Google’s gone “Glasnost”.
It has revealed how it delivers data the FBI when presented with a demand. They wanted to make clear that government agents don’t show up and actually access their servers. Google apparently does that itself, and then delivers the Court Ordered (FISA) data (after review) themselves, in order to dispel any impression of the government physically doing it themselves: No additional data is provided.
“…when Google is legally required to hand over data about its users, it usually delivers it using a file-transferring technology called secure FTP, David Drummond, Google’s chief legal officer, said in an interview on British television.” – NYT
Apparently the data is forked over by FTP (and by secure external HDD courier delivered), and that there’s no “back door” in its computers.
Google says it knew nothing about PRISM. Perhaps not the name, but it certainly knew about it in general terms in 2008.
I’m left wondering whether Google is saying this (like Sergeant Shultz), in order to present a “our hands are clean” or whether they’ve been instructed to say that. Also, how could we ever know if that’s true or not?
It’s not as if anyone can be trusted, right?
Isn’t that the whole point of those NSA (and who knows who else’s) programs?
Small wonder no one believes the government anymore.
And that line about, “No one is listening to your telephone conversations.”?
ABC News thinks differently about that: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5987804&#.Ub8W5Pmsh8H
“"Hey, check this out," Faulk says he would be told, "there's good phone sex or there's some pillow talk, pull up this call, it's really funny, go check it out. It would be some colonel making pillow talk and we would say, 'Wow, this was crazy'," Faulk told ABC News.” – ibid
To me, "pull up this call" means it was monitored and recorded, despite having nothing to do with terrorism. So, this is what they’re doing instead of looking for those terrorist “needles in a haystack”?
Makes the question “Who watches the Guards?” particularly relevant. People say, “Well there’s Congressional Oversight”. If so, where was it when that kind of eavesdropping was going on?
“The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), called the allegations "extremely disturbing" and said the committee has begun its own examination.” – ibid
Anyone ever see or hear of any results? That was 2008, by the way, not that it's any different now.
The NSA’s actions are to intelligence gathering what Abu Ghraib was to prison law. Incidentally, guess whose intelligence crews ran Abu Ghraib.
Do I believe NSA testimony? Well, do you?
“In a written statement, Gen. Alexander said: "We have been entrusted to protect and defend the nation with integrity, accountability, and respect for the law. As Americans, we take this obligation seriously. Our employees work tirelessly for the good of the nation, and serve this country proudly." ABC
Sources:
http://www.infopackets.com/news/government/2013/20130617_nsa_scandal_google_reveals_how_it_shares_your_data.htm
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/12/google-offers-some-detail-about-how-it-transfers-data-to-the-government/
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/12/technology/google-asks-to-reveal-details-about-classified-requests.html?_r=0
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5987804&#.Ub8W5Pmsh8H
http://www.naturalnews.com/040784_nsa_spying_soldiers_bill_of_rights.html