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Real0ne -> RE: Is Google too big, powerful and intrusive? (7/3/2017 9:41:52 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: tweakabelle
This strikes me as an issue that crosses all boundaries, something that we all might agree is an area of concern. As the gap bertween online and offline lives closes, privacy is becoming a key area of concern for many. Are Internet giants like Google and Facebook too large and powerful? How can we reduce their power over us? Do we have any right to privacy at all? If so how should it be respected online?
It does transcend all party lines, this is an excellent post and right on target. This is precisely among other reasons I affectionately call the gubmint da' mobocracy, has a more american style ring to it than MM's kleptocracy label.
What I cant believe is how many asshelmets condemned snowden for droping the hammer by calling him a traitor, the question is to whom is he a traitor? Certainly not the people since what he did exposes how the mob has dound ways to completely annihilate the constitution, by doing it outside of gubmint and regulating the agencies.
Its the same way taxes are collected here, your employer does it. Private companies or quasi private companies collect this volumes of information, then they put up a big fight to show everyone how safe their data is on the one hand while sticking to you on the other.
Hell if you leave wifi on, on your droid, it will tickle every damn wifi you drive past, leaving a precise digital trail of everywhere you go.
Anyway case in point:
NSA Prism program taps in to user data of Apple, Google and others
This article is 4 years old
Glenn Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill
Friday 7 June 2013 15.23 EDT First published on Friday 7 June 2013 15.23 EDT
The National Security Agency has obtained direct access to the systems of Google, Facebook, Apple and other US internet giants, according to a top secret document obtained by the Guardian.
The NSA access is part of a previously undisclosed program called Prism, which allows officials to collect material including search history, the content of emails, file transfers and live chats, the document says.
The Guardian has verified the authenticity of the document, a 41-slide PowerPoint presentation – classified as top secret with no distribution to foreign allies – which was apparently used to train intelligence operatives on the capabilities of the program. The document claims "collection directly from the servers" of major US service providers.
Although the presentation claims the program is run with the assistance of the companies, all those who responded to a Guardian request for comment on Thursday denied knowledge of any such program.
In a statement, Google said: "Google cares deeply about the security of our users' data. We disclose user data to government in accordance with the law, and we review all such requests carefully. From time to time, people allege that we have created a government 'back door' into our systems, but Google does not have a back door for the government to access private user data."
Several senior tech executives insisted that they had no knowledge of Prism or of any similar scheme. They said they would never have been involved in such a program. "If they are doing this, they are doing it without our knowledge," one said.
An Apple spokesman said it had "never heard" of Prism.
The NSA access was enabled by changes to US surveillance law introduced under President Bush and renewed under Obama in December 2012.
The program facilitates extensive, in-depth surveillance on live communications and stored information. The law allows for the targeting of any customers of participating firms who live outside the US, or those Americans whose communications include people outside the US.
It also opens the possibility of communications made entirely within the US being collected without warrants.
Disclosure of the Prism program follows a leak to the Guardian on Wednesday of a top-secret court order compelling telecoms provider Verizon to turn over the telephone records of millions of US customers.
The participation of the internet companies in Prism will add to the debate, ignited by the Verizon revelation, about the scale of surveillance by the intelligence services. Unlike the collection of those call records, this surveillance can include the content of communications and not just the metadata.
Some of the world's largest internet brands are claimed to be part of the information-sharing program since its introduction in 2007. Microsoft – which is currently running an advertising campaign with the slogan "Your privacy is our priority" – was the first, with collection beginning in December 2007.
It was followed by Yahoo in 2008; Google, Facebook and PalTalk in 2009; YouTube in 2010; Skype and AOL in 2011; and finally Apple, which joined the program in 2012. The program is continuing to expand, with other providers due to come online.
Collectively, the companies cover the vast majority of online email, search, video and communications networks.
The moral of the story is if they have the technology they will and do use it, all else is cover and lies.
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