NSA infiltrated links to Yahoo, Google data centers worldwide, Snowden documents say

The National Security Agency has secretly broken into the main communications links that connect Yahoo and Google data centers around the world, according to documents obtained from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden and interviews with knowledgeable officials.

By tapping those links, the agency has positioned itself to collect at will from among hundreds of millions of user accounts, many of them belonging to Americans. The NSA does not keep everything it collects, but it keeps a lot.

According to a top secret accounting dated Jan. 9, 2013, NSA’s acquisitions directorate sends millions of records every day from Yahoo and Google internal networks to data warehouses at the agency’s Fort Meade headquarters. In the preceding 30 days, the report said, field collectors had processed and sent back 181,280,466 new records — ranging from “metadata,” which would indicate who sent or received e-mails and when, to content such as text, audio and video.

As much as I support a lot of what Obama has done, stuff like this is very, very troubling. I don't like it. He sure is taking advantage of that Patriot Act. This is not right.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-infiltrates-links-to-yahoo-google-data-centers-worldwide-snowden-documents-say/2013/10/30/e51d661e-4166-11e3-8b74-d89d714ca4dd_story.html?Post+generic=%3Ftid%3Dsm_twitter_washingtonpost

 

This is where my non-party status bodes me well. This started many years before Obama but has simply grown more and more powerful over time. I would imagine there is nothing any of us can do without being monitored. Time will tell how that information is used against people and I truly believe it already has been within our borders. How easy would it be to control politicians, business leaders, etc., when you know everything about their online, work and personal life?