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Government Privacy

NSA Reveals More Than a Decade of Improper Surveillance 118

Posted by Soulskill from the at-least-they're-consistent dept.
An anonymous reader writes: On Christmas Eve, the NSA quietly dropped 12 years worth of internal reports on surveillance that may have broken laws, including reports that were illegally withheld and the subject of a FOIA lawsuit in 2009. "The heavily-redacted reports include examples of data on Americans being e-mailed to unauthorized recipients, stored in unsecured computers and retained after it was supposed to be destroyed, according to the documents. ... In a 2012 case, for example, an NSA analyst 'searched her spouse’s personal telephone directory without his knowledge to obtain names and telephone numbers for targeting,' according to one report (PDF). The analyst 'has been advised to cease her activities,' it said. Other unauthorized cases were a matter of human error, not intentional misconduct. Last year, an analyst 'mistakenly requested' surveillance 'of his own personal identifier instead of the selector associated with a foreign intelligence target,' according to another report." Here's there list of reports going back to 2001.
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NSA Reveals More Than a Decade of Improper Surveillance More

NSA Reveals More Than a Decade of Improper Surveillance

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  • This is gonna make cold fjord's head explode. He'll have to work overtime in this thread doing his damage control shilling.

    • Re: (Score:1, Offtopic)

      by Free Censorship ( 3961451 )

      He'll probably just spam links to news articles about terrorist attacks, insist that safety is more important than freedom, insist that none of this is unconstitutional, and say that anyone who disagrees wants "License" and not liberty.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      This is gonna make cold fjord's head explode. He'll have to work overtime in this thread doing his damage control shilling.

      Little Miss Fjord avoids discussions she knows she cannot hope to win.

      You will notice that my claim is accurate if you review Fjord's posting history.

  • Spying... on themselves? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    They're spying on themselves and they STILL don't seem to think they've lost control?

    Well at least they're being thorough...

  • There's been a lot of complaints about the NSA but you must admit this is one of the best, most *redacted* news we've heard in recent years. It's proof that the system works. When Obama promised *redacted* we thought he wouldn't actually follow through but here we have many reports allowing us, as good citizens, to make better voting choices.

    The NSA is a good start but let's keep the pressure on. Agencies like *redacted* need a good housecleaning as well.

    • Re:How very transparent (Score:5, Insightful)

      by grumling ( 94709 ) on Friday December 26, 2014 @12:50PM (#48675773) Homepage

      I’ll believe the system works when we see perp walks and jail time.

  • So who's going to jail for this? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Anyone? Hello?

  • No consequences - more of the same (Score:5, Insightful)

    by rbanzai ( 596355 ) on Friday December 26, 2014 @12:07PM (#48675577)

    Like any organization public or private they will do whatever they can get away with, and in this case they can get away with anything. The checks and balances don't work anymore because elected officials themselves just ignore them and on election day all we have to vote for are more people just like them.

    • Agreed - unless someone is actually going to be punished, and the broken system fixed, all they're really doing by revealing their crimes is slapping America about the face and mouth with their data-mining cocks.

  • Tip of the iceberg (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 26, 2014 @12:08PM (#48675579)

    Firstly this is the tip of the iceberg, secondly what happens when NSA staff and their agents run for public office? General Alexander looked like he was going for a presidential run when he did his tour promoting himself just before retirement. He could have been President and had access to a lot of surveillance data on competing candidates and opponents. (Note, the CTO of the NSA does consultancy for General Alexanders company, and this is an insane conflict of interest that has not been addressed, he continues to have links to his former work colleges despite retiring! Their loyalty to him should not trump their legal duty to the democracy).

    Even lower level NSA staff and their allies will move into politics a more subtle shift but one that over time will turn USA into a dictatorship. If you want to see what that looks like, take a look at Russia and ex-KGB man Putin. He became President, and used his KGB links to ensure he stays that way.

    There's a damn good reason why we don't spy on our own. Ity undermines your democracy, and its why agencies like GCHQ are supposed to protect the privacy of Brits, not spy on Brits and hand that data to a foreign power.

    I see UKIP is having a lot of their telephone calls leaked, the most damning ones taken out of context, handy that. How many calls were listened to by GCHQ/NSA, recorded, and filtered to find the ones with political advantage? How many calls did you GCHQ, intercept on behalf of a foreign power that are now being used to undermine the UK political system? You f*ing traitors.

