It\u2019s been one year since the Guardian first published the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court order, leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, that demonstrated that the NSA was conducting dragnet surveillance on millions of innocent people. Since then, the onslaught of disturbing revelations, from disclosures, admissions from government officials, Freedom of Information Act requests, and lawsuits, has been nonstop. On the anniversary of that first leak , here are 65 things we know about NSA spying that we did not know a year ago:<\/i><\/p>\n
1. We saw an example of the court orders that authorize the NSA to\u00a0collect virtually every phone call record<\/a>\u00a0in the United States\u2013that\u2019s who you call, who calls you, when, for how long, and sometimes where.<\/p>\n 2. We saw NSA Powerpoint slides documenting how the NSA\u00a0conducts \u201cupstream\u201d collection<\/a>, gathering intelligence information directly from the infrastructure of telecommunications providers.<\/p>\n 3. The NSA has\u00a0created a \u201ccontent dragnet\u201d<\/a>\u00a0by asserting that it can intercept not only communications where a target is a party to a communication but also communications \u201cabout a target, even if the target\u00a0isn\u2019t a party to the communication<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n 4. The NSA\u00a0has confirmed<\/a>\u00a0that it is searching data collected under Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act to access American\u2019s communications without a warrant, in what Senator Ron Wyden called the “back door search loophole.”<\/p>\n 5. Although the NSA has repeatedly stated it does not target Americans, its own documents show that searches of data collected under Section 702 are designed simply to determine with51 percent confidence a target\u2019s \u201cforeignness<\/a>.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n 6. If the NSA does not determine a target\u2019s foreignness, it\u00a0will not stop spying<\/a>\u00a0on that target. Instead the NSA will presume that target to be foreign unless they \u201ccan be positively identified as a United States person.\u201d<\/p>\n 7. A leaked internal NSA audit detailed 2,776\u00a0violations of rules or court orders<\/a>\u00a0in just a one-year period.<\/p>\n 8. Hackers at the NSA\u00a0target sysadmins<\/a>, regardless of the fact that these sysadmins themselves may be completely innocent of any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n 9. The NSA and CIA\u00a0infiltrated games and online communities<\/a>\u00a0like World of Warcraft and Second Life to gather data and conduct surveillance.<\/p>\n 10. The government\u00a0has destroyed evidence in EFF\u2019s cases against NSA spying.<\/a>\u00a0This is incredibly ironic, considering that the government has also claimed EFF\u2019s clients need this evidence to prove standing.<\/p>\n 11. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper\u00a0lied to Congress<\/a>\u00a0when asked directly by Sen. Ron Wyden whether the NSA was\u00a0gathering any sort of data on millions of Americans<\/a>.<\/p>\n 12. Microsoft, like other companies, has\u00a0cooperated closely with the FBI<\/a>\u00a0to allow the NSA to \u201ccircumvent its encryption and gain access to users\u2019 data.\u201d<\/p>\n 13. The intelligence budget in 2013 alone was $52.6 billion\u2013 this number was revealed by a leaked document, not by the government. Of that budget,\u00a0$10.8 billion went to the NSA<\/a>. That\u2019s approximately $167 per person in the United States.<\/p>\n 14. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has issued orders that allow the NSA to\u00a0share raw data<\/a>\u2013without personally identifying information stripped out\u2013 with the FBI, CIA, and the National Counterterrorism Center.<\/p>\n 15. Pursuant to a\u00a0memorandum of understanding<\/a>, the NSA regularly shares raw data with Israel without stripping out personally identifying information about U.S. persons.<\/p>\n 16. The Snowden disclosures have made it clear the Obama administration\u00a0misled the Supreme Court<\/a>\u00a0about key issues in ACLU\u2019s case against NSA spying,\u00a0Clapper v. Amnesty International<\/i>, leading to the dismissal of the case for lack of standing.<\/p>\n 17. The\u00a0NSA \u201chacked into Al Jazeera<\/a>‘s internal communications system.\u201d NSA documents stated that \u201cselected targets had \u2018high potential as sources of intelligence.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n 18. The NSA used supposedly anonymous Google cookies as\u00a0beacons for surveillance<\/a>, helping them to track individual users.<\/p>\n 19. The NSA \u201cintercepts \u2018millions of images per day\u2019<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 including about 55,000 \u2018facial recognition quality images\u2019\u201d and processes them with powerful facial recognition software.<\/p>\n 20. The NSA\u00a0facial recognition program<\/a>\u00a0\u201ccan now compare spy satellite photographs with intercepted personal photographs taken outdoors to determine the location.