Cyberculture agenda: “XKEYSCORE: NSA’s Google for the World’s Private Communications

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XKEYSCORE: NSA’s Google for the World’s Private Communications

 The Intercept by Morgan Marquis-Boire

Illustrations by Blue Delliquanti and David Axe for The Intercept

One of the National Security Agency’s most powerful tools of mass surveillance makes tracking someone’s Internet usage as easy as entering an email address, and provides no built-in technology to prevent abuse. Today, The Intercept is publishing 48 top-secret and other classified documents about XKEYSCORE dated up to 2013, which shed new light on the breadth, depth and functionality of this critical spy system — one of the largest releases yet of documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

A Look at the Inner Workings of NSA’s XKEYSCORE

Second in a series. Part 1 here. The sheer quantity of communications thatXKEYSCORE processes, filters and queries is stunning. Around the world, when a person gets online to do anything — write an email, post to a social network, browse the web or play a video game — there’s a decent chance that the Internet traffic her device sends and receives is getting collected and processed by one of XKEYSCORE’s hundreds of servers scattered across the globe. In order to make sen

 The Intercept / by Micah Lee /

 

How the NSA searches the world’s intercepted private communications

XKEYSCORE is a secret NSA program that indexes data slurped up from covert fiber-taps, hacked systems, and smartphones, including “full take” data and metadata. Read the res

 Boing Boing / by Cory Doctorow /

Vienna Court Rejects Europe vs. Facebook Class Action

 All Facebook by David Cohen

The class-action suit filed against Facebook in Vienna by Austrian law studentMax Schrems and his Europe Versus Facebook group has hit a roadblock.

The Wall Street Journal reported that a court in Vienna rejected the lawsuit on the grounds that it had no jurisdiction over the case.

Social Networks and the Majority Illusion

Social Media Today by Aaron Miles

MIT Technology Review has a summary of a fascinating recent study on the behavior of networks, and how they can lie to us, or at least make it seem like a majority of people believe something is common when it is not actually the case. The study, conducted by Kristina Lerman and others at the University of Southern California, also provides insight into how some things can go viral and spread like wildfire while similar content or ideas can’t seem to get off the ground.

See all your Google Contacts on a Google Map

Digital Inspiration Technology Blog by Amit Agarwal

Want to know where you friends and colleagues are? The all-new Map My Contacts app will help you quickly visualize the location of your Google contacts on a world map. It reads the postal addresses of people from your Google Contacts and puts them all in a Google Map using a simple Google script.

7 games you can play with Google Maps

 Boing Boing by Laura Hudson

As Diego Stands Trial, Show Your Support for Open Access

 EFF.org Updates

UPDATE 06/30/2015: The hearing has been postponed and will proceed in October. Thanks to everyone who helped us raise awareness today.

France detains two Uber managers over ‘illicit activity’

 Mashable! by The Associated Press

PARIS — French authorities took two Uber managers into custody for questioning on Monday over “illicit activity” involving its low-cost service.

 

Emoji have a 5,000 year history: Listen to this to find out how

The Next Web by Mic Wright

The Allusionist is a great podcast about language and its latest episode is a must listen for anyone who loves or loathes emoji. We write about them a lot here but rarely explore their connection to cuneiform, the writing system developed by the ancient Sumerians, or medieval marginalia. Have you heard of the Luttrell Psalter, littered with bat and flower ’emoji’? The episode will only take up 16.54 minutes of your time and there’s an excellent list of further reading here. ➤ The Allusionist Read next: Emoji are not the future of language, they’re too small to contain our imaginations Image credit: The Luttrell Psalter: Psalm…

Google Earth turns 10 today

The Official Google Blog

When Google Earth was first introduced 10 years ago, it immediately stole my heart. Beyond the freedom to fly anywhere in the world, I was captivated by the ability to paint and visualize geographic data on this incredible global canvas.Drawn to datasets backed by real human stories, I started making my own maps with KML a few weeks after Earth’s release in 2005. For my master’s degree, I used Google Earth to build a virtual representation of a high-tech biologicalresearch reserve. Vint Cerf saw my work, which eventually led to a job on theGoogle Earth Outreach team, turning my passion for telling stories with maps into a career.

Emotional Connection is the Key to Brand Loyalty

 Social Media Today by Lucy Rendler-Kaplan

Ten years ago, the idea of emotionally connecting to a brand was something we did, but never thought about. The idea of connecting to a bank or insurance company was unheard of! Today? I was so moved by Chase’s commercial full of puppies that I had to tweet them immediately and tell them

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