Microsoft is spying on America through user computers.

[Overmind One]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/11/microsoft-nsa-collaboration-user-data

Microsoft has collaborated closely with US intelligence services to allow users' communications to be intercepted, including helping the National Security Agency to circumvent the company's own encryption, according to top-secret documents obtained by the Guardian.

The files provided by Edward Snowden illustrate the scale of co-operation between Silicon Valley and the intelligence agencies over the last three years. They also shed new light on the workings of the top-secret Prism program, which was disclosed by the Guardian and the Washington Post last month.

The documents show that:

• Microsoft helped the NSA to circumvent its encryption to address concerns that the agency would be unable to intercept web chats on the new Outlook.com portal;
• The agency already had pre-encryption stage access to email on Outlook.com, including Hotmail;
• The company worked with the FBI this year to allow the NSA easier access via Prism to its cloud storage service SkyDrive, which now has more than 250 million users worldwide;
• Microsoft also worked with the FBI's Data Intercept Unit to "understand" potential issues with a feature in Outlook.com that allows users to create email aliases;
• In July last year, nine months after Microsoft bought Skype, the NSAboasted that a new capability had tripled the amount of Skype video calls being collected through Prism;
• Material collected through Prism is routinely shared with the FBI andCIA, with one NSA document describing the program as a "team sport".

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2013/07/16/microsoft-again-seeks-to-rebut-spying-cooperation/

In the post Tuesday, for the first time, the company did address the encryption-cracking issue. Microsoft said in its statement that it “does not provide any government with the ability to break the encryption, nor does it provide the government with the encryption keys.”

Yet that’s not exactly what the Guardian claimed. The Guardian said Microsoft worked with the FBI to “come up with a solution that allowed the NSA to circumvent encryption” on online chats via Outlook.com, Microsoft’s Web-based email service.

Microsoft said in the blog post that when required to turn over customer account information to government agencies, it pulls the data “from our servers where it sits in an unencrypted state.”

Anybody who has been duped into thinking that anything stored "in the cloud" is remotely secure in any fashion is naive. The entire reason that many companies are not only pushing people into the cloud and in some cases FORCING them, is so that your personal data is accessible and able to be monitored/tracked. Where is the advantage to the end user? Sure, your data can be synced across your devices, but with a personal cloud, you can do the same.

With OwnCloud, you can set up the exact same features and be in charge of your own shit:

http://lifehacker.com/5993596/how-t...storage-service-in-five-minutes-with-owncloud

So, with Dropbox being hacked, and with Microsoft spying on me and listening to my Skype calls and reading my email (well, no because I dont use any Microsoft mail products except Outlook), I will be setting up yet another Linux server for this application and running my own damned cloud. I can even encrypt my stuff across my devices. Screw Microsoft.

 

[Backstep]

You may be able to make it harder for the gov to see your info on the internet, what about your every day travels? If you live in a state that allows the use of license plate readers by the cops, it is the same as having a gps tracker on your vehicle.

 

[Jim of WVa]

I suppose that one could take a picture of one's anus with a Microsoft pad computer and add a caption that said "to Barack with Love." Upload it to the internet, and the NSA will then hand deliver it to the president.

 

[heisenberg]

I think we are all going to have to get used to spying/surveillance in this modern age. It's not like the CIA/NSA and all those intelligence agencies will stop because it's unethical,illegal and just plain silly. They'll continue to do it because they can and get away with it.

Privacy and democracy are both an illusion. None of them are respected and adhered or taken literally, in this modern age.

 

[Overmind One]

I suppose that one could take a picture of one's anus with a Microsoft pad computer and add a caption that said "to Barack with Love." Upload it to the internet, and the NSA will then hand deliver it to the president.

Yep, then the black helicopters will come and whisk you away to beautiful Guantanamo where you will begin weeks of painful bliss.
--- merged: Jul 21, 2013 at 12:45 AM ---

I think we are all going to have to get used to spying/surveillance in this modern age. It's not like the CIA/NSA and all those intelligence agencies will stop because it's unethical,illegal and just plain silly. They'll continue to do it because they can and get away with it.

Privacy and democracy are both an illusion. None of them are respected and adhered or taken literally, in this modern age.

It is inescapable right now. Already, biometrics can track you by just your face in the city of Las Vegas. In San Diego, your license plate can be tracked (and thus your location) with the ability to zoom in on the driver...even at night. The military can see you walking to your car from orbit. They can use ground penetrating radar to see people underground and inside buildings. They can track you by using your own cellphone. None of this requires them to ever touch you or plant a device on you.

All you can do is make certain that you know what they CANT see.

 

[Gatefan1976]

I think we are all going to have to get used to spying/surveillance in this modern age. It's not like the CIA/NSA and all those intelligence agencies will stop because it's unethical,illegal and just plain silly. They'll continue to do it because they can and get away with it.

Privacy and democracy are both an illusion. None of them are respected and adhered or taken literally, in this modern age.

I like this (well, not really), it's quite true but I will disagree with democracy being dead. I think it is on "life support" in some countries because "Democracy" has become a dirty word, but as long as "the people" are willing to work within the system to improve it, rather than just *abuse it*, it will live on, and I really feel it *needs* to live on. The governmental systems of the world however are pushing the boundaries on just how much shit the people are willing to accept. "Real democracy" works when there is TRUST in the government by the people, and the government has a real desire to work FOR the people. When the government fails however, people look to the next strongest entity, which is, invariably the military, and then adopt a militaristic mindset.

In plain speak, every so often, "the people" need to slap the government across the face and tell them to pull their damn heads in!!

 

[heisenberg]

Yep, then the black helicopters will come and whisk you away to beautiful Guantanamo where you will begin weeks of painful bliss.
--- merged: Jul 21, 2013 at 12:45 AM ---


It is inescapable right now. Already, biometrics can track you by just your face in the city of Las Vegas. In San Diego, your license plate can be tracked (and thus your location) with the ability to zoom in on the driver...even at night. The military can see you walking to your car from orbit. They can use ground penetrating radar to see people underground and inside buildings. They can track you by using your own cellphone. None of this requires them to ever touch you or plant a device on you.

All you can do is make certain that you know what they CANT see.

I don't know but they have all these facilities but they still can't catch the bad guys. That tracking mobile phone feature I know would come in handy for mobile companies especially, if you are the one who has lost his/her stolen phone.

 

[Rac80]

which is why some people have a fully-stocked bunker off in the mountains....

 

[Overmind One]

I don't know but they have all these facilities but they still can't catch the bad guys. That tracking mobile phone feature I know would come in handy for mobile companies especially, if you are the one who has lost his/her stolen phone.

Bolded: That is because many of the "bad guys" are employed by the government. There is the issue of jurisdiction as well. You cannot engage the military spy nets and hardware if you are just a Sheriff in North Dakota or even a beat patrol officer in New York or Los Angeles. Even a Police Chief would have a very hard time trying that one. But the NSA and CIA and FBI are a different story altogether. The NSA can freely use all of the military systems. So, even though all of these facilities are online and being used by agencies, they are not available to just everyone.