Snowden warns future generations will have 'no concept of privacy'

[News_Editor]

LONDON, ENGLAND (BNO NEWS) -- American whistleblower Edward Snowden on Wednesday addressed the British public in a televised Christmas message, urging for a continued public debate to end mass surveillance and warning that future generations will have no concept of privacy.

Snowden, whose release of top-secret National Security Agency (NSA) documents have revealed details about the extent of the U.S. government's surveillance on phone and internet communications, made his first television broadcast as part of Channel 4's "Alternative Christmas Message."

"Recently, we learned that our governments, working in concert, have created a system of worldwide mass surveillance, watching everything we do," Snowden said. He referred to "1984" author George Orwell who warned against surveillance through microphones and video cameras, but said that what Orwell imagined is "nothing compared" to what is available today.

"We have sensors in our pockets that track us everywhere we go. Think about what this means for the privacy of the average person," the whistleblower said. "A child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy at all. They'll never know what it means to have a private moment to themselves -- an unrecorded, unanalyzed thought."

The 30-year-old American, who has been staying at an undisclosed location in Russia since being granted temporary political asylum in August, said privacy allows people to determine who they are and who they want to be. He therefore urged the public debate surrounding his disclosures to continue.

"The conversation occurring today will determine the amount of trust we can place both in the technology that surrounds us and the government that regulates it," he said. "Together, we can find a better balance, end mass surveillance, and remind the government that if it really wants to know how we feel, asking is always cheaper than spying."

First airing in 1993, the Channel 4 Christmas message - the alternative to the Queen's annual televised message to the nation - is typically reserved for provocative or offbeat addresses. Previous addresses have been delivered by then-Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, September 11, 2001 survivor Genelle Guzman, and fictional characters such as The Simpsons.

Snowden's message came just days after he declared his own mission accomplished. "For me, in terms of personal satisfaction, the mission's already accomplished," he told the Washington Post. "I already won. As soon as the journalists were able to work, everything that I had been trying to do was validated. Because, remember, I didn't want to change society. I wanted to give society a chance to determine if it should change itself."

Before being granted political asylum in Russia, Snowden had been stuck inside the transit zone at a Moscow airport for five weeks after fleeing Hong Kong when the U.S. charged him with three felony counts, including violations of the U.S. Espionage Act.

(Copyright 2013 by BNO News B.V. All rights reserved. Info: [email protected].)

[F430murci]

Oh, we'll be okay! Thanks for the concern though. Even if true, who really cares if you are doing nothing wrong.

[NeverSure]

It depends on what governments define as wrong. Already many countries don't have freedom of speech. Already many people are afraid to speak out against that which they disagree. Already political correctness can get you in trouble just for holding an opinion, much less saying it on a cell phone or near a secret recorder or on the internet.

This is true in Thailand, but it is also true in a 1st world country such as the UK.

In America, I can walk around with a sign that says "Down With (insert my prejudice here") and it's legal. But will I be filmed and labeled? Will there later be consequences as freedoms erode?

How about this post? Will it get me put into a category?

[Publicus]

All well and good as Snowden himself says mission accomplished, sort of I would add, but good just the same. Merry Christmas to him and I hope his passcodes are secure in Russia. The man who can't choose a country (from among the 200 of the world) faces an uncertain 2014.

Snowden is seriously and highly credibly charged by the Justice Department with something akin to sedition because he provided extremely sensitive national and global security information and data to the CCP-PRC and to Russia, among other non-allies or competitors/adversaries of the United States.

The fact of the law and the Constitution is that providing the most confidential and sensitive national security information and data to an unauthorized foreign government is both a gross violation of law and of the personal security and safety of each citizen of the United States, to include citizens of states that are US formal treaty allies and of its many friendly governments..

