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Ask HN: Can the NSA snoop on our (hosted) private repos?

2 pointsby yatialmost 12 years ago
This is just out of curiosity. The NSA does not clearly define what it takes to be an NSA "foe". Can they also be snooping on our private repos which are hosted on Github/Bitbucket (and hence, Rackspace/Amazon/whatnot)? Are users protected against any such access?

5 comments

byoung2almost 12 years ago
Just assume that the government has access to everything online, including "private" content. Even if they don't have direct access, they can get it with a warrant. With the patriot act and fisa, they can get warrants pretty easily, so basically you shouldn't put anything incriminating online, even privately.
lsiebertalmost 12 years ago
They may not need a warrant, they may be able to get the information with a subpoena or a national security letter.
aw3c2almost 12 years ago
If the company is based in the US or the servers are in the US, then yes of course.
cupalmost 12 years ago
Just assume anything that you type is public. Thats to say, even if you don't post it online the physical manifestation of you typing on a keyboard may not be secure.
mtgxalmost 12 years ago
The NSA collects everything that passes through US cables, both unencrypted and encrypted data. They usually don&#x27;t decrypt most of the stuff themselves, because that would need too many resources, which is why they go to the big services companies and ask them for the keys.<p>And I wouldn&#x27;t assume they only look into the data of the &quot;criminals&quot;, but also for commercial espionage reasons.