Pondering the NSA WTF OMG SHTF Train Wreck Experience
99th_Monkey called it a slow motion train wreck, with people walking around in a protracted state of disbelief, going about their normal business, but staying tuned, sensitized to the issue. Like with any major disaster it seeps in bit by bit. And like with victims of assault crimes who often keep quiet rather than face the anger that comes with being victimized, there's a lot of self-protective denial. Even in progressive places, everybody seems to be sleep-walking about it. I don't take that to be "moving on." Facing the implications and making a conscious decision to reject the most egregious invasion of our rights ever perpetrated--requires that we own it and actually do something about it. IMO this collective fog is the sleepwalking state of mind that leads to full-blown PTSD. America will wake up when we get to a PTSD-level of anxiety about it. When we face the fact that we have already been raped in cyber-space. And by our own brothers and sisters in positions of power no less (siblings who aspire to be our parents--is that not the totalitarian mentality?) It is just too awful.
Wait a minute. Everything is fine. Oobladi Life goes on.
But we suspect...we suspect. The eyes flicker and look away, the offhand comments slip out here and there...we suspect the worst. But we haven't figured out what to do with that. You may be the type who fights back pretty quickly against transgression, you may know that this requires a big push back, but others may find that difficult. After all, why should we have to fight our own government? Those who can confront this head on can help others understand the dangers. It is a grave betrayal.
At present there is no way for the average user to verify that the NSA is not analyzing your individual data without your consent. That may be legal, but it is immoral. We know the FISA court provides no protections whatsoever. We are wide open for exploitation and abuse. If we want oversight that really protects honest citizens, we must have transparency. Exactly what they don't want us to have. The total lack of respect for the American public is obvious in what they have done so far. They tell themselves they are "protecting" us, so they can sleep at night. In fact they are making us very vulnerable. What the NSA and the other surveillance entities are doing is not justifiable, and deep down, they know it. They just don't care. "Respect Our Authoritah" -- We are the Deciders. The Cyber Commanders. If information is power, it's clear that they want it all.
So if we call for controls, who would be the citizen eyes on them? How do we make them honest when they've already put the vast trolling system in place? Built the facilities to store haystacks of metadata? Already trampled our 4th amendment rights to privacy? Already acted under the strictest secrecy to mine our personal data? This over-reach is their vulnerability. And all excuses are lame. They cannot justify what they have done. Those in govt who are on our side must take up this fight. We want controls and other legal protections. Plenty of jobs for white hat hackers who work for us, for a change.
It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood.
If you are one of those who say, "So what, nobody's looking at me--I'm a law-abiding citizen." Ask yourself: So when one of your neighbors is suspected of a crime, is it really OK for the rest of the neighborhood to be searched, filtered and analyzed? (Putting it simply, that's what it is). What are the consequences of building a society that operates on control by an over-reaching authority, inflicting a paranoia that innocent citizens try to submerge within themselves--about that abusive level of control? Isn't this what we'd call a sick society?
No wonder that people who are OK with excessive surveillance have blinders on--this is too horrific to contemplate without considerable stress. The self-protective individual shuts down, tries to put out soothing parental tones--now, now, children, everything's going to be all right," they coo in our ears. But we must tell those authoritarian nanny types they are wrong. Doing nothing about this would be to live under an all-seeing cyber eye that could feel as restrictive as any prison. Blessed are the whistle blowers. They have given us a chance.
We have the expertise to fix this, but do we have the courage?
There are better technical heads than mine who can figure out the solutions--but we all know there are solutions. We should not accept the current state of unrestricted surveillance. The forces that would quell dissent on this are powerful. But the NSA's cover has been blown sky high, and our worst fears of the excesses of the surveillance state are a sudden, shocking concrete reality. As long as it could be contained--the stuff of novels and movies-- hidden behind notions of keeping us "safe"--people could pretend there was nothing to worry about. We do have a lot of other things to worry about, but this issue is central to being able to do anything about anything. We cannot tolerate government entities that operate in secret for the benefit of the 1%. Their vulnerability is that they have already violated us. Their motives are crystal clear. They are exposed, and they know what they have done is wrong.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Preachin' to the choir...you're right about that. 
Just working through it in my head and if it speaks to anybody else I'm glad...
These are turbulent times. Thanks for being there DU.
A masterful, leading way to see the situation and the nature of the problem, with a focus on a solution.
"We suspect." 
Some suspect there is a prehistoric monster lurking in Loch Ness, too. Show us the evidence if you want to start a movement.
In the meantime, the economy continues to stagnate. Texas is trying to close off all options for abortions. And we need to GOTV in 2014!!!
But let's take time to look under the bed in case there are monsters there.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]There is nothing you can't do if you put your mind to it.
Nothing.[/center][/font][hr]
--probably time to focus on the atrocities being committed by them 
And then you say:
"Let's just focus on what somebody somewhere might be doing without our direct approval."
OK Let's do that. I'm interested in what are called "lawful interception tools"....
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NSA Can Reportedly Track Phones Even When They're Turned Off
By Ryan Gallagher
Posted Monday, July 22, 2013, at 4:06 PM
The NSA has a diverse range of surveillance capabilities—from monitoring Google Maps use to sifting through millions of phone call records and spying on Web searches. But it doesn’t end there. The agency can also track down the location of a cellphone even if the handset is turned off, according to a new report.
On Monday, the Washington Post published a story focusing on how massively the NSA has grown since the 9/11 attacks. Buried within it, there was a small but striking detail: By September 2004, the NSA had developed a technique that was dubbed “The Find” by special operations officers. The technique, the Post reports, was used in Iraq and “enabled the agency to find cellphones even when they were turned off.” This helped identify “thousands of new targets, including members of a burgeoning al-Qaeda-sponsored insurgency in Iraq,” according to members of the special operations unit interviewed by the Post.
It is not explained in the report exactly how this technique worked. But to spy on phones when they are turned off, agencies would usually have to infect the handset with a Trojan that would force it to continue emitting a signal if the phone is in standby mode, unless the battery is removed. In most cases, when you turn your phone off—even if you do not remove the battery—it will stop communicating with nearby cell towers and can be traced only to the location it was in when it was powered down.
In 2006, it was reported that the FBI had deployed spyware to infect suspects’ mobile phones and record data even when they were turned off. The NSA may have resorted to a similar method in Iraq, albeit on a much larger scale by infecting thousands of users at one time. Though difficult, the mass targeting of populations with Trojan spyware is possible—and not unheard of. In 2009, for instance, thousands of BlackBerry users in the United Arab Emirates were targeted with spyware that was disguised as a legitimate update. The update drained users’ batteries and was eventually exposed by researchers, who identified that it had apparently been designed by U.S. firm SS8, which sells “lawful interception” tools to help governments conduct surveillance of communications.
In recent weeks, the NSA’s surveillance programs—both domestic and international—have been the subject of intense scrutiny following a series of leaked secret documents. The NSA says that a vast database that it maintains on phone calls made by millions of Americans does not include location data. But the revelation that the agency has developed a technique that apparently enables it to monitor thousands of cellphones—even when turned off—is likely to only inflame civil liberties groups’ concerns, prompting further questions about the full extent of the agency’s spying efforts.