One has to be careful not to try to present a long train of possible horrors in this and other situations, but if Beijing has sensitive US national and other global security information, what's to stop Pyongyang from getting it, one way or another? Or the present government of Nato ally Turkey, which is involved in the quagmire that is Syria and that already has become the glaring weak link of the north Atlantic alliance. These are only two among the many valid considerations that attend Snowden's suspected espionage against the United States and its friends and allies throughout the world.

It's clear that Snowden himself knows that in the matter of espionage he cannot viably return to the United States to argue his innocence within a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

[bunnydrops]

I think a point that seems to be missed by most is if this one man can walk out the door with all this information, who else, working for any country, any business has done the same. The NSA found out that someone has been listening to their "listening" and they don't like it anymore than the rest of us like their listening.

[Credo]

It depends on what governments define as wrong. Already many countries don't have freedom of speech. Already many people are afraid to speak out against that which they disagree. Already political correctness can get you in trouble just for holding an opinion, much less saying it on a cell phone or near a secret recorder or on the internet.

This is true in Thailand, but it is also true in a 1st world country such as the UK.

In America, I can walk around with a sign that says "Down With (insert my prejudice here") and it's legal. But will I be filmed and labeled? Will there later be consequences as freedoms erode?

How about this post? Will it get me put into a category?

I would hardly consider walking around with a sign as having much to do with privacy. Privacy relates more to the things you would rather not have known by other people.

I am afraid the privacy ship has sailed. When you look at people's Facebook page, you can pretty well determine almost everything about the. If you don't have Facebook, your picture probably appears on someone else's page, with your name. We know from Snowden's revelations that it is possible for a gov't to tap into the internet in such a way as to gather huge amounts of data. Once something is possible, it is also inevitable.

In order to keep off of the grid, you would have to live without a phone of any kind, without an internet connection, you couldn't go anywhere because there are CCTV's on most roads and in most stores. You couldn't use a credit card and you probably shouldn't have one of those cards from a store because they can track everything you buy.

Oh, and for your cash, don't use an ATM because it will have your picture.

In my housing estate, the CCTV is now connected to the internet so that I can watch every road and every house from anywhere in the world.

Yup, that ship pulled sail without us hardly paying any attention, and there were some that even posted it's departure on their Facebook page!

[Scott]

Inflammatory post removed.

[MJP]

Oh, we'll be okay! Thanks for the concern though. Even if true, who really cares if you are doing nothing wrong.

If the Governments aren't doing anything wrong. That's the difference.

No conspiracy theorist, but I believe most governments can become totally corrupt and use the infrastructure of control against their own citizens for their own personal gain. Perhaps not now, but very possibly in the future.

Just look through history, it's littered with them.

[marcusd]

All well and good as Snowden himself says mission accomplished, sort of I would add, but good just the same. Merry Christmas to him and I hope his passcodes are secure in Russia. The man who can't choose a country (from among the 200 of the world) faces an uncertain 2014.

Snowden is seriously and highly credibly charged by the Justice Department with something akin to sedition because he provided extremely sensitive national and global security information and data to the CCP-PRC and to Russia, among other non-allies or competitors/adversaries of the United States.

The fact of the law and the Constitution is that providing the most confidential and sensitive national security information and data to an unauthorized foreign government is both a gross violation of law and of the personal security and safety of each citizen of the United States, to include citizens of states that are US formal treaty allies and of its many friendly governments..

One has to be careful not to try to present a long train of possible horrors in this and other situations, but if Beijing has sensitive US national and other global security information, what's to stop Pyongyang from getting it, one way or another? Or the present government of Nato ally Turkey, which is involved in the quagmire that is Syria and that already has become the glaring weak link of the north Atlantic alliance. These are only two among the many valid considerations that attend Snowden's suspected espionage against the United States and its friends and allies throughout the world.

It's clear that Snowden himself knows that in the matter of espionage he cannot viably return to the United States to argue his innocence within a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

I think a lot of whatyou sayis true. BUT a lot ... Like he has handed over SENSITIVE INFORMATION TO CHINESE AND RUSSIAN govts is supposition as this is what we are told. I like the fact we have been told about the invasive eavesdropping, but he did violate his duties and that is wrong and punnishable.

