Canada's spy agency tracks file-sharing websites worldwide – Snowden docs
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The Raelian Movement
for those who are not afraid of the future : http://www.rael.org
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http://rt.com/news/227159-canada-spying-download-snowden/
Canada's spy agency tracks file-sharing websites worldwide – Snowden docs
Millions of pictures, videos, and other files downloaded online globally are being watched by Canada's electronic spy agency CSE, says the latest mass surveillance report based on documents leaked by Edward Snowden.
Canada's Communications Security Establishment (CSE), an equivalent to the US National Security Agency (NSA), focuses on electronic surveillance. It can access data from over 100 global free upload sites, monitoring downloaded content in countries across Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and North America, suggests a covert operation revealed byCBC News in collaboration with The Intercept journalist Glen Greenwald.
According to documents released in 2012 and obtained by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, which were recently revealed to CBC, the project – dubbed Levitation – tracks data from 102 file-sharing websites, with popular sources such as Sendspace, Rapidshare, and the now-defunct Megaupload among them.
READ MORE: Online privacy ‘a human right’, European security body rules
"No organization has the ability/permission to trawl/search Sendspace for data," the file-hosting service told CBC News. Sendspace's policy states it won't disclose user identities unless legally required. Levitation documents say its access to databases used to track the online traffic of millions of people around the world comes from unnamed "special sources."
CSE analysts have access and sort through 10 to 15 million upload or download events daily, searching for "the interesting ones," among music, video, photo, and other files, the document says.
When scouring the file-sharing sites, spies from the Levitation program allegedly closely watch suspicious content – such as hostage videos or explosive making instructions – and then trace users' IP addresses to follow cookies and identify suspects who could be connected to extremism or terrorism. After "filtering out Glee episodes," as the presentation puts it, about 350 "interesting download events" – less than 0.0001 percent of the total collected traffic – are identified by the agency each month.
"You could be finding a terrorist, although probably much more likely you're finding a scientist, or a journalist, or a lawyer working on a case relating to some of those issues, or a student," Glenn Greenwald told CBC News.
READ MORE: 25,000 angry users: Facebook privacy class action lawsuit to be heard by European court
The discovery of a German hostage video and an uploaded document that contained the hostage strategy of an Al-Qaeda-linked terrorist organization are cited in the 2012 presentation. No other instances are mentioned, leaving it unclear if any other terrorist attacks have been prevented through intercepting and analyzing the data. The leaked document has no answers on whether Levitation is still in use or for how long it has been active.
"It's really the first time that a story has been reported that involves [CSE] as the lead agency in a program of pure mass surveillance," Greenwald said, commenting on Canada's role in international spying programs, according to the Snowden documents. Canada is part of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing network, along with the US, Britain, Australia, and New Zealand.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~WARNING FROM RAEL: For those who don't use their intelligence at its
full capacity, the label "selected by RAEL" on some articles does not
mean that I agree with their content or support it. "Selected by RAEL"
means that I believe it is important for the people of this planet to
know about what people think or do, even when what they think or do is
completely stupid and against our philosophy. When I selected articles
in the past about stupid Christian fundamentalists in America praying
for rain, I am sure no Rael-Science reader was stupid enough to believe
that I was supporting praying to change the weather. So, when I select
articles which are in favor of drugs, anti-Semitic, anti-Jewish, racist,
revisionist, or inciting hatred against any group or religion, or any
other stupid article, it does not mean that I support them. It just
means that it is important for all human beings to know about them.
Common sense, which is usually very good among our readers, is good
enough to understand that. When, like in the recent articles on drug
decriminalization, it is necessary to make it clearer, I add a comment,
which in this case was very clear: I support decriminalizing all drugs,
as it is stupid to throw depressed and sad people (as only depressed and
sad people use drugs) in prison and ruin their life with a criminal
record. That does not mean that there is any change to the Message which
says clearly that we must not use any drug except for medical purposes.
The same applies to the freedom of expression which must be absolute.
That does not mean again of course that I agree with anti-Jews,
anti-Semites, racists of any kind or anti-Raelians. But by knowing your
enemies or the enemies of your values, you are better equipped to fight
them. With love and respect of course, and with the wonderful sentence
of the French philosopher Voltaire in mind: "I disapprove of what you
say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".