Sorry, NSA, Terrorists Don’t Use Verizon. Or Skype. Or Gmail.
Source: 12160.info
The NSA has to collect the metadata from all of our phone calls because terrorists, right? And the spy agency absolutely must intercept Skypes you conduct with folks out-of-state, or else terrorism. It must sift through your iCloud data and Facebook status updates too, because Al Qaeda.
Terrorists are everywhere, they are legion, they are dangerous, and, unfortunately, they don’t really do any of the stuff described above.
Even though the still-growing surveillance state that sprung up in the wake of 9/11 was enacted almost entirely to "fight terrorism," reports show that the modes of communication that agencies like the NSA are targeting are scarcely used by terrorists at all.A recent Bloomberg piece points to a 2012 report on terrorism which found that most serious terrorists steer clear of the most obvious platforms—major cell networks, Google, Skype, Facebook, etc.
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Read the full article at: 12160.info
Instagram Now Requesting for Government Issued Photo IDs
Last week brought confusion for many of the Instagram account holders who were asked to upload their government-issued photo IDs for verification. Most of these users initially thought that their accounts had been hacked and resorted to seeking help online to regain their account access.
The concerned users tried various outlets to ask about the issue including Yahoo answers. Later on, it was confirmed that the ID requests were legitimate and came from Instagram; the photo sharing app now owned by Facebook.
Even more frustration is brewing now that some of the uploaded IDs are not being accepted, resulting in follow-up requests by Instagram to provide even more documentation, such as university cards, driver’s license, even birth certificates, where necessary. Source
