NSA's XKeyscore Collects Everything User Does On Internet - EXCLUSIVE REPORT (VIDEO)

Edward Snowden revealed the details on the NSA's most expansive surveillance program known as "XKeyscore." (VIDEO)


The XKeyscore documents say the program is the NSA's "widest reaching" system developing intelligence from computer networks.

National Security Agency documents provided to The Guardian by Edward Snowden reveal a system that allows analysts to search "nearly everything a typical user does on the internet," according to one document.

Glenn Greenwald reports that training materials for a program called XKeyscore show how analysts — without the review of a court or other NSA personnel — can mine extensive agency databases by giving only a broad justification for the search.

"It's very rare to be questioned on our searches," Snowden told the Guardian in June, "and even when we are, it's usually along the lines of: 'let's bulk up the justification.'"

From Greenwald:

XKeyscore provides the technological capability, if not the legal authority, to target even US persons for extensive electronic surveillance without a warrant provided that some identifying information, such as their email or IP address, is known to the analyst.

Furthermore, Greenwald reports that analysts can use XKeyscore and other NSA systems "to obtain ongoing 'real-time' interception of an individual's internet activity."

This would be akin to the NSA's assertion, as stated in 2000, that the "NSA must 'live on the network'" to "perform both its offensive and defensive mission."

The Guardian has published the NSA training slides from the program, whcih are from 2008. One shows how XKeyscore constantly collects digital activity and that an analyst can search the metadata as well as the content of emails, social media use, internet browsing activity, and more.

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