{"id":12198,"date":"2020-08-07T14:04:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-07T18:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=12198"},"modified":"2020-08-18T21:31:58","modified_gmt":"2020-08-19T01:31:58","slug":"edward-snowden-xkeyscore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/edward-snowden-xkeyscore\/","title":{"rendered":"Edward Snowden, XKEYSCORE, and Government Surveillance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What is XKEYSCORE and how is it used? How did Edward Snowden verify that the government was conducting mass surveillance? How did Snowden, XKEYSCORE, NSA, and privacy rights all come together to lead to whistleblowing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Used at one point by Edward Snowden, XKEYSCORE is a mass surveillance technology. The NSA can use this technology to see what any person has done on the internet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read about Snowden, XKEYSCORE use at the NSA, and how this pushed Snowden towards blowing the whistle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What Is XKEYSCORE<\/strong>?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the major programs for mass surveillance was called XKEYSCORE. Ed had known that the mass surveillance tech existed from what he\u2019d found, but being trained on it was a whole different matter.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Snowden: XKEYSCORE Experience<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The NSA XKEYSCORE technology allowed Ed to look up almost everything anyone does on the Internet. <\/strong>He could type in almost anyone\u2019s\u2014including the NSA\u2019s director or the president\u2019s\u2014IP address, phone number, or address and have access to their recent online browsing. Sometimes even a recording of their screen was available. Ed hid his searches by typing them in a machine format that was readable by XKEYSCORE but incomprehensible to people.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">NSA: XKEYSCORE Abuses Never Prosecuted<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Most of what he saw was personal rather than professional abuse\u2014LOVEINT. People would spy on their spouses or exes. If you use surveillance like this you can get ten years in prison, but no one in the NSA had ever been sentenced. The NSA couldn\u2019t publicly prosecute anyone because to do so, they\u2019d have to admit the secret mass surveillance system existed.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Snowden: XKEYSCORE a Window Into Mass Surveillance<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Ed learned as much as he could about the mass surveillance programs from the people working with them, justifying his curiosity by saying he wanted to teach everyone back in Hawaii the latest methods. Everyone he met was excited about the tech, was happy to show it off for him, and didn\u2019t think about how it was being used.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ed also learned that almost everyone does two things on the Internet: store images of their family, and watch porn. Ed found the family element the most uncomfortable. Ed found a video of a target working on his computer with a young child sitting on his lap, and the child stared directly into the camera as if he knew Ed was watching.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is XKEYSCORE and how is it used? How did Edward Snowden verify that the government was conducting mass surveillance? How did Snowden, XKEYSCORE, NSA, and privacy rights all come together to lead to whistleblowing? Used at one point by Edward Snowden, XKEYSCORE is a mass surveillance technology. The NSA can use this technology to see what any person has done on the internet. Read about Snowden, XKEYSCORE use at the NSA, and how this pushed Snowden towards blowing the whistle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":12488,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,24],"tags":[116],"class_list":["post-12198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-communication","category-society","tag-permanent-record","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Edward Snowden, XKEYSCORE, and Government Surveillance - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Used by Edward Snowden, XKEYSCORE is a mass surveillance technology. 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Read about Snowden&#039;s experience with XKEYSCORE, NSA usage, and blowing the whistle.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/edward-snowden-xkeyscore\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-08-07T18:04:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-08-19T01:31:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/permanent-record-xkeyscore.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"727\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rina Shah\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rina Shah\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/edward-snowden-xkeyscore\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/edward-snowden-xkeyscore\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Rina Shah\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d07435826f13a8f422d5d333dceac287\"},\"headline\":\"Edward Snowden, XKEYSCORE, and Government Surveillance\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-08-07T18:04:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-08-19T01:31:58+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/edward-snowden-xkeyscore\/\"},\"wordCount\":402,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/edward-snowden-xkeyscore\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/permanent-record-xkeyscore.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Permanent Record\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Communication\",\"Society\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/edward-snowden-xkeyscore\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/edward-snowden-xkeyscore\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/edward-snowden-xkeyscore\/\",\"name\":\"Edward Snowden, XKEYSCORE, and Government Surveillance - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/edward-snowden-xkeyscore\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/edward-snowden-xkeyscore\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/permanent-record-xkeyscore.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-08-07T18:04:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-08-19T01:31:58+00:00\",\"description\":\"Used by Edward Snowden, XKEYSCORE is a mass surveillance technology. 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