Obama knew CIA secretly monitored intelligence committee, Sen. Udall claims

[Octafish]

50. Transparency must mean something other than what I thought it meant.

Tech company “transparency reports” reveal massive NSA spying

By Thomas Gaist
5 February 2014

Major US telecommunications companies released figures this week showing that the National Security Agency has requested data relating to tens of thousands of customer accounts in just the first half of last year. The release of the “transparency reports” was part of an agreement reached with the Obama administration allowing limited disclosures of information about the massive police-state spying apparatus.

The accounts spied on were targeted as part of the NSA’s PRISM surveillance program, which has been in operation since 2007. Using PRISM, the spy agency obtains orders from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to require telecommunications companies to turn over information. PRISM came to the attention of the public as a result of documents provided by NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden.

Slides released by Snowden show that PRISM collects email, chat (voice and video), video, photos, stored data, file transfers, video conference data, notifications of target activity and online social networking details from a range of providers including Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Facebook, PalTalk, YouTube, Skype, AOL, and Apple.

Yahoo said it turned over information on between 30,000 and 30,999 accounts between January and June 2013. Facebook reported 5,000-5,999 requests. Microsoft reported 15,000 to 15,999, and Google reported 9,000-9,999. The figures released by the company show a steady increase over the past several years.

These figures cover only a small aspect of the convoluted network of spy programs. The information released is subject to a six-month delay imposed by the government on all disclosures of data requests.

SNIP...

For their part, the tech companies view surveillance as a public relations problem. They have never sought an end to the surveillance, and in fact cooperate closely with the state to facilitate bulk data collection. They are sowing the illusion that measures are being implemented to protect privacy and transparency, while continuing to facilitate spying operations against the population.

CONTINUED...

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/02/05/nsad-f05.html

Oh. I get it! Transparency is part of Opposite Day ritual.