The First Technological Innovation Since The Internet With The Potential To Change The World
Even within the infrastructure of the American surveillance apparatus, the National Security Agency is notoriously secretive. The spy agency jealously guards from public view practically all aspects of its operations, from the information it collects to its plans for a massive 100,000-square-foot building being constructed in the Utah desert.
But when it comes to the agency's primary tool for making sense of all that data, the NSA hasn't been secretive at all. Indeed, two years ago, it made public the very code for a key program it uses to analyze the firehose of information pouring into its computer servers.
The NSA’s decision to give away that code to developers has helped fuel what is now a booming trend in technology known as "big data." The technology, Accumulo, makes it possible for companies to sift through massive amounts of information with essentially the same degree of sophistication and security as the country's top spy agency.
The use of computers to spot connections along a trail of digital breadcrumbs is hardly new. For years, major companies, from Amazon to Facebook to Google, have analyzed customer information to suggest books, friends or search results.
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Embarrassed USA closes ranks over snooping disclosures
WASHINGTON: An embarrassed American establishment began rolling out a ''national security'' imperative as an explanation for Washington's secret monitoring of electronic communication worldwide, even as the first lawsuit challenging the constitutional validity of government snooping was filed on Tuesday.
In its constitutional challenge, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) argued that the NationalSecurity Agency's program violates the U.S First Amendment rights of free speech and association as well as the right of privacy protected by the Fourth Amendment. The complaint also charges that the dragnet program exceeds the authority that Congress provided through the Patriot Act.
"It is the equivalent of requiring every American to file a daily report with the government of every location they visited, every person they talked to on the phone, the time of each call, and the length of every conversation." Jameel Jaffer, ACLU's deputy legal director, said in statement accompanying the challenge, maintaining that the dragnet program is "one of the largest surveillance efforts ever launched by a democratic government against its own citizens."
In its constitutional challenge, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) argued that the NationalSecurity Agency's program violates the U.S First Amendment rights of free speech and association as well as the right of privacy protected by the Fourth Amendment. The complaint also charges that the dragnet program exceeds the authority that Congress provided through the Patriot Act.
"It is the equivalent of requiring every American to file a daily report with the government of every location they visited, every person they talked to on the phone, the time of each call, and the length of every conversation." Jameel Jaffer, ACLU's deputy legal director, said in statement accompanying the challenge, maintaining that the dragnet program is "one of the largest surveillance efforts ever launched by a democratic government against its own citizens."
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