![]() "The net effect is that NSA analysts look at 0.00004% of the world's traffic in conducting their mission – that's less than one part in a million." "However, of the 1.6% of the data, only 0.025% is actually selected for review. ![]() "In its foreign intelligence mission, NSA touches about 1.6% of that," the document states. ![]() One petabyte, according to tech website Gizmodo, is equivalent to over 13 years of HDTV video. The document cites figures from a major tech provider that the internet carries 1,826 petabytes of information per day. The seven-page document, titled "The National Security Agency: Missions, Authorities, Oversight and Partnerships", says the agency "touches" 1.6% of daily internet traffic – an estimate which is not believed to include large-scale internet taps operated by GCHQ, the NSA's UK counterpart. ![]() The agency has placed taps on undersea cables, and is given access to internet data through partnerships with American telecoms companies.Ībout 90% of the world's online communications cross the US, giving the NSA what it calls in classified documents a "home-field advantage" when it comes to intercepting information.īy confirming that all metadata "seen" by NSA collection systems is stored, the Marina document suggests such collections are not merely used to filter target information, but also to store data at scale.Ī sign of how much information could be contained within the repository comes from a document voluntarily disclosed by the NSA in August, in the wake of the first tranche of revelations from the Snowden documents. The NSA also collects enormous quantities of metadata from the fibre-optic cables that make up the backbone of the internet. Programs such as Prism – which operates through legally compelled "partnerships" with major internet companies – allow the NSA to obtain content and metadata on thousands of targets without individual warrants. Marina aggregates NSA metadata from an array of sources, some targeted, others on a large scale. But it relies on storing the personal data of large numbers of internet users who are not, and never will be, of interest to the US intelligence community. The ability to look back on a full year's history for any individual whose data was collected – either deliberately or incidentally – offers the NSA the potential to find information on people who have later become targets. On Saturday, the New York Times reported that the NSA was using its metadata troves to build profiles of US citizens' social connections, associations and in some cases location, augmenting the material the agency collects with additional information bought in from the commercial sector, which is is not subject to the same legal restrictions as other data. The guide goes on to explain Marina's unique capability: "Of the more distinguishing features, Marina has the ability to look back on the last 365 days' worth of DNI metadata seen by the Sigint collection system, regardless whether or not it was tasked for collection." "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." "The Marina metadata application tracks a user's browser experience, gathers contact information/content and develops summaries of target," the analysts' guide explains. Phone metadata is sent to a separate system. Any computer metadata picked up by NSA collection systems is routed to the Marina database, the guide explains. The Obama administration has repeatedly stated that the NSA keeps only the content of messages and communications of people it is intentionally targeting – but internal documents reveal the agency retains vast amounts of metadata.Īn introductory guide to digital network intelligence for NSA field agents, included in documents disclosed by former contractor Edward Snowden, describes the agency's metadata repository, codenamed Marina.
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