Ride the Lightning

X-Keyscore: Can the NSA Now See 'Nearly Everything' We Do?

August 1, 2013

The hits just keep on coming. Yesterday, CNET posted an article which says that Edward Snowden has reportedly leaked to The Guardian new details on a very powerful, secret program run by the U.S. government called X-Keyscore. The Guardian, which obtained slides of a presentation the NSA reportedly gave to employees, asserts that the program is the "widest-reaching" intelligence system.

According to Snowden's files on X-Keyscore, NSA employees can obtain everything from phone numbers to e-mail addresses. It can also see e-mail content, Internet activity, browser history, and an IP address. According to the files and Snowden, no warrant is needed.

Has the NSA been using this capability on U.S. citizens? With the information currently available, we're not sure. If there is any cold, cold comfort in the new revelations, it is that the sheer volume of data means that content is only available for 3-5 days and metadata for 30 days. Each day, 1 to 2 billion records are added, necessitating deleting or transferring data. To solve that problem, it appears that the NSA has created other databases where "interesting" information can be stored.

It is quite clear from this article and others that most members of Congress have no idea exactly what the government is capable of. So much for the balance of powers.