It ’s been one year since the Guardian first publish the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court lodge , leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden , that demonstrate that the NSA was conducting dragnet surveillance on millions of innocent people . Since then , the onslaught of disturbing revelations , from disclosures , admissions from government official , Freedom of Information Act requests , and lawsuits , has been around-the-clock . On the anniversary of that first news leak , here are 65 things we know about NSA spying that we did not sleep with a yr ago :
1 . We saw an exercise of the court social club that authorize the NSA tocollect about every phone call recordin the United States — that ’s who you call , who bid you , when , for how long , and sometimes where .
2 . We saw NSA Powerpoint slide documenting how the NSAconducts “ upstream ” compendium , forgather intelligence information directly from the base of telecommunications providers .
3 . The NSA hascreated a “ content dragnet”by asserting that it can intercept not only communication where a quarry is a party to a communication but also communications “ about a target , even if the target is n’t a company to the communication . ”
4 . The NSAhas confirmedthat it is searching data point collected under Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act to access American ’s communications without a guarantee , in what Senator Ron Wyden called the “ back threshold search loophole . ”
5 . Although the NSA has repeatedly state it does not target Americans , its own documents show that lookup of data collected under Section 702 are design just to determine with51 percentage confidence a target ’s “ foreignness . ' ”
6 . If the NSA does not determine a target ’s curiousness , itwill not cease spyingon that prey . Instead the NSA will assume that target to be extraneous unless they “ can be positively identified as a United States person . ”
7 . A leak internal NSA audited account detail 2,776violations of rules or court ordersin just a one - year period .
8 . Hackers at the NSAtarget sysadmins , regardless of the fact that these sysadmins themselves may be completely innocent of any error .
9 . The NSA and CIAinfiltrated games and online communitieslike World of Warcraft and Second Life to gather data and conduct surveillance .
10 . The governmenthas destroy evidence in EFF ’s case against NSA spying . This is incredibly ironical , considering that the government has also claim EFF ’s clients require this evidence to prove standing .
11 . Director of National Intelligence James Clapperlied to Congresswhen asked directly by Sen. Ron Wyden whether the NSA wasgathering any sort of data on meg of Americans .
12 . Microsoft , like other party , hascooperated closely with the FBIto allow the NSA to “ circumvent its encryption and gain access code to user ’ data . ”
13 . The intelligence budget in 2013 alone was $ 52.6 billion — this number was revealed by a leak out document , not by the government . Of that budget,$10.8 billion went to the NSA . That ’s approximately $ 167 per mortal in the United States .
14 . The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has issue ordering that permit the NSA toshare raw data — without in person identifying info disrobe out — with the FBI , CIA , and the National Counterterrorism Center .
15 . Pursuant to amemorandum of intellect , the NSA on a regular basis shares sensitive data with Israel without stripping out personally identify info about U.S. soul .
16 . The Snowden disclosures have made it vindicated the Obama administrationmisled the Supreme Courtabout key return in ACLU ’s case against NSA spying , Clapper v. Amnesty International , lead to the dismission of the case for deficiency of standing .
17 . TheNSA “ cut up into Al Jazeera‘s interior communications system . ” NSA documents state that “ take targets had ‘ high voltage as sources of intelligence . ' ”
18 . The NSA used supposedly anon. Google cookies asbeacons for surveillance , avail them to track single users .
19 . The NSA “ tap ‘ million of images per 24-hour interval ’ — including about 55,000 ‘ facial recognition quality images ' ” and sue them with powerful facial recognition software .
20 . The NSAfacial recognition program“can now compare undercover agent artificial satellite exposure with intercepted personal photographs direct outdoors to determine the location . ”
21 . Although most NSA reform has focused on division 215 of the PATRIOT Act , and most advocates have also agitate for reform of surgical incision 702 of the FISA Amendments Act , some of the worst NSA spying happen underthe authority of Executive Order 12333 , which President Obama could repeal or modify today .
