Just this week, a set of newly
released documents reveal Yahoo had a massive, precedent-setting, legal battle
with the US National Security Agency [NSA] in 2007-2008. At one point, after Yahoo
refused to release customer data, “[Requests from the NSA] became so
acrimonious in 2008 that the government wanted to charge the Internet company
$250,000 a day if it didn't comply,” (Danny Yadron, WSJ). Court records say that starting in November
2007, the NSA began requesting “warrantless surveillance” of certain users [paraphrase,
WSJ]. The unsealed documents didn’t specify what the NSA was asking for
specifically, just that they were citing the Protect America Act from 2007 as
justification to ask for whatever it is that they wanted. Yahoo capitulated by
May of 2008.
You
can tell that the US is in trouble when normal citizens don’t know about a precedent
setting court case until 6 years after it ended. The fact that the NSA was flat
out asking for “warrentless surveillance” shows that they know that what the agency
was doing WAS ILLEGAL/IMMORAL/IN-BAD-CONSCIENCE!!!
I’m
saddened to say that this kind of news doesn’t even surprise me at this point.
The NSA could have easily been using the surveillance for political purposes to
keep themselves in power and under wraps. I member a story earlier this year
about how either the CIA and/or NSA were spying on policy makers that didn’t agree with what the two agencies were
up to.
A
key component of an effective demonstration is for it to be a bit of a shocker,
when no one expected it. There are legal ways to do this, but any kind of flash-mob
type protest relies on secret communications.
The
term “private message” has become a complete oxymoron.
WSJ was the main source, but NYT and BBC were good background info/cross-references
Works Cited [courtesy of this great site]
Goel, Vindu. "Government Push
for Yahoo’s User Data Set Stage for Broad Surveillance." The New York
Times. The New York Times, 12 Sept. 2014. Web. 12 Sept. 2014.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/13/technology/government-push-for-yahoos-user-data-set-stage-for-broad-surveillance.html?ref=technology>.
Yadron, Danny. "Yahoo Faced Big
U.S. Fines Over User Data." The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones
& Company, 11 Sept. 2014. Web. 12 Sept. 2014.
<http://online.wsj.com/articles/u-s-threatened-yahoo-with-big-fines-over-user-data-1410477416>.
"Yahoo 'threatened' by US
Government." BBC News. British Broadcasting Corporation, 11 Sept.
2014. Web. 12 Sept. 2014. <http://www.bbc.com/news/business-29169722>.
reddit.com/r/worldnews and reddit.com/r/politics were likely where I read about the NSA/CIA surveillance of congresspersons.
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