An investigation by the German public television broadcasters NDR and WDR has revealed something of a Catch 22 situation for the privacy conscious, that is you and me!
NSA source code now reveals how the XKeyscore rules target virtually anyone who has taken an interest in several well-known privacy software systems.
As you might expect the Tor Project is top of the list. (Ironic given the Tor network funded primarily by the US government to aid democracy advocates in authoritarian states.)
Other fingerprint rules target users visiting the Tails and Linux Journal websites, or performing certain web searches related to Tails. Tails is a privacy-focused GNU/Linux-based operating system that runs entirely from an external storage device such as a USB stick or CD. It comes with Tor and other privacy tools installed.
So, if you’re concerned with online privacy (and you are or why would you be here) and you even look for tools that might help you guard that privacy from government snooping you become a target of the snoops!
Heck! Visiting this site might just have upped your score!
Does XKeyscore work like a credit score maybe?.. use linux +1…use Tor +1…use a VPN +1…use Adblock Plus +1…
But what if we ALL use the basic privacy tools available? How will they flag us up then, eh??
(Think we might have just added to our score…comment if you dare!)