Forget Prism Say Hello to Fairview

Couchpotato

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Just when you thought your governments spying couldn't get any worse it does. Say hello to Fairview.
Last month, former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked a series of PowerPoint slides to the Washington Post and the Guardian revealing that the agency was engaged in a large-scale Internet surveillance program, dubbed PRISM, that collects Americans’ chats, emails, photos, and videos.

One of the slides, only later released by the two papers, made reference to a group of additional “upstream” collection programs, including two named FAIRVIEW and BLARNEY, but gave no further details about their function.

Drake, who was prosecuted under the Espionage Act for his whistleblowing, explained the upstream programs to the Daily Dot.

“Upstream means you get inside the system before it’s in the Internet. In its pure form,” he said.

About the slide, Drake said, “you’ve got programs and umbrella programs.” FAIRVIEW is one such umbrella. Drake referred to it as a “highly classified program” for tapping into the world’s intercontinental fiber optic cables.

“It’s just a name,” Drake said, “that at the highest level means to own the Internet.”
 
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Getting everything BEFORE it is transmitted ? Or encrypted ? Or - whatver ?
 
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Thanks for mentioning this, Couchpotato.
Eager for more information I duckduckgo'd the word 'Fairview' and found
this article:
The NSA's mass and indiscriminate spying on Brazilians.

As the headline suggests, the crux of the main article details how the NSA has, for years, systematically tapped into the Brazilian telecommunication network and indiscriminately intercepted, collected and stored the email and telephone records of millions of Brazilians. The story follows an article in Der Spiegel last week, written by Laura Poitras and reporters from that paper, detailing the NSA's mass and indiscriminate collection of the electronic communications of millions of Germans. There are many more populations of non-adversarial countries which have been subjected to the same type of mass surveillance net by the NSA: indeed, the list of those which haven't been are shorter than those which have. The claim that any other nation is engaging in anything remotely approaching indiscriminate worldwide surveillance of this sort is baseless.

As those two articles detail, all of this bulk, indiscriminate surveillance aimed at populations of friendly foreign nations is part of the NSA's "FAIRVIEW" program. Under that program, the NSA partners with a large US telecommunications company, the identity of which is currently unknown, and that US company then partners with telecoms in the foreign countries. Those partnerships allow the US company access to those countries' telecommunications systems, and that access is then exploited to direct traffic to the NSA's repositories.

(…)

But contrary to what some want to suggest, the privacy rights of Americans aren't the only ones that matter. That the US government - in complete secrecy - is constructing a ubiquitous spying apparatus aimed not only at its own citizens, but all of the world's citizens, has profound consequences. It erodes, if not eliminates, the ability to use the internet with any remnant of privacy or personal security. It vests the US government with boundless power over those to whom it has no accountability. It permits allies of the US - including aggressively oppressive ones - to benefit from indiscriminate spying on their citizens' communications. It radically alters the balance of power between the US and ordinary citizens of the world. And it sends an unmistakable signal to the world that while the US very minimally values the privacy rights of Americans, it assigns zero value to the privacy of everyone else on the planet.

This development - the construction of a worldwide, ubiquitous electronic surveillance apparatus - is self-evidently newsworthy, extreme, and dangerous. It deserves transparency. People around the world have no idea that all of their telephonic and internet communications are being collected, stored and analyzed by a distant government. But that's exactly what is happening, in secrecy and with virtually no accountability. And it is inexorably growing, all in the dark. At the very least, it merits public understanding and debate. That is now possible thanks solely to these disclosures.

It's only to be expected more and more people will refuse to share sensitive information digitally any longer.
Pigeons is the ultramodern way to go.
 
Since were talking about data interception it seems AT&T is also joining the fray. Here according to Torrrent Freak.
Outside of the public eye AT&T has lent copyright holders a hand inventing new anti-piracy tools. Previously we reported that the Internet provider has patented a BitTorrent monitoring system, but the company is sitting on an even scarier invention. AT&T has patented a mechanism through which it can detect copyright infringing files that are sent over its network in real-time, and then stop the transfer or report the perpetrator to copyright holders or law enforcement.

By now it’s no secret that intelligence agencies have real-time access to people’s online activities. However, the same might soon apply to copyright holders too. That is, if AT&T puts one of its patents into action.

A few weeks ago we wrote about AT&T’s patent to track and monitor transfers over the BitTorrent network. While this was already quite worrisome in terms of privacy, it’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Last year the company obtained an even scarier patent, one that can detect copyright infringing material on an ISP network irrespective of the source. This means that even files uploaded to Dropbox or shared over instant messaging can be targeted.

The patent in question is named “Real-time content detection in ISP transmissions” and focuses exclusively on tracking and deterring online piracy. According to the telco, copyright infringement is a “recurring problem in Internet usage” that is hard to police without the proper tools.
We all know it will be used in other ways also. I can see more potential uses for this technology. Not all of them are good.
 
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Since we are talking about spying, delete sensitive information on your phone when visiting the UK.

"Thousands of innocent holidaymakers and travellers are having their phones seized and personal data downloaded and stored by the police", according to The Telegraph.
Officers use counter-terrorism laws to remove a mobile phone from any passenger they wish coming through UK air, sea and international rail ports and then scour their data.
The blanket power is so broad they do not even have to show reasonable suspicion for seizing the device and can retain the information for “as long as is necessary”.
Data can include call history, contact books, photos and who the person is texting or emailing, although not the contents of messages.
(…)
It echoes concerns surrounding an almost identical power police can use on the streets of the UK, which is being reviewed by the Information Commissioner.
However, in those circumstances police must have grounds for suspicion and the phone can only be seized if the individual is arrested.
(…)
“Seizing and downloading your phone data is the modern equivalent of searching your home and office, searching through family albums and business records alike, and identifying all your friends and family, then keeping this information for years."

Source:
Travellers' mobile phone data seized by police at border
 
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