The NSA Searches Ten Times as Much of the Internet as It Said It Does

[villager]

The National Security Agency assured Americans last week that it only surveils a tiny percentage of the web data it collects. But it turns out the NSA screwed up the math, and that percentage was off by an order of magnitude.

That error is in a document released by the agency on the heels of the president's speech earlier this month announcing measures to review NSA surveillance. We described the math at stake last week, but the pertinent section is this:

Unfortunately, if you do the math in suggested by that paragraph, you don't get that tiny percentage, 0.00004 percent, or 4 parts per 10 million. It's actually 0.0004 percent, with one fewer zero — or 10 times as much as the NSA suggested. It's ten dimes on the basketball court, not one. (See the math at the bottom of this post.)

That's significant largely because of the weight the NSA puts on its percentages...

<snip>

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2013/08/nsa-better-data-collection-math/68490/

[DisgustipatedinCA]

2. I see you trying in lots of threads. PSA: it's not going to work for you.

If you just want to rid yourself of frustrations, that's one thing. If you're attempting to badger people into changing their minds, however, you don't understand much about human nature, nor do you understand the implications of this scandal. Call me HOF all you want if it makes you feel good. This will not cause me to accept the creeping evil going on under our noses.

[villager]

4. The junior high school rhetoric of the apologist brigade is really very telling...

...given that it's all they have left.

(Note to actual junior high schoolers: I realize many of you are in fact more mature than many of the posters here!)

[uponit7771]

7. Apologist Brigade = people who don't light they hair on fire cause a basher and an idiot [EDIT]

...say we should?

tia

No, the gov is NOT "spying" on everyone....that's crazy on its face...

I drive on a road, camera records my car and stores teh data on a database and looks it up later does NOT... NOT

equal spying.

If the camera searched IN my car then that would be spying...


EDIT = I've been prohibted from posting on the thread

[mindwalker_i]

12. Gee whiz, the government is spying on EVERYBODY

wiping its collective behind with the constitution, arresting journalists who are trying to tell you how much the government is breaking the law, and you just want to sit back and take it in the ass?

Either you're totally stupid or well-paid.

[uponit7771]

6. Yeah yeah yeah, gov = bad and benghazi and shit at what point are people going to come out with

...their real intentions?!

[DisgustipatedinCA]

8. Well, no actually, you're not correct about that.

Republicans (and I guess you?) deal in fake scandals, like Benghazi and the IRS stuff. Others of us save the word scandal for really bad stuff, like Obama's domestic surveillance program. When you see someone demonizing everything the President does, you know that person isn't possessed of much knowledge. By the same token, when you see someone praising everything the President does, you know there's not much cogitation going on upstairs. Life is a little more nuanced than you'd like to believe.

[villager]

11. +1

[Rex]

15. Spot on with that one.

The desperation is starting to look like comedy now.

[Luminous Animal]

18. I think that a commodor 64 is being employed for that bot.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

19. I used to spend hours at the store typing BASIC code into a C64

I never knew it would talk back to me 25 years later.

[Luminous Animal]

20. You made me laugh! Thanks!

[cthulu2016]

3. I made this claculation recently, but retracted my post about it

I wrote a whole thing a few days back about this seeming math error. I cam up with 4 parts in 100,000 also, not 4 parts in a million, but upon further examination I concluded that that I was making an error in multiplying the numbers directly and lost track of the fact that it is percentages which came into play in some odd way.

I don't recall exactly what went on, but I came to believe that the NSA calculation was correct, but phrased baddly, and deleted my objection.

At some point in the calculation, because some number was a percent it meant that when multiplying, the number itself had to first be divided by 100, creating the discrepency.

Or something.

It will be interesting to see if the Atlantic fell into the same trap, or whether I was right the first time and talked myself out of it.

(I am very much not an NSA apologist, but math is math so it's a narrow question)

[villager]

5. The Atlantic had an update:

<snip>

Between the second quarter of 2011 and the first of 2012, the NSA committed about 7.5 privacy violations each day. Which was the NSA's point: of the 20 million queries a month, only a tiny, tiny percentage violate Americans' privacy. But a tiny percentage of a big number gives you seven privacy violations every 24 hours.

The NSA's incorrect .00004 percent figure was picked up by a variety of outlets — at CNN and the Daily Mail, for example. Ten times a very, very small number is still a very, very small number, but it's a small number that represents 10 times as much surveillance as the NSA originally indicated.

Update, 5:00 p.m.: Vanee' Vines of the NSA responded to our question about the calculation over email:

Our figure is valid; the classified information that goes into the number is more complicated than what’s in your calculation.

We asked for further clarification of the discrepancy between the numbers. Vines replied:

Our overall number is valid. I’m not sure why you’re calling this a “discrepancy” when the number in the white paper is valid.

[frylock]

16. it's complicated

[LiberalEsto]

9. That means we need to post more than 10 times as much nonsense & gibberish

to keep them busy.

[Progressive dog]

10. The Atlantic got it right if the numbers of

1.6% and .025% are right. It's 4 ppm, not .4.

[JaneyVee]

13. The Internet is the new Wild West.

[warrprayer]

14. I have a feeling the truth

is more like they spy on 100% of everything.

[bemildred]

17. More math wizardry from the "experts". nt