Saikumar Dass Malcolm Campbell Honors English 1103 07 November 2013 I SPY: An Inside Look at the NSAs Surveillance

System Do you every have the feeling you are being watched? Do you have the feeling you are being followed (Twitter doesnt count)? This is because you are being watched.Every cellphone call, text, email and all your information on social media is monitored and stored by the US government. Anytime you use your cellphone or laptop the government is constantly being fed information about your internet and cellphone activities. This information was recently released by US whistleblower Edward Snowden. He released tons of classified information, but most of it was nothing that would compromise people in other countries. The information he released was the most damaging to the government of the United States, but it affected people all around the world. Edward Snowden is a 29 year old who was a computer analyst for the National Security Agency (NSA) working in Hawaii on top secret government information. He was initially a security guard for the NSA, then eventually moved to the information technology sector of the NSA. The information technology field was where he analyzed all the data he had coming in and the place where he was able to copy all the information from the government. He later leaked the information to The Guardian (a British newspaper) in May of 2013 which caused a shockwave throughout the world. It had sensitive information about the surveillance programs in the USA and the United Kingdom and how they were doing all this surveillance. He is now living is Moscow, Russia after President Vladimir Putin gave him asylum (Edward Snowden).

This study will be focusing on to what extent the NSAs surveillance programs are monitoring the people of the United States. There are a multitude of programs the NSA uses to monitor communications including PRISM, MARINA, NUCLEON, and MAINWAY are just a few (Everything You). PRISM is the program the government uses to monitor all people connected to the internet around the US, and in foreign countries. NUCLEON is used to get phone content and other information from phone companies. But the other programs are used to sift through all the data collected by PRISM and NUCLEON. The documents leaked by Edward Snowden also included a similar program of surveillance in the United Kingdom called Tempora, but these other programs are of more relevance to the American people. To show the extent to which the NSA surveillance programs impact everyday internet users, here are some facts about internet usage. In just 60 seconds (1 minute) there are 100 thousands tweets posted, 204 million emails sent, 48 hours of YouTube video uploaded, and 3125 pictures shared on Flickr (Wood). If this is just one minute, imagine how much information is flowing in an hour, a day, or even a year. This doesnt even include the number of phone calls and text messages made. These facts give just a small glimpse into the amount of information the NSA is collecting on a regular basis from both the citizens of the United States and international users of technology. According to the documents released by Greenwald and MacAskill of The Guardian, PRISM and NUCLEON monitor all cellphone calls, text messages, emails, internet searches, search locations, and files stored on the cloud, while MARINA and MAINWAY filter through all of the information to analyze it. All this information can basically build a profile of the any person who uses some sort of technology every day. This would be concerning to many people but surprisingly many people are fine with the NSAs surveillance tactics.According to a survey

taken right after the Snowden leaks, 58 percent of the public agree with how the NSA has been trying to track down terrorists, while 39 percent are against the surveillance measures. But 48 percent of the people also want congressional hearings (which have already started) on the subject of surveillance (Langer). Even after the information was leaked, the government denied that any sort of program existed for a short period of time. Some of the companies involved in the PRISM program, such as Google and Facebook, also denied giving private/secure information to the government (OHarrow Jr.). Eventually both the government and the internet companies did acknowledge the existence of the program and said it was a vital part of the NSA to crack down on terrorists and foreign threats to the United States. The director of the NSA, Keith Alexander, said that 50 plus terrorist plots have been stopped as a direct result of the surveillance program, but we have yet to hear about them. The tragic Boston Bombings that took place earlier this year during the Boston Marathon, was not able to be stopped before, and they only found the suspects because of the help of the citizens. A few years ago the Times Square bomb attempt was foiled only because of the help of the citizens yet again. Two street vendors thought the car was parked suspiciously and smelled smoke coming from it. There were a few more major plots that were foiled, but no thanks to the surveillance program. This information was gathered from The Verge, an online technology news source. To be able to process all this data the government has a brand new state-of-the-art facility in Utah that cost 1.5 billion dollars (NSA Utah). The servers for all this are located near a secure military base in Utah where it stores all the data collected from calls, messages, emails, etc. Based on the information from The Verge, the government has access to all this information through companies like Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo, Apple, and cellphone companies

