You're fine with Google seeing complete information about your income and spending? I'm not one of those truly paranoid, but this seems like a bit too much.
That said I don’t see a huge risk here, unless combined with lots of other data. Would probably avoid though.
Most big tech companies very rarely/never let a human review private customer data. Therefore I'm fine handing all the data over to big tech companies.
I don't really understand any other point of view - if you're worried about a machine seeing your private stuff, why did you type it into a keyboard in the first place?
Who owns that machine is important though. I don't mind putting my card details in via my phone to buy something because there's a level of trust in the whole system (it's my phone, I have a level of trust that google is not going to steal my card details via android, and a level of trust that the shop is legit and will process my order.)
If some random person off the street asked me to type my card details into their phone that's a very different ball game as I don't inherently trust them.
This isn't true. Google and Apple and others turn over user data to human analysts at NSA and FBI and others without search warrants all of the time, on hundreds of thousands of user accounts per year.
To be fine handing all the data over to big tech companies, you have to be fine handing all of the data over to US federal cops and intelligence services, too, because that's what giving the data (in non-e2ee form) to big tech means.
(Mind you; this includes device location histories due to geoip logs, unique identifiers, iMessage histories, photos, documents, everything.)
The cases they are allowed to tell you about aren’t in this category. They aren’t even allowed to say exactly how many of the secret warrantless orders they received, or exactly how many users were affectee, only 500-count ranges.
For just Apple, for just January 2023 to June 2023 (six months):
National Security - FISA Non-Content Requests
Table for National Security - FISA Non-Content Requests Data
Requests Received 0 - 499
Users/Accounts 40,500 - 40,999
National Security - FISA Content Requests
Table displaying National Security - FISA Content Requests
Requests Received 500 - 999
Users/Accounts 50,500 - 50,999
National Security Letter Requests
Table for National Security Letter Requests data
Requests Received 0 - 499
Users/Accounts 1,000 - 1,499
National Security Letters where Non-disclosure Order Lifted
0
I encourage you to read it for yourself:
These are not equivalents, nor are they similar. FISA = Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court / NSL = National Security Letter.
If a person is the target of the FISA system, there most certainly is probable cause.
National Security Letter is a gag order, given by the intelligence community, in order to protect national security.
Again, if you or your organization receives one of these, there most certainly is probable cause.
These systems may be detestable, but there's no need to make things up.
This has been well documented in the press following the Snowden disclosures. It’s called FAA702 or PRISM.
FISA “orders” are warrants and have the same requirement for probable cause as any search or seizure warrant (they aren't criminal warrants so the probable cause is not of there being evidence of a crime, but of the target being an agent of a foreign power.)
NSLs are administrative subpoenas accompanied with gag orders, not warrants, and correspondingly do not have a probable cause requirement; unlike warrants (and like other subpoenas), they are subject to precompliance challenge (and the associated gag order is challengable separately.)
You put orders in quotes, but that’s what they are called, because it is illegal and inaccurate to call them warrants, because warrants per 4A are issued only upon probable cause. FISA orders are warrantless and do not require probable cause.
Snowden was very clear when he released the data on FAA702. No probable cause is required. They are not warrants. There is nobody in the room except a government petitioner and a government judge who rubber stamps them.
They are the #1 most used source in the US IC, and they make it possible for the FBI and DHS et al to read all of your gmail, all of your google docs, and all of your iMessages and phone photos without so much as a shred of criminal wrongdoing.
The idea that they are used only for foreign surveillance is patently false. There is ample hard documentation (again, thanks to Snowden) that they routinely use these to spy on americans. Their twisted logic is that if the data is replicated outside of the US (to say, a datacenter in Europe) then they are legally permitted to access it under the way the unconstitutional FISA Amendments Act (Section 702) is written.
Orders authorizing foreign intelligence surveillance purposes under FISA are warrants, and are often called warrants, and they, like all warrants, are issued only on probable cause. (It is not improper to call them “orders”, and they are often referred to that way, as well, it is just less specific; all warrants are [court] orders, but not all court orders, much less all orders more generally, are warrants.)
https://bja.ojp.gov/program/it/privacy-civil-liberties/autho...:
—quote—
Subchapter I of FISA established procedures for the conduct of foreign intelligence surveillance and created the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC). The Department of Justice must apply to the FISC to obtain a warrant authorizing electronic surveillance of foreign agents. For targets that are U.S. persons (U.S. citizens, permanent resident aliens, and U.S. corporations), FISA requires heightened requirements in some instances.
* Unlike domestic criminal surveillance warrants issued under Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (the “Wiretap Act”) , agents need to demonstrate probable cause to believe that the “target of the surveillance is a foreign power or agent of a foreign power,” that “a significant purpose” of the surveillance is to obtain “foreign intelligence information,” and that appropriate “minimization procedures” are in place. 50 U.S.C. § 1804.
* Agents do not need to demonstrate that commission of a crime is imminent.
* For purposes of FISA, agents of foreign powers include agents of foreign political organizations and groups engaged in international terrorism, as well as agents of foreign nations. 50 U.S.C. § 1801
—end-of-quote—
>they are subject to precompliance challenge
and it's weird you go to the trouble to mention this but slough over the problems with FISA warrants. You are not arguing honestly here.
Imagine there are whole countries out there where income is public and accessible to anyone ;)