Do we need the NSA?

[Rev. Rye]

If the NSA gets disbanded, then how will the U.S. Government find a way to play Stasi with its entire population?

Also, fun fact: I remember looking at an article comparing the Stasi archives with the NSA's archives. Trying for a decent apples-to-apples comparison between the Stasi's filing cabinets of files on its citizens and the digital data the NSA is willing to compile on every American citizen (and likely quite a few that aren't), they calculated that a hypothetical building for physical files on the scale they're prepared to collect would be roughly the size of Russia or South America. Regardless of whether or not there may be good points about the NSA, this is fucking disturbing.

[Sterben]

If the NSA gets disbanded, then how will the U.S. Government find a way to play Stasi with its entire population?

Also, fun fact: I remember looking at an article comparing the Stasi archives with the NSA's archives. Trying for a decent apples-to-apples comparison between the Stasi's filing cabinets of files on its citizens and the digital data the NSA is willing to compile on every American citizen (and likely quite a few that aren't), they calculated that a hypothetical building for physical files on the scale they're prepared to collect would be roughly the size of Russia or South America. Regardless of whether or not there may be good points about the NSA, this is fucking disturbing.

        Thanks the link, I'll have to read it. I'm not really shocked, all that useless data. That's a lot of animal pictures being sent to mom.

[Rev. Rye]

If the NSA gets disbanded, then how will the U.S. Government find a way to play Stasi with its entire population?

Also, fun fact: I remember looking at an article comparing the Stasi archives with the NSA's archives. Trying for a decent apples-to-apples comparison between the Stasi's filing cabinets of files on its citizens and the digital data the NSA is willing to compile on every American citizen (and likely quite a few that aren't), they calculated that a hypothetical building for physical files on the scale they're prepared to collect would be roughly the size of Russia or South America. Regardless of whether or not there may be good points about the NSA, this is fucking disturbing.

        Thanks the link, I'll have to read it. I'm not really shocked, all that useless data. That's a lot of animal pictures being sent to mom.

You know, eventually, when you get to the scale of surveillance that the NSA really wants to do, and it can easily go through the Orwellian all the way into the ludicrous, because even going beyond the morality issues of getting data of this scale from presumably innocent citizens, something of this scale is damn near impossible to justify from a logistical point of view, especially given that the bulk of the data collected will be pointless from a security point of view (and likely to cause offense from the person it's taken from) and, by that count, a huge waste of resources (from money to electricity to even water, since it uses 1.7 million gallons per day). Shit of this magnitude is damn near impossible to justify, especially at this scale.

Also, something I forgot to mention in my previous post, the Stasi's archives include jars of human scents of potential dissidents, which may have been included in the estimates of the Stasi's files, and if they did, unless they somehow managed to properly digitise human scents, and the scent files somehow ended up taking up huge amounts of disc space, even the 17 million square kilometer estimate may actually be inadequate.

[Sterben]

        Thanks the link, I'll have to read it. I'm not really shocked, all that useless data. That's a lot of animal pictures being sent to mom.

You know, eventually, when you get to the scale of surveillance that the NSA really wants to do, and it can easily go through the Orwellian all the way into the ludicrous, because even going beyond the morality issues of getting data of this scale from presumably innocent citizens, something of this scale is damn near impossible to justify from a logistical point of view, especially given that the bulk of the data collected will be pointless from a security point of view (and likely to cause offense from the person it's taken from) and, by that count, a huge waste of resources (from money to electricity to even water, since it uses 1.7 million gallons per day). Shit of this magnitude is damn near impossible to justify, especially at this scale.

Also, something I forgot to mention in my previous post, the Stasi's archives include jars of human scents of potential dissidents, which may have been included in the estimates of the Stasi's files, and if they did, unless they somehow managed to properly digitise human scents, and the scent files somehow ended up taking up huge amounts of disc space, even the 17 million square kilometer estimate may actually be inadequate.

        I knew that the data center used a lot of water to cool the servers, but I had no idea that it was that much. That's another reason they should be shut down. I doubt it will ever happen though, they will always find someway to justify their existence has an agency.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Sigint is an important part of any intelligence effort.

