Difference between revisions of "Big Data in American Intelligence Agencies"

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Big Data refers to extremely large sets of data. Big data tends to have high volume, velocity, and variety. Another way to define big data is to describe the exponential increase and availability of data in our world today. The data can be collected from a large variety of sources, including smartphones, social media, physical sensors, health records, and more. This data can be analyzed and used to form actionable insights, informed decisions, and give a certain group competitive advantages. American Intelligence Agencies like the CIA and FBI could have access to this data, which could be interpreted as a good or a bad thing depending on what they do with the information they access.  
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'''The term “big data” was first coined by the data analyst Roger Mougalas in 2005 <ref>Foote, K. (2017, December 15). A Brief History of Big Data - DATAVERSITY. DATAVERSITY. https://www.dataversity.net/brief-history-big-data/</ref>. By definition, it refers to large sets of diverse information that arrive at in increasingly large volumes and at an increasingly rapid rate. <ref name = Segal>Segal, T. (2022, March 28). Big Data. Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/big-data.asp</ref>''' In general, big data is placed into two categories: structured, which is usually numerical data, and unstructured, which doesn’t follow any concrete format, and can include data gathered from social media <ref name=Segal>Segal, T. (2022, March 28). Big Data. Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/big-data.asp</ref>. The use and analysis of big data has become commonplace in most areas of modern society, such as healthcare and business, and has become an integral part of the efforts of American intelligence agencies, such as the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency. After the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001 that targeted the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. and the World Trade Center in New York City, American intelligence moved towards a more anticipatory model, in order to prevent such attacks from happening in the future. A large part of that shift involved the widespread adoption of predictive analytics fed by big data, with intelligence analysts attempting to find hidden correlations buried in large volumes of data, and generating/refuting hypotheses based on that data <ref>Colmenajero, A. (2019, April 10). The Influence of Big Data in the Intelligence Cycle. The Security Distillery. https://thesecuritydistillery.org/all-articles/the-influence-of-big-data-in-the-intelligence-cycle</ref>. Initiatives such as the PATRIOT act, the Directorate in Digital Innovation (DDI)<ref>Xanderscho. (n.d.). How the CIA is Reinventing a Case for Big Data - SmartData Collective. Https://Www.smartdatacollective.com/. Retrieved January 26, 2023, from https://www.smartdatacollective.com/how-cia-reinventing-case-big-data/</ref>, the Intelligence Community Information Technology Enterprise (ICITE)<ref>Phil Goldstein. (2018, December 6). CIA CIO Sees Data as the “Tip of the Spear” in Intelligence. FedTech Magazine. https://fedtechmagazine.com/article/2018/12/cia-cio-sees-data-tip-spear-intelligence</ref>, PRISM <ref>Priestley, T. (2013, June 10). Big Data and Analytics: The Hero or the Villain ? Wired. https://www.wired.com/insights/2013/06/big-data-and-analytics-the-hero-or-the-villain/</ref>, and more contribute to the ever-growing effort by the United States government to implement data analytics into their national security efforts. However, many American citizens have expressed their concerns about government invasion of personal privacy, and some, such as Edward Snowden in 2013<ref name=brittanica>Ray, M. (2018). Edward Snowden | Biography & Facts. In Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edward-Snowden</ref>, have gone as far as to leak classified government documents pertaining to digital surveillance conducted by the government.
  
