The Nobel Prize-winning writers says to the NSA surveillance 'is being systematically abused'

Some of the most famous writers in the world have signed an open resource against the national security agency who says that massive surveillance by the U.S. Government chills freedom of thought.

Awards Nobel Orhan Pamuk and J.M. Coetzee, Elfriede Jelinek, Günter Grass and Tomas Transtr?mer are among hundreds of "writers against mass surveillance" around the world that have signed the open appeal, which calls on Governments and companies to respect the privacy rights of citizens.

"Surveillance violates the privacy and freedom of the commitments of thought and opinion," said the appeal. "As we have seen, this power is being systematically abused."

Other notable signatories include Richard Ford, Margaret Atwood, Umberto Eco, Yann Martel, Dave Eggers, Colum McCann, Sapphire, Ian McEwan and Don DeLillo. In Europe the appeal was released on Tuesday, human rights day.

The writers statement asks the Nations United to create an international law of digital rights. The United States, along with surveillance partners including the United Kingdom and Australia, have tried to weaken a U.N. resolution expressing its support for the digital privacy.

"We are really very concerned about mass surveillance," said Janne Teller, a Danish writer who helped organize the open message. "We think it is completely undermining the democracy, and we are shocked that more people instead of weapons..."

Teller said he does not believe that writers are more than citizens threatened by massive surveillance, but their work makes them particularly in tune with its dangers.

"I think it is very important when you have 560 more or less of the greatest contemporary writers from around the world, expressing a very serious concern, because they are people who work in the large philosophical questions of life, always," said Teller. "We hope that their major concern for politicians".

Last month, the rights group's survey of pen writers in freedom that found an "effect" of the revelations of massive surveillance of the NSA. American writers polled by the group said that they have avoided mention of controversial issues and criticizing the Government.

Teller, who lives in New York, said he expects Americans to unite in outrage writers on massive surveillance by adding their names to a public version of the appeal.

"This undermines all the freedoms and values that otherwise I love America," Teller said. "So that I can not understand why the Americans can accept massive surveillance in this way, is completely against the ideals of freedom."

Read the full document, "A Stand for democracy in the Digital Age", below. A complete list of signatories is available here.

In recent months, the measure of mass surveillance has become common knowledge. With a few clicks of the mouse state can access your mobile device, email, your social networks and Internet searches. You can follow their political inclinations and activities in collaboration with Internet companies, collects and stores its data and therefore can predict their consumption and behavior.

The basic pillar of democracy is the inviolable integrity of the person. Human integrity extends beyond the physical body. In their thoughts and in their personal environments and communications, all human beings have the right to remain unnoticed and unmolested.

This fundamental human right has been null and void by misuse of technological advances by States and corporations for the purpose of mass surveillance.

A person under surveillance is no longer free; a society under surveillance is no longer a democracy. To hold some validity, they must apply our democratic rights in virtual as real space.

* Surveillance violates freedom of sphere and commitments of private thought and opinion.

* Mass surveillance treats everyone as a potential suspect. It dumps one of our historic triumphs, the presumption of innocence.

* Monitoring makes the transparent individual, while the State and the society operate in secret. As we have seen, this power is being abused systemically.

* Surveillance is theft. This information is not public property: belongs us to us. When used to predict our behavior, we are stealing something else: the principle of free will essential to democratic freedom.

We claim the right of all persons, as democratic citizens, to determine the extent to which your personal data stored and processed can be collected and by whom; for information about where are stored the data and how is being used; for the cancellation of their data if it has been illegally collected and stored.

We call on all States and corporations to respect these rights.

We make a call to all citizens to stand up and defend these rights.

Call us at the United Nations to recognize the fundamental importance of the protection of civil rights in the digital age and to create an International Bill of digital rights.

We call on Governments to sign and adhere to a Convention.

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EXCLUSIVE: Snowden sought Booz Allen work to gather evidence about the NSA surveillance | South China Morning Post

Edward Snowden says the Post, he took a job at Booz Allen Hamilton contractor to collect evidence of the NSA surveillance program.

Read the full story in the South China Morning Post

NSA Surveillance Broke Privacy Rules Thousands Of Times Per Year: Report

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AppId is over the quota

WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency has broken privacy rules or overstepped its legal authority thousands of times each year since Congress granted the agency broad new powers in 2008, The Washington Post reported Thursday.

Most of the infractions involve unauthorized surveillance of Americans or foreign intelligence targets in the United States, both of which are restricted by law and executive order. They range from significant violations of law to typographical errors that resulted in unintended interception of U.S. emails and telephone calls, the Post said, citing an internal audit and other top-secret documents provided it earlier this summer from NSA leaker Edward Snowden, a former systems analyst with the agency.

In one of the documents, agency personnel are instructed to remove details and substitute more generic language in reports to the Justice Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

The Post cited a 2008 example of the interception of a "large number" of calls placed from Washington when a programming error confused U.S. area code 202 for 20, the international dialing code for Egypt, according to a "quality assurance" review that was not distributed to the NSA's oversight staff.

In another case, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which has authority over some NSA operations, did not learn about a new collection method until it had been in operation for many months. The court ruled it unconstitutional.

The NSA audit obtained by the Post dated May 2012, counted 2,776 incidents in the preceding 12 months of unauthorized collection, storage, access to or distribution of legally protected communications. Most were unintended. Many involved failures of due diligence or violations of standard operating procedure. The most serious incidents included a violation of a court order and unauthorized use of data about more than 3,000 Americans and green-card holders.

In an emailed statement to The Associated Press late Thursday, John DeLong, NSA's director of compliance, said, "We want people to report if they have made a mistake or even if they believe that an NSA activity is not consistent with the rules. NSA, like other regulated organizations, also has a `hotline' for people to report – and no adverse action or reprisal can be taken for the simple act of reporting. We take each report seriously, investigate the matter, address the issue, constantly look for trends and address them as well – all as a part of NSA's internal oversight and compliance efforts. What's more, we keep our overseers informed through both immediate reporting and periodic reporting."

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Ray Kelly, New York Police Commissioner, hit the secret of NSA surveillance

Commissioner of police of New York Ray Kelly is slammed the Obama administration for its handling of the scandal of the national security administration - but not because they think that the Government was extending its scope too.

Conference of the upper parts of the city said that the public would have been more favorable to the idea of the NSA to spy on their electronic communications had not been keeps a secret.

"I think that the American public can accept the fact if you tell them each time lift phone will be recorded and the Government", Kelly said at an event on Monday, according to the New York Daily News. "I think that the public can understand.

Although Kelly suggested that the contents of the phone calls of Americans is being recorded, the Guardian reported this month that the Government has been collecting so-called metadata, which includes the numbers that marked a particular phone and time, location and duration of the calls, but not the contents of the talks.

Error of Obama, said Kelly, was not to be more explicit about what information from the NSA is collecting, and what internal mechanisms to draw the line.

"I think that people comfort level we can rise if actually information out as to have these controls and these protections within the NSA," he said, according to the New York Post.

Kelly came under fire in 2012 after revelations about surveillance of the police of New York and of Muslim communities.

At the time, defended police spying. "Not everyone will be happy, but our main mission, our goal is to keep this city safe and save lives," said Kelly, according to CBS in New York.

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Architecture of United States surveillance includes collection of Internet revealed, phone metadata

On 12 March 2004, acting attorney general James B. Comey and officials of the Department of Justice was on the verge of resignation on orders of electronic surveillance, which believed that it is illegal.

Read the full story in The Washington Post