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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFBI Appears To Have Collected Tormail's Entire Email Database... And It's Using It
Now there are new reports, suggesting that along with Freedom Hosting, the FBI was able to get the full database of emails on TorMail, a popular tor-based email service that used Freedom Hosting and was shut down at the same time Freedom Hosting went down. The reports point to a new lawsuit, in which the FBI was able to get a search warrant to search TorMail using its own copy of the database -- which it clearly had obtained at an earlier date. This basically means that the FBI has a pretty easy time searching all those emails if it needs to:
The tactic suggests the FBI is adapting to the age of big-data with an NSA-style collect-everything approach, gathering information into a virtual lock box, and leaving it there until it can obtain specific authority to tap it later. Theres no indication that the FBI searched the trove for incriminating evidence before getting a warrant. But now that it has a copy of TorMails servers, the bureau can execute endless search warrants on a mail service that once boasted of being immune to spying.
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