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Analyzing Big Data:
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==Uses in American Intelligence==
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Big data analytics involves the use of advanced analytics techniques against these large and diverse data sets from many different sources, sizes, and structures. By analyzing the data, you can fuel better/faster decision making, modeling, and predictions of future outcomes. Organizations can save costs in storing and analyzing large amount of data if they analyze the data continuously. Companies like IBM can provide solutions to analyze big data.
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===Patriot Act===
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The Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act, or USA PATRIOT Act, was passed nearly unanimously by the Senate and the House of Representatives, and was enacted by Congress on October 26th, 2001 as a response to the terrorist attacks the month prior <ref name=Department>Department of Justice. (2019). The USA Patriot Act: Preserving life and liberty. Justice.gov; Department of Justice. https://www.justice.gov/archive/ll/highlights.htm</ref>. In short, the Patriot act increased the capabilities of government surveillance in four main areas <ref name=American>American Civil Liberties Union. (2022). Surveillance Under the USA/PATRIOT Act. American Civil Liberties Union. https://www.aclu.org/other/surveillance-under-usapatriot-act</ref>:
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*'''Records searches''' - expanding the ability of the government to obtain individual’s data held by third parties.
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*'''Secret searches''' - expanding the government’s ability to search personal property without a warrant. For example, the FBI can conduct a wiretap on an American citizen’s phone without an outstanding warrant.
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*'''Intelligence searches''' - expanding an exception through the Fourth Amendment that was originally used for the collection of foreign intelligence. For example, the CIA has the ability to identify the requirements for domestic intelligence, allowing for widespread surveillance on collectives of American citizens such as protest groups.  
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*'''“Trap and trace” searches''' - expanding a second exception in the Fourth Amendment that allows the government to collect information about the origin and destination of communications between parties (for example, tracking calls made to a certain telephone number).
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Common examples of big data collected by government agencies as permitted by the Patriot Act include telephone communications (caller IDs for incoming/outgoing calls, voicemail messages, etc.) computer records, credit history, and banking information <ref>PATRIOT Act. (n.d.). EPIC - Electronic Privacy Information Center. https://epic.org/issues/surveillance-oversight/patriot-act/</ref>. Such information on American citizens is obtained by the use of National Security Letters (NSL’s), which can be granted without a judge’s approval, unlike a traditional search warrant <ref name=American>American Civil Liberties Union. (2022). Surveillance Under the USA/PATRIOT Act. American Civil Liberties Union. https://www.aclu.org/other/surveillance-under-usapatriot-act</ref>.
  
