Who thinks the NSA can't see what you are doing right now?

[Grzyadms4x4]

http://news.yahoo.com/google-pressure-c ... 00667.html

Google Pressure Cookers and Backpacks, Get a Visit from the Feds

Michele Catalano was looking for information online about pressure cookers. Her husband, in the same time frame, was Googling backpacks. Wednesday morning, six men from a joint terrorism task force showed up at their house to see if they were terrorists. Which begs the question: How'd the government know what they were Googling?

RELATED: We'll Never Know What Google's Doing With the NSA

Catalano (who is a professional writer) describes the tension of that visit.

[T]hey were peppering my husband with questions. Where is he from? Where are his parents from? They asked about me, where was I, where do I work, where do my parents live. Do you have any bombs, they asked. Do you own a pressure cooker? My husband said no, but we have a rice cooker. Can you make a bomb with that? My husband said no, my wife uses it to make quinoa. What the hell is quinoa, they asked. ...

Have you ever looked up how to make a pressure cooker bomb? My husband, ever the oppositional kind, asked them if they themselves weren’t curious as to how a pressure cooker bomb works, if they ever looked it up. Two of them admitted they did.

The men identified themselves as members of the "joint terrorism task force." The composition of such task forces depend on the region of the country, but, as we outlined after the Boston bombings, include a variety of federal agencies. Among them: the FBI and Homeland Security.

RELATED: PRISM Companies Start Denying Knowledge of the NSA Data Collection

Ever since details of the NSA's surveillance infrastructure were leaked by Edward Snowden, the agency has been insistent on the boundaries of the information it collects. It is not, by law, allowed to spy on Americans — although there are exceptions of which it takes advantage. Its PRISM program, under which it collects internet content, does not include information from Americans unless those Americans are connected to terror suspects by no more than two other people. It collects metadata on phone calls made by Americans, but reportedly stopped collecting metadata on Americans' internet use in 2011. So how, then, would the government know what Catalano and her husband were searching for?

RELATED: Which Tech Company Does the NSA Use Most?

It's possible that one of the two of them is tangentially linked to a foreign terror suspect, allowing the government to review their internet activity. After all, that "no more than two other people" ends up covering millions of people. Or perhaps the NSA, as part of its routine collection of as much internet traffic as it can, automatically flags things like Google searches for "pressure cooker" and "backpack" and passes on anything it finds to the FBI.

RELATED: Very Similar Statements from Facebook and Google on PRISM Still Have Holes

Or maybe it was something else. On Wednesday, The Guardian reported on XKeyscore, a program eerily similar to Facebook search that could clearly allow an analyst to run a search that picked out people who'd done searches for those items from the same location. How those searches got into the government's database is a question worth asking; how the information got back out seems apparent.

RELATED: Will Google's Request to Publish Secret Court Orders Do Anything?

It is also possible that there were other factors that prompted the government's interest in Catalano and her husband. He travels to Asia, she notes in her article. Who knows. Which is largely Catalano's point.

They mentioned that they do this about 100 times a week. And that 99 of those visits turn out to be nothing. I don’t know what happens on the other 1% of visits and I’m not sure I want to know what my neighbors are up to.

One hundred times a week, groups of six armed men drive to houses in three black SUVs, conducting consented-if-casual searches of the property perhaps in part because of things people looked up online.

But the NSA doesn't collect data on Americans, so this certainly won't happen to you.

[chris lavoie]

If it catches a terrorist, "WHY NOT"!! Conservation officers search our business at least once a week. They go through our camp freezers, cabin fridges etc. with out a warrant. I'm fine with that. I have nothing to hide.

[Grzyadms4x4]

Sorry, but this is the US not Canada. You are INNOCENT until proven guilty here and we have a thing called the Bill of Rights that protects us from unlawful, UNWARRANTED search and seizures.

Oh it doesn't catch terrorist, wherever you got that idea from.

[fallriverwalker1]

sorry to burst your bubble but you are guilty until proven innocent. if you were innocent how is it that when arrested do you have to pay a bail that you dont get back you have to hire an attorney , you dont get that money back either , what part of innocent is that / what we are taught in school is not always true

[ferjr]

If it catches a terrorist, "WHY NOT"!! Conservation officers search our business at least once a week. They go through our camp freezers, cabin fridges etc. with out a warrant. I'm fine with that. I have nothing to hide.

