NSA uses Google cookies to pinpoint targets for hacking
Source: Washington Post
A slide from an internal NSA presentation indicating that the agency uses at least one Google cookie as a way to identify targets for exploitation. (Washington Post)
The National Security Agency is secretly piggybacking on the tools that enable Internet advertisers to track consumers, using "cookies" and location data to pinpoint targets for government hacking and to bolster surveillance.
The agency's internal presentation slides, provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, show that when companies follow consumers on the Internet to better serve them advertising, the technique opens the door for similar tracking by the government. The slides also suggest that the agency is using these tracking techniques to help identify targets for offensive hacking operations.
For years, privacy advocates have raised concerns about the use of commercial tracking tools to identify and target consumers with advertisements. The online ad industry has said its practices are innocuous and benefit consumers by serving them ads that are more likely to be of interest to them.
The revelation that the NSA is piggybacking on these commercial technologies could shift that debate, handing privacy advocates a new argument for reining in commercial surveillance.
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/12/10/nsa-uses-google-cookies-to-pinpoint-targets-for-hacking/?wpisrc=al_comboNE&clsrd
Douglas Carpenter
(20,226 posts)onehandle
(51,122 posts)Google is simply the best database for advertisers, hackers, spammers and now... The NSA to watch your every move.
AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)As soon as they can link you to it in some way, it's done server-side.
We live in a world where Target co. can figure out a woman is pregnant and start sending her coupons before she knows she's pregnant.
This ship has sailed. The NSA need only co-opt aggressive corporate marketing, and their work is all done for them.
KG
(28,752 posts)rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)that Gen Clapper is taking good care of them. Did I say nitwits? Authoritarian nitwits.
OnyxCollie
(9,958 posts)Ed Suspicious
(8,879 posts)OnyxCollie
(9,958 posts)Anyone who disputes the validity of Smith v Maryland in this application is obviously a racist hater.
Ed Suspicious
(8,879 posts)NuclearDem
(16,184 posts)Nothing to see here folks!
Indi Guy
(3,992 posts)The only real news would be a vulnerability the NSA is not exploiting.
AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)data I've lost, or sites I can't remember.
Hell, they could sell it as a service, and fund the whole department.
Indi Guy
(3,992 posts)...known unknowns for Americans to know.
Jasana
(490 posts)has more uses than just making google.com cookies blow up. I don't even let those little bastards into my cache. I also use Ghostery, Ad Block Edge, Ad Block Plus Pop Up Blocker, Element Hiding Helper for Ad Block, HTTPS Everywhere (available from the EFF) and Better Privacy (An LSO cookie killer).
Sigh... I also have all my browsers set to auto clean on logout and I have Ccleaner for all the other junk. Oh yeah... and spybot and MSE always running in the background. Am I paranoid enough about keeping my system clean?
cprise
(8,445 posts)...along with Ad Block Edge should suffice in preventing this type of tracking.
One can also just open a new Private Window when performing new searches.
Ultimately, you also have to consider that trackers will try to get malware onto your system (e.g. attack you). The only effective way to handle this, apart from using a different computer for each distinct activity, is to run a desktop operating system with an integrated hypervisor like Qubes OS; this reduces the system's attack surface down to a handful of untrusted subsystems.
http://www.qubes-os.org
Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)Google to pay extra $17 mln to states over privacy-violating Safari cookies
Search giant Google is to pay $17 million to settle a dispute with 37 American states and the District of Columbia after it bypassed Safari browser privacy settings to place ad cookies.
Under the settlement, announced Monday, Google pledged not to use any code capable of overriding browser settings without user consent, unless for security, fraud or technical issues, and to work on raising consumer awareness about how cookies work.
Cookies are small chunks of code stored by a computer to keep track of browsing habits, for instance to keep you logged into various websites between sessions. Internet advertising companies, including Google, rely heavily on cookies to deliver targeted ads, which depend on what kind of websites users visit.
Apple's Safari browser by default blocks third-party cookies, but Google used a way to bypass the restriction. Between June 2011 and February 2012 it used specially-coded cookies that tricked Safari on desktops and mobile devices into storing them, despite privacy settings.
http://rt.com/usa/google-safari-cookies-settlement-961/
- So using this as a guide, that would mean that the National Security Agency concerns itself with insecurities. Specifically the 1%ers insecurities. Of us......