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Some sources:
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The U.S. Government’s main goal by collecting all this data was to fight terrorist before the acts occured. The belief was that by conducting surveillance while avoiding alerting potential suspects, by obtaining personal information (such as business records) without the suspect’s knowledge, and also facilitating a more cooperative relationship of data allocation between government agencies like the FBI/CIA/NSA, the likelihood of terrorist attacks being committed on American soil could be greatly reduced <ref name=Department>Department of Justice. (2019). The USA Patriot Act: Preserving life and liberty. Justice.gov; Department of Justice. https://www.justice.gov/archive/ll/highlights.htm</ref>. However, much controversy surrounds the Patriot Act, due to common belief that it violates the privacy of American citizens.
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https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1514&context=jss
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https://datasciencedegree.wisconsin.edu/data-science/what-is-big-data/
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===PRISM===
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https://www.ibm.com/analytics/big-data-analytics
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One method that the NSA uses to collect data on American citizens in its intelligence efforts is PRISM, or SIGAD US-984XN <ref name=prism>Prism. (2022, June 1). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prism</ref>. Originally top-secret until made public by Edward Snowden, this program was launched under the Protect America Act of 2007 by President Bush and the FISA Amendments act of 2008, which allowed intelligence agencies to collect data from digital communications of American citizens for up to a week without a warrant <ref name=prism>Prism. (2022, June 1). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prism</ref>. PRISM has the ability to request and collect any data from internet platforms such as Yahoo, Google and Microsoft, as long as the data matches the court-approved search terms, according to section 702 of FISA Amendments act<ref name=prism>Prism. (2022, June 1). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prism</ref>. According to certain documents, PRISM accounts for approximately 91% of all the raw data used in NSA analytics, making it the number one data source for the agency<ref name=prism>Prism. (2022, June 1). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prism</ref>.
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In terms of data that PRISM collects, it does not have access to telephone records. Rather, it has access to a broad range of internet communications, such as email, voice and video chat, file transfers, social media details, etc.<ref name=prism>Prism. (2022, June 1). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prism</ref> This data is collected in a specific manner, not in bulk, as the program searches for selectors such as specific email addresses<ref name=prism>Prism. (2022, June 1). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prism</ref>. Although the NSA makes most use out of PRISM, the actual collection of data is done by the FBI with the Data Interception Technology Unit (DITU)<ref name=prism>Prism. (2022, June 1). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prism</ref>. DITU collects all data from providers that fall under the specified selector, and then sends them to the NSA, where they’re stored in sorted databases that are accessible to the FBI and the CIA as well<ref name=prism>Prism. (2022, June 1). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prism</ref>. PRISM can request any internet data from providers as long as the data passes through servers located in the United States, which allows the United States government to conduct surveillance on foreign citizens in addition to American citizens. Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper stated on June 7th, 2013 that collecting such data on foreign citizens was a defense effort against national security threats, and was not an effort to “intentionally target any U.S. citizen, any other U.S. person, or anyone located within the United States.”<ref name=prism>Prism. (2022, June 1). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prism</ref> 
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==Controversies==
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===Edward Snowden===
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Edward Joseph Snowden, born June 21st, 1983 in Elizabeth City, NC, U.S., is a former American government contractor and famed whistleblower who in 2013 revealed the existence of then-secret government data collection programs such as PRISM<ref name=brittanica>Ray, M. (2018). Edward Snowden | Biography & Facts. In Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edward-Snowden</ref>. During his time as a government contractor for the firm Booz Allen Hamilton, Snowden began compiling information on the NSA’s secret surveillance programs, as he believed that they were government overreach and needed to be exposed to the public. After gathering the necessary information, Snowden fled to Hong Kong, and conducted interviews with reporters from The Guardian based on the intelligence he had secretly acquired, and subsequent articles were released the following month<ref name=brittanica>Ray, M. (2018). Edward Snowden | Biography & Facts. In Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edward-Snowden</ref>. Besides exposing the existence of PRISM, Snowden also revealed that the U.S. government was conducting surveillance on prominent world leaders such as former German Prime Minister Angela Merkel<ref name=history>History.com Editors. (2018, June 26). Edward Snowden discloses U.S. government operations. HISTORY. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/edward-snowden-discloses-u-s-government-operations
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</ref>. After revealing his identity as the whistleblower, Snowden was charged with unauthorized communication of national defense information, theft of government property, and willful communication of classified communications intelligence<ref name=history>History.com Editors. (2018, June 26). Edward Snowden discloses U.S. government operations. HISTORY. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/edward-snowden-discloses-u-s-government-operations
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</ref>. Snowden then fled to Russia in order to escape extradition, where he was eventually granted citizenship in September 2022 <ref>Edward Snowden. (2021, October 6). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden#:~:text=His%20disclosures%20revealed%20numerous%20global
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</ref>. The exposure of NSA activity by Edward Snowden caused great public outcry, and many American citizens voiced their displeasure regarding their lack of knowledge surrounding the government’s usage of their personal information. Many U.S. government officials condemned his efforts, stating the release of top-secret information as a threat to national security, while others praised his efforts, labeling him a patriot for exposing the government’s wrongdoings.
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==References==
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<references/>

