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Easy to see who Edward Snowden's supporters are


From CommonDreams:

"Launched this week on the streets of D.C: Buses with signs reading, "Thank You to Edward Snowden - We the People Say No to the Surveillance State." Brought to you by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fun, whose ongoing, crowd-funded campaign was so successful they've expanded the project."

And it's no wonder that the general populace is against government when one reads the startling revelation in The Guardian, today, of Australia having actually volunteered to deliver up data about its citizens to the USA.

"Australia's surveillance agency offered to share information collected about ordinary Australian citizens with its major intelligence partners, according to a secret 2008 document leaked by the US whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The document shows the partners discussing whether or not to share "medical, legal or religious information", and increases concern that the agency could be operating outside its legal mandate, according to the human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson QC.

The Australian intelligence agency, then known as the Defence Signals Directorate (DSD), indicated it could share bulk material without some of the privacy restraints imposed by other countries, such as Canada.

"DSD can share bulk, unselected, unminimised metadata as long as there is no intent to target an Australian national," notes from an intelligence conference say. "Unintentional collection is not viewed as a significant issue."

The agency acknowledged that more substantial interrogation of the material would, however, require a warrant."

 


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