NSA and CIA Spied in Online Games

Right? I'm so curious how this could possibly be about terrorists. There's no way this is for anything other than to just collect data for the sake of collecting data.

This sounds like something from the Ken Burn's Console War twitter account

Impeach Nixon.

@white: nah goonswarm is obviously the CIA.

I'm happy to see we spend all of our resources so wisely.

@brickroad: Yeah, they come down real hard on the more obscure rares, but they do nothing about the rampant bobs.

I'm sure it's perfectly reasonable from your standard jackbooted government thug's POV. MMOs are just another text chat channel on the internets. Got to archive them all! Terrorists could be using them to plot and scheme.

I mean, its not like its an impossible leap of logic from what we knew 5 years ago. Think of the children etc.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Why don't they just check the terrorist's status updates?

Kurt Russell has some very badass hair right there.

Not really surprising at this point. I think at this point, if it uses the internet, the NSA is able to obtain some type of data from it.

At this point, I'm super interested to see what else comes from Snowden's files. Isn't this supposed to be the tip of the iceberg? I could've sworn I read somewhere that this is like 1% of the overall data he ran off with.

I LOLed.

Not really a surprise to me personally. I've worked at a government contractor that shall remain nameless that I know has been and is continuing to conduct research and development along the lines of this. I don't know much about what they did since I never worked directly on it (and I wouldn't share any details if I did know them). I know specifically that the term "virtual worlds surveillance" is what it was referred to internally, and judging by the number of articles about this using similar terminology, I suspect that it's standard industry lingo.

Thats america for you. Land of the free and such.

Because no one plays that game.

The asset made contact with subject "xslayer2009" regarding the group's initiation ritual, the subject repeatedly asked if the asset was "attuned". Possible arms negotiation as the subject inquired about "gear". The asset reports that the group is preparing for something they call "the reset", and that he believes this constitutes an immediate threat to national sovereignty.

In my definition of 'publicly', it includes things that you've said in private messages or whispers, and all other personal or identifying information that has been placed on the internet that is not accessible by the general public. If you're okay with me looking through that, don't worry, it doesn't matter if you're okay with it or not because I'm going to do it regardless. By the way, I represent an agency that you are supposed to have control of, not one that is supposed to control you.

It's always shocking (or maybe not so shocking) to me at the number of people who forget that important tidbit

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men."

Lord Acton

i knew the sigint agencies were wasting everyone's time and money but, i didn't know to what extent...

@cybertification: Spy agencies aren't really supposed to be doing surveillance and collecting info on people if they don't have a good reason for it. This isn't some next level of bullshit from the NSA, but it's just another case of them sticking their noses where they don't belong with no real justification other than probably, "We contractors need to dream up new avenues for spying on people so we can milk our corrupt government for some more money."

The NSA also piggybacks on Google tracking cookies for advertisements.

NSA uses Google cookies to pinpoint targets for hacking

Not only that their desire to have the whole world under their and american control, like a big worldwide dictatorship, made too silently and covertly for anyone, outside of the interested parties, to know about.

Now we live in a state not that dissimilar to the one discribed in 1984 by George Orwell. The politicians don't even have the decency to hide it.

@cybertification: We all have something to lose if they begin prosecuting people for crimes using evidence that they find from their fishing expeditions. Remember that nineteen-year-old dude who spent months in jail because he joked about shooting up a school. That wasn't because of spying, but wait until everyone who talks idly about their drug habit online or makes crude jokes about committing crimes start getting visits from the FBI because it set off some keyword alert at an NSA contractor who's monitoring everyone's online communications. Or worse, they start building dossiers on influential people whom they perceive to be political opponents, which they can use to discredit them, ruin their careers, make examples of them. Ask Juan Cole about that if you think that's paranoia talking. There are way too many powerful parties who would gain from using these massive spying programs for things besides national security--and too few legal barriers in the way--for them to resist abusing all of this information forever.

I feel bad for the agents assigned to follow MMO players. You couldnt pay me enough.

3:40AM CST. Six months since joining the "party". The ringleader, "jacktherapper420", has taken me in as one of his own, and he has shared with me "mad loots" and introduced me to "confirmed hotties, no fat chicks". It has been three weeks since I last saw my family. But under the deep haze of the bright screen before me, I am beginning to feel that they may be more of a family than I ever had.

Following collegiate finals, I have been informed that "TheNwordxXx77" will be returning to the group and bringing with him a new recruit. They are beginning to pull in more and more members at an alarming rate, and as I distribute attribute points and share potions with them, I fear I may be getting too deep. The investigation is still ongoing, but from now on... please refer to me by my blood orc name, "CopK1lla69".

NSA and CIA would probably be in over their heads if they tried doing this in Eve. We're already accustomed to weeding out spies.

Everyone you know in EVE is a spy for the NSA or CIA.