Sent from my RM-892_apac_laos_thailand_219 using Tapatalk

[mopar71]

Oh, we'll be okay! Thanks for the concern though. Even if true, who really cares if you are doing nothing wrong.

If the Governments aren't doing anything wrong. That's the difference.

No conspiracy theorist, but I believe most governments can become totally corrupt and use the infrastructure of control against their own citizens for their own personal gain. Perhaps not now, but very possibly in the future.

Just look through history, it's littered with them.

I'm not worried too much that my personal emails/text messages/numbers I've called are in a massive NSA database. But it would be easy to target a specific individual. For example, someone at the NSA with the proper clearance could get the phone #s of a presidential candidate they are opposed to and see which phone numbers his phone has been in contact with. Then they could hand this info over to the opposition who could spin it anyway they chose. This has already been done recently in the USA with someone at the IRS leaking donor lists to a political group's opposition which they used to harass, boycott and intimidate people who exercised their right to support the cause of their choice.

Snowden's speech about future generations having no sense of privacy is accurate and visible even today. You can follow people on Facebook or see where they are at any time with something called foursquare. Smart phones have the ability to imbed GPS data into each photo you take. So people can download your photo off some social media site and see exactly where that playground is where your toddler plays. All of this will be ancient technology by the time someone born in 2010 becomes a teenager. Scary stuff.

[MJP]

Oh, we'll be okay! Thanks for the concern though. Even if true, who really cares if you are doing nothing wrong.

If the Governments aren't doing anything wrong. That's the difference.

No conspiracy theorist, but I believe most governments can become totally corrupt and use the infrastructure of control against their own citizens for their own personal gain. Perhaps not now, but very possibly in the future.

Just look through history, it's littered with them.

I'm not worried too much that my personal emails/text messages/numbers I've called are in a massive NSA database. But it would be easy to target a specific individual. For example, someone at the NSA with the proper clearance could get the phone #s of a presidential candidate they are opposed to and see which phone numbers his phone has been in contact with. Then they could hand this info over to the opposition who could spin it anyway they chose. This has already been done recently in the USA with someone at the IRS leaking donor lists to a political group's opposition which they used to harass, boycott and intimidate people who exercised their right to support the cause of their choice.

Snowden's speech about future generations having no sense of privacy is accurate and visible even today. You can follow people on Facebook or see where they are at any time with something called foursquare. Smart phones have the ability to imbed GPS data into each photo you take. So people can download your photo off some social media site and see exactly where that playground is where your toddler plays. All of this will be ancient technology by the time someone born in 2010 becomes a teenager. Scary stuff.

I have little doubt it's being used for insider trading right now.

[Publicus]

Oh, we'll be okay! Thanks for the concern though. Even if true, who really cares if you are doing nothing wrong.

If the Governments aren't doing anything wrong. That's the difference.

No conspiracy theorist, but I believe most governments can become totally corrupt and use the infrastructure of control against their own citizens for their own personal gain. Perhaps not now, but very possibly in the future.

Just look through history, it's littered with them.

I'm not worried too much that my personal emails/text messages/numbers I've called are in a massive NSA database. But it would be easy to target a specific individual. For example, someone at the NSA with the proper clearance could get the phone #s of a presidential candidate they are opposed to and see which phone numbers his phone has been in contact with. Then they could hand this info over to the opposition who could spin it anyway they chose. This has already been done recently in the USA with someone at the IRS leaking donor lists to a political group's opposition which they used to harass, boycott and intimidate people who exercised their right to support the cause of their choice.

Snowden's speech about future generations having no sense of privacy is accurate and visible even today. You can follow people on Facebook or see where they are at any time with something called foursquare. Smart phones have the ability to imbed GPS data into each photo you take. So people can download your photo off some social media site and see exactly where that playground is where your toddler plays. All of this will be ancient technology by the time someone born in 2010 becomes a teenager. Scary stuff.

In the back of my head I keep thinking about the next Prez Nixon. Up front I also think Prez Obama has been prudently restrained towards his relentless, mean-spirited and absolute political opposition.

Imagine a president Ted Cruz and his constituency with control of the NSA and all the rest of the intelligence gathering apparatus. Hell, just think of J. Edgar Hoover and the next Hoover type in a federal office sucking up and manipulating all that info and data.

Or another instance of a Sen Tom Eagleton who had to quit as Sen George McGovern's 1972 vice president candidate when his home state political opposition ratted to the media about his personal depression electro-shock therapy treatment (of which he had failed to advise McGovern, and which McGovern's vetting people had failed to find). His personal tragedy wouldn't have got that far today.

Also, it's already well known that politicians caught up in scandals of a sexual nature especially have been ratted out by their political opposition. In most instances of a politician's person peccadillos his (typically his) surreptitious nocturnal behaviors become known over time by their closest staff assistants, then more broadly. Next thing is the media gets a call from someone connected to the political opposition and a long time offender such as a Gov Elliot Spitzer goes down, among others.

There already are whacko politicians that go online in their underwear or who order up trysts in the Oval Office with interns. These are however blatant instances of self-indulgence to the point of self-destruction.

Given the foul nature of US politics and government during the present time, society also needs to be concerned about the hidden devices that may be joined with a banal political motive or by some other kind of vulgar extremist design.

[Steely Dan]

Without even addressing the rights and wrongs of what Snowden did I agree with him 100% that the power to snoop on citizens has been greatly increased by technology, such a capability is liable to be used and misused by totalitarian regimes and even by democracies. One of the good things about being a farang in Thailand is you are far less likely to fall foul of the Stalinist PC brigades that are threatening freedom of speech, unless of course you are foolish enough to tread on one of the local sacred cows that is.

[Basil B]

What wrong with him... found out Santa is not delivering this year?

He has jumped in a very big cesspit and he is not going to come out smelling of roses.

[chuckd]

Oh, we'll be okay! Thanks for the concern though. Even if true, who really cares if you are doing nothing wrong.

If the Governments aren't doing anything wrong. That's the difference.

No conspiracy theorist, but I believe most governments can become totally corrupt and use the infrastructure of control against their own citizens for their own personal gain. Perhaps not now, but very possibly in the future.

Just look through history, it's littered with them.

I'm not worried too much that my personal emails/text messages/numbers I've called are in a massive NSA database. But it would be easy to target a specific individual. For example, someone at the NSA with the proper clearance could get the phone #s of a presidential candidate they are opposed to and see which phone numbers his phone has been in contact with. Then they could hand this info over to the opposition who could spin it anyway they chose. This has already been done recently in the USA with someone at the IRS leaking donor lists to a political group's opposition which they used to harass, boycott and intimidate people who exercised their right to support the cause of their choice.

Snowden's speech about future generations having no sense of privacy is accurate and visible even today. You can follow people on Facebook or see where they are at any time with something called foursquare. Smart phones have the ability to imbed GPS data into each photo you take. So people can download your photo off some social media site and see exactly where that playground is where your toddler plays. All of this will be ancient technology by the time someone born in 2010 becomes a teenager. Scary stuff.

In the back of my head I keep thinking about the next Prez Nixon. Up front I also think Prez Obama has been prudently restrained towards his relentless, mean-spirited and absolute political opposition.

Imagine a president Ted Cruz and his constituency with control of the NSA and all the rest of the intelligence gathering apparatus. Hell, just think of J. Edgar Hoover and the next Hoover type in a federal office sucking up and manipulating all that info and data.

Or another instance of a Sen Tom Eagleton who had to quit as Sen George McGovern's 1972 vice president candidate when his home state political opposition ratted to the media about his personal depression electro-shock therapy treatment (of which he had failed to advise McGovern, and which McGovern's vetting people had failed to find). His personal tragedy wouldn't have got that far today.

Also, it's already well known that politicians caught up in scandals of a sexual nature especially have been ratted out by their political opposition. In most instances of a politician's person peccadillos his (typically his) surreptitious nocturnal behaviors become known over time by their closest staff assistants, then more broadly. Next thing is the media gets a call from someone connected to the political opposition and a long time offender such as a Gov Elliot Spitzer goes down, among others.

There already are whacko politicians that go online in their underwear or who order up trysts in the Oval Office with interns. These are however blatant instances of self-indulgence to the point of self-destruction.

Given the foul nature of US politics and government during the present time, society also needs to be concerned about the hidden devices that may be joined with a banal political motive or by some other kind of vulgar extremist design.

You are conveniently forgetting the way The Prez became The Prez from Illinois, by getting his Republican opponent's divorce records unsealed when he ran for the Illinois Senate and his Democratic primary opponents divorce records unsealed when he ran for the US Senate.

Interestingly there is information around that The Prez has been fairly busy with this snooping business as well.

Listen to what Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) has to say about Obama's prudent restraint.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIA1lQBqH1s

[Publicus]

Oh, we'll be okay! Thanks for the concern though. Even if true, who really cares if you are doing nothing wrong.

If the Governments aren't doing anything wrong. That's the difference.

No conspiracy theorist, but I believe most governments can become totally corrupt and use the infrastructure of control against their own citizens for their own personal gain. Perhaps not now, but very possibly in the future.

Just look through history, it's littered with them.

I'm not worried too much that my personal emails/text messages/numbers I've called are in a massive NSA database. But it would be easy to target a specific individual. For example, someone at the NSA with the proper clearance could get the phone #s of a presidential candidate they are opposed to and see which phone numbers his phone has been in contact with. Then they could hand this info over to the opposition who could spin it anyway they chose. This has already been done recently in the USA with someone at the IRS leaking donor lists to a political group's opposition which they used to harass, boycott and intimidate people who exercised their right to support the cause of their choice.

Snowden's speech about future generations having no sense of privacy is accurate and visible even today. You can follow people on Facebook or see where they are at any time with something called foursquare. Smart phones have the ability to imbed GPS data into each photo you take. So people can download your photo off some social media site and see exactly where that playground is where your toddler plays. All of this will be ancient technology by the time someone born in 2010 becomes a teenager. Scary stuff.

In the back of my head I keep thinking about the next Prez Nixon. Up front I also think Prez Obama has been prudently restrained towards his relentless, mean-spirited and absolute political opposition.

Imagine a president Ted Cruz and his constituency with control of the NSA and all the rest of the intelligence gathering apparatus. Hell, just think of J. Edgar Hoover and the next Hoover type in a federal office sucking up and manipulating all that info and data.

Or another instance of a Sen Tom Eagleton who had to quit as Sen George McGovern's 1972 vice president candidate when his home state political opposition ratted to the media about his personal depression electro-shock therapy treatment (of which he had failed to advise McGovern, and which McGovern's vetting people had failed to find). His personal tragedy wouldn't have got that far today.

Also, it's already well known that politicians caught up in scandals of a sexual nature especially have been ratted out by their political opposition. In most instances of a politician's person peccadillos his (typically his) surreptitious nocturnal behaviors become known over time by their closest staff assistants, then more broadly. Next thing is the media gets a call from someone connected to the political opposition and a long time offender such as a Gov Elliot Spitzer goes down, among others.

There already are whacko politicians that go online in their underwear or who order up trysts in the Oval Office with interns. These are however blatant instances of self-indulgence to the point of self-destruction.

Given the foul nature of US politics and government during the present time, society also needs to be concerned about the hidden devices that may be joined with a banal political motive or by some other kind of vulgar extremist design.

You are conveniently forgetting the way The Prez became The Prez from Illinois, by getting his Republican opponent's divorce records unsealed when he ran for the Illinois Senate and his Democratic primary opponents divorce records unsealed when he ran for the US Senate.

Interestingly there is information around that The Prez has been fairly busy with this snooping business as well.

Listen to what Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) has to say about Obama's prudent restraint.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIA1lQBqH1s

This thread is not about the incumbent president.

I mentioned a number of politicians by name and referenced a few others too.

I haven't pursued or dug into Prez Obama's history so I don't know if what you say against him is true - you say whatever you like against him every day and all day every day. And by saying that I'm not inviting you to make yet another of your right flank frontal charges. Not by any means.

I don't know every detail about the guy, nor do I want to true or untrue.

Edited December 27, 2013 by Publicus

[Scott]

Continued off-topic posting will earn posters a suspension.

[JLCrab]

So if everything Snowden says is true how there be such a thing anymore as an 'undisclosed location'?

[MJP]

Dame Eliza Manningham Buller. Worth a listen.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25526187

[F430murci]

Interesting.

-----

A federal judge in New York has ruled that the National Security Agency's massive collection of American citizens' telephone records is both legal and useful.

U.S. District Judge William Pauley wrote in his opinion issued Friday that the program "represents the government's counter-punch" to eliminate al-Qaeda's terror network.

Pauley raised the specter of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and how the phone data-collection system could have helped investigators connect the dots before the attacks occurred.

"The government learned from its mistake and adapted to confront a new enemy: a terror network capable of orchestrating attacks across the world. It launched a number of counter-measures, including a bulk telephony metadata collection program a wide net that could find and isolate gossamer contacts among suspected terrorists in an ocean of seemingly disconnected data," he said.

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/12/27/22072205-new-york-federal-judge-rules-nsa-phone-surveillance-is-legal?lite

Edited December 27, 2013 by F430murci

[Scott]

US Judge Says NSA Phone Surveillance Is Lawful

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A federal judge ruled that a National Security Agency program that collects records of millions of Americans' phone calls is lawful, calling it a "counter-punch" to terrorism that does not violate Americans' privacy rights.

Friday's decision by U.S. District Judge William Pauley in Manhattan diverged from a ruling by another judge this month that questioned the program's constitutionality, raising the prospect that the Supreme Court will need to resolve the issue.

In a 54-page decision, Pauley dismissed an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit contending that the NSA collection of "bulk telephony metadata" violated the bar against warrantless searches under the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution

http://news.yahoo.com/u-judge-says-nsa-phone-data-program-lawful-163733246.html

[midas]

US Judge Says NSA Phone Surveillance Is Lawful

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A federal judge ruled that a National Security Agency program that collects records of millions of Americans' phone calls is lawful, calling it a "counter-punch" to terrorism that does not violate Americans' privacy rights.

Friday's decision by U.S. District Judge William Pauley in Manhattan diverged from a ruling by another judge this month that questioned the program's constitutionality, raising the prospect that the Supreme Court will need to resolve the issue.

In a 54-page decision, Pauley dismissed an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit contending that the NSA collection of "bulk telephony metadata" violated the bar against warrantless searches under the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution

http://news.yahoo.com/u-judge-says-nsa-phone-data-program-lawful-163733246.html

interesting to note that the first judge Richard J. Leon that said it may be unconstitutional, was appointed by George W Bush whilst Judge William Pauley was appointed by Bill Clinton. Or are we supposed to completely ignore those kinds of things?

[mumjokmok]

Mr Snowden, while being in political exile, seems to be doing a bit of a promo for surveillance technology.