    • Alll we can do at this point (Score:5, Insightful)

      by s.petry ( 762400 ) on Friday December 26, 2014 @02:57PM (#48676485)

      Is raise awareness and keep things in the independent press. Nobody from the Government has gone to jail for any of these abuses, and this should infuriate people. Our TV based media is not harping on this, they harp on everything but holding the Government accountable for their actions. If you really want to make change you have to get people awake to the severity of the problems, normal media channels work for the same team as our Government.

    • Re:Tip of the iceberg (Score:4, Insightful)

      by mitcheli ( 894743 ) on Friday December 26, 2014 @03:26PM (#48676611)
      I don't know so much about the GCHQ, but the NSA's publicly stated mission is to "lead the U.S. Government in cryptology that encompasses both Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) and Information Assurance (IA) products and services, and enables Computer Network Operations (CNO) in order to gain a decision advantage for the Nation and our allies under all circumstances." Hence all the "REL FVEY" material in those reports. It may be the tip of the iceberg, and it likely is because many of the systems and techniques alluded to in those reports are classified. They're classified to prevent our adversaries (to include UK's adversaries) from knowing what can be done. And with all honesty, I'm really curious how much flack the NSA will receive now that Sony was put into the dark ages by one of the least connected countries in the world. The threat is real, and organizations like GCHQ and NSA are there to protect the rest of us from these people. We may not agree with the way they go about it, but they do take their jobs seriously. And as for the analyst who was spying on her spouse, she's damn lucky she got a slap on the wrist. She could have gotten much, much worse for that.

      • And with all honesty, I'm really curious how much flack the NSA will receive now that Sony was put into the dark ages by one of the least connected countries in the world.

        Hopefully a lot. Had they been focusing on such foreign threats rather than warrantless, blanket surveillance of US citizens they might have been able to prevent it.

        And as for the analyst who was spying on her spouse, she's damn lucky she got a slap on the wrist. She could have gotten much, much worse for that.

        You honestly think that what she did is an isolated incident? Did you miss the LOVEINT fiasco? And that's just what is reported publicly.

        • Did you miss the LOVEINT fiasco?

          Given the date of that report, that might have been LOVEINT. If it was, then I'd say the press sorely over exaggerated.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Copid ( 137416 )

        And as for the analyst who was spying on her spouse, she's damn lucky she got a slap on the wrist. She could have gotten much, much worse for that.

        That's kind of the problem. She could have and should have gotten much worse. The fact that she didn't indicates a serious dysfunction in the system. And it's the type of dysfunction that sounds a lot like the type of arrogant, "The rules don't apply to us," and, "If you're not police, you're nobody," attitude you get from dangerously corrupt police forces i

  • Hum (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Humans are egotistical, oppressive, homicidal maniacs so whats new. Everybody talking about NSA spying but what about Federal and State civil forfeiture laws where our government(especially the local and state police) pretty much steals(money, electronics, automobiles, homes) outright from the citizens without being charged of any crime especially on the highways, 4th amendment pretty much gone. Civil and supreme court always sides with law enforcement and you pretty much piss away thousands of dollars mo

  • This reminds a Christmas eve confession of a 13 year old boy. Admit small mistakes, hoping that no one will notice that the boy not only is a bastard, but was not even baptized.

  • “cease her conduct." (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Did you catch it?

    That’s rightwomen can abuse your data, too!

    It’s not just pimple faced teenagers who are out to hack youit could be your ex-wife!

  • "Oh look, a puppy!" (Score:4, Insightful)

    by kheldan ( 1460303 ) on Friday December 26, 2014 @12:33PM (#48675687) Journal
    Less than 100 comments on this /. posting so far, and the signal-to-noise ratio is as low as ever..

    The older I get, the more cynical, apparently. In my opinion, this is just the NSA throwing the U.S. populace a bone for Christmas. Is this redacted stuff they tossed us for real? Yes. Is it just the tiniest ice crystal from the tip of the Titantic-sinking-class iceberg? Hell, yes it is. They wouldn't dare show us the really bad stuff, which is probably closer to what The Machine (and more to the point, the other machine, 'Samaritan') from the TV show Person of Interest collects on everyone on a moment-by-moment basis, and they'd rather lose an eye than show us the really incriminating stuff; this is just meant as a distraction.

