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Leaked Documents: NSA Actively Infiltrating Online Privacy Apps
The National Security Agency has an active campaign to penetrate and destroy popular online privacy tools. A number of leaked documents reveal that average citizens can block NSA surveillance with a popular application called TOR, or the Onion Browser.
TOR
is a free application that bounces communications through a distributed
network of relays around the world, which makes it hard to track
individuals. TOR lets people get around internet censorship tools and
remain anonymous. The latest revelations from Edward Snowden indicate that the NSA hates TOR.
In presentations such as “TOR Stinks”, NSA analysts are
trying to find methods to track and identify TOR users. The NSA hates
the idea of average citizens having access to software that can block
its tracking efforts.
NSA Working to Undermine State Department Efforts to Spread Democracy
The most interesting thing about TOR is that it was
developed by the U.S. State and Defense Departments. The idea was to
create secure communications networks that dissidents and activists
could use to communicate without worrying about secret police snooping.
The Guardian reported that around 60% of TOR’s funding
comes from Uncle Sam. That’s right, the federal government is spending
U.S. taxpayers’ money trying to crack a security program it created.
Worse, that money is being used to help techniques that could help
despotic governments identify their enemies.
The good news is that the NSA hasn’t been able to crack
TOR yet. It can still block most of the agency’s snooping. That means
citizens can still use it to evade the NSA and its foreign counterparts.
Unfortunately, the NSA and the British GCHQ are working on such methods
as redirecting TOR traffic to its servers.
Not only does the campaign against TOR threaten efforts
to spread democracy, but it also definitely violates the U.S.
Constitution. Cracking TOR violates the Fourth Amendment, which
guarantees privacy in communications to citizens and could undermine the
First Amendment because TOR is widely used by journalists.
It looks like the NSA is a threat to the very ideas of
liberty and privacy. It is time Americans asked the important question:
Do we really need an agency like the NSA or not?
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