FBI quietly changes its privacy rules for accessing NSA data on Americans
What good is a set of "rules" (not even laws) if they are deliberated and enforced behind closed doors? Why should the FBI even bother following these "rules" if nobody is transparently ensuring that they do?<p>Also, I did not realize just how intricately NSA data is shared with the FBI (and who knows how many other agencies). From the article, it sounds like any FBI analyst can run an arbitrary query on the "to" and "from" fields of email addresses, at any time, as many times as desired. So effectively the FBI has one giant inbox with Americans' communications in it?<p>That inbox <i>will</i> get hacked. It's only a matter of time. If thousands of federal bureaucrats have access to it, I would be very surprised if foreign intelligence agencies do not already have access to it in some capacity.<p>Scary stuff. People should continue to assume all systems are compromised and email is public information.