    We're headed for a Federal meltdown, I think. No worries, it won't be some shooting war like you'd see in the movies, where a small but determined underground army rises up to topple the corrupt, rotting-from-within government, it'll be a slow burn, with lots of talking, and papers shuffled around, and finally, at the very end, something involving men with guns, and it probably won't happen in what's left of my lifetime, but I think it's going to happen. Call it reform, to put an appropriately pretty and benign word to it. But when it finally happens, nothing will be the same ever again, and Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, and all the rest will turn over in their graves. Of course there's a still a small spark within me that believes that the system those men put in place so long ago will self-correct and prevent everything from completely falling apart. We'll see, I guess.

    • and everyone knows it.

      2015 will see that entire capacity and investment crippled and wasted.

    • Re:"Oh look, a puppy!" (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 26, 2014 @02:00PM (#48676183)

      In my opinion, this is just the NSA throwing the U.S. populace a bone for Christmas.

      This is NSA burying a bone - by releasing it on a day when nobody's watching the news (except for us nerds) and nobody's writing stories about the news. It's like releasing bad news on a Friday afternoon, except that Christmas Day newsdumps are even less likely to be read by anyone.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by celle ( 906675 )

      "But when it finally happens, nothing will be the same ever again, and Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, and all the rest will turn over in their graves."

              What you mean the founding fathers aren't spinning in their graves at black hole generating speeds already????!!!!
       

  • "advised to cease her activities" (Score:3)

    by Chris Mattern ( 191822 ) on Friday December 26, 2014 @12:49PM (#48675767)

    "Don't do that or we'll make frowny faces at you. And also, what did you find out?"

    • And also, what did you find out?

      Her ex's new girlfriend looks better in a bikini and isn't a crazy stalker.

      I had a crazy ex stalker girl that would watch me at work with binoculars from the park across the street... I eventually moved to another state.

  • JAIL! JAIL!! JAIL!!! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by swschrad ( 312009 ) on Friday December 26, 2014 @01:00PM (#48675815) Homepage Journal

    the high and mighty keep doing evil shit until they start landing on the bottom bunk under Bubba in an overcrowded jail.

  • the GOP stopped Congressional oversight of NSA back in 2004. They knew that what was going on was illegal.

    • I'm really sick of your type. We have a more democrat supermajority that didn't do a damn thing to fix this yet you go back 14 years to troll the GOP (most of which are not even in congress anymore.)

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by techno-vampire ( 666512 )
        You've got it right! BO has been president for six of those ten years and done absolutely and positively nothing about it but the OP still blames the GOP. What happened to "the most transparent administration in history?" Typical liberal hypocrisy.
        • I am a registered libertarian. While I have issues with O, the fact is, that this was put into place back in 2002 through later timeframe, and the neo-cons of that time removed real oversight of the work.
          • That still doesn't answer the question of why "the most transparent administration in history" allowed this to go on for six years.
            • what does that have to do with what CONgress and W did back in 2004?
              • BO and the Democrats have had six years to change the policy and return proper congressional oversight and done nothing. Yes, the GOP was responsible for creating the situation, but the Democrats have nobody but themselves to blame for letting it continue.
                • Well, lets see. Udall has been trying to bring it to the forefront for some time. That speak volumes, in my book, esp. since the neo-cons (not the tea*) have worked hard to prevent him from bringing up anything.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by dbIII ( 701233 )
              Because the part that changed is a very small part of the structure of government. When there's a mess dating back to Edgar Hoover it's not going to be cleaned up by a single administration no matter who is in charge. I wrote something similar here when Baby Bush got in, but he didn't even attempt to touch the Clinton era mess since it would have cut into his vacation time.
              • Judging by how you refer to various presidents, I'm sure you would have thought different if the parties were reversed. For the record, I think that the GOP should be ashamed of itself for letting this happen in the first place.

                • Re: (Score:2)

                  by dbIII ( 701233 )
                  You appear to make the assumption that everyone who is not for you is against you. I am not in the USA so do not support either party, but Baby Bush was a world class failure even when he bothered to turn up for work. Both Johnson and Ford are roasting in hell IMHO.
                  Some of the problems date back to before JFK and have been allowed to fester.

