Lawmakers pledge hearing, oversight after NSA broke privacy rules NEW: White House: Audit shows NSA's efforts to find, address privacy violations NEW: NSA admits "mistakes" do occur, insists most are quickly addressed Washington Post counts 2,776 incidents -- violations of rules of court orders on surveillanceCongressional leaders express concern about mistakes, call for more oversight Washington (CNN) -- The National Security Agency spent Friday on the defensive, after details got out about an internal audit that found the agency had broken privacy rules "thousands of times each year" since 2008. The audit was first reported by the Washington Post on Thursday, setting off another round of heated discussion -- and criticism -- in Washington over how the NSA had wrongly impinged on Americans' privacy. "I ... will continue to demand honest and forthright answers from the intelligence community," said Sen. "No one at NSA thinks a mistake is OK," DeLong said several times in the call, which a spokesman said was conducted to "address inaccuracies." Army Pvt.
Privacy groups, libertarians rail against NSA spying Many libertarians, outraged by how our government spies on us, call me a "traitor" because I'm not very angry. I understand that the National Security Administration tracking patterns in our emails and phone calls could put us on a terrible, privacy-crushing slippery slope. But we're not there yet. Some perspective: We are less closely watched by government than citizens of other countries. There are about 3,000 government security cameras around New York City, but London has 500,000. Some people in London love that, believing that the extra surveillance deters crime and catches terrorists. "These cameras reveal very private information — where you go, who you go there with," she said. She says that loss of privacy doesn't even make us safer. "It isn't necessarily how we found the Boston Marathon bomber. But "no crime" is too much to demand. It does make a difference if cameras are controlled by a city government or a private department store. — It spends your money on corporate welfare.
Explore the National Security Agency (NSA) Explore NSA The National Security Agency (NSA) is a world leader in the protection and exploitation of intelligence. We gather and analyze foreign intelligence to produce vital information for U.S. policy makers and warfighters. At the Nation’s top cryptologic organization, you can work with the best and brightest, using your intelligence to solve some of the Nation’s most difficult challenges. Advancing Intelligence Imagine working with technology so advanced that it won’t become available to the commercial world for many years. Early interest in cryptanalytic research led to the first large-scale computer and the first solid-state computer, predecessors to the modern computer. The NSA Mission NSA is responsible for carrying out two of the country’s most important and sensitive intelligence activities – Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) and Information Assurance (IA). The Baltimore/Washington DC area offers a wealth of cultural amenities and lifestyle advantages.
NSA surveillance: tech companies demand sweeping changes to US laws | World news The world's leading technology companies have united to demand sweeping changes to US surveillance laws, urging an international ban on bulk collection of data to help preserve the public's “trust in the internet”. In their most concerted response yet to disclosures by the National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo, LinkedIn, Twitter and AOL have published an open letter to Barack Obama and Congress on Monday, throwing their weight behind radical reforms already proposed by Washington politicians. “The balance in many countries has tipped too far in favour of the state and away from the rights of the individual – rights that are enshrined in our constitution,” urges the letter signed by the eight US-based internet giants. “This undermines the freedoms we all cherish. It’s time for change.” “We understand that governments have a duty to protect their citizens,” they say in the letter.