The CIA Is Giving It's Surveillance Tech Secrets To The U.S. Justice Department To Spy On Americans

Wall Street Journal: CIA Aided Program to Spy on U.S. Cellphones

Marshals Service uses airborne devices that mimic cell towers to scan data on thousands of cellphones

WASHINGTON—The Central Intelligence Agency played a crucial role in helping the Justice Department develop technology that scans data from thousands of U.S. cellphones at a time, part of a secret high-tech alliance between the spy agency and domestic law enforcement, according to people familiar with the work.

The CIA and the U.S. Marshals Service, an agency of the Justice Department, developed technology to locate specific cellphones in the U.S. through an airborne device that mimics a cellphone tower, these people said.

Today, the Justice Department program, whose existence was reported by The Wall Street Journal last year, is used to hunt criminal suspects. The same technology is used to track terror suspects and intelligence targets overseas, the people said.

More News On Reports That the CIA Gave Surveillance Tech Secrets To The U.S. Justice Department To Spy On Americans

CIA Aided Program to Spy on U.S. Cellphones -- WSJ
CIA aided domestic phone spying -- The Hill
CIA reportedly helped Justice Department develop technology to access cell phone data -- FOX News
CIA Gave Cops Secret Technology to Spy on Cell Phones -- Sputnik
CIA, US Marshals engaged in domestic phone spying – report -- RT
CIA Helped Justice Department Develop Technology To Secretly Slurp Thousands Of Cellphone Data At Once -- Tech Times
The CIA is giving its surveillance tech to US law enforcement -- Endgadget
CIA secretly helped build phone scanning tech for US operations -- ZDNet

Canada's Spy Agency Tracks All File-Sharing Websites Worldwide

CBC: CSE tracks millions of downloads daily: Snowden documents

Global sites for sharing movies, photos, music targeted in mass anti-terror surveillance

WNU Editor: I live in Canada .... and I am not surprised by this revelation. As everyone knows this blog covers conflicts/terrorism/wars/and defense related issues .... and yes .... I sometimes wonder if the "powers that be" are snooping on the work and research that I do for this blog (I am always assuming that they do). But as my lawyer told me years ago .... if you do nothing wrong and you are innocent .... there is no reason to worry. I have no reason to worry .... but this type of surveillance still annoys me .... because it is not how I envisioned the internet was going to be when I started to explore commercial possibilities on the web in the early 1990s.

More News On Canada's Spy Agency Tracking All File-Sharing Websites Worldwide

Canada Casts Global Surveillance Dragnet Over File Downloads -- The Intercept
Snowden files show Canada spy agency runs global Internet watch -CBC -- Reuters
Canadian spies scoured file-sharing sites to track jihadis, document show -- Globe and Mail
Canada's spy agency tracks file-sharing websites worldwide – Snowden docs -- RT
Canada's digital spies are watching what you download -- Endgadget
Canadian Spies Monitor Millions of International File Downloads Daily -- Gizmodo
Cyber surveillance worries most Canadians: privacy czar's poll -- CBC

The Rise Of The Surveillance State In England

Vice News: In Wake of Paris Attacks, David Cameron Calls For New Powers to Break Encrypted Communications

WNU Editor: To impose and enforce such a ban on apps .... while running a massive bureaucracy dedicated to surveillance .... this is a nightmare situation that (1) will not work because it cannot be enforced, (2) punish the innocent and those who are dependent on such technologies, and (3) destroy any expectation of privacy.

More News On PM Cameron's Proposals To Expand The U.K.'s Surveillance Laws

Britain debates whether security agencies need increased surveillance powers -- Washington Post
David Cameron: Empower U.K. Spies to Read All Communications -- The Atlantic
David Cameron: If government can't snoop on it, you shouldn't be allowed to use it -- CNN
Privacy Groups Pan Cameron’s Encryption Proposals as Unworkable -- WSJ
U.K. PM Backpedals On ‘Encryption Ban’, Sort Of -- Tech Crunch
Whatsapp and Snapchat Could be Banned Under Cameron's New Surveillance Laws -- Newsweek
WhatsApp, iMessage face ban in terror crackdown -- CNBC
Cameron threat to block WhatsApp and Snapchat in battle against terror to stop fanatics using encrypted messaging -- Daily Mail
UK Prime Minister Wants to Ban Messaging Apps Without Backdoor Access -- Gizmodo
David Cameron's web spying proposals are terrifying - here's why -- Olivia Solon, Mirror
David Cameron preying on our fears after Charlie Hebdo massacre with encryption ban calls -- David Gilbert, IBTimes
David Cameron in 'cloud cuckoo land' over encrypted messaging apps ban -- The Guardian