Revision as of 19:03, 26 January 2023

The term “big data” was first coined by the data analyst Roger Mougalas in 2005 [1]. By definition, it refers to large sets of diverse information that arrive at in increasingly large volumes and at an increasingly rapid rate. [2] In general, big data is placed into two categories: structured, which is usually numerical data, and unstructured, which doesn’t follow any concrete format, and can include data gathered from social media [2]. The use and analysis of big data has become commonplace in most areas of modern society, such as healthcare and business, and has become an integral part of the efforts of American intelligence agencies, such as the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency. After the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001 that targeted the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. and the World Trade Center in New York City, American intelligence moved towards a more anticipatory model, in order to prevent such attacks from happening in the future. A large part of that shift involved the widespread adoption of predictive analytics fed by big data, with intelligence analysts attempting to find hidden correlations buried in large volumes of data, and generating/refuting hypotheses based on that data [3]. Initiatives such as the PATRIOT act, the Directorate in Digital Innovation (DDI)[4], the Intelligence Community Information Technology Enterprise (ICITE)[5], PRISM [6], and more contribute to the ever-growing effort by the United States government to implement data analytics into their national security efforts. However, many American citizens have expressed their concerns about government invasion of personal privacy, and some, such as Edward Snowden in 2013[7], have gone as far as to leak classified government documents pertaining to digital surveillance conducted by the government.

Uses in American Intelligence

Patriot Act

The Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act, or USA PATRIOT Act, was passed nearly unanimously by the Senate and the House of Representatives, and was enacted by Congress on October 26th, 2001 as a response to the terrorist attacks the month prior [8]. In short, the Patriot act increased the capabilities of government surveillance in four main areas [9]:

  • Records searches - expanding the ability of the government to obtain individual’s data held by third parties.
  • Secret searches - expanding the government’s ability to search personal property without a warrant. For example, the FBI can conduct a wiretap on an American citizen’s phone without an outstanding warrant.
  • Intelligence searches - expanding an exception through the Fourth Amendment that was originally used for the collection of foreign intelligence. For example, the CIA has the ability to identify the requirements for domestic intelligence, allowing for widespread surveillance on collectives of American citizens such as protest groups.
  • “Trap and trace” searches - expanding a second exception in the Fourth Amendment that allows the government to collect information about the origin and destination of communications between parties (for example, tracking calls made to a certain telephone number).

Common examples of big data collected by government agencies as permitted by the Patriot Act include telephone communications (caller IDs for incoming/outgoing calls, voicemail messages, etc.) computer records, credit history, and banking information [10]. Such information on American citizens is obtained by the use of National Security Letters (NSL’s), which can be granted without a judge’s approval, unlike a traditional search warrant [9].

The U.S. Government’s main goal by collecting all this data was to fight terrorist before the acts occured. The belief was that by conducting surveillance while avoiding alerting potential suspects, by obtaining personal information (such as business records) without the suspect’s knowledge, and also facilitating a more cooperative relationship of data allocation between government agencies like the FBI/CIA/NSA, the likelihood of terrorist attacks being committed on American soil could be greatly reduced [8]. However, much controversy surrounds the Patriot Act, due to common belief that it violates the privacy of American citizens.

PRISM

One method that the NSA uses to collect data on American citizens in its intelligence efforts is PRISM, or SIGAD US-984XN [11]. Originally top-secret until made public by Edward Snowden, this program was launched under the Protect America Act of 2007 by President Bush and the FISA Amendments act of 2008, which allowed intelligence agencies to collect data from digital communications of American citizens for up to a week without a warrant [11]. PRISM has the ability to request and collect any data from internet platforms such as Yahoo, Google and Microsoft, as long as the data matches the court-approved search terms, according to section 702 of FISA Amendments act[11]. According to certain documents, PRISM accounts for approximately 91% of all the raw data used in NSA analytics, making it the number one data source for the agency[11].

In terms of data that PRISM collects, it does not have access to telephone records. Rather, it has access to a broad range of internet communications, such as email, voice and video chat, file transfers, social media details, etc.[11] This data is collected in a specific manner, not in bulk, as the program searches for selectors such as specific email addresses[11]. Although the NSA makes most use out of PRISM, the actual collection of data is done by the FBI with the Data Interception Technology Unit (DITU)[11]. DITU collects all data from providers that fall under the specified selector, and then sends them to the NSA, where they’re stored in sorted databases that are accessible to the FBI and the CIA as well[11]. PRISM can request any internet data from providers as long as the data passes through servers located in the United States, which allows the United States government to conduct surveillance on foreign citizens in addition to American citizens. Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper stated on June 7th, 2013 that collecting such data on foreign citizens was a defense effort against national security threats, and was not an effort to “intentionally target any U.S. citizen, any other U.S. person, or anyone located within the United States.”[11]