\u201d<\/p>\n 21. Although most NSA reform has focused on Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act, and most advocates have also pushed for reform of Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act, some of the worst NSA spying happens under\u00a0the authority of Executive Order 12333<\/a>, which President Obama could repeal or modify today.<\/p>\n 22. The NSA\u00a0collected Americans\u2019 cell phone location<\/a>\u00a0information for two years as part of a pilot project to see how it could use such information in its massive databases.<\/p>\n 23. In one month, March 2013, the NSA collected\u00a097 billion pieces of intelligence<\/a>\u00a0from computer networks worldwide, including\u00a03 billion pieces of intelligence<\/a>\u00a0from US computer networks.<\/p>\n 24. The NSA has\u00a0targeted Tor<\/a>, a set of tools that allow Internet users to browse the net anonymously.<\/p>\n 25. The NSA program\u00a0MUSCULAR infiltrates links<\/a>\u00a0between the global data centers of technology companies such as Google and Yahoo. Many companies have responded to MUSCULAR by encrypting traffic over their internal networks.<\/p>\n 26. The\u00a0XKEYSCORE program analyzes<\/a>\u00a0emails, online chats and the browsing histories of millions of individuals anywhere in the world.<\/p>\n 27. NSA\u00a0undermines the encryption tools<\/a>\u00a0relied upon by ordinary users, companies, financial institutions, targets, and non-targets as part of BULLRUN, an unparalleled effort to weaken the security of all Internet users, including you.<\/p>\n 28. The NSA\u2019s Dishfire operation\u00a0has collected 200 million text messages<\/a>\u00a0daily from users around the globe, which can be used to extract valuable information such as location data, contact retrievals, credit card details, missed call alerts, roaming alerts (which indicate border crossings), electronic business cards, credit card payment notifications, travel itinerary alerts, and meeting information.<\/p>\n 29. Under the CO-TRAVELER operation, the\u00a0US collects location information<\/a>\u00a0from global cell towers, Wi-Fi, and GPS hubs, which is then information analyzed over time, in part in order to determine a target\u2019s traveling companions.<\/p>\n 30. A\u00a02004 memo<\/a>\u00a0entitled \u201cDEA- The \u2018Other\u2019 Warfighter\u201d, states that the DEA and NSA \u201cenjoy a vibrant two-way information-sharing relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n 31. When the DEA acts on information its Special Operations Division receives from the NSA, it\u00a0cloaks the source of the information<\/a>\u00a0through \u201cparallel construction,\u201d going through the charade of recreating an imaginary investigation to hide the source of the tip, not only from the defendant, but from the court. This was intended to ensure that no court rules on the legality or scope of how NSA data is used in ordinary investigations.<\/p>\n 32. The fruits of NSA surveillance routinely end up in the hands of the\u00a0IRS<\/a>. Like the DEA, the IRS uses parallel construction to cloak the source of the tip.<\/p>\n 33. Even the President\u2019s handpicked Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board recommended that the\u00a0government end Section 215<\/a>\u00a0mass telephone records collection, because that collection is ineffective, illegal, and likely unconstitutional.<\/p>\n 34. The NSA has plans to\u00a0infect potentially millions<\/a>\u00a0of computers with malware implants as part of its Tailored Access Operations.<\/p>\n 35. The NSA had a secret $10 million contract with security firm RSA to\u00a0create a \u201cback door\u201d<\/a>\u00a0in the company\u2019s widely used encryption products.<\/p>\n 36. The NSA\u00a0tracked access to porn<\/a>\u00a0and gathered other sexually explicit information \u201cas part of a proposed plan to harm the reputations of those whom the agency believes are radicalizing others through incendiary speeches.\u201d<\/p>\n 37. The NSA and its partners\u00a0exploited mobile apps<\/a>, such as the popular Angry Birds game, to access users\u2019 private information such as location, home address, gender, and more.<\/p>\n 38. The Washington Post revealed that the NSA\u00a0harvests \u201chundreds of millions of contact lists<\/a>from personal e-mail and instant messaging accounts around the world, many of them belonging to Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n Many of the Snowden revelations have concerned the NSA\u2019s activities overseas, as well as the activities of some of the NSA\u2019s closest allies, such as the its UK counterpart GCHQ. Some of these have been cooperative ventures. In particular, the \u201cFive Eyes\u201d\u2013 The United States, New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Canada\u2013 share citizen data amongst themselves – providing loopholes that might undermine national legislation.<\/i><\/p>\n 39.\u00a0The NSA paid its British counterpart<\/a>\u00a0GCHQ $155 million over the last three years \u201cto secure access to and influence over Britain’s intelligence gathering programmes.\u201d<\/p>\n 40. The Guardian reported: \u201cIn one six-month period in 2008 alone, [GCHQ] collected\u00a0webcam imagery<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 including substantial quantities of sexually explicit communications \u2014 from more than 1.8-million Yahoo user accounts globally.