22 . The NSAcollected Americans ’ cell earphone locationinformation for two years as part of a pilot project to see how it could utilize such entropy in its massive database .
23 . In one month , March 2013 , the NSA collected97 billion piece of intelligencefrom computing machine networks worldwide , including3 billion piece of intelligencefrom US computer meshwork .
24 . The NSA hastargeted Tor , a stage set of tools that allow Internet drug user to browse the net anonymously .
25 . The NSA programMUSCULAR infiltrates linksbetween the global data centers of applied science troupe such as Google and Yahoo . Many companies have responded to MUSCULAR by encrypting traffic over their internal networks .
26 . TheXKEYSCORE program analyzesemails , on-line chats and the browse histories of millions of person anywhere in the world .
27 . NSAundermines the encoding toolsrelied upon by average users , company , fiscal psychiatric hospital , targets , and non - fair game as part of BULLRUN , an unparalleled travail to countermine the security of all Internet user , let in you .
28 . The NSA ’s Dishfire operationhas collected 200 million text edition messagesdaily from user around the world , which can be used to extract worthful info such as location data , liaison retrievals , credit entry card details , missed call alerts , vagabond alarm ( which indicate border crossings ) , electronic business cards , credit rating plug-in payment notifications , move itinerary alerts , and meeting information .
29 . Under the CO - TRAVELER mental process , theUS collects localization informationfrom global cell towers , Wi - Fi , and GPS hub , which is then information analyzed over time , in part in rescript to influence a aim ’s traveling companions .
30 . A2004 memoentitled “ DEA- The ‘ Other ’ Warfighter ” , states that the DEA and NSA “ revel a vivacious two - direction selective information - sharing kinship . ”
31 . When the DEA act on information its Special Operations Division receive from the NSA , itcloaks the source of the informationthrough “ parallel structure , ” expire through the charade of recreating an fanciful investigating to hide the informant of the bakshish , not only from the suspect , but from the royal court . This was intended to ensure that no court rule on the legality or scope of how NSA information is used in ordinary investigation .
32 . The fruit of NSA surveillance routinely cease up in the hands of theIRS . Like the DEA , the IRS uses parallel construction to cloak the source of the tip .
33 . Even the President ’s handpicked Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board recommend that thegovernment final stage Section 215mass telephone record collection , because that collection is ineffective , illegal , and likely unconstitutional .
34 . The NSA has plans toinfect potentially millionsof computing gadget with malware implant as part of its Tailored Access Operations .
35 . The NSA had a secret $ 10 million contract bridge with security measures firm RSA tocreate a “ back door”in the company ’s widely used encryption products .
36 . The NSAtracked access to pornand collect other sexually denotative information “ as part of a proposed programme to harm the reputations of those whom the agency believe are radicalizing others through incendiary speeches . ”
37 . The NSA and its partnersexploited nomadic apps , such as the popular Angry Birds game , to access user ’ private information such as location , home base address , gender , and more .
38 . The Washington Post revealed that the NSAharvests “ hundred of millions of contact listsfrom personal e - mail and exigent messaging report around the world , many of them belong to Americans . ”
Many of the Snowden revelations have concerned the NSA ’s natural action oversas , as well as the activeness of some of the NSA ’s closelipped allies , such as the its UK twin GCHQ . Some of these have been cooperative ventures . In particular , the “ Five Eyes ” — The United States , New Zealand , Australia , the United Kingdom , and Canada — share citizen datum amongst themselves – bring home the bacon loophole that might undermine internal lawmaking .
39.The NSA paid its British counterpartGCHQ $ 155 million over the last three year “ to fasten access to and influence over Britain ’s intelligence gather programmes . ”
40 . The Guardian reported : “ In one six - month period in 2008 alone , [ GCHQ ] collectedwebcam imaging – include substantial quantity of sexually explicit communications – from more than 1.8 - million Yahoo user accounts globally . ”
41 . GCHQused malware to compromisenetworks belong to the Belgian telecommunication company Belgacom .
