UK spy agency intercepted webcam images of millions of Yahoo users

[asim18]

Read up on the thread. People have been telling us how the GCHQ can see who we talk to, who are friends are, what I had for lunch last Wednesday.

At no point has anyone mentioned in what way any of that is actually useful. For anything.

What I find utterly peculiar is that you have mixed two of the NSA's prime objectives (and majorly useful information): "who our friends are and who we talk to", with a hyperbole due to the obviously non-useful nature of "what I had for lunch last wednesday".

Are you working for the NSA? And why are you trying to brainwash/mix people up?

 

[Woden]

What I find utterly peculiar is that you have mixed two of the NSA's prime objectives (and majorly useful information): who our friends are and who we talk to, with a hyperbole "what I had for lunch last wednesday".

Are you working for the NSA? And why are you trying to brainwash people?

Like I said, read up the thread. I am not the one that started on that track.

Even Who my friends are, who I talk to. How on earth is that useful to any government agency, of any nation?

 

[Lysander]

Like I said, read up the thread. I am not the one that started on that track.

It's an example of extreme to extreme. They have information from the trivial to the vital to the potentially life-destroying. Do I really have to spell it out for you. Apparently. It really is a worry that you can't see the links. You keep saying "read the thread", well, all this has already been explained to you, for your benefit.

 

[Woden]

It's an example of extreme to extreme. They have information from the trivial to the vital to the potentially life-destroying. Do I really have to spell it out for you. Apparently. It really is a worry that you can't see the links. You keep saying "read the thread", well, all this has already been explained to you, for your benefit.

No it hasn't, not by a long shot.

Why would any government agency, of any nation care that I talk to a girl on facebook about Dr Who a lot? Or that I work with a bloke called Dave?

 

[asim18]

Even Who my friends are, who I talk to. How on earth is that useful to any government agency, of any nation?

Unbelievable. If you don't understand the self proclaimed objectives of the NSA how on earth do you think you will ever understand the more sinister hidden objectives?

Are you even aware of the self proclaimed reason for the fundamental existence of the NSA/GCHQ?

The old S word, Security, which is also what the second letter in NSA stands for.

Now why on earth aren't communication networks useful to a government agency?

Lets give you a very basic scenario:
Street level drug dealer nicked.
He communicates with his supplier through governmentally eavesdropped mediums.
????
Profit.

But lets face it, no drug supplier will be convicted by reason of the NSA/GCHQ because that's not what it's there for. Furthermore the evidence probably wouldn't even hold up in a court of law.

 

[Woden]

Unbelievable. If you don't understand the self proclaimed objectives of the NSA how on earth do you think you will ever understand the more sinister hidden objectives?

Are you even aware of the self proclaimed reason for the fundamental existence of the NSA/GCHQ?

The old S word, Security, which is also what the second letter in NSA stands for.

Now why on earth aren't communication networks useful to a government agency?

Lets give you a very basic scenario:
Street level drug dealer nicked.
He communicates with his supplier through governmentally eavesdropped mediums.
????
Profit.

Yes, that is EXACTLY what it is for. Same with human trafficking, terrorism, all that stuff.

But since I do not sell drugs, children or intend to blow anything up ... How on earth is that useful to any government agency, of any nation?

 

[asim18]

Yes, that is EXACTLY what it is for. Same with human trafficking, terrorism, all that stuff.

But since I do not sell drugs, children or intend to blow anything up ... How on earth is that useful to any government agency, of any nation?

My god that's the whole reason of all the public backlash for goodness sake. It's because innocents like you are also being digitally ransacked. You might like it but others don't.

 

[Amp34]

The law applies, but they apply differently. That happens with many, many government agencies. Should the police be given fines for speeding?



GCHQ hasn't put a camera in my bedroom, not have they ever even hinted at wanting to. Jumping from what the GCHQ actually does, to some Orwellian dystopia is one hell of a leap.

Police officers do get fined for speeding. They can only speed in specific situation, if they speed out of those situations they get fined/lose their job/get sent to prison.

Just because people work for a government organisation doesn't mean the law doesn't apply to them in all situations...

Just to be clear, I'm not with the wacky ones in this thread insisting GCHQ are following us with our mobile cameras... I do believe that GCHQ have overstepped their bounds several times, this being one of them, by hoovering up data from millions of innocent people. The misdemeanours are then being hidden/not investigated by government that have not forced them to cooperate with enquiries they were forced to set up after public outcry (such as the responses from spy chiefs to the recent MP inquiry into the this). Even if they haven't broken the law the law needs to be constrained far more and loopholes allowing organisations to just get their partner organisations in other countries to go through the data they have collected need to be closed. It's happening in other countries, yet not in this country.

