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In spite of denials of working with the NSA, the NY Times says both Google and Facebook were in discussions with the NSA and planning to offer an improved way of sharing information with the NSA.

Whether that meant direct or indirect access or something else is not clear from the news report.

via PRISM: Google and Facebook DID allow NSA access to data and were in talks to set up ‘spying rooms’ despite denials by Zuckerberg and Page over controversial project | Mail Online.

My main point in covering this topic is the loss of trust and reputation harm to cloud-based companies caused by the NSA scandal. Until such time as security for user data can be improved and clarified for the customer, the security of cloud-based services is definitely in doubt. And as I said previously, this will impact international customer usage of U.S. based cloud services.

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This is where things are headed:

“Why don’t they simply ban the American companies”

via Can the United States help locate lost songs’ – The Times of India.

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Which means it may falsely identify thousands of people as potential terrorists for each actual terrorist found.

The article points out to the similarity between the use of sensitivity and specificity terminology common in medical testing. A test that is highly sensitive is likely to have many false positives; a test that is highly specific is likely to miss potential positives. (One of many things I learned in my OHSU medical informatics grad courses – not shown on my resume.)

Ethics Aside, Is NSA’s Spy Tool Efficient? – WSJ.com.

But there are too many unknowns in the NSA process for anyone to come up with a figure that is meaningful. But it could very well be many thousands of false positives for each actual terrorist threat. It may not be particularly cost effective – as pointed out by another writer, tens of thousands of people are killed annually in car crashes – and I think he said about 17 are killed in terror attacks. There seems to be a disconnect between cost-benefit ratio.

Related articles

• Data Mining, PRISM, NSA & False Positives: Update (wmbriggs.com)
• Do the Numbers Behind Prism Add Up? (blogs.wsj.com)
• How likely is the NSA PRISM program to catch a terrorist? (bayesianbiologist.com)
• White suburban soccer moms love NSA surveillance! (salon.com)
• How To Write About NSA Spying – A Style Guide For Authoritarians (notthesingularity.com)

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“I think we need to do a better job of explaining to the American people exactly what is kept, what are the real restrictions on how—I’m just talking now for DHS, Department of Homeland Security–how we use it, how long we can keep it, how we share it, all those things,” she explained.

via Janet Napolitano Denies Existence of ‘Orwellian State’ | Politicker.

These are the sorts of questions you should ask anyone that is gathering your information, even the local store that asks for personal data.

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