The Chinese Invest Big To Spy On Their Own Citizens

China launched the second-generation Gaofen-2 satellite on Tuesday, 19 August 2014. (Credit: China Great Wall Industry Corporation)

China Shows Off Surveillance Prowess Of New Satellite -- SBS/L.A. Times

Chinese authorities says the country’s extensive terrestrial surveillance network helps to deter crime and maintain “social stability,” though critics say it constitutes an invasion of privacy and is often deployed to monitor dissidents.

China has spent billions of dollars to build a nationwide surveillance network - by one 2013 estimate, the country had 30 million surveillance cameras in parks, on highways and even in taxis.

Now, there’s a very powerful eye in the sky that allows authorities to keep tabs on things: the Gaofen-1 satellite, which is capturing high-resolution images from 300 miles above the Earth.

Analysis of images captured by Gaofen-1 have enabled Chinese police to find fields of opium poppy and marijuana in northern China and uncover dozens of routes used by smugglers at the border with North Korea and along the frontier in the restive Xinjiang region, the official New China News Agency reported Monday.

Read more ....

My Comment:The Chinese went camera crazy about 5 years ago .... I guess this is just a further extension of how much of a surveillance state that the government wants.

Every Government Can Now Track Where Cellphone Users Go Around The Globe

Dado Ruvic, Reuters

For Sale: Systems That Can Secretly Track Where Cellphone Users Go Around The Globe -- Washington Post

Makers of surveillance systems are offering governments across the world the ability to track the movements of almost anybody who carries a cellphone, whether they are blocks away or on another continent.

The technology works by exploiting an essential fact of all cellular networks: They must keep detailed, up-to-the-minute records on the locations of their customers to deliver calls and other services to them. Surveillance systems are secretly collecting these records to map people’s travels over days, weeks or longer, according to company marketing documents and experts in surveillance technology.

Read more ....

My Comment: So much for privacy and anonymity.

WNU Editor: Here's how cellphone tracking works.

Who Is On America's Secret Terrorist-Tracking System/Watchlist

Barack Obama’s Secret Terrorist-Tracking System, By The Numbers -- By Jeremy Scahill and Ryan Devereaux, The Intercept

Nearly half of the people on the U.S. government’s widely shared database of terrorist suspects are not connected to any known terrorist group, according to classified government documents obtained by The Intercept.

Of the 680,000 people caught up in the government’s Terrorist Screening Database—a watchlist of “known or suspected terrorists” that is shared with local law enforcement agencies, private contractors, and foreign governments—more than 40 percent are described by the government as having “no recognized terrorist group affiliation.” That category—280,000 people—dwarfs the number of watchlisted people suspected of ties to al Qaeda, Hamas, and Hezbollah combined.

Read more ....

My Comment: Wow .... that is a lot of terrorists and/or terrorist sympathizers to watch.

Anti-Surveillance Camouflage Is Becoming The Newest Trend

Examples of CV dazzle makeup from Adam Harvey’s “Look Book.” (More here.)

Anti-Surveillance Camouflage for Your Face -- Robinson Meyer, The Atlantic

In a world of increasingly sophisticated facial-recognition technology, a drastic technique can throw the machines off your trail.

The NSA made me slather my face in make-up.

Or, it didn’t make me, exactly. But last spring, I found myself wandering around D.C., wearing dazzle camouflage for the first time. It was a sunny Saturday, the capital swamp neither frigid nor muggy-oppressive—perfect for walking. It took me 45 minutes to get all the makeup on, to get the pencil right and the hair dangled just so.

I spent the day hanging out with some friends around Adams Morgan, a neighborhood seemingly developed by former hippies who had gone into non-profit C-suites or opened boutique restaurant-bars. I told my friends why my face had splotches of dark makeup on it but didn’t say much to anyone else, and that’s when the looks began.

Read more ....

My Comment: I do not know if it will catch on as a trend .... but it is definitely an attention grabber.