NSA Broke Privacy Rules Thousands Of Times Per Year

[TampaYankee]

NSA Surveillance Broke Privacy Rules Thousands Of Times Per Year: Report

WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency has broken privacy rules or overstepped its legal authority thousands of times each year since Congress granted the agency broad new powers in 2008, The Washington Post reported Thursday.

Most of the infractions involve unauthorized surveillance of Americans or foreign intelligence targets in the United States, both of which are restricted by law and executive order. They range from significant violations of law to typographical errors that resulted in unintended interception of U.S. emails and telephone calls, the Post said, citing an internal audit and other top-secret documents provided it earlier this summer from NSA leaker Edward Snowden, a former systems analyst with the agency.

In one of the documents, agency personnel are instructed to remove details and substitute more generic language in reports to the Justice Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

The Post cited a 2008 example of the interception of a "large number" of calls placed from Washington when a programming error confused U.S. area code 202 for 20, the international dialing code for Egypt, according to a "quality assurance" review that was not distributed to the NSA's oversight staff.

In another case, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which has authority over some NSA operations, did not learn about a new collection method until it had been in operation for many months. The court ruled it unconstitutional.

The NSA audit obtained by the Post dated May 2012, counted 2,776 incidents in the preceding 12 months of unauthorized collection, storage, access to or distribution of legally protected communications. Most were unintended. Many involved failures of due diligence or violations of standard operating procedure. The most serious incidents included a violation of a court order and unauthorized use of data about more than 3,000 Americans and green-card holders.

In an emailed statement to The Associated Press late Thursday, John DeLong, NSA's director of compliance, said, "We want people to report if they have made a mistake or even if they believe that an NSA activity is not consistent with the rules. NSA, like other regulated organizations, also has a `hotline' for people to report – and no adverse action or reprisal can be taken for the simple act of reporting. We take each report seriously, investigate the matter, address the issue, constantly look for trends and address them as well – all as a part of NSA's internal oversight and compliance efforts. What's more, we keep our overseers informed through both immediate reporting and periodic reporting."

See original article at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/15/nsa-surveillance-privacy-rules_n_3765063.html

[Guest hitoallusa]

A good analogy could be restaurant inspections. Even the number one restaurant in the US, Alinea, got cited for several violations of health safety code, a couple of years ago. But people still go there and eat food because they try to provide the best. The NSA is run by humans so there could be mistakes and unintended violations. I think I will focus on the fact that audit has been carried out and these violations are kept as records so I'm optimistic. The NSA has to be reformed but I want to commend hard working people at the NSA and hope they are not discouraged by the series of current event. There are also patriots there who strive to protect this country.

[AdamSmith]

I think I will focus on the fact that audit has been carried out and these violations are kept as records so I'm optimistic.

[Guest hitoallusa]

Well one can't be too critical, it doesn't help..

[AdamSmith]

Let's see ... Jesus was critical of the Pharisees. American colonists were critical of Britain. French citizens were critical of the monarchy. Abolitionists were critical of slavery. Lincoln was critical of secession. Gandhi was critical of colonialism. King was critical of racism. Mandela was critical of apartheid.

Nope, didn't help a bit.

[AdamSmith]

NSA FISA Snowden Leaks: Why Oversight Of The NSA Falls Short

By Pema Levy

on August 16 2013 10:31 AM

International Business Times

For over two months, the Obama administration has assured the public that between stringent rules imposed on the intelligence community and each branch of government monitoring its activity, the government’s surveillance programs do not infringe on Americans’ privacy.

Former U.S. National Intelligence Director John Negroponte at the National Security Agency office at Fort Meade, Md. REUTERS

But a staggering report from the Washington Post Thursday night has raised significant privacy concerns by revealing that the National Security Agency often violates the rules. Perhaps more importantly, the report raises serious questions about whether oversight by Congress and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), which administration officials have promised repeatedly is “rigorous,” is really effective. For the first time, those in charge of supervising the spy agency now admit their oversight is limited.

An audit from May 2012 detailing thousands of infractions by the NSA, leaked to the Post by former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, was never shared with the Senate Intelligence Committee, which oversees the government’s surveillance operations. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the committee’s chairman and a staunch supporter of the NSA programs revealed by Snowden, told the Post that her committee “can and should do more to independently verify that NSA’s operations are appropriate," and that "reports of compliance incidents are accurate.”

