With
every phone call they make and every web excursion they take, people
are leaving a digital trail of revealing data that can be tracked by
profit-seeking companies and terrorist-hunting government officials.
The
revelations that the National Security Agency is perusing millions of
US customer phone records at Verizon Communications and snooping on the
digital communications stored by nine major internet services illustrate
how aggressively personal data is being collected and analyzed.
Verizon
is handing over so-called metadata, excerpts from millions of US
customer records, to the NSA under an order issued by the secretive
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, according to a report in the
British newspaper The Guardian. The report was confirmed by Democratic
Senator Dianne Feinstein, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Former
NSA employee William Binney told the Associated Press that he estimates
the agency collects records on 3 billion phone calls each day.
The
NSA and FBI appear to be casting an even wider net under a clandestine
programme code-named Prism that came to light in a story posted by
Washington Post. Prism gives the US government access to email,
documents, audio, video, photographs and other data that people entrust
to some of the world's best known companies, according to Washington
Post. The newspaper said it reviewed a confidential roster of companies
and services participating in Prism. The companies included AOL, Apple,
Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Skype, YouTube and Paltalk.
In
statements, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo said they only
provide the government with user data required under the law. (Google
runs YouTube and Microsoft owns Skype.) AOL and Paltalk didn't
immediately respond to inquiries from The Associated Press.
The
NSA isn't getting customer names or the content of phone conversations
under the Verizon court order, but that doesn't mean the information
can't be tied to other data coming in through the Prism programme to
look into people's lives, according to experts.
Like
pieces of a puzzle, the bits and bytes left behind from citizens'
electronic interactions can be cobbled together to draw conclusions
about their habits, friendships and preferences using data-mining
formulas and increasingly powerful computers.
It's
all part of a phenomenon known as a Big Data, a catchphrase
increasingly used to describe the science of analyzing the vast amount
of information collected through mobile devices, web browsers and
check-out stands. Analysts use powerful computers to detect trends and
create digital dossiers about people.
The Obama
administration and lawmakers privy to the NSA's surveillance aren't
saying anything about the collection of the Verizon customers' records
beyond that it's in the interest of national security. The sweeping
court order covers the Verizon records of every mobile and landline
phone call from April 25 through July 19, according to The Guardian.
It's
likely the Verizon phone records are being matched with an even broader
set of data, said Forrester Research analyst Fatemeh Khatibloo.
"My
sense is they are looking for network patterns," she said. "They are
looking for who is connected to whom and whether they can put any
timelines together. They are also probably trying to identify locations
where people are calling from."
Under the court
order, the Verizon records include the duration of every call and the
locations of mobile calls, according to The Guardian.
The
location information is particularly valuable for cloak-and-dagger
operations like the one the NSA is running, said Cindy Cohn, a legal
director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group
that has been fighting the government's collection of personal phone
records since 2006. The foundation is currently suing over the
government's collection of US citizens' communications in a case that
dates back to the administration of President George W Bush.
"It's
incredibly invasive," Cohn said. "This is a consequence of the fact
that we have so many third parties that have accumulated significant
information about our everyday lives."
It's
such a rich vein of information that US companies and other
organizations now spend more than $2 billion each year to obtain
third-party data about individuals, according to Forrester Research. The
data helps businesses target potential customers. Much of this
information is sold by so-called data brokers such as Acxiom, an
Arkansas company that maintains extensive files about the online and
offline activities of more than 500 million consumers worldwide.
The
digital floodgates have opened during the past decade as the
convenience and allure of the internet -- and sleek smartphones -- have
made it easier and more enjoyable for people to stay connected wherever
they go.
"I don't think there has been a sea
change in analytical methods as much as there has been a change in the
volume, velocity and variety of information and the computing power to
process it all," said Gartner analyst Douglas Laney.
In
a sign of the NSA's determination to vacuum up as much data as
possible, the agency has built a data center in Bluffdale, Utah that is
five times larger than the US Capitol -- all to sift through Big Data.
The $2 billion center has fed perceptions that some factions of the US
government are determined to build a database of all phone calls,
internet searches and emails under the guise of national security. The
Washington Post's disclosure that both the NSA and FBI have the ability
to burrow into computers of major internet services will likely heighten
fears that US government's Big Data is creating something akin to the
ever-watchful Big Brother in George Orwell's novel named 1984.
In
most instances, internet companies such as Google, Facebook and Yahoo
are taking what they learn from search requests, clicks on "like"
buttons, web surfing activity and location tracking on mobile devices to
figure out what each of their users like and divine where they are.
It's all in aid of showing users ads about products likely to pique
their interest at the right time. The companies defend this kind of data
mining as a consumer benefit.
Google is trying
to take things a step further. It is honing its data analysis and
search formulas in an attempt to anticipate what an individual might be
wondering about or wanting.
Other internet
companies also use Big Data to improve their services. Video
subscription service Netflix takes what it learns from each viewer's
preferences to recommend movies and TV shows. Amazon.com does something
similar when it highlights specific products to different shoppers
visiting its site.
The federal government has
the potential to know even more about people because it controls the
world's biggest data bank, said David Vladeck, a Georgetown University
law professor who recently stepped down as the Federal Trade
Commission's consumer protection director.
Before
leaving the FTC last year, Vladeck opened an inquiry into the practices
of Acxiom and other data brokers because he feared that information was
being misinterpreted in ways that unfairly stereotyped people. For
instance, someone might be classified as a potential health risk just
because they bought products linked to an increased chance of heart
attack. The FTC inquiry into data brokers is still open.
Vladeck
stressed he had no reason to believe that the NSA is misinterpreting
the data it collects about private citizens. He finds some comfort in
The Guardian report that said the Verizon order had been signed by
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court Judge Ronald Vinson.
The
NSA "differs from a commercial enterprise in the sense that there are
checks in the judicial system and in Congress," Vladeck said. "If you
believe in the way our government is supposed to work, then you should
have some faith that those checks are meaningful. If you are skeptical
about government, then you probably don't think that kind of oversight
means anything."
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