There was a time when the idea that the U.S. governing might spy on your web activity might have seemed like a far - fetchedconspiracy theory .
But that was before Edward Snowden . Back in 2013 , Snowden , a former employee of a defense contractor for the National Security Agency , shocked the world by revealing the extent to which U.S. intelligence was capable to conduct surveillance on the internet and electronic communications . Snowden ’s divine revelation , write in the U.K. newspaper the Guardian and other sales outlet , include the existence of a antecedently undisclosed NSA broadcast calledPRISM . The latter gave NSA direct access to the server of various big U.S. net companies , and enabled functionary to collect entropy that included users ' hunting histories , the content of their email , Indian file transfers and even lively chats [ source : Greenwald and MacAskill , Gellman and Poitras ] .
Snowden ’s document and information also bring out that the NSA had on the QT soften into the communication links between data centers across the humankind , allowing it to download data on cyberspace communicating — more than 180 million record in one month alone — and store it at the agency ’s headquarters in Fort Meade , Maryland [ rootage : Gelman and Soltani ] . The " upstream " surveillance course of study , as it was called , enables NSA to search the international online activeness of Americans . The programme gave NSA the power to scrutinise anyone who send emails abroad or browse a website hosted outside the U.S. [ source : Gorski and Toomey ] .
Though the two on-line surveillance program are clear through a Union law that is designed to allow U.S. intelligence office to acquit surveillance upon foreigner , information about the action of Americans are gathered up in the process as well . The revelations elevate an outcry , but nevertheless , both programs were reauthorized by Congress in January 2018 [ author : Hautala ] .
But though the NSA gathers vast sum of datum about online activity , that does n’t needfully mean that it ’s spying upon vast numbers of ordinary Americans , which would be illegal . Asthis Q&A from the Director of National Intelligenceexplains , before the trove of data can be searched for a foreign intelligence mark ’s online activity it requires an fiat from a special secret court that hears such requests . There also are procedures in place that want intelligence activity agencies toredactany communication from Americans that were capture unintentionally in the surveillance .
But have yoursearch historyscooped up by NSA ’s surveillance programs is n’t the only mode that the U.S. government might take in access code to what you do on the web . We ’ll get into that in the next two sections .
FBI Surveillance
The National Security Agency is n’t the only federal agency that conducts surveillance on the internet . For decades , the FBI has been doing it as well .
As this 2016Wired articledetails , the FBI ab initio started conducting on-line surveillance back in 1998 , using a prick called Carnivore , which it set up on internet net backbones with the permission of service provider . The tool enable agent to supervise the online communication of a person who was an investigative target area , filtering and copying metadata and the substance of content that they direct and experience . The Carnivore program ’s existence was expose in 2000 when an internet supplier refused to install it . As it turn out , the government agency had only used the tool 25 times up to that point , which show that it occupy in widespread espial . In 2005 , the FBI replaced Carnivore with commercially available filter software [ source : Zetter ] .
Additionally , the FBI has other ways to tell what a person is doing on his or her reckoner . It can break off into the car , either remotely or by breaking into someone ’s office , and install key logger software , which enables agent to monitor what a person type on the keyboard . That magic trick makes it possible to circumvent software package encryption pecker that are designed to protect e-mail and other messages from being intercepted [ source : Zetter ] .
The FBI has other tricks for unmasking citizenry who travel to child pornography websites and other stead where bad stuff happens . The bureau ’s own hackers can gain control of servers and embed spyware on page on a website , which in turning infect the computers of hoi polloi who access those pages [ germ : Zetter ] .
Those capacity might seem scary , but they ’re probably not something that most jurisprudence - abiding citizens will ever encounter , lease alone have to worry about . In the next section , we ’ll look at a type of trailing that you ’re more likely to encounter .
Keeping Track of Web Activity
There was a time , quaint as it might seem today , when Americans were disturbed about the government embed cookie , the identifier files that websites order on your reckoner to recognize you . These day , though , we acquiesce to having Google , Facebook and other private - sector internet companies collect vast amounts of entropy on us [ source : Curran ] . So the threat of the government cookies may not seem like as big of a deal .
But if you want to know what information regime might be collecting about you as a result of your visits to its websites , an article about privacy and security policies on USA.gov , the Union portal site for government inspection and repair , gives a detailed summing up . When you gossip the site , it tape your internet protocol savoir-faire , the numerical code that identifies the router and gadget you ’re using . In plus , it records the website from which you linked to the USA.gov , the metre and date of your visit , what search you did and links that you clack . It also even documents whether you use Chrome or Firefox , and what operating system is on your computer [ source : USA.gov ] .
The government website also engraft cookie on your reckoner that discover you , though not by name . " We use connection metrics service to track activity on USA.gov , " the site explains . " administration bureau only ever receive traffic statistics anonymously and , in the totality , official can track movement in the website ’s usage . " The site also explain how you may incapacitate these so - called persistent cooky , in case you do n’t want to be tracked [ seed : USA.gov ] .