          • All but 1 democrat voted for the increase power granted by the Patriot Act and the only reason any of it expires and requires renewal is because a Texas Republican added sunsets to the bill

            http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H... [wikipedia.org]

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by dbIII ( 701233 )
              Yes but none of them actually had time to read it did they?
              Even the name was a very low trick, since it implied that anyone rejecting it was not a patriot. In the political climate of the time voting against it looked like a career ending move, and career is what seatwarmers on both sides saw as important above all else.

              • Yes but none of them actually had time to read it did they?

                A nonsensical excuse. The one democrat who voted against it realized it contained freedom-violating provisions, so there's no excuse for voting for it. Even at the time, it was known to be an awful bill.

                In the political climate of the time voting against it looked like a career ending move

                And...? They have a duty to defend the constitution, even if that means ending their careers. There are still so many people in both parties saying we should sacrifice our liberties for security. Their true colors were especially revealed on 9/11; they took advantage of the situation to push their authoritar

                • Re: (Score:2)

                  by dbIII ( 701233 )

                  And...? They have a duty to defend the constitution, even if that means ending their careers

                  Which means a failure of those who didn't bother to do their duty as citizens and go out to vote to choose the type of people who would defend the constitution, even if that means ending their careers. When choosing those who gets to run a country becomes a game for only the politically obsessed and nobody else bothers to take part it's an expected outcome.

                  I don't know why you thought I was defending them instead o

                  • Which means a failure of those who didn't bother to do their duty as citizens and go out to vote to choose the type of people who would defend the constitution, even if that means ending their careers.

                    I would still blame both.

            • Which does not matter. Patriot act is not the issue, nor the problem. Nearly all aspects of pat act were and continue, to be needed.

              the real issue is that the congressional oversight committee of 2002-6 PURPOSELY allowed us to create systems that did NOT have safety controls in place. Had we done the correct system, it would have had controls to prevent a number of abuses.

              Now, not only has snowden told enemies how to evade us, but we have the same sets of neo-cons that allowed the abuse in the first pla

              • Which does not matter. Patriot act is not the issue, nor the problem. Nearly all aspects of pat act were and continue, to be needed.

                Now, not only has snowden told enemies how to evade us

                What the shit? Well, thanks for revealing your true colors, you authoritarian, partisan hack.

                Worse, a number of u idiots have called for the NSA, a relatively powerless entity( no ability to arrest, etc), to be disbanded and then for the tech. To be handed over to FBI and CIA.

                "u"? Seriously? He just left.

                Anyway, all of those organizations are corrupt to the core.

      • I am sick of your type. I worked on pat act back in 2004-6. I have posts that griped about you fucking neo-cons that destroy america and never take responsibility for your fucking actions, or the bozos that voted in.

        • Two of the top results from google search "Congression oversight NSA"

          "Obama says NSA has plenty of congressional oversight."
          http://www.washingtonpost.com/... [washingtonpost.com]

          "The Obama administration, the intelligence agencies and their allies in Congress had made an all-out push to quash the amendment after it unexpectedly made it past the House rules committee late on Monday"
          http://www.theguardian.com/wor... [theguardian.com]

          I'm sure you'll say some BS like "I never said that the other side was better" but the fact is, you ignored the demo

          • and what does any of this have to do with the fact that CONgress/W basically removed the oversight from NSA back in 2004?
            Absolutely fucking NOTHING.
            Since that time, CONgress has not done their job of oversight, by asking very thin questions and KNOWING that lies were being told.
            It is for that reason that Udal and others have been HINTIng that issues were afoot. In fact, Udall had hinted at this before Snowden turned both whistle blower and traitor.

            • You are holding on to something that both parties pushed and blaming only one party.

              In addition, you are holding on to old shit that should have been corrected by now.

              I can say that Clinton and the democrats gave us the DMCA but that doesn't excuse Bush or Obama or the congresses during their times for keeping it.

              In fact, Bush was fairly transparent about where he stood on the NSA. Obama and the of liberals flat out lie on it and you give them cover when you keep going back so far (when 6 out of 10 of thos

              • First off, as I said elsewhere, this is not about pat act.
                Secondly, I am not sure that O or even the regular dems outside of the security committees knew about this.
                Third, Udall had been trying to bring it up without breaking his oath. He more than hinted at it for a LONG time.

                Fourth, being a dick does not help your case. It simply makes you like Juvenile. And Faux News is just that. Faux.

