Tuesday, May 05, 2015

NSA LISTENING TO YOU THROUGH YOUR PHONES, COMPUTERS AND DEVICES, CONVERTING SPOKEN WORDS INTO SEARCHABLE TEXT


From the Intercept:
Most people realize that emails and other digital communications they once considered private can now become part of their permanent record. But even as they increasingly use apps that understand what they say, most people don’t realize that the words they speak are not so private anymore, either. 
Top-secret documents from the archive of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden show the National Security Agency can now automatically recognize the content within phone calls by creating rough transcripts and phonetic representations that can be easily searched and stored. 
The documents show NSA analysts celebrating the development of what they called “Google for Voice” nearly a decade ago. Though perfect transcription of natural conversation apparently remains the Intelligence Community’s “holy grail,” the Snowden documents describe extensive use of keyword searching as well as computer programs designed to analyze and “extract” the content of voice conversations, and even use sophisticated algorithms to flag conversations of interest. 
The documents include vivid examples of the use of speech recognition in war zones like Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as in Latin America. But they leave unclear exactly how widely the spy agency uses this ability, particularly in programs that pick up considerable amounts of conversations that include people who live in or are citizens of the United States. 
Spying on international telephone calls has always been a staple of NSA surveillance, but the requirement that an actual person do the listening meant it was effectively limited to a tiny percentage of the total traffic. 
By leveraging advances in automated speech recognition, the NSA has entered the era of bulk listening. And this has happened with no apparent public oversight, hearings or legislative action. Congress hasn’t shown signs of even knowing that it’s going on.

3 comments:

midnight rider said...

How long have I been ranting about this?!?! How many years!!!

The only way to stop it is to kill the power. UNPLUG your computer and super duper teevee. REMOVE the battery from your cellphone. Because they can turn them on/activate them remotely.

And not just yours they can listen to you from ANY nearby phone etc.

Big brother hasn't arrived. It has been here for many years.

Pastorius said...

Yep.

The only good thing is they don't care about you ...

UNTIL.

midnight rider said...

Oh, so I needn't worry about the drones, black helicopters and the suits in big dark SUVs talking into their collars I keep seeing in my neighborhood...