Barry Donegan
BenSwann.com
4/6/2015
On last night’s episode of HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Edward Snowden faced tough questions about the way in which he blew the whistle on the National Security Agency’s widespread surveillance of American citizens and discussed the lesser-known fact that NSA agents have access to explicit photos stored on Americans’ cell phones…
…After Oliver showed Snowden a video of a random sampling of Americans reacting strongly to the thought that the NSA might have their explicit photos, Snowden said, “I guess I never thought about putting [NSA spying] in the context of your junk.”
Oliver provided Snowden with a picture of his own unmentionables and listed off a series of NSA programs and authorities while asking whether agents could use them to justify seizing the photo. In each case, the answer was yes. As an example, Snowden described how PRISM could be used to obtain the photo, “When you send your junk through Gmail, that’s stored on Google’s servers… Google moves data from data center to data center—invisibly to use without your knowledge—your data could be moved outside the borders of the United States, temporarily. When your junk was passed by Gmail, the NSA caught a copy of that… PRISM is how they pull your junk out of Google with Google’s involvement.”…
The complete article, with video, is at BenSwann.com
Related: On John Oliver, Edward Snowden Says Keep Taking Dick Pics (video)
…The Patriot Act is up for reauthorization on June 1, and John Oliver doesn’t want you to forget it.
Specifically, one part of the Patriot Act that is expiring is called Section 215. It is what gives the government the authority ask companies to hand over “any tangible things” that pertain to terrorism.
“Which is basically a blank check,” Oliver said last night…
