We ALL Do It: 'French PRISM' revealed: All communications tracked, metadata collected

[kpete]

'French PRISM' revealed: All communications tracked, metadata collected
Published time: July 04, 2013 15:40
Edited time: July 04, 2013 17:34


The French external intelligence agency spies on French citizen’s phone calls, emails and social media activity and web use, the Le Monde newspaper has reported.

France’s external intelligence agency the DGSE, intercepts signals from computers and telephones in France and between France and other countries in order to get a pictures of who is talking to whom, although, apparently, they do not randomly spy on the content of phone calls, the daily revealed on Thursday.

Emails, text messages, telephone records, access to Facebook and Twitter are stored for years. “All of our communications are spied on,” read the article quoting unnamed sources in the intelligence services as well as remarks made publicly by intelligence officials.

The DGSE allegedly stores the metadata from private communications in a basement under its Paris headquarters. All of France’s seven other intelligence services have access to the data and can tap into it freely as a means to spot people's suspicious communications. Individuals can then be targeted by more intrusive techniques such as phone-tapping, it was reported.



MORE:
http://rt.com/news/france-spying-nsa-citizens-672/

[dkf]

1. Power corrupts.

[sibelian]

2. Utterly disgusting.

What are the French going to say?

[truedelphi]

3. However, the other nations spend about 10% as much of their time, resources,

Personnel Et cetera as the USA does.

This matters.

If it is true, as Steve Lesser pointed out in a post yesterday, that Germany plans on spending some 130 millons of dollars over the next five years, the big problem is that the USA spends that much in a month. The government just completed a facility in Utah that has several buildings whose total space is equivalent to that of five Capital Buildings.

Much of the 1.2 trillion dollar budget that that goes annually to the Military and Defense
organizations is being converted to use for Surveillance. In a nation where our
infra-structure, including bridges and roads is crumbling around us, where school districts have half as much in their local budgets as two years ago, where fire districts are closing down their fire houses, the American people are being impoverished for the sake of the Secret Police/STASI forces, who will be using some of this information to imprison many of us.

Meanwhile the real criminal element, is busy laundering violent drug cartel monies on Wall Street, is going free, and buying for itself yet another set of young, moldable politicians..

[Fumesucker]

4. If all your friends jumped off a cliff would you jump too?

By which I mean just because the French or anyone and everyone else is doing it does not make it OK.

[jeff47]

9. No, what it does is demonstrate that the EU freaking out

over Snowden's leaks is massively hypocritical.

[leveymg]

5. It would be interesting to learn what they're spending and what companies they buy their

stuff from - probably spend a lot less for the much of the same stuff.

We're #1!!!!!! (in procurement spending).

[KoKo]

6. Good point. Are they working with us? Using the same Contractors?

Are they storing the information like NSA is...and if so where? Could the EU members be doing this in cooperation with each other or individually.

I'd hate to think that there might be the same Private Contractors involved...but, there's so much going on with Globilization and Multinational Companies...that it would seem worth asking the question.

[ljm2002]

7. We've already seen that the US and UK exchange info...

...for example, the NSA has 200 or so analysts posted at GBCHQ (I think that's the acronym) where the Brits collect info, like at our NSA.

I'm thinking that at least close allies use each others' troves of information to get around their own laws against spying on their own citizens.

I have zero direct evidence for this but I would bet it happens.

So anyway: this shows many of the countries who are howling about the NSA surveillance are being hypocritical (whether or not my theory about information sharing is correct).

On the other hand, I am very happy this stuff is coming to light.

[OilemFirchen]

8. That's the last straw!

I'm only going to freedom kiss my girlfriend from now on.