July 2013

XKeyscore: NSA tool collects 'nearly everything a user does on the Internet'

A top secret National Security Agency program allows analysts to search with no prior authorization through vast databases containing emails, online chats and the browsing histories of millions of individuals, according to documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The NSA boasts in training materials that the program, called XKeyscore, is its "widest-reaching" system for developing intelligence from the Internet. Training materials for XKeyscore detail how analysts can use it and other systems to mine enormous agency databases by filling in a simple on-screen form giving only a broad justification for the search. The request is not reviewed by a court or any NSA personnel before it is processed. XKeyscore, the documents boast, is the NSA's "widest reaching" system developing intelligence from computer networks – what the agency calls Digital Network Intelligence (DNI). One presentation claims the program covers "nearly everything a typical user does on the internet", including the content of emails, websites visited and searches, as well as their metadata. Analysts can also use XKeyscore and other NSA systems to obtain ongoing "real-time" interception of an individual's internet activity.

DNI Clapper Declassifies and Releases Telephone Metadata Collection Documents

In the interest of increased transparency, the Director of National Intelligence has authorized the declassification and public release of the attached documents pertaining to the collection of telephone metadata pursuant to Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act. DNI Clapper has determined that the release of these documents is in the public interest.

Senators lash out at NSA for excessive secrecy

Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) lashed out at “the lack of transparency” surrounding the collection of Americans’ phone records.

Speaking at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen Franken blasted top intelligence officials for delays in declassifying secret government documents authorizing the program. “I don’t want transparency only when it’s convenient to the government,” Sen Franken said. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), he added, “has known for weeks that this hearing was coming and ODNI released this only in the minutes before this hearing began. That doesn’t engender trust.”

Sen Franken vowed to introduce new legislation that would force the Obama administration to reveal more about the NSA’s controversial bulk surveillance programs. Sen Franken plans to introduce legislation soon that would force the National Security Agency to reveal how many people in the United States it has spied on. The bill would also allow companies to disclose aggregate figures about the number of surveillance orders they have received and how many users were affected by the orders.

DOJ official: No 'legal impediment' to tracking every phone in US

A top Justice Department official said he believes the government could legally track the location of every cellphone in the United States.

"I don't believe there would be a legal impediment," Deputy Attorney General James Cole said during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. "But the legal impediments are not the only issue you take into account here." Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) asked, "If Americans' phone records are relevant, how about our credit card records, what sites we go on on the Internet, what we may bookmark, our medical records if we have it on our computer, our firearms records?" The NSA has not disclosed what other records are being collected under Section 215 aside from the phone data. But Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has said the government is not currently using the program to gather cellphone location data and that he would notify Congress if the government were to ever collect such information.

Your location history is like a fingerprint. And cops can get it without a warrant.

Does it violate your privacy rights for the government to track the minute-by-minute movements of your cellphone? A federal appeals court said no. And that’s a bigger deal than you might think.

Information about where your phone has been might seem innocuous, but it can be surprisingly revealing. Location data can identify where someone sleeps, where they work, who they get a beer with, what medical professionals they visit and what political or religious gatherings they attend. And it’s almost impossible to anonymize this data because, as Jeff Jonas, IBM fellow and chief scientist of the IBM Entity Analytics Group has argued, people are “living in habitrails,” following a standardized schedule in which work and home markers are easy to discern. In fact, Jonas points out that because no one is exactly where you are at exactly the same time, your location records qualify as a behavioral biometric marker, as distinctive as a fingerprint.

Intelligence officials open to opposition before surveillance court

Obama administration officials said that they are willing to consider changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court that would allow an attorney to advocate on behalf of privacy rights.

During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Deputy Attorney Gen. James Cole said that creating an adversarial process at the FISA court should be "part of the debate." "There's obviously issues we'll have to work through as to clearances and classifications and who would be there and what their role would be," he said. "But those are the kinds of discussions we do need to have." Currently, FISA court judges review only the arguments from the government in favor of surveillance programs.

NSA Chief Asks Techies for Help, Not Backbench Criticism

Gen. Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency, tried to repair relations with the tech sector during a keynote speech at the Black Hat cybersecurity conference after damaging revelations about two broad digital surveillance programs.

Gen Alexander said the programs revealed by leaker Edward Snowden receive intense oversight from Congress and the judiciary and are “100 percent auditable.” He urged critics in the tech community to work with the government to improve the programs rather than criticize them from the sidelines. “The assumption is people are just out there wheeling and dealing and nothing could be further from the truth,” Gen Alexander said. “We have tremendous oversight.” Skeptical audience members heckled Alexander several times during the speech, accusing him of lying to Congress about the surveillance programs, saying they didn’t trust him and urging him to “read the constitution.” He also received a few rounds of applause when he described NSA surveillance information helping to foil terrorist plots.

Lawmakers summoned to spy briefing

The director of the National Security Agency will brief lawmakers on the agency's surveillance programs after the House nearly voted to curtail the agency’s powers.

NSA Director Gen. Keith Alexander will answer House members’ questions about the agency’s surveillance activities in a classified, members-only briefing. The briefing is to be held as lawmakers prepare to head back to their districts for the month-long August recess, where many expect to get questions from constituents about the NSA.

President Obama, lawmakers to huddle on NSA

President Barack Obama will meet with a bipartisan group of lawmakers at the White House on August 1 to "discuss key programs under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act."

The group of lawmakers includes Sens Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Mark Udall (D-CO), who have been outspoken critics of recently revealed National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance programs, as well as Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and ranking member Saxby Chambliss (R-GA). Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) will also attend, as will House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-MI), ranking member Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD) and Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI), the original author of the Patriot Act.

Twitter transparency report shows growing government demand for data

Twitter said that the U.S. government continues to make the most requests for information about the social network’s subscribers in a growing pursuit of data that has sparked protest by Internet firms.

In the first six months of the year, Twitter said federal authorities made 902 requests for user information, targeting 1,319 specific user accounts. That is up significantly from the same period last year when it requested information about 815 users, according to the company’s Transparency Report. The U.S. government comprised 78 percent of all requests for user data. The company didn’t disclose details of those requests, which ranged from a local sheriff's office seeking information to help in a kidnapping investigation to demands from national security officials. The transparency report does not include data on requests authorized under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

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