            • Re: (Score:3)

              by dbIII ( 701233 )

              Snowden turned both whistle blower and traitor.

              I mostly agree with you, but I don't see how giving information to American journalists could be considered treason. The rest of the world did not hear it direct from Snowden. We've been manipulated into thinking he's a traitor when he was really the enemy of powerful bureaucrats instead of the USA.

              • Nope.
                He took a loyalty oath. When he gave up information about abuses of spying on Americans, he was a whistle blower. He should have stopped there.
                Instead, he went on to give information about spying on AQ, North Korea, China, Russia along with spying on friendlies as well. THat was treason pure and simple.

                I am no longer connected to that world. However, I find it hard to believe that AQ , ISIS, etc have not made massive changes to avoid all of the issues that Snowden released.
                As such, he has made

                • He took a loyalty oath.

                  His oath to an evil organization does not matter. He has a more important oath to be a good human being.

                  When he gave up information about abuses of spying on Americans

                  Because Americans are the only ones that matter? Ethics don't matter? You sound like the very neocon scumbags you criticize.

                  all of which was what the NSA was set up for

                  If the NSA's mission was to spy on allies and innocent people all over the world just because the information may prove useful, then the NSA's mission was unethical.

                • Fair enough, you have a very good point even though I don't entirely agree with it since it involves drawing a difficult to define line somewhere between what information is treason to release and what isn't.
                  For an old example, some would argue say that revealing Oliver North's personal embezzlement of the Contra fund for airconditioning, a car etc, would be treason, because that obvious crime was tangled up in a pile of very sensitive state secrets, such as North supplying weapons to Hezbolla less than a y
                  • What ollie north was doing was prevented by CONgress. As such, it was whistle blowing when pointing it out.
                    When Snowden spoke about NSA breaking laws and even our bill of rights, when dealing with Americans, that was whistle blowing.
                    When he spoke about NSA spying on none americans that are out of the nation, well, that was what NSA was set up to do, and it was 100% legal.
                    Technically, even the spying on Merkel was legal (though I am opposed to that since germany is a direct ally).
                    As such, when snowden
    • The oversight committees are still at work - as the stories about their failing in their job and Alexander's perjury before one of them suggests. So what are you suggesting - or are you just being gratuitously partisan?

  • Gov Web Form (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Good thing i've never mistakenly typed a muscle-memory data item like my email address or something into a web form because it was confusing. And the fact that 'personal identifier' is used probably means they typed their own user id into some field and hit enter. Even after reading more instances from the links, it is quite obvious that this item is chosen for the summary because it sounds terrible.

    Take out all of the actual human mistakes, the date errors that snowballed from human mistakes, and the mi

    • No one wants 1984

      Plenty of people, in fact, do. You can't explain all the massive violations of our constitution and our fundamental liberties with ignorance alone; everyone involved would have to be ignorant of all the government abuses of power throughout history, and would have to believe that everyone in the government is a perfect angel who can do no wrong and make no mistakes and that it would always be so.

  • Must ... blame ... Bush ...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by bledri ( 1283728 )

      Must ... blame ... Bush ...

      Half the country must blame Bush. The other half blame Obama. Both played their parts. But we're to blame, myself included. If we really gave a shit, we would have been out in the streets when the Patriot Act passed (practically unanimously, by both parties.) This is our fault, and nothing is going to change because we don't really care enough to do anything about it other than point out how dumb "the other guy" is.

      • Only partisan hacks [slashdot.org] are pointing out how dumb "the other guy" is. The rest of us aren't voting for candidates endorsed by The One Party. And some people *did* protest the Patriot Act; just not enough. Others donate to rights organizations and try to educate others. Sadly, it's difficult when the general public is convinced that freedom is worthless or not worth fighting for.

  • Dumb question (Score:3)

    by ihtoit ( 3393327 ) on Saturday December 27, 2014 @12:53AM (#48678673)

    How many cases have followed through conviction off the back of this illegal surveillance? In other words, how many convictions should now be considered "unsafe", to borrow an English legal term? Following this, how many cases of technically unlawful incarceration must now be subjected to judicial review, potentially retrial minus the tainted surveillance evidence, and who's got the ledger for the compensation claims for illegal imprisonment, inury in custody (including mental anguish), judicial misdirection? oh this is gonna be a very pretty picture going into 2015...

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