason for our intelligence apparatus to trouble themselves with this sort of pesky accountability. This isn't conspiratorial thinking; it's simple pragmatics.
    • by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      Re: "They are grabbing as much data and recording as many statistics as they possibly can. "
      The trick is to give them something to look at. Everyday. Something funny to read.
      A spelling mistake. A funny meme. A long paragraph about tech.
      As long as they can read along.
      Its when people stop using computers and break years of internet habits that they get really interested.
      Keep using the computer in the same way everyday and its all ok. The same patterns of use.

An Ada exception is when a routine gets in trouble and says 'Beam me up, Scotty'.

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