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How NSA and Other Agencies are Intercepting Our Data?

social media privacy

The internet plays a crucial role in connecting people over the globe and acts as a medium to share information in a secure manner. The security of information is one of the reasons that businesses involved the internet in their operations. The increased dependency on the internet revolutionized the world in many aspects which improved the quality and security of data and strengthened the grounds of privacy for the information owner. The Internet Privacy Act was one such implementation in relation to respecting the privacy of a user as privacy is the basic right of netizens. However, with recent revelations about information interception by many government agencies like the NSA, absolute privacy seem to be an illusion.

Edward Snowden, an ex-CIA employee and an ex-technical contractor at NSA, was recently charged with theft of government property, unauthorized communication of national defense information and willful communication of classified intelligence to an unauthorized person. The reason for the same is known to all of us; for revealing the “so-called” dark-side of  the National Security Agency (NSA) which was allegedly involved in spying on user’s data, approximately all over the globe.

The NSA and other agencies in collaboration with the NSA are said to have completely neglected the privacy of the users not only on the internet but also on other digital communication media like voice call and instant messaging by monitoring the content and other related information called as meta-data.

Snowden mentioned in an interview with German Magazine, Speigel Online, that many big global spying programs are supposedly acting with the intention to collect information flowing all over the web. Though the motive behind collecting the information is claimed to nullify the terrorist activities, it may still create an ambiguity about the privacy of a typical web user.

As published in one of the said documents, the NSA makes use of various signal channels to process data and also utilizes various databases to gather data. Databases like:

  • ANCHORY; an all-source database for communication intelligence
  • WRANGLER, which focuses on electronic intelligence
  • TINMAN used for air warning and surveillance

are reportedly utilized to measure the level of threat computed by the series of algorithms to de-crypt and peek into the data. Other than NSA activities, UK’s General Communications Headquarters are said to use a system, TEMPORA, to buffer internet content for up to three-days of traffic, as mentioned by Snowden in an interview with Speigel Online. Only time will tell if indeed the NSA has collaborated with these global agencies to monitor the global traffic flow which may eventually hurt user privacy.

Written By

Christa Joe is a keen blogger and enjoys reading and writing about the recent technology for various software technology blogs. Software development, mobile software development and mobile applications are some of her key area of interests. Follow her at Google+ profile.

2 Comments

2 Comments

  1. Rohit

    July 18, 2013 at 12:56 pm

    this is very true that the governmental agencies lobby many online business to get the information of their targeted person. it is illegal but nobody has enough evidences to prove this thing.
    a very nice and informative article . 🙂

  2. Daniel Roberto

    July 30, 2013 at 7:18 pm

    The ongoing Ed Snowden scandal is truly incredible. It clearly shows the astounding issues the USA has with privacy.Yet it’s not only our president. Even ordinary people are now snooping on one another. Without knowing anything at all about you; amateur private detectives,Marsha,your nextdoor neighbor,Sammy can use internet resources like I-Gator and learn your criminal records, address, employment history…etc. And much like the NSA – it’s totally authorized.Underhanded but still legal.

    This has to change. In today’s online world, there’s a great deal information available. And govt cyber-terrorist are getting more aggressive every day. When will it end?

    The NSA Govt domestic espionage scandal is really worrying. However frankly — what did all of us expect. Firstly the entertainment industry has already set up us for this degree of intrusion. We applaud as the cop (in the movies) hacks into cell phone conversations to capture the bad guys. And despite not having a warrant, we don’t have any issue with it. But we act surprised when we learn the exact same technology exists and is being used on us.

    Also – you don’t need to be a major government to spy. Firms spy on us all the time. Anybody with a Web connection can snoop into your history from Google background searches. Web spying tools are making traditional private detectives redundant.

    It’s all very legal – and all very frightful.

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