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XKeyscore: Real time Internet Monitoring Program

By Jeralyn, Section Civil Liberties
Posted on Wed Jul 31, 2013 at 08:43:33 PM EST
Tags: NSA warrantless surveillance, XKeyscore (all tags)
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Via the Guardian: Edward Snowden's latest contribution to letting the world know what the U.S. Government doesn't want you to know: XKeyscore.

Analysts can also use XKeyscore and other NSA systems to obtain ongoing "real-time" interception of an individual's internet activity.

....One top-secret document describes how the program "searches within bodies of emails, webpages and documents", including the "To, From, CC, BCC lines" and the 'Contact Us' pages on websites".

[More...]

According to another top secret document:

[A}nalysts can begin surveillance on anyone by clicking a few simple pull-down menus designed to provide both legal and targeting justifications. Once options on the pull-down menus are selected, their target is marked for electronic surveillance and the analyst is able to review the content of their communications.

There's another program for social media content:

An NSA tool called DNI Presenter, used to read the content of stored emails, also enables an analyst using XKeyscore to read the content of Facebook chats or private messages.

How much has been grabbed?

In 2012, there were at least 41 billion total records collected and stored in XKeyscore for a single 30-day period.

Is it any consolation that NSA says it only targets foreign intelligence when Americans communications are swept up in their data collection? Or that "every search is auditable?" Who's doing the auditing? The Government. The fox guarding the henhouse.

< Zimmerman's Traffic Stop: Why Wouldn't He Be Armed? | Snowden Gets Asylum in Russia, Leaves Airport >

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