On Fri, Mar 22, 2013 at 1:30 PM, Andy Isaacson <a...@hexapodia.org> wrote:
> The so-called "ToS tell" is obviously not a reliable indicator of NSL > activity, and most of his evidence is similarly questionable. I'm not sure there's any reliable way to determine whether an account is under NSL or other gagged search request. But the idea that your account is (or might be) surveilled is certainly something that can weigh on one's mind. Classic example: my twitter account's direct messages suddenly started having the wrong timestamp on them last May, and the timing seemed suspect for reasons I won't bore the list with. This only appeared on DMs from specific people with specific political ties. The thought crossed my mind that it was under an NSL -- and seemed especially likely given that there are seemingly so many out there. After talking to a good friend with some insight, the chance that it was the case was put somewhere between Possible and Likely. Nowhere near guaranteed, but also not a paranoid fever dream ;-P The bug cleared up after almost a year, but only after submitting an information request to Twitter about it. Their response was that they would tell me if my account data had been requested. Unless they were gagged. Was my account under NSL? It's not something easily determined, but more likely it was simply a pervasive twitter bug. As for the political angle, the majority of my followers are interested in that specific political topic, and coincidence is not unlikely. But it just goes to show you that these situations tend to be very tenuous and have a lot of curious emotions attached to them. It might seem flippant to say, but I honestly wouldn't worry too much about whether an account has been targeted. I prefer to focus on overall security. While metadata *is* data itself, using encryption in email and chat, and opting for services which may be less-easily targeted is better than sitting around worrying about it. Just my $0.02. best, Griffin Boyce
-- Too many emails? Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu or changing your settings at https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech
