Customer Letter


The United States of Secrets

1. President Obama's reversal on FISA, refusing to uphold his promise of Federal transparency, is the reason why Edward Snowden became a whistleblower.
a. True
b. False

2. "Metadata" refers to
a. phone numbers and duration of calls.
b. email and text message content.
c. Skype conversations.
d. wire tapping.

3. President Obama commissioned a committee to investigate the NSA, giving them free reign to assess every aspect of the agency's behavior, as long as their investigation did not
a. out any covert operatives.
b. reveal any top secret operation currently in place.
c. interfere with his Constitutional oath in defending the United States of America.
d. point any fingers to culprits involved during the Bush Administration.

4. Snowden's interview and revelation of the NSA's surveillance techniques that violate the IV Amendment rights of Americans brought the President to the point of justifying efforts in the balance of
a. democracy and tyranny.
b. freedom and privacy.
c. heroism and treason.
d. transparency and secrecy.

5. What kind of access were internet companies such as Google, Facebook, YouTube, Microsoft, and Apple giving the NSA?
a. Unknowing access to their physical data streams.
b. Enforced secret compliance through a National Security Letter.
c. Willing and unfettered access.
d. Both a and b.

6. The NSA modeled their internet data and intelligence gathering after
a. social media's marketing algorithms.
b. Executive Order 12333.
c. the Russians.
d. the FBI's issuing of NSLs.

7. Prism was not only the code name for a data-collection program of the Federal Government but was the actual method through which the NSA was copying internet data from AT&T's internet backbone in San Francisco.
a. True
b. False

8. Google, Facebook, Amazon, YouTube, Apple, Microsoft and and others were amassing huge data troves on their users, just like the NSA was amassing on US citizens, resulting in
a. surveillance for advertising instead of law enforcement.
b. developing "one-way" mirrors to eaves drop on users.
c. creating a robot that can read your diary and bank statements.
d. All the above.

9. ________ messages are scanned for content much in the same way the NSA scans data for meaning.
a. HotMail
b. Dmail
c. Gmail
d. Outlook Mail

10. The NSA piggy-backs on _______ developed by social media companies to surveil US citizens.
a. data trunk lines
b. internet routers
c. tracking cookies
d. location check-ins

"We can't hold the government responsible because we truly don't know what it's doing."

Oaths and Secrecy