The need for signals intelligence is entirely separate from the abuse of the agency's capabilities. We'll always need to be able to intercept enemy communications. The trick is how to maintain that capability while we protect our rights.

[Chad32]

No. They misuse it. How do they expect to actually get anything productive done, when they bypass the warrant process and let themselves get flooded with useless information? Like trying to find a needle in a haystack, because the don't wait until they have evidence of something before pursuing action. Just a rubber stamp from the FISA court, and they take everything.

         Exactly, they waste tax payers dollars on those massive servers of data what was illegally collected. I think we all have some fucked up internet history. Hey Chad how is that midget mime on clown porn?

You'd think one of them being totally silent would detract from the experience, but somehow it enhances it.

[dyresand]

The answer with me is a mixed bag if the NSA truly did keep tabs on possible terrorists here in the US and preventing attacks
then sure. Otherwise my answer is no they collect data on everyone illegally and the CIA might as well be thrown into this conversation as well
because they are doing the same thing.

[brewer]

No. They misuse it. How do they expect to actually get anything productive done, when they bypass the warrant process and let themselves get flooded with useless information? Like trying to find a needle in a haystack, because the don't wait until they have evidence of something before pursuing action. Just a rubber stamp from the FISA court, and they take everything.

         Exactly, they waste tax payers dollars on those massive servers of data what was illegally collected. I think we all have some fucked up internet history. Hey Chad how is that midget mime on clown porn?

bold mine

What exactly was illegally collected?

[Sterben]

         Exactly, they waste tax payers dollars on those massive servers of data what was illegally collected. I think we all have some fucked up internet history. Hey Chad how is that midget mime on clown porn?

bold mine

What exactly was illegally collected?

        Data from google, Microsoft, facebook, and other sources by tapping into their private servers. (https://search.wikileaks.org/?q=NSA) they have been caught many times getting data from private tech firms and citizens. We already know key words trigger an alarm within their system, which is a cause for alarm. If one wanted to search for information on Isis, you would to be masked behind a VPN, a proxy, a virtually machine, then another proxy inside the Linux based OS, connected to Tor, and once inside Tor, you have to connect to proxy based website, after all that there is little chance they would be able to find out who is looking for info on Isis.

        That's a mouth full of steps just to get info without getting put on a watch list. Not even that is a 100% though, if you want to be as close to 100%, you would need a burner computer that has never been connected to your own home wifi. By means of public Wifi, you repeat the steps, save the documents to a flash drive. Then your a bit safer from the prying eyes of the NSA and CIA. It seems like a lot of work if your not doing any illegal, but they have no right to put people on a watch list just for trying to get info on something.

---

         Exactly, they waste tax payers dollars on those massive servers of data what was illegally collected. I think we all have some fucked up internet history. Hey Chad how is that midget mime on clown porn?

You'd think one of them being totally silent would detract from the experience, but somehow it enhances it.

       Lol. your a funny man.

[brewer]

bold mine

What exactly was illegally collected?

        Data from google, Microsoft, facebook, and other sources by tapping into their private servers. (https://search.wikileaks.org/?q=NSA) they have been caught many times getting data from private tech firms and citizens. We already know key words trigger an alarm within their system, which is a cause for alarm. If one wanted to search for information on Isis, you would to be masked behind a VPN, a proxy, a virtually machine, then another proxy inside the Linux based OS, connected to Tor, and once inside Tor, you have to connect to proxy based website, after all that there is little chance they would be able to find out who is looking for info on Isis.

        That's a mouth full of steps just to get info without getting put on a watch list. Not even that is a 100% though, if you want to be as close to 100%, you would need a burner computer that has never been connected to your own home wifi. By means of public Wifi, you repeat the steps, save the documents to a flash drive. Then your a bit safer from the prying eyes of the NSA and CIA. It seems like a lot of work if your not doing any illegal, but they have no right to put people on a watch list just for trying to get info on something.

Thanks for the link but I saw nothing about illegal activity and I'm not going to do your work. What specifically have they done that has been considered illegal by the courts (US or International)? I understand that you don't like their activities but that was not my question. They may have done many illegal things, I just don't know about them. This is your chance to educate me with some specifics.