Controversies

Edward Snowden

Edward Joseph Snowden, born June 21st, 1983 in Elizabeth City, NC, U.S., is a former American government contractor and famed whistleblower who in 2013 revealed the existence of then-secret government data collection programs such as PRISM[7]. During his time as a government contractor for the firm Booz Allen Hamilton, Snowden began compiling information on the NSA’s secret surveillance programs, as he believed that they were government overreach and needed to be exposed to the public. After gathering the necessary information, Snowden fled to Hong Kong, and conducted interviews with reporters from The Guardian based on the intelligence he had secretly acquired, and subsequent articles were released the following month[7]. Besides exposing the existence of PRISM, Snowden also revealed that the U.S. government was conducting surveillance on prominent world leaders such as former German Prime Minister Angela Merkel[12]. After revealing his identity as the whistleblower, Snowden was charged with unauthorized communication of national defense information, theft of government property, and willful communication of classified communications intelligence[12]. Snowden then fled to Russia in order to escape extradition, where he was eventually granted citizenship in September 2022 [13]. The exposure of NSA activity by Edward Snowden caused great public outcry, and many American citizens voiced their displeasure regarding their lack of knowledge surrounding the government’s usage of their personal information. Many U.S. government officials condemned his efforts, stating the release of top-secret information as a threat to national security, while others praised his efforts, labeling him a patriot for exposing the government’s wrongdoings.

References

  1. ↑ Foote, K. (2017, December 15). A Brief History of Big Data - DATAVERSITY. DATAVERSITY. https://www.dataversity.net/brief-history-big-data/
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Segal, T. (2022, March 28). Big Data. Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/big-data.asp
  3. ↑ Colmenajero, A. (2019, April 10). The Influence of Big Data in the Intelligence Cycle. The Security Distillery. https://thesecuritydistillery.org/all-articles/the-influence-of-big-data-in-the-intelligence-cycle
  4. ↑ Xanderscho. (n.d.). How the CIA is Reinventing a Case for Big Data - SmartData Collective. Https://Www.smartdatacollective.com/. Retrieved January 26, 2023, from https://www.smartdatacollective.com/how-cia-reinventing-case-big-data/
  5. ↑ Phil Goldstein. (2018, December 6). CIA CIO Sees Data as the “Tip of the Spear” in Intelligence. FedTech Magazine. https://fedtechmagazine.com/article/2018/12/cia-cio-sees-data-tip-spear-intelligence
  6. ↑ Priestley, T. (2013, June 10). Big Data and Analytics: The Hero or the Villain ? Wired. https://www.wired.com/insights/2013/06/big-data-and-analytics-the-hero-or-the-villain/
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Ray, M. (2018). Edward Snowden | Biography & Facts. In Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edward-Snowden
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Department of Justice. (2019). The USA Patriot Act: Preserving life and liberty. Justice.gov; Department of Justice. https://www.justice.gov/archive/ll/highlights.htm
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 American Civil Liberties Union. (2022). Surveillance Under the USA/PATRIOT Act. American Civil Liberties Union. https://www.aclu.org/other/surveillance-under-usapatriot-act
  10. ↑ PATRIOT Act. (n.d.). EPIC - Electronic Privacy Information Center. https://epic.org/issues/surveillance-oversight/patriot-act/
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 11.6 11.7 11.8 Prism. (2022, June 1). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prism
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 History.com Editors. (2018, June 26). Edward Snowden discloses U.S. government operations. HISTORY. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/edward-snowden-discloses-u-s-government-operations
  13. ↑ Edward Snowden. (2021, October 6). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden#:~:text=His%20disclosures%20revealed%20numerous%20global
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