42 . Major telecommunications troupe include BT , Vodafone , and Verizon business organization havegiven GCHQ limitless accessto their fiberoptic cables
43 . GCHQ used DDoS attacks and other method tointerrupt Anonymous and LulzSec communication , including communications of people not charged with any crime .
44 . GCHQ ’s Bude stationmonitored leadersfrom the EU , Germany , and Israel . It alsotargeted non - governmental organizationssuch as Dr. of the World .
45 . The NSA ’s partner Down Under , the Australian Signals Directorate , has been implicate in breaches of attorney - client privileged communication , countermine a foundational principleof our partake deplorable justice system .
46 . Australian intelligence official spied on the cell earpiece ofIndonesian cabinet ministersandPresident Susilo Bambang .
47 . In 2008 , Australiaoffered to share its citizen ‘ raw information with intelligence partners .
48 . CSEC help theNSA spy on political officialsduring the G20 meeting in Canada .
49 . CSEC and CSIS wererecently rebukedby a Union court judge formisleading himin a warrant software five years ago with respect to their consumption of Five optic resource for track Canadians abroad .
Ironically , some of the NSA ’s cognitive operation have been targeted at body politic that have exercise like a shot with the agency in other instance . And some simply seemedunnecessary and disproportional .
50 . NSA documents show that not all governments areclear about their own level of cooperationwith the NSA . As the Intercept report , “ Few , if any , elect leaders have any knowledge of the surveillance . ”
51 . The NSA is tap , recording , and archivingevery single cell phone callin the Bahamas .
52 . The NSAmonitored earphone callsof at least 35 world leaders .
53 . TheNSA stag on French diplomatsin Washington and at the UN .
54 . The NSAhacked in to Chinese company Huawei’snetworks and stole its root code .
55 . The NSAbugged EU embassiesin both New York and Washington . It copied hard drive from the New York federal agency of the EU , and tapped the intragroup computer connection from the Washington embassy .
56 . The NSA collect the metadata of more than45 - million Italian phone callsover a 30 solar day period . It also maintained monitoring sites in Rome and Milan .
57 . The NSA stored data point from approximately500 - million German communicationsconnections per month .
58 . The NSAcollected data from over-60 millionSpanish telephone call over a 30 - Clarence Shepard Day Jr. period in former 2012 and other 2013 andspied on membersof the Spanish government .
59 . The NSA collected data from over70 - million French telephone callsover a 30 - day catamenia in late 2012 and other 2013 .
60 . The Hindu account that , found on NSA document : “ In the overall listing of countries spied on by NSA programs , India stand at fifth stead . ”
61 . The NSAhacked into former Mexican PresidentFelipe Calderon ’s official electronic mail account .
62 . The Guardian report : “ The NSA has , for years , systematically tapped into the Brazilian telecom meshing andindiscriminately tap , collect and storedthe email and telephone records of millions of Brazilians . ”
63 . The NSAmonitored emails(link in Portuguese ) , telephone call , and school text message ofBrazilian President Dilma Roussefand her top adjutant .
64 . Germany’sintelligence agencies cooperatedwith the NSA andimplemented the NSA‘s XKeyscore program , while NSA was in number snoop on German leaders .
65 . Norwegian dailyDagbladet reported(Link in Norwegian ) that the NSA acquire data on33 million Norwegian cell telephone set callsin one 30 - Clarence Day period . ”
There ’s no question that the international relationship Obama pledged to fix , as well as the confidence of the American people in their privacy and constitutional rights , have been damage by the NSAs dragnet surveillance . But one year later , both the United States and international governments have not taken the step necessary to ensure that this surveillance ends . That ’s why everyone must take action — get through your elect representative , joinReset the Net , and check about howinternational law apply to U.S. surveillancetoday .
CybersecurityEdward SnowdenPrivacySecuritySurveillance
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