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title: ""The NSA says it only banks the communications of "targeted"…"
date: 2019-04-20
source: facebook
type: Archer T. Ships shared a link.
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# "The NSA says it only banks the communications of "targeted"…

*April 20, 2019 · Facebook*

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[https://boingboing.net/2014/07/03/if-you-read-boing-boing-the-n.html](https://boingboing.net/2014/07/03/if-you-read-boing-boing-the-n.html){target="_blank"}
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\"The NSA says it only banks the communications of \"targeted\" individuals. Guess what? If you follow a search-engine link to Boing Boing\'s articles about Tor and Tails, you\'ve been targeted. Cory Doctorow digs into Xkeyscore and the NSA\'s deep packet inspection rules.\
In a shocking story on the German site Tagesschau (Google translate), Lena Kampf, Jacob Appelbaum and John Goetz report on the rules used by the NSA to decide who is a \"target\" for surveillance.\
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Since the start of the Snowden story in 2013, the NSA has stressed that while it may intercept nearly every Internet user\'s communications, it only \"targets\" a small fraction of those, whose traffic patterns reveal some basis for suspicion. Targets of NSA surveillance don\'t have their data flushed from the NSA\'s databases on a rolling 48-hour or 30-day basis, but are instead retained indefinitely.\
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The authors of the Tagesschau story have seen the \"deep packet inspection\" rules used to determine who is considered to be a legitimate target for deep surveillance, and the results are bizarre.\
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According to the story, the NSA targets anyone who searches for online articles about Tails \-- like this one that we published in April, or this article for teens that I wrote in May \-- or Tor (The Onion Router, which we\'ve been posted about since 2004). Anyone who is determined to be using Tor is also targeted for long-term surveillance and retention.\"\
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[https://boingboing.net/2014/07/03/if-you-read-boing-boing-the-n.html](https://boingboing.net/2014/07/03/if-you-read-boing-boing-the-n.html){target="_blank"}
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