such as AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint. The NSA has back door access to all these companies servers to access all the information at any time. They already had access to phone records from cellphone companies through the Patriot Act-2001, but to get internet information they have to go through the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), a group of judges that oversee and regulate what information the government can use as intelligence through issued warrants. FISC either approves or disproves of warrants submitted by the government, more specifically the NSA, as of today, they have not rejected a single warrant. This was all approved by Congress through a multitude of different acts and amendments. This includes The Patriot Act, amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and Protect America Act of 2007 (Kaminski). According to The Verge, the data that PRISM collects is classified into two different groups: metadata and content. Metadata is the information generated from the use of technology, as stated in The Guardian. For example, if you were to send an email, it would have the exact date, time, and location of the email, the sender and receiver of the email, and even the subject. Sometimes it can go as far as seeing if the email has been opened or not yet. When using an internet browser PRISM collects all web searches, cache, cookies, and even information about the computer you were using while browsing the website. The program leaves no stone unturned and even takes metadata from social media like Facebook and Twitter. From the social media websites, PRISM knows locations, all personal data you post (or tweet), people you interact with the most, times, dates, and even apps you sync social media with. In a nutshell, metadata collected by PRISM knows everything about you and when and where you use technology (A Guardian Guide).

In regard to cellphones, metadata records phones numbers, call durations, and locations of all your calls (A Guardian Guide). But for phone data the government uses the program NUCLEON and MAINWAY. The government by law needs approval from the FISC and the phone companies, but the NSA does have direct access to phone companies. Once this data is collected by NUCLEON, it is then analyzed by MAINWAY. It monitors anyone on any of the big three American cellphone companies, which are AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon (Everything You). Content is the other type of data that The Verge reported that PRISM collects. This is more specific and is exactly what people say in conversations and messages. So if two people were talking over a cellphone, PRISM could collect exactly what they say in the conversation along with all the other information previously stated. On emails, the subjects of the email and what is stated in the message are also collected by the NSA. This is basically like bugging a line, but on a much wider scale. There is also evidence suggesting that the NSA spied on more than just civilians. A recently revealed report shows that the US has also been spying on its allies. The latest one to draw attention was the spying on German Chancellor, Angela Merkel. The NSA has been spying on Merkel since 2002 by getting information from her cellphone. This has caused international outrage, especially from the Europeans. President Obama has assured Chancellor Merkel that he did not know about the spying the NSA was doing on her cellphone (McGuinness). The justification according to experts was that the US has been spying on allies forever, and that it is common practice. They also want to find additional information that some foreign governments may not be telling the US (Martinez).

Widespread surveillance has been made popular through recent pop culture like the movies The Dark Knight and Skyfall and the TV show Person of Interest. But we didnt feel the impact it has on everyones daily life until Edward Snowden leaked the information to the public. Every step you take on the internet is monitored and stored by the federal government on their servers. They have claimed it is only to monitor foreigners in America and abroad, but there is only so much we know is true and dont know how much transparency there is from our government.

Works Cited "A Guardian Guide to Metadata." The Guardian. The Guardian, 12 June 2013. Web. 07 Nov. 2013. "Edward Snowden: Timeline." BBC News. BBC, 20 Aug. 2013. Web. 07 Nov. 2013. "Everything You Need to Know About PRISM." The Verge. Ed. The Verge. N.p., 17 July 2013. Web. 21 Oct. 2013. Greenwald, Glenn, and Ewen MacAskill. "NSA Prism Program Taps in to User Data of Apple, Google and Others." The Guardian. The Guardian, 6 June 2013. Web. 30 Aug. 2013. Jr., Robert OHarrow, Ellen Nakashima, and Barton Gellman. "U.S., Company Officials: Internet Surveillance Does Not Indiscriminately Mine Data." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 09 June 2013. Web. 23 Oct. 2013. Kaminski, Margot. "The Atlantic." The Atlantic. The Atlantic Monthly Group, 7 June 2013. Web. 06 Nov. 2013 Langer, Gary. "Most Back NSA Surveillance Efforts But Also Seek Congressional Hearings." ABC News. ABC News Network, 19 June 2013. Web. 07 Nov. 2013. Martinez, Michael. "Allies Spy on Allies Because a Friend Today May Not Be One Tomorrow." CNN. Cable News Network, 01 Jan. 1970. Web. 06 Nov. 2013. McGuinness, Damien. "US Bugged Merkel's Phone from 2002 until 2013, Report Claims."BBC News. BBC, 27 Oct. 2013. Web. 06 Nov. 2013. "NSA Utah Data Center - Serving Our Nation's Intelligence Community." NSA Utah Data Center - Serving Our Nation's Intelligence Community. Domestic Surveillance Directorate, n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2013. Wood, Colin. "Snoop-Gate." Government Technology (2013): 36-37. Print