US spy chief Clapper defends Prism and phone surveillance

[Jan Klimkowski]

Another lie exposed.

Allegedly your mobile can be located even when it's turned off.

There's No Hiding from the NSA

Submitted by Pivotfarm on 07/25/2013 14:13 -0400

Follow ZeroHedge in Real-Time on FinancialJuice

If you really do want to have every single trace of you lost, then you might like to think about living under ground for the rest of your life, or up a mountain in Outer Mongolia. The chances are that you will be found anyhow. It turns out that the National Security Agency of the US can actually locate your cell phone even when it has been turned off and is no longer emitting a signal.

It was previously believed by people that you could only locate the last emitted signal and if turned off, then that signal was lost. Your last known whereabouts could only be found. Now, it seems that that's not true. In Back-to-the Future-Flash-Gordon style, the NSA has gone beyond the bounds of technology, pushed the boat all the way out and they can find us even when you power down your phone. Is there no peace for the wicked, honestly? An even less peace for the honest, wickedly!

Are our everyday lives so interesting that I have to be monitored by the NSA? Says quite a lot for their own existence, doesn't it? Either they are just enjoying the voyeurism of listening into my conversations or eavesdropping on my texts when I write something like "hey, where are you?" or "Be home soon, honey", or they really do have nothing else to do.

Are my texts that interesting to the NSA?

The NSA had developed what they call The Find' by 2004, in the wake of growing anxiety over 9/11 and terrorism. The device enabled the locating of people via their mobile phones even when they were turned off. Normally, the phone loses the connection to the grid and when turned off it's impossible to locate it. By 2006 in addition, it was also stated that the FBI was able to infect mobile phones with spyware viruses that allowed them to be located when turned off.

We will all remember when journalists were asked by Edward Snowden to turn their phones off and then put them in the fridge. Very James Bond-007-treatment, don't you think? But, Mr. Snowden, that wouldn't have done very much apart from keep them in a cool place for storage. Blackberry was the target in the United Arab Emirates in 2009 of the fake update that was in fact a spyware virus. Are we sure that what we download from Apple or any other such phone producer is a bone fide update, these days? Are phone companies providing access today via downloads to our cell phones and mobile devices? Hardly needs very much of an answer, does it? Bit of a no-brainer these days really.

Targeting people that are the real security issues to our countries might well be acceptable: protecting the masses by eavesdropping on the dangerous few. But, the whole problem in this story is that just possibly we have all downloaded an update from our phone providers these past few years and months, or even days. Perhaps mass infection by spyware means that the minority that is a security issue have been got'. But, it also means you and I have been well and truly got' too. Anyhow, I have probably unknowingly typed one of the 70, 000 keywords that launchesPrism onto my back and gets me monitored today in this article. Wonder who can get the list of them?