Google for spies: how the NSA made a search engine for personal metadata

America's National Security Agency doesn't just store cellphone data — it can also look up who users talked to through its own Google-like search engine.

Google for spies: how the NSA made a search engine for personal metadata 1409111819538

Google for spies: how the NSA made a search engine for personal metadata 1409111819538

The agency's search engine called ICREACH can comb through around 850 billion files of phone calls, emails and more made by Americans and citizens of other nations, according to The Intercept. All those records are available to 23 agencies, such as the FBI and Drug Enforcement Agency, which have access to the search engine.

Government analysts can search for specific bits of data associated with a person, such as a phone number or an email address, and up pops a list of emails both to and from that person over a period of time. From there, analysts can figure out who a person interacts with the most, according to The Intercept.

Agents do this by picking through metadata, which doesn't include what was said during a phone call, but does include who a person is talking with, who called whom and the time of the call. Analysts can use that data to develop patterns of behavior. If an agent wants to listen to the call someone always makes on Tuesdays at 9 pm, for example, they can plan for it.

http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/google-for-spies-how-the-nsa-made-a-search-engine-for-personal-metadata-20140827-108zvz.html

Google for spies: how the NSA made a search engine for personal metadata

Google for spies: how the NSA made a search engine for personal metadata

Anarcho-Capitalist Categorical Imperatives

AnCaps In Science, Technology & Environment