Allow me to be surprised this time, I don't see much new here, compared to what we already saw about Prism (all the slides). Maybe the only thing newsworthy this time is that additional documents confirm that Prism exist?
I applaud this article of course, as it gives less chance for unnatural interpretations of the slides that we saw by pro-status-quo writers ("it's not really a direct access") -- now we have additional confirmations it's a "query API" access and a "start real time monitoring" access.
Unrelated, I'm impressed with the absolutely perfect timing for an article on the day when Microsoft presents the new reorg. Heh.
My question remains can anybody recognize something otherwise new here?
I think the confirmation that NSA and FBI have direct and unfettered access to all communication streams, is pretty huge. As you say, all calm-down-dear interpretations are now proven false. We are facing the worst possible scenario.
If you haven't seen the Binney video made in 2012 by the same author that made the Snowden video, first note the date the video was published, then watch it.
Then try to identify the claims already public to those that watched the video then which most of us first became aware of just now by following the story about Snowden.
For me it starts around 3:20. A lot of it was presented before Snowden but almost nobody noticed.
The "nobody noticed" part is key -- documents carry more weight than statements made by whistleblowers. Whistleblowers can be discredited in the public eye more easily than documents.
I haven't read the article yet, but if what I'm gathering from the comments is true, what's new here is that Microsoft has been caught in a lie to the public and their shareholders.
Technically they didn't lie, they said they complied to the court orders. I'd say our real worry should be the secret orders and what they demand, not the companies that obey to them? But what's really true is that companies' "denials" were carefully crafted to give the impression that there isn't any API-level access, even if they didn't claim that, and now we have more confirmations that they give it that way and I'm sure Google isn't different in that aspect.
Also note that the "official client" is FBI, so MS can claim they don't know that NSA accesses the data of US citizens. But that "there will be more interagency sharing and cooperation" was publicly announced by G W Bush soon after 9/11.
I applaud this article of course, as it gives less chance for unnatural interpretations of the slides that we saw by pro-status-quo writers ("it's not really a direct access") -- now we have additional confirmations it's a "query API" access and a "start real time monitoring" access.
Unrelated, I'm impressed with the absolutely perfect timing for an article on the day when Microsoft presents the new reorg. Heh.
My question remains can anybody recognize something otherwise new here?