I have been with my head under a rock lately and don't know much about this NSA stuff. So please enlighten me: is there hard proof that all or some of your SkyDrive/GoogleDrive/... documents are passed directly to the NSA? Also if you're outside the US?
It has been stated that all data - this includes SkyDrive or GoogleDrive files - is available for government agencies if a warrant is issued.
In the case of being outside the US, it has been stated that the warrant is not necessary, and any communications or data between US and non US citizens is also fair game.
There is also speculation that the NSA is legally allowed access to any data transfers going through peering points out of the US, and that internal US traffic can be diverted specifically to allow this to occur.
SkyDrive in particular is very likely to be sharing this information as any link placed into a document in SkyDrive is visited by Microsoft, and any pornography or other 'invalid' content is deleted from SkyDrive. This implies Microsoft must keep records of all files you store there and the likely content of those files, and that 'metadata' appears to be freely available for law enforcement in the USA through the PRISM and similar programs.
EDIT: In addition, it is believed that the NSA pays Microsoft for access to Skype communications, and one would assume that they would also pay for access to SkyDrive data.
It's even worse than what RyanZAG mentions
http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/court-record...
They themselves alert authorities for stuff that might be breaking the law (and they are apparently required to by the law, so the other big guys do it too)
Comments
I have been with my head under a rock lately and don't know much about this NSA stuff. So please enlighten me: is there hard proof that all or some of your SkyDrive/GoogleDrive/... documents are passed directly to the NSA? Also if you're outside the US?
It has been stated that all data - this includes SkyDrive or GoogleDrive files - is available for government agencies if a warrant is issued.
In the case of being outside the US, it has been stated that the warrant is not necessary, and any communications or data between US and non US citizens is also fair game.
There is also speculation that the NSA is legally allowed access to any data transfers going through peering points out of the US, and that internal US traffic can be diverted specifically to allow this to occur.
SkyDrive in particular is very likely to be sharing this information as any link placed into a document in SkyDrive is visited by Microsoft, and any pornography or other 'invalid' content is deleted from SkyDrive. This implies Microsoft must keep records of all files you store there and the likely content of those files, and that 'metadata' appears to be freely available for law enforcement in the USA through the PRISM and similar programs.
EDIT: In addition, it is believed that the NSA pays Microsoft for access to Skype communications, and one would assume that they would also pay for access to SkyDrive data.
hmm. still a lot of "speculation/likely/...".
But no matter what, this is f*cked beyond recognition
There is also speculation that....is very likely...and that 'metadata' appears to be....it is believed....and one would assume...
Thanks for the concrete feedback. I was wondering for a sec if this was just blatant fear-mongering and imagination stretching.
Oh come on. Please, the documents Snowden revealed, if true, show all of the parents comments to accurate and with no need to be hedged by "appears".
It's even worse than what RyanZAG mentions http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/court-record... They themselves alert authorities for stuff that might be breaking the law (and they are apparently required to by the law, so the other big guys do it too)