Is mass surveillance via tech actually happening?

I'm not entirely sure where this thread fits best, though I'm assuming there are enough tech-savvy folks here to make it worth posting.

From what I gather, pretty much every smartphone has GPS built in, and even when you think it's turned off, it seems like anyone with the right connections—probably agencies like the NSA and their ilk—could track your exact movements.

If my memory serves me right, Ronald Reagan, acting through the National Security Council, pushed for keeping internet history data archived for five years back in the day.

I wonder if things have escalated to the point where someone, maybe at a provider like AT&T, could actually see exactly what I was searching for on Google at 8 this morning?

boldbadger20 said:I’m not entirely sure where this thread is headed, but since I figure there are plenty of tech-savvy people hanging out here, I thought I’d drop this question in this section.

From what I gather, every decent smartphone comes with GPS, and even if you turn it off, anyone with the right connections—think the NSA or similar agencies—could probably track your every move.

If my memory serves, back when Ronald Reagan was heading up the National Security Council, there were mandates to keep internet history data stored for five years.

Does that actually go that deep? Like, does someone at AT&T have access to see exactly WHAT I was Googling at 8:00 this morning?

If you’re actually on the intelligence community's radar, they’ve got way more than just your Google search history.
If you aren't interesting to them, they won't bother. There’s just too much raw data to track every single person.

wiredcanyon94 said:If you're actually on the intelligence community's radar, they probably know way more than just your Google search history.
And if you aren't interesting to them, then I guess they don't care about that either. There's just too much data out there to track everyone.

I get that.

But, I suppose if there were a reason to, could someone actually request what was searched from my IP address on, say, May 15, 2015?

So, I guess that's technically possible?

Anything is possible!

boldbadger20 said:I get it.

But if there’s a legitimate reason, can someone actually request what was being searched from my IP address on, say, May 15, 2015?

So, it’s actually possible?

Sure you can. ISPs keep logs for a set period, and honestly, they're legally required to.
And if you happen to catch the attention of some intelligence agency, those logs are going to be kept even more carefully.

boldbadger20 said:As far as I know, any decent smartphone comes with GPS, and even if you turn it off, anyone watching—primarily federal agencies like the NSA and similar outfits—can still track your movement.

It isn't just about GPS, though. GPS is mainly for pinpointing your location; the phone still has to broadcast that data through a network, whether it's Wi-Fi or cellular towers.

When you look at major organizations and how they monitor the web, you have to consider XKeyscore:

XKeyscore or XKEYSCORE (abbreviated as XKS) is a formerly secret computer system first used by the NSA for searching and analyzing global Internet data, which it collects on a daily basis.

You can find more info on this Wikipedia link.

Through a system like that, they can monitor almost everything happening online because so much of our data flows right through their servers.

Here is the link to the XKeyscore PDF presentation:

There is also the User Guide:

Link User Guide.pdf

Marked as Top Secret 😎 😁 😁

To put it simply, if it exists digitally, it can be hacked. We aren't just talking about federal agencies; any entity with enough technical expertise could pull it off. Ultimately, everything boils down to one thing: how much data you have and how badly someone wants it.

I mean, if you’re running a network with like 1,000 users—think along the lines of a mid-sized regional ISP or something—then yeah, the workload definitely starts to ramp up a bit...