Canada's Surveillance Network

[FreeRights]

How do you know that I don't know that?

Denial is not a rebuttal, my friend.

I know that you don't know because if this was public information, I'd know it.

I don't, so unless you work for one of these intelligence units, you don't either.

[Donald G]

To disprove what has not been proven is like searching for witches brew when you don't believe in witches.

Or trying to determine which calf was raised by which steer.

[Roadster]

I dont have a problem with it. I dont say stuff they'd be interested in and if I did I would write it in a letter.
Meanwhile the only pattern they would find is me yaking with family and some friends. I got nothing to hide but some may have and they should be caught if this is what it takes.

Too many coming here for other reasons besides trying to find a good life.

[Woodenhead]

Meanwhile, in America:

Feds put heat on Web firms for master encryption keys

The U.S. government has attempted to obtain the master encryption keys that Internet companies use to shield millions of users' private Web communications from eavesdropping.

These demands for master encryption keys, which have not been disclosed previously, represent a technological escalation in the clandestine methods that the FBI and the National Security Agency employ when conducting electronic surveillance against Internet users.

If the government obtains a company's master encryption key, agents could decrypt the contents of communications intercepted through a wiretap or by invoking the potent surveillance authorities of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Web encryption -- which often appears in a browser with a HTTPS lock icon when enabled -- uses a technique called SSL, or Secure Sockets Layer.

"The government is definitely demanding SSL keys from providers," said one person who has responded to government attempts to obtain encryption keys. The source spoke with Castanet on condition of anonymity.

The person said that large Internet companies have resisted the requests on the grounds that they go beyond what the law permits, but voiced concern that smaller companies without well-staffed legal departments might be less willing to put up a fight. "I believe the government is beating up on the little guys," the person said. "The government's view is that anything we can think of, we can compel you to do."

A Microsoft spokesperson would not say whether the company has received such requests from the government. But when asked whether Microsoft would turn over a master key used for Web encryption or server-to-server e-mail encryption, the spokesperson replied: "No, we don't, and we can't see a circumstance in which we would provide it."

Google also declined to disclose whether it had received requests for encryption keys. But a spokesperson said the company has "never handed over keys" to the government, and that it carefully reviews each and every request. "We're sticklers for details -- frequently pushing back when the requests appear to be fishing expeditions or don't follow the correct process," the spokesperson said.

Sarah Feinberg, a spokeswoman for Facebook, also declined to answer whether her employer has received encryption key requests. In response to a question about divulging encryption keys, Feinberg said: "We have not, and we would fight aggressively against any request for such information."

Apple, Yahoo, AOL, Verizon, AT&T, Opera Software's Fastmail.fm, Time Warner Cable, and Comcast declined to respond to queries about whether they would divulge encryption keys to government agencies.

[...]

[Donald G]

I do not put anything on the internet that I would not be prepared to say in public. What my doctor, the genetic research company or financial entities that I deal with have put on the internet is another question that I have learned to live with ... so far so good.

I do not have a problem any of that information being sifted or screened by security agencies as long as I am assured that the information could or would not be leaked to other people or agencies who could use the information against me for their own benefit. ie identity theft, life insurance, employment opportunities, political advantage etc.

[Woodenhead]

I

But not I. Don't speak for everyone. My privacy is mine, and mine alone.

as long as I am assured

None of us are, unfortunately. "Ratchet effect" and "mission creep" come to mind, for starters.

[Donald G]

To Woodenhead ...

Would you not agree that when we decided to live in an urban area, seek employment, access doctors and hospitals, carry out banking we all gave up a portion of our privacy because of the need to convey a portion of our privacy to those agencies with whom we deal in order to access service?

The fact that various people can see and/or hear much of what we do as we go about living our collective lifestyle results in our individual privacy becoming part of the information available to various others in our society.

I do not think we have begun to appreciate the degree to which computerization has and will continue to affect our individual privacy ... yours included.

P.S. I is me ... not everyone.

[Woodenhead]

I agree to the same extent that we use things like bathroom doors and curtains.

Technological advances & ramifications are only getting started. Thankfully there's still ways to avoid the government's prying eyes.

[Queen K]

Using cash is one of them.

Fake name fb accounts might work.

Refusing to tag people on FB pix works to some degree.

Phony info on FB. Not signing up to too many websites. Returning back to print media and not surfing on-line for information.

What else?

[Captain Awesome]

What else?

How about realizing that nobody really gives a crap about what people you tag on FB, nobody cares what school you went to, and that $1.45 you spent on slushie at Mac's isn't the golden nugget of information NSA is after. I mean, feel free to make up creative ways trying to fool The Man, firewall the hell out of your computer, burn cookies with napalm on every website, and of course - anonymous VPN with 128 bit encyprition - but at this point a person is just petting their own ego if they think they are oh so important that the govt is after them and their life is actually worth spying on. Mental masturbation with a taste of nerdiness, if you ask me.

[Roadster]

Might be a mental masterbation with a taste of nerdiness or what ever but I never give my real name on sites like facebook, if I want someone to know where I am I would look for them, hide from the government,,, almost impossible but hide some information,,, ya, why not,,,

Age... Well over the hill and heading down the other side on a wheely thing with handle bars and a bell on it.

My last school... School of hard knocks and still continuing.

Place of birth... Under a rock where my muckin fugly siblings were born

Where living... In your motorhome at night. Sheets are gettin smelly.

Doing what now,,, peeping in your windows, nice sheers

Do you know Sam HoH and eight others? Yup I peek in on them too.

Click on them to become friends... Not likely, not them!

Favorite pass time... picking my nose

Male or female... Not sure, lemme look,,, oh wow!

Place of work... I am a fresh air inspector, I make just over nine hun a month and loving it

Sure its easy to hide enough to fool many but the ip thing will get the big brother what else he needs if en he ever wanted it.

[Queen K]

What I was getting at is there is almost nothing else.

[Woodenhead]

There's different methods of encryption & internet browsing that do the trick. And there's plenty of good reasons to want privacy, regardless of what airheads may think.

[Roadster]

I think the best option is to keep the nose clean, dont look for or get involved in kid porn sites and dont become a terrorist, those are about all the government is looking for. If they were to find you by spying it would likely be because your ip came up in an area they are checking for criminals.

[Woodenhead]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/31/nsa-top-secret-program-online-data

XKeyscore: NSA tool collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'

The files shed light on one of Snowden's most controversial statements, made in his first video interview published by the Guardian on June 10.

"I, sitting at my desk," said Snowden, could "wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant, to a federal judge or even the president, if I had a personal email".

US officials vehemently denied this specific claim. Mike Rogers, the Republican chairman of the House intelligence committee, said of Snowden's assertion: "He's lying. It's impossible for him to do what he was saying he could do."

But training materials for XKeyscore detail how analysts can use it and other systems to mine enormous agency databases by filling in a simple on-screen form giving only a broad justification for the search. The request is not reviewed by a court or any NSA personnel before it is processed.

XKeyscore, the documents boast, is the NSA's "widest reaching" system developing intelligence from computer networks – what the agency calls Digital Network Intelligence (DNI). One presentation claims the program covers "nearly everything a typical user does on the internet", including the content of emails, websites visited and searches, as well as their metadata.

Analysts can also use XKeyscore and other NSA systems to obtain ongoing "real-time" interception of an individual's internet activity.