\u201d<\/p>\n 41. GCHQ\u00a0used malware to compromise<\/a>\u00a0networks belonging to the Belgian telecommunications company Belgacom.<\/p>\n 42. Major telecommunications companies including BT, Vodafone, and Verizon business have\u00a0given GCHQ unlimited access<\/a>\u00a0to their fiberoptic cables<\/p>\n 43. GCHQ used DDoS attacks and other methods to\u00a0interrupt Anonymous and LulzSec communications<\/a>, including communications of people not charged with any crime.<\/p>\n 44. GCHQ\u2019s Bude station\u00a0monitored leaders<\/a>\u00a0from the EU, Germany, and Israel. It also\u00a0targeted non-governmental organizations<\/a>\u00a0such as Doctors of the World.<\/p>\n 45. The NSA\u2019s partners Down Under, the Australian Signals Directorate, has been implicated in breaches of attorney-client privileged communications,\u00a0undermining a foundational principle<\/a>of our shared criminal justice system.<\/p>\n 46. Australian intelligence officials spied on the cell phones of\u00a0Indonesian cabinet ministers<\/a>and\u00a0President Susilo Bambang<\/a>.<\/p>\n 47. In 2008, Australia\u00a0offered to share its citizens<\/a>\u2019 raw information with intelligence partners.<\/p>\n 48. CSEC helped the\u00a0NSA spy on political officials<\/a>\u00a0during the G20 meeting in Canada.<\/p>\n 49. CSEC and CSIS were\u00a0recently rebuked<\/a>\u00a0by a federal court judge for\u00a0misleading him<\/a>\u00a0in a warrant application five years ago with respect to their use of Five Eyes resources in order to track Canadians abroad.<\/p>\n Ironically, some of the NSA\u2019s operations have been targeted at countries that have worked directly with the agency in other instances. And some simply seemed\u00a0<\/i>unnecessary and disproportionate<\/i><\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n 50. NSA documents show that not all governments are\u00a0clear about their own level of cooperation<\/a>\u00a0with the NSA. As the Intercept reports, \u201cFew, if any, elected leaders have any knowledge of the surveillance.\u201d<\/p>\n 51. The NSA is intercepting, recording, and archiving\u00a0every single cell phone call<\/a>\u00a0in the Bahamas.<\/p>\n 52. The NSA\u00a0monitored phone calls<\/a>\u00a0of at least 35 world leaders.<\/p>\n 53. The\u00a0NSA spied on French diplomats<\/a>\u00a0in Washington and at the UN.<\/p>\n 54. The NSA\u00a0hacked in to Chinese company Huawei’s<\/a>\u00a0networks and stole its source code.\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n 55. The NSA\u00a0bugged EU embassies<\/a>\u00a0in both New York and Washington. It copied hard drives from the New York office of the EU, and tapped the internal computer network from the Washington embassies.<\/p>\n 56. The NSA collected the metadata of more than\u00a045-million Italian phone calls<\/a>\u00a0over a 30 day period. It also maintained monitoring sites in Rome and Milan.<\/p>\n 57. The NSA stored data from approximately\u00a0500-million German communications<\/a>connections per month.<\/p>\n 58. The NSA\u00a0collected data from over-60 million<\/a>\u00a0Spanish telephone calls over a 30-day period in late 2012 and early 2013 and\u00a0spied on members<\/a>\u00a0of the Spanish government.<\/p>\n 59. The NSA collected data from over\u00a070-million French telephone calls<\/a>\u00a0over a 30-day period in late 2012 and early 2013.<\/p>\n 60. The Hindu reported that, based on NSA documents: \u201cIn the overall list of countries spied on by NSA programs,\u00a0India stands at fifth place<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n 61. The NSA\u00a0hacked into former Mexican President<\/a>\u00a0Felipe Calderon\u2019s official email account.<\/p>\n 62. The Guardian reported: \u201cThe NSA has, for years, systematically tapped into the Brazilian telecommunication network and\u00a0indiscriminately intercepted, collected and stored<\/a>\u00a0the email and telephone records of millions of Brazilians.\u201d<\/p>\n 63. The NSA\u00a0monitored emails<\/a>\u00a0(link in Portuguese), telephone calls, and text messages ofBrazilian President Dilma Roussef<\/a>\u00a0and her top aides.<\/p>\n 64. Germany\u2019s\u00a0intelligence agencies cooperated<\/a>\u00a0with the NSA and\u00a0implemented the NSA<\/a>\u2019s XKeyscore program, while NSA was in turn spying on German leaders.<\/p>\n 65. Norwegian daily\u00a0Dagbladet reported<\/a>\u00a0(Link in Norwegian<\/em>) that the NSA acquired data on\u00a033 million Norwegian cell phone calls<\/a>\u00a0in one 30-day period.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s no question that the international relationships Obama pledged to repair, as well as the confidence of the American people in their privacy and constitutional rights, have been damaged by the NSAs dragnet surveillance. But one year later, both the United States and international governments have not taken the steps necessary to ensure that this surveillance ends. That\u2019s why everyone must take action\u2013\u00a0contact your elected representative<\/a>, join\u00a0Reset the Net<\/a>, and learn about how\u00a0international law applies to U.S. surveillance<\/a>\u00a0today.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n