Can the Government See Which Websites I Visit?

[learninmypc]

There was a time when the idea that the U.S. government might spy on your web activity might have seemed like a far-fetched conspiracy theory.

But that was before Edward Snowden. Back in 2013, Snowden, a former employee of a defense contractor for the National Security Agency, shocked the world by revealing the extent to which U.S. intelligence was able to conduct surveillance on the internet and electronic communications. Snowden's revelations, published in the U.K. newspaper the Guardian and other outlets, included the existence of a previously undisclosed NSA program called PRISM. The latter gave NSA direct access to the servers of various big U.S. internet companies, and enabled officials to collect information that included users' search histories, the content of their emails, file transfers and even live chats [sources: Greenwald and MacAskill,Gellman and Poitras]. FULL ARTICLE

 

[DelJo63]

U.S. intelligence was able to conduct surveillance on the internet and electronic communications

"Surveillance" is performed upon a selected, small group of nefarious actors that can't behave themselves. Keep your nose clean and you have nothing to be paranoid about. There are just too many conspiraces and "alternative beliefs" to be worth our time of day IMO.

Just think, your comments on TS can be monitored too!! :sheez:

 

[Underdog]

~The article referred to by the OP is two years old. We have learned a lot more since then. And none of it is good news to those who value their privacy.

 

[learninmypc]

~The article referred to by the OP is two years old. We have learned a lot more since then. And none of it is good news to those who value their privacy.

I just now noticed the date, thanks.

 

[kenny loris]

You activity cant be tracked as long as you are connected via VPN. Not the ISP nor the Govt can trace what you do and how you do it. But, you need to make to opt for a VPN that zero log policy. This ensures that if govt or your ISP reaches out to them for your data logs they are return empty handed.

 

[Puiu]

You activity cant be tracked as long as you are connected via VPN. Not the ISP nor the Govt can trace what you do and how you do it. But, you need to make to opt for a VPN that zero log policy. This ensures that if govt or your ISP reaches out to them for your data logs they are return empty handed.

It depends, some VPNs do keep logs and not every aspect of the server is anonymous. VPNs help with privacy and security (if they encrypt the data), not with complete anonymity.