Leak: How ‘Everything You Do Online’ Is Tracked and Stored
Thanks
to a single National Security Agency program, the spy agency can monitor
everything you do online, including searches, emails, chats, streaming
video, purchases, and much more.
The program is called
XKeyscore, and it is latest the bombshell to come from the Edward
Snowden NSA leaks. The Guardian reporter Greenwald believes the
XKeyscore documents validate
Snowden’s claims that he could wiretap anybody anywhere in the world
without asking anybody for permission. Greenwald and Snowden’s
allegations are supported
by various images that detail how XKeyscore works when it comes to
monitoring all your communications and private data. Below you can see a
crucial image that details how the program works.
The training presentation indicates that XKesycore lets NSA analysts
search metadata: the information about phone and Internet usage
collected by the agency. It allows an NSA agent to see if an individual
sent any emails or even made a phone call. This would make it easy for
NSA analysts to pinpoint an individual by his or her email or Facebook
usage, especially when we factor in what the NSA can find out from just your phone records alone.Abolishing Privacy
The XKeyscore training materials show that an agent can target anybody for surveillance using the program. Worse, a tool included in the program called DNI Presenter lets agents read stored emails, Facebook conversations, and chats.If that wasn’t bad enough, the agents can also learn the addresses of every website you visit. That means they can check to see if you visited a gun website or checked out WikiLeaks.
What Greenwald describes violates the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures. It also violates the laws and constitutions of many other nations, including Britain’s. Note there is no Constitution in Britain, but some British activists contend such programs violate privacy laws in that country.
A graphic with the presentation from 2008 indicates that NSA agents can use XKeyscore to see phone numbers, email addresses, logins, and user activity. An agent with access to it will be able to see all of these communications. So theoretically would a hacker that stole XKeyscore data from the NSA. Serious efforts need to be made to bring the NSA under control now. It has become a major threat to our privacy and perhaps the Constitution at large.
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