By TheLaw.TV
A new week, a new NSA controversy. Now, according to published reports, the National Security Agency can access data on your smartphone.
From Der Speigel:
The United States' National Security Agency intelligence-gathering operation is capable of accessing user data from smart phones from all leading manufacturers. Top secret NSA documents that SPIEGEL has seen explicitly note that the NSA can tap into such information on Apple iPhones, BlackBerry devices and Google's Android mobile operating system.
THELAW.TV polled 500 Internet users to find out whether they think the N.S.A. should be allowed to access data on your smartphone without a warrant, with an over-whelming response that no, the NSA should not be able to tap into your cellphone.
Here are the results of THELAW.TV's poll:
18% of Americans say, yes, the NSA should be allowed to access your smartphone data
82% of Americans say, no, the NSA should not be allowed to access your smartphone data
Here are some comments from the poll respondents:
- "The NSA should get the **** off of my phones and emails! It's unconstitutional."
- "Yeah, if I will get pay for every byte [they download]."
- "Eh, I couldn't care less. I don't have anything to hide, so it's not a big deal to me."
- "It should require a warrant."
- "Who is going to stop them?"
- "No, I don't like having my rights taken away."
- "If you've got nothing to hide you shouldn't care."
- "No. It's personal property just as a house is."
- "Honestly, I'm not doing anything wrong and the worst thing that can happen if they look through my phone is that I'll just be embarrassed because I act stupid with my friends. They should at least have a legit reason and probable cause though."
This newly-disclosed NSA operation appears to be different than the PRISM program, which is reported to have had the involvement of major websites and tech companies.
From The Atlantic:
It should be noted that none of the cell phone makers cooperated with the NSA. This is a plain case of government hackers cracking phones to access information because they're tracking a bad guy. There are occasionally times when the phone companies will change how their data is processed, though, unknowingly throwing a monkey wrench into the NSA's operation.
What do you think? Tell us in the comment section below.
THELAW.TV's survey was conducted on Thumb using a demographically balanced internet-based survey of 500 American adults and has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 4.9 percent.
Source: http://thelaw.tv/news/2013/09/10/poll-nsa-get-off-my-phone/