PRISM, Snowden and Paranoia.

This last week has been very interesting. The revelation that the US is spying must surely not have come as any surprise. No sane person would believe that the NSA, CIA or FBI are anything other than intelligence machinery created to spy. I believe this is more a case that innocence has been lost.

We have understood that intelligence agencies will spy on the bad guys. That is a good thing because it will keep me safe. I do not however want these agencies looking too closely at my personal activities. I don't  want them looking at my online purchases, knowing what I say after a couple of beers at the bar or when I speculate about alien life. Heaven forbid they see what dark corners of the internet I browse from the privacy of my lounge. What about the silly prank calls my teenager makes to a random number for a yarn or the drunken calls or tweets after the world cup match?

Even more concerning is that the court that issues the warrants for this, FICA, is not subject to oversight. The court proceedings are secret and closed to the public. They are a power unto themselves.

This is exactly what Edward Snowden has told us is happening. The information he has provided shows that the US government is actively collecting data about where a call originates, where that call terminates, how long the call was and when. More than that, the IMSI numbers of the phones involved. The IMSI ties the call to specific handsets.

This surveillance is not just for a few persons of interest either, but for every user on the Verizon and AT&T networks. This includes international calls, so a distant cousin in England or Australia is included in this indiscriminate eavesdropping simply because of their association with someone in the US.

Snowden’s PRISM revelations indicate further that companies like Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Skype may give the N. S. A. access to their servers; to users emails, pictures, files, online chats, videos or anything else. This casts a shadow over the security or at least privacy of cloud computing. Since the Internet routing is based on the least cost rather than shortest path the bulk of Internet traffic worldwide is routed via the US.

This is where the intelligence gathering efforts bleed into the homes of users in the rest of the world. Add to this the Department of Homeland Security’s document “Analyst’s Desktop Binder.” This binder includes keywords and search terms that are on the DOHS’s radar. Generic terms like drill, exercise, facility, leak, virus, pork, port, power, metro and bust. The result is they could be gathering the data, pictures and emails from every electrician, middle aged man concerned about his weight, soccer mom planing dinner, plumber and student trying to get to class; worldwide.

Considering the number of these keywords and the concentration in this blog post, I may have trouble securing a Visa to visit the US in future. 

Whether Edward Snowden is a traitor or a hero will depend on the outcome of this debacle. If this gives the American’s sufficient pause to have their government return to accountability and democracy or continue with the autocracy; that appears to be a hallmark of American policy post 9/11, remains to be seen.

I see shades of the 1985 John Schlesinger film with Sean Penn "The Falcon and the Snowman."

Please feel free to leave comments; even anonymously if you are not already in the google system. I may not know who left the comment, but the US government will.

Is this purely paranoia? Is it paranoid if they are out to get you? Is Edward Snowden a traitor or a hero? What do you think?

note:
Related article in the Conversation "Nine reasons you should care about NSA's PRISM surveillance."
Related Blog from me about Orwellian Big Brother here.