As I'm sure you have heard, there's been another revelation about wiretapping taking place
at the NSA.
We now know, thanks to Glenn Greenwald, Edward Snowden, and The Guardian, of a system called
XKeyscore, and in a nutshell it means that an agent working for the NSA can get access
to the content of your emails, your Facebook messages, online chats and even your browsing
history, and all they need to do this is your IP address or an email address.
Back when this whole saga started, one thing that Snowden said in the initial interview
really stood out.
"But I sat at my desk, certainly have the authorities to wiretap anyone from you or
your accountant to a federal judge to even a president if I had a personal email."
Many people in the American Administration criticized Edward Snowden for this saying
that such a thing was impossible.
Well this latest leak seems to vindicate that claim.
One slide from the leaked document shows that you can search "within bodies of emails, webpages
and documents".
To monitor someone's email, you just put in their email address.
Easy Then there's also a handy system called DNI
Presenter, in which you simply put in someone's Facebook username along with two dates and
hey presto, you can read all of the messages between those dates.
The system allows analysts to find out who has visited particular websites, and once
they have a target, they can follow all of the websites which that target looks at and
all of the search terms they are using.
The leaked presentation shows just how powerful the system is, with complicated searches such
as "show me all of the exploitable machines in country x" explained.
In short, this is an incredibly powerful system.
The question now is, how legal is it?
Remember this claim?
"Any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires, a wiretap
requires a court order.
Nothing has changed by the way.
When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order
before we do so."
Well, in order to wiretap someone using the system, it appears as though the analysts
simply fill in a form giving a reason, and Snowden claimed they were rarely questioned
over their searches.
It also appears that there is no congressional oversight to these wiretaps, with parts of
this vast database of personal information being able to be searched without a warrant.
In a statement to the Guardian, the NSA said "there are multiple technical, manual and
supervisory checks and balances within the system to prevent deliberate misuse from occurring."
They also claim the XKeyscore system is 'lawful'.
Whether congress or the American public agree will be a matter of some debate.
We spotted an interesting detail in the leaked document.
At the bottom of the slide it says this, "Top Secret" and then refers to the USA, Australia,
Canada, Great Britain and New Zealand."
And all of those countries happen to be part of the five eyes alliance, which is an agreement
to share intelligence and at Truthloader we've already made a video about this, it's there
if you want to find out more.
So right now, it's possible for someone at the NSA to read the contents of your emails,
they can check which websites you've been looking at, and they can see the contents
of your web chats.
They can store detailed information about who you talk to, how often, and on which platforms.
In short, if so desired, an agent can know everything there is to know about you, and
all of this technical ability have consistently been denied by high ranking NSA officials.
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We'll see you guys again next time.