Spy Nation: U.S. Agencies Said to Swap Data With Thousands of Firms

[reformist2]

U.S. Agencies Said to Swap Data With Thousands of Firms

By Michael Riley - Jun 13, 2013 10:44 PM ET

Thousands of technology, finance and manufacturing companies are working closely with U.S. national security agencies, providing sensitive information and in return receiving benefits that include access to classified intelligence, four people familiar with the process said.

These programs, whose participants are known as trusted partners, extend far beyond what was revealed by Edward Snowden, a computer technician who did work for the National Security Agency. The role of private companies has come under intense scrutiny since his disclosure this month that the NSA is collecting millions of U.S. residents’ telephone records and the computer communications of foreigners from Google Inc (GOOG). and other Internet companies under court order.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-14/u-s-agencies-said-to-swap-data-with-thousands-of-firms.html

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. And we also share it with allies

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023013492

It's truly Orwellian

[reformist2]

10. Maybe it's letting them "win," but my gut reaction is to use the internet less and read old books.

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. Phones are just as bad

[reformist2]

20. Do you know if there's a difference between land lines and cell phones?

[nadinbrzezinski]

23. Nope

Read this article...it will make it damn clear. Not because I wrote it...the research showed me what I already suspected, we live in a dictablanda. Having grown up in one.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023013492

[aquart]

2. But they're not MY trusted partners.

[Autumn]

3. Christ on a crutch, this is fucking crazy

I thought this fucking shit was classified??? Because the AMERICAN PEOPLE can't know about it.

[woo me with science]

4. Classified from the proles.

From the proles.

"Trusted partners." This is huge. This is explosive.

[reformist2]

6. They're all in bed together - the military-telecommunications complex has total control now.

We all suspected as much, but they as may come out with it now - that every major exec at these companies is essentially working for the CIA/NSA/police state.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

7. this is not new!

[Maedhros]

12. I'm not following you.

Since it has been going on for a long time, we shouldn't try and stop it?

[Autumn]

22. Guess what? It's new to me.

[Mojorabbit]

11. I know right! nt

[woo me with science]

5. No adequate words for this.

[Baitball Blogger]

8. Well, at least now I know why we were told to get use to being a victim.

[Vinnie From Indy]

9. Not only is our info being bought and sold,

these "contractors" are selling their abilities to autocratic regimes in the Middle East. How many peaceful activists, human rights advocates and dissidents in these countries are going to be murdered because of it?

I guess we really are proles now!

[madokie]

14. Seems to me like anyone can say anything

just because some asshole does doesn't make it so though
Best I can figure anyway

[Half-Century Man]

15. Pointing out

Private contractors with little or no oversight lack motivation to follow the respect for personal privacy expected out of government. And because it will positively affect the corporate bottom line. Thinking that the gathered intelligence on the entire American population and huge portions of the worlds population is not being marketed, either in customer specific increments or in total information of area populations, in VERY naive.

Every program written in the last 10 years harvest some information to be relayed back to the programs developer. You do NOT own the Operating Program in your own computer. you own a licensing agreement to run the operating program. Marketing data is a huge business. I'm sure the NSA contractors, just by being able to spy on everyone with a clear conscious, are money hungry bastards.

[tex-wyo-dem]

16. This is hardly surpising...

Think about it...billions of people worldwide are willing to provide there personal information on Internet databases. This is a treasure to intelligence agencies, marketing firms, all sorts of private firms to do everything from sell us more crap to propaganda to controlling the message to survailing the population, etc etc. This is the other edge of the double edged sword that is the Internet. One edge is a wonderful vehicle for free speech, the other is shit like this.

[felix_numinous]

17. I don't think there is a way to put

this genie back in the bottle. This is why we need to demand our civil and constitutional rights back.

[Monkie]

18. so where are the apologists now?

all these people desperate to find reasons to distrust snowden and destroy his credibility, where are they now?
poring over minute details in his story/life and crowing when they find a detail they feel proves hes a liar, but here we have a article in a business magazine going into detail of how this works out in the "real world" of business and the silence is deafening.

where are they to defend this and tell me how great this is?

[reformist2]

19. Good point. It's hard to defend fascism, I guess.

[Marr]

24. They're still anxiously high-fiving one another in that

Last edited Fri Jun 14, 2013, 12:08 PM - Edit history (1)

thread about how Greenwald's story is "falling apart".

I swear, those threads almost make me laugh. An apologist makes a post "explaining" how an outrageous action is actually a-ok, and all the other apologists pour into it, desperately and anxiously shouting agreement, proclaiming it "proof" that they were right all along, etc.

Confirmation bias, I suppose.

[Monkie]

25. cognitive dissonance, in some way one should feel sorry for these people

its easy when your a born cynic, or have life experiences that give you the tools and courage to question authority, and the older one gets without questioning ones own preconceptions and the lies we were taught, the harder it gets i guess.

[xchrom]

21. du rec.

[many a good man]

26. I think we need electronic Privacy laws in this country

The ones we have now are a joke and really haven't even been tested in Court.