Judge orders Google to give customer data to FBI

[OnePercenter]

A federal judge has ruled that Google Inc. must comply with the FBI's warrant-less demands for customer data, rejecting the company's argument that the government's practice of issuing so-called national security letters to telecommunication companies, Internet service providers, banks and others was unconstitutional and unnecessary.

Excite News - Judge orders Google to give customer data to FBI

Where's the NRA when the paranoid really need them?

 

[asaratis]

A federal judge has ruled that Google Inc. must comply with the FBI's warrant-less demands for customer data, rejecting the company's argument that the government's practice of issuing so-called national security letters to telecommunication companies, Internet service providers, banks and others was unconstitutional and unnecessary.

Excite News - Judge orders Google to give customer data to FBI

Where's the NRA when the paranoid really need them?

"The FBI made 16,511 national security letter requests for information regarding 7,201 people in 2011, the latest data available. "\


I wonder what percentage of the 7,201 people were conservative....

 

[OnePercenter]

A federal judge has ruled that Google Inc. must comply with the FBI's warrant-less demands for customer data, rejecting the company's argument that the government's practice of issuing so-called national security letters to telecommunication companies, Internet service providers, banks and others was unconstitutional and unnecessary.

Excite News - Judge orders Google to give customer data to FBI

Where's the NRA when the paranoid really need them?

"The FBI made 16,511 national security letter requests for information regarding 7,201 people in 2011, the latest data available. "\


I wonder what percentage of the 7,201 people were conservative....

I wonder what percentage of the 7,201 people were suspected terrorists.

 

[IlarMeilyr]

A federal judge has ruled that Google Inc. must comply with the FBI's warrant-less demands for customer data, rejecting the company's argument that the government's practice of issuing so-called national security letters to telecommunication companies, Internet service providers, banks and others was unconstitutional and unnecessary.

Excite News - Judge orders Google to give customer data to FBI

Where's the NRA when the paranoid really need them?

"The FBI made 16,511 national security letter requests for information regarding 7,201 people in 2011, the latest data available. "\


I wonder what percentage of the 7,201 people were conservative....

I wonder if they had idiots like the Boston Bomber brothers in mind or even on their national security letter demand list?

 

[The2ndAmendment]

Holy wtf?

Combine this with Verizon!

 

[waltky]

Granny says let `em take it to the World Court - if dey think dey got a case...

Global netizens worried over US spying
Jun 7,`13 > -- News that the U.S. government has been snooping on Internet users worldwide came as little surprise to global netizens, who said Friday they have few expectations of online privacy as governments increasingly monitor people's digital lives, often with Internet companies' acquiescence.

Privacy activists concerned over the U.S. National Security Agency's selective monitoring of Internet traffic called on people to take measures to better protect their digital data ranging from emails to photos to social network posts. But most people eschew encryption and other privacy tools and seemed resigned to the open book their online lives have become. "It doesn't surprise me one bit. They've been doing it for years," said Jamie Griffiths, a 26-year-old architect working on his laptop in a London cafe. "I wouldn't send anything via email that I wouldn't want a third party to read."

From Baghdad, to Bogota, Colombia, many said they already carefully censor what they write online and assume governments are regularly spying on online activity, be it as part of global counter-terrorism or domestic surveillance efforts. "The social networks and email have always been vulnerable because tech-savvy people know how to penetrate them," said Teolindo Acosa, a 34-year-old education student at Venezuela's Universidad Central who was leaving a cybercafe in Caracas. Leaked confidential documents show the NSA and FBI have been sifting through personal data by directly accessing the U.S-based servers of Google, Facebook, Microsoft, AOL, Skype, PalTalk, Apple and YouTube.

Following Thursday's revelation, U.S. President Barack Obama said Friday that the surveillance did not "target" U.S. citizens or others living in the U.S. - which does not mean their communications were not caught up in the dragnet. But that didn't dampen the outrage of people who resent what they consider Washington's self-anointed role as the world's policeman. "To the United States, everyone is suspicious, even the pope!" said leftist Colombian Sen. Alexander Lopez. "Everyone is under observation these days and this should be taken up by the United Nations." Lopez said he has no plans to close his Google and Microsoft email accounts. He figures he'll be spied on no matter what he does.

The revelation of global data vacuuming could hurt U.S. technology companies if Internet users become disillusioned and abandon them in favor of homegrown alternatives that offer greater security. U.S. privacy activist Christopher Soghoian said he finds it "insane" that so many politicians outside the United States use Google gmail accounts. "This has given the NSA an advantage over every other intelligence system in the world. The Americans don't have to hack as much, because everyone in the world sends their data to American companies," he said.

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Paper: UK government getting US spy agency's data
Jun 7,`13 -- The U.K. has been secretly gathering communications data from American Internet giants with the help of fellow spooks at the U.S. National Security Agency, the Guardian newspaper reported Friday, a demonstration of the international scope of America's top-secret espionage program.

The Guardian said it had seen documents showing how the British signals intelligence agency GCHQ has had access to America's "PRISM" electronic eavesdropping system since at least June 2010, adding that the data had generated nearly 200 intelligence reports over the past year. GCHQ declined to comment on the story Friday, saying only that it takes its legal obligations "very seriously."

The Guardian said evidence for GCHQ's involvement came from the same 41-page Powerpoint presentation cited Thursday by both that paper and The Washington Post as the basis for their reports on PRISM, a heretofore-unknown eavesdropping program used to collect emails, documents, audio, video, and other data from major Internet companies including Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, and Apple.

While PRISM is theoretically targeted at data belonging to foreigners on foreign soil, the Post said that the spies merely have to believe there's a better than even chance that the target is foreign before scooping up its data. The paper also cited training material as saying that inadvertently spying on Americans was "nothing to worry about."

It's not clear whether British officials would be subject to the same restrictions with respect to their own citizens, and the traditionally close links between GCHQ and the NSA have already worried some in the U.K. who fear that British spies may be eavesdropping on their own citizens through American espionage programs. "The U.K. government must tell us what they knew about PRISM," said Jim Killock, who directs the London-based Open Rights Group. In a statement released earlier Friday, Killock called for an investigation into "whether the U.K. government or intelligence agencies were in any way involved with any related invasion of U.K. citizens' privacy."

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