[liberationtech] Boundless Informant: the NSA's secret tool to track global surveillance data

[Jacob Appelbaum]

Yosem Companys:
> The distinction between direct or indirect access is semantic, not
> substantive, and likely irrelevant to most Americans.  What Americans want
> to know is whether there is access to their personal data, and I would bet
> focus groups would show that's the key takeaway of this incident.

Indeed.

> 
> As I said, a recent NY Times article spoke specifically of the embedding of
> NSA employees at US tech firms via firms' corporate legal departments, and
> we know how it happened at AT&T, with the employee getting cart blanche to
> do whatever he wanted at the firm and take as much data as he wanted with
> no questions asked.

The word stasi comes to mind with this kind of DIRECT ACCESS. The
server, taps and likely API itself are almost irrelevant details when we
consider HUMAN INFILTRATION as part of the NSA strategy.

Land of the free... refill?

All the best,
Jacob