On Tuesday 03 March 2015 19:31:14 Robert J. Hansen wrote: > > This is definitely public information from the Snowden leaks. There > > is also quite a bit of information about other governments doing > > > similar things. Here's one example article: > If all encrypted traffic is deemed suspicious, then 99.9999999% of the > suspicious set -- Amazon transactions, Google searches, SMTP transfers, > instant messaging, OkCupid profiles, iTunes purchases, and more -- is > totally clean. You'd have statistically better odds by arresting random > people on suspicion of murder. The policy would be completely > pants-on-head absurd.
After the recent terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels some German politicians are again arguing that we need Vorratsdatenspeicherung (data retention, i.e. storage of all communication meta data for 6 months) in Germany to prevent such attacks. Obviously, 99.9999999 % of this data will be completely unrelated to terrorist attacks, i.e. totally clean as you put it. You'd have statistically better odds by arresting random people on suspicion of terror. Still this completely pants-on-head absurd policy will become reality if those German politicians get what they want. > This leads to a different question: "Is it more likely that this is the > real pants-on-head absurd policy, or that the _Forbes_ journo has > profoundly misunderstood the subject?" Well, the Guardian wrote "However, alongside those provisions [to minimise data collected from US persons; I.K.], the Fisa court-approved policies allow the NSA to: [...] • Retain and make use of "inadvertently acquired" domestic communications if they contain usable intelligence, information on criminal activity, threat of harm to people or property, are encrypted, or are believed to contain any information relevant to cybersecurity;" Full article: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/20/fisa-court-nsa-without-warrant Specifically, see Exhibit B, Section 5 (3) a. http://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2013/jun/20/exhibit-b-nsa-procedures-document Moreover, see the recent article http://justsecurity.org/19308/congress-latest-rules-long-spies-hold-encrypted-data-familiar/ which claims "The Intelligence Authorization Act of 2015, which passed Congress this last December, should bring the question back to the fore. It established retention guidelines for communications collected under Executive Order 12333 and included an exception that allows NSA to keep ‘incidentally’ collected encrypted communications for an indefinite period of time." So, you are right, that the articles do not claim that the NSA collects and keeps all encrypted communication forever. Regards, Ingo
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