That's Google's. The number of requests seems to be steadily rising, also with a big spike from Jul-Dec'12.
That's Facebook's. Once again, the number is rising. It's of course possible that Jan-Jun'13 is just a fluke since there isn't as much to go on, but based on Google's data, I'd say it's not.
http://gigaom.com/2014/02/03/tech-industrys-spy-court-fight-pays-off-companies-reveal-thousands-of-nsa-requests/
This needs to spread more. People should know more about this type of stuff. There's a good chance if you ask a random person about this stuff they'll have no clue.
True enough. Most of my friends think I'm some sort of conspiracy theorist. Either that or they think I care too much...
I normally ask them if they would care so little if there was a camera in their room and they always say "But it's the internet so it doesn't matter", even if I explain to them that more than just their browser history is collected they still don't care.
So maybe I'm just dumb but I don't understand what the charts are saying.
Oh no, everyone should make a tin foil hat.
Exactly the same situation for me. No matter how many times I talk to my friends about the NSA leaks, corporate espionage and other illegal privacy breaches, all I get are replies hinted with a "You need to chill out, Mr. Conspiracy Theorist. Not like we've got anything to hide anyways" (to add context, these friends are for the most part programmers who are well-versed in modern technology).
The frequency with which I hear that response is alarming. Just because you may not have anything to "hide" doesn't mean you should allow a person or organization to freely do as they please around you and your information. You have a basic right to privacy - protect it.
Often I have to visualize the issue with a personalized metaphor such as "it's like someone regularly breaks into your house, logs your browsing history, copies personal data, social profiles, photos, and monitors your psychological behavior (etc), and use it against you in so and so ways." Somehow that seems to hit harder, but sometimes not enough.
Ironically my parents, who haven't the faintest of clue about computers or the internet other than browsing, youtubing and other average-joe activities, are the most daring to change their comfortable ways and find different, safer alternatives so they can "stick it to the system." Even though they don't fully understand the technical aspect of the problem, the end result is all they care about. They reject the idea of it being normal to have their activities monitored. For the most part they pester me constantly on updates and alternatives for their online habbits.
I'm unsure if this is just my parents being who they are, or perhaps the older generations being generally better versed in activism and more protective of their rights (possibly due to past historical events) compared to our current internet-dwelling, everything-is-swell-as-long-as-nothing-bursts-my-satirical-internet-bubble generation.
And those are just the requests from people that only use their Google accounts on a non-registered smartphone and on linux machines, because the NSA can serve themselves for data from Windows-users and registered smartphone users. So go figure...
It does almost seem hopeless, all my friends care about is making our state legalize weed so they can smoke all day... then of course they will be posting a massive quantity of images of themselves smoking weed all day on facebook. Incredible how malleable people are to the wishes of those in power, and they choose not to think.