'Team Sport' Is The NSA's Buzzword For Getting Companies To Violate Your Privacy

from the that's-not-very-sporting dept

Fri, Jul 12th 2013 11:34am — Mike Masnick

I noticed something interesting in two of our recent stories about NSA surveillance. In yesterday's revelation in the Guardian about how Microsoft had made it easy for the NSA to record Skype audio and video, an internal NSA bulletin referred to the situation this way:

The document continues: "The FBI and CIA then can request a copy of Prism collection of any selector…" As a result, the author notes: "these two activities underscore the point that Prism is a team sport!"

That was apparently written on August 3, 2012. But the "team sport" phrase caught my attention, because while Tim Cushing was writing up that story, I had been working on the story about the NSA's talking points for the groundbreaking of its massive datacenter in Bluffdale Utah. Those talking points were for January 6, 2011, but they too, reference "team sports" as a way to describe the collaboration with tech companies:

Cyber must be a team sport -- it is too big for one agency, or even one nation to be able to "control."

Seeing that exact phrase show up in two separate documents, which were both revealed on the same day, through different means (one via a leak, one via a FOIA request), were written at different times, and were revealed through very different sources, has me wondering. It seems likely that this is a key talking point that the NSA has been working on for quite some time, should information on PRISM and other programs ever get out. As long as they call these efforts a "team sport" perhaps people won't be as freaked out about them, or something.

But it's kind of a funny thing to call them. Who is the "opposing" team here? The public? And it's a funny sort of "sport" when the rules are all secret, and the referees and umpires get to reinterpret the rules in secret with the NSA/companies' team, without ever informing the public of the rule changes. There's definitely a team here, but it doesn't seem very sporting. It seems more like a bunch of people with way too much power screwing over the public. Perhaps that's what they should actually call it.

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Filed Under: buzzwords, nsa surveillance, prism, privacy, surveillance, team sport

19 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 12 Jul 2013 @ 11:39am

It's all fun and games for the NSA! Especially when they're writing the rules. ;)
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Vidiot (profile), 12 Jul 2013 @ 11:48am

Go, team!
And the plays are all end runs.
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John Fenderson (profile), 12 Jul 2013 @ 11:50am

It's adding insult to injury
I find the use of the phrase "team sport" to be incredibly insulting. It's reducing the wholesale invasion of our privacy to a game. If they're going to be doing this, I at least would prefer that they don't do it so lightheartedly.

The word "sport" means "play or a pleasant pasttime," after all. Unless you're 16th century royalty, for whom the term "sport of kings" meant war-making.
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Jeffrey Nonken (profile), 12 Jul 2013 @ 11:54am

Calvinball!
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Rikuo (profile), 12 Jul 2013 @ 12:15pm

So what positions are open? Linebacker? Quarterback? Mid field? Defender (The fact I even know these terms is somewhat of a miracle, given my complete non interest in sports). Is there gonna be a Superbowl?
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jupiterkansas (profile), 12 Jul 2013 @ 12:15pm

The opposing team is terrorists obviously. Aren't we all against terrorists?
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jupiterkansas (profile), 12 Jul 2013 @ 12:16pm

Re: It's adding insult to injury
The sport of kings is exactly what they're referring to.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Jul 2013 @ 12:27pm

Re:
who's point of view?

i'm sure King George didn't like those pesky American terrorists.. err I mean Revolutionaries
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Argonel (profile), 12 Jul 2013 @ 12:31pm

Re:
Close, I hear rumors that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is going to join the league. This will prepare them for a Superbowel game of cavity searches.
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jupiterkansas (profile), 12 Jul 2013 @ 12:36pm

Re: Re:
Of course the NSA gets to decide who is a terrorist and who isn't.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Jul 2013 @ 12:37pm

Re:
Shortstop, Goalie, and Bowler. 'Cause, yeah, all three of those are positions in this particular sport.
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Applesauce, 12 Jul 2013 @ 12:38pm

too big for one nation
Cyber must be a team sport -- it is too big for one agency, OR EVEN ONE NATION to be able to "control."

An extremely interesting statement. Are we limited to just the UK, AUS, NZ, Israel, or is the cabal much, much wider?
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Mr. Applegate, 12 Jul 2013 @ 1:37pm

Re:
The opposing team is terrorists obviously. Aren't we all against terrorists?
That is just EXACTLY what they WANT you to think. You stepped right into their trap.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Jul 2013 @ 1:48pm

There's no PRIVACY in TEAM
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Jul 2013 @ 2:07pm

Team sport? Did they have trouble pissing on the 4th Amendment by themselves?
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Jul 2013 @ 2:19pm

Ah the joys of Big Data Hunting.
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Guardian, 12 Jul 2013 @ 4:56pm

time to boycott then all major sports
when you all boycott major sports then the nsa gets sued cause of the term they used harms the majors....then they get bent over to "NOT BE PART OF THIS"

and aint that just hitler like to get you on the team....
take one in the ass for a team yup
i bet the flamin idiot that dreamed this up is some NFL moron just salivating at the money he just raked in for a stupid idea that now as its spying lying sack a shit gets turfed up to the bad winds ....well unemployment cant happen to nicer people.

when they are all turfed to the curb without a job will be the day i never give homeless and poor any coin ( as the majority of them will ONLY be these types a sick fucks)
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Jul 2013 @ 5:09pm

Re: Re: Re:
No they don't, remember they have to toss a coin. Only half of the global population are considered terrorists, but of course with the law of 6 degrees of separation that pretty much guarantees that they can spy on everyone.
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btrussell (profile), 13 Jul 2013 @ 5:46am

"It seems more like a bunch of people with way too much power screwing over the public."

That is sport to them.
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