Special Reports & Tweets - 20130621_SpecialReport_Alex
Aired: 2013-06-21
Duration: 02:50


=== Government Data Requests Revealed (02:50) ===

[00:00:00]  Tech companies tied up with the NSA's internet surveillance scandal have released government
[00:00:10]  data requests this week in an effort to maintain user trust when it comes to the handling of
[00:00:15]  their personal information.
[00:00:17]  Combined figures from Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Google total about 40,000 requests from law enforcement since December 2012.
[00:00:24]  The most common requests concern fraud, homicides, kidnappings, burglaries, and hoping to prevent a suicide.
[00:00:32]  Noticeably absent are requests concerning national security.
[00:00:35]  That's because a government gag order prevents the tech giants from releasing that information.
[00:00:40]  These figures only represent user data that was provided after being served a warrant or subpoena.
[00:00:45]  It does not represent FISA requests, which is what the NSA uses as part of the PRISM program.
[00:00:51]  According to numbers from the Boundless Informant Program, these figures are 100,000 times less than the 3 billion pieces of data mined from U.S.
[00:01:00]  servers in March alone.
[00:01:01]  According to leaked PRISM slides, the government has direct access to server systems.
[00:01:06]  But one tech CEO said that would be impossible unless the government had breached the servers.
[00:01:11]  Now, Obama referred to the NSA receiving metadata in bulk.
[00:01:15]  He said the bits of information called were telephone numbers, a location, and the duration of the phone call, assuring that there was no names or no content in the database.
[00:01:25]  But if there is no content in the database, then how does the FBI retroactively gain access to the content of your phone calls?
[00:01:33]  It was not a voicemail, it was just a conversation.
[00:01:36]  There's no way they actually could find out what happened, right?
[00:01:38]  Unless she tells them.
[00:01:40]  No, there is a way.
[00:01:41]  We certainly have ways in national security investigations to find out exactly what was said in that conversation.
[00:01:48]  Welcome to America.
[00:01:50]  All of that stuff is being captured as we speak, whether we know it or like it or not.
[00:01:55]  NSA whistleblower William Binney spoke of an even earlier surveillance tool in a recent interview with Democracy Now!
[00:02:02]  The nearest devices that they deployed starting, I think, around 2003 onto the fiber optic networks were capturing the emails and voice over IP, and that was being stored.
[00:02:12]  That's why you have to build places like Bluffdale in Utah, that's a big storage facility, because they're collecting so much data.
[00:02:19]  The content is really the bulk that needs to be, that they're storing.
[00:02:23]  Now Benny went on to say that the content collected on the fiber optic lines only represented about 80% of what's on the internet.
[00:02:30]  But by going to the tech company's servers, the NSA is able to fill in the holes and get a complete picture of what is actually on the internet.
[00:02:39]  All that data will be stored in the Utah Spy Center, which Benny says will hold up to 500 years worth of all the world's communication.
[00:02:47]  And its main focus will be analysis and code breaking.