Surf the web much? Use it to conduct your business -- both personal and private?
Well those digit footprints are being stored, cataloged, and compiled -- just for you.
They call it XKeyscore. The omnipresent snapshot of nearly everything you do digital. Surprise.
How the NSA's XKeyscore program works
by Yannick LeJacq NBC News, NBCnews.com -- July 31, 2013
Until Wednesday morning, you'd probably never heard of something called "XKeyscore," a program that the National Security Agency itself describes as its "widest reaching" means of gathering data from across the Internet. According to reports shared by NSA leaker Edward Snowden with the Guardian, is that in addition to all of the other recent revelations about the NSA's surveillance programs, by using XKeyscore, "analysts can also search by name, telephone number, IP address, keywords, the language in which the Internet activity was conducted or the type of browser used."
[...]
"Quantity" is a crucial factor here, given that the Guardian noted in Wednesday's report that the sheer amount of "communications accessible through programs such as XKeyscore is staggeringly large." Indeed, one of the slides from a set of XKeyscore training documents shared by the Guardian showed that in a single 30-day period last year, the data included “at least 41 billion total records.”
"The XKeyscore system is continuously collecting so much Internet data that it can be stored only for short periods of time," the Guardian said. "Content remains on the system for only three to five days," while metadata -- the data behind the data, information like email headers or the location from where you last access your email "is stored for 30 days. One document explains: 'At some sites, the amount of data we receive per day (20+ terabytes) can only be stored for as little as 24 hours.'"
[...]
Talk about having a "fire hose" problem ... now if they only had
"a fire" to put out ...
Better bring my umbrella today, it kind of looks like rain.
Since our leaders claim to hate "profiling" so much, why have they automated it? -- into the new and "improved profiling" -- now powered by super-computer steroids.
Don't you go and "look suspicious" now, you hear?
Presenting XKeyscore: What the N.S.A. Is Still Hiding
by Amy Davidson, NewYorker.com -- July 31, 2013
[...]
A look at what? XKeyscore, according to an N.S.A. presentation that the Guardian posted (thirty-two slides, from 2008) can let an analyst see “nearly everything a typical user does on the internet.” That includes, the presentation claims, the contents of documents and chats, as well as information about what one reads and cares about and, perhaps, believes. XKeyscore can determine your location by doing reverse searches. Did you write a document mentioning a certain name? Did you search for a term on the BBC’s site, or look at a town on Google Earth? XKeyscore can deliver up your e-mail address -- an example of what it calls a “strong selector.” “How do I find a cell of terrorists that has no connection to known strong-selectors?” A slide asks.
Answer: Look for anomalous events
E.g. Someone whose language is out of place for the region they are in
Someone who is using encryption
Someone searching the web for suspicious stuff
“Someone whose language is out of place for the region they are in.” That is a telling mark for a nation of immigrants, one that supposedly values that heritage. As for “suspicious stuff,” does that include reading articles expressing doubts about the honesty of what we’ve been told about the N.S.A.? The analysts don’t seem to have to ask anyone before doing these searches: they just say, via another menu, that they’ve got a reason.
[...]
Is that anything like:
"You got Mail!"
Hmmm, can "Suspicious" News Alerts be far behind? "They got News on You -- the Viewer."
jamess just accessed a "travel site" ... uh oh. What could it mean!?
From Page 12 of the NSA Training Presentation:
[Caution: pages are stamped Top Secret. View at your own risk. This "data session" access might be monitored for customer service and/or other undisclosed "training reasons."]
XKeyscore presentation from 2008
theguardian.com, Wednesday 31 July 2013
XKeyscore Plug-Ins:
E-mail Address -- Indexes every E-mail address seen in a session by both username and domain
Extracted File -- Indexes every file seen in a session by both filename and extension
Full Log -- Indexes every DNI session collected. Data is indexed by the standard N-tupple (IP, Port, Casenotation etc.)
HTTP Parser -- Indexes the client-side HTTP traffic (examples to follow)
Phone Number -- Indexes every phone number seen in a session (e.g. address book entries of signature block)
User Activity -- Indexes the Webmail and Chat activity to include username, buddylist, machine specific cookies etc.
Maybe they should make a website for that,
so we could look up our XKeyscores?
You know model it after those 'Credit Score' websites ...
Long as their going to "brand us" for living anyways ... maybe we could get a peak the "official tattoo"?
Naah, that's crazy talk! Who we think we are -- God or something!?
Naah, that's their Job title. Us mere peons need not apply.