The key question here is whether the ability to independently verify the NSA’s activities is a crucial component to meaningful oversight. And the answer seems to be that it is. In a particularly stunning comment, the head judge on the FISC, the secret court which oversees surveillance operations, told the Post that the court’s oversight is limited by having to rely on the NSA’s own accounting of what goes on at the agency.

“The FISC is forced to rely upon the accuracy of the information that is provided to the Court,” Judge Reggie B. Walton said in a statement to the Post, responding to the audit report the paper obtained. “The FISC does not have the capacity to investigate issues of noncompliance, and in that respect the FISC is in the same position as any other court when it comes to enforcing [government] compliance with its orders.”

The admissions by both Feinstein and Walton indicate that oversight of the NSA is not as surefire as President Obama and administration officials have promised. “I've taken steps to make sure [the NSA’s programs] have strong oversight by all three branches of government and clear safeguards to prevent abuse and protect the rights of the American people,” Obama said a week ago.

In July, a former NSA analyst and whistle-blower, J. Kirk Wiebe, told International Business Times that any congressional or judicial supervision of the NSA was a “joke” without outside monitoring of the NSA’s activities. “We must grant access to NSA’s processes, the sensitive ones, the actual touching of data and information, that must be viewable by the FISA court, or some court, and by Congress, the two intelligence committees,” said Wiebe, whose own whistle-blowing attempts, along with those of his colleagues Thomas Drake and William Binney, were detailed in the New Yorker in 2011.

Wiebe, who left the agency in 2001, described the NSA as excessively hostile to congressional oversight. But his comments go to the heart of where, according to Feinstein and Walton's own statements, oversight falls short.

“What we have today is, ‘Shake hands, I’ll trust you,’” Wiebe said last month. “Years ago, I argued NSA ought to be sharing more with a select group in Congress. What’s it afraid of unless you’re doing something wrong?”

http://www.ibtimes.com/nsa-fisa-snowden-leaks-why-oversight-nsa-falls-short-1388509

[TampaYankee]

Secret organizations and practices cannot be 'oversighted' in secret because whoever controls the secrecy controls the oversight.

[lookin]

Growing backlash to government surveillance

Oct 12, 6:22 PM (ET)

By MARTHA MENDOZA

From Silicon Valley to the South Pacific, counterattacks to revelations of widespread National Security Agency surveillance are taking shape, from a surge of new encrypted email programs to technology that sprinkles the Internet with red flag terms to confuse would-be snoops.

Policy makers, privacy advocates and political leaders around the world have been outraged at the near weekly disclosures from former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden that expose sweeping U.S. government surveillance programs.

. . .

Federation of American Scientists secrecy expert Steven Aftergood said it is crucial now for policymakers to clearly define limits.

"Are we setting ourselves up for a total surveillance system that may be beyond the possibility of reversal once it is in place?" he asked. "We may be on a road where we don't want to go. I think people are correct to raise an alarm now and not when we're facing a fait accompli."

U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, who introduced a bipartisan package of proposals to reform the surveillance programs last month, told a Cato Institute gathering Thursday that key parts of the debate are unfolding now.

"It's going to take a groundswell of support from lots of Americans across the political spectrum," he said, "communicating that business as usual is no longer OK, and they won't buy the argument that liberty and security are mutually exclusive."

[Lucky]

One underground movement that Iread about is to use the trigger words in innocuous emails- tons of them- so that NSA will be too busy trying to find them, they won't have time to read lookin's email!

[Lucky]

On the topic of the NSA, or, It Never Stops:

WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency has been sifting through millions of contact lists from personal email and instant messaging accounts around the world — including those of Americans — in its effort to find possible links to terrorism or other criminal activity, according to a published report.

The Washington Post reported late Monday that the spy agency intercepts hundreds of thousands of email address books every day from private accounts on Yahoo, Gmail, Facebook and Hotmail that move though global data links. The NSA also collects about a half million buddy lists from live chat services and email accounts.

[Guest EXPAT]

Anyone catch The Good Wife last week when they had an NSA storyline with these two analysts just freely listening to and reading all emails from the law firm? I hope that's not the way it is in reality.

[Lucky]

The saving grace of all of this is that they have way too much information to actually look at or listen to. And so much of it is foreign languages, they will need far more translators than are available. Now if they just focused on suspected terrorists, their workload might be more manageable.

[RA1]

Do you mean profile them? How politically incorrect.

However, very effective and time and cost saving.

Best regards,

RA1