NSA: Linux Journal is an "extremist forum"

[James C]

NSA: Linux Journal is an "extremist forum" and its readers get flagged for extra surveillance

A new story published on the German site Tagesschau and followed up by BoingBoing and DasErste.de has uncovered some shocking details about who the NSA targets for surveillance including visitors to Linux Journal itself.

While it has been revealed before that the NSA captures just about all Internet traffic for a short time, the Tagesschau story provides new details about how the NSA's XKEYSCORE program decides which traffic to keep indefinitely. XKEYSCORE uses specific selectors to flag traffic, and the article reveals that Web searches for Tor and Tails--software I've covered here in Linux Journal that helps to protect a user's anonymity and privacy on the Internet--are among the selectors that will flag you as "extremist" and targeted for further surveillance. If you just consider how many Linux Journal readers have read our Tor and Tails coverage in the magazine, that alone would flag quite a few innocent people as extremist.

One of the biggest questions these new revelations raise is why. Up until this point, I would imagine most Linux Journal readers had considered the NSA revelations as troubling but figured the NSA would never be interested in them personally. Now we know that just visiting this site makes you a target.

[Flash]

Wasn't Tor created by the DOD, or at least some U.S. government agency (the NSA?) for the purpose of allowing dissidents in other countries to communicate?

[neerajkolte]

Oopss, I clicked on the site now I am under surveillance.


Oh wait, I was already under surveillance, no worries.



@Flash, there are lot of things the gov made but hate to see it in commoner's hands. Why should Tor be any exception.

By gov I mean all of them US, China, India......

[slavvo67]

This is where the word Intelligence is clearly misused, not to mention the misuse of taxpayer money.

What a joke!

[RSH]

...has uncovered some shocking details about who the NSA...

I have said it earlier and say it again:

There is nothing really surprising on such stories!

Remembering Saddam Hussein and Usama Bin Laden once were treated and viewed as (some kind of) dissidents - supported by US Government and US Secret Services!

Then there was Nicaragua including Oliver North and closed Friends.

And a lot of more similar actions, so meanwhile it is turned into a huge List.

Dissidents and Detractors of other Countries and Nations have to be supported, Dissidents and Detractors of own Country and Nation have to be punished, jailed and/or killed!

See Edward Snowden (US, still alive) or Alexander Litwinenko (Russia, already dead).

Edit: And not to forget: Gustl Mollath (Germany, still alive, arrested for seven years in a psychiatric hospital, classified as mad and dangerous because he wanted to tell the truth about illegal money transfers to Switzerland, where his wife and the German HypoVereinsbank were involved. An internal report of this HypoVereinsbank confirmed all verifiable statements of Gustl Mollath and the HypoVereinsbank just kept the internal report as a secret - for several years! End of Edit

In a wider range each and every Country/Secret Service/Company is acting that way - more or less.

We need to get rid of them and after this to set them under a Life-Time-Surveillance!