Not trying to get political, and frankly this is so beyond politics that I just consider this news.
Basically if you used Yahoo video chat between 2008 and 2010 (and maybe still going on, we have no way of knowing) the UK government has accumulated still-images from your video chats. The US government was aware and cooperated with this invasion of our privacy.
To anyone who suggests they have nothing to hide, so they don't care, I don't really know what to say. I can't think of a private conversation I've ever had online, with anyone, no matter how casual and G-rated that I would feel comfortable the government recording. I use video chat (more so Skype than Yahoo these days) to talk with my friends and family that live overseas, and if you do too, I would suggest assuming all those conversations are being recorded and stored by the government. It's unclear whether entirely domestic conversations are recorded by the UK, but you can safely assume if they aren't then our government is.
Article and info here:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/27/gchq-nsa-webcam-images-internet-yahoo
? Optic Nerve program collected Yahoo webcam images in bulk
? 1.8m users targeted by UK agency in six-month period alone
? Yahoo: 'A whole new level of violation of our users' privacy'
? Material included large quantity of sexually explicit images
Basically if you used Yahoo video chat between 2008 and 2010 (and maybe still going on, we have no way of knowing) the UK government has accumulated still-images from your video chats. The US government was aware and cooperated with this invasion of our privacy.
To anyone who suggests they have nothing to hide, so they don't care, I don't really know what to say. I can't think of a private conversation I've ever had online, with anyone, no matter how casual and G-rated that I would feel comfortable the government recording. I use video chat (more so Skype than Yahoo these days) to talk with my friends and family that live overseas, and if you do too, I would suggest assuming all those conversations are being recorded and stored by the government. It's unclear whether entirely domestic conversations are recorded by the UK, but you can safely assume if they aren't then our government is.
Article and info here:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/27/gchq-nsa-webcam-images-internet-yahoo
? Optic Nerve program collected Yahoo webcam images in bulk
? 1.8m users targeted by UK agency in six-month period alone
? Yahoo: 'A whole new level of violation of our users' privacy'
? Material included large quantity of sexually explicit images
