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Boundless Informant

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Snapshot of Boundless Information global heat map of data collection

Boundless Informant is a big data or data mining computer system and electronic surveillance program, classified as top secret, run by the United States National Security Agency (NSA).[1] According to documents about the program, almost 3 billion data elements from inside the United States were analyzed or captured in the Boundless Informant system over a 30-day period ending in March 2013.

Related to PRISM, a government codename for a collection effort known officially as US-984XN, the Boundless Informant computer system is used to analyze electronic information captured globally by the NSA.[2][3][4]

History

Slide showing that much of the world's communications flow through the US.

National Security Agency surveillance
Map of global NSA data collection as of 2007, with countries subject to the most data collection shown in red
Programs
Pre-1978
Since 1978
Since 1990
Since 1998
Since 2001
Since 2007
Databases, tools etc.
GCHQ collaboration
Legislation
Institutions
Lawsuits
Whistleblowers
Publication
Related
Concepts
Collaboration
United States
Five Eyes
Other

Boundless Informant collects and analyzes data captured by intelligence-gathering technology like PRISM, which replaced the Terrorist Surveillance Program. Intelligence gathered by the United States government inside the United States or specifically targeting US citizens is legally required to be gathered in compliance with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) and under the authority of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA court).[5][6][7]. Countries that are under surveillance are assigned a color from green, being least severe to red, most severe.

NSA global data mining projects have existed for decades, but recent programs of intelligence gathering and analysis that include data gathered from inside the United States such as Boundless Informant and PRISM were enabled by changes to US surveillance law introduced under President Bush and renewed under President Obama in December 2012.[8]

Boundless Informant was first publicly revealed on June 8, 2013, after classified documents about the program were leaked to The Guardian.[1][9] The newspaper identified its informant, at his request, as Edward Snowden, who worked at the NSA for the defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton.[10]

Technology

According to published slides, Boundless Informant relies entirely upon Free and Open Source Software—and is therefore "available to all NSA developers"—and corporate services hosted in the cloud. The tool uses HDFS, MapReduce, and Cloudbase for data processing.[11]

Legality and FISA Amendments Act of 2008

The FISA Amendments Act (FAA) Section 702 is referenced in PRISM documents detailing the electronic interception, capture and analysis of metadata. Many reports and letters of concern written by members of Congress suggest that this section of FAA in particular is legally and constitutionally problematic, such as by targeting U.S. persons, insofar as "Collections occur in U.S." as published documents indicate.[12][13][14][15]

The ACLU has asserted the following regarding the FAA: "Regardless of abuses, the problem with the FAA is more fundamental: the statute itself is unconstitutional."[16]

Senator Rand Paul is introducing new legislation called the Fourth Amendment Restoration Act of 2013 to stop the NSA or other agencies of the United States government from violating the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution using technology and big data information systems like PRISM and Boundless Informant.[17][18]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Glenn Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill. "Boundless Informant: the NSA's secret tool to track global surveillance data | World news | guardian.co.uk". Guardian. Retrieved 2013-06-09.
  2. ^ "Boundless Informant NSA data-mining tool – four key slides | World news | guardian.co.uk". Guardian. Retrieved 2013-06-09.
  3. ^ "Boundless Informant: NSA explainer – full document text | World news | guardian.co.uk". Guardian. Retrieved 2013-06-09.
  4. ^ "Government: 11 things you need to know about u.s. domestic spying". The Blaze, Inc. 2013-06-07.
  5. ^ Dean, John W. George W. Bush as the New Richard M. Nixon: Both Wiretapped Illegally, and Impeachable; Both Claimed That a President May Violate Congress' Laws to Protect National Security, FindLaw, December 30, 2005
  6. ^ The Impeachment of George W. Bush by Elizabeth Holtzman, The Nation, January 11, 2006
  7. ^ Adopted By The House Of Delegates, American Bar Association, February 13, 2006
  8. ^ Greenwald, Glenn (June 6, 2013). "NSA taps in to internet giants' systems to mine user data, secret files reveal". The Guardian. Retrieved June 6, 2013.
  9. ^ "Boundless Informant | World news". The Guardian. Retrieved 2013-06-09.
  10. ^ "Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind revelations of NSA surveillance". The Guardian. 9 June 2013. Retrieved 9 June 2013.
  11. ^ "Boundless Informant slides". Documentcloud.org. Retrieved 2013-06-09.
  12. ^ Office, Communications (2012-12-10). "FISA Correspondence Update | Blog | U.S. Senator Ron Wyden". Wyden.senate.gov. Retrieved 2013-06-09.
  13. ^ "Download | U.S. Senator Ron Wyden". Wyden.senate.gov. Retrieved 2013-06-09.
  14. ^ http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/dangerroom/2012/06/IC-IG-Letter.pdf
  15. ^ http://www.aclu.org/files/pdfs/natsec/faafoia20101129/FAAFBI0065.pdf
  16. ^ "FAA FOIA Documents | American Civil Liberties Union". Aclu.org. 2010-12-02. Retrieved 2013-06-09.
  17. ^ http://www.paul.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=838
  18. ^ http://www.paul.senate.gov/files/documents/EAS13699.pdf
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