The discussions around the internet are quite extensive around the latest article from the “Snowden files” (my name). XKeyscore is the research/cyber search tool recently disclosed by The Guardian newspaper who have access to the Snowden whistleblower information.
The primary discussions around the article are framed around how the NSA can essentially, without warrant, snoop on any Facebook, email, or cyber chat room, based on a general sub-set of query data. In essence, data strip-mining.
We are still fully digesting the information and working out the “what if’s” that follow from such details being revealed. However, the immediate question pops to mind about “who” actually owns, or controls, such sleuthing cyber software. Is it only the NSA, or is it also used domestically by the FBI?
One can really, really, see how the dynamic of the entire conversation would immediately change if it were discovered the FBI also had use and access of this type of data search capability…. I wonder if anyone is looking into that?
(Here’s The Guardian Story) 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. (more…)