How useful is “vacuum-cleaner” surveillance?
Because Alberto Gonzales won't rule out the possibility of purely domestic surveillance being conducted by the NSA, I'm very interested in the AT&T whistleblower who says that his company cooperated with the NSA to install equipment capable of "vacuum-cleaner surveillance" at their offices in San Francisco back in 2003. In other words, data mining – of ...
Because Alberto Gonzales won't rule out the possibility of purely domestic surveillance being conducted by the NSA, I'm very interested in the AT&T whistleblower who says that his company cooperated with the NSA to install equipment capable of "vacuum-cleaner surveillance" at their offices in San Francisco back in 2003. In other words, data mining - of emails, Internet traffic, and Internet phone calls. And there are apparently more installations of this kind in San Jose, LA, San Diego, and Seattle, at least that the AT&T technician, Mark Klein, has heard about. He's convinced that the NSA is sucking up all sorts of information unrelated to terrorism.
Because Alberto Gonzales won't rule out the possibility of purely domestic surveillance being conducted by the NSA, I'm very interested in the AT&T whistleblower who says that his company cooperated with the NSA to install equipment capable of "vacuum-cleaner surveillance" at their offices in San Francisco back in 2003. In other words, data mining – of emails, Internet traffic, and Internet phone calls. And there are apparently more installations of this kind in San Jose, LA, San Diego, and Seattle, at least that the AT&T technician, Mark Klein, has heard about. He's convinced that the NSA is sucking up all sorts of information unrelated to terrorism.
But it may be that the messages the NSA would like to get their hands on most aren't falling into their widely-cast nets. Per yesterday's WaPo: "When terrorist groups learned that the National Security Agency could track electronic communication only when it was in transit — not when it was sitting in an inbox — users started drafting messages in free e-mail accounts, then allowing others to log in to the accounts and read the drafts. No message ever had to be sent." Jihadist groups are also issuing "Internet safety" manuals and spyware software in order to evade surveillance.
I think it's worthwhile asking – even if an answer won't be forthcoming any time soon from intelligence officials – just how useful this data mining is. Are intelligence organizations finding just a handful of worthwhile leads, are they being foiled by tech-savvy terrorists, or are they being led on a host of useless wild goose chases before determining that the information swept up involves innocent civilians? It's been reported that, at least concerning the NSA wiretapping program, thousands are scrutizined and nearly all are cleared of any wrongdoing.
Since all of this surveillance in question involves preventing future attacks – and in particular, attacks of which we aren't yet aware – I understand the argument that there is no reason not to look at an email between Joe and Jane Q Public if there's a chance that information on a threat is there. But these nets are wide – too wide. If they aren't finding sufficient information for leads or threat prevention that they can demonstrate, there's no legal basis for probable cause – the success to failure ratio has to be better if you want to justify such enormous fishing expeditions.
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