One thing that you are quite used to seeing these days is that even poor people on the news are toting mobile phones. I'm sure some of them will probably buy a copy version of one of these fancy new smart watches on their way. On the news the poor people's government are always shoddy and brutal fascists compared to us. The way to bring them freedom is to help them get all the social media technology and stuff we have, connect them through grassroots and the like. Then they can be in touch with the world 24 hours a day through technology. Also a lot of big companies that make this stuff have invested for many years huge sums of money into the development and application of this technology into many many facets of human existence. Big companies liaise with huge security firms and international governments to bring them the cutting edge. Their objective is to protect the consumer and protect the people through technology.

Do you really think if they say "oh we've stopped now" that they've actually stopped? Spent what, a decade putting into practice a total clean out of the way you run surveillance and ah, counter-intelligence operations and after a skinny guy in glasses spills the beans Obama's gonna go march down into one of those underground bunkers and go "You heard the people, stop listening right now" turn around, do that Jay Z brush-dirt-off-your-shoulder thing and march outta there.

Roald Dahl was a children's writer and a spy. Edward Snowden must have scared the bejesus out of Mr Putin when he landed- "Nyet nyet. You stay in airport, we check you, you wait". (cos thats how they speak in the moofies).

[lomatopo]

NSA reportedly intercepting laptops purchased online to install spy malware

According to a new report from Der Spiegel based on internal NSA documents, the signals intelligence agency's elite hacking unit (TAO) is able to conduct sophisticated wiretaps in ways that make Hollywood fantasy look more like reality. The report indicates that the NSA, in collaboration with the CIA and FBI, routinely and secretly intercepts shipping deliveries for laptops or other computer accessories in order to implant bugs before they reach their destinations. According to Der Spiegel, the NSA's TAO group is able to divert shipping deliveries to its own "secret workshops" in a method called interdiction, where agents load malware onto the electronics or install malicious hardware that can give US intelligence agencies remote access.

To gain physical access, the NSA reportedly works with the CIA and FBI on sensitive missions that sometimes include flying NSA agents on FBI jets to plant wiretaps. "This gets them to their destination at the right time and can help them to disappear again undetected after even as little as a half hour's work," the report notes.

http://www.theverge.com/2013/12/29/5253226/nsa-cia-fbi-laptop-usb-plant-spy

[midas]

There is some very good in-depth analysis here explaining why his Honour might have been to some extent erm……………….. misled?

Judge Falls for The Big Lie About NSA Spying

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/

Edited December 30, 2013 by midas

[Credo]

Well, nothing like a credible source -- a blog. Judges listen to evidence about a point of law. They are not overly concerned about other issues.

[cloudhopper]

This article explaining how the NSA has already inserted its own code into the machine language of the BIOS that powers up all your smart phones.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-12-30/how-nsa-hacks-your-iphone-presenting-dropout-jeep

So when Snowdon revealed how every smart phone holder can be tracked that was just a small part of the capabilities the NSA has, including activating the microphone and cameras of your smart phone.

It appears that the future loss of privacy Snowdon fears has already arrived. History will judge Snowdon a hero and patriot IMO.

[midas]

Well, nothing like a credible source -- a blog. Judges listen to evidence about a point of law. They are not overly concerned about other issues.

a blog is no less credible than what do you post here? And regarding such an important issue as this everyone's opinion should be considered. Don't you think?

[Credo]

Snowden is about as much of a hero as the local weatherman. The ship has sailed and along with it privacy. If you don't like the smartphone tracking you, then how about this:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/693062-us-announces-6-test-sites-for-commercial-drones/

Let's remember, many of the photos being taken here in Thailand of the demonstration are done by drones.

A blog, by the way, is not a credible source. Bloggers should join and post their opinion just like everyone else. I don't quote another poster as my source of information.

[cloudhopper]

I don't like being surveilled in any way by the state. I certainly was not aware of the extent it was practiced and I doubt most others in the general public were either until Snowden revealed it. The ship may have sailed but it still can be sunk.

Maybe Forbes is a credible enough source -

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2013/12/30/the-nsa-reportedly-has-total-access-to-your-iphone/