I have to say I love the idea one of the Guardian writers had. "kickstart" a satellite and use it to spy on GCHQ, perhaps follow the head of it around from space. See how long before it's declared illegal and against his right to privacy. We need to make a statement as currently the terrorists are way ahead, both because either they or the government have created mass hysteria about incidents and changed the way we live. Terrorists 1 - West 0... But then maybe the state like that, it gives them more control. EVERYONE deserves the right to privacy, with the exception of those suspected of wrongdoing. CCTV on the streets, fine, but invading the privacy of innocent people in their own home and in their own communication with loved ones is not what the state should be doing and IS a great invasion of privacy.

 

[Amp34]

Yes, that is EXACTLY what it is for. Same with human trafficking, terrorism, all that stuff.

But since I do not sell drugs, children or intend to blow anything up ... How on earth is that useful to any government agency, of any nation?

Fine. So the question is why are they collecting data on you and the 99% of the population like you? That is the big question.

 

[olivier renault]

I'd be really worried at the misuse of data. It's not like governments aren't cosying up to media moguls, or are avert to blackmail or smear campaigns.

I used to read and be horrified about oppressive soviet regimes, their distrust and disdain of their own populations, how they liked to document everything about everyone, just in case. Imagine what they could have done with that kind of technology. Looks like we're not far off, in the 'free democratic' west, except apparently, we just don't care.

 

[olivier renault]

Fine. So the question is why are they collecting data on you and the 99% of the population like you? That is the big question.

Because they can?

 

[Rroff]

Just to be clear, I'm not with the wacky ones in this thread insisting GCHQ are following us with our mobile cameras...

I see several people in this thread seem to think that the inference is someone at GCHQ is literally sitting there at their desk watching person X's cell phone in realtime perving from the camera(s). If its going on at all it would be semi-regular data scrapes to build profiles rather than ongoing active surveillance.

Fine. So the question is why are they collecting data on you and the 99% of the population like you? That is the big question.

Profiling?

 

[platinum87]

Dam!!!!

I explained over webcam to random people all my current and future illegal activities in detail.

You should be more worried about criminals than the government. People who spy on you to profit through various fraud or theft.

 

[Amp34]

I see several people in this thread seem to think that the inference is someone at GCHQ is literally sitting there at their desk watching person X's cell phone in realtime perving from the camera(s). If its going on at all it would be semi-regular data scrapes to build profiles rather than ongoing active surveillance.



Profiling?

And why should they be profiling innocent people? Has the idea of innocent until proven guilty gone out the window? Why do they have a remit to profile innocent people? Why do innocent people not have the right to privacy in this country?

Then of course the other argument is they are not actually allowed to collect and analyse data from UK citizens, however it appears they are, using their connections with the NSA to bypass the laws designed to protect us. That again proves the laws are not fit for purpose, or have been broken.

 

[Lysander]

I see several people in this thread seem to think that the inference is someone at GCHQ is literally sitting there at their desk watching person X's cell phone in realtime perving from the camera(s).

No-one has said that.

 

[Rroff]

No-one has said that.

Some people in this thread certainly seem to be posting as if they think its active hands on monitoring of random members of the public just because.

 

[sigma]

Of course it is, but that's not what they want obviously.

Brain-numbing comments like this just go to show how the general population completely miss the point and utterly fail at making sense of the NSA/GCHQ situation, and at the same time manage to brush it off as some kind of joke.

You think they've spent exponents of billions of dollars on infiltrating the top internet organisations, building a brand new dedicated military guarded data warehouse, securing strategically targeted IXPs to pump raw internet traffic straight to their data processing plants, invested in encryption cracking mainframes based on quantum computing just so they can have a pic of your face which can be freely obtained by any internet user on the planet?

Oh dear.

You think I was being serious? How can you infer so much from one sentence? I was refering to a specific statement that was made.

Let me guess, your battery runs low occasionally too?

If you're that concerned about your data and safety, why are you even posting on this forum?

 

[233]

maybe the hard drive shortages a few years back weren't caused by flooding, but by the intelligence services populating their racks?

 

[Darujhistan]

If you value your privacy and you use social media, you are an idiot. The two are completely anathema. We're sleepwalking into a Police state.

Fortunately for me, i'll probably be dead by then.

The phrases 'You've nothing to fear if you've nothing to hide' is from the first page of the Police State manifesto, and anyone who buys this line is a moron. Orwell's eternal war as the excuse for the removal of human rights and civil liberties is already upon us with the 'War on Terror'. Obviously this will never come to an end.

 

[Terminal_Boy]

maybe the hard drive shortages a few years back weren't caused by flooding, but by the intelligence services populating their racks?

Good point. Possibly it wasn't the crypto miners buying up all the fast AMD cards over the last few months; it was GCHQ using them for facial recognition off CCTV footage.