See?

[cherokeeprogressive]

http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/07/18831985-officials-nsa-mistakenly-intercepted-emails-phone-calls-of-innocent-americans

[neverforget]

1. That's okay because they have nothing to hide or it's Glenn's fault, or Congress, etc.....

[NYC_SKP]

2. Good. They fucked up, they admitted it, they destroyed the data, the system worked.

By Michael Isikoff
National Investigative Correspondent, NBC News

The National Security Agency has at times mistakenly intercepted the private email messages and phone calls of Americans who had no link to terrorism, requiring Justice Department officials to report the errors to a secret national security court and destroy the data, according to two former U.S. intelligence officials.

At least some of the phone calls and emails were pulled from among the hundreds of millions stored by telecommunications companies as part of an NSA surveillance program. James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, Thursday night publicly acknowledged what he called “a sensitive intelligence collection program” after its existence was disclosed by the Guardian newspaper.

Ret. Adm. Dennis Blair, who served as President Obama’s DNI in 2009 and 2010, told NBC News that, in one instance in 2009, analysts entered a phone number into agency computers and “put one digit wrong,” and mined a large volume of information about Americans with no connection to terror. The matter was reported to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, whose judges required that all the data be destroyed, he said.

[cherokeeprogressive]

4. "they destroyed the data," Whoa, good on them huh? Can I destroy data on MY hard drive?

Or does the NSA have the ability to search layers and layers of previously "destroyed data"?

I don't believe anything the government says on this. Not. A. Thing.

You're like a dolphin who believes you're safe because that big net is only meant to catch tuna.

Have fun at the cannery.

[NYC_SKP]

5. No, the only way to destroy data on a hard drive is though physical destruction.

Never assume that even 35X overwrites are going to be secure.

[cherokeeprogressive]

6. I knew that. Thanks for reminding me though. So you're saying the NSA PHYSICALLY destroyed

whatever media the information was stored on?

And if you're saying this, you don't mind me asking HOW you know? Is it because the GUBMINT said so?

[MattBaggins]

7. For your own Drives?

There are a number of programs you can use to make sure data on your drives is gone for good. If you use SSD drives it is trickier though.

Use an eraser program and do a 3 pass. Good programs can be scheduled to run nightly and will clear histories and caches first. Set them to run nightly and wipe your free space everyday.

If you are really that paranoid or have truly sensitive data you could do all that.

[cherokeeprogressive]

8. Maybe you missed my point. "We destroyed the data on OUR drives" is what the gubmint says.

You can believe them or not, it's your choice.

[MattBaggins]

9. I have no reason to take them at their word.

[cherokeeprogressive]

10. Nor do I. In fact, I'd bet my bottom dollar they were lying if that's their concrete claim. n/t

[rug]

3. Oops.