NSA ’Google’ Providing Data that Shares 850 Billion Records to US Gov’t Agencies

Local Editor

The National Security Agency [NSA] is secretly providing data to nearly two dozen US government agencies built to share more than 850 billion records about phone calls, emails, cellphone locations, and internet chats using a Google-like search engine, according to classified documents obtained by former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.

In the documents provided to The Intercept by Snowden, they provide clear evidence that the spy agency has been making a huge amount of surveillance data available to domestic law enforcement agencies for several years.

The search engine, named ICREACH, contains information on the private communications of foreigners as well as on millions of American citizens innocent of any wrongdoing.

Moreover, planning documents for the tool specifically name the FBI, CIA and DEA as core participants - meaning they would have easy access not only to billions of email and phone records, but also mobile phone locations and internet chat records.

ICREACH, initially projected to cost between $2.5 million and $4.5 million per year, can be used by more than 1,000 analysts working at 23 US government agencies that perform intelligence work, according to a 2010 memo.

Information shared through the program can be used to track people's movements, map out their networks of friends and potentially reveal religious affiliations or political views.

Such information also enables analysts to form a network of data on a particular person - where they identify details such as friends, family, interests and activities.

The tool was masterminded by retired NSA chief Keith Alexander.

NSA described ICREACH as a "one-stop shopping tool" for analysing communications.

Hence, the search tool was built with the intention of becoming the largest system for internally sharing secret surveillance records in the country - capable of processing two to five billion new records every day.

This includes more than 30 different kinds of data obtained from emails, phone calls, faxes, internet chats and text messages, as well as location information collected from mobile phones.

Additionally, earlier revelations arising from leaked Snowden documents have exposed several NSA programs designed to collect large volumes of communications from innocent parties.

The spy agency NSA has admitted that it shares some of its data with domestic agencies such as the FBI, but details about just how far it goes have long been a mystery.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team