NSA Collecting Hundreds of Millions of Texts

[AnaSCI]

Hundreds of millions of texts snooped daily by NSA: Latest leak - NBC News.com

The Guardian has published details on yet another NSA program for the mass collection of mobile phone data. The latest, called "Dishfire," enables nearly 200 million text messages to be intercepted and stored every day, heedless of whether the sender or recipient is under investigation or not.

Dishfire is detailed in an 8-page presentation from 2011 provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden; SMS communication is described as "a goldmine to exploit," and the leaked document goes on to explain how the content and metadata of texts can be used to determine location, contact networks, and other data.

The NSA issued a statement to the Guardian saying it deployed Dishfire only against "valid foreign intelligence targets," but this is contradicted by a memo from the United Kingdom's equivalent to the NSA that leaked along with the presentation. It reads in part:

Dishfire contains a large volume of unselected SMS traffic. This makes it particularly useful for the development of new targets, since it is possible to examine the content of messages sent months or even years before the target was known to be of interest.

Clearly, if the system can provide messages from before a target was being investigated, it is not being directed only at targets. The NSA has yet to account for this discrepancy.

 

[gobot]

Why am I not surprised that all of these things continue to happen under our piece of crap potus.

 

[lycan Venom]

well, we should all know not to expect anything wirelessly sent magically through air waves is safe.. there isn't any privacy, I can use a tool to intercept. do if I can do it, why not our spying patriot act gov.

 

[srd1]

For the love of god FUCK THESE MOTHERFUCKERS!!!!!! Leave american citizens alone and go after the motherfuckers we know are out there with a vegence that only god could match stop trying to be politically correct and humane with everyone else in the world except your own citizens and make terrorist to fucking scared of us to fuck with us when you take one out laugh at him while he meets alah and then go after every member of his family that will stop the shit i guarantee it.

 

[K1]

Conspiracy theory or not, this is why I believe 9/11 was obviously setup by the US govt...It was a perfectly orchestrated plan to start the police state without anyone raising an eyebrow! Now it is too late as the power is truly theirs, out in the open now and there is absolutely nothing anyone, anywhere in the world can do about it.....

The only thing these Snowden leaks have done (other then give the conspiracy theorists a little bragging rights, with their "I told you so!") is made sure that the govt will tighten up ship and make sure that leaks like these will never happen again...They have already stated they plan to move into a more computer controlled environment where they will be able to cut down on human employees within the system...Once the human nature aspect has been removed they will have total anonymity.....

Hopefully Snowden has one major trump card up his sleeve that will unite the pathetic party lines and call for an entire overhaul with true transparency?!

 

[Phoenixk2]

I've read about something called tigertext. It's supposed to be a secure form of texting. It goes through your data plan on the phone not your texting.

 

[Rory]

I've read about something called tigertext. It's supposed to be a secure form of texting. It goes through your data plan on the phone not your texting.

Not a huge fan of tiger text. Get wickr instead. You'd be surprised how many people are using it already.

 

[frizzlefry]

I sent a pic of my middle finger to my ex yesterday. I'm hoping they looked at that.

 

[Phoenixk2]

Not a huge fan of tiger text. Get wickr instead. You'd be surprised how many people are using it already.

Just got got the app. Thanks Rory!

 

[basskiller]

they can have all mine if they want.. sift through the stupidiness..LOL