Saturday, August 31, 2013

The Definitive NSA Parody Site

The definitive NSA parody site.

The Definitive NSA Parody Site Is Actually Informative -- Forbes

When I was working on a story about how much information the NSA data center in Utah might actually hold, a colleague sent me a link to this site, suggesting that the NSA was actually pretty transparent about its plans in Bluffdale. The “nsa.gov1.info” site had maps and photos of the data center, an overview of the plan for the site, and a description of the equipment that would be used there, as well as links to relevant articles. While the site looks very much like the NSA’s and much of the information — as gleaned from news articles — is accurate, it’s a parody site that takes on the bureaucrasona of the fictional “Domestic Surveillance Directorate.”

What makes the site incredibly fun to read is its taking on the voice of an NSA that embraces the openness about domestic intelligence gathering brought on by the Snowden leaks. The shadowy, secretive agency finally gets to put its feet up and brag about what it’s doing to “secure the future.” (That, by the way, is the NSA’s real tagline.) The “Surveillance Strategies” section raves about PRISM giving the NSA “ important insights into [targets'] thoughts and intentions.” In a candid explanation about why “Your Data” is being collected, the site explains that it’s “ thanks to top-secret Fourth Amendment exceptions allowed by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.”

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WNU Editor: The NSA parody site is here.

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