NSA's use of 'traffic shaping' allows unrestrained spying on Americans

[EC]

 A new analysis of documents leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden details a highly classified technique that allows the National Security Agency to "deliberately divert" US internet traffic, normally safeguarded by constitutional protections, overseas in order to conduct unrestrained data collection on Americans.

According to the new analysis, the NSA has clandestine means of "diverting portions of the river of internet traffic that travels on global communications cables," which allows it to bypass protections put into place by Congress to prevent domestic surveillance on Americans.

The new findings, published Thursday, follows a 2014 paper by researchers Axel Arnbak and Sharon Goldberg, published on sister-site CBS News, which theorized that the NSA, whose job it is to produce intelligence from overseas targets, was using a "traffic shaping" technique to route US internet data overseas so that it could be incidentally collected under the authority of a largely unknown executive order.

US citizens are afforded constitutional protections against surveillance or searches of their personal data. Any time the government wants to access an American's data, they must follow the rules of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) Court, a Washington DC-based court that authorizes the government's surveillance programs.

But if that same data is collected outside the US, the bulk of the NSA's authority stems from a presidential decree dating back more than three decades.

More: http://www.zdnet.com/article/legal-loopholes-unrestrained-nsa-surveillance-on-americans/

[driftdiver]

Every email, every txt, every web site visit or post, and every phone call is recorded. 

They wont use their power to protect Americans from foreign hackers and criminals but they'll use it to spy on Americans.  A pox on every one of them.

[Fishrrman]

And this is why we need to add the following to the U.S. Constitution:
==================
Citizens protected by this Constitution possess an inalienable right to privacy in their persons, businesses, and homes, and while they are in public.

It shall be a violation of this Constitution for the United States or for the several States to violate or invade the individual privacy of citizens by use of physical, mechanical, or electronic means or by the use of devices on land, on water, below the ground, or from the air.

This protection shall extend to all lawful communications and acts by an individual citizen or between two or more citizens, including content that is spoken, written, or electronically transmitted. It shall extend to citizens regardless of their location, whether in private or in public.

The only exceptions will be as governed by the Fourth Amendment of this Constitution.

[Wingnut]

Every email, every txt, every web site visit or post, and every phone call is recorded. 

They wont use their power to protect Americans from foreign hackers and criminals but they'll use it to spy on Americans.  A pox on every one of them.

Every single day
Every word you say
Every game you play
Every night you stay
I'll be watching you.

[driftdiver]

Every single day
Every word you say
Every game you play
Every night you stay
I'll be watching you.

Turn on the red light.