People who think like you are the problem. This is America, we have a such thing as the Bill of Rights!!!!

[chris lavoie]

There have been many plots thwarted recently in Canada and U.S. because of cisis and nsa.

[Grzyadms4x4]

Says who? Maybe you, maybe all canadians don't believe in natural rights. The rights that have been violated by the NSA and other alphabet soup agencies, date back to the Magna Carta, and are again natural rights. Natural rights are not given to you by any government. They are yours simply for being alive.

. I do not expect you to understand what freedom is. You are after all living in a british territory for all intents and purposes. Britain isn't exactly well known for civil rights. We kicked their ass a long time ago and set up a constitutional republic stating on paper with our declaration of Independence, that ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL, WITH CERTAIN INALIENABLE RIGHTS.

It does not matter how many people's lives it saves. As it stands right now in the US, you are more likely to get assaulted or killed by a police officer than you are to be a victim of a "terrorist" attack.

Getting back to the attacks that have been "foiled", how many of them were set-up or supported by the CIA or FBI to encourage a person who was just talking into a person that had what they thought was a working bomb? Simply to help justify to the public that they should continue to be very afraid of the brown people we should be afraid of this time and to show why they need to spend such crazy amounts of money.

[chris lavoie]

The U.S lost the war of 1812. The british are the only ones to EVER burn down the white house. Did you know there is a CANADIAN flag in the white house because of this. You apparently forgot this through your fanatical rants!! We do not have to register our rifles, do you??? You need a pass port to get into your own country. U.S. citzens are allowed to come to Canada without any pass port, the way it should be. ALSO they (americans) just thwarted multiple attacks today!!

[Grzyadms4x4]

Your post shows you don't know jack squat about the US. What terrorist attack averted? What closing down embassies because there may be an attack in the next month. Boy that's sure thwarting an attack. We don't have to register any weapons here, don't know what you are talking about. War of 1812, you damn well know that it is widely debated who "won" that war. Yah the canadians kept us from taking their land, but we won back all of the land the britian took. Oh by the way, what country has been securing your asses up there from attacks for the past 50+ years AMERICA that's who! We're the ones covering your asses with our soldiers so you guys can "enjoy" your free healthcare and other free social services.

Back to the topic at hand. We have inalienable rights that are recognized in this country. What the NSA and their European counterparts do is wrong and it violates rights that were recognized over 400 years ago in the Magna Carta.

IF you, a Canadian, want your country to be ruled the way it is, good for you. That is your right. I on the other hand, am an American citizen and we don't do things like that. We are supposed to be ruled by law and when the writer of the "Patriot Act" comes out against how it is being misinterpreted by secret courts and warns Americans that we must take a stand NOW against the violations of our 4th amendment rights before we are totally screwed then we know there is a problem.

If you are so afraid of terrorist that you expect ME to give up my rights as an American, so you can feel safe from little brown people thousands of miles away that want to hurt you supposedly because you are free, then you can go (beep) yourself!

[chris lavoie]

Twist the facts all you want, we won the war of 1812!! Our flag in the white house proves it!!! ALSO my Grandpa , who was in the Canadian army during WW2, says the CANADIANS won the war (WW2), along side their allies the brits and the americans!!!

[Grzyadms4x4]

IF you want to debate the war of 1812 and how much canadian gun laws suck compare to ours down here then we can pm eachother or start another thread for all to comment on, but for now this is about the nsa spying on Americans in real time. But you've made it clear that you prefer perceived safety instead of liberty and I hope you receive neither!

[chris lavoie]

They just scrapped our LONG GUN laws last Oct. We do not have to register anymore.

[ferjr]

They just scrapped our long gun laws last Oct. We do not have to register anymore.

How about handguns???

[chris lavoie]

A person CAN get a permit for handguns. I personally see no reason for me to own one. Been chased up a tree once by a bear in the early nineties. I'm sure a hand gun at that time would have made me feel better, but I survived. I DO NOT think they should ban hand guns in the states if you have been allowed to own them for centuries. I agree its your right!!!