This content was created by Robert Siciliano. This content was uploaded by Robert Siciliano. This is a YouTube news segment titled "What is Prism and Who Is It Targeting? @McAfeeConsumer" (published June 10, 2013). It contains an English field report from Boston by reporter Katherine Sotnik with anchors (Latoya and Mike) and multiple man-on-the-street interviews reacting to revelations about federal surveillance/PRISM and phone record monitoring. The piece references the recent Boston Marathon attacks as context and quotes various locals about privacy; it also mentions Robert Siciliano as a McAfee online security expert who says the public shouldn't be overly concerned.
Chapters
And a day after the country learned the government is secretly monitoring phone records, we're hearing from people in the Boston area about privacy concerns. It's been a little over 24 hours since we've learned about the federal government surveillance programs. President Obama is defending those programs, but they're still not sitting too well with Americans concerned about privacy. Our Katherine Sotnik has more, and she joins us live from Boston. Katherine?
Well, this secret surveillance has caused some outrage throughout the country, throughout the nation, and tonight we wanted to know what people here in Boston Boston thought, of course, this is a scene of a recent terrorist attack.
Nobody is listening to your telephone calls.
President Barack Obama vehemently defends what he calls long-standing phone monitoring of the American public, internet monitoring abroad, he says, to fight terrorism and prevent specific attacks. On Boylston Street Friday, just feet away from where the Boston Marathon terrorist attacks happened, reaction to the secret government surveillance was mixed.
If somebody could have prevented what I saw, what I've been through, then take my cell phone.
Everyday people, I don't think— I don't want him looking about who I'm talking to. It's none of his business.
President Obama says the surveillance has both congressional and judicial review and approval.
What the intelligence community is doing is looking at They are not looking at people's names, and they're not looking at content.
I'm not quite sure if I agree with that. Um, our phones, to some degree, have been tapped since the Cold War. You know, since the KGB and, uh, communism, uh, government has been paying attention to our full-blown communications.
But despite this, Robert Siciliano, who works as a local McAfee online security expert, says the public shouldn't be overly concerned.
It's not me or my company you per se that are being monitored, or not the average Joe. It's generally bad guys that they're paying attention to.
Like people on terrorist watch lists.
With the, you know, 300+ million people in this country, with less than 1% of the data being actually looked at, I think the majority of the information is being collected for overseas communications based on servers that are here in the US.
Still, many people are mixed, especially when it comes to their privacy.
We did just have this huge tragedy here, and if it's gonna make the world a safer place Fine.
No, I'm not okay with it. I think it is an invasion of privacy. I'd prefer no one listens to my phone conversations.
And according to a U.S. senator that NBC News interviewed, this secret program, the surveillance program, has been going on since 2009. Back to you, Latoya and Mike.
