14 DAY TRIAL // Several months after the NSA leaks started coming out, they still manage to surprise, unfortunately. We've just discovered that the NSA is running its own private "Facebook," storing data and social graphs describing the relations between people.
Now, the Guardian is revealing yet another major data scooping program, in which anything the NSA can get on you – browsing data, passwords, emails, contacts, and so on – is added to one massive database.
Under the Marina codename, the program relies on several data sources to create a very accurate picture of your browsing habits and your online connections, what the NSA calls "pattern-of-life" building. The new revelations come from a training manual for field agents.
"The Marina metadata application tracks a user's browser experience, gathers contact information/content and develops summaries of target," the document explains. "This tool offers the ability to export the data in a variety of formats, as well as create various charts to assist in pattern-of-life development."
"Of the more distinguishing features, Marina has the ability to look back on the last 365 days' worth of DNI [Digital Network Information] metadata seen by the Sigint collection system, regardless of whether or not it was tasked for collection." [Emphasis in original.]
The NSA has repeatedly said that it is allowed to intercept and store "metadata" and has added that this doesn't violate anyone's privacy since the contents of messages, for example, aren't targeted, just the recipients, the date it was sent, on and so on.
In Marina's case, this metadata can include browsing history, such as sites you visited, searches you made, and so on, but also full email activity, even passwords for accounts. In fact, any metadata the NSA gets via any means eventually ends up in this database, except the phone record data which is kept separately, probably for compliance reasons.
The data comes from programs such as PRISM, through which Internet companies voluntarily give information about you and your habits, or from intercepting traffic going through the big Internet backbone connections. Some data is even bought directly from companies which are tracking you, with or without your knowledge.
The most troubling revelation though is that this metadata comes from potentially millions of people, the vast majority of which aren't targets. As has long been suggested, even as the NSA has been denying it, the agency stores data on millions of people, Americans and foreigners, even if they are not "targets" or in any way related to any investigation.
This data is available for up to a year in the possibility that it may become relevant further down the line. Of course, for most people and most of the data, this never happens. But the NSA is treating everyone as a suspect until proven otherwise. You may have not committed any crime, but the NSA wants to keep an eye on you just in case, you might do something in the future.
This is the very definition of Big Brother and the subject of plenty of Sci-Fi movies. But no one expected Minority Report to become a reality so fast, both with regards to the gesture-based computer interaction that it envisioned and Elon Musk built, and the concept of being treated like a criminal before you become one.