Washington-SANA
Mulberry leaves continue to fall from the United States of America, which boasts that it is a "pioneer" in freedom of information, opinion and human rights worldwide, to the extent that it denies even its citizens the ability to cover their nakedness.
And the recognition of the US Defense Intelligence Agency, "DIA" yesterday that the US government is already buying data on websites and applications using smart phones on its citizens and non-citizens is new to those fallen papers.
According to the American "New York Times" newspaper, in a memorandum sent to Senator Ron Wyden, the Defense Intelligence Agency, an intelligence agency of the United States federal government specializing in military and defense intelligence, admitted that it buys location data from intermediaries, whether for people residing in America or abroad.
The American newspaper, which was able to obtain this memo, explained that data brokers are companies that collect people's information by paying the makers of applications and websites and then sell it to anyone who wants to pay for it, including the United States government, pointing out that an intermediary institution called "X-Mode." “It has sold the US Army the location data of users of the Muslim Pro app, which has the most Muslim users.
Returning to the memorandum, the US Defense Intelligence Agency stressed in it that only its employees can inquire about the sites database after they are authorized through a specific process that requires approval from the senior leadership, the Office of Oversight and Compliance, and the Office of General Counsel, confirming that during the past two and a half years it has been done. Granted her permission to view location data on phones within America 5 times.
On the other hand, The New York Times indicated that according to American law, government agencies are required to obtain a court order before they can obtain data from a third party, such as the telephone companies, a rule recently supported by a Supreme Court decision, which the Defense Intelligence Agency considered that it does not apply to them because it does not It invokes the rule of law.
These practices of the intelligence agency were met on the American street by severe rejection and indignation, as the American Civil Liberties Union expressed its rejection of what the intelligence agency was doing regarding its obtaining citizens 'data, stressing that the government could not simply buy citizens' private data in order to bypass basic constitutional protections and called on Congress to "end This practice is outside the law, ”according to the site," The Verge. "
This recognition comes to confirm once again the falsehood of the allegations that successive US administrations have always propagated about freedom of opinion and expression and human rights, which the American Civil Liberties Union made clear, saying: “We knew for some time that government agencies are using data brokers to circumvent the need to obtain an order. With location information ”.
The American authorities have been spying on their citizens for a long time, storing all people's call logs, analyzing their calls over time, and monitoring social media, as the recording of phone calls and text messages for Americans in 2018 reached about 534 million records, a three-fold increase from what was collected in 2016. According to a report by the CIA.
Maher Othman
